Google to help green technologies amass scale

Nichola Groom, Reuters 7 Feb 08;

INDIAN WELLS, California (Reuters) - Google Inc is prepared to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in big commercial alternative-energy projects that traditionally have had trouble getting financing, the executive in charge of its green-energy push said on Wednesday.

The Internet search giant, which has said it will invest in researching green technologies and renewable-energy companies, is eager to help promising technologies amass scale to help drive the cost of alternative energy below the cost of coal.

"There are a lot of technologies that get to the pilot scale and look promising, but the first few large commercial projects deploying those technologies, financing those can be extremely difficult," Dan Reicher said in an interview at the Clean-tech Investor Summit in Indian Wells, California.

"Often the usual equity and debt players will say come back to us when you've demonstrated this at scale," said Reicher, director of climate and energy initiatives for Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org.

The stage between successfully developing a new technology and amassing scale is often referred in the industry as the "Valley of Death," Reicher said.

Venture capital firms typically pour tens of millions into developing new technologies, Reicher said. But that's not nearly enough to build a utility-scale solar thermal plant, for instance, and that's where Google thinks it can be helpful, he added.

"When you get to building a commercial-scale project in the energy world, you can be looking easily at hundreds of millions or even across the billion dollar threshold," Reicher said. "Over years we'll be looking at hundreds of millions of dollars. So we're very mindful of the Valley of Death."

In addition to considering project finance, Google has already committed $20 million to funding start-up firms researching solar-thermal and high-altitude wind power.

It is also looking closely at several companies with enhanced geothermal systems, Reicher said. Enhanced geothermal systems, or EGS, create power by pumping water into hot rocks in the ground rather than harvesting hot water already there.

"We arrived at these three technologies because we think they have real promise to move down the cost curve and to be competitive with coal and to get to very large scale," Reicher said.

Google said in November it planned to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to help drive the cost of electricity made from renewable sources below the price of power generated from dirty coal-fired plants.

The company has pledged $10 million to Pasadena, California-based eSolar Inc to support research and development on solar thermal power, which concentrates heat from the sun to create steam and spin turbines. It has invested $10 million in Alameda, California-based Makani Power Inc, which is developing high-altitude wind technologies.

(Editing by Gary Hill)

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Australia loves to recycle, but carbon a problem

James Grubel, Reuters 7 Feb 08;

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australians have become a nation of waste recyclers and water misers but continue to be among the world's highest per-person carbon emitters, a snapshot of the country found on Thursday.

The worst drought in a century and concerns over global warming have prompted Australians to change their habits on recycling and water use, with 99 percent of homes recycling waste paper, plastic and glass, up from 91 percent a decade earlier.

But Australia, which signed the Kyoto Protocol on climate change last December, continues to rely on coal for electricity, and fossil fuel for transport, making Australians high per person emitters of greenhouse gases, blamed for global warming.

"While Australia only accounts for around 1.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, its carbon dioxide emissions per person are relatively high," the Australian Bureau of Statistics said in its 2008 Year Book, released on Thursday.

It said 17.5 tonnes of carbon gas were emitted for every Australian, compared to an average 11.1 tonnes per person in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, Australia has been set a target of limiting greenhouse gas emissions to 108 percent of 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. The government has consistently said the country is largely on track to meet the target.

The Year Book said in 2005, carbon emissions from the energy sector, which accounts for about 70 percent of the nation's emissions, had increased by 36 percent on 1990 levels, while industrial processing emissions had increased 16.6 percent.

But emissions had fallen 7 percent in the waste sector, and by about 75 percent in the land-use and forestry sector, due to the growth in carbon sinks and forests.

The Book found despite the growth in recycling, the amount of waste was growing, with about 1,600 kg (3,500 lb) of waste for each of Australia's 21 million people, up 32 percent since 1997.

But, Australians recycle eight times more waste than in 1997.

Much of the country remains in drought and water restrictions are in place in most cities, increasing awareness of water shortages and leading to an eight percent drop in household water use over the first four years of drought to mid-2005.

(Editing by Katie Nguyen)

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Best of our wild blogs: 7 Feb 08

Hornbill Party on Ubin
Fifteen birds on the shores! on the bird ecology blog

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Key question is what's Singapore's correct population size to survive?

Letter from Syu Ying Kwok, Straits Times Forum 7 Feb 08;

I REFER to Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's comments in the article, 'MM 'not quite sold' on idea of 6.5m population' (ST, Feb 2).

Singapore's leaders can determine whatever population size they want for Singapore in the future, but can we predict and determine what the world will be like in 2030?

The world will grow only smaller with globalisation. People and talents, already highly mobile now, will move to the most exciting cities, and not necessarily cities that have the most space and comfort.

Thus, the important question is: What is the correct size for us to survive and prosper in 2030? Frankly, if even 6.5 million is not enough, can Singapore compete with other mega cities of the future?

Singapore now stands at the crossroads; we can be the most exciting and dynamic global city in Asia in the next 20-30 years; many other cities envy us and do not even have the proper base and infrastructure to achieve what we have.

Do we want to give up before trying? Can we achieve progress year after year with just a population of 4-5 million while the rest of Asia's mega cities steam ahead? Will Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Mumbai stand still in the next decade?

MM Lee does not want to see Singapore becoming like Hong Kong (buildings after buildings), but HK Chief Executive Donald Tsang is paving for a Hong Kong with a 10 million population, and they have 1.2 billion people in their back yard.

Singapore is a small island state with no resources and no hinterland. Is it then wise to limit the only strength and resource that we can have, that is, 'people'? Our economy is not as mature as that of Switzerland, Norway, Finland or Sweden. Thus it's unrealistic to expect Singaporeans to compete against those economies.

New York and Tokyo are big magnets for talented people; there is even a saying about New York: 'If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere'. People don't go there for the crammed housing, expensive car park lots and jammed subways. With a small population size, can we support New York's Broadway or London's West End here in Singapore? No. These are important because the most talented individuals on Earth go to them. The same goes for world famous chefs and restaurants. We want talented people to stay and work in Singapore; they can then afford to buy a big retirement home and big cars in Indonesia or Thailand and enjoy great holidays.

The sudden explosive growth in the past two years has caught many Singaporeans by surprise. The increase in population due to foreigners and investments coming in has strained our transport and housing infrastructures. These are one of the many reasons why so many Singaporeans are against any further increase in our population size as major infrastructures are being strained at the seams. It is inward looking to ask what numbers we are comfortable to live with; we should ask what population can the current and future technology allow our small island to have in order for us to compete with the global cities of the future.

One of the most important shipping lanes, the Straits of Malacca, is so aptly named because Malacca, now a sleepy laid-back 'town', was the most prosperous port in the region hundreds of years ago. The Port of Singapore Authority can be set up anywhere along the eastern Malaysia Peninsula and still prosper. The Straits of Malacca serves as a gentle reminder that we can go very wrong very fast if we set our sights wrongly.

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Pricey or not, just gotta have my bak kwa on Chinese New Year

Business Times 7 Feb 08;

Inflation is no deterrent to fans of the traditional Chinese delicacy

Rising global energy and food prices and a jump in the nation's property market in 2007 have pushed up prices at the fastest rate in a quarter of a century.

(SINGAPORE) Eddie Yap's mother gave her son an ultimatum as he left on his day off to join the long queue for bak kwa, or flat sheets of barbequed pork, in Chinatown: Don't come back without it.

'She has been eating this brand for more than 10 years,' said Mr Yap, 23, a Singapore Air Force trainee. 'I'm going to get 14 kilos.'

Each traditional New Year, the Dutch eat donuts, the French bake brioche, the Japanese slurp red noodles and the Irish bury a ring in a cake. In Singapore, a Chinese New Year means queuing to buy packets of the salty-sweet pork for family reunions.

Buyers suffer the baking sun, tropical rainstorms and this year, a new deterrent that has pummelled consumers: inflation.

Rising global energy and food prices and a jump in the nation's property market in 2007 have pushed up prices at the fastest rate in a quarter of a century. Bak kwa has risen as much as 16 per cent from last year because of higher pork and oil prices.

Still, that hasn't deterred many from seeking out their favourite brand of the delicacy to celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Rat.

'Of course, it's expensive - but it's once a year and a must for Chinese New Year,' said Chua Geck Swee, 70, a retired civil servant who travelled an hour by bus and train to buy bak kwa for his six grandchildren. 'I've been eating this brand for 40 years. I know people who pay students and retirees to queue for them.'

More than 200 people lined up outside the Chinatown outlet of Lim Chee Guan on Monday, three days before the start of Chinese New Year today.

Rod Lim, the store's 57-year-old owner, imposed a 15kg cap on purchases this week after turning away customers willing to pay $50 a kilo for his traditional bak kwa, a 70-year-old recipe of his father's.

Mr Lim uses pork from the hind leg and the foreleg of the pig for his bak kwa, which is marinated and barbecued to ensure the meat is 'juicy and tender, even if you keep it for a few days'.

He competes with three other big bak kwa sellers in Chinatown, though there are hundreds of smaller retailers across the island, where over 70 per cent of the 4.6 million population are Chinese.

Consumer prices in Singapore rose in December at the fastest pace since 1982, and the central bank warned that inflation in 2008 will gain at more than double the pace of last year.

Food prices, which make up 23 per cent of the consumer price index, rose 5.5 per cent in December from a year earlier, following a 5.2 per cent increase in November, the government said last month. From November, food prices gained 0.6 per cent, and were 2.9 per cent higher for the whole of 2007.

'I'm honestly quite shocked at the price but everything has gone up,' said Mrs Leong, 37, a bank executive who was buying bak kwa on her day off. 'Everything is up 10, 20 per cent when you eat out, when you shop at the supermarket.'

Singapore's government has so far resisted calls to control prices of food and other so-called essential goods, though the government will provide some assistance to citizens when the nation's budget is announced next week, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told The Business Times earlier this week.

Still, spiralling costs aren't damping demand for bak kwa.

'It's once a year, so it's okay,' said Mr Yap, the Air Force trainee. 'I think they probably make millions of dollars this month, but for the rest of the year, nobody will queue like this.' - Bloomberg

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Singapore may soon get pork from Chile, Philippines

Judith Tan, Straits Times 7 Feb 08;

Diversification part of effort to ensure supply and keep prices stable

THAT Hainanese pork chop on your dinner table could soon hail from the Philippines or even as far as Chile.

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) is considering applications from slaughterhouses in both countries to sell frozen pork here, part of a government plan to diversify the country's food supply.

Recent outbreaks such as bird flu, along with the wide-reaching fallout of climate change, have prompted AVA to look further afield for food supplies, said spokesman Goh Shih Yong.

'We believe in taking no chances. Food safety is of paramount importance,' he said.

In 2006, for example, the export of frozen raw chicken from Thailand and China was suspended because of a bird flu outbreak.

Similar scares have prompted AVA to look to meat producers in South America. In 2004, Brazil passed Malaysia as the top supplier of poultry to Singapore. It now provides for half of the country's needs. New Zealand is also a new source of poultry, having gotten approval from AVA officials two years ago.

Diversification has also kept food prices stable, a key concern today with crop shortages worldwide; this was also a topic touched on by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his New Year message this year.

Last year, food prices were 2.9 per cent higher than in 2006, going by the consumer price index (CPI).

AVA has looked beyond traditional sources like Malaysia and China for vegetables. The supply of greens now also comes from Vietnam and Indonesia.

And NTUC FairPrice is doing the same with rice - buying from Vietnam, which is 20 per cent cheaper than Thai rice.

If Singapore had not turned to Brazil for its chicken, supply shortages would have driven up prices, said Mr Goh.

'Our local importers have demonstrated great nimbleness in switching sources when one source of supply is affected,' he added.

Taiwan was also recently approved to export frozen ducks to Singapore.

The foray for food even brought Singapore to eye seafood from Namibia. Frozen fish and frozen oysters from the African country began popping up on local plates last year.

Mr Goh said seafood can generally be imported from any country that meets AVA's food safety requirements, though testing is in place for some items.

'High-risk items such as shellfish are required to meet additional stringent requirements like health certification and import testing,' he said.

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Singapore: Eating out may become a luxury for many soon

Letter from Gilbert Goh Keow Wah, Straits Times Forum 7 Feb 08;

I REFER to the recent news on the increase in food prices here.

I recently returned home after a two-month working trip in China and was shocked at the steep increase in prices here.

Every year, I detected that our cost of living has increased though it is very gradual and minimal. This year, however, the increase is so steep that I have to withdraw a hundred dollars every other day to pay for general expenditure such as food and transport services. It is getting very unbearable.

There are various reasons for the increase in food prices and consumers generally do not have much choice here. They either have to hunt for cheaper food to eat outside or learn to cook at home. Cooking at home is often cheaper and more nutritious. While staying in Australia for a short period, eating out is a luxury and we often have to buy food back home to cook. Though it may take about an hour to prepare and cook at home, we felt that we have healthier food. We also felt the bonding together as a family when we took turns to prepare dinner and split the duties in the kitchen.

Gone are the days when we could eat out as a family and still feel that it is affordable. Many people around the globe could not afford to eat out daily and have to resort to eating in. The time may come for Singaporeans to change their eating habits and eat in. Eating out may be a luxury for many soon and unless we adapt we may continue to feel suffocated here.

When the supply exceeds demand, then I am sure that food prices will go down in the future. Every family I know eats out these days. The kitchen is speck and clean and suffers more from infrequent cooking. Perhaps, families should now learn to cook and eat in. It is also a great time of bonding and may even bring down the divorce rate here.

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Wheat hits record in Chicago on supply concerns

Business Times 7 Feb 08;

Wheat has gained 17 per cent this year, outperforming crude oil and copper.

(CHICAGO) Wheat surged to a record in Chicago, leading other grains and oilseeds higher on shrinking US and Canadian supplies of high-protein varieties used for bread and pasta.

Canada, the largest wheat exporter after the US, said on Tuesday that its inventories of the grain plunged by almost a third after adverse weather hurt crops. US spring-wheat inventories will total 88 million bushels on May 31, down 25 per cent from a year earlier, according to government forecasts.

The jump in grain prices may increase costs for food producers, including Kellogg Co and General Mills Inc, the largest US cereal makers. It also risks stoking inflation and making it more difficult for central bankers around the world to stave off recession by cutting interest rates.

Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures, the global benchmark, rose by the exchange-imposed daily limit of 30 US cents for a third day. The March-delivery contract was 3 per cent higher at US$10.33 a bushel in after-hours electronic trading at 1.19pm Tokyo time, beating the previous record of US$10.095 set on Dec 17.

'Reduced supplies in Canada prompted wheat buyers to seek alternative supplies in the US, leading to a drawdown in US inventories,' Kenji Kobayashi, an analyst at Kanetsu Asset Management Co in Tokyo, said by phone.

In the past year, Chicago wheat futures more than doubled and in Minneapolis, where spring wheat trades, prices almost tripled.

On the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, wheat for May delivery rose the daily limit of 30 cents, or 2.3 per cent, to US$13.6475 a bushel. The contract has gained the exchange-imposed maximum in seven of the past nine sessions.

Wheat has gained 17 per cent this year, outperforming crude oil and copper, as prices of industrial commodities were capped by concern that slowing economies may curve demand.

US demand isn't affected by a slowdown in the economy as the grain is a staple food, said Nobuyuki Chino, president of Tokyo-based grain trading company Unipac Grain Ltd.

'People without much money to spend tend to eat grains more, as meat and other more expensive products are not affordable,' Mr Chino said yesterday\. \-- Bloomberg

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Study of Singapore colugos reveal gliding secrets

High-tech backpack helps reveal lemur's flying secret
Roger Highfield, The Telegraph 6 Feb 08;

A high-tech backpack has enabled scientists to reveal the gliding secrets of a flying lemur, one of our more exotic cousins.

The feat could aid in the design of flexible winged aircraft, like hang-gliders or micro-air vehicles, according to the team that reports the work today.

They have used high technology to track Malayan colugos, which grow up to 16 inches and resemble large flying squirrels, in the rainforests of Singapore.

Colugos are also known as flying lemurs, but they don't really fly and they aren't lemurs. Although they are cousins to primates, including humans, they have wings of skin between their hands and feet that are the size of a large doormat when extended to allow them to glide.

Now Andrew Spence from the Royal Veterinary College, working with colleagues from the University of California, Berkeley, and the National University of Singapore, has documented the aeronautics of the Malayan colugo in the wild.

Using an accelerometer of the kind common in Nintendo's Wii, along with memory chips typical of an iPod, they created a backpack that could sense and record the creature's movements in three dimensions.

The study, published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, has provided important information which improves our understanding of the behaviour of gliding animals, which will help aeronautical engineers.

"Despite being common throughout their natural range the Malayan colugo is quite poorly understood because it's hard to measure things about an animal that moves around at night, lives 30 metres up a tree, and can glide 100 metres away from you in an arbitrary direction in 10 seconds," says Spence, who did the work with postgraduate Greg Byrnes and Norman Lim.

"Our new sensing backpacks have given us an insight into the behaviour of these fascinating creatures."

The researchers were able to prove that the colugo can alter the aerodynamic forces acting upon it in flight, with the data that their tiny three-axis accelerometer chip recorded, in order to reduce the effect of landing forces, and thus limit risk of injury.

The creatures are able to glide at a steady speed and as they come in for landing they appear to be able to do a very precise manoeuvre that slows their speed and simultaneously orientates them correctly for spreading the impact of landing across all four limbs.

The researchers were able to demonstrate a drastic reduction in landing forces for glides longer than about two seconds, where colugos are able to use their wings in a parachute-like way. This reduction in impact forces over long gliding distances has been predicted from aerodynamic theory, but until now scientists have not been able to demonstrate it conclusively in the wild.

In the study, funded in part by the Singapore Zoological Gardens, the team caught the nocturnal adult colugos by hand whilst they were resting low on trees during the day. They shaved off a small patch of fur, stuck the backback to its exposed skin using a surgical glue and released the animals back in the wild.

Colugos, which can weigh up to 4.5llb, whose babies cling to their parents' bellies while they glide, were able to wear the sensors and glide uninhibited for several days before the adhesive fails and the backpack falls to the ground. The backpacks were then recovered using a radio receiver.

Natural flyers like birds, bats and insects outperform man-made aircraft in aerobatics and efficiency, reports a team of University of Michigan engineers who are designing flapping-wing planes with wingspans smaller than a deck of playing cards.

A Blackbird jet flying nearly 2,000 miles per hour covers 32 body lengths per second. But a common pigeon flying at 50 miles per hour covers 75, they point out. The roll rate of the aerobatic A-4 Skyhawk plane is about 720 degrees per second, while that of a barn swallow exceeds 5,000 degrees per second.

And while some military aircraft can withstand gravitational forces of 8-10 G, many birds routinely experience positive G-forces greater than 10 G and up to 14 G.

"Natural flyers obviously have some highly varied mechanical properties that we really have not incorporated in engineering," says Prof Wei Shyy. "Natural flyers have outstanding capabilities to remain airborne through wind gusts, rain, and snow."

Prof Shyy and his colleagues have several grants from the Air Force of more than $1 million annually to research small flapping wing aircraft. Such aircraft would fly slower than their fixed wing counterparts but would be able to hover and possibly perch in order to monitor the environment or a hostile area.

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Students produce Chinese zodiac animals from recycled materials

Students turn old papers, toilet rolls into...
The New Paper 7 Feb 08;

OLD newspapers, rolls of toilet paper and tetra-pak cartons are not your usual Chinese New Year symbols of luck.

However, 520 students from Nan Hua High School and Singapore Polytechnic decided to have fun with them anyway in the run-up to the annual festival.

They transformed 100kg of newspaper, 40 toilet-paper rolls and 20,000 Tetra Paks into the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, each measuring between 90cm and 120cm high.

The event, organised by the South West Community Development Council, was the grand finale of a week-long series of activities called Youth Hands-On! that started on 28 Jan and ended on 3 Feb.

The focus was on the environment, hence the use of those items.

TETRA PAK 'CLOTHES'

When The New Paper caught up with the students from Nan Hua on 1 Feb outside Lam Soon Community Centre in Choa Chu Kang, they were busy 'clothing' their animal figures with bits of Tetra Paks.

The students worked within an enclosure - a 'zodiac festive village' - where all the 12 animals were placed.

The red carpeting and Chinese lanterns hanging from the rooftop added to the cheerylook.

'It looks so cute,' 14-year-old Ong Hui Qi said as she dressed up a 'pig' with her group of friends.

Her team-mate Lydia Pang, 14, added: 'I always thought that pigs were dirty, but now, with the coat that we're making for it, it's looking so nice.'

Even Nan Hua's vice-principal, Mr Michael Lau, 46, said the 'colourful' Tetra Paks made 'unique and attractive clothing'.

Bryan Foo, 14, said: 'We are not too much into art and craft, but it's fun sitting together and dressing up the rooster.'

Of course, this being the Year of the Rat, the work that got the most attention was the rat.

And Evelyn Lim, Melody Chi, Sheryl Khoo and Rachel Lee, all 14, who were tailoring the rat figurine's outfit, found that their animal's large girth meant more work.

Melody said: 'People may be admiring the features of this rat, but it requires a lot of hard work to dress it up.'

The event also taught the students a thing or two about the Chinese culture and the significance of the 12 animals.

For Linda Ji, 14, it was an 'interesting and exciting' way to learn more about her own culture.

Sarah Sultan, 14, said that it was fun to read the 'forecast' for each animal for 2008.

'I hope it's a good year for the rooster,' she said with agrin.

Almost all the students from Nan Hua were born in the Year of the Rooster.

Member of Parliament for Hong Kah GRC Zaqy Mohamad, who was at the event, said that the activity was a 'twist' from 'the usual Chinese New Year celebrations'.

Organising committee member Ms Ong Wei Lin, 22, was happy with the results.

'Although the animals were made by Singapore Polytechnic and Nan Hua students, most schools in the South West district helped in collecting the newspapers and toilet rolls,' she said.

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Birdsong proves popular on UK radio

Christopher Hope, The Telegraph 5 Feb 08;

"It is a lot more enjoyable than some of the rubbish on air these days"

A radio station has an unexpected hit on its hands after broadcasting birdsong for 18 hours every day.

The relaxing, rural recording is proving particularly popular with urbanites hankering after a taste of the countryside and is attracting tens of thousands of listeners.

It has also sparked a flood of internet chatter as twitchers try to identify the birds on the tape.

One listener, Steve Jones, claims to have identified 12 types including great-tits, greenfinches, wrens, swallows and flycatchers.

"I'm sure there must be more. It's one hell of a garden," he said.

Another listener said: "It is a lot more enjoyable than some of the rubbish on air these days - and definitely better than debate or phone-in shows full of 'oiks' shouting at each other."

The uninterrupted recording is being played by Digital One, which runs Britain's commercial digital radio network, on the frequency that used to be OneWord, a spoken word commercial channel which shut down last month.

It was originally made in the Wiltshire garden of Digital One's chairman Quentin Howard in the spring of 1992 and has been broadcast several times previously when it also picked up a loyal fan base.

It was first heard as a "filler" on Classic FM's frequency in the weeks before the station launched 16 years ago.

The twittering noises were last played three years ago. Listeners complained when they were taken off air in June 2005.

The idyllic birdsong is punctuated occasionally by sharp cracking noises which many listeners initially mistook for gunshots.

In fact, they are the sound of wood cracking in the Autumn sun.

Mr Howard said: "Some of the bangs are in fact planks of wooden cladding on the side of a building expanding in the early morning sun."

He warned as soon as Digital One has sold the unused channel to another broadcaster the birds will go silent once more and he is fully anticipating uproar.

Mr Howard said: "Last time we had phone calls and letters of complaint. I’m afraid we can’t say how long it will be there."

He said he was open to offers from birdwatchers to maintain the service but they would have to raise the estimated £1 million a year cost of running a digital channel.

Even if that was raised the birdsong would have make to way for adverts for sofas and mobile telephones every six minutes to be commercially viable.

Mr Howard declined to say if the birdsong was an 18 hour recording or looped every 10 minutes - "That would spoil the magic," he said. For the moment those who enjoy the sound of the countryside are jubilant.

Listener Garan Dallimore said: "Birdsong is back! How have I managed without this for the last three years?"

Bill O'Reilly, another listener, said: "It's better than most pop or chart music stations. Hurrah for the birds I say."

Other digital radio listeners were less keen though. One said: "It's not exactly forest wildlife, melodic birdsong and waterfalls, is it? More like annoying crows and random gunshots to make you jump."

Another complained he thought some birds were stuck in his chimney when he first heard it. He said: "It was very confusing, my wife and I had our ears to the walls trying to track down where it was coming from."

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South Asian nations pledge cooperation on rampant wildlife trade

WWF website 6 Feb 08;

Kathmandu, Nepal, Feb 5, 2008 – All eight South Asian nations have agreed to step up cooperation in addressing wildlife trade problems in the area.

The region, home to such rare and prized species as tigers, Asiatic lions, snow leopards, Asian elephants and one-horned rhinoceroses, is recognized as one of the prime targets of international organized wildlife crime networks.

Wildlife trade officials from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka met in Kathmandu last week and defined a series of joint actions under the new South Asia Wildlife Trade Initiative (SAWTI).

The direction for the initiative was given by ministers from the eight nations, at the Tenth Meeting of Governing Council for the South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP) last year.

“The agreement reached on SAWTI puts in place the foundations for a cooperative effort to crack down on illegal trade and to improve the management of wild animals and plants that can be legally traded under national laws in the region,” said SACEP Director-General Dr Arvind A. Boaz.

SAWTI is charged with developing a South Asia Regional Strategic Plan on Wildlife Trade for the period 2008-2013. The Kathmandu workshop - organised by the Nepal Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, SACEP, WWF Nepal and TRAFFIC - also agreed on the establishment of a South Asia Experts Group on Wildlife Trade. The group will examine cooperation and coordination between countries and agencies, effective legislation, policies and law enforcement, the sustainability of the legal trade and livelihood security for those engaged in it, and improving intelligence networks and early warning systems.

“It is very encouraging to see this level of regional cooperation developing on a pernicious trade and criminal networks that harms and robs communities of the benefits they could enjoy from their biodiversity," said WWF International’s Species Programme Director, Dr Sue Lieberman.

WWF Nepal’s Country Director, Anil Manandhar, said that the greatest challenge was combating the highly organised illegal trade networks between poachers, domestic traders and international traders of wildlife products, combined with highly porous borders between some countries. “No single nation can control such illegal activities alone," Manandhar said.

The Senior Officer, Anti-smuggling, fraud and organized crime, at the Secretariat for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), Mr John Sellar, also welcomed the Initiative. “We look forward to cooperating with SAWTI, which we believe offers considerable potential in combating illegal trade in wildlife, whilst also working to ensure that legal trade in wildlife is sustainable and benefits local communities in this part of the world.”

Global Programme Coordinator for the wildlife trade network TRAFFIC, Roland Melisch, said that international cooperation – and, in particular, regional cooperation – is absolutely essential in tackling the challenges of wildlife trade.

“TRAFFIC would certainly like to applaud the initiative of all the eight countries of South Asia in taking this important step of coming together as a region and seeking to jointly address the pressing issues of ensuring sustainable wildlife use and trade and eliminating the problem of illegal poaching and trade,” Melisch said.

Closing the workshop, Nepal’s Honourable Minister for Environment, Science and Technology, Farmullah Mansoor, confirmed the Government of Nepal’s commitment towards combating the illegal wildlife trade in the region. Nepal currently holds the chair position of SACEP.

"SAWTI is the first wildlife trade initiative of its kind in South Asia and SACEP is confident it will lead to further commitment in the region, and closer engagement among neighbours to effectively address wildlife trade problems," Dr Boaz concluded.

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China: Hope and despair at Chinese New Year

Chua Chin Hon, Straits Times 7 Feb 08;

Power is restored to storm-hit regions but millions of stranded workers give up hope of going home for New Year

BEIJING - EMERGENCY workers yesterday delivered a ray of hope to countless families digging in for a cold and dark Chinese New Year holiday by restoring power to regions battered by the worst winter storms in decades.

Residents in some hard-hit areas in southern Guizhou and central Hunan provinces have already gone without power for 12 consecutive days. Many are relying only on candles, radios and emergency rations to get them through the year's most important celebration.

But good news arrived for many of them yesterday when power was restored by 5pm, just hours before the all-important nianyefan, or reunion dinner.

The official Xinhua news agency said power was restored in 162 snow-hit counties across the country, including the southern Hunan's Chenzhou city, one of the cities worst hit by the weather crisis.

Local power lines in these counties were successfully connected to the state grid. Another seven counties, however, were still relying on temporary power sources.

Xinhua also did not say if power was completely or only partially restored in these affected regions, where some local power networks were completely destroyed by heavy snow and rain fall.

'Relief work has come to a critical point. We should not be slack, but keep pushing it forward,' Premier Wen Jiabao said during a flight on to southern Guizhou, another province badly-hit by the storms, on Tuesday.

'Only when the masses are reassured, can the country be at peace. Only when the country is at peace, can the leaders be relieved.'

China began a week-long celebration for the Spring Festival yesterday after earlier amending its holiday calendar to include the Chinese New Year Eve.

This was done in the hope that more people would get home in time for the reunion dinner with their families.

But the mood across China is anything but festive this year as a devastating three-week weather crisis shut down wide swathes of the power and transportation networks in southern, central and eastern China.

Millions were stranded by record snow and rain which had been falling since mid-January.

Round-the-clock relief efforts by an army of soldiers, technicians and tanks helped the paralysed transportation network slowly grind back into operation this week.

This prompted millions of travellers to hop on board planes, trains and buses in the hope of getting home in time.

But many others have simply given up hope of returning home for the holidays after queuing for tickets in the freezing rain and snow for days on end.

According to the official Xinhua news agency, more than 12 million migrant workers in southern Guangdong province and 120,000 in eastern Shanghai were unable to return home and had to stay behind in their adopted cities.

These workers are mostly from the country's poor hinterland. The annual Chinese New Year break is their only chance of seeing their family all year.

'Millions of Chinese had to say 'sorry' to their loved ones,' Xinhua said yesterday.

State media reports in recent days said the authorities and factory owners had tried to placate frustrated workers by offering them free meals, lucky draws and discounted tickets to parks and entertainment outlets.

Large numbers of grassroots organisations were also mobilised to organise performances and dinner gatherings for the workers. But many say the only thing they really want is to be with their family.

'I'm feeling very lonely and isolated here,' migrant worker Tan Xiaoling, who is stranded in southern Shenzhen city by the weather, told news agency Agence France-Presse.

'My children call me every day and ask when Papa will be home. I really miss them.'

There is also little cheer among residents who do not need to travel but who are, nonetheless, enduring their most miserable Chinese New Year in memory.

A military cargo plane had to send an emergency delivery of 500,000 candles to central Hubei province's Enshi prefecture after 31,000 families lost their power supply. To date, eight million candles and torches have been delivered to disaster areas across the country.

In Chenzhou, which has already gone without power for 12 days, prices of coal and charcoal have gone up 10 times as residents used the fuel to keep themselves warm.

Another hot-selling item there is the long-forgotten transistor radio.

'Chenzhou is pitch black at night, so the best way to pass the time is to snuggle into the blankets and listen to the radio broadcast,' Xinhua said in a dispatch yesterday from the snowed-in city.

'This year, the radio has become a must-have Chinese New Year purchase.'

Power restored to 87% of counties and worst-hit city Chenzhou
Snowstorms left at least 80 dead and 80b yuan in losses
Business Times 7 Feb 08;

(SHANGHAI) China restored electricity to the southern city of Chenzhou and 87 per cent of counties in the country after the worst snowstorms in more than 50 years brought chaos before this week's Chinese New Year holiday.

Relief work is at a 'critical point', Premier Wen Jiabao said on Tuesday on a flight to south-western China, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Chenzhou, a city of four million people, was the worst hit by the storms, losing power for 10 days.

'Only when the masses are reassured, can the country be in peace,' Mr Wen said. 'Only when the country is in peace, can the leaders be relieved.' The snow blocked roads and railways, preventing millions of migrant workers from returning home for their traditional New Year break. Railway stations in Guangzhou, Shanghai and other cities were operating normally yesterday and passenger backlogs had been cleared, the State Council - China's Cabinet - said on its website.

Most stretches of the nation's main highways had also been cleared by late Tuesday, the council said. All major airports were operating as normal, it added.

More than 12 million of the 30 million migrant workers in southern Guangdong province decided not to leave for the New Year holiday, Xinhua reported. The railway station in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, resumed normal operations at noon on Tuesday, after 800,000 people were stranded during the peak of delays. About 3.5 million rail passengers have departed Guangdong province for the holiday, Xinhua reported.

State Grid Corp, the nation's biggest electricity distributor, sent 694 mobile power generators to Chenzhou and other cities in the south, the council said late on Tuesday.

Full or partial power services resumed in 148 of the 170 counties and cities that experienced blackouts, Xinhua reported, citing the national disaster relief headquarters.

Eight counties were not expected to have electricity by 6 pm local time yesterday, when Chinese families gather to celebrate New Year's Eve, according to the council.

China deployed tanks to deliver supplies to remote villages, introduced price controls and boosted coal shipments to spur power production to cope with the storms before the start of the nation's most important holiday.

Residents in Enshi Prefecture in Hubei province, where more than 31,000 households were without power on Tuesday, received a shipment of 500,000 candles by military cargo plane on Monday, Xinhua reported.

The snowstorms have killed more than 80 people and caused direct economic losses of about 80 billion yuan (S$15.8 billion), according to the Red Cross Society of China, Xinhua said.

Most parts of the country were forecast to have clear weather yesterday and today, the China Meteorological Administration said on its website. The southern provinces of Hunan and Guangxi may see more snows starting next Monday, it said.

Hunan, Jiangxi and Guizhou provinces were the worst hit by the storms, the National Development and Reform Commission, the top economic planning agency, said last Sunday.

Mr Wen visited passengers stranded in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, on Jan 29 and in Guangzhou on Jan 30.

Chinese government officials who fail to perform their duties in battling the snowstorms face severe penalties, the Communist Party of China's Organisation Department said earlier this week, according to Xinhua.

The department ordered greater efforts to rebuild homes and ensure a happy holiday for those in the hardest-hit areas. The snowstorms destroyed or damaged at least a million homes, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has said\. \-- Bloomberg

Millions on move in China on Lunar New Year's Eve
Channel NewsAsia 7 Feb 08;

BEIJING - Millions of Chinese rushed home Wednesday to be with family on Lunar New Year's Eve but for many there would be little to celebrate after the worst weather in 100 years in places.

On the last day of the Year of the Pig, one of the biggest mass movements of people anywhere in the world was taking place along rail and road links newly restored for what is the biggest holiday in the Chinese calendar.

But those who had not managed to get a ticket home were resigned to spending the holiday away from loved ones as the world's most populous nation welcomed the Year of the Rat.

"Millions of Chinese had to say 'sorry' to their loved ones," state-run Xinhua news agency said.

The reason was three weeks of severe winter weather, hitting some parts of China with the most prolonged and disruptive snow storms in decades, seemingly catching the government unprepared and even surprising state meteorologists.

The freak weather came at the worst possible time for the transport system, ahead of the New Year's rush when 200 million migrant workers were trying to go home for what is a rare time to savour in a life of often hard toil.

The elements have turned kinder since, with the national meteorological administration on Wednesday lifting a severe weather alert across the affected areas in central, southern and eastern China, although it remains chilly.

But while most key transport arteries reopened this week, the backlog of passengers that had built up meant not all could get the tickets they wanted.

In the southern province of Guangdong, whose plants and sweatshops employ up to 30 million migrants from all corners of China, as many as 12 million had decided to stay in their dormitories, bracing for a bleak Lunar New Year.

This was repeated elsewhere up the east coast where wealthy cities employ people from poorer parts of China. In Shanghai, 120,000 migrant workers had heeded official calls to stay put, according to Xinhua.

The weather has made this one of the most miserable Lunar New Year periods in memory by disrupting power supplies, causing millions to face a festival season with little or no access to electricity and water.

China's air force Wednesday airlifted 100 tonnes of candles to the cities of Guiyang, Changsha and Nanchang in the south where people were still without power, Xinhua said.

After a feverish effort, however, 162 of the 170 worst-hit counties had their power restored by Wednesday, it said in a separate report.

The power supply was being restored to Chenzhou, a city of about four million in central China's Hunan province, which had suffered blackouts for 12 days. The report gave no information on progress in restoring running water.

"If power resumes, I think I will have a shower first," Xinhua earlier quoted a Chenzhou resident, identified as Xiaotan, as saying.

However, the government warned that much remained to be done in getting hard-hit areas back on their feet.

"Relief work has come to a critical point. We should not be slack, but keep pushing it forward," Premier Wen Jiabao said Tuesday, as he toured the southwestern province of Guizhou, one of the affected areas.

"Only when the masses are reassured can the country be in peace. Only when the country is in peace can the leaders be relieved," Wen was quoted as saying.

At least 105 million out of the country's 1.3 billion population have been affected by the inclement weather and more than 80 killed, the government said.

The government planned to transport 400,000 tonnes of vegetables to affected areas as the transportation problems have hit food deliveries, driving up prices.- AFP /ls

Read more!

China Snows Show World Faces New Disasters - UN

Robert Evans, PlanetArk 7 Feb 08;

GENEVA - China's devastating snowstorms and cold of the past months show that the world must prepare for new types of disasters caused by what was once called freak weather, United Nations experts said on Wednesday.

The experts said the Chinese events, which Beijing says affected some 100 million people and are likely to cost at least US$7.5 billion, underlined the need for greater global cooperation on global weather forecasting.

"So-called freak weather is becoming more common, and reducing vulnerability to unexpected extremes must be a top priority for governments," said Salvador Briceno, head of the U.N's disaster relief agency ISDR.

Separately, World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) chief Michel Jarraud, said the freeze that swept China from the north to its normally near-tropical southern provinces underlined the need for better seasonal climate predictions.

"The world needs to strengthen existing mechanisms that predict climate events and then ensure that this information is made available to all, especially to the benefit of people in developing countries," Jarraud said.

China's Meteorological Administration says the January extremes probably developed out of a La Nina -- or low sea- surface temperatures -- in parts of the Pacific in the second half of last year combined with unusual weather from the west.


MORE OF THE SAME

It is also warning that the country, now recovering as skies clear and power is restored from the freeze which killed scores of people, must be ready for more of the same as a result of global climate change.

Briceno said in a statement from ISDR headquarters in Geneva that China's sufferings underscored the need for all governments to build infrastructure that can withstand previously unthinkable weather.

"When billions of dollars in potential losses are balanced against the low costs of prevention in the future, the choices should be clear," he said. Most countries could expect to face similar situations in the coming years, he added.

Jarraud, speaking at a news briefing, said it was essential to ensure better seasonal -- as well as short- and long-term -- climate predictions if lives were to be saved and economies protected as weather patterns change.

Speaking after a three-day meeting of specialists on weather and disaster relief from a wide range of disciplines and international and national agencies, he said it was also vital to ensure better transmission of forecasts around the globe.

The meeting was called to prepare for a UN World Climate Conference in Geneva in the second half of next year which will focus on the science underpinning seasonal predictions -- an area in which Jarraud said there had been too little investment.

The conference -- following two predecessors in 1979 and 1990 which set up key bodies on climate change -- will decide what science is needed over the next decade to provide reliable forecasting and urge governments to support it, he said. (Editing by Jonathan Lynn)


WMO plans conference on improving climate predictions
Yahoo News 6 Feb 08;

The World Meteorological Organisation said Wednesday its next conference would urge scientists around the globe to improve seasonal climate predictions to adapt to climate change.

The plans for the 2009 World Climate Conference were announced as more than 20 organisations, including United Nations agencies, wrapped up a three-day meeting in Geneva to prepare for the gathering at the end of August or early September next year.

"There has been too little global investment in the science that underpins seasonal climate prediction," WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said in a statement.

"The World Climate Conference is looking at the future, at what type of science is needed over the next 10 years to provide the type of seasonal predictions that can save people's lives and livelihoods," he added.

Comprehensive climate information can be used to help manage climate risks, including extreme weather events, heat waves, flooding, droughts and cyclones, the WMO said.

It will also help communities adapt to the adverse affects of climate change such as rising sea levels, water and food shortages, and desertification.

The first World Climate Conference, held in 1979, led to the 1988 establishment of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Read more!

UK Agency to give consumer fish guideslines due to low stocks

FSA to revise fish guidelines due to low stocks
Charles Clover, The Telegraph 6 Feb 08;

Consumers may soon be given official advice on which fish not to eat to avoid wiping out endangered stocks, the Food Standards Agency said yesterday.

The Agency's decision to review the advice it gives on fish represents a U-turn for it has maintained that it should not offer advice about the ecological sustainability of different types of fish since a Royal Commission urged it to do so four years ago.

The Agency's review, which will be completed by the end of the year, comes as many leading supermarkets, including Marks and Spencer, Waitrose and Asda, increasingly make it a selling point that the fish that the fish they sell are only from well-managed stocks.

It also comes after Greenpeace and leading chefs last week launched a campaign to persuade consumers to purchase only fish from ecologically-sustainable stocks and WWF introduced a campaign for consumers to avoid "Stinky Fish" which could have been caught illegally.

Both campaigns provoked a strong backlash from the fishing industry, with Fishing News, the industry journal, running the headline "Madness of Greenpeace" on its front page.

The Agency said its review of advice on fishing would also consider the wider environmental impact of fishing and fish farming.

A spokesman said the Agency would still encourage people to eat more fish. Current advice is that they should aim for at least two portions a week of which one should be an oily fish such as mackerel, salmon or trout.

Women who are pregnant, breastfeeding or want to get pregnant should not eat more than two portions of oily fish per week due to the possible presence of pollutants.

Its review is inviting industry bodies, environmental, health and consumer groups for their input.

Rosemary Hignett, head of the Agency's nutrition division, said: "We are aware that fish consumption and sustainability is a key issue for many consumers and current advice can be confusing."

Andy Tait of Greenpeace said: "Fish stocks are in crisis across the globe and any advice related to fish consumption needs to face up to that reality.

"The current advice has a real impact on already over-exploited global fisheries so we welcome that it is now to be reviewed."

The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution has estimated that if consumers took the Agency's current advice the total level of fish consumption in the UK would need to increase by over 40 per cent, with oily fish consumption increasing by over 200 per cent.

Meanwhile, scientists have reported that fishermen have altered evolution in the sea in a few decades in ways that it was thought previously could only happen over millennia.

Fish such as the North Sea cod, Barents Sea cod and the Northern cod, off Newfoundland, have halved the age at which they reproduce in response to fishing pressure.

This phenomenon has also been observed in plaice, sole, American plaice and yellow croaker, a fish found in Chinese waters, according to Ulf Dieckmann, from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria.

Dr Dieckmann told a meeting at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, that it was possible to demonstate, from excellent records compiled in the 1930s, that the age at which the Barents Sea cod first reproduced had reduced from ten years then to five years today.

The size at which the cod reproduced had fallen from 90-100 cms to 75 cms. The cod also produced half the eggs that they did in the 1930s, so the changes caused the stock to be over-fished faster.

Dr Dieckmann said: "It was thought that these changes would only occur over millennia. But it is becoming clear that significant evolution can take place within 20 years if the forces driving it are strong - and in fisheries they have been."

Dr Dieckmann said that evolution caused by over-fishing took a longer to recover from than it did to cause: if the Barents Sea was closed to fishermen, it would take 250 years for cod to return to spawning at 10 years old.

"This is a Darwinian debt that will have to be paid back by future generations," he added.

Dr Dieckmann said evolution caused by commercial fisheries had played an overlooked part in the collapse of the Northern cod off Newfoundand in 1992, the most disastrous crash yet of a major commercial fish species.

He said that from 1985 a downward trend in the size of spawning cod was detectable off and should have led to "a more precautionary approach" in setting catch quotas.

Read more!

New recruits in the battle against biopirates

Harish Mehta, Business Times 7 Feb 08;

Scholars and lawyers believe biopiracy has thrived because of vagueness in US patent law

UNTIL recently, only a small group of developing countries were engaged in fighting the battle against biopiracy. Now a large group of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) have thrown in their support, finally waking up to the need to protect their own resources from biopirates from rich nations.

Battle-lines were drawn some time ago between the rich industrialised nations on the one hand, and the developing countries on the other over the contested issue of revising the Trips (Trade Related Intellectual Property) agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as it relates to biological resources.

This is despite the Trips agreement which requires a review of Article 27.3(b) which deals with patentability or non-patentability of plant and animal inventions, and the protection of plant varieties. As a WTO website says: 'Paragraph 19 of the 2001 Doha Declaration has broadened the discussion. It says the Trips council should also look at the relationship between the Trips agreement and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, the protection of traditional knowledge and folklore.'

It adds that the Trips council's work on these topics is to be guided by the Trips Agreement's objectives (Article 7) and principles (Article 8), and must take development issues fully into account.

The developing countries have long argued that it is necessary to put in place safeguards in the agreement in order to stop Western firms from stealing their traditional knowledge.

Efforts of the developing countries to revise Trips has been strengthened with the support of the LDCs, which include 50 countries including Afghanistan, Cambodia, Lesotho, Maldives, Nepal, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia. They have all decided that they need to ensure their own biological resources are protected in future. The bargaining power of the developing countries within the WTO has thus been strengthened with the support of the LDCs.

Developing countries such as India, Brazil, China, Pakistan, Colombia, Cuba, Thailand and Tanzania had requested the WTO that the Trips agreement should include a clause making it necessary for patent applications to disclose the origin of the biological resource being patented. They also wanted the patent applicant to share the financial benefits with the country of origin.

In December a group of LDCs led by Lesotho has asked the Trips council to add their group to the list of supporters of the proposal to revise the Trips agreement.

With the support of the LDCs, developing countries' attempts at framing new multilateral rules to check biopiracy has been strengthened because the support base has widened. Without strong multilateral rules, the developing countries and LDCs remain at risk from biopiracy.

Developed countries such as the United States, members of the European Union, Japan, Switzerland and Australia reject any attempt to revise Trips. They have made the counter-proposal that countries should create national laws to deal with biopiracy.

Recent history shows just how unfair the position of the developed world is. At the heart of the effort to protect biological resources is the Convention on Biological Diversity, which was written in 1993. This document, in theory, gave countries the rights over their biological resources, and warned biopirates that they could no longer simply grab whatever was there for the taking.

But it remains only a warning because there is nothing to prevent an individual or company from taking a patent on traditional knowledge or any biological resource of developing countries.

As a result, any nation with any claim to traditional knowledge in anything faces the danger of having its biological resources stolen.

Many scholars, environmentalists and lawyers believe that biopiracy has thrived because of vagueness in the United States patent law, especially as it relates to traditional knowledge held by indigenous people and developing countries. Scholars argue the US patent law allows US companies and individuals to take what does not belong to them.

Because US law does not recognise or protect the 'prior art' of other countries, biopiracy has been given carte blanche. Developing countries such as India and Thailand have suffered because Western firms managed to patent basmati and jasmine rice, neem and turmeric. The US government subsequently revoked patents on certain uses of neem and turmeric only when India challenged the issuance of those patents, a long and costly process for poor countries.

Scholars argue that Article 102 of the US Patent Law rejects technologies and methods used in other countries as 'prior art'. Evidence of ancient and traditional knowledge owned by indigenous peoples and nations is always routinely rejected.

Therefore, a review and amendment of Trips should start with rigorous scrutiny of the weaknesses of the US intellectual property rights system. There is far too much at stake for the developing countries and the LDCs to do anything less.

Indeed, a report prepared for the United Nations Development Programme in 1994 said that if developing countries were compensated a mere 2 per cent in royalties for global seed industry sales of US$15 billion, and 20 per cent for pharmaceutical products derived from developing countries' plants, they would be owed an estimated US$5.4 billion by the developed countries. It is anyone's guess what the royalties would be currently. Clearly, it would be far more.

Thus a revision of the Trips regime is of utmost importance because an estimated 90 per cent of the earth's biological resources is located in Africa, Asia and South America. Indigenous communities that have developed and nurtured such crops and plants for food and medicine are not being compensated for the material and knowledge that is taken from them.

It must be hoped that the combined influence of the developing countries and the LDCs may succeed in effecting much needed reform to colonial-era attitudes among the rich nations.

Read more!

The ties that bind Japanese to whales

Kwan Weng Kin, Straits Times 7 Feb 08;

TOKYO - THE city of Nagasaki in western Japan probably has more restaurants with whale meat on their menus than any other place in the country.

Once Japan's premier whaling port, it wants to popularise whale meat and, in the past year, has even put the delicacy on lunch menus at about 100 schools.

All over Japan, there are similar moves to educate the younger generation about the country's traditional whale culture, both through school lunches and free tasting sessions for the public.

Middle-aged Japanese remember the taste of whale from their schooldays, but most young people have not tried it.

Whale is served raw as sashimi, or cooked in a wide variety of styles, and even processed into bacon. Champions of whale meat say that it is high in protein and low in fat and calories.

Japan's relationship with whales has been thrust into the spotlight again with the skirmish last month between an American environmental activists' group and the Japanese research whaling fleet in the Antarctic Ocean.

Australia, which is also against whaling, sent a customs vessel to monitor the Japanese, presumably to gather evidence against them.

Western media reports tend to demonise the Japanese for bucking global anti-whaling sentiments now prevalent in many Western countries that were once whaling nations.

The issue is not just that Japan is seen to be hunting an endangered animal which others fear will be driven to extinction.

There is an emotional side to the argument too, when people ask how the Japanese could possibly want to eat such wonderful living creatures whose relatives include the intelligent dolphin.

The Japanese view such criticisms as nothing less than cultural aggression.

Whales are deeply entrenched in the Japanese psyche and in their culture. The mammals were believed to have been hunted by Japan's earliest inhabitants nearly 6,000 years ago.

The emotional ties of the Japanese to whales can be seen in a grave for whales that stands on a spot overlooking the beach in Nagato city, Yamaguchi prefecture, in western Japan.

It contains the remains of 75 whale foetuses, buried between the late 17th century, when the monument was erected by local whalers, and the late 19th century.

'The grave was built close to the beach so that the dead whales could always look out to the ocean and other whales could come by and pay their respects,' wrote Mr Masayuki Komatsu, a former Fisheries Agency official well known in international whaling circles, in a book explaining Japan's whaling culture.

In a nearby temple, there is a register of dead whales that spans the course of a few centuries. Besides listing their death dates, the temple has even given each whale a posthumous Buddhist name.

Every year, devotees offer prayers to the dead whales, just as they do for relatives who have passed on.

Throughout Japan, there are in fact many plaques and tombs dedicated to whales, especially in former whaling communities.

In Akehama-cho, in Seiyo city, Ehime prefecture, a huge whale ran aground in June 1837 and its meat helped starving villagers stave off famine.

In appreciation, the dead whale was given a posthumous Buddhist name of a grade equal to the local feudal lord and enshrined lovingly.

Whale meat was once the food of the masses in Japan. But after commercial whaling was banned in the early 1980s, it became an expensive meat.

Supplies come via the scientific whaling programme that Japan conducts under the sanction of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to study the global whale population.

The IWC requires that the meat from whales caught and killed for such research be used, not discarded.

Critics have accused Japan of using its scientific whaling programme as a pretext for continuing to hunt whales. But Japan insists that there is no other way to determine what is happening to the world's population of whales.

The long-running battle between Japan and anti-whaling nations will no doubt continue.

Meanwhile, many former whaling communities in Japan are urging the government to push for the resumption of limited whaling along the Japanese coast.

Some experts believe that whales have to be culled because they are eating up too much of the world's fish stock, at the expense of the world's growing human population.

Mr Komatsu, once a key member of Japan's delegation to the IWC, has long believed that while some species of whale may be endangered, the minke whale that Japan targets in particular is far from becoming extinct.

At the beginning of the 20th century, there were an estimated 80,000 minke whales in the world. There were 760,000 by the beginning of the 21st century, according to experts.

'The perception that whales are going extinct is shared not only among many Japanese but also by many people in the world. It is a fallacy,' he says in his book.

'The whales that Japan hunts are limited only to those varieties that are plentiful enough for hunting.'

With minke whales reproducing at an estimated rate of 4 per cent to 7 per cent a year, there is no possibility of them running out at present rates of culling, he maintains.

Anti-whaling Western nations, however, do not buy it.

But that is certainly not going to stop the Japanese from continuing to celebrate whales in their culture and in their cuisine.

Read more!

Australia releases Japanese whaling pictures

Rob Taylor, Reuters 6 Feb 08;

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia released on Thursday pictures of whales killed by a Japanese fleet in the Southern Ocean ahead of a possible legal challenge to stop the annual slaughter, fueling public anger over the practice.

A photo of an adult minke whale and her calf being towed up the rear ramp of a Japanese factory processing ship in Antarctic waters prompted headlines including "They call it science."

"When I saw the photos I just felt a bit of a sick feeling as well as a sense of sadness," Environment Minister Peter Garrett said. One image showed what appeared to be the young whale's intestine spilling out from an explosive harpoon wound.

"This isn't about science, it isn't about research. They're calling it science, but really it's killing whales," Garrett said.

Japan plans to hunt almost 1,000 minke and fin whales for research over the Antarctic summer.

Despite a moratorium on whaling, Japan is allowed an annual "scientific" hunt, arguing whaling is a cherished tradition and the hunt is necessary to study whales. Its fleet has killed 7,000 Antarctic minkes over the past 20 years.

The photographs were taken by an Australian fisheries and customs patrol ship sent to the Southern Ocean to gather photo and video evidence of Japan's scientific whaling for a possible challenge in international legal tribunals.

In one photo a banner hangs from the back of the factory ship saying it is conducting "legal research under the ICRW (International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling)."

The mother and the calf, which experts said was under a year old, were tied at the tail by cables as Japanese crew in hard hats looked down on Australian customs officers in an orange inflatable boat.

Another photograph shows a whale tethered to harpoon lines at the bow of a whaling ship.

Anti-whaling activists left the Southern Ocean last week to refuel in Australia and the hardline Sea Shepherd protest group plans to return south in another week to harass the six-ship Japanese fleet.

"It's very disappointing. It's distressing when you think that it can take up to 15 minutes after a harpoon actually hits a whale for the whale to die. "It's even sadder when you consider there's a calf involved," Garrett told local television.

Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has promised a stronger effort to try and stop Tokyo's cull, although both countries have agreed not to let Canberra's opposition to whaling "influence diplomatic negotiations."

The Sea Shepherd group said they would try and accelerate their departure for Antarctica after the release of the pictures to launch more protest action.

"We are anxious to get back as soon as possible and we are doing everything possible to stop them killing more whales," spokesman Tom Baldwin told Reuters.

(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

Australia has 'shocking' evidence of Japan's whaling: minister
Lawrence Bartlett, Yahoo News 7 Feb 08;

Australia has "shocking" photographic evidence to back an international legal bid to stop Japanese whaling in Antarctic waters, the government said Thursday.

One picture reportedly showing a mother whale and her calf being dragged aboard a Japanese whaler after being harpooned was described as sickening by Environment Minister Peter Garrett.

"I guess when I saw the photos I just felt a bit of a sick feeling, as well as a sense of sadness," said Garrett, a former rock star with protest group Midnight Oil.

"It's very disappointing. It's distressing when you think that it can take up to 15 minutes after a harpoon actually hits a whale for the whale to die.

"It's even sadder when you consider there's a calf involved."

A gaping wound visible on the minke whale calf's side as it is hauled up a blood-soaked slipway into the boat was reportedly caused by an explosive-packed harpoon.

The picture was one of many taken from an Australian customs vessel tracking the whalers to build up evidence against the kill, and Customs Minister Bob Debus said the pile of "shocking images" would support legal action to stop the annual slaughter.

"They will help us to back up the Australian government's argument in an international court case, the details of which are still to be worked out, to suggest that whaling should be stopped," Debus told reporters.

Australia has taken a leading role in opposing Japan's use of a loophole in an international moratorium on whaling to kill the giants of the oceans in the name of research. The meat is then sold in supermarkets and restaurants.

"To claim that this is in any way scientific is to continue the charade that surrounded this issue from day one," said Garrett.

"It is explicitly clear from these images that this is the indiscriminate killing of whales, where you have a whale and its calf killed in this way," he said.

But Japan's whaling body accused Australia of spreading "emotional propaganda" which could damage relations and said the whales were not a mother and calf.

"The government of Australia's photographs and the media reports have created dangerous emotional propaganda that could cause serious damage to the relationship between our two countries," said Minoru Morimoto, director general of the government-supported Institute of Cetacean Research.

"It is important the Australian public is not misled into believing false information," he said.

Japan resumed its annual whale hunt last week after it was disrupted in mid-January by anti-whaling protests, including the boarding of one of its ships by two activists from the militant Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

But low fuel forced boats from Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace to return to port to refuel and only the customs vessel, the Oceanic Viking, is now tracking the whalers, who have a target of around 1,000 whales this southern summer.

The government is considering using its evidence in one of two international legal forums -- the International Court of Justice in The Hague or the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) said Japan's whaling programme breaches several international conventions and legal action could be quickly set in motion.

"The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea could be called upon to issue an injunction to stop the Japanese whalers... in as little as 14 days," legal expert Tim Stephens said in a statement issued by IFAW.

Greenpeace Australia-Pacific chief Steve Shallhorn said the pictures showed the world that the Japanese fleet was killing whales in a globally recognised sanctuary and did not care if they were mothers or infants.

"Now that the Australian government has its own evidence of the whale hunt, we expect this to spur them to action at the International Whaling Commission and beyond," Shallhorn said.

The Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary was proclaimed by the International Whaling Commission in 1994.

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Indonesian scientists find behaviour of bird flu virus puzzling

Business Times 7 Feb 08;

(JAKARTA) Indonesian scientists and officials said that they were baffled by the 'mysterious' behaviour of the bird flu virus here, which has already claimed nine lives this year in the world's worst-hit nation.

Indonesia has reported 126 cases of H5N1 bird flu, 103 of them fatal, since 2005. This year's victims have all come from the capital Jakarta and its satellite cities.

Officials from the ministry of agriculture's bird flu control unit told a media briefing that the risk factors for human infection remained unclear.

Tjahjani Widjastuti, an official with the department of agriculture, said that studies were undertaken around the homes of victims. 'In some of the cases, we found the virus in the water and chickens, but in many other cases the studies showed no signs of the virus in the surroundings,' she said at a briefing late on Tuesday.

The usual mode of transmission of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu is directly from an infected bird - typically poultry - to humans.

'The behaviour (of the virus in Indonesia) is mysterious and we are competing with the dynamics of the virus. There needs to be deeper study on why there are more cases in humans, what are the risk factors ... so we can cut the chain of infection to humans.'

Globally, scientists fear that the virus will eventually mutate into a form easily spread between people.

Bird flu is endemic in all of Indonesia's 33 provinces except for Gorontalo on Sulawesi island and in North Maluku, said Ms Widjastuti.

Indonesia has been sharply criticised for being slow to act in its fight to control bird flu, which has spread easily in a nation where many people keep chickens and other birds in their gardens and homes. -- AFP

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Hong Kong Reserve Closed on Suspected Bird Flu Case

PlanetArk 7 Feb 08;

HONG KONG - Hong Kong shut a bird reserve for three weeks on Wednesday following the discovery of a dead wild egret suspected of carrying bird flu.

The carcass of a wild great egret was found on Saturday in northern Yuen Long, near the Mai Po Nature Reserve which has been closed to the public as a precautionary measure.

It was being treated as a "suspected case" of H5 avian flu, with further tests being carried out.

"We will monitor the situation closely and review the closure period as necessary," said a spokesman for Hong Kong's Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.

The same reserve was closed in December for a similar period after a bird tested positive for the deadly H5N1 virus.

Experts fear the H5N1 strain, which remains mainly an animal disease but has infected humans, could mutate to a form that spreads easily among people.

Aviaries at a popular Hong Kong theme park, Ocean Park, were closed this month after the discovery of a wild heron suspected of dying from bird flu. (Reporting by James Pomfret; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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Ethical funds' exposure not so green

Tom Stevenson, The Telegraph 6 Feb 08;

Funds that are marketed as 'ethical' are failing to invest in companies offering environmental or climate change solutions, despite research showing that these are the key issues for their investors.

A surprising lack of exposure to pure-play environmental companies is the major finding of a comprehensive study of socially responsible (SRI) funds, which also concluded that there was often little difference between the composition and performance of ethical and mainstream funds.

The results of the survey by independent financial adviser Holden & Partners came as Standard Life, a leading ethical fund manager, said its SRI funds had stopped investing in airlines after 30pc of its investors called for it to cut all exposure to the industry. Air traffic is considered to be one of the fastest-growing causes of CO2 emissions.

Holden's Guide to Climate Change Investment analysed the top ten holdings of every SRI fund available to retail investors in the UK. Most had relatively insignificant holdings in clean-tech or environmental companies and were instead heavily invested in banks and telecoms companies. The bias reflects the relatively narrow focus of the FTSE 100 index and the tendency of ethical funds to screen out oil and mining stocks from their portfolios, Holden said. Prudential's Ethical Trust had a 56pc weighting in financial services and telecoms companies.

Only one out of 58 funds analysed in the study claimed to have more than 50pc of its portfolio in environmental stocks. Henderson's Industries of the Future fund has 51pc of its fund invested in environmental companies such as Praxair and SolarWorld. L&G's Ethical fund, by contrast, held less than 1pc in environmental companies and its top ten holdings included BG, BHP Billiton and Xstrata. Many ethical funds had exposures of less than 20pc to environmental stocks.

Peter Holden, a partner at Holden & Partners, said "SRI and ethical funds have not kept pace with the public's appetite for environmental solutions. Many are investing in mainstream 'old economy' companies whose contribution to solving environmental problems is questionable."

Last year Standard Life surveyed its own investors, finding that more than 50pc saw climate change as one of their top three concerns. Eight of the top ten concerns highlighted by investors related to the environment.

Julie McDowell, head of SRI at Standard Life, said: "The views of investors in our ethical funds are of paramount importance to us. We seek, wherever possible, to reflect those concerns in the criteria applicable to our funds."

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Nigeria to Curb Imports of "Toxic" Old Computers

PlanetArk 7 Feb 08;

ABUJA - Nigeria plans to slap duties on old computers imported for spare parts because much of the excess material is later dumped and causes toxic waste, Information Minister John Odey said on Wednesday.

Nigeria has a growing market for computers, especially affordable ones, and there is a strong local culture of patching things up to keep them working for many years.

Currently, importers can ship in old computers duty free. They are then gutted for spare parts and the unwanted bits are thrown away.

"(Old computers) will be banned completely later, but it has to be a gradual process to avoid our country turning into a dumping ground for scrap," Odey told reporters after a cabinet meeting that approved the idea of tariffs.

"This action became necessary because they are found to have toxic waste that causes cancer and other hazards to health," he said.

The disposal of unwanted electronic appliances has become increasingly regulated in developed countries but in Nigeria and other poor countries waste management is haphazard.

Burning piles of refuse are a common sight by the side of the road in Nigerian cities while huge dumps proliferate in densely populated areas. (Reporting by Felix Onuah; Writing by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Jon Boyle)

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