Broad climate fight best, not just gas cuts: study

Alister Doyle, Reuters 8 May 08;

OSLO (Reuters) - An assault on climate change on many fronts makes good economic sense but will be money badly spent if the world focuses exclusively on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, a study said on Thursday.

A 100-year package costing $800 billion to help people adapt to the impacts of warming -- such as droughts or rising seas -- while also funding research into new technology and curbing emissions could yield benefits of $2.1 trillion, it said.

"We've got something that makes sense as an investment of public money," said Gary Yohe, an environmental economist at Wesleyan University in Connecticut who was lead author of the 56-page study with colleagues in Ireland and the United States.

The same imaginary $800 billion invested solely in curbing or mitigating emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, would lose money overall with returns of just $685 billion. Until now, emissions curbs have been the overriding focus.

"Mitigation is not enough," Yohe told Reuters of the study, prepared for a May 26-28 conference in Copenhagen run by Bjorn Lomborg, the Danish author of "The Skeptical Environmentalist."

The $800 billion total works out at roughly 0.05 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) a year and adds to evidence from studies by the U.N. Climate Panel and British climate change expert Nicholas Stern in 2007 that costs are affordable.

The Copenhagen conference, including five Nobel Prize laureates, will seek to rank the costs and benefits of challenges such as fighting AIDS, malnutrition or terrorism, promoting free trade or slowing climate change.

NUANCES

"We have a conversation that's not very nuanced when we talk about global warming," Lomborg said. "It mainly focuses on mitigation and that's one of the least effective investments."

Lomborg told Reuters that returns from investing in slowing warming were less, for instance, than spending on health.

Yohe, however, said that fighting climate change would have wider spin-offs. "If you don't attend to climate change you will be swimming upstream, climate change will be ... making hunger and disease more prevalent," he said.

The U.N. Climate Panel, of which Yohe is a member, concluded last year that the most aggressive curbs on global warming would cost up to 0.1 percent of world GDP a year to 2030 but made no recommendations about how cash should be spent.

Yohe said Thursday's study tries to fill that gap.

About 190 nations have agreed to negotiate by the end of 2009 a successor treaty to the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol, which binds 37 industrialized nations to cut emissions by an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.

Most industrialized nations are considering deeper cuts while also seeking ways to help vulnerable nations adapt to problems such as floods, heat waves or rising seas that could wash away some low-lying Pacific islands.

Even Thursday's plan would only cut projected temperature rises by 2100 to about 3.0 Celsius (5.4 Fahrenheit) from 3.5 Celsius -- far above the 2.0 Celsius that the European Union and many environmentalists consider "dangerous" warming.

"One of the many inconvenient truths is that most of global warming is going to happen unless we dramatically change right now," said Lomborg, who argues that the world has to make tough choices about what is affordable.

-- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on:

http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/

(Editing by Myra MacDonald)

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Wasted food costs UK homes £10 billion

Charles Clover, The Telegraph 8 May 08;

A staggering £10 billion worth of food is thrown away in Britain each year, a third of what we buy, according to a report published on Thursday.

More than half of the 6.7 million tons of food that is thrown away each year - enough to fill Wembley Stadium eight times - is untouched and could have been eaten, according to the Government-funded Waste and Resources Action Programme.

Researchers found that more than £1 billion worth of wasted food was still "in date."

The study shows that the average household is throwing away £420 worth of food a year - more than previously thought - at a time when household bills are rising because of higher grain and fuel prices.

The average family with children throws away food worth £610.

The study says that we throw away food for two main reasons: food gets forgotten and is left used, and we serve up too much and don't use leftovers.

The £6 billion worth of food thrown away unused includes 5,500 whole chickens and more than 1.3 million unopened yoghurt pots - which laid end to end would reach from Blackpool to Liverpool.

Some 440,000 untouched ready meals go into the bin, enough to reach from Oxford to Stratford-upon-Avon, and some 4.4 million apples.



Experts say that stopping food waste could avoid emissions of 18 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent gases (mostly methane) each year.

That is a larger amount than previous estimates and the equivalent of taking one car in five off the roads.

The survey was based solely on a study of what more than 2,000 households put in the dustbin. When the waste from business is included the amount wasted would be higher.

Liz Goodwin, chief executive of WRAP, said: "What shocked me the most was the cost of our food waste at a time of rising food bills, and generally a tighter pull on our purse strings."

Joan Ruddock, the Environment Minister, said: "This is costing consumers three times over. Not only do they pay hard-earned money for food they don't eat, there is also the cost of dealing with the waste this creates.

"And then there are climate change costs to all of us of growing, processing, packaging, transporting and refrigerating food that only ends up in the bin."

WRAP is running a campaign called Love Food Hate Waste and has tips on its website www.lovefoodhatewaste.com such as keeping apples in the fridge to prolong their useful lives and toasting bread from frozen.

Richard Swannell, who is responsible for domestic and garden waste at WRAP, said: "Instead of throwing apples away next time you could use them to make a smoothie or puddings.

"Historically we would have thought like that but in our busy lives we seem to have got out of the habit of these things. We do not have the data to prove it exactly, but people who remember the war say they did not waste food. They would not have thrown a whole apple away."

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Brazil, India's Citizens Are Greenest, Survey Finds

Brian Handwerk, National Geographic News 7 May 08;

A new global survey reveals which country's citizens have the most environmentally friendly lifestyles by examining the impact of individual consumer behavior.

The National Geographic Society and the international polling firm GlobeScan today unveiled "Greendex 2008: Consumer Choice and the Environment—A Worldwide Tracking Survey." (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)

"The Greendex gives us an unprecedented, meaningful look at how consumers across the globe are behaving," said Terry Garcia, National Geographic's executive vice president of mission programs.

Consumers in Brazil and India tied as most "green," while those in the United States scored lowest, or most wasteful.

To create the survey, GlobeScan conducted Internet surveys of consumers in 14 countries, which together represent more than half of the world's population and use about 75 percent of its energy.

Rather than measuring each nation's environmental impact, the Greendex compares the behaviors of individuals in four key areas: housing, transportation, food, and consumer goods.

Brazilians and Indians each scored 60 on the sustainable-consumption scale. Citizens of other nations scored as follows: China (56.1); Mexico (54.3); Hungary (53.2); Russia (52.4); Great Britain, Germany and Australia (each at 50.2); Spain (50); Japan (49.1); France (48.7); Canada (48.5); and the U.S. (44.9).

Face-to-face studies were conducted in Egypt and Nigeria, because limited Internet penetration there did not allow for a full representation of national demographics, according to the survey organizers. These countries were not scored because of the differing methodology.

Individual Choices

Sixty-five sustainable development variables, chosen by a group of 27 environmental consultants, were used to create Greendex scores.

Housing factors included dwelling size; energy use for heating, cooling, and appliances; and water needs. Brazilians topped this category because they typically have smaller homes, rarely use air conditioning or heating, and rely heavily on on-demand, tankless water-heating systems.

Transportation behaviors measured included ownership rates and average usage of motorized vehicles, length of daily commutes, and utilization of public transport. Chinese scored highest on transportation, because, at least for now, most rely on bicycles or walking and drive few motorized vehicles per capita.

The foods category polled consumers on their consumption of locally produced foods, as well as their relative consumption of bottled water, meat, and seafood—products that typically have high environmental impact. Indians had the greenest food habits because they consume little meat and eat many fruits and vegetables.

The goods category looked at the items that people typically buy, reuse, and discard—including both day-to-day purchases and larger items such as televisions. Consumer preference for environmentally friendly products and packaging, as well as overall levels of personal consumption, were also considered.

Greendex also surveyed environmental attitudes in each of the 14 nations. Though these results were not included in the scoring system, the survey found that the nations who displayed the most environmentally conscious attitudes also tended to score higher on the Greendex.

Nick Nuttall, a spokesperson for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), welcomed the index results.

"It is certainly illuminating and perhaps overturns the common perception that it is only consumers in the rich countries who are environmentally aware and eco-active on the High Street and in their purchasing habits," he said.

The Greendex also found that people in developing nations felt more responsible for environmental problems and worried more about the impacts of global warming.

Rich Divide

Lloyd Hetherington of GlobeScan explained that the new index measured both discretionary and essential consumption.

"Essential consumption is sometimes dictated by geography," he explained. "If you live in a very cold climate, you have to heat your house. The discretionary part is how you do that—what fuel you choose and how you decide where to set the thermostat."

One inescapable result of the Greendex survey is the discrepancy in scores between developing and industrialized nations.

"The biggest concern I have is that [it appears to be] a kind of inverse poverty scale. When you look at the map you can see that the poorest countries are ranked the best, and the richest are ranked the worst," said environmental consultant Michael Brower, co-author of the Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

"The poorest people in the poorest countries would love to consume more."

Greendex authors acknowledged that consumers living in developing nations are more likely to live in small residences, use few electricity-driven appliances, make shorter commutes, and use human-powered and public transport—often out of necessity rather than choice.

Those in developed nations, on the other hand, have larger homes, use energy for heat and air-conditioning, and own and drive cars.

"The average consumer [in the developing world] has a lifestyle that is more environmentally sustainable," said National Geographic's Garcia. "But these same consumers express a desire for increased consumption and believe that people in all nations should have the opportunity to live the lifestyles of the wealthiest nations."

The Greendex's "Market Basket" component, which includes national macroeconomic indicators of consumption gathered by the Economist Intelligence Unit, a research organization run by Economist magazine, also shows a very high correlation between Greendex scores and energy use per capita.

"Regardless of why consumers behave in an environmentally friendly way, because of their climate, income, or more conscious decisions, the fact is that on average consumers in developing countries have less environmental impact than the average consumers in industrialized countries," added Eric Whan of GlobeScan.

"And in this sense it doesn't really matter why they do."

Tracking Change

The survey organizers say the results will serve as a baseline for future reports that will track changes in consumer environmental impact.

The low scores for many industrialized nations show that they have a lot of work to do on environmental attitudes, while the booming economies of the developing world provide serious concerns, the researchers say.

Growing nations like China and India are already undergoing serious lifestyle changes, including more cars, larger homes, increased heating and air conditioning, and shifts towards more resource-intensive diets.

The UN's Nuttall hopes the survey can help spur governments to develop in less wasteful and more environmentally conscious ways.

"Thus there is an urgent need to ensure that this economic growth does not echo the 20th century growth of North America, Europe, and Japan and that developing economies are given the technologies and the creative financing needed to avoid the mistakes of the past."

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World's Strangest Creature? Part Mammal, Part Reptile

Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience.com Yahoo News 7 May 08;

The platypus sports fur like a mammal, paddles its duck feet like a bird and lays eggs in the manner of a reptile.

Nature's instruction manual for this oddball, it turns out, is just as much of a mishmash.

Researchers just mapped the genome of a female platypus from Australia. The genetic sequence of this Aussie monotreme (a type of mammal) is detailed in the May 8 issue of the journal Nature.

"The platypus is a very ancient offshoot of the mammal tree, so it was 166 million years ago that we last shared a common ancestor with platypuses," said study team member Jenny Graves, head of the Comparative Genomics Group at the Australian National University. "And that puts them somewhere between mammals and reptiles, because they still maintain quite a lot of reptilian characteristics that we've lost, for instance they still lay eggs."

She added, "So we can use them to trace the changes that have occurred as we went from being a reptile, to having fur to making milk to having live-born young."

The primitive mammal lives in burrows in Eastern Australia dug along the banks of streams and rivers that it relies on for food. Its flat, streamlined body extends just 20 inches (50 centimeters), tipped with a tail that resembles a ping-pong paddle and four webbed feet. The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is one of only two mammals - the other is the echidna (spiny anteater) - that lays eggs. And unlike other mammals, the male platypus can deliver venom from a tiny spur on each hind limb.

To sort out the evolutionary relationships among platypuses and other animals, the team compared the genome of a female platypus nicknamed Glennie with those of humans, mice, dogs, opossums and chickens. (Chickens were included to represent egg-laying animals, such as extinct reptiles, that passed on much of their DNA to the platypus and other mammals in the course of evolution.)

At roughly 2.2 billion base pairs, the platypus genome is about two-thirds the size of the human genome, the researchers found. It shares more than 80 percent of its genes with other mammals.

Like humans, platypuses carry an X and a Y chromosome. But unlike humans, the X and Y are not sex chromosomes. "That means we can go right back to the time when our sex chromosomes were just ordinary chromosomes minding their own business and ask well what happened, what made them into sex chromosomes," Graves said.

The researchers revealed the animal has 52 chromosomes, including 10 sex chromosomes.

The genome also included sections of DNA linked to egg-laying and others for lactation. Since the platypus lacks nipples, the pups suckle milk from the mother's abdominal skin.

Another oddity: When paddling through the water, a platypus keeps its eyes, ears and nostrils closed, and its duck-bill serves as an antenna, sensing the faint electric fields surrounding prey. Even so, the platypus genome reveals the animal held onto genes for odor-detection.

The study, which included more than 100 scientists from across the globe, was funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).

Scientists map the genome of the platypus
Rohan Sullivan, Associated Press Yahoo News 8 May 08;

Scientists said they have mapped the genetic makeup of the platypus — one of nature's strangest animals with a bill like a duck's, a mammal's fur and snake-like venom.

The researchers, whose analysis of the platypus genome was published Thursday in the journal Nature, said it could help explain how mammals, including humans, evolved from reptiles millions of years ago.

The platypus is classed as a mammal because it has fur and feeds its young with milk. It flaps a beaver-like tail. But it also has bird and reptile features — a duck-like bill and webbed feet, and lives mostly underwater. Males have venom-filled spurs on their heels.

"At first glance, the platypus appears as if it was the result of an evolutionary accident," said Francis S. Collins, director of the U.S. National Human Genome Research Institute, which funded the study.

"But as weird as this animal looks, its genome sequence is priceless for understanding how mammalian biological processes evolved," Collins said in a statement.

The research showed the animal's multifaceted features are reflected in its DNA with a mix of genes that crosses different classifications of animals, said Jenny Graves, an Australian National University genomics expert who co-wrote the paper.

"What we found was the genome, just like the animal, is an amazing amalgam of reptilian and mammal characteristics with quite a few unique platypus characteristics as well," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Scientists believe all mammals evolved from reptiles, and the animals that became platypuses and those that became humans shared an evolutionary path until about 165 million years ago when the platypus branched off. Unlike other evolving mammals, the platypus retained characteristics of snakes and lizards, including the pain-causing poison that males can use to ward off mating rivals, Graves said.

More than 100 scientists from the United States, Australia, Japan and other nations took part in the research, using DNA collected from a female platypus named Glennie.

Their work adds to the growing list of animals whose genetic makeup has been unraveled.

By comparing platypus genes to those of humans and other mammals, scientists hope to fill in gaps in knowledge about mammals' evolution and better identify certain species' specific traits.

Des Cooper, an evolutionary biologist at the University of New South Wales who did not take part in the research, said it represented a big step forward in the world's knowledge of mammals.

"Platypuses are often thought of as primitive because they lay eggs," Cooper said. "This paper demonstrates there is a mixture of characters, which they share with other mammals, and of highly specialized attributes."

Graves said the research contained some surprises, such as the conclusion that genes which determine sex in a platypus are similar to those of a bird, not a mammal. Researchers also found genes that indicate platypuses — which rely on electrosensory receptors in their bills to navigate as they rummage with closed eyes in waterways — may also be able to smell underwater.

Unique to Australia, the platypus has confounded observers for centuries. Aboriginal legend explained it as the offspring of a duck and an amorous water rat. When the British Museum received its first specimen in 1798, zoologist George Shaw was so dubious he tried to cut the pelt with scissors to make sure the bill had not been stitched on by a taxidermist.

Platypuses live in the wild along most of Australia's east coast. Their numbers are not accurately known because they are notoriously shy. Hunted for years for their pelts, they have been protected since the early 1900s and are not considered to be endangered, though scientists say their habitat is vulnerable to human development.

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Clean air could kill the Amazon, researchers say

Michael Kahn, Reuters 7 May 08;

LONDON (Reuters) - Cleaner air due to reduced coal burning could help destroy the Amazon this century, according to a finding published on Wednesday that highlights the complex challenges of global climate change.

The study in the journal Nature identified a link between reduced sulphur dioxide emissions from coal burning and increased sea surface temperatures in the tropical North Atlantic that boosts the drought risk in the Amazon rainforest.

With the rainforest already threatened by development, higher global temperatures could tip the balance, they said.

"Generally pollution is a bad thing but in this case improving the air may have ironically led to a drying of the Amazon," said Peter Cox, a researcher at the University of Exeter in Britain, who led the study.

"It shows you have to deal with greenhouse gases."

The Amazon -- the world's largest tropical rainforest -- plays a critical role in the global climate system because it contains about one tenth of the total carbon stored in land ecosystems.

The researchers used a climate-carbon model to simulate the impacts of future climate change on the Amazon and compared it to data from a 2005 drought that devastated a large chunk of the rainforest.

They estimated that by 2025 a drought on the same scale could happen every other year and by 2060 such a crisis could hit nine out of every ten years -- enough to turn the rainforest into savannah grassland, Cox said.

In the pre-industrial age, the Amazon was less vulnerable. But higher temperatures and destruction of the forest make droughts far more likely than in the past, the researchers said.

"The Amazon is said to be the lungs of the planet," Cox said in a telephone interview. "You don't want to damage it."

The researchers believe that efforts to clean up sulphate aerosol particles from coal burning at power stations in the 1970s and 1980s helps to explain the threat.

The pollution predominately in the northern hemisphere had limited warming in the tropical north Atlantic, keeping the Amazon wetter than it normally would have been.

But with that protection evaporating due to cleaner air and as greenhouse gases fuel global warming, the rainforest now faces a deadly drought risk, the researchers said.

"Reduced sulphur emissions in North America and Europe will see tropical rain bands move northwards as the north Atlantic warms, resulting in a sharp increase in the risk of Amazonian drought," Chris Huntingford, a researcher at Britain's Centre for Hydrology and Ecology said.

The findings highlight the need to deal not only with greenhouse gas emissions but also with the direct destruction of the rainforests as well, the researchers said.

They said 20 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions stem from burning of trees to build new homes and roads as development pushes farther into the delicate region, they added.

"You can argue there is a greater urgency to deal with the deforestation issue in our model," he said. (Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Maggie Fox and Giles Elgood)

Cleaner air to worsen droughts in Amazon: study
Yahoo News 7 May 08;

Curbing a notorious form of industrial pollution may ironically harm Amazonia, one of the world's natural treasures and a key buffer against global warming, a study released Wednesday has found.

Its authors see a strong link between a decrease in sulphur dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants and a rise in sea temperature in the northern Atlantic that was blamed for wreaking a devastating drought in western Amazonia in 2005.

University of Exeter professor Peter Cox and colleagues created a computer model to simulate the impact of aerosols -- airborne particles that, like sulphur dioxide, are also spewed out by fossil-fuel power plants -- on Amazonia's climate.

The aerosols, while a bad pollutant, indirectly ease the problem of global warming as they reflect sunlight, making it bounce back into space rather than warm the Earth's surface.

In the 1970s and 1980s, according to Cox's model, high concentrations of aerosols over the highly industrialised northern hemisphere had the effect of buffering the impact of global warming on north Atlantic surface waters, which led to more rain over Amazonia.

But tighter curbs on sulphur dioxide emissions from power plants led to a reduction in aerosol levels, causing these Atlantic waters to warm. This changed patterns of precipitation, leading to the 2005 drought.

Projecting into the 21st century, the study estimates that by 2025 a drought on the same scale as in 2005 could happen every other year.

By 2060, forests would be starved for rainfall nine out of every 10 years, says the study, published in the British journal Nature.

What happens in Amazonia affects not just the region, but the entire world's climate system. Its rainforests contain a tenth of all the CO2 stored on Earth's land surfaces.

The loss of vegetation, through deforestation and drought, could have a dramatic impact on global warming, scientists have warned.

The study's findings point up the complicated interplay of factors involved in climate change.

"To improve air quality and safeguard public health, we must continue to reduce aerosol pollution, but our study suggests that these needs to be accompanied by urgent reductions in carbon dioxide emissions to minimise the risk of Amazon forest dieback," said Cox.

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) last year warned that rising global temperatures could transform much of South America's rain forests into semi-arid savannah-like areas within five decades.

Deforestation -- caused by logging, agriculture and development -- in the tropics accounts for up to 20 percent of global emissions of carbon dioxide, making it the second largest driver of global warming after the burning of fossil fuels.

Amazonia accounts for nearly half of those emissions.

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Petrify, liquefy: new ways to bury greenhouse gas

Alister Doyle, Yahoo News 7 May 08;

OSLO (Reuters) - Turn greenhouse gases to stone? Transform them into a treacle-like liquid deep under the seabed?

The ideas may sound like far-fetched schemes from an alchemist's notebook but scientists are pursuing them as many countries prepare to bury captured greenhouse gases in coming years as part of the fight against global warming.

Analysts say the search for a suitable technology could become a $150 billion-plus market. But a big worry is that gases may leak from badly chosen underground sites, perhaps jolted open by an earthquake.

Such leaks could be deadly and would stoke climate change.

Part of the answer could be to petrify or liquefy gases like carbon dioxide -- emitted for example from power plants and factories run on coal, oil or natural gas -- if technical hurdles can be overcome and costs are not too high.

"If you can convert (the gases) to stone, and it's environmentally benign and permanent, then that's better," said Juerg Matter, a German scientist at Columbia University in New York who is working on a project in Iceland to turn carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, to rock.

In theory, carbon dioxide reacts with porous basalt and turns into a mineral, but no one knows how long that takes. Matter and U.S., French and Icelandic experts plan to inject 50,000 tonnes of the gas into basalt in a test starting in 2009.

Other researchers say pumping the gas into sediments below the seabed at depths of around 3,000 meters (9,800 ft) would expose it to enough pressure to turn it into a viscous liquid, like honey or treacle.

"High pressure combined with low temperature results in liquid carbon dioxide that can in some cases be denser than sea water," said Kurt Zenz House, of Harvard University.

In the worst known example of a leak, a natural volcanic eruption of carbon dioxide from Lake Nyos in Cameroon in 1986 killed more than 1,700 people. Carbon dioxide is not toxic but can cause asphyxia in high concentrations.

HEATWAVES, STORMS

The U.N. Climate Panel said in a 2005 report that carbon storage could be one of the main ways to offset global warming, which could cause more powerful storms and heatwaves, and melt glaciers from the Himalayas to the Andes.

Carbon capture and storage could keep up to a third of all manmade carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. But no commercial-scale power plant uses the technology yet and a lack of public funding plus legal concerns and safety worries are casting doubts over new projects.

Costs are a big problem: the Climate Panel estimates the penalty for emitting carbon dioxide would have to be stable at $25-$30 a tonne to make carbon storage viable -- pushing up the cost of everything from electricity to steel as the price of slowing climate change.

Carbon emissions' prices in a European Union market of more than 11,000 industrial sites are now above the trigger level, at 24.55 euros ($37.97) a tonne. But the volatile market has often been far below $25 since trading began in 2005.

Most plans by firms such as BP, Rio Tinto, E.ON, American Electric Power and StatoilHydro focus on capturing greenhouse gases and pumping them into porous rocks in shallower oil and gas reservoirs, or into disused mines or saline aquifers.

The longest-running commercial project, stripping carbon dioxide from natural gas at Norway's Sleipner field, began in 1986 and has pumped 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into sedimentary rocks about 800 meters (2,625 ft) below the seabed.

"There have been no leaks," said Tore Torp, project leader at operator StatoilHydro. The gas, under pressure, is in a "supercritical" state between liquid and gas and would stay put even in the event of a cataclysmic earthquake, he said.

The project is commercial because Norway, outside the EU, imposed taxes on carbon emissions in 1991. The natural gas at Sleipner has an unusually high percentage of carbon dioxide.

Torp said that the area was far from an earthquake zone.

"In theory, if you had (a giant earthquake) a crack would be filled by the North Sea in seconds and would maintain the pressure down there," Torp said.

"The most important thing for safety is selecting the site. We would avoid the San Andreas fault" in California, he said.

Other similar projects are underway in the United States, Canada and Algeria.

Plans to mix carbon dioxide into the world's oceans, perhaps by dumping thousands of tonnes of iron filings that would encourage the growth of carbon-absorbing algae, are in doubt because of worries they would disrupt marine life.

"All such projects are on hold," said Rene Coenen, office head for the London Convention which oversees dumping at sea. "Our official advice is: 'don't start with it. Wait until we have more knowledge from the scientific side'."

U.S. group Planktos has indefinitely postponed a plan to seed the Pacific Ocean with iron filings. Silicon Valley startup Climos is still studying the idea.

SHELLFISH

Water readily absorbs carbon dioxide -- beer and other fizzy drinks are examples. But carbon makes the seas more acidic and could make it harder for shellfish, corals, crabs or lobsters to build their protective coats.

So carbon burial may be only answer, despite environmentalists' fears that it will encourage nations to keep on burning fossil fuels rather than shift to cleaner renewable energies such as wind or solar power.

"To my mind, if declared safe and acceptable, it is going to be an imperative in terms of an effective solution," said Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat.

"If I look at some of the really huge coal-based economies around the world, like China, like India, like South Africa, like Australia, I don't really see how we can come to grips with climate change without using carbon capture and storage."

Costs might be even higher for the more exotic solutions.

In Iceland, the theory goes that a chemical reaction in the calcium- and magnesium-rich basalt formations will bind carbon molecules to form calcite and dolomite. Matter said that costs could be comparable to burial in oil or gas fields.

But it is unclear whether the reactions in the rocks are quick enough. "We do not know if these geochemical reactions ... will take 50, 100 or thousands of years," Matter said.

He said suitable basaltic rocks were also found in places such as India and Siberia.

Kurt Zenz House at Harvard reckoned the costs of pumping carbon to depths of more than 3,000 meters (9,800 ft) would be about 25 percent higher than shallower burial. "It's more expensive but the advantage is that it wouldn't move," he said, adding that it would also not interfere with nature.

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Cold Water Thrown on Antarctic Warming Predictions

Andrea Thompson, LiveScience.com Yahoo News 7 May 08;

Antarctica hasn't warmed as much over the last century as climate models had originally predicted, a new study finds.

Climate change's effects on Antarctica are of particular interest because of the substantial amount of water locked up in its ice sheets. Should that water begin to melt, sea levels around the globe could rise and inundate low-lying coastal areas.

The new study, detailed in the April 5 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters, marks the first time that researchers have been able to give a progress report on Antarctic climate model projections by comparing climate records to model simulations (these comparisons have been done for the other six continents).

Information about Antarctica's harsh weather patterns has traditionally been limited, but temperature records from ice cores and ground weather stations have recently been constructed, giving scientists the missing information they needed.

"This is a really important exercise for these climate models," said study leader Andrew Monaghan of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Co.

Temperature gap

Monaghan and his team found that while climate models projected temperature increases of 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.75 degrees Celsius) over the past century, temperatures were observed to have risen by only 0.4 F (0.2 C).

"This is showing us that, over the past century, most of Antarctica has not undergone the fairly dramatic warming that has affected the rest of the globe," Monaghan said.

The gap between prediction and reality seemed to be caused by the models overestimating the amount of water vapor in the Antarctic atmosphere. The cold air over the southernmost continent handles moisture differently than the atmosphere over warmer regions.

The models did, however, correctly capture the increases in snowfall over Antarctica in the late 20th century, followed by a decrease in the last decade.

One reason that Antarctica hasn't warmed as much as other parts of the globe is the existence of the ozone hole overhead: It alters wind patterns, creating a swirling belt of winds around the landmass that keeps comparatively warm air from seeping in, preserving the continent's frigid temperatures.

One important exception to this rule is the Antarctic Peninsula, which has warmed by several degrees, in part because winds there draw in warmer air from the north.

Mixed verdict

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated that sea levels could rise by 7 to 23 inches (18 to 59 centimeters) globally this century, in part due to ice melt at the poles and from mountain glaciers.

The new study, funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, suggests that warming in Antarctica could offset this amount by about 2 inches (5 centimeters) if the continent warms by 5.4 F (3 C), as warmer air would hold more moisture and generate more snowfall, which contributes to the growth of the ice sheets, locking up any additional water in the these large masses of ice. That would mean a rise of only 5 to 21 inches (13 to 54 centimenters).

But these projections are by no means certain - if melt from Antarctic ice sheets outweighed the snowfall that contributes to their growth, sea level rise could be higher.

"The research clearly shows that you can actually slow down sea-level rise when you increase temperatures over Antarctica because snowfall increases, but warmer temperatures also have the potential to speed up sea-level rise due to enhanced melting along the edges of Antarctica," Monaghan said. "Over the next century, whether the ice sheet grows from increased snowfall or shrinks due to more melt will depend on how much temperatures increase in Antarctica, and potentially on erosion at the ice sheet edge by the warmer ocean and rising sea level."

The findings of the study don't call into question model projections for other parts of the globe, Monaghan said. "The models are really doing quite a good job at simulating the 20th century changes over the six inhabited continents," he told LiveScience.

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Best of our wild blogs: 8 May 08

Pulau Sekudu: fish traps
and other encounters on the wildfilms blog and thoughts about the causes and possible solution to the fish trap issue on the career breaker blog

Sea fans return to East Coast Park
and an amazing variety of marine life too! on the wonderful creations blog

More tricky echis
More of those twisty echinoderms shared on the wildfilms blog

Shells, spines and stings
more Changi special on the budak blog

Forest walk at Lower Pierce
bugs and other fascinating stuff on the future of our forest blog

Kingfisher eating munia
on the bird ecology blog

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Effective sea turtle conservation in Malaysia

Haslin Gaffor, The Star 7 May 08;

SANDAKAN: Turtle Islands Park (TPPP), located 40km from here, has been instrumental in turtle conservation since 1966.

TPPP encompasses three islands – Pulau Selingaan, Bakkungan Kechil and Gulisaan – covering an area of 1,740ha.

The first turtle hatchery in Malaysia was commissioned in Pulau Selingaan in 1966. Two years later, the two other islands started their own hatcheries.

Pulau Gulisaan is the main landing point for the Hawksbill turtle in South-East Asia.

Another species that makes its way to TPPP is the Green turtle.

The first turtle hatchery in Malaysia was commissioned in Pulau Selingaan in 1966. Two years later, the two other islands started their own hatcheries.

Pulau Gulisaan is the main landing point for the Hawksbill turtle in South-East Asia.

Another species that makes its way to TPPP is the Green turtle.

Realising how important the marine habitat is, the state acquired the three islands and turned them into a marine park in 1977.

Since then, they have been under the care of Sabah Parks, an agency under the Sabah’s Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry.

In the bigger picture, TPPP is part of the Turtle Islands Heritage Protected Area that encompasses six other islands in Philippine waters – Laagan, Bakkungan Besar, Lihiman, Taganak, Boaan and Baguan – to provide integrated protection for the Hawksbill and Green turtles.

TPPP manager Fazrullah Rizally Abdul Said noted that the islands recorded the highest number of turtle landings each year compared to anywhere else in Malaysia.

“Last year alone, it was estimated that more than 6,000 turtles landed on the three islands to lay eggs.

“What is interesting is that the hatcheries here are the most productive in South-East Asia in efforts to conserve and protect turtles from extinction,” he said.

A pertinent aspect of conservation is enhancing the survival rate of turtle hatchlings.

According to him, several park rangers have been stationed on the island to enforce the Sabah Parks Enactment 1984, and visitors or tourists cannot freely enter the beach area from 6.30pm to 6am the following day.

This is to ensure they don’t frighten away turtles coming to lay eggs as they are highly sensitive to movement and light.

Fazrullah Rizally stressed that fishing was forbidden in all parts of the TPPP area to protect the turtles.

Research, including cooperation with foreign researchers, is the key to achieve the long-term goals of Sabah Parks.

The research activities involve marking the turtles, transferring eggs to the hatchery, maintaining the hatchery and releasing hatchlings into the sea.

Monitoring and data collection is conducted continuously.

“All conservation activities beginning with turtle landings, transfer of eggs to the hatchery, incubating the eggs and releasing the hatchlings are conducted according to recommendations by turtle experts,” he said.

Fazrullah Rizally said that turtle conservation programme targeted tourists as well, especially those who came to Pulau Selingaan.

Each day in the late evenings, a briefing and video presentation for tourists is held before the Turtle Watch Programme commences.

Tourists staying the night in Pulau Selingaan have only one opportunity to view turtles landing to lay eggs, transfer of the eggs to the hatchery, how the hatchery is maintained and how the hatchlings are released.

He said that the conservation programme also targeted villagers living nearby.

The programme is also conducted at five schools – SK Pulau Libaran, SK Pulau Nunuyan Laut, SK Tanjung Aru, SK Pulau Sanghai and SK Pulau Timbang.

Meanwhile, there is only one resort in TPPP on Pulau Selingaan.

The number of guests is limited to 52 each night.

Pulau Selingaan park ranger Mohd Kassim Karim noted that the presence of tourists poses no threat to the conservation efforts.

He said that tourist arrivals in Pulau Selingaan last year – both foreign and local – was estimated at 10,000, making the island a leading tourist attraction in Sandakan.

The turtle-landing season occurs between March and September, with August often recording the highest number of between 40 to 60 landings each night.

Female turtles lay between 80 and 180 eggs each. They return up to seven times at 10 to 15-day intervals to lay their eggs.

Dr Juanita Joseph, turtle conservation expert from Universiti Malaysia Terengganu’s marine science department, said the TPPP programme had achieved many milestones.

She hoped that other states in Malaysia would emulate the programme. – Bernama

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NUS team in eco-car marathon

Maria Almenoar, Straits Times 8 May 08;

STUDENTS from the National University of Singapore (NUS) will be flying the region's banner when they take part in the Shell Eco-Marathon, a race for fuel-efficient cars.

The team of six from the NUS mechanical engineering faculty are the only South-east Asian representatives at the race, which will be held in France from May 22 to 24.

Their eco-friendly car, the NUS-ECO1, runs on a synthetic liquid fuel which is derived from natural gas and burns cleaner than conventional fuel, releasing less greenhouse gases. They may be the only team using this gas-to-liquids fuel.

The cars will be judged on how fuel-efficient they are. Last year's winner from Denmark managed some 300km on one litre of fuel.

The NUS-ECO1 can travel about 100km on one litre of fuel. It took the team 10 months to build the 3.04m-long car, which is powered by a 211cc engine and reaches a top speed of 45kmh.

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Cyclone rips through the price of rice

Today 8 May 08;

Rice surged for a fourth day on speculation that Myanmar may be transformed from a exporter to a buyer on the international market after last weekend's cyclone damaged crops and left about 60,000 people dead and missing.

Rice for July delivery rose as much as 2.4 per cent to US$21.60 ($29.50) per 100 pounds (45.4 kg) on the Chicago Board of Trade.

The staple food for half the world has almost doubled over the past year, reaching a record S$25.07 last month after China, Vietnam and India curbed shipments and demand rose.

Soaring prices are stoking social unrest, poverty and hunger.

"The cyclone damage in Myanmar will further tighten Asian rice supplies," said an analyst at Tokyo-based commodity broker Okachi & Co. "This may drive importers to rush for supplies as the cyclone has made the rice exporter rely on food aid".

Before the storm, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation had estimated that Myanmar may have exported 600,000 metric tons of rice this year, with shipments set for Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

That compares with estimated global exports this year of 29.9 million tons, according to FAO.

Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta region, where Cyclone Nargis hit, "is the country's main rice-growing region,'' said a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. "Roughly 24 million people live there".

Myanmar's rice-output estimate may be cut because of the crop damage, according to Ms Concepcion Calpe, a senior economist at the Food and Agriculture Organisation. A drop in exports from Myanmar, or increased imports to it, would lead to "further tightening" of the world rice market, she said.

The damage from the cyclone was "huge" and Myanmar may be forced to seek imports of rice, said Mr Chookiat Ophaswongse, the president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association.

— Bloomberg

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