Britain ignored risk of whale extinction in rush for oil and gas

Geoffrey Lean, The Independent 13 Apr 08;

Documents that government fought for three years to keep secret reveal warnings of devastation to wildlife

Britain agreed to bankroll controversial drilling for oil and gas, despite a warning from its own officials of the "potentially devastating effects" on a critically endangered species of whale. The decision to flout their own experts' advice is revealed in deeply embarrassing documents the Government fought for three years to keep secret.

The documents – finally released last week under the Freedom of Information Act after a High Court ruling – warn that the drilling, off Sakhalin Island in the far east of Russia, could cause the extinction of one of the world's most vulnerable populations of the marine mammals.

Nevertheless, the Government's powerful export credits and guarantees department (ECGD), which provides support to the exports industry, agreed to help back the $20bn (£10bn) project by Sakhalin Energy Investment Company, in which Shell has a major share.

The project, now nearing completion, is to exploit a "world-class oil and gas province" off the island, which is so remote that the playwright Anton Chekhov, who visited it in 1893, called it "the end of the world".

The same waters are the only known feeding ground for western grey whales. Only about 120 of them survive and they are listed as "critically endangered". Scientists say the death of just one of the breeding females each year for three years would be enough to lead to the species' extinction.

Yet in March 2004, the ECGD wrote to the Sakhalin Energy Investment Company to say it had approved conditional support for several UK contracts for the project. This flew in the face of warnings from both the Foreign Office and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The contracts were revealed only after the High Court last month ordered the ECGD to release them – although Friends of the Earth formally requested the documents under the Freedom of Information Act three years ago.

The documents show that, on 14 March 2003, Defra flagged "substantial concerns about this project". It said it had "significant worries about the possible impacts" on the endangered species, and that "any losses are likely to be significant to its future", adding it was "also concerned about the longer-term impacts on this population of disturbances caused by mining and explosions, or of oil spills".

The document states that oil spills were "potentially devastating" to the local environment, and logged "significant concerns" that a pipeline from the project could "interfere" with salmon stocks. It also questioned whether there were "adequate measures" for waste disposal.

It did note that the project could have some benefit in combating global warming because it would supply gas to a region that depends on more polluting coal, but concluded: "Our preliminary view is that the potentially devastating effects of this project on the local environment, and in particular on an endangered population of whales and biodiversity in a sparsely populated region are not compensated for by the positive effect of this project on the global climate."

The Foreign Office also said that "the potential negative environmental impacts, in particular of oil spills and on the western grey whale population, may be significant".

Regardless of such concerns, the Department of Trade and Industry, predecessor to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, said at the time it had "no concerns at this stage".

Two environmental groups – WWF and The Corner House – took the ECGD's decision to judicial review and last month the Sakhalin Energy Investment Company withdrew its request for backing.

Yesterday, Phil Michaels, head of legal for Friends of the Earth, said: "It is shameful ECGD should even consider supporting such a project and even more so that it should keep official warnings of the consequences secret for so long."

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70% of Indonesia's mangrove forests damaged: minister

Antara 15 Apr 08;

Banda Aceh (ANTARA News) - Forestry Minister MS Kaban said here on Tuesday Indonesia had 9.4 million hectares of mangroves but about 70 percent of them were in damaged condition.

"We have limited human and funding resources to rehabilitate and restore the damaged mangroves and to stop the process of their destruction," the minister said when inaugurating a mangrove information center building here on Tuesday.

He said lack of understanding among local people about the importance of the mangrove ecosystem had helped speed up mangrove forest degradation.

The minister said mangrove forests were performing an important function in preventing land abrasion by sea waves and tsunamis. "Mangroves can also serve as a source of wood for human beings and as habitats for other creatures," he said.

South Korean Ambassador to Indonesia Sun Jin Lee, Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf, Aceh Military Commander Maj Gen Supiadin, Aceh Police Chief Insp Gen Rismawan, Head of the Aceh Prosecutors` Office Abdul Jalil Mansur and other local government officials attended the function.(*)

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Eritrea Coral reefs: Hope for global marine future

Weather online 15 Apr 08;

SHEIKH SEID, Eritrea, April 15, 2008 (AFP) - Silver bubbles pop to the surface as a snorkeler glides over a colourful coral reef, bright fish speeding to safety in its protective fronds.

Experts say this small Horn of Africa nation has some of the most pristine coral reefs left anywhere worldwide, a "global hotspot" for marine diversity supporting thousands of species.

Known also as Green Island for its thick cover of mangroves, Sheikh Seid is only one of 354 largely uninhabited islands scattered along Eritrea's southern Red Sea desert coast, many part of Eritrea's Dahlak archipelago.

The remote reefs are exciting scientists, who see in Eritrea's waters a chance of hope amidst increasingly bleak predictions for the future of coral reefs -- if sea temperatures rise as forecast due to global climate change.

Unlike the deeper, cooler waters elsewhere in the Red Sea, Eritrea's large expanses of shallow -- and therefore hotter -- waters have created corals uniquely capable of coping with extremes of heat, scientists say.

"Eritrea has the most temperature tolerant corals in the world," said marine expert Dr John 'Charlie' Veron, dubbed the "king of coral" for his discovery of more than a fifth of all coral species. "That bodes well, for climate change is set to decimate coral reefs."

Leading scientists warn that most reefs -- vital for the massive levels of marine life that depend upon them and a crucial component of coastal economies -- will be largely extinct by the end of the century unless greenhouse gas emissions are curbed.

They say many will be killed by mass "bleaching" and irreversible acidification of seawater caused by the absorption of carbon dioxide into surface waters, with at least 20 per cent of coral reefs worldwide already feared lost.

But with Eritrea's surface water in summer an average bathwater temperature of 32.5 C (90.5 F) -- reportedly peaking at a sweltering 37C (98.6 F) -- corals here have evolved to survive in an environment that would kill others elsewhere in the world.

Eritrea's isolation due to long years of bloody war with neighbour Ethiopia, combined with minimal tourist numbers and government efforts to protect the coastline, have left much of the country's extensive coral reefs untouched.

"Around most of the world, especially Asian and African coastlines of the Indian Ocean, coral reefs have been plundered in one way or another, the most damaging activity being explosive fishing," added Veron, former chief scientist with the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

"The reefs of Eritrea look as if they have been in a time warp -- they have not been touched." On a recent three-week diving expedition along Eritrea's 3,300 kilometres (2,046 miles) of mainland and island coastline, Veron found five species new to science -- something the scientist described as "most unusual".

"Eritrea probably has the richest suite of corals of the Red Sea, and its 'coral gardens' are in exceptionally good condition," he added.

Such findings have encouraged ambitious plans offering hope for the future of reefs worldwide, with some believing that Eritrea's corals offer a potential nursery for future "re-planting".

Alain Jeudy de Grissac, a French marine scientist who has spent the past three years diving along Eritrea's coast, believes small coral buds -- comparable to taking cuttings from plants -- could be placed in areas where coral has died by sea temperature increases.

"The coral here is already well accustomed to high temperatures for long periods of time," Jeudy said, a former technical advisor to Eritrea's marine conservation body.

"If you seed the coral it would spread out... it would of course take some time, but they could occupy the area left by others."

The principle of re-seeding coral, or "ecological restoration", has already proved successful, Jeudy added. "It has already been done in the case of accidents, such as if a ship grounds and the coral is crushed," he said. "Testing would be needed, as this would be a totally new concept for coral reef researchers, but it could be one future of coral survival for many countries."

It also offers a potentially lucrative opportunity for tourists. Veron pointed out that just north of Eritrea, visitors to Egypt's Red Sea reefs generate more cash than visitors to its famous archaeological sites.

"The Eritrean reefs are a tourist industry gold mine waiting to be opened," Veron said.

Eritrean tourism still has far to go, hampered both by concerns of renewed conflict with Ethiopia, and reports by human rights groups that the military regime is guilty of widespread abuses.

However, the government says it is deeply committed to conservation, with Dr Woldai Futur, Eritrea's minister for national development, calling climate change the "most challenging global issue", which, if not addressed, would have "catastrophic consequences".

On Sheikh Seid, planned to be Eritrea's first marine protected area, those snorkeling over the reefs are excited by the sights beneath the waves. "The colours are fantastic," one swimmer said, emerging out of the sparkling blue water. "The fish are all around me."

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Coral flourishing at Bikini Atoll atomic test site

Rob Taylor, Reuters 15 Apr 08;

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Coral is again flourishing in the crater left by the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated by the United States, 54 years after the blast on Bikini Atoll, marine scientists said on Tuesday.

A team of research divers visited Bravo crater, ground zero for the test of a thermonuclear weapon in the remote Marshall Islands on March 1, 1954, and found large numbers of fish and coral growing, although some species appeared locally extinct.

"I didn't know what to expect, some kind of moonscape perhaps. But it was incredible," Zoe Richards, from Australia's James Cook University, told Reuters about the team's trip to the atoll in the south Pacific.


"We saw communities not too far from any coral reef, with plenty of fish, corals and action going on, some really striking individual colonies," she said.

The 15 megatonne hydrogen bomb was 1,000 times more powerful than the blast which destroyed Hiroshima, vaporizing islands with temperatures hitting 99,000 Fahrenheit, and shaking islands even up to 124 miles away.

The resulting 4 mile-wide fireball left a crater 1 mile across and 80 yards deep, while the mushroom cloud rose 62 miles over the South Pacific and radioactive fallout reached Australia and Japan.

Richards, from the Australian government-backed Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, said the research team from Germany, Italy, Hawaii, Australia and the Marshall Islands found corals up to 9 yards high and some with 12 inch-thick trunks.

"It was fascinating. I've never seen corals growing like trees outside of the Marshall Islands," Richards said.

While above-water areas remained contaminated and unfit for human habitation, healthy sub-sea species probably traveled on strong winds and currents from nearby Rongelap Atoll, which was not bombed in a series of 23 tests between 1946-58.

"It is absolutely pristine for another tragic reason. It received fallout and was evacuated of people, so now underwater it's really healthy and prevailing winds have probably been seeding Bikini Atoll's recovery," Richards said.

Compared with a study made before the atomic tests, the team established that 42 species were missing compared to the early 1950s, with at least 28 of those locally extinct.

The team was asked by Marshall Islands authorities to investigate Bikini for the first time since the tests, in part to see if a small diving industry could safely be expanded.

The waters around Bikini are littered with wrecks of old , decommissioned ships sunk during the atomic tests, including the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga and the former Japanese flagship HIJMS Nagato, from which Admiral Yamoto gave the order to attack Pearl Harbour.

Richards said the ability of Bikini's corals to bounce back from "a single huge destructive event" was proof of their resilience, although that did not mean the threat to corals from climate change had been overestimated.

"Climate change is an ongoing struggle to survive with coral, with no reprieve in sight," she said. "After the atomic blasts they had 50 years undisturbed to recover."


Marine life flourishes at Bikini Atoll test site

By Nick Squires in Sydney
Last Updated: 6:01pm BST 15/04/2008

It was blasted by the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated by the United States but half a century on, Bikini Atoll supports a stunning array of tropical coral, scientists have found.

In 1954 the South Pacific atoll was rocked by a 15 megatonne hydrogen bomb 1,000 times more powerful than the explosives dropped on Hiroshima.

The explosion shook islands more than 100 miles away, generated a wave of heat measuring 99,000ºF and spread mist-like radioactive fallout as far as Japan and Australia.

But, much to the surprise of a team of research divers who explored the area, the mile-wide crater left by the detonation has made a remarkable recovery and is now home to a thriving underwater ecosystem.

Bravo crater was ground zero for the test of the thermonuclear warhead on Bikini Atoll, in the remote Marshall Islands.

"I didn't know what to expect, some kind of moonscape perhaps. But it was incredible," Zoe Richards, from James Cook University in Australia, said. "We saw … plenty of fish, corals and action going on, some really striking individual colonies."

The scientists - from Australia, the US, Germany, Italy and the Marshall Islands - found corals up to 24 ft high with 10 inch thick trunks.

While surrounding islands remain contaminated and unfit for human habitation, healthy marine species were probably propelled by strong winds and currents from nearby Rongelap Atoll, which was not bombed in the atomic tests of 1946-58.

"The team thinks that Rongelap Atoll is potentially seeding Bikini's recovery because it is the second-largest atoll in the world with a huge amount of coral reef diversity and biomass and lies upstream from Bikini," said Ms Richards, from the government-backed Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.

While much marine life had been re-established, the researchers found that at least 28 species of coral previously found in the area had become locally extinct.

The team was commissioned by the Marshall Islands government to investigate Bikini for the first time since the tests, partly to see if a small diving industry could safely be expanded.

The waters around Bikini are littered with wrecks of World War Two decommissioned ships sunk during the tests, including the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga and the former Japanese flagship HIJMS Nagato, from which Admiral Yamoto gave the order to attack Pearl Harbour.

Ms Richards said the ability of Bikini's corals to bounce back from "a single huge destructive event" was proof of their resilience.

That did not mean, however, that the threat to coral reefs around the world from climate change had been overstated.

"Climate change is an ongoing struggle to survive with coral, with no reprieve in sight," she said. "After the atomic blasts they had 50 years undisturbed to recover."

The US Navy evacuated the inhabitants of Bikini in March 1946. At the time a US Navy Commodore told the islanders that the US was trying to learn how to use nuclear weapons for the good of mankind and asked them to "sacrifice their islands for the welfare of all men".

The Bikini islanders were moved by the US Navy three times. After nearly starving to death on the first island they were sent to, the population ended up on Kili Island in 1948, where they have lived since.

Numerous surveys of Bikini have concluded that the atoll is still not safe for human habitation.

(Editing by Michael Perry and Sanjeev Miglani)

Related links

More photos on the National Geographic News site

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Poisonous algae bloom threatens giant Chinese lake

Yahoo News 15 Apr 08;

A pollution-linked algae bloom has reappeared in China's third-largest lake, prompting renewed fears for the drinking water supplies of millions of residents, state press said Tuesday.

Taihu Lake in eastern China has seen a re-emergence of algae growth that last year forced authorities to cut water supplies to 2.3 million residents of the nearby city of Wuxi last May, the People's Daily said.

The lake in Jiangsu province, long celebrated through Chinese history as one of the country's most scenic bodies of water, has been massively polluted by the dumping of sewage and industrial and agricultural waste.

The water crisis last year made it a symbol of China's nationwide problem of deteriorating water quality, with even Premier Wen Jiabao publicly calling for the lake to be cleaned up.

Drinking supplies were cut off for days last year after residents complained of foul water coming out of their taps, causing a crisis that sparked panic hoarding of water.

Authorities now fear that could happen again in coming months, the People's Daily, the Communist Party's main mouthpiece, said in a story posted on its website.

Conditions were ripe for a recurrence of the problem, caused by a combination of pollution and warm weather, the paper quoted Lin Zexin, vice head of the Taihu Administrative Bureau, as saying.

"Cleaning up Taihu Lake's pollution will not be a short-term effort, but will be a protracted battle," he said.

Taihu is China's third-largest freshwater lake, covering a surface area of some 2,340 square kilometers (about 900 square miles).

Algae blooms are common on many Chinese freshwater lakes and are chiefly caused by untreated sewage containing high concentrations of nitrogen, a main ingredient in detergents and fertilisers.

Like much of China's environment, water quality has suffered severely amid the nation's breakneck economic growth over the past two decades.

More than 70 percent of China's waterways and 90 percent of its underground water have been contaminated by pollution, according to government figures.

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Best of our wild blogs: 15 Apr 08

Singapore's shores at low tide: Apr 08 highlights
on the singapore celebrates our reefs blog

Ubin First Stop Restaurant now on mainland Changi
and contemplating true Ubin food on the Pulau Ubin Stories blog

Flight out of Changi Airport--a new friend
and on Dr Stan's Singapore blog and his reflections about his trip to Singapore

Recycling at Condominiums and Private Apartments
on the SG Recycle blog

Queen in waiting
on the budak blog

On the non-teleological lives of sea-hares
the slug probably got it better than we do on the budak blog

Lesser Shortwing at Frasers Hill, Peninsular Malaysia
on the bird ecology blog

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Dolphins at the Sentosa Integrated Resort

Dolphin export
Solomon Star 14 Apr 08;

DEAR EDITOR – Your article published March 7, 2008 (“Dolphin Threat Continues to Singapore”), alleging that NBC Universal, Inc. intends to import live dolphins from the Solomon Islands for the Universal Studios theme park in Singapore, has come to our attention.

Contrary to the statements in such article, the Universal Studios Singapore theme park, currently under construction on Sentosa Island, is not expected to have any Solomon Islands bottlenose dolphins or any other type of dolphin or other marine animal.

None of the Universal Studios theme parks anywhere in the world contain dolphins or other marine animals, and Universal Studios Singapore will not be any different in this respect.

Universal Studios Singapore will be part of a master-planned integrated resort to be known as Resorts World at Sentosa, commonly known as Resorts World.

The owner and operator of Resorts World, including the Universal Studios Singapore theme park, is and will be Resorts World at Sentosa Pte. Ltd., a Singapore company.

Neither NBC Universal, Inc. nor its parent entities, General Electric Company and Vivendi S.A., nor any of their respective other subsidiaries, will own any equity in Resorts World.

NBC Universal, Inc., through a subsidiary, is solely a licensor to Resorts World at Sentosa Pte., Ltd., solely for purposes of the Universal Studios Singapore theme park.

We understand that other portions of Resorts World will feature dolphins, but we do not know if they will be Solomon Islands bottlenose dolphins nor do we know any details as to how Resorts World’s dolphins will be treated and cared for. As stated above, NBC Universal, Inc., its parent entities, and their respective subsidiaries, have no involvement in any portions of Resorts World other than the Universal Studios Singapore theme park.

We have provided this information to the Animal Welfare Institute and to the other organizations listed in the above-referenced article.

Had your reporter contacted Universal Studios before the article was published, your reporter would have been provided with this information as well.
We request and trust that you will print an appropriate retraction. Thank you for your cooperation.

Michael Silver
Senior Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs
Universal Parks & Resorts

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Pacific Magazine 18 Feb 08;

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Dolphins at your doorstep?
Cara van Miriah, Electric New Paper 22 Dec 07;

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789 trees to be planted in Singapore for Earth Day

Channel NewsAsia 14 Apr 08;

SINGAPORE : In celebration of Earth Day - which falls on April 22 - 789 trees will be planted in various parks, nature reserves and park connectors during the next two weeks.

The trees will be planted by over 10 companies, schools and organisations.

Among the participating schools is Shuqun Primary, which will be planting 83 trees to mark its 83rd anniversary on Tuesday.

The Plant-A-Tree programme was organised by the Singapore Environment Council and the Garden City Fund to provide an avenue for Singaporeans to do their part for the environment.

To date, 690 trees have been planted by 13 organisations and individuals since the programme started in November 2007.

About 1,200 more trees are expected to be planted in the upcoming months. - CNA/ms

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What do Ubin and Newater have to do with the Youth Olympics?

They are all part of efforts to give young athletes the full Singapore experience
Leonard Lim, Straits Times 15 Apr 08;

ATHLETES coming here for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in two years' time will take away with them not only memories from the sporting arenas, but also rich cultural and educational experiences.

Excursions to Pulau Ubin, the Pulau Semakau landfill and the Newater processing plant will be part of the athletes' experiences when the multi-sport event is held in Singapore in August 2010.

These cultural and educational programmes will be 'just as important' as the sporting aspect, said Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (SYOGOC) chief Ng Ser Miang yesterday.

Through these, the organisers hope to impart Olympic values such as friendship and respect to the 3,500 athletes; foster understanding and interaction; and showcase Singapore to the world.

The athletes - aged between 14 and 18 - will be at a very good age to combine sports and education, said former world pole vault champion Sergey Bubka yesterday.

He heads an 11-member delegation here for a five-day seminar at SYOGOC's Kay Siang Road headquarters.

The International Olympic Committee Coordination Commission chief added: 'Because this is also about the development of their future successful lives, we should help and guide them.'

Athletes will clock a compulsory eight to 12 hours of culture and education sessions built around their sports programme. Adventure trips to Outward Bound Singapore, nature walks on Pulau Ubin and Newater plant visits will be just some of the choices available to them.

Prominent world champions and Olympians will fly in to speak about the importance of a healthy lifestyle and social responsibility. Some sessions will be open to athletes' parents and sports officials.

'What's also key is putting Singapore's culture forward in a festive atmosphere and ensuring everyone goes home with something unique,' said the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) YOG head, Mr Essar Gabriel.

Thus, regular dance and other artistic items will be held during the YOG in the Games Village at the upcoming University Town in Clementi and at *scape, a youth community space at Somerset.

The IOC seminar, which began yesterday and ends on Friday, will cover such issues as the experiences of the IOC staff in organising the commercial and operational aspects of previous Olympic Games.

About 200 people from SYOGOC, national sports associations, ministries and the private sector are expected to attend.

Mr Ng said: 'These sessions are important as organising the Games will be a complex process.

'We may have done National Day Parades...and the World Bank meetings, but the YOG is much more than all this.'

He stressed that emphasis is on the sporting, environmental and social legacy of the YOG.

To that end, the IOC will maximise participation by guaranteeing at least four athlete places for each of the 205 member countries.

Also, no Olympic records will be registered, to keep the focus on participation.

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Recycling in construction sites in Singapore

Business Times 15 Apr 08;

MATTHEW PHAN looks at what the building industry is doing to conserve water, energy and other resources

THE property market may have slowed, but the construction industry is still going at breakneck pace, with several national projects and plenty of private sector developments in the pipeline.

This is good for the economy, but perhaps less so for the environment - construction uses a lot of resources, such as concrete, steel, energy and water. How can builders mitigate this?

Water

Let's start with water. Builders typically buy Newater from PUB, and the cost can run to several hundred thousand dollars per project, according to Pek Lian Guan, director at Tiong Seng Contractors.

This is 'not high as a proportion of the total building cost' but is 'still a fair amount in absolute numbers', says Mr Pek.

Tiong Seng experimented with on-site water treatment and recycling in 2005 while working on City Developments' Parc Emily condominium.

It ended up saving 21 swimming pools of water, says Mr Pek. This is about half of what it would have used otherwise, according to the PUB, which handed Tiong Seng one of its inaugural Watermark awards last year.

At sites, Tiong Seng sets up a temporary drainage system to collect used water and rainwater, channelling the flows to a holding area, where the water is treated using a portable membrane-based plant.

Clean or treated water is used for plastering, or recycled for washing. Rainwater is also treated before being discharged.

Tiong Seng spent $120,000 on the Cleansea plant, supplied by waste-water treatment specialist Hydroxyl, and another $80,000 for on-site piping and collection systems.

Hydroxyl's plants are used in industrial facilities, but 'I met them and asked whether they could be used for construction sites', says Mr Pek. 'They custom-made a prototype for us to do an on-site trial run.'

Housed in a 3m by 3m container, the plant is easily transported by crane from site to site, Mr Pek says. But the on-site piping may not be re-usable as it gets damaged during the two-year construction process.

Tiong Seng also implements 'earth control measures', such as covering exposed soil with protective sheets to protect it from erosion, which is a common problem at construction sites, says Mr Pek.

Typically, erosion can lead to muddy, silty run-off with Total Suspended Solids (TSS) levels in excess of 200, compared with less than 50 for clear drinking water, he explains.

In comparison, water from the Cleansea plant achieves TSS levels of under 10. Ironically, Tiong Seng has to train its workers not to drink the plant's output, as the water is clear but may still contain biological contaminants.

Water conservation is another major area.

The level of use depends on the type and stage of construction, but there are typically two aspects of water use on a site, according to Simon Lee, executive director of The Singapore Contractors Association.

First, water is used in the wet works, or the concreting, plastering, testing for waterproofing and piping system, and while laying foundations. Second, water is used for site housekeeping, cleaning and washing, and at ancillary facilities like offices, living quarters or cookhouses.

On the whole, contractors manage resources by controlling their use, minimising waste and recycling where possible, says Mr Lee.

For example, it is normal practice to re-cycle water for the washing bay. Recycling makes 'economic sense' and 'has always been practised by the prudent contractors', though their input is 'mainly in the construction processes and temporary works', he says.

Prefabrication

In fact, sustainable construction starts at the design stage when the architects are thinking about what materials to use and how to put them together.

By using pre-fabricated components, or drywalls made partially of recycled material, builders can save water, energy and other resources.

Pre-casting, or offsite fabrication, means that not just beams and walls, but entire rooms, can be built in a factory, then transported to the construction site, where cranes fit them into buildings like Lego blocks.

'Pre-fab takes place under controlled conditions, which minimises waste and ensures quality,' says Vivien Heng, director at RSP Architects Planners & Engineers. 'There is no need to worry about assembly on site. It saves time and manpower, and the site is safer, neater and less noisy because there are fewer things happening', she says.

On the Tribeca project for City Developments, RSP is working with the contractor to use only pre-fabricated bathroom units (PBUs). 'A PBU comes to the site like a box - everything is sealed. You just need to connect the pipes', says Ms Heng.

Such units can also be designed using drywalls.

Made of gypsum, drywalls are used to finish the interior construction of walls or ceilings. They require no wet plaster, and can take just one or two days to install, compared to a week for masonry.

Although they weigh more than 85 per cent less than brick walls, drywalls can be insulated to achieve the same level of noise protection, according to the Building and Construction Authority (BCA).

Steel

As for structural frames, BCA has been encouraging builders to replace concrete with steel.

The latter requires no sand and has a very high strength-to-weight ratio, which allows for more flexible designs.

When connected by fasterners, steel frames are stronger than traditional systems, which allows savings on foundations and the crane capacity needed on site, according to BCA.

Steel frames are also easier and quicker to set up - which saves time on the construction site - and are fully recyclable.

Environmentalists may counter, of course, that steel manufacture is extremely carbon intensive. According to the Green Building Handbook: A Guide to Building Products and their Impact on the Environment, published in 2000, about three tonnes of carbon dioxide are emitted per tonne of steel if made from iron ore, and 1.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide if the steel is recycled.

Still, as most buildings in Singapore are high-rise, concrete or steel are pretty much the only two viable options, says RSP's Ms Heng.

Recycled concrete

Sustainable construction also involves recycling materials - and a lot of what is demolished is reusable.

Virtually all the metal content, for example, from the structural steel to the metal doors of electrical rooms, is recyclable, according to Tang Kok Thye of ADDP Architects.

The other parts - crushed concrete, bricks, metal, ceramic tiles, wood and plastics - are termed Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste.

This is typically used for building temporary roads at construction sites or to lay the sub-base course - the deepest of four layers - of a road.

But local studies show that C&D waste can be processed into recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) and substituted for natural granite, according to an article by Ho Nyok Yong and Kelvin Lee of Samwoh Corp.

Writing in the first issue of BCA's Sustainable Architecture newsletter, out this year, they also describe how to recycle asphalt pavements and incinerator ash.

By using RCA in place of natural granite when building roads, or in non-structural pre-cast concrete components like road kerbs and drains, contractors can save about 30 per cent, they say.

Overall, though, sustainability begins and ends with environmental consciousness and a sense of responsibility to use limited resources wisely, says RSP's Ms Heng.

She describes how the contractor on the Tribeca project - which is located near the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel - picked up some discarded carpets and used them as noise insulation for his power generators. 'It's an innovative, zero- cost solution stemming from awareness and a recycling mindset,' she says.

Related articles

Singapore on track to hit 60% recycling rate by 2012
Channel NewsAsia 13 Apr 08;

Read more!

Not recycling? Smart bins will tell on you

Straits Times 15 Apr 08;

SYDNEY - TENS of thousands of Australian households will have their garbage and recycling monitored by tracking devices placed in their trash bins, a move dubbed 'Bin Brother' by local media.

Officials yesterday confirmed that 78,000 new council-issued garbage bins in the eastern suburbs of Sydney have been fitted with small radio frequency tags which allow for data collection.

Each bin will transmit a unique identification code to the garbage truck which weighs and empties it each week, allowing officials to identify how much rubbish is produced at each address.

The technology, which is similar to that used to track cattle, will tell the council whether residents are using the bins correctly or mixing recyclable material with trash destined to become landfill.

Randwick Mayor Bruce Notley-Smith said that the bins were not aimed at introducing a levy for the collection of heavy rubbish, but at stepping up recycling.

'We have aimed to increase or target problem areas in the city where there is a lower level of recycling,' he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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Four finalists chosen in search for Singapore's Happiest Person

Channel NewsAsia 14 Apr 08;

SINGAPORE : The search for Singapore's Happiest Person has been narrowed down to just four people.

The final four were chosen from 207 people nominated for the title of "Singapore's Happiest Person".

Sharon Pereira said, "I nominated my mom because she's a truly awesome gift to me, my brothers and my dad. I love her so much. She's just an amazing person. She makes me happy."

On being one of the finalists, Zaibun Nissa Siraj, Training Consultant, HR Office, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, said, "Very good, very happy I guess, but (am) very touched that my colleagues actually recommended me."

Stella Fernandez, Porter, Patient Transport Service, KK Women's and Children's Hospital, said, "I'm very, very surprised. Really"

The other two nominees are Ng Chai Lee, a record searcher at a polyclinic, and Andy Goh, an engineer.

Dr Leong Chan Hoong, Judge, Head of Psychology Programme, SIM University, said, "They are different from the rest in a sense that they are not just happy for themselves, but they are also being able to make that kind of happiness something...that would inspire people around them."

The four have been shortlisted by local consulting firm, Global Leadership Academy.

It launched the search for Singapore's Happiest Person last month, as part of its well-being conference, which will be held in late-April.

The name of "chosen one" will be announced on Thursday, and he or she will win a two-night hotel stay in Phuket, Thailand. - CNA/ms


Their secret to happiness
All finalists were very comfortable with themselves: Judge
Jinny Koh, Today Online 15 Apr 08;

Ask Ms Zaibun Siraj, 61 — named one of Singapore's happiest people — what makes her most happy and she tells you readily: Making others happy.

In fact, Ms Zaibun is spreading her recipe for joy with her book: Zany, Zeal, Zest and Zing: The Z way to happiness, which was launched early this month.

Shortlisted in the Global Leadership Academy's search for the happiest Singaporean, Ms Zaibun, a training consultant in Ngee Ann Polytechnic, is among the 207 contestants who were nominated by their family, friends and even strangers.

"It's the little things in life, such as taking a walk, giving a gift and being with friends, that brings happiness," says Ms Zaibun, who is a great believer in writing cards to thank and compliment people and doing volunteer work.

Ms Zaibun, who was the president for the Association of Women for Action and Research from 1996 to 1998, is a member in the National Youth Achievement Award Council.

One of the judges, Mr John Bittleston, author and business mentor, said that a common denominator he found in all the shortlisted finalists was that they were all comfortable with themselves.

The other finalists are Mr Ng Chai Lee, 61, a record keeper at the Marine Parade polyclinic; Ms Stella Fernandez, 43, a patient transport assistant in KK Women's and Children's Hospital; and Mr Andy Goh, 35, a manager.

Mr Ng, who is also the treasurer in the McPherson Residential Committee where he has served for over 30 years, was nominated by his colleague, Ms Lilian Quek, a staff nurse at his polyclinic.

"He is the happiest man I have come across in my 38 years of work in various multinational companies, hospitals and health clinics," said Ms Quek, 56.

"Even when he is on annual leave, his name gets mentioned by colleagues almost every day."

Singapore's Happiest Person will be announced on Thursday at The New Science of Happiness and Well-being Conference which starts tomorrow at the Singapore Expo and Convention Centre.

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Dengue cases still on the rise in Singapore

Numbers higher than in same period last year, despite stepped-up checks

Salma Khalik, Straits Times 15 Apr 08;

THE number of dengue victims has continued climbing despite the stepped-up efforts of the National Environment Agency (NEA) to fight mosquito breeding.

The NEA mounted its annual pre-emptive strike two months earlier this year, in January instead of March.

The sweep of potentially productive mosquito breeding sites in housing estates was completed last month, which is when this phase of the mosquito war usually starts.

More than 400 NEA officers combed every drain and water tank in HDB estates, on top of the routine surveillance and extermination of breeding sites by the town councils.

Their mission: to seek out and destroy as many breeding sites as possible before the onset of warmer mid-year weather, which puts mosquitoes in breeding mode.

At around this time last year, which was warmer, the number of people down with dengue had shot past 100 cases a week.

Singapore, emerging from the coolest March in two decades this year, is already starting to see a rise in the number of dengue patients.

Last week, 97 people were infected, 20 more than in the previous week.

In the first 15 weeks of this year, 1,401 people caught the illness, compared to 944 in the same period last year.

There are now two large 'active' dengue clusters, one in Upper Paya Lebar with 32 people down with the fever and the other in Yishun with 10 sick.

A cluster is active if at least two people in an area have dengue, with the latest case having surfaced in the past two weeks.

Last year, despite the NEA having checked more than 4,000 premises for mosquito breeding every day, almost 9,000 people caught the fever.

Dengue is characterised by a high fever, body aches and vomiting. The disease can be fatal.

Of the 1,400 admitted to Tan Tock Seng Hospital last year, 86 came down with the more serious dengue haemorrhagic fever.

Over the next few months, the NEA will home in on outdoor areas, such as corridor drains and playgrounds. It will check schools, sports facilities and places of worship.

Places that have not been exposed to the current Den 2 strain of the dengue virus will get special attention.

There are four strains of the virus. People infected with one strain can fall sick again if exposed to a different strain.

Doctors say that people who are infected again - and half of those down with dengue are - tend to get more sick.

Number of weekly dengue cases up
Channel NewsAsia 14 Apr 08;

SINGAPORE : The National Environmental Agency (NEA) has confirmed that there were 97 dengue cases reported from April 6 to 12.

That is the highest number in the past five weeks, when the weekly average has been about 75.

Meanwhile, there were 13 cases between April 13 and 14.

According to the Health Ministry (MOH), foreign workers make up a big number of the reported cases in Upper Paya Lebar Road, which is one of the dengue clusters.

Most of these foreign workers are from China, India and Bangladesh.

MOH suspects that they did not receive dengue vaccination shots.

To avoid mosquitoes from breeding, NEA has requested those living in hostels above shop houses along Upper Paya Lebar to remove their roof gutters in the next week.

There are reportedly more than 60 breeding grounds in this area alone. - CNA/ms

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Singapore importers allowed to bring in more rice, but some plan to cut imports

Channel NewsAsia 14 Apr 08;

SINGAPORE: Rice importers said they are allowed to bring in more rice this month. However, some are planning to cut their import volumes because of the high rice prices.

The prices of rice have gone up by over 80 per cent in the last three months. Many importers also cited cost issues, including transportation and storage costs, as their main worries.

A supplier said it may reduce imports by at least 25 per cent, while others said they will explore alternative sources, such as China, Myanmar and Vietnam, before deciding on their next move.

And for many importers, it is just business as usual, with no change in import volume.

But the company that sells New Moon rice, Goh Joo Hin, is bucking the trend. It has decided to import up to 50 per cent more rice this month.

Wayne Goh, CEO of Goh Joo Hin, said the company plans to bring in more rice, at least until July, because it believes the quota rules may be relaxed beyond April.

"We're taking a risk to commit three months ahead. Price right now is really high. So if in any case, prices start to decline, we still strongly believe that for brand equity, we have to avoid (getting) ourselves into an out-of-stock situation," he said.

In fact, suppliers of ponni rice are now facing the problem of not having enough stock, after the Indian government banned all rice exports, excluding basmati rice.

Shopkeeper Meena said: "We do business. Suddenly we say we don't have stock, they (customers) are surprised. They say, 'how come?' We are (a) big shop, (but) we don't have stock. So it's a problem for us."

Ponni rice is popular among Indian nationals, who say they find it difficult to switch to other types of white rice. - CNA/ac

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Emergency Asean summit on food mooted

Today Online 15 Apr 08;

MANILA — Amid fears of unrest over rising food prices, a Philippine senator has urged his country to arrange an emergency summit of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to ensure regional food security.

Senator Manuel Roxas filed a resolution yesterday calling on the government to take the lead in organising the emergency meeting. "This kind of crisis is exactly why Asean exists," Mr Roxas said.

"Asean must address and intervene in this crisis to prove to the world that it can take the lead in the political and economic integration of its member nations."

Other Philippine officials have dismissed fears of possible riots over rising food prices and tight rice supplies, saying that the unrest that destabilised Haiti's government — with deadly looting and rioting fuelled by rising food prices — will not happen here.

Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said the security situation in the country was stable and that skyrocketing rice prices were a global concern. "I don't see any food riots in the Philippines," he said.

"I think what this will do, on the contrary, is to give us more incentives and impetus to work together to solve the problem rather than fractionalising the country."

The Philippines is one of the world's largest rice importers and has been buying the grain from its Asian neighbours and the United States to beef up its reserves as prices worldwide surged due to growing demand and a spike in fuel and fertiliser costs.

Farmers' groups have warned that rice prices could rise a further 40 per cent in the coming months and trigger protests.

So far, there has been no unrest, except sporadic left-wing protests blaming President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's administration for mismanaging the food situation. Officials insist there is no shortage. — AP

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Feeding the World: Tall order amid competing demands

Nayan Chanda, Straits Times 15 Apr 08;

WITH oil prices holding steady around US$100 (S$135) a barrel and the cost of food rising at an alarming pace, threatening hunger and protests, the world economy has reached a new ominous juncture.

Eighteenth-century economist Thomas Malthus, who predicted cycles of population growth outpacing resources and leading to catastrophic decline, is being invoked. Will the gathering food crisis finally prove Malthus right?

To agree, one must ignore the amazing track record of human ingenuity in overcoming the challenges to our survival. Yet the web of political, economic, ecological and environmental factors that have combined to bring about this crisis is daunting and unprecedented in its complexity.

Governments can restrict the export of grain, as India, Vietnam, Argentina and Egypt have done; scrap tariffs on food imports, as some African countries have; and everyone can accumulate emergency food stocks. All this will be a short-term fix, but fall short of resolving the crisis that has been building for decades.

Human development has evolved around the search for basic sources of energy - from food and fuel for cooking to the modern needs of powering transportation, lighting and heating homes. With the discovery of new continents, more land has come under the plough. Steam-powered boats allowed food grains to be shipped halfway across the globe to feed industrial workers. With technology, agricultural yields have risen.

As historian David Christian noted, by tapping millions of years of solar energy stored in the form of coal and oil, humans have found the equivalent of several new continents to exploit.

Malthus was thought to have been proven wrong as the world population has exploded, from one billion in 1900 to around 6.5 billion today. But all indications are that we are approaching the end of that happy growth phase.

World reserves of grain now stand at their lowest in 25 years, and with depleting levels of groundwater and the climate challenge, food yields are slowing. Traditional wheat exporters such as Australia, Canada and Argentina are expected to produce less, and only the United States will be able to step up its exports.

While the world's largest rice exporter, Thailand, promises not to cut back, the No.2 supplier Vietnam, hit by unseasonal weather, is not taking new export orders.

Global food exports are expected to drop 3.5 per cent from last year. An 80 per cent rise in grain price since 2005 (42 per cent last year) and poor weather forecasts have created a sense of crisis.

Africa and Asia have seen food-related protests. Hoarding by traders has raised prices. The World Bank warns that 33 countries face unrest because of surging prices, and urges rich nations to give US$500 million in emergency aid to the UN World Food Programme. But this still falls short of a long-term solution because, for the first time, the need of food production is brushing up against the imperative of energy production in a major way.

Already, 18 per cent of US grain output is being diverted to produce ethanol. With the US plan to produce 35 billion gallons of alternative fuels by 2017, the share of grain withdrawn from the food basket will rise further.

With the world population still growing at more than 1 per cent a year, we will need more farmlands and green revolutions. Experts speculate that, at best, 10 per cent more arable land may be found in Brazil and sub-Saharan Africa. But the vagaries of climate and a lack of investment complicate efforts to access farmlands in sub-Saharan Africa. And in Brazil, new farmland can be created only by clearing the Amazon rainforest, raising the risk of drought.

Increasing food output on existing land would require more intensive cultivation - and, yes, unpopular genetically modified crops. Industrial farming would certainly raise carbon emissions, thickening the canopy of greenhouse gas, which has grown silently since the Industrial Revolution.

A century of growth now confronts humanity with difficult zero-sum choices. Addressing these will require a global approach, taking into account the imperatives of growing more food, creating clean fuels and fighting climate change - all at the same time. A rather tall order, indeed.

The writer is director of publications at the Yale Centre for the Study of Globalisation and editor of YaleGlobal Online.

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Farmers face pressure to raise food production

High prices due to soaring demand could push 100m deeper into poverty
Straits Times 15 Apr 08;

LUXEMBOURG - PRESSURE was mounting yesterday on global farming powers to ramp up production in the face of warnings that soaring food prices could drive 100 million people deeper into abject poverty.

French Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier warned that farmers worldwide would have to raise their output sharply in the coming decades as demand booms in fast growing Asian countries such as China and India.

'Global agriculture production will have to double by 2050...to feed nine billion people on the planet,' Mr Barnier told journalists on the sidelines of a Luxembourg meeting with his European Union counterparts.

At the same time, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon warned that the rapidly escalating crisis of food availability has reached emergency proportions, threatening to wipe out seven years of progress in the fight against global poverty.

He told international finance and trade officials meeting at the UN that the international community had 'to take urgent and concerted action' to avoid the larger political and security implications.

As well as calling for short-term emergency measures, he urged longer-term efforts to significantly increase production of food grains.

Food security has become a major concern in recent weeks as supplies of basic commodities have dwindled in the face of soaring demand, triggering riots and outbreaks of violence from Haiti to Indonesia.

World Bank president Robert Zoellick warned on Sunday that a doubling of food prices over the past three years could push 100 million people in developing countries further into poverty.

He said: 'We have to put our money where our mouth is now so that we can put food into hungry mouths.'

A new UN-sponsored study, due to be presented today in Paris, also warns that farming practices must change to confront soaring food prices that threaten the poor in particular.

'Business as usual is no longer an option,' the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development will say in the report, according to a statement from Unesco.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation said that since March last year, prices for soya beans have risen 87 per cent and those for wheat 130 per cent at a time when global grain stores are at their lowest levels on record.

It attributed the trend to increased demand in emerging market powerhouses China and India, as well as the alternative use of maize and soya beans for biofuels.

Unesco said the report will urge that agricultural science pay greater attention to safeguarding natural resources and promoting 'agro-ecological' practices such as using natural fertilisers and traditional seeds, and reducing the distance between the farm and the consumer.

Mr Barnier also said that Europe should help developing countries build up their agriculture sector.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS

High cost of food sparks unrest across the globe
Straits Times 15 Apr 08;

Americas

# At least six people, including a United Nations peacekeeper, die in Haiti, where the prime minister has been ousted over the price of food.

# Political storm brewing in Argentina, where government efforts to tax exports of increasingly valuable foodstuffs cause social unrest.

# Food bank charities in the United States plead for extra donations to provide the poor with food that is becoming more expensive.

Asia

# Textile workers riot in Bangladesh over higher food prices and low wages.

# The Philippine government expands a programme to give rice to poor children in schools, and calls for talks on food prices with other Asian countries.

# Higher food prices in Pakistan and Afghanistan cause border tension, with guards firing on people trying to smuggle wheat flour into Afghanistan.

# Farmers in Thailand begin guarding their fields against theft after rice prices jump by 50 per cent.

Africa

# Riots over the cost of food kill at least one person in Ivory Coast, The government enacts a price freeze.

# At least 40 die in price-related riots in Cameroon, west Africa.

# Police in Senegal arrest the leaders of a protest against high food prices.

Middle East

# Riots in a working-class Nile Delta town leave at least one person dead. In the past year, the price of bread has risen by nearly 50 per cent in Egypt.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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China's '08 Wheat Harvest Seen Ample Despite Drought

PlanetArk 15 Apr 08;

BEIJING - China will have an ample harvest of winter wheat in 2008 as higher yields and increased acreage offset the impact of severe drought, industry officials said on Monday.

The winter wheat output will grow 1.3 percent this year to 102.6 million tonnes, lifting China's total wheat output, including spring wheat, to 107.6 million tonnes this year, up 2.5 percent from 2007, the China National Grain and Oil Information Centre said.

"This year is a normal year for winter wheat and the yield will increase by 2-7 percent," Mao Liuxi, a senior researcher with the China Meteorological Centre, told a conference in Beijing.

Still, a drought that has become the worst in decades is still affecting China's eastern Shandong and northern Hebei provinces, two major wheat growing regions, Mao said.

As of March 26, drought conditions had affected 19.4 million hectares (48 million acres) of arable land, mainly in northern China, including 3.3 million hectares of cropland, according to state media.

China will start to harvest winter wheat next month.

(Reporting by Niu Shuping; Writing by Langi Chiang; Editing by Ken Wills)

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Melting mountains a "time bomb" for water shortages

Sylvia Westall, Reuters 14 Apr 08;

VIENNA (Reuters) - Glaciers and mountain snow are melting earlier in the year than usual, meaning the water has already gone when millions of people need it during the summer when rainfall is lower, scientists warned on Monday.

"This is just a time bomb," said hydrologist Wouter Buytaert at a meeting of geoscientists in Vienna.

Those areas most at risk from a lack of water for drinking and agriculture include parts of the Middle East, southern Africa, the United States, South America and the Mediterranean.

Rising global temperatures mean the melt water is occurring earlier and faster in the year and the mountains may no longer be able to provide a vital stop gap.

"In some areas where the glaciers are small they could be gone in 30 or 50 years time and a very reliable source of water, especially for the summer months, may be gone."

Buytaert, from Britain's Bristol University, was referring to parts of the Mediterranean where her research is focused but she said this threat also applies to the entire Alps region and other global mountain sources.

Daniel Viviroli, from the University of Berne, believes nearly 40 percent of mountainous regions could be at risk, as they provide water to populations which cannot get it elsewhere.

He says the earth's sub-tropic zones, which are home to 70 percent of the world's population, are the most vulnerable.

And with the global population expected to expand rapidly, there may not always be enough water to drink, let alone to water crops, which use about 70 percent of melt-water.

In Afghanistan, home to some 3,500 of the world's glaciers, the effects of global warming are already being felt in the Hindu Kush said U.S. Geological Survey researcher Bruce Molnia.

"Glaciers are getting smaller and smaller," he said adding that this was leading to more frequent flooding.

In some valleys snow has completely disappeared during months when it usually blankets the mountains and many basins have drained, Molnia said.

"And what I am talking about here is adaptable to almost every one of the Himalayan countries that's dependent on glacier-melted water," he said.

It has also been difficult to collect data in the region with scientists preferring to rely on satellite imagery rather risk fieldwork in the Taliban-occupied mountains.

Buytaert points out that because only a handful of scientists study the hydrology of mountains, what they don't know about them could be just as concerning as what they do.

"Mountains are seen as having water all the time and everywhere so people think they can take it all the time," she said.

"But mountains are black boxes in the scientific sense, there is so much data missing for our models. We don't quite know what is going on."

(Editing by Matthew Jones)

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China 'now top carbon polluter'

Roger Harrabin, BBC News 14 Apr 08;

China has already overtaken the US as the world's "biggest polluter", a report to be published next month says.

The research suggests the country's greenhouse gas emissions have been underestimated, and probably passed those of the US in 2006-2007.

The University of California team will report their work in the Journal of Environment Economics and Management.

They warn that unchecked future growth will dwarf any emissions cuts made by rich nations under the Kyoto Protocol.

The team admit there is some uncertainty over the date when China may have become the biggest emitter of CO2, as their analysis is based on 2004 data.

Until now it has been generally believed that the US remains "Polluter Number One".

Provincial data

Next month's University of California report warns that unless China radically changes its energy policies, its increases in greenhouse gases will be several times larger than the cuts in emissions being made by rich nations under the Kyoto Protocol

The researchers say their figures are based on provincial-level data from the Chinese Environmental Protection Agency.



They say analysis of the 30 data points is more informative about likely future emissions than national figures in wider use because it allows errors to be tracked more closely.

They believe current computer models substantially underestimate future emissions growth in China.

We are awaiting a formal comment from the UK Chinese Embassy, but Dr Max Auffhammer, the lead researcher, said his projections had been presented widely and no-one had raised a serious complaint.

All those concerned about climate change agree that China's emissions are a problem - including China itself.

But China and many other developing countries struggling to tackle poverty are adamant that any negotiated emissions reductions should not be absolute, but relative to a "business-as-usual" scenario of projected growth.

That is why this study is of more than academic interest.

'Truly shocking'

If it becomes widely accepted that China's future emissions are likely to be much higher than previously estimated, that will have to factored into any future global climate agreement if the Chinese are to be persuaded to take part.

In brief, although this study looks bad for China's reputation, it may be good for China's negotiating position.

The Chinese - and the UN - insist that rich countries with high per capita levels of pollution must cut emissions first, and help poorer countries to invest in clean technology.

America's per capita emissions are five to six times higher than China's, even though China has become the top manufacturing economy.

US emissions are still growing too, though much more slowly.

Dr Auffhammer told BBC News that his projections had made an assumption that the Chinese government's recent aggressive energy efficiency programme would fail, as the previous one had failed badly.

"Our figures for emissions growth are truly shocking," he said.

"But there is no sense pointing a finger at the Chinese. They are trying to pull people out of poverty and they clearly need help.

"The only solution is for a massive transfer of technology and wealth from the West."

He acknowledged that this eventuality was unlikely.

Those scientists aspiring to stabilise global emissions growth before 2020 to prevent what they believe may be irreversible damage to the climate may be wondering how this can possibly be achieved.

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Environmental award draws Chevron's ire

Michael Erman, Reuters 14 Apr 08;

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Chevron Corp on Monday criticized the award of a prestigious environmental prize to two leaders of a prolonged legal challenge that claims the oil company polluted the Amazon.

Pablo Fajardo and Luis Yanza will receive one of six Goldman Environmental Prizes, often characterized as the Nobel Prize for the environment, which will be handed out on Monday night in San Francisco.

Fajardo and Yanza led the charge against Texaco, which was bought by Chevron in 2001. They sued the company in Ecuador on behalf of peasants and Indians there, claiming the company polluted the jungle and damaged the health of residents by dumping 18 billion gallons of contaminated water there between 1972 and 1992.

Earlier this month, an independent environmental expert told the court in a non-binding report that Chevron should pay between $7 billion and $16 billion for environmental damage.

Chevron argues it was released from any liability when it paid $40 million for an environmental cleanup in the 1990s and blames state oil company Petroecuador for much of the pollution. The company has characterized the lawsuit as being politically-motivated and called it extortion.

It said the organizers of the Goldman Prize have been misled about Fajardo's and Yanza's environmental credentials.

"They have given an award to two people who are far from deserving," said Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson. "These individuals have stood in the way of Petroecuador's long overdue remediation. The only thing green they are interested in is money."

But the prize's founder, Richard Goldman, said the awards are thoroughly researched and fact-checked and that the group was proud to add the activists to its list of recipients.

"Pablo Fajardo and Luis Yanza are two ordinary Ecuadorians addressing a problem that impacts 30,000 of their countrymen: petrochemical waste spoiling hundreds of square miles of Amazon rainforest," Goldman said in a statement.

"Their work is motivated by a single desire: to ensure that their corner of the Amazon -- one of the world's most contaminated industrial sites -- is cleaned up."

Steven Donziger, a U.S. lawyer who advises Fajardo and Yanza on the case, said that Chevron's reaction to the award is an attempt to obscure a possible judgment against the company.

"Chevron has launched a misinformation campaign to hide the seriousness of this potential liability from its shareholders," Donziger said. "Part of that campaign is to dishonor the leaders of the lawsuit who are being internationally recognized for their courageous struggle."

(Reporting by Michael Erman; editing by Carol Bishopric)

Chevron denies 16.5-billion-dollar pollution damage in Ecuador
Yahoo News 15 Apr 08;

US oil giant Chevron on Monday rejected a court report holding it liable for 16.5 billion dollars in alleged environmental damage in Ecuador between 1964-1990, saying it owes the Ecuadoran government exactly "nothing."

"What we'll do is challenge it point by point ... and insist that the report is absurd and illegal," Chevron's Ecuador representative Rodrigo Perez told reporters after the government-commissioned report became known.

Quito has sued Chevron for widespread contamination its Texaco subsidiary's oil drilling operations allegedly caused in Amazon territories in the 26 years before it was sold to Ecuador's state-run oil company Petroecuador.

Several indigenous communities also filed a class-action lawsuit against Chevron in 2003, seeking compensation for soil pollution in their Amazon homelands.

A New York court in 1990 ordered Texaco to stand trial in Ecuador on environmental charges, the first time a US oil company was told to answer to charges in a foreign country.

However, Perez said his company "owes nothing for many reasons," including a 1995-1998 cleanup it did in the territories it had previously exploited that was approved by the Ecuadoran government.

"Any pollution you find now cannot reasonably have been caused by Texaco," he added.

Chevron, Perez said, "owes not a single penny" in Ecuador and "is not willing to give in," calling the Supreme Court-commissioned report "illegal and unfair."

The Quito-based Amazon Defense Coalition said Chevron had nobody to blame but itself for the legal mess it is in, since most of the evidence compiled in the official report came from the company's own field reports in the areas it exploited.

Even though Chevron analyzed soil samples from areas where it thought there was no contamination, the coalition said in a statement, "the lab results ... produced devastating numbers" of heavy metal contamination 200-630 times the US norms.

The expert report prepared by 15 scientists supervised by Ecuador's environmental department, the coalition added, "concluded ... that approximately 428 excess deaths from cancer could be attributed to the contamination left by oil field operations."

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