Scientists succeed in mimicking the way spiders spin their super-strength webs

Steve Connor, The Independent 29 Apr 08;

The dream of producing spider silk in industrial quantities has come a step closer to reality after scientists managed to mimic the way silk protein is spun naturally into fibres that are potentially stronger than steel.

Researchers have been trying to make artificial spider silk for decades because of its unusual and potentially lucrative properties. In addition to its extreme tensile strength, spider silk is highly elastic, and has the added advantage of being biodegradable. In the past, engineers have suggested a variety of potential uses of the silk, from bullet-proof vests and lightweight material for parachutes, to extremely strong ropes and fishing nets that will decompose quickly if lost at sea.

But the main sphere of interest is in medicine, where extra-fine threads made of spider silk could be used as biodegradable sutures for sealing up internal wounds, according to Professor Andreas Bausch, who led the latest study at the Technical University of Munich.

His team claims to have solved one of the most difficult problems of the silk-making process by creating an artificial spinning duct that mimics the spider's spinneret – an organ which instantaneously converts a liquid solution of stored protein into a strong, silken thread.

"The goal of the study was to understand the spinning process. The fibres we created were very similar to the one produced in nature but the next step is to investigate them further," Professor Bausch said yesterday.

The team used two types of proteins found in spider silk and manufactured in bacteria that had been genetically engineered with the relevant spider genes. It was the first time that a group had manufactured "kilogram quantities" of the two main silk proteins, Professor Bausch said.

Despite determined efforts over the past 20 years, scientists have failed to produce artificial fibres that match the unique properties of spider silk. One of the problems is being able to make the long protein molecules used in the fibres, while the other difficulty is being able to mimic the complex changes that take place during the spinning process.

Spiders store the silk proteins in a watery solution. Orb spiders, which spin aerial webs for catching flying insects, can convert that solution into the solid fibres of a thread within the fraction of a second it takes them to spin out a dragline.

Professor Bausch said that the artificial spinning duct he and his colleagues have created brings together the unfolded proteins dissolved in the storage solution. That is done by squeezing them through a smaller and smaller hole until they emerge as a folded, insoluble sheet of proteins which form the solid fibre of silk. However, the German team's study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, does not provide details of the physical or mechanical properties of the resulting fibres, which has led other scientists to criticise the research.

"It is another little step towards producing spider silk but it is not the breakthrough because the fibres produced have no good qualities," said Oxford University's Professor Fritz Vollrath, one of the leading experts in the field.

"If they made a fibre with good properties, then I would say the proof was in the pudding and they had cracked it. But they cannot make fibres that are strong and match the properties of real spider silk."

The latest study comes eight years after a Canadian company called Nexia Biotechnologies revealed it had created genetically-modified goats that could make spider silk proteins in their milk. However, their "biosteel" product has yet to pass commercial tests.

Spiders evolved 400 million years ago and have been making various kinds of silk for much of this period. The oldest aerial webs for catching insects date back 180 million years. Dragline silk from the orb spider has the highest tensile strength.

Other amazing animal products

*Horn Made from tough proteins called keratin, horns are used for defence and sexual display. True horns are found among cattle, goats and antelopes, and grow throughout the life of the animal. Rhino horn is especially valuable and its price has led some species to be driven close to extinction.

*Coral Many marine animals convert dissolved calcium ions found in the sea into solid calcium carbonate. Coral reefs are made from the skeletons of one such creature, the coral polyp, which lives in a close relationship with algae. Coral reefs are one of the few biological structures that can be seen from space.

*Poison Some animals produce toxins to defend themselves or subdue prey. Many of the poisons are nerve agents that paralyse their victims. The poison arrow frog is thought to produce the most deadly toxin. Some toxins are being investigated for their potential medical uses.

Read more!

Australia splashes A$13 bln to secure water supplies

James Grubel, Reuters 29 Apr 08;

CANBERRA (Reuters) - The Australian government outlined plans to secure water supplies and repair ailing rivers on Tuesday, to protect the nation's drought-hit food bowl, which produces about A$22 billion ($21 billion) worth of food exports.

The A$13 billion 10-year water plan includes A$3 billion to buy river water back from irrigators in the Murray-Darling River basin, which produces 41 percent of Australia's agriculture, as well as money to secure water for the nation's thirsty cities.

"Water shortages are a serious threat to our economy and way of life," Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said on Tuesday.

"We can, and we must, make better use of our available water resources," Wong said.

Australia, the driest inhabited continent on Earth, has been suffering more than seven years of drought, with water inflows into the nation's rivers at record lows and farmers facing tough restrictions on irrigation.

The drought has also had an impact on cities, which are home to bulk of Australia's 21 million people, with strict restrictions on watering gardens and most cities banning people from using a hose to wash their cars.

In March, authorities said inflows into Australia's largest river, the Murray, doubled over the past year, but were still only about 25 percent of the long-term average, with the lakes near the river's mouth described as in grave condition.

Without major winter rains, irrigators face the possibility of receiving no water allocations as river managers keep water for environmental flows and to secure drinking water for towns and cities along the river system.

Farmers along the Murray-Darling basin use the river for dairy farming and to water crops such as cotton, rice, corn, grapes and other fruit and vegetables, drawing the water from the river by using irrigation.

The government wants to buy back their water rights so more water will flow along the river, helping to combat salinity, especially in the vast lakes near the Murray mouth in the South Australia state, where the river only meets the sea with the help of constant dredging.

The Murray-Darling river catchment covers 15 percent of Australia, an area the size of France and Spain combined, with the Murray River also providing about half the drinking water for the southern city Adelaide's 1 million people.

Wong said under the nation government's plan, A$3 billion would be spent to buy water from irrigators to try to nurse the Murray River back to health, while almost A$6 billion will be spent on projects to help make irrigation more sustainable.

She said the May 13 national budget would also include A$1 billion for desalination and recycling projects to help secure long-term water supplies in the nation's cities.

Australia's main farmer's group the National Farmers' Federation said it supported the water buyback, as long as it was only from willing sellers.

"We believe the market should operate, people should be able to make their own decisions and water should not be compulsorily acquired," said Brett Heffernan from the Farmers' Federation.

Australia's wheat farmers do not rely on irrigation water. A private forecast suggests a record winter wheat crop of 27 million tonnes, based on early seasonal rainfall, more than double last year's drought-hit 13 million tonnes.

($1=A$1.07)

(Editing by Valerie Lee)

Read more!

Biggest squid ever caught may be a minnow: scientists

David Brooks, Yahoo News 29 Apr 08;

The biggest squid ever caught, at up to 10 metres long and boasting a fearsome beak and razor-sharp hooks, may be small compared to others still lurking in the depths, scientists said Tuesday.

The colossal squid has begun a two-day thaw at The Museum of New Zealand in Wellington before it is examined in more detail Wednesday by an international team of scientists.

It weighs 495 kilograms (1,090 pounds), has eyes the size of dinner plates and is estimated at up to 10 metres (33 feet) long.

But that may be relatively small, scientists say after initial examination, suggesting other colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) under the chilly Antarctic waters might grow much larger.

On a museum blog following the progress of the thaw, Chris Paulin -- who is projects manager at the museum, known as Te Papa Tongarewa, said Tuesday that the beak of the colossal squid has been exposed as the flesh defrosts.

The size of the lower beak -- used to chop prey into bite sized pieces -- is around 43 to 45 millimetres.

Colossal squid lower beaks previously found in the stomachs of sperm whales have been as long as 49 millimetres.

Extrapolating the relationship between the length of the beak and body size from another smaller specimen being examined suggests the species could grow much bigger, Paulin said.

"Can we assume that this species reaches three quarters of a tonne in weight?" he asked.

One of the scientists leading the examination, Auckland University of Technology squid expert Steve O'Shea, said it was difficult to say how much bigger the monster squid could grow.

"What we know from that one measurement is that the beak of this animal from the stomachs of sperm whales are considerably larger," O'Shea told Radio New Zealand.

"We make the leap to say the colossal squid grows considerably larger than the 495 kilogram one we are currently defrosting."

O'Shea has previously described the colossal squid, which has razor-sharp swivelling hooks at the end of its tentacles, as "a nasty aggressive sort of squid... a gelatinous blob with seriously evil arms on it."

If the new specimen was cut into squid rings, they would be size of tractor tyres, although they would taste like ammonia.

The colossal squid was caught as it ate an Antarctic toothfish hooked on a fishing boat's long line in Antarctic waters in February last year.

After being snap frozen, it was given to the museum, which has since been deciding the best way to defrost, examine and display it.

Suggestions such as using a giant microwave to unfreeze it were discarded, and on Monday the squid was placed in a tank filled with cold salty water to ensure it defrosts slowly without decomposing.

The squid is so large that there was a risk the outside flesh would start to rot before the inside had thawed.

Defrosting is due to finish Wednesday when scientists will learn as much as they can before the squid is preserved in formalin to go on show in a massive tank at the museum later this year.

The progress of the thawing is being shown live by webcams on the museum's website www.tepapa.govt.nz. Museum of New Zealand

New Zealand scientists thaw 1,000-pound squid corpse
Ray Lilley, Associated Press Yahoo News 29 Apr 08;

Marine scientists in New Zealand on Tuesday were thawing the corpse of the largest squid ever caught to try to unlock the secrets of one of the ocean's most mysterious beasts.

No one has ever seen a living, grown colossal squid in its natural deep ocean habitat, and scientists hope their examination of the 1,089-pound, 26-foot long colossal squid, set to begin Wednesday, will help determine how the creatures live. The thawing and examination are being broadcast live on the Internet.

The squid, which was caught accidentally by fishermen last year, was removed from its freezer Monday and put into a tank filled with saline solution. Ice was added to the tank Tuesday to slow the thawing process so the outer flesh wouldn't rot, said Carol Diebel, director of natural environment at New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa.

After it is thawed, scientists will examine the squid's anatomical features, remove the stomach, beak and other mouth parts, take tissue samples for DNA analysis and determine its sex, Diebel said.

"If we get ourselves a male it will be the first reported (scientific) description of the male of the species," Steve O'Shea, a squid expert at Auckland's University of Technology, told National Radio. He is one of the scientists conducting the examination.

The squid is believed to be the largest specimen of the rare deep-water species Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, or colossal squid, ever caught, O'Shea has said.

Colossal squid, which have long been one of the most mysterious denizens of the deep ocean, can grow up to 46 feet long, descend to 6,500 feet into the ocean and are considered aggressive hunters.

At the time it was caught, O'Shea said it would make calamari rings the size of tractor tires if cut up — but they would taste like ammonia, a compound found in the animals' flesh.

Fishermen off the coast of Antarctica accidentally netted the squid in February 2007 while catching Patagonian toothfish, which are sold under the name Chilean sea bass.

The squid was eating a hooked toothfish when it was hauled from the deep. Recognizing it as a rare find, the fishermen froze the squid on their vessel to preserve it. The national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa, later took possession of it.

The previous largest colossal squid ever found was a 660 pound female squid discovered in 2003, the first ever landed.

Researchers plan to eventually put the squid on display in a 1,800 gallon tank of formaldehyde at the museum in the capital, Wellington.

Colossal squid are found in Antarctic waters and are not related to giant squid found round the coast of New Zealand. Giant squid grow up to 39 feet long, and are not as heavy as colossal squid.

On a museum blog following the progress of the thaw, Chris Paulin -- who is projects manager at the museum, known as Te Papa Tongarewa, said Tuesday that the beak of the colossal squid has been exposed as the flesh defrosts.

The size of the lower beak -- used to chop prey into bite sized pieces -- is around 43 to 45 millimetres.

Colossal squid lower beaks previously found in the stomachs of sperm whales have been as long as 49 millimetres.

Extrapolating the relationship between the length of the beak and body size from another smaller specimen being examined suggests the species could grow much bigger, Paulin said.

"Can we assume that this species reaches three quarters of a tonne in weight?" he asked.

One of the scientists leading the examination, Auckland University of Technology squid expert Steve O'Shea, said it was difficult to say how much bigger the monster squid could grow.

"What we know from that one measurement is that the beak of this animal from the stomachs of sperm whales are considerably larger," O'Shea told Radio New Zealand.

"We make the leap to say the colossal squid grows considerably larger than the 495 kilogram one we are currently defrosting."

O'Shea has previously described the colossal squid, which has razor-sharp swivelling hooks at the end of its tentacles, as "a nasty aggressive sort of squid... a gelatinous blob with seriously evil arms on it."

If the new specimen was cut into squid rings, they would be size of tractor tyres, although they would taste like ammonia.

The colossal squid was caught as it ate an Antarctic toothfish hooked on a fishing boat's long line in Antarctic waters in February last year.

After being snap frozen, it was given to the museum, which has since been deciding the best way to defrost, examine and display it.

Suggestions such as using a giant microwave to unfreeze it were discarded, and on Monday the squid was placed in a tank filled with cold salty water to ensure it defrosts slowly without decomposing.

The squid is so large that there was a risk the outside flesh would start to rot before the inside had thawed.

Defrosting is due to finish Wednesday when scientists will learn as much as they can before the squid is preserved in formalin to go on show in a massive tank at the museum later this year.

The progress of the thawing is being shown live by webcams on the museum's website www.tepapa.govt.nz. Museum of New Zealand

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 29 Apr 08

Holiday job for NUS undergraduates: sorting freshwater invertebrates on the Biodiversity crew @ NUS blog

Sex, sea turtle, seagrass and super star
a review of an exciting low spring tide on the singapore celebrates our reefs blog

More about the recent Hantu Dive
lots of nudis on the manta blog

More about Cyrene
a naughty bunny view on the nearly lucid blog

Drawings by visitors to Chek Jawa
inspiring and heartfelt thoughts about our special shore on the adventures with the naked hermit crabs blog

April forest walk
on the for the future of our forest blog

Bee-eater eating a bee
on the bird ecology blog

Whistling Thrushes in Malaysia
on the bird ecology blog

China Clean Energy: Biodiesel Done Right
on the AsiaIsGreen blog

Read more!

Will Corals Survive The Stormy Future?

Science Daily 29 Apr 08;

Hurricanes and storms limit the ability of corals in Belize to “recruit” new coral into their communities, according to an Earthwatch-supported study published in Marine Environmental Research.

“Increasing evidence now shows that storms are becoming more intense due to climate change,” said lead author and Earthwatch scientist Dr. James Crabbe from the University of Bedfordshire in the United Kingdom.

Coral reefs—which can grow to be thousands of years old—form and grow when free-swimming coral larvae in the ocean attach to rocks or other hard surfaces and begin to develop. Intense storms can wipe out this “recruitment” process.

“Storms threaten the survival of the entire reef itself,” said Crabbe, who found similar results in another Earthwatch-supported study in Jamaica a few years ago. The new study will appear in the May issue of Marine Environmental Research.

“If the storms don’t destroy corals outright, they render them more susceptible to disease, and that is certainly apparent on the Belize reefs,” said Crabbe, who is doing a lecture tour related to this work throughout 2008—deemed the International Year of the Reef by the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI).

The study holds implications for marine park managers, Crabbe said. “They may need to assist coral recruitment and settlement [in hurricane years] by establishing coral nurseries and then placing the baby corals (larvae) in the reef at discrete locations” or by setting up artificial reef blocks to help the corals survive.

Crabbe conducted the research in 2006 and 2007 with Edwin Martinez, Earthwatch Field Director in Belize and co-author, as well as with the help of young local scientists. Earthwatch, the world’s largest environmental volunteer organization, has conducted a coral research program in Belize for the last three years.

The team measured the size of more than 520 non-branching corals in two major coral reef areas in southern Belize: the Sapodilla Cayes Marine Reserve, a world heritage site in the second largest barrier reef in the world, and the Port Honduras Marine Reserve. In addition to providing habitat for an array of marine life, non-branching massive corals—robust and shaped like mounds, and sometimes called ‘brain corals’—buffer coastal zones from erosive wave energy.

Crabbe’s team determined the surface area covered by the corals and entered the growth rates of the corals into a computer model to determine when in history the coral colonies first settled. They compared numbers of corals that started life in each year with hurricane and storm data, and as suggested by data from fringing reefs of Jamaica, the coral recruitment was much lower during storm years, Crabbe said.

“The rapid growth of the tourism industry in Belize over the past five years tops the list of threats to the corals,” and agricultural runoff is a close second, Martinez said.

“Climate change is coming up the list very quickly,” Crabbe said.

Read more!

Super coral may save reefs

Caitriona Murtagh, cairns.com.au 29 Apr 08;

STRAINS of super coral capable of bouncing back after bleaching could replenish reefs ravaged by rising sea temperatures, a conference of reef and rainforest scientists will hear this week.

The resilient coral, able to regrow after bleaching caused by warmer waters, is among a wealth of science solutions to reef and rainforest management on the table at the Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility conference under way in Cairns this week.

"We may be able to rebuild with adaptable coral," Sheriden Morris, managing director of organising body the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre, said.

"You can actually say, if an area is damaged and they want to replant the coral in those areas, restock those areas with new corals, but use corals that are better adapted to higher temperatures."

Data to be released at conference will also reveal a spike in the number of coral bleachings likely to occur between now and 2050.

"It's more bleaching than what we’d originally predicted," Ms Morris said.

But she added:"Don't just think it’s all over for the reef.

"We know there are serious threats, but there are ways of responding and ways we can respond locally."

The 300 scientists attending the conference will also review climate change models created specifically to predict future weather patterns on the Great Barrier Reef.

The models show more hot days and cyclones of greater intensity. "And the cyclones will move to the southern areas of the reef," Ms Morris said.

The conference, convened to share research on threats facing reef and rainforest, will run until Thursday.

"The reef and rainforest collectively generates $8 billion yearly for Queensland and employs over 50,000 people, so the health of these systems are extremely important," Ms Morris said.

Read more!

Pitfalls in paradise: why Palm Jumeirah is struggling to live up to the hype

Low-paid workers and villa gripes cast a cloud over 'eighth wonder of the world' in Dubai
Robert Booth, The Guardian 26 Apr 08;

Dubai's sheikhs have claimed it is "the eighth wonder of the world", and seen from space the tree-shaped sand and rock formation of the Palm Jumeirah looks exactly that.

But after the hype about David Beckham buying a mansion here and the novelty of living four miles out to sea has faded, that claim is starting to look shaky. It seems there is a little trouble in paradise.

Four thousand "Palm pioneers" have moved in and are getting to grips with life in the sweltering Arabian Gulf. This week, when the Guardian visited, the gripes were as common as the plaudits among the Brits who are in the vanguard of this new community.

Multimillion-pound villas have been squeezed together "like Coronation Street", air-conditioning bills are hitting £800 a month and persistent snags have led some to joke it is more "eighth blunder" than "eighth wonder".

The villas were developed by the government-owned Nakheel Properties, and many residents believe the company's slogan, "Our vision inspires humanity", which flutters on flags around the place, is beginning to look over-egged.

It is not all bad news. The blue seas which lap the man-made shores are teeming with rays, hermit crabs and baracudas. Away from the ongoing construction, which has four years to run, life in the middle of the ocean is incredibly peaceful.

But for Rachael Wilds, 42, an exhibition organiser from Surrey who moved in with her family to a palatial villa on one of the Palm's "fronds" a year ago, it was not what she expected. She found her £3m property squashed against a neighbour's and set in a barren, almost treeless, landscape. "It was absolutely nothing as it was depicted in the brochure," she says. "There was a massive gap between the villas and it was full of lush tropical gardens. We were totally shocked at the closeness of the villas."

Despite summer temperatures of 48C and high humidity, access to centralised air conditioning was not included in the purchase price of apartments, and residents are rebelling against plans to ask them to pay extra. More seriously, there is evidence the low-pay and hard conditions endured by the thousands of migrant workers who built the area are driving many into despair and debt.

It has made for an awkward start for a development that is far more than a whim of the Dubai royal family. Palm Jumeirah is the testing ground for the United Arab Emirates' strategy for life after oil - big-scale tourism. Once complete, there will be homes and hotel rooms for 65,000 people.



Crucially, the Palm adds 40 miles to Dubai's coastline. The sheikhs are gambling this will keep the visitors coming back. Two even bigger man-made islands are under way along the coast: a replica of an existing island called The World and another called The Universe.

The lab rats in this experiment are a strange mix. They include England footballers, a battalion of middle-class Britons from places such as Salisbury and Weybridge, and even, it is said, Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, who is thought to have a house opposite Kieron Dyer, the West Ham midfielder.

Raffaele Cannas, 47, a British property consultant, was one of the first to pick up his keys in late 2006 and found himself squeezing a couple of England players into his Mini after they'd asked to see how he had decorated his apartment. "I didn't know who they were at first, but I had David James doubled up in the front seat and Andy Cole tucked in the back," he says.

After the Brits came the Russians, and a growing number of rich Iranians. Many aspects to life here are undeniably good. Residents can soak up an incredible amount of sunshine - some years it never rains - and the beaches are groomed at least twice a week.

But this is no picture-book desert island. Its size is the most arresting characteristic for newcomers. An eight-lane motorway is at the Palm's trunk, and each frond is a mile long. Meanwhile, there is yet more expansion, with 40 hotels being built on the breakwater.

At times it is also a harsh environment. Lawns routinely wither without intense watering and the tallest trees are, in fact, mobile phone masts dressed up to look like palms.

Just 18 months after moving in, Cannas is thinking of leaving for New Zealand. "The marketing machine was so powerful, calling the Palm the eighth wonder of the world, that people's expectations went through the roof," he says. "It hasn't turned out like that."

For many soaring property prices have softened any discomforts. A "signature villa" which went for £750,000 in 2002 is now worth £3m.

A nagging guilt for some is the quality of life of the migrant construction workers who built all this. Most are from India and Bangladesh and they travel in bus convoys from labour camps in the desert each morning.

A typical labourer earns £25 a week, and many are in debt to agents in their home countries who paid for their passage. KV Shamsudheen, a workers' rights activist in Dubai, says interest rates can be as high as 120% a year.

One hundred migrant workers killed themselves in the Emirates in 2006, and the trend is rising, he says. Alcohol is a growing problem, with workers racking up debts to buy drink.

In Jebel Ali, a dusty camp almost 10 miles from the Palm, 30,000 male workers live up to 12 a room in prefabricated blocks. "I am not happy," says a Bangladeshi carpenter known locally as Sofiull, 52. "The company said I would earn £60 a week, but I am getting £30. They have delayed my pay two months and it's a great problem."

Mohamed Mahboub, 30, has been in Dubai for three years. He hasn't seen his daughter since she was a baby, but sends £30 of his £45-a-week supervisor's salary home. "I miss her, but I am a poor man and I owe money, so I cannot go back yet," he says.

It is a world away from the exclusive gated fronds back on the Palm, where the only sound is often the splash of a paddle from a kayak, the favourite pastime of Palm dwellers.

"Life here is 150% better than in the UK," says Donna Dempsey, 46, a ballet teacher from Kent. "We have our garbage collected every day, we have clean streets, we have low crime. You can really chill here. Sometimes it's hard to go to work."

In numbers

13m
The number of litres of desalinated drinking water the Palm Jumeirah uses when at capacity

28
Bottlenose dolphins have been flown in from the Solomon Islands to populate Dolphin Bay, an 11-acre lagoon

94m
The cubic metres of sand used to build the Palm Jumeirah

84
The site has doubled the natural 42-mile coastline of Dubai

4
The Palm is four times the size of Hyde Park in central London

Read more!

Aedes Killer or Mutant Menace?

GM 'warrior' mosquitoes to fight dengue scourge in Malaysia. Environmentalists call it a bad idea.
The New Paper 29 Apr 08;

IN a bid to fight the spread of dengue fever, millions of genetically-modified (GM) 'warrior' mosquitoes will soon be released in the fishing village of Pulau Ketam off Selangor to kill off the deadly Aedes mosquito.

However, the experiment has come under fire by environmentalists, who fear that these modified insects will endanger the ecosystem and cause further damage.

The New Straits Times reported that field trials involving the GM mosquitoes will be undertaken by the Health Ministry's Institute of Medical Research (IMR) in collaboration with British-based Oxitec Ltd, an insect bio-tech company partly-owned by the University of Oxford.

According to researchers, the male Aedes aegypti mosquito was genetically modified to carry a killer gene. When these GM mosquitoes mate with female Aedes mosquitoes, the lethal gene causes the larvae to die.

Only the female Aedes mosquito can spread the dengue virus.

Malaysia has expressed concern about the insect-borne scourge after 25 people were killed in the first three months of the year.

The field testing of the GM mosquitoes is expected to be conducted on Pulau Ketam, about 30-minutes by boat from Port Klang, at the end of the year or early next year. The testing is expected to last about a year.

A team in Malaysia is currently undertaking a baseline survey of the island, which is reported to be teeming with Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.

Oxitec is also recruiting people for the Pulau Ketam field test on its website. The positions available include one for a senior entomologist.

In February, the British firm had announced its plans to to release the GM mosquitoes in Malaysia on a large scale in three years, following its successful trials.

Oxitec's head of public health Seshadri S Vasan told Calcutta's The Telegraph in a recent interview that the first confined field study under the supervision of the IMR 'yielded encouraging results'

Sources revealed that the lab trials done in Malaysia were the first in the world and a breakthrough in the fight against dengue, which has grown to alarming proportions across the globe in recent years, NST reported.

The Aedes mosquito is seen as the main cause of the spread in dengue fever and chikungunya fever. Conventional methods of controlling the spread of the diseases, such as fogging, have been ineffective.

Mr Vasan told The Telegraph: 'Conventional Aedes control methods have not been able to prevent outbreaks as is evident from the experience of a highly committed and organised city like Singapore.

'This is because of the low entomological threshold for transmission - as few as two or three adult female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes emerging every day in a locality of 100 people could be a sufficient threshold for a dengue threat.'

Entomology is the scientific study of insects.

But despite the potential eradication of the dengue scourge, environmental non-governmental organisations fear that the trial could make matters worse.

Mr Gurmit Singh, the chairman of the Centre for Environment, Technology and Development, said: 'Like all GM organisms, once they have been released in the wild, how do you prevent them from interacting with other insects and producing mutants which may be worse than the Aedes mosquito?'

Health Ministry and IMR officials did not want to comment on the tests.

In Singapore, the number of dengue victims is still on the rise despite the stepped-up efforts of the National Environment Agency to fight mosquito breeding.

In the first 15 weeks of this year, 1,401 people were afflicted with dengue, compared to 944 in the same period last year.

Read more!

Monitoring system to stop spread of HFMD in China

Straits Times 29 Apr 08;

BEIJING - A CHINESE province has started a daily reporting system to monitor the spread of a virus that has killed 20 children and spread panic among residents, state media reported yesterday.

The enterovirus 71, or EV71, which can cause hand, foot and mouth disease, began spreading in eastern Anhui province's Fuyang city early last month, but was only publicly reported on April 15.

Singapore also has a similar outbreak, with some child-care centres and pre-schools ordered to shut to stop the spread of the virus.

By yesterday, there were 1,199 cases, a jump of more than 100 from the figures released at the weekend, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Among them were 20 deaths, the majority being children under the age of two. A total of 269 children remain in hospital, seven in critical condition, Xinhua said.

As the situation shows no sign of easing, all hospitals in the province have been ordered to gather reports of new EV71 cases and to send the lists to local disease control centres, said China's enorth.com.cn website.

In an act indicating new attention to the outbreak, Health Minister Chen Zhu visited Fuyang at the weekend. The provincial health department will host workshops to train more medical workers in the prevention and cure of the virus, Xinhua said.

The virus had been found before in China, but 'we believe the situation is still of concern, especially because of the current high reported fatality rate compared with previous years', the World Health Organisation acting China representative Cris Tunon said in a statement.

REUTERS

Read more!

HFMD cases in Singapore hit record high of 1,466 last week

More centres to close
Channel NewsAsia 28 Apr 08;

SINGAPORE: The Health Ministry says a record 1,466 cases of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) were reported last week.

The figure for the April 20-26 week was 17.75% higher than the previous week.

However, the daily numbers have been falling. On 22 April, there were 235 cases, but the number gradually went down to 103 as of 3pm on Monday, 28 April.

More affected childcare and pre-school centres have volunteered to close temporarily to curb the spread of HFMD.

Eight more centres will shut for 10 days from 30 April to 9 May, bringing the total number of centres on voluntary closure to 34.

Eleven other centres affected by the HFMD were ordered by the Health Ministry to shut for 10 days.

As more and more centres close their doors, some nanny services are reporting a 30% jump in business.

Agents said the demand for nanny services started going up since last month as more kids came down with HFMD.

Nannies, like Lilian Gan, are paid up to S$600 a month to look after a kid for 12 hours a day, five days a week.

But it is no easy money. With the outbreak raging on, nannies are taking extra care to maintain a high standard of hygiene and conduct regular checks on their charges for HFMD symptoms.

Lilian Gan said: "Last time, I used to clean the floor once a day. Now, I have to clean the floor two times with Dettol, and sterilise the baby bottles and wash our hands more frequently.

"In the morning, when I bathe her, I'll check her mouth and see if there's anything in the mouth, any red spots. And the fingers - got to wash in between, because she likes to put her fingers in her mouth." - CNA/ir

Read more!

Super flu bug in UK can kill kids – within 2 days

At least 10 children endangered by UK playground superbug
Today Online 29 Apr 08;

LONDON — A superbug capable of killing healthy youngsters within 48 hours is on the rise in Britain's playgrounds and has left at least 10 children fighting for their lives.

Cases of the bug, known as Panton-Valentine Leukocidin (PVL), have more than doubled since 2005, official figures show.

Doctors are particularly concerned that many young people could have been exposed to the infection in their school playgrounds or in local parks.

Children are especially vulnerable to PVL, a member of the Staphylococcus aureas family of infections, and it can combine with MRSA, the deadly hospital superbug.

Once contracted, the infection acts quickly to kill off white blood cells, an essential part of the body's immune system. The bug can also enter a patient's skeleton, where it becomes hard to cure. Doctors usually treat the disease by removing the infected bone.

Cases of PVL combining with MRSA were first reported in America several years ago and are becoming more common. Mr Mark Enright, professor of molecular epidemiology at Imperial College London, said: "This infection can kill healthy children in one to two days, but the authorities are continuing to treat MRSA as a purely hospital problem and trying to assuage public opinion."

Leading microbiologist Richard Wise told a newspaper that he warned a government health minister of the threat three years ago. Cases of the infection have been reported from the south coast to Birmingham, and a number of different strains have been identified.

Daniel Roberts, a nine-year-old from London, fell seriously ill after he picked up a graze playing football and it became infected. "One day, he was playing happily, and the next day he couldn't see, speak or move," said his mother, Sherean. Daniel was in a coma for a month and is now largely confined to a wheelchair.

A Health Protection Agency spokesman said: "The risk to the general public of becoming infected with PVL-S aureas is small and the majority of the strains identified in the United Kingdom are treatable with many antibiotics. But it is always good practice to maintain appropriate hygiene measures, which include proper cleansing and disinfection of cuts and minor wounds."

The infection can cause symptoms ranging from minor skin problems to a deadly form of pneumonia.

— THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Read more!

Malaria goes global as the world gets warmer

Alastair McIndoe, Straits Times 29 Apr 08;

MANILA - MOSQUITOES that spread malaria have started bugging people more and more in places such as Papua New Guinea's cooler highlands, where they were once rare.

Now scientists are wondering if the growing health menace may be another sign of global warming.

'Malaria-carrying mosquitoes are now being found in areas where there was no malaria before,' said Dr Shigeru Omi, the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Manila-based regional director for the Western Pacific.

In both the northern and southern hemispheres, disease-carrying mosquitoes are spreading from the tropics to cooler climates.

Papua New Guinea's cooler highlands, for instance, where around 40 per cent of the population lives, were mostly free of malaria until the 1998 El Nino weather phenomenon brought unseasonably high temperatures.

Malaria took hold that year and epidemics are now a seasonal occurrence in this western Pacific island where temperatures have risen by 1 deg C over the past two decades.

To what extent global warming is to blame is being intensely debated by international health experts and governments in countries at risk.

'While a number of factors are at play, there seems little doubt that rising temperatures and unseasonably high rainfall have a role,' said the Japanese-born Dr Omi.

Those factors include the impact of human activity on climate change - through deforestation, for example - as well as non-climatic events, like the increased flow of people across national borders.

The WHO estimates that at least 150,000 people die each year from mosquito-borne diseases, diarrhoea, malnutrition and extreme weather events which can be traced to climate change. Half of those deaths are in Asia.

The health organisation marked World Malaria Day last Friday with a global campaign on the theme: A Disease Without Borders.

'It is time to recognise that even the safest national borders cannot protect us from global threats such as malaria,' said Dr Ava Marie Coll-Seck, executive director of Roll Back Malaria, a global advocacy group.

While evidence is mounting of a connection between malaria and climate change, establishing a link with an increase in dengue fever in parts of the region is proving harder.

'If you look at Singapore, the number of dengue cases has gone up as the temperature rises, but it is still too early to conclude that this is due to climate change,' said Dr Omi, who nevertheless believes that global warming has been a contributing factor.

Annual temperatures in Singapore rose by 1.5 deg C between 1978 and 1998. Over that period, the number of mosquito-borne dengue cases increased more than tenfold, from 384 to 5,258, according to the WHO.

This year's dengue outbreak is shaping up to be Singapore's worst. Between Jan 1 and April 5, 1,305 people were struck by the disease, a 60 per cent increase over the same period last year.

Despite having the toughest anti-dengue measures in the region, the Singapore authorities are still searching for the cause of the surge.

Health officials in the Philippines, where there has also been a sharp rise in dengue cases, believe that warmer weather may be shortening the breeding cycle of mosquitoes.

There were 5,859 dengue cases in the first nine weeks of this year, a 17 per cent rise on the same period last year, the National Epidemiology Centre said.

Philippine Health Secretary Francisco Duque, quoted in the local media recently, noted that an increase in dengue cases - as well as other diseases - had occurred over a period of rising temperatures.

But he cautioned against a hasty cause-effect conclusion, saying: 'There is a relationship between climate change and human health, but this connection is very complex. We still need more research on this.'

In 1998, the same year that malaria broke out in Papua New Guinea's highlands, the Philippines recorded 36,000 dengue cases, its highest.

Preventive measures were stepped up. 'Barangays' - the rural and urban community units in which Filipinos live - are carrying out dengue awareness campaigns, even in impoverished areas. And dengue traps, such as tyres used to weigh down shanty roofs, are now much less prevalent.

Dr John Ehrenberg, the WHO's regional adviser for malaria and other vector-borne parasitic diseases, said that the characteristics of dengue epidemics are changing.

'In some places, you find the disease affecting mainly males, and one of the factors to consider is occupational,' he said.

'That's not difficult to understand because of the breeding sites, where men work and sleep, in Asia's construction boom.

'But the odd thing is that we are seeing the disease mainly affecting males across the age groups - and not just adults.'

The cycle of dengue outbreaks may also be changing, with the disease shifting from being 'extremely seasonal to a situation where you pretty much have a continuous presence', he said.

The WHO estimates that there may be 50 million cases of dengue around the world every year, half of which require hospitalisation. About 12,500 cases are fatal.

There has been a sizeable reduction of dengue cases in Asia as a whole: 760,600 in 1990 compared to 343,062 in 2005, though the fall has slowed noticeably since 2000.

Dr Omi worries that the declining trend could be reversed by climate change.

He warned: 'The exceptionally high number of dengue cases presently being seen in Asia may be giving us a glimpse of what could lie ahead.'

Read more!

Japan detects bird flu in four wild swans

Yahoo News 28 Apr 08;

Japan has detected a strain of bird flu in four wild swans after stepping up checks following major outbreaks of the disease in neighboring South Korea, local and government officials said on Monday.

The birds, three of which had died, were found on the shores of Lake Towada in Akita prefecture in the north on April 21, the prefectural government said in a news release.

Inspectors detected the H5 strain of bird flu in the swans, the prefectural government said, but they were still checking whether it was the highly virulent H5N1 strain.

Authorities have patrolled the area but have not found any incidents of large numbers of deaths or unnatural deaths in wild fowl.

There are no chicken farms within a 10 km radius of the area where the swans were found, and no unusual incidents were noted at other farms.

"We've asked to step up surveillance measures at poultry farms in the prefectures of Aomori, Akita and Iwate," a farm ministry official said, referring to the prefectures in the area.

"Japan has asked poultry farms to strengthen surveillance after the case in South Korea in early April," he said.

The official said Japan's last case of bird flu was found in a wild bird in March 2007 in Kumamoto prefecture on Japan's southern island of Kyushu.

Prior to that, Japan reported cases of bird flu at four poultry farms in January 2007.

Read more!

Indian villagers protest deep-sea port

Jatindra Dash, Reuters 28 Apr 08;

BHUBANESWAR, India, April 28 (Reuters) - Authorities in eastern India arrested at least 100 villagers and deployed a huge police force to quell a protest against a proposed deep-sea port, officials said on Monday.

Villagers in Orissa state, fearing they will lose their land without adequate compensation, forced officials to suspend construction work late on Sunday in Dhamra, where India is planning to build one of its biggest ports.

The proposed port on the eastern coast will handle 83 million tonnes of cargo per year, said Santosh Mohapatra, chief executive of Dhamra Port Company Ltd.

The project is a joint venture between Tata Steel Ltd and leading engineering and construction firm Larsen & Tubro Ltd.

"The project has local support and only a small number of people are making unreasonable demands," Mohapatra told Reuters.

On Monday, villagers complained they were losing land to the Dhamra port project without adequate compensation. Some said they will not hand over land for the port at all.

"The administration cannot take away land forcibly and we will fight for the right of the people," Upendra Roul, a lawyer representing the villagers said.

Armed policemen surrounded the site, but protestors were still shouting anti-government slogans, witnesses and officials said.

THREAT TO TURTLES ?

The Dhamra port project has been mired in controversy with international conservation group Greenpeace saying the project would kill thousands of rare Olive Ridley turtles.

The port site in Dhamra is not a turtle nesting ground, but Greenpeace says it is part of a breeding and feeding ground and very near to one of the world's largest nesting areas in Gahirmatha.

"The area is also ecologically significant besides the turtles, and the proposed port should be shifted," Sanjiv Gopal, a Greenpeace ocean campaigner told Reuters from Bangalore.

Officials on Monday said there were no major obstacles and work would resume soon.

Regular protests by villagers have delayed a slew of projects in the mineral-rich state.

A $12 billion steel plant by South Korean firm POSCO and an alumina refinery by Britain's Vedanta Resources Plc are among the main ones yet to take off. (Editing by Bappa Majumdar and Bill Tarrant)

Read more!

Kenya conservationists seek chemical ban as hippos die

Reuters 28 Apr 08;

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Conservationists in Kenya demanded on Monday that the government ban the pesticide carbofuran after five hippos died and four lions were paralyzed.

Rangers in the sprawling Maasai Mara game reserve found traces of the granular pesticide, which is used to kill insects in food crops, in the hippos' bodies and in areas where they grazed. The sick lions had been feeding on the hippo carcases.

Renowned Kenyan environmentalist Richard Leakey said carbofuran was extremely toxic, cheap and freely available, and he urged the government to follow the example of Europe and the United States by banning its importation and sale.

"We believe there are significant human health concerns and environmental risks associated with using this chemical, which is widely abused because it is easily available over the counter," Leakey said in a statement.

Carbofuran concerns were first raised in Kenya in the 1990s when it was reported to have killed huge numbers of birds and entered the human food chain. There have also been more recent cases of the pesticide being used intentionally to kill predators like lions and other wildlife.

(Reporting by Daniel Wallis, edited by Richard Meares)

Agricultural chemical kills wildlife in Kenya
Paul Eccleston, The Telegraph 29 Apr 08;

Conservationists in Kenya have called for a ban on an agricultural pesticide which is killing wildlife.

Four lions were poisoned - two of them fatally - after feeding on a hippo carcass found close to a river.

It is believed the hippo had eaten plants containing the toxic agricultural chemical carbofuran which was then passed to the lions.

The first signs of sickness came three days after the lions had fed when a young male was found to be weak and staggering. By the following morning it was paralysed in both front legs and was using its rear limbs in an attempt to hop.

It was quickly followed by another young male from the same pride which was in an even worse condition quickly becoming totally paralysed.

Two more males also showed signs of paralysis but were not as severely affected probably because they had eaten less meat from the infected hippo.

The first lion was put down by a Kenyan Wildlife Service vet and toxicology tests later revealed a high concentration of carbofuran in the animal's stomach.

Agencies involved in wildlife protection say poisoning incidents involving carbofuran - which is a cheap and easily available toxic pesticide - are on the rise and pose a critical threat to Kenya's animals.

Dr Richard Leakey, Chairman of WildlifeDirect.org called on the Kenyan government to impose a ban on the use of carbofuran, a member of the organophosphate family of chemicals linked to nervous system damage in humans.

"We are appealing to the government, the importer, Juanco SPs, the agrochemical association of Kenya, and the Pest Control Products Board to go the way of Europe and USA and ban the importation, sale, distribution and use of this deadly chemical in Kenya," he said.

"We believe that there are significant human health concerns and environmental risks associated with using this chemical which is widely abused because it is easily available over the counter from any Agrovet."

Concerns over the use of the chemical were first raised in the 1990s when huge numbers of waterfowl died in Ahero in western Kenya and Mwea in the central part of the country. Some of the birds were sold on for human consumption.

There are reports that it is also being used to catch fish in Lake Victoria which are also then sold in food markets.

The Kenya Wildlife Service has also been warned that carbofuran is being put down in a deliberate attempt to kill predators which threaten cattle.

Earlier this year the conservation group, Lion Guardians, reported a case of two lions intentionally poisoned in Kajiado.

Poisoning poses a serious threat to Kenya's lion population which is estimated to be down to only 2,000 individuals. Scavengers, such as vultures and birds of prey, are also being affected.

In 2004, 187 vultures died as a result of just one poisoning incident and raptor specialist, Simon Thomsett said: "If the current level of usage continues, it is possible that two different species of vultures in Kenya could go extinct within the next 10 years."

Poisoning incidents:
# November 2007: near Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, Isiolo District a camel that had been killed by lions was subsequently laced with Furadan by local farmers. The result was the death of at least two lions and 15 vultures collected in the immediate vicinity of the carcass. Also recently near Lewa, a group of nine lions from the nearby Samburu reserve were poisoned, five of which died along with significant numbers of birds of prey and other scavengers.

# In April 2005 30 vultures were poisoned near Athi River.

# March 2005 a breeding Mackinder's eagle owl was a victim of secondary poisoning after eating dying mousebirds that were poisoned with Furadan by farmers near Mweiga, Nyeri District.

# April 2004 the largest known incident of vulture deaths in Kenya occurred near Athi River when 187 vultures died as a result of Furadan poisoning. The hardest hit species were white-backed vultures, but Ruppell's griffon and lappet-faced vultures also died. A large portion of the resident hyena population was also wiped out.

Read more!

Feds sued for taking gray wolves off endangered list

Matthew Brown, Associated Press Yahoo News 29 Apr 08;

Environmental and animal rights groups sued the federal government Monday, seeking to restore endangered species status for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lifted federal protections for the estimated 1,500 wolves in March. It turned over management responsibilities to state officials in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana for the first time in more than three decades.

The lawsuit alleges those states lack adequate laws to ensure wolves are not again eradicated from the region. At least 37 were killed in the last month.

The groups are seeking an immediate court order to restore federal control over the species until the case is resolved.

"We're very concerned that absent an injunction, hundreds of wolves could be killed under existing state management plans," said attorney Jason Rylander with Defenders of Wildlife, one of twelve groups that filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Missoula.

Sharon Rose, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said her agency had not yet received the lawsuit and could not comment on the allegations.

Rose did say the agency's decision was based on science that will hold up in court.

"We believe we made the right decision — that the wolf had recovered and the regulatory mechanisms are there" to ensure its continued survival, Rose said.

When the wolves came off the endangered list, federal biologists argued the wolves' rapid reproductive rate would allow them to withstand increased hunting. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has said it will put them back on the endangered list if the population dips below 300 animals.

The lawsuit argues that a "spate of wolf killings" last month showed state management could quickly reverse the wolf's fortunes. The injunction said state officials would allow wolves to be eliminated across most of Wyoming and large parts of Montana and Idaho.

Rocky Mountain gray wolf killings prompt lawsuit
Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters 28 Apr 08;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Renewed killing of gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains prompted an environmental lawsuit on Monday, two months after the U.S. government declared these animals no longer needed protection.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Missoula, Montana, asks for reinstated protection for gray wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

The U.S. government announced on February 21 it was ending protection for this group of gray wolves, and that decision became effective on March 28.

Since then, conservation groups said in the suit, dozens of gray wolves have been killed in the three states.

"Wolves have not yet recovered," said Louisa Willcox of the Natural Resources Defense Council, which was among those groups seeking renewed federal protection for the species.

"Biologically, you need several thousand wolves in connected populations between Yellowstone (national park in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho) and Canada to achieve what scientists and geneticists believe is true recovery," Willcox said by telephone. "This plan calls recovery good at 300 animals."

The government defended its stance. "We believe it was time to de-list the Rocky Mountain population of the gray wolf, and we stand by that," said Sharon Rose of the Denver office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Rose declined further comment, saying she had not seen the lawsuit.

Once plentiful in the 48 contiguous U.S. states, gray wolves were eradicated from the northern Rocky Mountain region and southwestern Canada by the 1930s. The species was listed as endangered in 1973; 66 wolves were re-introduced to the area in 1995.

The endangered species law is aimed at preventing extinction and protects species and their habitats.

By February of this year, there were 1,513 wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, including 107 breeding pairs, and wolf populations in these states grew by 24 percent annually since they were re-introduced, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said when the de-listing decision was announced.

Since the de-listing, the three states have taken over responsibility for managing wolf populations.

The lawsuit was filed by Earthjustice on behalf of NRDC, Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, The Humane Society of the United States, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Friends of the Clearwater, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands Project, Western Watersheds Project and Wildlands Project.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

US pressed to put wolves back on endangered species list
Yahoo News 28 Apr 08;

Several environmental groups said they filed a legal complaint Monday to force the federal government to put the wolf back on the list of endangered species, claiming some states were allowing indiscriminate killing of the animal.

The US government early last year removed the wolf from the list of endangered species in six US states, after successful recovery and reintroduction programs brought the animal back from the brink of extinction.

Since the protective measure was lifted, management of local wolf populations has reverted to state governments on condition they ensure the species' survival.

However, 12 environmental groups went to federal court in Missoula, Montana, asking that the protective measure be restored in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, where northern Rockies gray wolves "remain threatened by biased, inadequate state management plans."

Defenders of Wildlife said in a statement that Wyoming and Idaho authorities had given their residents a blank check for the "senseless and indiscriminate killing of wolves."

"For example, on the very day delisting took effect -- March 28, 2008 -- Idaho Governor Butch Otter signed into law a new Idaho law allowing Idaho citizens to kill wolves without a permit whenever wolves are annoying, disturbing or 'worrying' livestock or domestic animals," the environmental groups said in another statement.

They added that Wyoming, in turn, "has implemented its 'kill on sight' predator law in nearly 90 percent of the state.

"Not surprisingly, these hostile state laws have resulted in a wave of wolf killings."

Wolves in 1974 almost disappeared as a species in 48 US states -- excluding Alaska and Hawaii -- except for some isolated packs in Minnesota and Michigan.

In 1995, 66 wolves were released by the government in Idaho and in the nearby Yellowstone National Park with the hope they would propagate and multiply.

The program was successful. Currently, an estimated 1,200 wolves roam Idaho, Montana and Wyoming and, to tourists' delight, in Yellowstone's 8,900 square kilometers (3,440 square miles) of parkland.

However, influential farmers in the region opposed to the reintroduction of the predator argue strongly about the financial drain caused by wolf attacks on livestock.

Read more!

Poor children main victims of climate change: U.N.

Jeremy Lovell, Reuters 28 Apr 08;

LONDON (Reuters) - Millions of the world's poorest children are among the most vulnerable and unwitting victims of climate change caused by the rich developed world, a United Nations report said on Tuesday, calling for urgent action.

The UNICEF report "Our Climate, Our Children, Our Responsibility" measured action on targets set in the Millennium Development Goals to halve child poverty by 2015. It found failure on counts from health to survival, education and sex equality.

"It is clear that a failure to address climate change is a failure to protect children," said UNICEF UK director David Bull. "Those who have contributed least to climate change -- the world's poorest children -- are suffering the most."

The report said climate change could add 40,000-160,000 extra child deaths a year in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa through lower economic growth.

It also noted that if temperatures rose by two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels -- up to 200 million people globally would face hunger -- a figure rising to 550 million with a temperature rise of three degrees.

The UNICEF report said economic damage due to climate change would force parents to withdraw children from schools -- the only place that many of them are guaranteed at least one meal a day in many areas -- to fetch water and fuel instead.

The environmental changes wrought by climate change will also expand the range of deadly diseases like malaria, which already kills 800,000 children a year and is now being seen in previously unaffected areas.

Scientists predict that global average temperatures will rise by between 1.6 and 4.0 degrees Celsius this century due to carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels for power and transport, causing floods, famines, violent storms and droughts.

Efforts are being made to reach an international agreement on action to ensure temperatures do not rise more than 2.0 degrees.

But some environmentalists say 2.0 degrees is inevitable whatever action is taken now, partly because of the 30-year time lag in climate response to emitted carbon and partly because nations like China can't and won't stop burning carbon.

China, with vast coal reserves and an economy growing at 10 percent a year, is set to overtake the United States as the world's biggest carbon emitter as it opens a new coal-fired power station a week.

Developing nations, under pressure to sign up to new curbs on carbon emissions at the end of next year, say there is no reason they should keep their people in poverty when the problem has been caused by the rich developed world.

"Rich countries' responsibility for the bulk of past emissions demands that we give our strong support," said Nicholas Stern whose report in 2006 on the economic implications of the climate crisis sparked international concern.

"Business-as-usual or delayed action would lead to the probability of much higher temperature increases which would catastrophically transform our planet," he wrote in a foreword to Tuesday's report.

"It will be the young and the poor and developing countries that will suffer earliest and hardest. We cannot allow this to happen."

(Editing by Kate Kelland)

Read more!

Nature's carbon balance confirmed

BBC News 28 Apr 08;

Scientists have found new evidence that the Earth's natural feedback mechanism regulated carbon dioxide levels for hundreds of thousands of years.

But they say humans are now emitting CO2 so fast that the planet's natural balancing mechanism cannot keep up.

The researchers, writing in the journal Nature Geoscience, say their findings confirm a long-believed theory.

Carbon spewed out by volcanoes is removed from the air by rock weathering and transported to the ocean floor.

Using evidence from an Antarctic ice core, the team calculated that over a period of 610,000 years the long-term change in atmospheric CO2 concentration was just 22 parts per million (ppm), although there were larger fluctuations associated with the transitions between glacial and interglacial conditions.



By comparison, two centuries of human industry have raised levels by about 100 ppm - a speed of rise about 14,000 times faster.

"These long term cycles are way too slow to protect us from the effect of (anthropogenic) greenhouse gases," said Richard Zeebe from the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.

"They will not help us with our current CO2 problem. Right now, we have put the system entirely out of equilibrium."

Deep level

Scientists have long believed that the Earth’s climate was stabilised by a natural carbon thermostat.

In their model, carbon released into the atmosphere, primarily by volcanoes, is slowly removed through the weathering of mountains, washed downhill into oceans, and finally buried in deep sea sediments.

"A lot of people had tried to refute this hypothesis, but our study provides the first direct evidence (that it is correct)," said Dr Zeebe.

He studied levels of CO2 recorded in air bubbles trapped in a 3km ice core drilled from an Antarctic region called Dome Concordia (Dome C).

Data from the ice core, drilled by the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (Epica), was first published in 2005.

But rather than focusing on the peaks and troughs of CO2 - as other researchers have done - this group looked at the long term trend, and compared the ice core data with records of carbonate saturation in the deep sea for the last six glacial cycles.

"It is remarkable how exact the balance is between the carbon input from volcanoes and the output from rock weathering," said Dr Zeebe.

"This suggests a natural thermostat which helps maintain climate stability."

The delicately balanced carbon thermostat has been a key factor in allowing liquid water, and life, to remain on Earth, he said.

"If it weren’t for these feedbacks, the Earth would look very different today."

Read more!

Diving deep for climate clues

Daniel Schweimler, BBC News 28 Apr 08;

Earlier in April, UK scientists attending a conference in Vienna warned that sea-levels could rise by up to 1.5 metres by the end of this century, putting low-lying countries such as Bangladesh under threat.

One of the main causes is the rapidly melting glaciers which cover huge areas of the world's surface - mostly in the Antarctic, Greenland and the south of Argentina and Chile.

Glaciers melt and grow naturally, but the rate of change is raising concerns.

Two million hectares of ice are found in the Magellan Strait at the southern tip of South America. Charles Darwin came here in the 1830s.

It is where he began to formulate his Theory of Evolution, before sailing on to the Galapagos Islands.

But the remoteness and difficult weather conditions, as well as the high cost of transport, mean few have studied in this particular area since.

As a result, there is little scientific data about the fauna and flora of the Tierra del Fuego region.

But there is plenty of anecdotal evidence from the few who work here - fishermen and tour guides.

Early penguins

A huge lump of ice falling from the melting Pia glacier is a dramatic sight. Tourists gasp in wonder.

Mauricio Alvarez has been bringing tourists here on the Australis cruiser for six years and has seen significant changes in that time.

"This is one of the highlights of our journey," he said.

"We have a very personal opinion about the behaviour of this glacier. We're not really sure. It's really hard to determine whether it's advancing or growing or whatever. But the effects of global warming are undeniable down here."

The tourists should also have seen penguins, but the birds refused to cooperate and migrated, several weeks earlier than in previous years.

Those who have been observing them believe this is because temperatures are rising.

Another person who has been living and working in these remote and often hazardous waters for many years is Sergio Ruiz.

He was a fisherman, then a ship builder and now works as the bosun on the Australis.

Standing on the deck in a short-sleeved shirt in freezing temperatures he told me that in 10 years he has seen dramatic changes.

"The glaciers, you can see they have moved backwards or forwards.

"You can easily see the changes, on the beach area for instance. From one week to another, if you do the same route all the time you can't help note the changes."

The cruiser also carries scientists, desperate to get to the area and confirm, or not, what the fishermen and tourist guides are telling them about what all believe to be the effects of global warming.

Diving down

Americo Montiel San Martin and Cesar Cardenas are from the University of Punta Arenas in southern Chile and are two of the few marine biologists to have dived in the icy waters of the Magellan Strait.

Mr Cardenas has discovered several sub-species.

The two researchers have come with diving dry-suits and underwater cameras.

Their plans to dive are often thwarted by strong currents and bad weather.

Both said they were pretty much starting from scratch since, apart from the 19th Century works of Charles Darwin, they have very little scientific data to work with.

They are starting small, studying plankton and seaweed.

"There's plenty of studies on the romantic animals - the penguins and killer whales, but very little on the tiny stuff," says Mr Cardenas.

Dinghies take us from the ship to a small beach which the researchers say has probably never been investigated. Dolphins accompany us on both sides.

The marine biologists were hoping to find a spot on the rocky bottom to conduct long-term studies on the changing habits of the life forms that inhabit the icy waters.

But as he emerged from the water Mr Cardenas wore a look of disappointment.

"Plenty of sand and king crabs and kelp," he said. "But it's not for us. We'll have to keep looking."

Pressing questions

The Magellan Strait is home to 11 major glaciers and hundreds of smaller ones.

Some are melting at a rapid rate while others are growing. No-one really knows why.

The glaciers began their retreat from this region just 7,000 years ago, so the life that then bloomed here is still relatively young.

Mr Montiel was cautious about blaming global warming for the changes, aware of the scarcity of data and the need for long-term research.

But what proof do they need that global warming is having an impact?

"There are creatures that live in cold water," he explained.

"And if we start to find creatures that like the warmer water, then that would be a strong sign.

Few doubt that the compromised ozone layer and human behaviour thousands of kilometres from here are having an effect.

The changes have increased the desire for scientists such as Mr Montiel and Mr Cardenas to follow in the footsteps of Charles Darwin.

Their work is only just beginning - while the ice keeps melting.

Read more!

'Sustainable' bio-plastic can damage the environment

Corn-based material emits climate change gas in landfill and adds to food crisis
John Vidal, The Guardian 26 Apr 08;

The worldwide effort by supermarkets and industry to replace conventional oil-based plastic with eco-friendly "bioplastics" made from plants is causing environmental problems and consumer confusion, according to a Guardian study.

The substitutes can increase emissions of greenhouse gases on landfill sites, some need high temperatures to decompose and others cannot be recycled in Britain.

Many of the bioplastics are also contributing to the global food crisis by taking over large areas of land previously used to grow crops for human consumption.

The market for bioplastics, which are made from maize, sugarcane, wheat and other crops, is growing by 20-30% a year.

The industry, which uses words such as "sustainable", "biodegradeable", "compostable" and "recyclable" to describe its products, says bioplastics make carbon savings of 30-80% compared with conventional oil-based plastics and can extend the shelf-life of food.

Concern centres on corn-based packaging made with polylactic acid (Pla). Made from GM crops, it looks identical to conventional polyethylene terephthalate (Pet) plastic and is produced by US company NatureWorks. The company is jointly owned by Cargill, the world's second largest biofuel producer, and Teijin, one of the world's largest plastic manufacturers.

Pla is used by some of the biggest supermarkets and food companies, including Wal-Mart, McDonald's and Del Monte. It is used by Marks & Spencer to package organic foods, salads, snacks, desserts, and fruit and vegetables.

It is also used to bottle Belu mineral water, which is endorsed by environmentalists because the brand's owners invest all profits in water projects in poor countries. Wal-Mart has said it plans to use 114m Pla containers over the course of a year.

While Pla is said to offer more disposal options, the Guardian has found that it will barely break down on landfill sites, and can only be composted in the handful of anaerobic digesters which exist in Britain, but which do not take any packaging. In addition, if Pla is sent to UK recycling works in large quantities, it can contaminate the waste stream, reportedly making other recycled plastics unsaleable.

Last year Innocent drinks stopped using Pla because commercial composting was "not yet a mainstream option" in the UK.

Anson, one of Britain's largest suppliers of plastic food packaging, switched back to conventional plastic after testing Pla

in sandwich packs. Sainsbury's has decided not to use it, saying Pla is made with GM corn. "No local authority is collecting compostable packaging at the moment. Composters do not want it," a spokesman said.

Britain's supermarkets compete to claim the greatest commitment to the environment with plant-based products. The bioplastics industry expects rising oil prices to help it compete with conventional plastics, with Europe using about 50,000 tonnes of bioplastics a year.

Concern is mounting because the new generation of biodegradable plastics ends up on landfill sites, where they degrade without oxygen, releasing methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. This week the US national oceanic and atmospheric administration reported a sharp increase in global methane emissions last year.

"It is just not possible to capture all the methane from landfill sites," said Michael Warhurt, resources campaigner at Friends of the Earth. "A significant percentage leaks to the atmosphere."

"Just because it's biodegradable does not mean it's good. If it goes to landfill it breaks down to methane. Only a percentage is captured," said Peter Skelton of Wrap, the UK government-funded Waste and Resources Action Programme. "In theory bioplastics are good. But in practice there are lots of barriers."

Recycling companies said they would have to invest in expensive new equipment to extract bioplastic from waste for recycling. "If we could identify them the only option would be to landfill them," said one recycler who asked to remain anonymous. "They are not wanted by UK recycling companies or local authorities who refuse to handle them. Councils are saying they do not want plastics near food collection. If these biodegradable [products] get into the recycling stream they contaminate it.

"It will get worse because the government is encouraging more recycling. There will be much more bioplastic around."

Problems arise because some bioplastics are "home" compostable and recyclable. "It's so confusing that a Pla bottle looks exactly the same as a standard Pet bottle," Skelton said. "The consumer is not a polymer expert. Not nearly enough consideration has gone into what they are meant to do with them. Everything is just put in the recycling bin."

Yesterday NatureWorks accepted that its products would not fully break down on landfill sites. "The recycling industry in the UK has not caught up with other countries" said Snehal Desai, chief marketing officer for NatureWorks. "We need alternatives to oil. UK industry should not resist change. We should be designing for the future and not the past. In central Europe, Taiwan and elsewhere, NatureWorks polymer is widely accepted as a compostable material."

Other users said it was too soon to judge the new technology. "It's very early days," said Reed Paget, managing director of Belu. "The UK packaging industry does not want competition. It's shortsighted and is blocking eco-innovation." Belu collects its bottles and now sends them to mainland Europe.

"People think that biodegradable is good and non-biodegradable is bad. That's all they see," said Chris Goodall, environmental analyst and author of How to Live a Low-carbon Lifestyle. "I have been trying to compost bags that are billed as 'biodegradable' and 'home compostable' but I have completely failed. They rely on the compost heap really heating up but we still find the residues."

Bioplastics compete for land with biofuels and food crops. About 200,000 tonnes of bioplastics were produced last year, requiring 250,000-350,000 tonnes of crops. The industry is forecast to need several million acres of farmland within four years.

There is also concern over the growing use by supermarkets of "oxy-degradable" plastic bags, billed as sustainable. They are made of conventional oil-based plastic, with an additive that enables the plastic to break down. The companies promoting it claim it reduces litter and causes no methane or harmful residues. They are used by Wal-Mart, Pizza Hut and KFC in the US, and Tesco and the Co-op in the UK for "degradable" plastic carrier bags.

Some environmentalists say the terminology confuses the public. "The consumer is baffled," a Wrap briefing paper said. "It considers these products degradable but ... they will not degrade effectively in [the closed environment of] a landfill site."

A spokesman for Symphony Plastics disputed that. "Oxy-bioplastic can be re-used and recycled, but will degrade and disappear in a short timescale", he said.

Read more!

Real cause of food shortage is grain diverted to produce meat

Letter to the editor, Business Times 29 Apr 08;

I REFER to your editorial 'Tackle food crisis as urgently as credit one' and to the column 'Biofuel not the main culprit behind rising food prices' by G Panicker (both in BT, April 25).

Contrary to what most people would think, the fundamental cause of this crisis is not a shortage of food. In fact, as The Independent newspaper of the UK states (April 16), in 2007, there was a record global grain harvest, with more than 2.1 billion tonnes produced - an increase of 5 per cent.

Instead, the current food crisis stems not from inadequate supply but from inefficient distribution of the plant food that we do grow. In particular, meat production wastes food, as Mr Panicker states. For every kilogramme of food that cows, chickens, pigs, etc, are fed, only a fraction of the calories are returned in the form of edible flesh. The rest of those calories burn away in the daily life processes of our fellow animals or contribute to the feathers, blood and other parts of these ill-treated beings that are not eaten by humans.

A central fact that everyone needs to grasp is that just the amount of food used by the meat industry could feed all the people on the planet. For instance, the Audubon Society estimates that about 70 per cent of the grain grown in the US goes to the meat industry - not to directly feed people. In poor countries, food that could go to feed hungry people goes to meat production.

The food crisis is a complicated one, but eating less or no meat is a part of the solution that each of us can help with - every day, three times a day.

George Jacobs
President, Vegetarian Society (Singapore)

Read more!

US corn belt faces drought risk this year

A drought would bring on crop failure and wreak havoc on global food prices
Business Times 29 Apr 08;

(WASHINGTON) The US Midwest has enjoyed nearly 20 years without a major drought but forecasters worry the corn belt's luck could dry up this year, further squeezing tight global supplies amid soaring food prices.

With its last major drought in 1988, the Midwest has reached its average span of 18.6 years between droughts.

Considering that statistic and current weather conditions, Iowa State University extension climatologist Elwynn Taylor said the corn belt has a one in three chance of drought this year.

'We do have to be prepared,' Mr Taylor said. 'A 33 per cent chance is high, that's a risk.' The Midwest's chances of drought are exacerbated by La Nina, an unusual cooling of Pacific Ocean surface temperatures that can trigger widespread changes in global weather patterns.

If La Nina has not dissipated by July, Mr Taylor saw a 70 per cent chance for US corn yields below the 30-year trend of 372 bushels per hectare. 'We don't have any reason to think La Nina causes drought, but it certainly does aggravate it,' Mr Taylor said.

Drought is not a foregone conclusion for the Midwest, where excessive wetness has held up spring corn plantings. Crops may benefit from that extra soil moisture during a dry summer, said Brad Rippey, a US Department of Agriculture meteorologist.

'It's way too soon to have any great alarm,' Mr Rippey said.

But crops planted during wet springs can develop shallow roots, making them more susceptible to a summer drought, warned National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration drought specialist Doug Lecomte.

Mr Lecomte said he saw a slightly heightened risk of drought, largely because there is tendency for dryness and warmth in western corn belt during and after La Nina.

If a drought brought on a major crop failure in the United States, the world's breadbasket, it would wreak havoc on global food prices, already at record levels.

A drought could push the price of corn to US$8 to US$10 a bushel, said Ron Plain, a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Missouri. May corn on the Chicago Board of Trade was at US$5.82-1/4 a bushel at midday on Friday.

'Immediately, there would not be a whole lot of impact on the US,' Mr Plain said. 'The way we'd be impacted would be through meat, milk, and egg prices.' A spike in corn prices would hit US livestock producers especially hard, since they use corn to feed their animals.

'Pork producers, they're not weathering this current storm of high prices for corn that well,' said Stewart Ramsey, a senior economist at Global Insight. Unless they received extensive aid, Mr Ramsey said a severe drought 'would clean house' in the hog industry, leaving only the strongest pork producers in business. Poultry and cattle producers also would suffer, and eventually American consumers would face a surge in prices at the supermarket.

As a wealthy country, the United States could weather higher food prices and declining supplies. But as the world's largest exporter of corn, America's recovery may come at the expense of the rest of the world.

The United States exported 2.13 billion bushels of corn in 2007, but a drought would force America to purchase corn back from the international market, leaving other countries scrambling for food staples. 'We would buy food out of the mouths of the rest of the world,' Mr Ramsey said.

World grain stocks already are at historically low levels. Further shortages would intensify competition between importing countries for available grain supplies, said Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute. Governments would probably have to ration food, said Mr Brown, warning that levels of world hunger would rise.

'There are hundreds of millions of people in the world who are on the lower rungs of the global economic ladder and even with the current price increases a lot of them are losing their grip and starting to fall off,' he said.

In the event of a crop failure, the US government would need to ease cost pressures from livestock producers by offering feed assistance programmes or providing loans. The government would also have to roll back its corn-based ethanol usage mandate, which requires the use of nine billion gallons of ethanol in motor gasoline in 2008\. \-- Reuters

Read more!

Vietnam slaps ban on rice speculation

Business Times 29 Apr 08;

This comes as prices soared nearly 100% over last 2 weeks

(HO CHI MINH CITY) Vietnam has banned rice speculation amid panic buying while Malaysia and the Philippines took steps to ensure that their citizens could afford the grain as soaring prices triggered unease across Asia.

Global rice prices have risen sharply this year because of growing demand and poor weather in some rice-producing countries.

Some Asian countries, including India and Vietnam, have curbed rice exports to guarantee their own supplies.

In Vietnam, crowds flocked to rice markets over the weekend in Ho Chi Minh City, the country's largest city, to stock up on rice as prices soared nearly 100 per cent over the last two weeks, traders and media reports said yesterday.

'I have been in this business 33 years and I have never seen anything like it,' said Huyuh Kim Hoa, a trader at the city's Tran Chanh Chieu rice market. The top quality rice at the market was selling for US$1.25 per kilogram, traders said.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung insisted supplies in Vietnam - the world's second-largest rice exporting country after Thailand - were 'completely adequate' for domestic consumption, state media quoted him as saying late on Sunday. He warned that organisations and individuals speculating in the commodity would be 'severely punished.'

State media called the weekend buying 'rice fever' and told readers that the country had enough rice.

'Don't panic,' read the headline in the Phapluat daily.

The Vietnam Food Association said speculators, including real estate companies, had rushed to buy rice in recent days, while wholesalers in the southern Mekong Delta, the country's main rice-growing region, were also holding back supplies.

Unrest over the food crisis has led to deaths in Cameroon and Haiti, cost Haitian Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis his job, and caused hungry textile workers to clash with police in Bangladesh.

Asian governments are trying to cushion the blow for millions of people who live below or close to the poverty line. Malaysia said it planned to subsidise locally grown rice.

'At the moment there is no rice subsidy,' said Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Shahrir Samad. 'We just control the price. But that (subsidy) will come,' he said, without specifying when any measure would be introduced.

Malaysia grows about 65 to 70 per cent of the rice its people consume, while the rest is imported, mainly from Thailand. With the price of Thai rice nearly tripling over the last five months to US$1,000 a tonne, the government expects consumers to switch to local rice, whose price - so far steady - is expected to rise.

Meanwhile, Thai rice prices are likely to ease by about 20 per cent in the coming weeks as arrivals from the new domestic crop have improved substantially, said Korbsook Iamsuri, secretary general of the Thai Rice Exporters' Association, yesterday.

'It is very likely that prices will ease. After the Philippines tender, I don't see any strong bullish factor for the market to drive it higher,' Mr Korbsook said in an interview.

Mr Shahrir warned that Malaysians must face the reality of the global food crisis.

'We will need to see changes in lifestyle among Malaysians to accommodate this economic situation,' he said.

Philippine government officials said they plan to issue special cards for the poor to allow them to buy government-subsidised rice at 18 pesos (S$0.58) a kilogram, compared to the current commercial price of 35 pesos.

The rice cards are supposed to benefit the bottom third of the poorest families in the capital, Manila. Outside the capital, the government said it will distribute separate bank cash cards to help families. -- AP, Reuters

Read more!

Food crisis sparks role reversal in WTO

Channel NewsAsia 28 Apr 08;

GENEVA : The food crisis is bringing about a role reversal in the World Trade Organisation: traditionally liberal major food exporters are now imposing restrictions on exports while protectionist states are pushing for liberalisation.

To deal with the recent hike in food prices, Argentina, Brazil, Vietnam, India and Egypt have all imposed limitations on the export of certain produce in order to ensure food security for their populations.

This is unusual for some of these countries. Argentina and Brazil, for instance, are part of the Cairns group, among the most aggressive proponents of liberalisation in the Doha round of trade liberalisation negotiations at the WTO.

The members of this group want the European Union and the United States to lower tariffs so they can export their food produce.

The direction taken by these developing nations is embarrassing their representatives in Geneva.

A Brazilian official told AFP that he "does not understand" his government's decision to announce Thursday a temporary stoppage of rice exports.

Brazil's government also said it was digging into its 1.6-million-ton reserve of rice to alleviate price pressure on the staple, which has become increasingly expensive worldwide as consumption grows in Asia, its main market.

"These measures concern stocks of rice owned by the government and not the sale by private companies," he explained, but added that this "element of intervention on the markets" could be viewed negatively in the WTO negotiations.

Voices of dissent are already being raised. Japan will on Wednesday table the issue during the WTO agricultural committee meeting.

A net food importer, Japan imposes extremely high tariffs of some 500 percent on rice to protect its own market.

"We are not against the prohibitions and the restrictions of exports," said Takaaki Kawakami, first secretary at the Japanese mission to the WTO.

"But the countries heavily dependant on the imports like us do not want the food security of our population to be put in danger," he said.

The plan proposed by Tokyo would require countries imposing restrictions to notify the WTO within 90 days and to justify the move. Such restrictions should also not last more than a year.

While it would not stop countries from imposing restrictions, Japan hopes that the additional procedure would lead to discussions among nations on the subject.

Currently, according to the 1994 agreement on agriculture, developing countries can impose restrictions on exports.

EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson recently said that taxes of exports or quotas provide nothing but an "illusion of food security."

For some observers of developing nations, such restrictions on exports risk aggravating the situation for the world's poorest.

These restrictions "could put poor countries which are dependant on imports in a situation which is more volatile and critical than it is currently," said Carin Smaller, director of the association Institute for Agriculture and Trade policy in Geneva.

"African countries, like Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast or Cameroon depend mainly on imports which they buy on the world market, such as rice from India, soya from Brazil or wheat from Argentina" she said.

As a gesture of appeasement, India, which recently suspended its rice exports, promised to supply Senegal with 600,000 tonnes of rice per year for six years. - AFP/de

Read more!