Whales, lizards inspire hi-tech bio-mimicry

Alister Doyle, Reuters 28 May 08;

OSLO (Reuters) - Whale hearts hold clues to making pacemakers and lizard skins are showing how to cut friction in electrical appliances as companies mimic nature to develop high-tech goods, a U.N.-backed report said on Wednesday.

Among other advances that could save hundreds of millions of dollars, the wings of desert beetles could improve water collection and the drought-resistant African "resurrection plant" indicates ways to store vaccines without refrigeration.

"Biomimicry is a field whose time has come," said Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) in a statement issued to coincide with a May 19-30 U.N. conference on protecting the diversity of animals and plants in Bonn, Germany.

The project, called "Nature's 100 Best", points to environmentally friendly advances mimicking natural solutions evolved over almost 4 billion years.

"Life solves its problems with well-adapted designs, life-friendly chemistry and smart material and energy use," said Janine Benyus and Gunter Pauli, creators of the Nature's 100 Best project. "What better models could there be?"

Nature has been a blueprint for human inventions throughout history -- such as flight inspired by birds -- but the project identifies 100 less obvious modern spinoffs.

Humpback whales pump six bathtubs of blood around their bodies and regulate the beats with electrical signals passing through thick non-conductive blubber shielding the heart from cold.

A cheap operation for humans that bridged damaged heart muscles by mimicking the tiny "wiring" could cut demand for battery-powered pacemakers in humans, based on research at the Whale Heart Satellite Tracking Program in Colombia, it said.

Fitting a new pacemaker costs up to $50,000 per patient and the world market is projected at $3.7 billion by 2010.

SANDFISH LIZARD

The sandfish lizard, which lives in North Africa and the Arabian peninsula, could also give clues to cheaper ways to cut friction in mechanical and electrical devices than costly silicon carbide or crystalline diamond.

Studies by German scientists showed that the skin is covered with microscopic spikes. "A grain of Sahara sand rides atop 20,000 of these spikes, spreading the load and providing negligible levels of friction," UNEP said.

A consortium of three German companies were working with scientists to try to imitate the keratin-based skin.

And it said that bumps on the wing cases of the Namib desert beetle enabled it to gather water droplets from frequent fogs in a region where only about 1 cm (0.5 inch) of rain falls a year.

A team from the University of Oxford and British defense research group QinetiQ were producing a beetle-like film to capture water vapor from cooling towers.

The invention could help save water and energy in a world facing stresses on water supplies because of climate change.

And the African resurrection plant has sugars called trehaloses that allow it to dry to a crisp during droughts and then flourish again. Indian company Panacea Biotech is making trials to see if similar the sugars could be used to store vaccines without refrigeration.

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 28 May 08

Sentosa walks with the Naked Hermit Crabs
announcing the upcoming June walks on the adventures with the naked hermit crabs blog

Cyrene Impressions
shared by winner of the "I Want to Go Cyrene" blogging contest, on the glorious birds blog

East Coast: Bodies of Evidence
extrapolations on the lazy lizard blog

Sightings on Chek Jawa
during the walk on the ubin volunteers blog

Clean up on our shores
USA Girl Scouts at Sarimbun and 39th SAF Command and Staff cohort at Pasir Ris on the News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore blog

Asian Glossy Starlings at Changi
on the wonderful creations blog

Noisy Miners harassing a Spotted Dove
on the bird ecology blog

Read more!

Sir David calls it a day: and comments on Singapore

Acclaimed naturalist David Attenborough ends his five-decade-long career with a series on reptiles and amphibians
Tara Tan, Straits Times 23 May 08;

BEADY eyes stare. A forked tongue tastes the air. Then, as quick as lightning, the mangrove snake coils around a startled crab and rips off its limbs one by one.

All this drama took place in swamps right here in Singapore.

And it was captured on camera as part of Life In Cold Blood, the latest - and last ever - documentary series by renowned naturalist Sir David Attenborough, and which will be shown on Arts Central from Nov 26.

At 81, Sir David has decided to call it quits on his globe-trotting TV activities that have captivated millions.

As for his visit to Singapore, Sir David, one of the world's most acclaimed natural history presenters, says it left him impressed with some of the environmental work done here.

He says in a phone interview from his home in London: 'There are some very active people in Singapore who look after the Singapore natural history with enormous success.

'With those around working hard to protect the areas, you do have some very precious parts in the few remaining areas where there is wildlife in Singapore.'

His career spans five decades and includes landmark documentaries The Living Planet (1984) and Planet Earth (2006).

It comes as no surprise that no effort was spared for Life In Cold Blood, which had a team of 17 cameramen filming over 100 species of amphibians and reptiles in 18 countries, including Madagascar, Brazil, Australia and Japan.

For his final project, Sir David turned to a species he had kept as a child. He recalls: 'As a boy, I used to keep chameleons and I have actually watched the birthing process.'

He adds with a laugh: 'They are not poisonous, which helps.'

One of the most exciting things he saw during the filming of his latest series was pygmy chameleons in Madagascar.

'The tiny pygmy chameleon is only the size of my little finger nail, but has all the organs of a larger lizard - eyes and stomach and brain and hands and so on - and lives on tiny little fruit flies,' he says excitedly, his voice taking on that familiar tinge of passion and wonderment.

'I was absolutely knocked out. I thought they were marvellous.'

His career has taken him to most places on earth and he has witnessed some of nature's most extraordinary sights.

However, he is happy to take a backseat from now on: 'I am now coming up to my 82nd birthday and I don't feel the urge to climb trees before breakfast as I used to do.'

If he hadn't become a naturalist, he would most probably have been a palaeontologist (an expert in fossils). He says: 'I adore fossils and fossils were my first love. I get a great thrill from them, they are wonderful and romantic, beautiful things.'

His elder brother, Academy Award-winning Lord Richard Attenborough, acted in Jurassic Park as eccentric developer John Hammond in 1993. And fossil-fanatic Sir David notes: 'He made a mistake; he didn't understand some of the names.'

Of all the nature he has seen, he would choose to relive watching birds of paradise in the mountains of New Guinea: 'That is just one of the extraordinary, amazing, rare, beautiful, real unforgettable sights in my lifetime.'

Read more!

It's all about green power and helping firms cut costs

Alex Lau and Charles Ong started a company to help the environment at a time when the industry was still budding. Last year, their venture earned revenue of $2m
Ong Bi Hui, Straits Times 28 May 08;

BACK in 2002, when the green energy movement had barely sprouted, platoon mates Alex Lau and Charles Ong conceived a business plan during reservist training in a forest in Lim Chu Kang.

They were inspired by the sounds and smells of the forest to set up an enterprise that would help the environment.

Both men were also driven by a desire to leave their jobs as civil servants to set up their own firm.

Today, that plan has materialised into Anacle Systems, a local company that specialises in green technology and energy optimisation for buildings.

Their timing has been perfect, considering the rapid rise in interest in all things green. Indeed, Anacle is now on the cusp of expanding overseas.

Mr Lau, 35, admits with a laugh that although green energy is the flavour of the moment, their business probably sounds a little dull.

'I know our business is rather boring and we are dealing in relatively esoteric stuff, but basically what we do is help businesses cut down on energy wastage and save on power bills.'

Joint owner, Mr Ong, also 35, is equally self-deprecating: 'We know that we are a boring business, but Warren Buffett himself said that he invests only in boring businesses.'

Anacle was set up in February 2006 but came into its own only last year, when it attracted more than 20 new customers.

It posted a 23 per cent increase in profits to $300,000, and generated revenue of about $2 million last year.

It has also worked with many big names, including Sentosa Development Corporation and the PUB.

Entering a budding industry

WHEN they hatched their business plan, Mr Ong was still a civil servant with the Defence Science and Technology Agency while Mr Lau worked with the Ministry of Defence.

They were armed with chemical engineering degrees, contacts they had built up from years of working in related industries, and experience gleaned from stints with various companies.

'We set out to start a business that we felt would be socially responsible, as well as related to what we had been doing for the past few years,' says Mr Ong.

Mr Lau adds: 'Moreover, one of the reasons why we entered this market was that the industry was still budding and, hence, we would have little competition within Singapore and even in the region.'

Despite the pressures of setting up a new business, the two men remain good friends both at work and outside working hours.

They run different aspects of the business according to their strengths. For example, the more gregarious Mr Lau handles public relations while meticulous Mr Ong is in charge of operations and management.

Surge in green awareness

MR LAU says that while they had long seen the potential of green technology, they had no inkling then of the sudden surge in the sector's popularity brought on by awareness of climate change and especially rising oil prices.

According to his 'conservative estimate', Singapore's green technology market is worth at least $200 million to $300 million a year.

With oil prices having breached US$135 per barrel, energy conservation is becoming increasingly important to many companies.

Anacle helps companies save on energy bills by looking at inefficient aspects of a building, such as air-conditioning units that vent to walls, or heat-trapping sources like glass enclosed spaces. They then recommend solutions to help cut down on electricity use.

One such solution would be pre-cooling a building in the early hours of the morning. This allows it to retain the coolness throughout the day without the need to have its air-conditioning switched on during the entire working day.

Green technology is a key part of the business but Anacle has other strings to its bow, which helps the company to boost its bottom line.

'Asset management, which is ensuring that customers' equipment does not fail, still makes up at least half of our business,' says Mr Lau.

Looking beyond Singapore

THE two men say an important contributor of their success is having a strong business plan, and the fact that they were able to take this blueprint to government agencies to seek vital start-up funding.

They first received funding of $250,000 from Spring Singapore's Start-up Enterprise Development Scheme, an equity financing scheme that meant that the duo did not have to fork out a single cent to start their company.

Though small, the company has had no problems getting industry recognition. It bagged an Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Award for Industrial Applications last year, because it was the only participant in that category.

Anacle is now looking to the international market. Mr Lau says: 'As much as we had an easy start, like many businesses in Singapore, the crucial step for us is to make the transition from an SME to larger things.'

Anacle is currently looking to enter the more mature markets of the European Union, Japan and North America, and has already set up an office in California.

'In places like the European Union, there is a greater respect for the environment and, business-wise, companies are more willing to invest in green technology as it contributes to their brand image. In Singapore, instilling corporate social responsibility is still a budding trend,' says Mr Lau.

'Singapore is a good test bed, but it lacks the laissez-faire environment of more mature capitalist markets that will enable a business to really flourish.'

For entrepreneurs keen on starting their own businesses, the duo has this piece of advice: 'Just go for it.'

They say the process is much easier than it sounds. But for those who want to take the plunge into the nascent green technology market, they caution that market study, data gathering and analysis are of utmost importance. They also believe in taking care in hiring staff.

'Once you get the right people into the team, the business runs itself,' says Mr Ong.

As for the duo, they are still living the dream they dared to imagine back in the Lim Chu Kang forest.

Read more!

Can Singapore be a salad bowl, teens ask Vivian

Yes, nation welcomes individuals' uniqueness, says minister to SMS queries from students
Jane Ng, Straits Times 28 May 08;

ABOUT 600 pre-university students had a chance to lob questions at a minister yesterday on the broad topic Global City, Home For All. And they did - via SMS.

Even the shyer ones got their queries in during the 90 minutes Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan gave them at the annual Pre-University Seminar.

The questions - typographical errors and all - were flashed on the big screens on stage. It was the first time the seminar took this format.

The questions posed covered a broad range of topics - from global issues such as the rise in food and oil prices and income inequality, to local issues like why Singlish is not 'allowed', as well as controversial ones like whether Singapore should be more tolerant of homosexuals and opposition parties.

On Singlish, Dr Balakrishnan said the decision was a pragmatic one because Singaporeans needed to communicate with the world in a language universally understood.

The students also asked whether, instead of being a melting pot, Singapore could instead be a 'salad bowl', where each individual could retain his own uniqueness.

The minister agreed with the analogy, saying that Singapore was an open society which welcomed individuals' uniqueness.

Turning to opposition politics, he said the Government was not stopping anyone from going into it, but advised those contemplating it: Go into it because it is something you believe in, not because you want change for the sake of change.

To a student who asked what the Government was doing to help citizens amid the world food crisis and the American financial meltdown, he said the answer lay not in subsidies but in everyone working hard and smart to ensure that 'our goods and services are worth more than the food we eat, so we don't starve'.

Students also shared their aspirations when the minister asked them what their dreams were and what would make them happy and fulfilled. Their aspirations included being an aesthetic surgeon, a teacher, a top drummer and an astronaut.

To give more participants a say, the traditional keynote address was dropped in favour of short presentations by student panellists. These covered topics like whether Singapore was the place to live their dreams, and whether it would continue being a home for all.

Dr Balakrishnan said it was a 'great challenge' for him to respond to the text messages and presentations without a prepared script, and added: 'But I hope it was a more spontaneous session, a session which more truly reflected the concerns, ideas and dreams of the students.'

Victoria Ong, 17, a first-year student of Meridian Junior College, said she gained insights into what youth today thought and why the Government made certain decisions.

'We all have our own personal complaints and questions about what the Government does. I see better now why it makes certain decisions, even if I don't always agree with them.'

Minister Balakrishnan cautions against promoting use of Singlish
Channel NewsAsia 27 May 08;

SINGAPORE: Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister Vivian Balakrishnan has cautioned against promoting the use of Singlish.

Speaking at the Pre-University Seminar 2008 on Tuesday, Dr Balakrishnan said the move to promote the lingo is a "pet project" by "linguistic elites" that can cause more harm than good.

He said those championing the local lingo are mostly highly educated individuals who are able to effortlessly switch from Singlish to proper English.

"But very few of us, to be honest with you, really have the ability. For most of us, we can only speak one way. So I've often felt there's a bit of intellectual snobbery on the part of people who push Singlish," Dr Balakrishnan said.

Some 600 students from more than 20 institutions attended the dialogue session at Nanyang Technological University.- CNA/so

Launchpad for dreams, or just a workplace?
Students engage Minister on identity, political space and dual citizenship
Loh Chee Kong, Today Online 28 May 08;

FROM the word “go”, the flurry of SMSes flooded onto the giant screen — spelling out aspirations ranging from “world class rock drummer” and astronaut, to United Nations official and journalist exposing “the glaring inequities and corruption in the world”.

Such staunch idealism, expressed by young participants at the Pre-University Seminar yesterday, was matched only by their anxiety over whether their dreams could be fufilled from a “little red dot” some deemed too pragmatic and “narrow-minded”.

It was the first time that students at the annual event, :held this year at the Nanyang Technological University, had their SMSed thoughts projected onstage in real time.

And doing his best to assure the :590 youths from junior colleges, polytechnics and the Millennia Insitute that they could “change the world” with Singapore as the “launchpad”, was Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports.

The students wanted to know if Singapore was merely a great place to work and chase after material comforts, rather than a home. Could we be a global city and a home at the same time? :

Dr Balakrishnan told them: “We will send you out into the world, if need be, into outer space at some point in time, But we must always be a place from which you, your children and descendants, are launched from.”

In fact, he believes Singaporeans are better placed than many other peoples to ride the globalisation wave. A case in point: Quite a few Singaporeans are working for Google, and a number were, in fact, behind the creation of Gmail, saidDr Balakrishnan, recounting his recent visit to the Google headquarters in California.

And while some Singaporeans who succeeded overseas have criticised the “Singapore system”, the minister argued that it is this “tough, rigorous and pushy system” that gives citizens a “headstart”.

The Singapore of the past might be guilty of “forcing people to make choices too early” but things are different now, with “many more options — both in terms of scholarships, jobs and education courses”, he noted.

If :we welcome intellectual diversity however, students asked, why can’t we give more space for opposition politics or homosexuals? Dr Balakrishnan said social norms and “political rules, if need be” would continue to evolve.

Raffles Junior College’s John Chew pointed out: “In terms of religions and races, we know that we need to be tolerant. However, when it comes to political differences, it’s not just about me tolerating you. Is there any attempt on the part of the Government to include this segment of the population?”

Dr Balakrishnan said politics had to be “rough and tough ... because it is about lives”. He added: “These are issues in many parts of the world people are settling through blood, violence and wars. Here, all we do is argue with each other and you say we are intolerant.”

Another student lamented how, while Americans can talk about the “American Dream”, Singaporeans’ identity markers revolve only around mundane things such as chicken rice and the Merlion.

Dr Balakrishnan pointed out that some common values “underpin our society”, including “fairness and justice for all”, multiracialism, self-reliance and familyresponsibility.

While heartened that the youth “cared about each other” and “want to make a difference”, Dr Balakrishnan was worried about the risk of globalisation diluting Singaporeans’ sense of belonging, as the Republic sends its people out into the world and opens its doors to foreigners for economic expediency.

He urged the students: “Singapore must look, smell, feel in our hearts, like a home. If it is not, then all the success in the world would mean nothing for the future because there will be no Singapore.”

Read more!

Container transport is the most energy-friendly way of moving goods

AP Moller goes green and spreads the news
David Hughes, Business Times 28 May 08;

DANISH shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk made a lot last week of its efforts to become more environmentally friendly. The company says that increased energy efficiency led to a significant decrease of the CO2 emissions from its fleet. It says that this applies to both container vessels and tankers.

In six years, from 2002-2007, the average CO2 emissions for transport of a container has decreased by 8.9 per cent.

Last year alone, the decrease was about 3 per cent, according to the newly published 'Environmental Report 2007 AP Moller-Maersk Vessels'. Based on its experience so far, Moller-Maersk container shipping arm Maersk Line has increased its previous target decreasing CO2 emissions by 5 to 10 per cent.

Moller-Maersk is not alone among the major shipowners in attempting to improve its environmental performance, and 'reduce its carbon footprint'. But there is no doubt that the company is taking green issues very seriously.

The report covers a total of 323 owned vessels, but not chartered vessels. The report also describes the AP Moller-Maersk environment management, the results for 2007 and the continued effort to minimise the fuel consumption and air emissions from the vessels.

'The less fuel we use, the less CO2 we emit. This is good for the environment and economically beneficial to us, as environmental initiatives often go hand in hand with commercial advantages,' says company technical director Robert Pedersen.

With heavy fuel oil prices of over US$600 a tonne, companies hardly need any further incentive to save fuel. For Moller-Maersk, a reduction in fuel consumption in just its container business of 5 per cent would mean a saving of 1.5 billion Denmark kroner (S$430 million) at current fuel prices and exchange rates.

While Moller-Maersk's fuel savings are very welcome it should be realised that we are not, generally, talking about making existing ships use less fuel. Partly, we are talking about new ships coming into service with more efficient machinery. The Moller-Maersk fleet is getting younger, which generally means increased energy use.

In 1970, 30 newbuildings joined the company's fleet. Most of all, we are talking about economies of scale.

Targeted effort

The company claims that decreased CO2 emission is the result of a 'targeted innovative effort' but it adds, 'so far it is particularly the use of larger vessels and a continued renewal of the fleet which results in the improvement'.

'The environment is a focus area for us, and therefore we have, among others, set up an innovation team, which is working on more than 100 projects targeting increased environmentally friendly shipping. These include optimising hulls, propellers and paint.'

The company claims that its largest container vessels, the PS-class ships such as Emma Maersk which can carry 11,000 TEU (twenty foot equivalent units), have set a new standard for energy efficiency. These ships, the company says, emit only half as much CO2 per container transported as the considerably smaller 3,700 TEU L-class vessels.

Put another way, an L-class ship uses 1KW to carry one tonne about 43 km. An S-class ship takes the same weight some 72 km using the same energy. Those figures underline the fact that container transport represents by far the most energy- friendly way of transporting goods.

A Boeing 747, according to Maersk, carries a tonne of cargo some 6 km on 1KW while a truck manages about 15km and a diesel railway locomotive around 26km.

These comparisons explain why industry representatives get frustrated when politicians, especially EU ones, attack shipping for not doing enough to reduce its carbon footprint.

And it also explains why, like Moller-Maersk, shipping lines are now more willing to publicise what they are achieving.

Read more!

Highway on Jurong Island diverted for petrochem cracker

Charmian Kok, Business Times 28 May 08;

JURONG Island will go to great lengths to accommodate the petrochemical industry - as shown by the near-$100 million Jurong Island Highway diversion project.

About a kilometre of highway was diverted so that ExxonMobil could build a second cracker next to its current site. This way, the new cracker needs only 11 ha of land instead of 30 ha had it been built elsewhere on the island. This saves the company capex and operational costs - and saves Singapore precious space.

The director of the specialised parks development group at JTC Corporation, Heah Soon Poh, said that if further petrochemical projects require road diversion, JTC would consider it if their investment would benefit Singapore. 'One third of our manufacturing GDP comes from chemicals,' he said. 'We can safely say the bulk of that comes from Jurong Island. If it is an investment that is important to the Singapore economy and adds to the whole value chain, I don't see why we would not divert roads to accommodate it. We need to look at the bigger picture.'

The ExxonMobil project also required the diversion of pipelines on Jurong Island - a complex procedure that involved more than 17 pipes carrying natural gas, industrial water and carbon monoxide. In all, 25 companies on the island were affected.

The road diversion works, which started in January 2006, are expected to be completed by August this year. Pipeline diversion works started in November 2006 and were completed in January this year.

Read more!

Greenpeace campaign success and the "media mind bomb"

The campaign group: Greenpeace
Brian Wheeler, BBC News 27 May 08;

Few campaign groups can boast the global reach and influence of Greenpeace.

Whether pursuing Japanese whaling ships across the Antarctic, demonstrating against logging in the Amazon or storming oil rigs in the North Sea to protest against global warming, Greenpeace activists grab headlines around the world.

They have perfected the art of using high profile media events to exert pressure on politicians and big business.

Greenpeace founder, Bob Hunter, believed in the idea of the "media mind bomb" - reaching the public consciousness through dramatic, photo-friendly opposition to perceived environmental crimes.

But the organisation is not without its critics.

It has been accused of employing alarmist, even scaremongering, tactics in some of its campaigns and of undermining its serious message on climate change with its trademark publicity stunts.

'Direct action'

In the UK, Greenpeace was most recently in the headlines when four protesters breached security at Heathrow airport to protest against a third runway.

Greenpeace UK's executive director, John Sauven, says such examples of "direct action" are an important part of the group's overall lobbying effort.

"I think the action at Heathrow and what the protesters did on the roof of the House of Commons, are quite important moments actually, in actually raising the issue.

"It has put the government on the back foot on something they thought they were going to just railroad through. This is no longer going to be the case. It is going to be quite a hot political potato for them."

Mr Sauven, who cut his teeth protesting against logging in the rainforests of British Columbia, says much of Greenpeace's work - its scientific research and relentless arm-twisting in board rooms and the corridors of power - goes unreported.

"Sometimes you can slap a big, thick report on the desk and it has the impact you want and sometimes you need to do a direct action to raise the profile, or sometimes you need to use an artist or somebody else from the creative industries."

People join Greenpeace, he says, because in an age when politics seems to have been drained of values and meaning, with politicians becoming increasingly "cut off" from the public and obsessed with media manipulation, it seems to stand for something.

"I think there are certain core values that Greenpeace and other groups stand for, that is attractive to people.

"And that gives a sense of purpose or a sense of belonging, a sense of actually standing for something - or standing up for something."

Core beliefs

Greenpeace was founded in Vancouver in 1971 to protest against underground nuclear testing. It now has 27 national and regional offices around the world and claims a campaigning presence in 41 countries.

In the UK, Greenpeace employs about 100 people, in a former animal testing laboratory in the back streets of Islington, North London ("we had to change the karma of the building," jokes Mr Sauven).

Like a political party, its supporters sign up to a raft of different campaigns based around core beliefs and values.

But - unlike a party - they have no direct input into policy formation. There are no leadership elections or conference debates.

Most national offices elect a board of directors, who make decisions on local campaigns, but global objectives and budgets are decided by Greenpeace International, which owns the Greenpeace name and has its headquarters in Amsterdam.

"Globally, the organisation decides on its priorities, through a joint programme meeting, where the campaigners representing the offices around the world meet once a year to decide on priority campaigns, so that's where our big global campaigns are decided, collectively by offices from China to Russia, to Europe, North America and so on," explains Mr Sauven.

'Frightening facts'

But, he argues, Greenpeace does not gain its legitimacy from the number of people it represents - the size of its membership - but from the strength of its arguments, its independence and willingness to speak up for its beliefs.

"I hold my beliefs and I will always take the consequences of what I stand for," he says.

Crucially, he adds, it receives no direct funding from governments or business - adding to the sense that it is an independent voice.

But what about the accusation - made by, among others, Guardian journalist Nick Davies in his recent Flat Earth News book - that it can sometimes be guilty of overstating the threat posed by nuclear energy or climate change in order to grab headlines?

In one video clip on the Greenpeace website, entitled "Friday 13th - watch your worst nightmares unfold", a family trip to the beach ends in horror when a passenger jet crashes into a nuclear power station.

The accompanying press release contains a list of "frightening facts" on the risk of nuclear installations being targeted by terrorists.

'Big issues'

Such shock tactics are justified if they can be supported by facts, argues Mr Sauven, pointing to a US report on the risk of terrorists flying a plane into a nuclear plant.

"Some of this is slightly artistic license in terms of...these are short films made to grab attention, create a stir and so on and so forth, but I think that they are legitimate in the sense that these are big issues."

He adds: "I am not saying that we never have got our facts wrong. I am not saying we never make mistakes - sometimes we do - but certainly getting our facts right is critical for me."

It seems the internet is posing a particular challenge to Greenpeace when it comes to editorial standards.

If you trawl through the "vast amounts of information" put out by the organisation across the world, Mr Sauven concedes that you will probably be able to "pick out things that were inaccurate or have been overstated".

He is "not happy about that", he says.

"It does pose certain issues for us, in terms of how we guarantee the same kind of quality of standard in the new media area that we have done traditionally."

'Tough decisions'

A large part of Mr Sauven's time is taken up with political lobbying - he has "constant" meetings with senior ministers.

But few, with the possible exception of David Miliband, seem to take the issue of global warming as seriously as Greenpeace, he argues.

"I don't think any of them have really got the seriousness of the issue of climate change in their DNA. It's not that they don't mouth it, it's not that they don't talk about it, it's not that they don't say it's an absolute global priority.

"But you don't get the sense when you talk to them that this is a really critical issue, we have got to do something about it - come hell or high water we are going to make some tough decisions."

He believes Prime Minister Gordon Brown's unwillingness to halt the construction of a third runway at Heathrow and a new coal fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent, speaks volumes about the prime minister's true priorities.

"Brown will say to you, he's said to me before: 'What are you doing to mobilise the public? Why aren't you getting the public on board? Why aren't you opening up the political space?'

"And you think, well why don't you make it easier for us to do that?"

'Vested interests'

He is cautiously optimistic about the Conservative Party: "There are some people definitely within the Tory Party, where there is climate change in their DNA. They definitely get it. They see it as one of their key issues".

But he says leader David Cameron will have to be prepared to take on some "powerful vested interests" if he is to deliver on the pledges included in the party's recent Quality of Life Commission report ("a "really excellent study, a fascinating document to read. I was very surprised that it came out of the Tory Party").

And he remains unrepentant about Greenpeace's buccaneering, publicity-grabbing approach to campaigning.

"I am not unhappy with the situation that exists because it's a bit like an iceberg, you see the tip of it but 90% of the work goes on underneath."

GREENPEACE
Founded: 1971
Leading figures Gerd Liepold, executive director, Greenpeace International; John Sauven, executive director, Greenpeace UK
Aims: Defend the natural world and promote peace through action
Funding: Donations from individuals, grants from foundations
Legal status: Greenpeace UK is a limited company, operating under licence from Greenpeace International, in the Netherlands, which owns the name
Membership: About 2.8 million worldwide

Read more!

East coast horseshoe crabs poised for recovery

Jon Hurdle, Reuters 27 May 08;

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Restrictions by U.S. east coast states on harvesting horseshoe crabs, whose eggs provide food for endangered migrating shore birds, have boosted the animal's population after years of over-fishing, experts say.

Some experts have linked a decline in migratory shore birds to the over-fishing of horseshoe crabs, which come ashore every spring to lay their eggs, so Delaware, New Jersey and other nearby states turned their attention to boosting crab numbers.

Until the last few years, the crabs were harvested in their millions by commercial fishermen who used them as bait for conch and eel. But with ornithologists warning that the red knot, a robin-sized shore bird, was in imminent danger of extinction because of the lack of crab eggs, the states where the crabs spawn have banned or restricted the harvest.

New Jersey imposed a two-year moratorium on the crab harvest and then banned it altogether earlier this year, while Delaware allows only males to be harvested, and restricts those numbers.

The population of male crabs on Delaware beaches has now risen to 4.22 per square meter (11 square feet) from 2.50 in 1999, while female numbers have risen to 0.89 from 0.77, said Stewart Michels, a fisheries scientist at the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife.

"We are very optimistic that the significant increase is a good sign of things to come," Michels said.

Delaware's crab harvest declined to around 77,000 in 2007 from 487,000 in 1995, while the numbers taken on the East Coast as a whole, dropped to 817,000 in 2007 from around 3 million in 1995, Michels said.

The crabs are also used by biomedical companies that use their blood to extract a substance used to detect fever-causing bacteria in humans.

The number of red knot stopping over on Delaware Bay beaches during their 10,000-mile (16,000-km) migration from south America to Arctic Canada each spring has dropped in recent years to around 15,000, a number that scientists say is below that needed to sustain the species.

Scientists hope that if they can save the red knot, they will also be able to help other species such as ruddy turnstone and semi-palmated sandpiper, whose numbers have also declined because of the dwindling number of crab eggs.

(Editing by Michelle Nichols and Sandra Maler)

Read more!

Caribbean nations plan marine parks to aid economy

Alister Doyle, Reuters 27 May 08;

OSLO (Reuters) - Caribbean islands will create new protected areas for fish and coral reefs under a $70 million plan announced on Tuesday that will help safeguard tourism-backed economies.

"This is a trust fund for the future benefit of society," Bahamas Minister of Works and Transport Earl Deveaux told Reuters of the project. "Our economy is based on tourism and our greatest natural resource is our environment."

Inspired by a 2006 plan to protect part of the Pacific Ocean and a "Coral Triangle" project launched in 2007 for southeast Asia, nine Caribbean nations agreed to extend protected areas to 10 percent of their marine and coastal habitats by 2012.

The Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Saint Lucia, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines aim to set aside about (32,000 square km (12,500 sq miles), according to the U.S.-based Nature Conservancy which is advising Caribbean governments.

That area is roughly the size of Belgium or the U.S. state of Maryland. The Bahamas will be the largest contributor of protected areas under the "Caribbean Challenge" and aims to set aside 20 percent of marine habitats by 2020.

"In many Caribbean nations at least 50 percent of gross domestic product is derived from tourism," said Rob Weary of the Nature Conservancy. "Countries are realizing the need to invest in protected areas so tourism can remain the economic engine."

BIODIVERSITY

Other Caribbean nations would be asked to join.

The Nature Conservancy said the three Caribbean, Pacific and Coral Triangle projects together spanned 83 percent of the world's coral biodiversity and 82 percent of mangrove species and had potential to aid the livelihoods of 130 million people.

Deveaux said the project could have wider spinoffs since five percent of the world's coral reefs were in the Bahamas.

"Whatever contribution they are likely to make to medicine, pharmaceuticals, biodiversity, the preservation of these ecosystems is vitally important to people well beyond the borders of the Bahamas," he said.

The plan was launched on the sidelines of a May 19-30 U.N. meeting on biodiversity in Germany, which is seeking ways to safeguard animals and plants. Only 0.5 percent of the world's marine areas are protected against 12 percent of land areas.

The Nature Conservancy said that about seven percent of the Caribbean's marine resources now have protected status but only a tenth of these were considered properly conserved.

The $70 million cost would comprise $40 million in a trust fund and $30 million for expanding protected areas, Weary said. Among major donors, the Conservancy would provide $20 million and Germany was considering $8.6 million.

The project illustrates a widening belief that natural systems, such as forests, wetlands or glaciers, provide free services that are undervalued by conventional economic theory.

Protected corals, for instance, can raise overall fish catches by acting as nurseries for fish that later swim to other waters. Intact reefs also draw tourists and can shield beaches from storm surges or tsunamis.

Deveaux said that steps to bolster Caribbean economies would also help them in the longer term to resist threats such as climate change or rising world food prices.

Read more!

Australia Links Organised Crime To Illegal Fishing

PlanetArk 27 May 08;

CANBERRA - Organised crime groups around the world and even motorcycle gangs are becoming involved in illegal fishing, lured mainly by demand from China for prized fish species, a study by Australian crime experts said.

The groups from China, Australia, Russia, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and Japan have all been linked to illegal fishing, with fish stocks either sold illegally or used to launder money, the Australian Institute of Criminology said.

The institute's report on illegal fishing called for greater international cooperation to fight the black market, and said criminal groups targeted prized species in demand in Asia, such as abalone, shark fins and beche-de-mer, or sea cucumber.

"It is clear that overseas illicit markets in seafood products such as abalone, beche-de-mer and shark fin are flourishing, due in part to a steadily increasing demand from mainland China," the institute said.

The Australian-government funded institute said profits from illegal fishing could be high, with the rich in China willing to pay up to $5,000 for meals with top quality abalone, and with demand for shark fin growing an estimated five percent a year.

It said in New Zealand, several coastal abalone fishing areas have been closed, with the official catch of 1,057 tonnes a year estimated to be matched by 1,000 of poached abalone.

The report said as crime groups increased their interest in illegal fishing, there was evidence of growing cooperation between crime groups and motorcycle gangs in different countries.

It said the illegal fish trade could be used to pay off other criminal activities, such as drugs and arms sales, people smuggling and sex slavery.

"A wide range of criminal activities may be associated with the illegal trade, including the concealment of financial transactions and profits," the report said.

"These crimes include violence, corruption, fraud and money laundering, with the transfer of the proceeds of crime across networks and national borders."

It said Australian abalone, shark fin and seahorses were attractive to international poachers, while abalone, lobster, mud crabs, snapper and reef fish were vulnerable to poaching for the domestic market.

Australia's exclusive fishing zone covers 11 million square kilometres (4.2 million square miles), with the commercial fishing harvest worth about A$2.3 billion ($2.2 billion) a year, with about A$1.85 billion worth of seafood exports.

(US$1=A$1.04)

(Editing by Michael Perry and Sanjeev Miglani)

Read more!

Greenpeace protests against Spanish tuna ship

Michael Perry, Reuters 27 May 08;

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Greenpeace staged a high-seas protest against a Spanish-owned tuna fishing ship in the South Pacific on Tuesday, dropping a 25 meter (75 feet) floating banner "No Fish, No Future" into its net.

Greenpeace ship Esperanza had been tailing the Albatun Ters for five days, claiming it is the biggest tuna catching vessel in the world, and on Tuesday launched a protest as the ship was fishing off the Phoenix Islands in Kiribati.

The banner was dropped into the vessel's trawling net in an attempt to stop the ship from retrieving the net and using it again, but the move failed to prevent the ship from hauling the net back in.

"Early this morning we caught it fishing inside Kiribati waters and took action," Lagi Toribau, Greenpeace Australia Pacific Oceans Campaigner on board the Esperanza, told Reuters by telephone.

Greenpeace said the Albatun Tres can net more than 3,000 tonnes of tuna in a single fishing trip -- almost double the entire annual catch of some Pacific island nations.

"Time and tuna are running out. Vessels of this size cannot be left to plunder and empty out the remaining tuna stocks and need to be taken off the water and scrapped immediately in order to address the overcapacity of the world's tuna fleets," Sari Tolvanen of Greenpeace International said in a statement.

South Pacific nations decided last week to ban licensed tuna vessels from fishing in international waters between their islands and to require them to always carry fishing observers.

The new rules will take effect from June 15, 2008.

In February, the island nation Kiribati created the world's largest protected marine reserve, a California-sized watery wilderness covering 410,500 square km (158,500 square miles), to preserve tuna spawning grounds and coral reef biodiversity.

Greenpeace said the Albatun Tres was fishing under an EU agreement with Kiribati and called on small Pacific island nations to reject approaches from other European fishing firms for more tuna fishing licenses.

Greenpeace said decades of over-exploitation has reduced some of tuna stocks in the Pacific to just 15 percent of what they once were and European fishing firms are now chasing tuna in the Pacific after tuna stocks fell in the Atlantic.

"The Albatun Tres has arrived to the Pacific from the Indian Ocean earlier this year. The Pacific tuna stocks are in decline and there simply isn't enough fish in the sea to fill the holds of these huge vessels," said Toribau.

"Adding more vessels to those already allowed to fish guarantees that there will be no fish left for the future."

Rising fuel prices will likely force Japanese fishermen to suspend some tuna fishing in the Pacific and Indian oceans, officials from Japan's main tuna fishing union said on Tuesday.

The union is considering stopping about 80 fishing boats from going to the Pacific and the India Ocean for three months or more to catch bigeye tuna and yellowfin tuna, two common and reasonably priced fish at sushi bars, union officials said.

The officials said tuna fishermen in Taiwan, China and South Korea were likely to follow suit.

Greenpeace welcomed the news that Asian tuna fishing operations may be reduced but called for a permanent reduction based on environmental grounds.

Greenpeace's Esperanza has been in the South Pacific for the last eight weeks and has staged protests against fishing fleets from Taiwan, Korea, the United States, the Philippines and Spain.

Greenpeace advocates the creation of a network of marine reserves, protecting 40 percent of the world's oceans, with regulated fishing in all other areas as the long term solution to overfishing and the recovery of our overexploited oceans.

(Additional reporting by Teruaki Ueno in Tokyo; Editing by Valerie Lee)

Read more!

West Sumatra forestry service to plant 2 million trees in 2008

Antara 27 May 08;

Sijunjung, West Sumatra (ANTARA News) - West Sumatra`s forestry service plans to plant a total of two million trees in 2008 as part of the national movement to counter global warming, a local official said.

Last year, the province succeeded in planting around 1.2 million trees on barren lands, West Sumatra`s forestry service head Syahrial Syam said here on Tuesday.

In 2009, the province would plant 2.5 million trees on arid areas and in school yards, he said.

The provincial administration had provided seedlings and coordinated the working program of the tree planting movement, he said.

The province at present had at least 500,000 trees to be distributed and planted, he said.

Indonesia has at least planted 86 million trees as part of the global campaign to fight climate change.

Indonesian First Lady Ani Yudhoyono recently got an award from the United Nations for promoting the planting of millions of trees in Indonesia as part of the Billion Tree Planting Campaign spearheaded by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Agro-forestry Center (ICRAF).

In addition to the First Lady, UNEP had also awarded a citation to Indonesia`s forestry minister for supporting the global tree planting activities. (*)

Read more!

Tigers, Elephants Returning to War-Torn Cambodia Forest

Stefan Lovgren, National Geographic News 27 May 08;

For years wildlife poacher Lean Kha had prowled the war-ravaged forests of Mondulkiri Province in eastern Cambodia looking for meat.

A former teenage soldier for the Khmer Rouge political party, he estimates that he killed a thousand animals, including ten tigers, after the fall of the brutal Pol Pot regime in 1979.

Once dubbed the "Serengeti of Asia," almost all of Mondulkiri's wildlife was wiped out by poachers during decades of conflict, which began with the war in neighboring Vietnam.

Now, with Cambodia finally at peace, small but growing populations of animals—including Indochinese tigers, Asian elephants, and critically endangered species such as the giant ibis—are returning to one of Southeast Asia's last remaining dry forests.

And Kha, now 45 years old, is helping to protect them as a head ranger supported by the international conservation group WWF.

"At the time I was ignorant and did not think there was a problem when I shot those tigers," he said, sitting at the forest headquarters in Mereuch as the Srepok River rushed behind him.

"Now I know we need to protect these animals for our children and grandchildren."

Coming Back Home

Humans cannot live inside the protected Mondulkiri Protected Forest reserve. A visitor can walk for miles without seeing any sign of humans, an unusual experience in otherwise densely populated Cambodia.

And with the region's searing summer temperatures and open, shadeless terrain, it's also usually hard to spot wildlife during the day.

But camera traps that take pictures at night show a different story.

A few years ago park rangers caught their first Indochinese tiger on camera. In 2007 a camera trap produced a picture of a female leopard and her cub.

Other wildlife returning to the area include banteng, a type of ox; Eld's deer; several species of wild cats; and one of the region's last remaining wild water buffalo populations.

"There is a lot of wildlife out there, considering the beating that this area has taken," said Nick Cox, who coordinates WWF's regional dry forests program and is based in Vientiane, Laos.

While leopards are now relatively common, there may be only five to ten Indochinese tigers in the forest today.

But conservationists say that as the density of prey species increases, the number of tigers could rise to at least 30 in as little as five years.

That is, if the 70 rangers working the forest can keep poachers at bay.

Like Kha, many of them are former hunters who have spent their whole lives under the forest canopy. Now they spend at least 16 days on patrol every month, keeping strict records of wildlife numbers.

"All protected areas need to know the number of important prey species and carnivores, because if we don't know the credit in our bank account, we can't monitor our wealth," said Prach Pich Phirun, a research coordinator for WWF's Srepok Wilderness Project.

Cambodia Boomtown

Even without the threat of poachers, the battle for this vast forest of almost a million acres (close to 400,000 hectares) is far from over.

Cambodia's popularity as a tourist destination is skyrocketing, with foreign tourist arrivals topping two million last year, according to the country's tourism minister. And the remote Mondulkiri Province is becoming the country's new hot spot.

Draped over several rolling hills, Sen Monorom, the tiny provincial capital, has the feel of a Wild West boomtown.

A plethora of hotels and backpacker lodges have opened up, and wealthy Cambodians are streaming to the area to snap up any available land. The main road being graded and paved by Chinese contractors will ease access to the region.

"This increased activity could put a lot of pressure on the environment," said Craig Bruce, WWF's technical advisor on protected areas in Cambodia, who is based in Sen Monorom.

A housing building boom, he warned, could also lead to a surge in illegal timber cutting.

And there are signs that poaching and illegal wildlife trade are on the rise in Cambodia, where animals are being smuggled through Vietnam with the involvement of Chinese traders.

Ecotourism Plans

Conservationists are now investing in ecotourism projects in the hopes of keeping the Mondulkiri forest protected.

WWF is planning an upscale eco-resort with eight cottages along stilts on the banks of the Srepok River.

Yet money earned from such eco-projects must benefit local communities living around the forest, said James MacGregor, an environmental economist at the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development, which backs the WWF project.

"There are a lot of poor people in this area who have traditionally generated their livelihood through hunting and collecting wood," MacGregor said.

"We're asking people to forgo doing something that has helped them for years."

Planners envision that Mondulkiri could also become a destination for adventurous travelers, such as mountain bikers.

Mark Ellison of Cambodia-based Asia Adventures said tour operators are looking to offer tourists additional activities in Cambodia besides visiting the popular Angkor Wat temples.

"Here's an opportunity to go mountain biking in an area that is for all intents and purposes undiscovered," he said.

While a recent bicycle trip of conservationists and journalists showcased the unchartered nature of the terrain, it also turned into a harrowing ordeal at one point, with bikers getting lost without any means of communication.

Luckily a passing elephant driver had noticed tire tracks from the bikes going the wrong way and tracked down the team just as its water supply was running out.

Cox, the WWF dry forest program coordinator and one of the most experienced bikers on the trip, admitted that some work needed to be done before Mondulkiri would be ready to welcome visitors.

"There are a few kinks that need ironing out, that's for sure," he said.

Read more!

Congo basin forest is biggest for approved logging

Reuters 27 May 08;

OSLO (Reuters) - A tract of tropical forest in the Congo Basin mapped with the help of local pygmies has become the largest in the world certified under a system meant to ensure responsible logging, partners in the project said on Tuesday.

The 7,500 sq km (2,896 sq mile) concession area, almost the size of Cyprus or Puerto Rico, is operated by Congolaise Industrielle des Bois (CIB), a unit of Danish hardwood specialist DLH Group.

The area was the "largest ever tract of contiguous certified tropical forest in the world", partners said in a statement after the forest won certification meant to avoid deforestation. It more than doubled an existing CIB concession.

"Timber production does not have to be synonymous with the destruction of tropical forests," said Scott Poynton, executive director of the Tropical Forest Trust, a Geneva-based non-profit charity that works with industry to conserve forests.

Pygmies in Congo used GPS satellite handsets to pinpoint sacred sites on maps in the Pokola rainforest to ensure that they would be untouched by loggers.

"For instance, at a large Sapelli tree prized for its edible caterpillars, or an important collecting point for medicinal plants, they simply selected the appropriate icon and the GPS records the location," the statement said.

The handheld mapping device "made it possible for the pygmy communities to communicate to us the specific forest resources that they hold sacred", said Robert Hunink, executive vice president of DLH Group.

The area of forest received certification from the Forest Stewardship Council, an independent non-profit group which tries to set standards for logging companies to avoid deforestation.

Forests in the Congo Basin cover about 1.81 million sq km (700,000 square miles), making them second largest in the world after the Amazon.

But the Congo Basin forests lose about 40,000 square km every year "due to the effects of poverty, population increase, illegal logging, mining, poor forest management and conversion of forest land to agriculture", the statement said.

Read more!

The Amazon for sale for 50 bln dollars? Not in Brazil's book

Yahoo News 26 May 08;

A Swedish-born tycoon who acts as a deforestation advisor to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has stirred up controversy in Brazil for reportedly claiming all the Amazon could be bought for 50 billion dollars.

Johan Eliasch, the 46-year-old boss of the Head sports equipment company, is under investigation by Brazilian police and intelligence services for the alleged comments and for 160,000 hectares (395,000 acres) of Amazon forest he is believed to have bought, the newspaper O Globo reported Monday.

He reportedly made the assertions to stimulate land acquisition as part of his role as director of Cool Earth, an organization he co-founded which finds sponsors for the rainforest as a way of protecting it.

"Eliasch held meetings with businessmen between 2006 and 2007 in which he proposed that they buy land in the Amazon, and told them 'only' 50 billion dollars would be needed to acquire all the forest," according to a report by Brazil's Abin intelligence agency cited by O Globo.

The issue is a sensitive one for Brazil, which has been offended by statements by British politicians suggesting that the Amazon is too important to all of mankind to be left to the management of Brazil's government alone.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday stated that "the Brazilian Amazon has an owner, and that owner is the Brazilian people."

He told a gathering in Rio de Janeiro that while he was conscious of the need to conserve the forest, "there is also need to develop the Amazon."

Brasilia has been progressively tightening laws aimed at protecting the huge forest by cracking down on illegal ranchers, farmers and loggers, and stepping up vigilance against foreigners looking to exploit its biodiversity.

Eliasch, who lives in London and has an estimated net worth of 790 million dollars, stopped being a significant donor to Britain's conservative party last September. He switched allegiance to Brown's Labour Party, apparently winning his special consulting post in the process.

Although Cool Earth has generally received positive evaluations in Britain and the United States, some accuse the organization of embarking on "green colonialism" and compounding the problems of indigenous groups living in the Amazon.

British charity 'bewildered' by Amazon inquiry: spokesman
Yahoo News 27 May 08;

British-based environmental group Cool Earth said on Tuesday it was "bewildered" by reports that its co-founder was being investigated by Brazilian authorities over comments he made about the Amazon.

The O Globo newspaper reported on Monday that Brazilian police and intelligence services were investigating Cool Earth's millionaire co-founder Johan Eliasch -- a British-Swedish national -- for comments he allegedly made claiming that all of the Amazon could be bought for 50 billion dollars.

Brazil's new Environment Minister Carlos Minc said he was shocked by the report, and that one of his first acts in his new post would be to open an inquiry into the matter.

"It's bewildering because we do not own any lands in Amazonas, we fund various protection projects through our partners," Cool Earth Director Matthew Owen told AFP.

He added that Cool Earth had received "no information" about an inquiry in Brazil.

"We are aware it's been announced in the press but we've had no information whatsoever ... We are a quite high profile charity and we've done a great deal in a year to channel funds into conservation and protection," Owen said.

"The ownership of the Amazon is a very politicised topic and understandably the government wants to understand what all players are doing.

"We are successful in bringing ... funding in the Amazon protection but there is no evidence whatsoever that we infringed any regulations."

A source close to Eliasch, the 46-year-old boss of the Head sports equipment company and an environmental adviser to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, claimed the investigation was started to "whip up nationalism for political purposes."

According to Owen, Cool Earth doesn't "own any land in Amazonas, we fund conservation projects but we are not interested in owning lands which we think would be an inappropriate use of a UK-based charity."

He said that around 32,000 hectares of land were "protected" by funds provided by Cool Earth in Brazil and Ecuador, and added that the group was looking at funding similar projects in Peru.

The source close to Eliasch estimated that around 70 percent of the Amazon was owned by the Brazilian federal government, with 20 percent owned by indigenous tribes and the remainder in private hands.

At a 2006 conference, the source said, Eliasch had linked deforestation in the Amazon with storms in the Gulf of Mexico, which cost insurers 75 billion dollars, and suggested that the Amazon could be preserved for around a third of that cost.

Read more!

Why Brazil's ethacane could be the world's oil substitute

Alexandre Marinis, Business Times 28 May 08;

SOMETIMES two things look pretty much the same, such as a Cartier diamond and a Home Shopping Network cubic zirconia. There's a world of difference between the two.

The same is true of ethanol made in the US, mainly from corn, and ethanol from Brazil derived from sugar cane. They look the same, though that's where the similarities end between what I like to call ethacorn and ethacane.

Although ethacane doesn't produce a fraction of the negative economic, environmental and social problems that ethacorn does, as international food prices soar and environmental concerns mount, both are being thrown into the same pinata to get hammered. Ethacorn deserves the beating, not ethacane.

It's hard to know whether those wielding the sticks are just temporarily blindfolded or whether they have an interest in defending the fossil-fuel industry or the agricultural subsidies of rich nations. There are four main arguments against the wide use of Brazilian ethacane:

# Food prices are being driven out of sight as farmers grow more-profitable sugar cane instead of other crops.

# Amazon rainforest is being destroyed to make way for cropland.

# Ethacane pollutes as much or more than oil-based fuel.

# Cane production uses the equivalent of slave labour and is morally unjust since it takes food from the mouths of the poor to put in the gas tanks of the rich.

Each of these points is a myth.

To start with, let's make a broad point. "Brazil has the oldest, most advanced and efficient ethanol programmes in the world", according to the report of an international conference on biofuels in February 2007 at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington.

That brings up the first question: If ethacane were responsible for higher food prices, wouldn't food cost more in Brazil than elsewhere? It doesn't.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, Brazil is one of the world's cheapest producers of corn, soybeans, beef, chicken, pork, milk and rice. In a clear sign of agricultural competitiveness, Brazil is also a leading exporter of food.

"When we talk about the influence of biofuels on the economy of grains, we are talking about the corn from the US, not the sugar cane from Brazil," said Abdolreza Abbassian, secretary of the Intergovernmental Group on Grains within FAO. A recent study by the International Monetary Fund shows that Brazil's ethacane hasn't been responsible for higher international food prices.

Brazil also has all the room needed to grow sugar cane and increase agricultural productivity without tearing down a single tree in the Amazon. Five hundred years ago, the Portuguese learned that the Amazon isn't the best region to grow sugar cane, which requires a long dry season. Out of 320 million hectares of arable land in Brazil, only 3.2 million hectares, or one per cent, are used to grow sugar cane for ethanol. Moreover, Brazil has 100 million hectares of underutilised pastures suitable for agriculture. That's more land than France and Germany combined. While every hectare, equal to about 2.5 acres, of Brazilian pasture feeds one cow, in many countries there are as many as six cows per hectare. If Brazilian ranching becomes slightly more intensive, the country could easily boost production of food and biofuels without destroying the forest. Proving economist Thomas Malthus wrong, in the past 15 years, Brazil increased the amount of land used to grow grains by 21 per cent, while production soared 119 per cent.

Arguing that ethacane pollutes more than fossil fuels is ludicrous. While oil already costs US$130 a barrel and will eventually run out, ethacane is renewable, cleaner and more efficient. In comparison with gasoline, ethacane reduces the emission of greenhouse gases by more than 80 per cent, according to the US Energy Department. As for efficiency, ethacane produces 8.2 joules of energy per unit of fossil-fuel input, compared with 1.5 joules for ethacorn and less than one joule for diesel and petrol. Ethacane is twice as productive as ethacorn - 6,800 liters per hectare for the former and 3,100 liters per hectare for the latter. It also produces 24 percent more fuel per hectare than the beet- or wheat-based ethanol common in Europe.

The argument that ethacane pollutes the environment because the cane must be burned before being manually harvested is a nonstarter. In the state of Sao Paulo, which produces 62 percent of Brazil's ethanol, more than half of the cane is already harvested mechanically and manual cane-cutting will be abolished by 2014. That should also put an end to the argument that cane harvesting relies on the equivalent of slave labor.

Nor does ethacane take from the poor and give to the rich. Agricultural subsidies in wealthy nations do that.

Far more problematic than any of these issues is the U.S. Congress's refusal to eliminate a 54-cent tariff on each gallon of imported ethanol. This levy was introduced in 1980 to protect U.S. makers of corn-based ethanol from competitors such as Brazil, which can produce ethacane for 22 cents per liter, while U.S. ethacorn costs 35 cents per liter. Lifting this tariff would ease the demand for corn and take a step toward easing pressure on food prices.

Brazil is threatening to challenge the US tariff at the World Trade Organization. Pascal Lamy, the director-general of the WTO, has already said Brazilian ethacane "isn't competing with food" and "is more respectful to the environment than the corn-based ethanol in the US and Europe."Sooner or later, the WTO might have the chance to decide whether the world can finally have a real substitute for oil. Pascal Lamy, the director-general of the WTO, has said Brazilian ethacane "isn't competing with food" and "is more respectful to the environment than the corn-based ethanol in the US and Europe." Sooner or later, the WTO might have the chance to decide whether the world can finally have a real substitute for oil. Until then, we'll have to live in a world where fake goods are passed off as the real thing. - Bloomberg

Alexandre Marinis, political economist and founding partner of Mosaico Economia Politica, is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own

Read more!

Climate change could trim corn yields: USDA

Reuters 27 May 08;

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Warmer temperatures brought on by climate change could trim output of some U.S. crops like corn in coming decades, but increase yields from other crops like soybeans, government scientists said on Tuesday.

U.S. corn output dips and rises from year-to-year but has risen overall as farmers use new seeds and fertilizers to maximize growth.

But output of the corn crops grown today could fall as much as much as 5 percent in coming decades as expected higher temperatures brought on by greenhouse gas emissions cause droughts and weaken plants, scientists said in a U.S. Department of Agriculture report released on Tuesday.

The report synthesized peer-reviewed studies on how climate change would affect agriculture, most of which assumed U.S. temperatures would rise about 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) over the next 30 to 50 years, as indicated by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report last year.

"We're running into a situation in which we have the greater likelihood of occurrences of extreme temperature events during during critical growth stages of that crop," Jerry Hatfield, the lead author of the agriculture section of the report, said about corn in a teleconference.

Corn is the top U.S. crop and is the main feedstock for the country's ethanol industry. Soybeans are second place, with soyoil used to make biodiesel.

Hatfield said many crops like corn are already grown near the highest temperatures they can stand, which makes them vulnerable to warmer weather. Other crops, like soybeans, can withstand higher temperatures, which means higher temperatures may increase their yield, he said.

The report did not project how yields would change should growers change to corn varieties that could be more drought or temperature resistant.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner, editing by Marguerita Choy)

Fed report says climate change risks crops, water
Judith Kohler, Associated Press Yahoo News 27 May 08;

Climate change is increasing the risk of U.S. crop failures, depleting the nation's water resources and contributing to outbreaks of invasive species and insects, according to a federal report released Tuesday.

Those and other problems for the U.S. livestock and forestry industries will persist for at least the next 25 years, said the report compiled by 38 scientists for use by water and land managers.

"I think what's really eye-opening is the depth and breadth of the impacts and consequences going on right now," said Tony Janetos, a study author and director of the Joint Global Change Research Institute at the University of Maryland.

Scientists produced the report by analyzing research from more than 1,000 publications, rather than conducting new research. It's part of a federal assessment of global warming for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, sponsored by 13 federal agencies, led by the Department of Agriculture.

"Just to see it all there like that and to realize the impacts are pervasive right now is a little bit scary," said Peter Backlund, director of research relations at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder.

Drought-strained forests in the West and Southeast are easy prey for tree-killing insects like bark beetles. Snow in the Western mountains is melting earlier, making it more difficult for managers overseeing a long-established system of reservoirs and irrigation ditches that serves Western states.

The Southeast doesn't have the same kind of storage system because rain historically has been more consistent. Current weather disruptions have the region struggling with drought, Janetos said.

Rising carbon dioxide levels are changing the metabolism of grasses and shrubs on range land, decreasing the protein levels in plants eaten by cattle.

Warmer, drier weather is altering the biodiversity of deserts in the Southwest and the high, colder deserts of Nevada, Utah and eastern Washington, said Steve Archer of the University of Arizona. Plants and animals already living in extreme conditions face threats from wildfires and nonnative species, he said.

"These areas historically support a large ranching industry, wildlife habitat," Archer said. "They are major watersheds and airsheds."

The scientists said longer growing seasons provided by higher temperatures don't necessarily translate into bigger crop yields because plants have certain growth patterns.

Their report focuses on the next 25 to 50 years, rather than the next 100 years as other studies have done.

"Sometimes it's so far out that people just don't grasp that it's a problem. This really brings it home," said Jerry Hatfield, lab director of the National Soil Tilth laboratory in Ames, Iowa.

The report makes no recommendations. Hatfield said it could help farmers consider planting new crop varieties or varying when they plant to accommodate seasonal changes.

Read more!

Research budgets cut amid food crisis, wheat worry

Jum Drinkard, Associated Press Yahoo News 27 May 08;

Dr. Yue Jin, a kind-faced man in a blue lab coat, is the nation's bulwark against a devastating new plant disease. He's the only federal scientist whose main mission is protecting the $17 billion U.S. wheat crop from annihilation.

His budget's being cut — in part because money has been drained off by Congress' pet projects.

Jin and other plant scientists have watched in alarm as mutant spores carried by the wind have spread a new strain of fungus from Africa across the Red Sea to infect wheat fields in Yemen and Iran, following a path predicted to lead to the rich wheat-growing areas of South Asia.

Most of the wheat varieties grown worldwide — including the vast bulk of those planted in the United States — are vulnerable. The threat of an epidemic only adds to a global food crisis brought on by drought, floods, high food and fuel prices and a surge in demand.

But despite the emergency, Associated Press interviews and a review of budget and research documents show that spending for Jin's laboratory and others where breeders develop disease-resistant wheat plants are being reduced this year, their money diverted to other programs and earmarked for special causes of members of Congress.

"Earmarking has been going up, and our discretionary funds have been going down," said Henrietta Fore, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has long provided much of the money for international agriculture research labs.

Most policymakers weren't around the last time wheat stem rust disease attacked the U.S. crop. It was in the early 1950s, and nearly half the crop was lost in parts of the upper Midwest as wheat plants developed brown patches that choked off their water and nutrients. Plant scientists responded by developing new wheat varieties with genes that made them immune to the fungus.

That worked for more than four decades, but now the new strain of the disease has surfaced. It's known as Ug99, named for where (Uganda) and when (1999) it was discovered.

There's an even more frightening development: The disease is evolving and infecting even wheat strains that had been thought to be resistant. It's much like what is happening in hospitals, where doctors are running out of options to treat infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The wheat threat comes with world stockpiles already at a 30-year low.

Dr. Jin works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture at the University of Minnesota, in greenhouses where he examines wheat samples infested with the telltale brown lesions of stem rust and seeks to identify plants whose genes resist the disease. His lab was hit by a $300,000 cut this year, 20 percent of its overall budget. The Bush administration made that reduction in a quest for budget savings. At the same time, money for international research centers that Yue works closely with, including a wheat laboratory in Mexico, saw their U.S. funding cut from $25 million to $7 million.

The threat to wheat, which provides 20 percent of the calories for the world's population, is but one facet of a food crisis that has sneaked up on policymakers. Overall U.S. spending for agricultural development around the world has dropped from more than $1 billion a year in the 1980s to less than one-third of that since 2000. "This amounts to neglect," says Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee.

The international labs, part of a consortium called the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, have for years been financed in part by the Agency for International Development. However when it came time to dole out money this year, AID found it had little to give because Congress had specified that nearly all overseas development aid go to other priorities — education, water projects, help for business start-ups, combating AIDS and malaria and promoting democracy.

When confronted by choices between international agricultural research and development projects affecting a particular country, the agency chose to shield the country-specific aid from cuts because it was deemed more important to U.S. relations with the recipient countries.

The international labs also lost out when they were pitted against U.S. universities that conduct farm research. A difference: The U.S. researchers hire lobbyists and have political clout.

A group of public and land-grant universities that spent $170,000 to lobby in the first quarter of this year hired lobbyists including the former chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Robert Livingston. The universities received $28 million in the AID budget, well above the $20 million they usually get, to fund programs such as sustainable agriculture, pest management, fish farming, and peanuts. AID says the increase is part of what forced CGIAR's funding to drop.

The cuts in agricultural research budgets couldn't come at a worse time, says Dr. Norman Borlaug, the 94-year-old Nobel laureate best known as the father of the "Green Revolution" that brought adequate food supplies to developing countries around the world in the mid-20th century. Lulled by that success, "the public and policymakers became complacent" about maintaining research, Borlaug said in an interview.

The result, he said, is a decline in living standards that is bad for everyone — the United States included. Food riots already have occurred in Egypt and Haiti this year. "Empty stomachs and human misery aren't a very good foundation for building understanding between nations," Borlaug said.

There are belated efforts to find additional research money. Borlaug met with key congressional officials last week and came away with a promise that they would take a new look at the problem. President Bush asked Congress on May 1 for $770 million to help alleviate the food crisis, but it's unclear whether any of it will be directed to research. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in April gave $27 million to help fund rust research in Mexico, Kenya and Ethiopia.

A Government Accountability Office report due out this week concludes that the United States and other developed countries have failed to give proper attention to helping their poorer neighbors grow sufficient food to feed their people. No one in the government has taken responsibility for championing the issue; the administration blames Congress, and Congress blames the administration.

"The United States is stepping away from one of its core contributions to world food security," says Jim Peterson, a wheat breeder at Oregon State University. "It takes 10 years to develop a new wheat variety. If we start today and have to incorporate new resistant genes, we may already be too late."

He adds: "Not to think there's any politics in food, but guess what?"

Read more!

China set to ban ultra-thin plastic bags

Michael Wei, Reuters 27 May 08;

BEIJING (Reuters) - China is about to try to kick a 3 billion-a-day plastic bag habit. But breaking the addiction, in a bid to save energy and protect the environment, will be easier said than done.

The world's most populous nation on Sunday will join a growing list of countries, from Ireland to Bangladesh, that are aiming to change shoppers' habits when a ban on the production of plastic bags under 0.025 millimeters thick comes into force.

Ultra-thin bags are the principal target of the crackdown because they are typically used once and then discarded, adding to waste in a country that is increasingly conscious of the air and water pollution caused by its breakneck economic growth.

Shopkeepers will also be barred from handing out free plastic carrier bags except for fresh and cooked foods. Those breaking the law face fines and could have their goods confiscated.

China consumes 37 million barrels of what is now very expensive crude oil each year to churn out the 3 billion plastic bags that its 1.3 billion people use on average each day, according to official figures.

Ma Zhanfeng, secretary-general of the China Plastics Processing Industry Association, expects the ban to bite.

"Domestic demand for plastic bags will drop drastically from 1.6 million tonnes a year to around 1.1 million tonnes," said Ma, who has nearly 20 years' experience in the industry.

Bag makers have already felt the pinch from the looming restrictions. Some have even been forced out of business.

But Ning Rongju with Friends of Nature, a local non-governmental organization, says all will depend on whether the new rules are enforced, especially in cities such as Beijing, where demand for bags in the capital's many markets is huge.

"The execution and monitoring of the law will actually determine the future of plastic bags," she said.

Xiao Ling, the mother of a 6-year-old boy, said her family was already in the habit of using nylon shopping bags. But she, too, was skeptical.

"Getting rid of all ultra-thin bags will take a long time," she said while out shopping at a Wal-Mart supermarket in Beijing.

FINAL STRAW

For China's plastic processors, the curbs are the latest blow to a sector struggling with soaring raw material and labor costs, a rising exchange rate and an end to export tax rebates.

The plastic bag industry is highly segmented, with factories in almost every province.

One major centre is Taizhou, a city in southeastern Zhejiang province where more than 10,000 manufacturers of plastic products enjoy sales of 40 billion yuan ($5.73 billion) each year, according to the Taizhou Plastic Industry Association.

Chen Jiazeng, the group's director, admitted that "small factories might ignore the rule and keep making ultra-thin bags" as long as they can make money.

The prospect that some underground manufacturers will turn a blind eye to the law is especially unsettling for smaller firms.

Taizhou Xinxing Plastic Packing Co Ltd, which employs 300 people and has annual sales of about 15 million yuan, mostly from plastic bags, is considering switching to other plastic goods.

"The new policy will make plastic bags even more expensive," Su Xiaobing, the company's sales manager, explained. "We won't have any price advantage then."

Fear of illegal competition is shared by big manufacturers such as Huiqiang in central Henan province, whose plastic bags all conform with the new national standards.

A sales manager who gave only his surname, Xue, said his firm had no quarrel with the policy but was worried about how it would be implemented.

"We're afraid we'll see small underground plants continuing to make ultra-thin bags if there is demand for them," Xue said. "We risk losing our market share by following the rules."

(Editing by Alan Wheatley and Alex Richardson)

Read more!

Plastic not fantastic? -- Bag bans around the world

Reuters 27 May 08;

(Reuters) -- China will become the latest country to outlaw ultra-thin plastic bags, when a ban takes effect on Sunday, in a bid to cut pollution and save resources.

The ban, announced by the State Council in January, halts the production of bags that are thinner than 0.025 mm and forbids their use in supermarkets and shops.

It also requires retailers to charge customers for thicker plastic bags not covered by the ban.

Environmentalists say plastic bags can take up to 1,000 years to disintegrate and pose threats to marine life, birds and other animals.

Here is a list of some of the countries that already restrict plastic shopping bags or plan to do so.

* AFRICA -- Rwanda and Eritrea banned the bags outright, as has Somaliland, an autonomous region of Somalia. South Africa, Uganda and Kenya have minimum thickness rules, and Ethiopia, Ghana, Lesotho and Tanzania are considering similar measures.

* AUSTRALIA -- Coles Bay in Tasmania became "Australia's First Plastic Bag-Free Town" in April 2003. Dozens of others followed suit. In January 2008, the environment minister called for supermarkets to phase out use of the bags nationwide by the end of the year.

* BANGLADESH -- The first large country to ban bags in 2002. Bangladesh blamed millions of discarded bags for blocking drains and contributing to floods that submerged much of the country in 1988.

* BHUTAN -- The isolated Himalayan country banned plastic shopping bags, street advertising and tobacco in 2007, as part of its policy to foster "Gross National Happiness".

* CHINA -- The ban on ultra-thin bags that goes into force on June 1 will cut pollution and save valuable oil resources, the State Council, or cabinet, says. In May 2007 Hong Kong proposed a 50 cent "polluter pays" levy on plastic shopping bags.

* ENGLAND -- In May 2007 the village of Modbury in south Devon became Europe's first plastic bag-free town, selling reusable and biodegradable bags instead. London's 33 councils plan to ban ultra-thin bags from 2009 and tax others.

* FRANCE -- In 2005, French lawmakers voted to ban non-biodegradable plastic bags by 2010. The French island of Corsica became the first to ban plastic bags in large stores in 1999.

* INDIA -- The western state of Maharashtra banned the manufacture, sale and use of plastic bags in August 2005, after claims that they choked drains during monsoon rains. Other states banned ultra-thin bags to cut pollution and deaths of cattle, sacred to Hindus, which eat them.

* IRELAND -- A plastic bag tax was passed in 2002. The tax created an initial 90 percent drop in bag use, according to the Environment Ministry, though usage gradually rebounded.

* ITALY -- Outright ban to be introduced from 2010.

* TAIWAN -- A partial ban in 2003 phased out free bags in department stores and supermarkets and disposable plastic plates, cups and cutlery from fast food outlets. Most stores charge people who don't bring their own T$1 ($0.03).

* UNITED STATES -- San Francisco became the first and only U.S. city to outlaw plastic grocery bags in April 2008. The ban is limited to large supermarkets.

The state of New Jersey is mulling phasing them out by 2010.

In January 2008 New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg signed a bill forcing large retailers to set up plastic bag recycling programs and to make recycled bags available.

Sources: Reuters

(Writing by Gillian Murdoch, Beijing Editorial Reference Unit, Editing by Alan Wheatley and Valerie Lee)

Read more!

Pioneers Show Americans How To Live "Off-Grid"

Tim Gaynor, Planet Ark 27 May 08;

BISBEE, Ariz, - With energy prices going through the roof, an alternative lifestyle powered by solar panels and wind turbines has suddenly become more appealing to some. For architect Todd Bogatay, it has been reality for years.

When he bought this breezy patch of scrub-covered mountaintop with views to Mexico more than two decades ago, he was one of only a few Americans with an interest in wind- and solar-powered homes.

Now, Bogatay is surrounded by 15 neighbors who, like him, live off the electricity grid, with power from solar panels and wind turbines that he either built or helped to install.

"People used to be attracted to living off-grid for largely environmental reasons, although that is now changing as energy prices rise," he said, standing in blazing sunshine with a wind turbine thrashing the air like a weed whacker overhead.

Spry and energetic, Bogatay makes few sacrifices for his chosen lifestyle. He has a small, energy saving refrigerator, but otherwise his house is like any other, with satellite television and a computer with Internet service.

"Electric and gas are going to skyrocket very soon. There are going to be more reasons for doing it, economic reasons," he said.

Bogatay and his neighbours at the 120-acre development are among a very small but fast-growing group of Americans opting to meet their own energy needs as power prices surge and home repossessions grow.

Once the domain of a few hardy pioneers, the dispersed movement is now attracting not just a few individuals and families, but institutions and developers building subdivisions that meet their own energy needs.

"It has its roots in 1970s hippy culture and survivalism, but it has now superceded that completely," said Nick Rosen, a trend analyst and author of the book "How to Live Off-Grid."

"Because of technology advancing ... and because of high house and energy prices ... there are a lot more people moving off grid."


INCENTIVES, FALLING COSTS

Rosen estimates that there are as many as 350,000 US households meet their own energy needs, and growing at 30 percent a year.

"As people are losing their homes, or finding the rent or mortgage too much to pay, they are choosing the off-grid alternative because it is so much cheaper," Rosen said

While installation costs for the solar panels, wind turbines, converters and batteries needed to power up an off-grid home were prohibitively expensive a few years back, improved technology and ramped up production has driven down costs significantly.

Popular solar-powered systems are made by Sharp Corp Kyocera Corp and silicon Valley-based Nanosolar, among others, and according to the website Low Impact Living installation costs have fallen by more than 80 percent over 20 years.

"The cost is falling all the time as there is more and more manufacturing plant coming on stream. In fact, there may even be a glut in solar panels next year which would be very good news for the consumers," said Rosen.

Denmark's Vestas Wind Systems A/S is one of the leaders in wind turbine technology.

Ten US states, from California in the West to New Jersey and Pennsylvania on the eastern seaboard, offer incentives including grants and tax credits for solar panel installation under policies seeking a shift to renewable energies.

Power utilities such as Arizona Public Service, the principal subsidiary of Pinnacle West Capital Corp is among utilities in several US states that offer subsidies to consumers planning to meet their own power needs, so as to ease demand for a growing on-grid customer base.

"Not only is it getting cheaper to generate non-grid electricity, but it's getting cheap and comfortable to set up your off-grid home, and there are even bonuses from your local utility company for doing so," Rosen said.


FOLLOWING THE MONEY

One clear sign that the off-grid lifestyle is moving more mainstream is that developers and other organizations starting to look at off-grid alternatives, drawn by both environmental arguments and simply the bottom line.

Lonnie Gamble, a developer behind an off-grid subdivision in rural Iowa called Abundance Ecovillage, offers plots at $40,000 that include free wind and solar power from shared systems, as well as water from a rainwater collection system, waste recycling and access to shared amenities including a farm.

The cost of building such a home is little different from that of building any other home, and with a range of energy sipping appliances such as refrigerators, hi-fis and even hairdryers now available, the forced austerity associated with off-grid living is also changing.

"You can have hot showers and a cold beer," said Gamble. "You have no water bill, no sewer bill, no power bill and you can harvest something fresh from the greenhouse ... why would you ever do anything else?"

They are not alone. The Los Angeles Community College District, meanwhile, is steering a drive to take all nine of the district's campuses off-grid this year.

Larry Eisenberg, the district's executive director for facilities planning and development, estimates that, with a combination of incentives including tax credits, grants and rebates, switching to alternative energy will not cost them anything, and will save them $10 million a year in power costs going forward.

"When we began, it was to fulfil our sustainable mandate and fulfil our alternative energy policy, but it eventually became a budget strategy," Eisenberg said, adding that it also had educational value for the district's 180,000 students, who can study the shift as part of their curriculum.


CONTINUING GROWTH

With rising power prices, falling installation costs, and a web of incentives to switch, analysts like Rosen believe the number of users turning to off-grid living in the United States is set to grow to 4 to 5 million in the next five to 10 years.

"I don't think we are going to see half the population of America going off-grid, ever. But I do think, we are going to see continued growth," he said.

Rosen also believes that more people still hooked up to the utilities will switch to energy saving appliances, saving money and becoming "off-grid ready" in the process.

For those who have already embarked on the adventure and have adapted to a lifestyle of eking out their energy sources, with houses designed to maximize light, retain warmth or circulate air for cooling, there is no turning back.

"I like being my own power company," said Chris Allen, a neighbour of Bogatay's who has lived off-grid for several years.

"I wouldn't take their electricity if they brought it to my back door. Living like this is financially and mentally very healthy."

(Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Eddie Evans)

Read more!