Coasts under threat, fisheries vulnerable: U.N.

Reuters 4 Jun 08;

ROME (Reuters) - High food prices may add pressure for more fishing along coasts where the environment faces threats from pollution and climate change, a U.N. University report said on Wednesday.

It said 40 percent of all people lived within 50 km (30 miles) of coasts and that governments needed to work out better policies to safeguard resources.

"The decline is terminal, unless we introduce much more effective management immediately," said the study by the university's International Network on Water, Environment and Health (INWEH).

"This is one more voice added to the chorus about how bad the situation for the world's coasts is," Peter Sale, INWEH assistant director, told Reuters. Fixing the problems "do not mean spending more money but spending it more wisely".

High prices for foods such as wheat and rice may mean people press for more fishing, he said. A conclusion in the report said "management of fisheries is failing".

"Even in a developing country that critically needs more food it is better to have a management system in place that means they have some fish rather than none at all," he said.

The study said world fish catches peaked in the late 1980s with larger species, such as tuna and swordfish, being progressively fished out.

A U.N. summit in Rome from June 3-5 is considering ways to defuse a world food crisis which threatens up to 1 billion people with hunger, caused by factors including rising populations, high oil prices and a shift to biofuels.

"Coastal marine systems have declined progressively in recent decades due to the growth of human populations and their demands on the marine environment and resources," the report said. "Bays and estuaries, sea grasses, and mangroves and wetlands have suffered dramatically in the past 50 years."

Run-off from fertilizers were adding to "dead zones" along the coasts and corals could be under threat from warmer oceans.

The U.N. climate panel projected last year that world sea levels will rise by between 18 and 59 cm (7-23 inches) this century due to heat-trapping emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels that are melting ice sheets.

(Editing by Elizabeth Piper))

UN report: Coastal communities face disaster
Paul Eccleston, The Telegraph 4 Jun 08;

Entire marine ecosystems are threatened because of human mismanagement, according to the UN academic study.

It warns of a looming, potentially "terminal" disaster in several coastal areas unless they are given better care.

The UN University's Canadian-based International Network on Water, Environment and Health claims current management methods are a recipe for disaster for the 40 per cent of all people who live within 50 km of fast-growing coastal areas,

In the past 50 years bays and estuaries, sea grasses, and mangroves and wetlands have all suffered dramatically because of human activity, the report states.

Shorelines have hardened, channels and harbours have been dredged, soil dumped, submerged and emergent land moved, and patterns of water flow changed.

The problem was being compounded by climate change which had led to some scientists predicting the total disappearance of coral reefs in some parts of the world.

By 2050, the report claims, more than 90 per cent of the world's coastlines will have been affected by development, much of it poorly planned, with a resulting knock-on effect on the ocean.

The report identified the biggest threats as coming from:
# Large scale agriculture and the overuse of nitrates leading to offshore 'dead-zones'.

# Pollution and the arrival of destructive invasive species as a result of shipping and commerce.

# Ill-planned tourism in ecologically sensitive areas that caused irreversible damage.

# Development that disrupts marine environments and ecosystems.

# Over-fishing of coastal and pelagic stocks which had far reaching consequences for economies and ecosystems.

The report's lead author Peter Sale, said: "Important ecological processes that sustain coastal ecosystems are impeded by our careless alterations of coastal habitats - fisheries decline, water quality deteriorates and so does human health and quality of life."

The report acknowledged the efforts being made by some countries and environmental groups to halt the destruction but they were often too short to have a lasting effect and were hampered by poor co-ordination.

It described a great majority of the world's 4,600 Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) covering 1.4 per cent of the global coastal shelf area, as "paper parks" - legal creations that weren't based on scientific understanding of ecosystem protection and with little regulatory enforcement.

The report called for a "transparent and holistic approach" to coastal management which would help improve the acceptance of difficult decisions, such as the need to cut the number of fish caught.

The authors concluded: "We believe that use of scientific and traditional knowledge, together with better understanding of the economic value of healthy coastal ecosystems, can help change the political discourse that eventually determines societal pressures.

"Although the situation is dire, there is reason for hope. Our understanding of the ecological functioning of the coastal ocean is quite good, and we have a basic kit of useful management tools at our disposal.

"Good examples of well-managed coastal environments, and sustainably harvested coastal fisheries occur around the world. The reversal of negative trends and the improvement of water quality in some areas indicate that decline of coastal ecosystems is neither inevitable nor always irreversible."

"None of these steps are impossible, but taking them will require a major commitment to change."

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Spate of crocodile deaths in S.Africa's Kruger Park

Yahoo News 4 Jun 08;

Some 30 dead crocodiles have been found in South Africa's famous Kruger National Park and tests have begun to find out if the deaths are linked to a polluted river, a park spokesman said Wednesday.

Rangers discovered the first of the carcasses last week in the Olifants River, and helicopter searches later revealed more of the dead animals, said spokesman Raymond Travers.

The waterway is the park's most polluted river, according to a statement from Kruger.

However, there were no recent fish kills in the river, so scientists remain puzzled over the exact cause, Danie Pienaar, head of scientific services for the park, said in the statement.

"We are in unknown territory and we certainly don't have the answers as to why these crocodiles seem to be dying, so we need to look at the problem closely and find a solution," he said.

The crocodiles are part of the Nile species found throughout Africa, said Travers. There are thousands in the park, he said, adding that Kruger officials did not have more precise estimates.

The carcasses were in various stages of decomposition, though they contained yellow-orange hardened fat in their tails.

Scientists think the yellow-orange fat is linked to a condition known as pansteatitis, which is usually associated with eating rotten fish, the park said.

Samples from the crocodiles, as well as from fish, water and sediment, have been sent for testing.

The park also pointed out that the Massingir Dam, which recently underwent work to raise it higher in neighbouring Mozambique, had pushed back into the Olifants Gorge and caused sediment to deposit.

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Elephants caught in Sri Lanka war

Roland Buerk, BBC News 3 Jun 08;

"Gunshot wound, this is a gunshot wound, and this one, there are so many gunshot wounds," said Sri Lankan government vet, Doctor Chandana Jayasinghe.

He was standing next to the huge, slumbering bull elephant in a clearing in the jungle, hypodermic syringe in hand.

"It is normal, they all have gunshot wounds."

The men of the Wildlife Conservation Department had ventured into the tangled scrub to find the wounded elephant.

Treading carefully not to snap twigs and prompt a charge, they had moved up close, so near they could see his ears flapping behind the thick greenery, before one man shot him with a tranquiliser dart.

Now he lay on his side, slow, heavy breaths rattling in his trunk.

They gave him antibiotic injections and sprayed disinfectant on his wounds, some old and calloused, others new and raw.

'Unintended'

The renewed civil war between Sri Lanka's government and the separatist Tamil Tigers is claiming many victims, among them increasing numbers of the island's wild elephants.

Of the 74 elephants which died in the north and north-west region last year, 44 were killed by gunfire.

The others fell victim to poison, were deliberately electrocuted by farmers who connected wire fences to the mains, or fell down wells.

Just four died of natural causes.

The elephants are not straying into the frontlines.

Wildlife officials say the shootings are in part an unintended consequence of a government initiative to deploy thousands of new home guards to villages near the frontlines and to arm local people.

"Due to present security conditions people are armed by the government to protect themselves from the Tamil Tigers," says Manjula Amararathne from the Wildlife Conservation Department.

"But in some areas people use such weapons to kill elephants also."

There are as many as 4,000 wild elephants in Sri Lanka and many live in uncomfortably close proximity to man.

Farms are being carved out of what was once jungle and the remaining forest patches are getting smaller.

As dusk falls, local farmers set out to patrol their fields, peering into the gloom and starting at shadows.

They set off crackers to try to frighten away foraging herds.

Killed

It is not just crops that are damaged by the elephants, houses are frequently knocked down, and people are killed too.

"They didn't see the elephant until they came near it," said Asanga Reno, standing by the freshly dug grave of his mother Ranjini.

"They were afraid of the elephant and the elephant panicked too."

Asanga Reno has been given compassionate leave from Sri Lanka's navy to come back to bury his mother.

As is traditional in Sri Lanka the last yards to the grave were fenced off with white streamers that blew in the hot breeze.

The elephant pulled Ranjini off the back of the motorbike on which she was travelling home from the fields, and threw her down by the side of the road.

By the time her husband got there she was dead.

The Wildlife Conservation Department is trying to keep man and elephants apart.

They are erecting low-voltage electric fences around villages.

Plants palatable to elephants are being cultivated in the remaining jungle patches so the animals are less tempted to go and forage elsewhere.

Training

And new recruits to the home guards are being given special training - they are being taught to shoo away the animals rather than turning their guns on them.

"We train them to avoid them and not to harm them, how to protect them and by doing that, how to love fauna and flora," said Major Priyantha Rathnapriya, who is in charge of the Galakiriyagama training camp.

"Definitely, we don't shoot any more. We don't do that."

Back in the jungle the bull elephant was being encouraged to show signs of waking up after his treatment.

One of the team from the Wildlife Conservation Department was poking it gently with a stick and shouting: "Come on, elephant. Get up my son."

The elephant will survive his wounds, which had been cleaned.

But thick as the jungle was where he was lying, fields and houses were just a few hundred metres away.

There is a high chance he could be shot again, another casualty of the conflict between man and elephants.

"Actually this is the main problem, I think the elephants should be in the jungle," said the grieving Asanga Reno at his mother's graveside.

"We can't do anything. The elephant won't live in the jungle."

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Afghanistan's natural environment a victim of war: activists

Bronwen Roberts, Yahoo News 4 Jun 08;

Years of war saw Afghanistan's forests levelled and its land polluted with fuel and mines, while more recent unchecked building and urbanisation is heaping new pressure on the environment, officials say.

As countries mark World Environment Day on June 5, conservationists and officials say Afghanistan faces many and unique challenges.

The post-Taliban government has passed the country's first environmental law and set up a protection agency, but a lack of capacity and expertise dog efforts to recover from the past and cope with the future, they said.

"The environmental loss was second to the human loss," said Ghulam Mohammad Malikyar, founder of Save the Environment Afghanistan, of the decades of war that started with the Soviet invasion of the late 1970s.

Before the conflict, three percent of the country was covered in natural forest, Malikyar said. This has been cut back to 1.5 percent through illegal logging and degradation including from people fleeing war.

"When there was fighting, people migrated to hidden places," he said. "Smugglers and mafia cut trees and took them to neighbouring countries."

The unlawful timber trade is continuing, with some reports of police involvement.

So is the smuggling of falcons with about 1,000 of the birds trapped in the country's deserts every year and smuggled into Pakistan en route to the United Arab Emirates where they can fetch 500 to 30,000 dollars each, Malikyar said.

Another victim has been the endangered snow leopard, native to this area.

"Before the war we had 500 snow leopards," Malikyar said. "Now there is no exact figure but they are estimated at 80 to 120."

The pelts of the elusive animals are however not too hard to come by. In one of dozens of fur shops in Kabul that are filled with sheep, mink and fox, a shopkeeper recently displayed one priced at 2,000 dollars.

At a market for international soldiers at the US military base at Bagram north of Kabul about 180 were seized over a recent two-week period, said Zahid Ullah Hamdard from the National Environment Protection Agency (NEPA).

"There is no legislation to control the export of endangered species."

There is also no wildlife inventory but efforts are under way, led by the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society, to survey animal populations.

Drought, desertification and deforestation have long been problems, particularly for the 80 percent of the population who live off the land, but one of the biggest new challenges is pollution, Hamdard said.

Four million refugees have returned to Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, many of them flocking to Kabul which is now jammed with four million people, several times more than it was built to accommodate.

Air pollution is fed by roads choked with traffic and the burning of wood and plastic in the absence of electricity; garbage is piled in the streets and rivers; water supplies are often filthy.

"In the rapid development of the past six or seven years, the environmental impact has not been taken into account," Hamdard said. "We will again need to invest resources to recover what we have damaged."

The government -- already dealing with insecurity and widespread poverty -- had however taken some "bold steps" to protect the environment, he said.

One was establishing NEPA in April 2005 and the other was passing the Environment Law, the final version of which came into force in 2007.

There were also moves under way to pass environmental impact assessment regulations for new projects and to protect significant areas, such as a group of startling blue lakes at Band-i-Amir in the central province of Bamiyan.

Discussions are meanwhile under way between Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and Tajikistan to form a transboundary park in the Pamir mountains, Hamdard said.

Afghanistan largely lacks the resources and expertise it needs to tackle its environmental problems, he said.

And there is general lack of understanding of the importance of environmental protection, with awareness-raising key to events planned for World Environment Day.

"During the last 25 or 30 years environment was ignored and neglected and this needs time, capacity and resources to recover," Malikyar said.

Of efforts so far, he said: "It is not enough for a war-stricken country but it can be a step forward."

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Kiribati likely doomed by climate change: president

Yahoo News 5 Jun 08;

The president of the low-lying Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati said Thursday his country may already be doomed because of climate change.

President Anote Tong said communities had already been resettled and crops destroyed by seawater in some parts of the country, made up of 33 coral atolls straddling the equator.

Although scientists are still debating the extent of rising sea levels and their cause, Tong told a press conference marking World Environment Day that changes were obvious in his country of 92,000 people.

"I am not a scientist but what I know is that things are happening we did not experience in the past," Tong said.

"We may be beyond redemption, we may be at the point of no return where the emissions in the atmosphere will carry on to contribute to climate change to produce a sea-level change that in time our small low-lying islands will be submerged," he said.

"Villages that have been there over the decades, maybe a century, and now they have to be relocated.

"Where they have been living over the past few decades is no longer there, it is being eroded."

At international meetings others had argued that measures to combat climate change would hurt their countries' economic development.

"In frustration, I said, 'No, it's not an issue of economic growth, it's an issue of human survival.'"

Under the worst-case scenario, Kiribati would be submerged by the end of this century and its people would have to be resettled in other countries, he said.

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World Environment Day calls for end to CO2 addiction

Gyles Beckford, Reuters 5 Jun 08;

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - The United Nations urged the world on Thursday to kick an all-consuming addiction to carbon dioxide and said everyone must take steps to fight climate change.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said global warming was becoming the defining issue of the era and will hurt rich and poor alike.

"Our world is in the grip of a dangerous carbon habit," Ban said in a statement to mark World Environment Day, which is being marked by events around the globe and hosted by the New Zealand city of Wellington.

"Addiction is a terrible thing. It consumes and controls us, makes us deny important truths and blinds us to the consequences of our actions," he said in the speech to reinforce this year's World Environment Day theme of "CO2 Kick the Habit".

"Whether you are an individual, an organization, a business or a government, there are many steps you can take to reduce your carbon footprint. It is a message we all must take to heart," he said.

World Environment Day, conceived in 1972, is the United Nations' principal day to mark global green issues and aims to give a human face to environmental problems and solutions.

New Zealand, which boasts snow-capped mountains, pristine fjords and isolated beaches used as the backdrop for the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy, has pledged to become carbon-neutral.

"We take pride in our clean, green identity as a nation and we are determined to take action to protect it. We appreciate that protecting the climate means behavior change by each and every one of us," said New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark.

New Zealand, like many countries, staged art and street festivals to spread the message on how people can reduce carbon usage.

In Australia, Adelaide Zoo staged a wild breakfast for corporate leaders to focus on how carbon emissions threaten animal habitats.

GLOBAL EVENTS

In Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, people plan to clean up Gulshan Baridhara Lake that has become badly polluted, and in Kathmandu the Bagmati River Festival will focus on cleaning up the river there.

Many Asian cities, such as Bangalore and Mumbai, plan tree-planting campaigns, while the Indian town of Pune will open a "Temple of Environment" to help spread green awareness.

Global carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels are rising quickly and scientists say the world faces rising seas, melting glaciers and more intense storms, droughts and floods as the planet warms.

A summit of G8 nations in Hokkaido, Japan, next month, is due to formalize a goal agreed a year ago that global carbon emissions should be reduced by 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

But some nations think the cuts should be deeper, leading to a reduction of 80 percent of carbon emissions by 2050 to try to stabilize CO2 concentrations in the air to limit global warming.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said climate change was already a reality.

"We have been experiencing the worst drought in living memory and our inland rivers are running dry," he said in a statement.

"We are committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent on 2000 levels by 2050. We will implement emissions trading as the primary mechanism for achieving this target," he said.

North Korean state media said the government was doing its bit for the environment, including updating existing thermal power plants, increasing hydro-power generating capacity, creating more forests and using more organic fertilizers.

The country's carbon output is already fairly small because it cannot afford large quantities of oil and relies heavily on hydro plants for power.

The U.N. Environment Program said the cost of greening of the world's economy would cost as little as a few tenths of global GDP annually over 30 years and would be a driving force for innovation, new businesses and employment.

(Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Seoul; Writing by Michael Perry; Editing by David Fogarty)

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Food, oil crises should not overshadow climate danger: UN

Yahoo News 5 Jun 08;

Crises over soaring food and oil prices should reinforce rather than distract from the need for action over climate change, the head of the United Nations Environment Programme said on Thursday.

UNEP executive director Achim Steiner said it was inevitable that attention on climate change would abate this year after the intense international focus on it in 2007.

"What we are saying is take a breath, but don't sit back because the situation is actually worse than we thought two years ago," Steiner told AFP.

Steiner was in New Zealand to mark World Environment Day, with the country's capital Wellington hosting a number of international guests and events.

The focus of attempts to reach a global deal to replace the Kyoto plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions moved to Bonn, Germany, this week where 2,400 negotiators are trying to hammer out a deal by the end of next year.

Steiner said any loss of public support for climate change measures -- amid a shift of focus to food and fuel prices -- could spell disaster for a global deal.

"Unless we get back to the levels of public engagement this year we had last year, I worry that we will not have the political will in the international community to reach an agreement," he said.

"World Environment Day should be a signal it's time to get mobilised again."

Worries about future food supplies were closely linked to climate change and should not be seen in isolation, he said.

"The uncertainties and extreme weather events (of climate change) will simply make the food shortages of the future worse, and that is why there is every reason to connect these agendas."

Higher fuel prices were helping curb consumption but rather than cutting fuel taxes, governments and oil companies should use extra oil revenue to develop lower carbon technologies.

UNEP used World Environment Day to issue a guide to explain climate change and offer ways that governments, companies and individuals can reduce their output of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases which cause global warming.

Scientists warn that climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions could put millions of people at risk by century's end as rainfall patterns change and extreme weather events such as hurricanes increase.

"Either we manage to reach the peak point of carbon emissions on our planet by 2015, or we risk another level of global warming and consequences that go far beyond what is already projected now," Steiner said.

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Indonesian president calls for mass tree planting

Yahoo News 5 Jun 08;

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono marked World Environment Day on Thursday with a call for citizens to make a bigger effort to plant trees across the massive archipelago.

Indonesia planted some 79 million trees in a day-long event ahead of a global climate change conference on the resort island of Bali in December, but Yudhoyono said the nation had to do more.

With soaring food prices adding to concerns over climate change, he said people should consider planting fruit-bearing trees.

"Let's continue to plant more trees," he said in a speech to commemorate World Environment Day.

"I have ordered the forestry minister to lead this movement and to choose coconut and breadfruit," he said.

But the president failed to mention some of the most glaring environmental issues facing his country, such as illegal logging, the fight to protect endangered species and the wholesale destruction of forests for plantations.

Indonesia is the world's biggest producer of palm oil which is enjoying a boom on the back of strong global demand and tight supply, driving a massive expansion in the amount of forested land being converted to plantations.

Pressure groups including Greenpeace have called for a moratorium on new plantations in Indonesia to prevent an environmental crisis.

The government however announced last month it was looking at its vast easternmost provinces in Papua to expand its palm oil industry.

Meanwhile one of the biggest populations of wild orangutans on Borneo will be extinct in three years without drastic measures to stop the unchecked spread of plantations, conservationists say.

More than 30,000 wild orangutans live in the forests of Indonesia's Central Kalimantan province, or more than half the entire orangutan population of Borneo island, which is shared between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

Experts believe the overall extinction rate of Borneo orangutans is nine percent per year, but in Central Kalimantan they are disappearing even faster due to plantation expansion and the destruction of habitat.

The destruction of Indonesia's forests is seen as a major contributor to global warming and climate change.

World Environment Day, commemorated each year on June 5 since 1972, is the initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme.

President calls for concrete actions to save environment
Antara 5 Jun 08;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called for concrete actions to save the environment in the face of the global warming and climate change phenomena that were degrading the environment.

Nobody should wait to do something to save the environment, Yudhoyono said at a function to mark National Environment Day 2008 at the State Palace here on Thursday.

"Climate change and global warming are real. Let us stop arguing about these issues, let us take concrete actions," the President said at the event which was also attended by First Lady Ani Yudhoyono.

Among the concrete actions people could take were preserving forests and land by planting trees, especially coconut and breadfruit trees, he said.

"My message to the forestry minister is, please plant coconut and breadfruit trees because breadfruit trees can retain water. So, God Willing, there will no more flooding," Yudhoyono said.

The second example of concrete actions was energy saving for the benefit of the environment and the economy, he said.

"The third step is clean up the sewage system. If the sewage system is clean, the environment will be healthy. Besides, it will prevent flooding," he said.

The President also urged the people and the regional administrations to promote healthy, clean and estethic life styles.

In remarks addressed to regional administration chiefs, the president said the quality of the environment in their respective jurisdiction was one of the indicators of their success or failure in running their administrations.

Yudhoyono cited four factors affecting environmental preservation, namely government policies, education, behavior and life style as well as technology.

On the occasion, Indonesian First Lady Ani Yudhoyono and Forestry Minister MS Kaban, received a "Certificate of Global Leadership", 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).

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also presented `Kalpataru` (Tree of Life) awards to nine people and three NGOs who have been helping the country`s environmental preservation, and `Adipura` Awards to a number of cities for keeping up high cleanliness standards. (*)

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Recycling boom adds to hazardous life of Cambodian children

Lucie Lautredou, Yahoo News 4 Jun 08;

Doctor Tuy Puthea was finishing his rounds one day in late March, inspecting a wound on the neck of a young boy, one of a dozen children loitering in an alley behind Phnom Penh's Olympic Stadium.

His 10-year-old patient, wearing only ragged shorts and a t-shirt, was just one among thousands of youngsters scraping out an existence scavenging waste on the streets of the Cambodian capital.

Cambodia's growing demand for recyclables -- from bottles and cans to cardboard -- has seen a sharp rise in the number of child scavengers trawling through the capital's waste heaps, many of them press-ganged into what advocates say is one of the world's most hazardous forms of labour.

In 2006, around 4,000 children were working on Phnom Penh's streets, according to Chan Haranvadey, an official with the Social Affairs Ministry.

That number is estimated to have spiraled to between 10,000 and 20,000, though the number dips during the planting season in May and June, when many children return to family farms, non-governmental organisations say.

"These child scavengers are the most vulnerable," said Tuy Puthea, who works with the NGO Mith Samlanh, which helps homeless children.

"They use neither gloves nor shoes, they inhale toxic fumes, eat out of garbage bins," he said, listing ailments he sees every day, from headaches and infected wounds to diarrhoea and hacking coughs.

Across Cambodia an estimated 1.5 million children under 14 are forced to work, child advocacy groups say. They says that while most labour on family farms, up to 250,000 work in hazardous conditions at such pursuits as begging, waste scavenging, factory work or mining.

In Phnom Penh, where an economic boom has also fueled the trash trade, some 70 percent of scavengers are children, according to Mith Samlanh and another child advocacy group, For the Smile of a Child (PSE).

They can be seen day and night, sometimes alone or with their families, picking through piles of trash or begging for bottles and cans from customers at streetside restaurants.

-- Scavengers' lives defined by violence, degradation --

By foraging for plastic, glass, metal or cardboard, a child can make a dollar or two a day -- no small sum in a country where 35 percent of the population is mired in poverty.

But scavenging also places them in a rigid system of patronage, extortion and intimidation at the hands of local thugs acting as middlemen for large recycling outfits operating in Thailand or Vietnam.

These handlers, sometimes children only a few years older than the scavengers themselves, often pay lower than market value in exchange for protection or small tips.

It's a necessary arrangement in a world defined by violence and degradation.

"They are exposed to others problems -- violence, drug use, sexual harassment or trafficking," says Tuy Puthea, whose clinic treats about 30 children a day.

That number could drastically increase as plans to close Cambodia's largest dump get underway. Phnom Penh needs to find somewhere else for its garbage because the current dump is almost full, say city officials.

Only a few short kilometres (miles) from Phnom Penh's burgeoning downtown, at the end of a dirt lane crowded with garbage trucks, is the Stung Meanchey tip, a vast horizon of trash.

Here hundreds of scavengers, many of them children, wander through the smoldering squalor, their clothing stiff with grime and faces tightly wrapped with scarves against the stinging, ever-present smoke.

But without the dump, they will be forced into the streets, swelling the ranks of those already prowling Phnom Penh's litter piles but also taking them further from the reach of the groups most actively trying to help them.

"Closing the dump is a good thing -- this should not be so close to the city," said Pin Sarapitch, director of the programmes at PSE, which for 12 years has operated on the fringes of Stung Meanchey, providing education or vocational training for more than 5,000 children.

"The closure should be followed by more social intervention from the state. The government cannot close the dump and leave these families without a place to live or work," Pin Sarapitch said.

"Where will they go, and how will we be able to our work with them if they cannot be found," he added.

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Climate change spurs scrap metal recycling

Anna Stablum, Reuters 4 Jun 08;

MONTE CARLO (Reuters) - The future looks rosy for scrap metal traders as the world's resources begin to run out and the threat of climate change triggers energy savings, a recycling conference heard this week.

With a rising global population -- forecast to reach 8.2 billion by 2030 from 6.7 billion now -- the generation of waste is increasing rapidly, offering big potential for recycling, which saves energy and helps reduce greenhouse gas production.

"The scarcity of virgin materials will soon become an issue," Henrik Harjula of the Environment Directorate of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development told a Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) conference.

The world's copper resources would last for another 60 years, silver 29 years, zinc 46 years while tin deposits would be exhausted in 40 years, he said.

Annual resource extraction would increase to 80 billion tonnes in 2020, nearly double the level extracted in 2002, and by 2030 it could reach 100 billion, according to the OECD.

"This poses a real opportunity, but it is also a challenge for the recycling industry," OECD's Harjula said.

In the production of copper, aluminum and steel, around 40 percent of the raw materials used comes from recycled metal instead of ore from mines.

CLIMATE CHANGE

By using secondary raw materials, smelters can make large cost savings, for example in aluminum where it takes 95 percent less energy to produce the metal from scrap such as old cans.

By smelting aluminum scrap, 354,000 tons of carbon dioxide, one of the main greenhouse gases, is saved per 100,000 tons of aluminum produced, a study by the Imperial College in London showed.

"The half a billion or more tons of greenhouse gas emissions that you avoid through recycling has a value of $40 or more per ton," said Nicholas Stern, the author of an influential report on climate change.

The turnover of the recycling industry, including paper and plastics, per year amounts to around $160 billion and it handles over 600 million tons of raw materials.

Thanks to the recycling industry, the world already saves the equivalent of 1.8 percent of global fossil fuel emissions.

"This is a very significant contribution," Stern said, adding that the recycling industry was saving a similar amount to what the airline industry emits.

By contributing an average of 40 percent of raw materials today through recycling, it could perhaps be 50 percent in the future.

"That will be equivalent to cutting aircraft emissions further by 15 percent," Stern said.

However the recycling industry, in particular the steel industry, still has a long way to go to become energy efficient and reduce its own carbon footprint.

The steel industry accounts for a fifth of the emissions from the recycling sector and it emits some 3-4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI).

(Reporting by Anna Stablum; editing by Christopher Johnson)

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U.S. cities, firms to push consumer climate fight

Timothy Gardner, Reuters 4 Jun 08;

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A campaign founded in Europe to help consumers fight climate change will be launched in the United States on Thursday by U.S. cities including New York, leading American companies and non-profit groups.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, along with U.S. companies from JP Morgan Chase & Co. to Target Corp., are involved in the Together campaign.

The initiative plans to steer people toward the most environmentally friendly products and encourage green practices, such as consumers' opting out of receiving paper catalogues.

"Everyone has been talking about big government fighting climate change but more and more consumers are looking for brands to play a role in helping to solve the problem," Callum Grieve, North American external affairs director of The Climate Group, a non-profit initiating Together, told Reuters.

The Climate Group launched Europe's Together program last year with the help of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair. Since then, it has helped consumers cut 522,00O tonnes of carbon dioxide and saved them over $200 million on household energy bills, the group said.

Bloomberg and Ban are set to help launch Together on Thursday, with mayors from cities including Seattle, Miami and Boston taking part.

As the governments of the world's top greenhouse gas emitters, including the United States, China, India and the European Union, struggle to form a global alliance to cut emissions, The Climate Group says Together can help individuals make small carbon output cuts that combined can make big dents in energy use and emissions.

SET TO GO GLOBAL

Cities and companies will help guide consumers to products like shower heads that cut water flow and energy efficient appliances through a Web site, www.together.com.

Some so-called "green" goods are more environmentally friendly than others, so The Climate Group will determine which goods are best with a third party group called Environmental Resources Management, it said.

U.S. companies plan to offer green solutions through Together such as paperless check deposits and paperless banking.

Nonprofit groups including Mercy Corps, which works with victims of disasters, conflicts and chronic poverty, and the National Wildlife Federation, a conservation group, are also joining Together.

NWF, for instance, hopes to use Together's Web site to draw more people to its Catalog Choice program in which consumers can tell companies not to send product catalogs in the mail, saving transport costs.

"What we really haven't had is the wherewithal to fully get the word out on some of our programs," NWF education expert Kevin Coyle said.

After launching Together in America, The Climate Group plans to expand the campaign to China, India and Australia.

(Editing by Michelle Nichols and Cynthia Osterman)

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Drive less, ditch electric toothbrush: U.N. climate tips

Alister Doyle, Reuters 4 Jun 08;

ROME (Reuters) - Better insulation at home, less use of the car and even giving up an electric toothbrush can help people in rich nations halve emissions of greenhouse gases, a U.N. report said on Thursday.

"Adopting a climate-friendly lifestyle needn't require drastic changes or major sacrifices," according to the 202-page U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) book entitled "Kick the CO2 Habit: the U.N. Guide to Climate Neutrality".

Issued to mark the U.N.'s annual World Environment Day on June 5, it outlines ways for people to combat global warming with measures such as packing lighter suitcases when flying or going jogging in a park rather than on an electric treadmill.

World emissions of greenhouse gases blamed by the U.N. Climate Panel for heating the globe total about 4.5 tonnes per person for all of the world's 6.7 billion population.

Most efforts to slow climate change focus on the role of governments -- such as in rules for emissions from cars or power plants or building codes to help avert projected impacts such as droughts, heat waves, more powerful storms or rising seas.

Fewer look at how individuals can do it themselves.

"Multiplied across the world and acted upon by 6.7 billion people, the public have the power to change the future, have the power to personally and collectively influence economies to 'Kick the CO2 Habit'," said Achim Steiner, head of UNEP.

The guide outlines ways for people in Europe, Australasia and North America -- the major contributors to global warming historically -- to halve their emissions. Among examples and their savings of carbon dioxide (CO2):

-- Use a wind-up alarm clock rather than an electric one: 48 grams CO2 a day

-- Dry clothes on a washing line rather than in a tumble dryer: 2.3 kg each load.

-- Pack lighter suitcases. It says that world savings would be 2 million tonnes a year if every airline passenger cut the weight of baggage to below 20 kg and bought duty free goods on arrival.

-- Use a non-electric toothbrush: 48 grams a day.

-- Heat bread rolls in a toaster rather than in the oven for 15 minutes: 170 grams of CO2 each time.

-- Take a train rather than a car for a daily commute of 8 km: 1.7 kg CO2 a day.

-- The average British household could cut 2 tonnes of CO2 annually with more efficient insulation, heating and lighting

-- Reduce winter heating: cutting the temperature by a couple of degrees saves 6 percent in energy bills.

-- Avoid 'carbon binges': a return flight across the Atlantic is equivalent to running a car for a year for each passenger.

-- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on:

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

(Editing by Giles Elgood)

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Paper or pricey plastic?

Diane Bartz, PlanetArk 5 Jun 08;

WASHINGTON - You know that flimsy plastic bag the convenience store clerk put your toothpaste in?

The price of those bags, though still cheaper than paper ones, is rising fast because of higher natural gas and oil prices. And the same goes for plastic water bottles, takeout containers, the case around your computer, and car parts.

Let's start with that flyaway plastic bag -- which has gotten flimsier as packaging makers of all stripes cut costs.

That bag is made from high density polyethylene, which cost a little over $70 per pound in early 2007 and now costs $100, according to figures supplied by Integrated Design Engineering Systems (IDES), which follows the plastics industry.

"I think it's pretty safe to say it's the highest ever. I think you'll see some fluctuations but long term I don't think it can go down," IDES President Mike Kmetz said.

John Kalkowski of trade publication Packaging Digest said plastic bag makers of all stripes were struggling. "Most packagers have not been able to pass along most of the cost increases that they've incurred," he said.

Big companies declined to say how much they paid for plastic bags but fruit merchant David Hochheimer of Black Rock Orchard in Maryland was more forthcoming.

A year ago, Hochheimer paid $23 to $25 for a case of 800 to 1,000 grocery-style plastic bags. Now, a case costs him $27.95 -- a double-digit-percentage increase.

The price may go up further since Dow Chemical Co said it would raise the price of all its products as of June 1 by up to 20 percent.

"Our first-quarter feedstock and energy bill leapt a staggering 42 percent year over year, and that trajectory has continued, with the cost of oil and natural gas climbing ever higher," Dow CEO Andrew Liveris said in a statement.

Dow is not alone. "I just saw this morning several price increase announcements," said Ben Miyares of Pack Expo, a website that specializes in packaging.


THINNER, CONCENTRATED, LESS AIR

But even before energy prices began their latest rise, cost-conscious companies were taking a hard look at packaging.

Bottled-water makers such as Arrowhead and Poland Spring, a Nestle unit, redesigned bottles to use less plastic, while other companies put, say, less water in their liquid laundry detergent or less air in potato chip bags.

"You may have noticed that liquid detergent bottles are getting smaller," Miyares said. "Now a thimble full of detergent will give you the same washing power that half a cup used to."

"The head space in a bag is being reduced. Now that's something that was debated for many years ... Were the snack food people cheating the customers by having so much head space? But the new issue is how can we cut the packaging?" he said. "Over the billions of bags of salty snacks that are sold, that (less air in the bag) amounts to pretty big money."

Susan Selke of Michigan State University's School of Packaging said she expected more changes in packaging to use less plastic, and also more plastic made from sugar cane and other renewable resources, rather than natural gas and oil.

"Energy prices are going up dramatically and that means that everything costs more," she added. "I don't see that affecting the competitiveness of plastic in the marketplace."

In addition to cost, the plastic bag already had critics in the environmental movement who point out that the bags are made from a non-renewable resource and few are ever recycled.

China has prohibited stores from giving customers free plastic bags. San Francisco has banned them, and Boston is considering a similar move. Whole Foods Market Inc stores eliminated them this year.

But switching to paper will not help people like Hochheimer, who sells apples, pears and other fruit at farmers markets. The price of paper bags doubled from 3 cents a piece to 6 cents in a year.

"I spend more for bags than I do for (agricultural) chemicals," Hochheimer said. "For me, that's an unbelievable expense."

(Editing by Braden Reddall)

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Senegal farmers see long road to rice revolution

Alistair Thomson, Yahoo News 4 Jun 08;

Senegal wants to transform this baking hot valley into a rice bowl for Africa but farmers scrabbling in the dirt with hand-made hoes say the grand plan will take more than fine words.

Faced with surging world prices for imported rice, the staple for millions of poor people in the West African country, President Abdoulaye Wade unveiled plans in April to raise rice output fivefold in a year.

This week Wade joined world leaders at a U.N. summit on the global food crisis in Rome, where they pledged to tear down trade barriers and invest in farming in poor countries under an emergency plan to eliminate hunger and ensure food for everyone.

"The land here is very good, but we lack resources," said Abdoulaye Ba. He caressed the earth with one hand as he knelt to dig out onions with the other using a hoe fashioned from a short length of steel rod of the type used to reinforce concrete.

Ba has little time for the president's "Great Agricultural Offensive for Food and Abundance," known by its French acronym GOANA, which also aims to ramp up maize, manioc and other crops.

"I hear about GOANA on the radio and the television, but we've been doing GOANA since long ago," said Ba, who will start harvesting his green field of rice in the next fortnight.

"This government doesn't encourage farmers -- it needs to help them. As for me, I'm dispirited."

Here in the broad Senegal River valley, irrigation channels dug since the 1970s have created a lush band of fertile land that sweeps around Senegal's northern and eastern border with Mauritania, slicing through the scorched savanna of the Sahel.

Some farmers here harvest 9 tonnes or more of rice per hectare -- among the world's highest yields -- thanks to sunshine, irrigation, good husbandry and state support services that some agronomists say are the most efficient in West Africa.

LAND NOT USED

Yet most irrigable land lies fallow or underutilized, while those families tending crops by hand say they struggle to raise credit to buy enough seed, pesticides, weed killer and fertilizer for the land they already farm, never mind to expand operations.

That is a major obstacle to increasing farm output, said Canadian-trained agronomist Boubie Vincent Bado.

Farmers take seed and chemicals on credit from suppliers on condition they sell their harvest to the same trader, reducing their bargaining power and ability to benefit from high rice prices.

At the research station Bado heads in nearby Ndiaye for the Africa Rice Center (WARDA), a poster maps out the 108-day life cycle of a rice plant. Bado says farmers could grow two rice crops a year instead of one, with the right support.

"CORRUPTION IS KING"

But some previous state initiatives have had little impact.

The "Return to Agriculture" (REVA) plan Wade launched two years ago to stem an exodus of young Senegalese men risking their lives on small wooden boats to get to Europe, fell flat.

Senegal is one of Africa's top aid recipients, yet farmers complain they have little to show despite the shiny SUVs aid workers and ministry officials drive around the capital Dakar.

"Everything the government gives is politicized. Corruption is king," said Alioun Diop, a sugar company worker who cultivates 1.45 hectares of rice and other crops.

Promised tractors and water pumps had failed to materialize or been snapped up by ruling party cronies, Diop said.

"I've had nothing, nor has my mother," he added.

Wade, an outspoken economist who has called for abolition of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that organized this week's Rome summit, blames aid agencies for squandering money and branded food aid a "huge swindle" at the GOANA launch.

His plan aims to end Senegal's dependence on food imports.

"In terms of land it is possible for Senegal to achieve food self-sufficiency, at least with the population they have," said Aliou Diagne at the Africa Rice Center headquarters in Benin.

"The problem is on the horizon, and whether they will get the necessary funding to make the improvements ... the horizon of 2015 may be a little too ambitious," he said.

(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com )

(Additional reporting by Normand Blouin and Gabriela Matthews; Editing by Pascal Fletcher)

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Bioenergy: Fuelling the food crisis?

Stephanie Holmes, BBC News 4 Jun 08;

The biofuel debate is electrifying the UN food price crisis summit in Rome, pitting nations against each other and risking transforming bioenergy - once hailed as the ultimate green fuel - into the villain of the piece, the root cause behind global food price spikes.

Biofuel uses the energy contained in organic matter - crops like sugarcane and corn - to produce ethanol, an alternative to fossil-based fuels like petrol.

But campaigners claim the heavily subsidised biofuel industry is fundamentally immoral, diverting land which should be producing food to fill human stomachs to produce fuel for car engines.

They say the growth of biofuels has had a distorting ripple effect on other food crop markets.

Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Director General Jacques Diouf agrees.

He says it is incomprehensible that "$11bn-$12bn (£5.6bn-£6.1bn) a year in subsidies and protective tariff policies have the effect of diverting 100 million tonnes of cereals from human consumption, mostly to satisfy a thirst for vehicles".

It is a viewpoint shared by Oxfam's Barbara Stocking, who told the BBC News website: "It takes the same amount of grain to fill an SUV with ethanol as it does to feed a person. We don't want any more subsidies for biofuels. This rush to biofuels is absolutely dreadful."

Blame game

Yet the exact ranking of responsibility for the food price rises which have caused political unrest in 30 countries and plunged many into hunger is hotly disputed.

No-one denies that biofuels have a role, but the figures on the sector's inflationary pressure vary wildly from just 3% to 30%.

The US, Brazil and the EU - the main players on the biofuel stage - maintain that soaring energy costs should shoulder a much larger portion of blame.

"Biofuels are not the villain menacing food security in poor countries," Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told assembled heads of state in Rome.

Brazil's tropical climate allows the country to efficiently grow sugarcane for ethanol production, which now provides 40% of the country's transport fuel.

"I am sorry to see that many of those who blame ethanol - including ethanol from sugarcane - for the high price of food are the same ones who for decades have maintained protectionist policies to the detriment of farmers in poor countries and of consumers in the entire world."

The US, which heavily subsidises corn cultivation for ethanol, insists that biofuels account for "only 2-3% of the food price increases".

"We recognise that biofuels have an impact, but the real issue is about energy, increased consumption and weather-related issues in grain-producing countries," US Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said.

Bitter aftertaste?

But research from the Washington-based agricultural policy think tank, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), has come to very different conclusions.

"We've done some analysis looking at the contribution of biofuels demand on cereals prices indexes. We found that for the price increase from 2006-2007, we attribute about 30% to biofuels," explains the institute's biofuels expert, Mark Rosegrant.

"The most direct effect is the diversion of land from corn, sugarcane and other crops to biofuels instead of food and seed that also shifts land out of other crops, sometimes out of rice and wheat. Once the price of corn starts going up, there was some shift from poor consumers in Africa to alternatives like rice."

But all experts are at pains to highlight that the biofuel situation in Brazil and the US is very different.

Brazil, where sugarcane thrives, produces 19 billion litres (five billion gallons) of the total 52 billion litres of ethanol generated each year.

Their industry, which began 30 years ago, is highly developed, and the country has also introduced a successful tax incentive scheme to help small-scale rural farmers and ensure the profits from the ethanol sector are not concentrated.

Non-conventional crops

"The impacts are just so diverse, but there are some general patterns," FAO agricultural economist Keith Wiebe said.

"Studies tend to show that sugarcane used for ethanol in Brazil is the best performer - sugar is high in energy, Brazil is an efficient manufacturer and they actually burn the residue too."

He says Brazilian-produced ethanol, generated from sugarcane, emits between 80%-90% less carbon than petrol.

"But corn in the US is a different commodity, produced in a system that uses more fuel and fertiliser. Finally, when the crop is converted, lots of the energy comes from fossil fuels. Corn-based ethanol still does reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but only by 10%-30% less than fossil fuels."

Corn for ethanol remains a central plank of US agricultural and energy policy. The 2007 Energy Bill quintuples the country's biofuels target to 35 billion gallons by 2022.

The US continues to heavily sustain its corn-for-ethanol industry, paying out 50 cents a gallon for each of its 27 billion litres of ethanol produced.

Combined with farming subsidies, the ethanol sector receives a total of some $6bn in support each year. But the real hope, analysts say, lies not in conventional food crops, but so-called second-generation biofuels, which can be cultivated with little water and few fertilisers on marginal land that will not compete with food crops.

Researchers are looking at crops like jatropha, for example, already experimented with in India, as holding hope for a future free from the stark choice between food or fuel.

Read more!

Fish and chips fuel 'green' revolution

Lucie Godeau, Yahoo News 4 Jun 08;

Faced with soaring prices at the petrol pumps, ecologically-minded Britons are turning to fish and chips to run their cars -- transforming the leftover frying oil into "green" fuel.

Deep in the southern English countryside, an environmental group spent last weekend teaching 12 men how to transform the abundant vegetable oil from fish and chip shops, but also pubs and restaurants, into biodiesel.

One of the participants, Mike Kempton, who runs a business hiring out limousines, said the prospect of cheap fuel was extremely attractive at a time when oil prices have reached historic highs.

"I want to save money, I don't want to be in a position where I'm isolated from fuel and where I can't drive my vehicle.

"And I genuinely am concerned about what we're doing to the environment," he said.

The courses are organised by the Low Impact Living Initiative (LILI), a group which has already trained more than a thousand people, and applicants for the scheme increase every time the price of fuel rises.

In an added incentive, the government does not tax the production of biodiesel, providing it does not exceed 2,500 litres per person a year.

In a low-tech shed in Winslow near Oxford, Jon Halle, a tutor from the non-profit making company Goldenfuels, gives the participants an elementary chemistry lesson.

By mixing a litre of vegetable oil with methanol and several other ingredients and heating it, he produces a litre of basic biodiesel.

"Some people don't have a clue, some people on the course are chemists but everybody will be able to go away and do it if they spend the time," Halle said.

He insists the danger is low even to people without a scientific background.

"The risks are, you use some dangerous chemicals, you also use electricity so you could have potentially dangerous scenarios but you just have to take care.

"It's not rocket science, it's like cookery but on a big scale."

It is not as easy as Halle makes it look -- some of the participants struggle to properly measure the amount of fatty acids in the oil that must be neutralised for it to become fuel.

But when properly done, the biodiesel can be used in diesel engines without any modification and without the vehicle suffering any loss of performance.

Biodiesel made from vegetable oil contains 75 percent less carbon than its mineral equivalent.

Another participant on the course, Matthew Stephens, from Lincolnshire in eastern England, admitted using the "green" fuel was good for his conscience.

"I have to use the car to work a lot, Lincolnshire doesn't have public transport in a meaningful way," he said.

"And if I use biodiesel, it will make me feel an awful lot better because it's virtually carbon-free."

The re-processing of vegetable oil is relatively rare in Britain, meaning there is a huge glut of raw material and the process does not require much-needed agricultural land to be set aside to growing biofuels crops such as rapeseed.

There is one hitch though -- the basic equipment to turn the oil into fuel costs between 1,000 and 2,000 pounds (1,250 euros and 2,500 euros or 1,950 dollars and 3,900 dollars) and the necessary chemicals cost 15 pence per litre of biodiesel.

That means an individual user would need to produce biodiesel for more than a year to absorb the initial investment.

Colin Hygate, the director of Greenfuels, which claims to be Europe's biggest seller of the re-processing equipment, said business was booming as people take a long-term approach.

"We see an acceleration whenever there is an issue about fuel security or the cost of fuel at the fuel station," he said.

"We are growing year-on-year. Over a four-year period, we have gone from a turnover of less than 100,000 pounds a year to a turnover this year that is looking more like two million pounds.

"The number of people inquiring about our products has increased from about 10 to 15 contacts a day to between 40 to 50 people and we have had to employ additional sales people to try to cope with the increasing demand."

Read more!

How Compressed Air Could Power the Future

Michael Schirber, LiveScience.com Yahoo News 4 Jun 08;

Wind power is unreliable. No one can turn up the wind every time electricity demand peaks. So some utilities are looking at ways to bottle up the wind's energy and store it underground for later use.

"The wind blows a lot at 2 in the morning, so it makes sense to save it and use it at 5 in the afternoon when everyone comes home from work," said Georgianne Peek of Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico.

Compressed air energy storage (CAES) uses off-peak electricity from wind farms or other sources to pump air underground. The high pressure air acts like a huge battery that can be released on demand to turn a gas turbine and make electricity.

However, a good portion of the input energy is lost in this process, making CAES one of the least efficient storage technologies available.

"Nobody really wants to store electricity unless they have to," said Roland Marquardt of RWE Power, a German utility company.

So, RWE and General Electric (GE) recently announced plans to develop a new type of CAES technology that will be more efficient, as well as having zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Storing away

Storing off-peak electricity is not new. By far the most common method is to pump water up to an elevated reservoir and then release it to drive an electric generator when demand calls for it.

Once "charged," these pumped hydro systems - of which around 300 exist worldwide - can supply 1,000 megawatts of power for several hours. However, there are few places left with available water and the right topography, Marquardt said.

CAES can supply around 100 megawatts of power for several hours, and the needed geological formations (abandoned mines, salt caverns, aquifers) can be found around the world.

Other storage devices, such as batteries and flywheels, cannot store nearly the same amount of energy and are much more expensive to install than CAES.

Currently only two operating CAES facilities exist in Germany and Alabama. They each use salt caverns with several hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of space (roughly the volume of 100 Olympic-sized swimming pools).

Using off-peak electricity, air is compressed to around 1,000 psi (or 70 times atmospheric pressure), which raises its temperature to more than 600 degrees Celsius (1,100 degrees Fahrenheit). This is far too hot to pump underground, so the air is cooled to about 50 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit).

Unfortunately, the air must be reheated on release in order to turn a turbine. This extra reheating energy (usually provided by burning natural gas) means CAES has a relatively low efficiency of about 50 percent: for every kilowatt-hour of energy going in, only 0.5 kilowatt-hour of energy can be taken out.

"CAES is a well-known technique, but it's not commercially viable at the moment due to its low efficiency," Marquardt said.

Keeping the heat

To improve the efficiency, RWE and GE are working on a new design called advanced adiabatic CAES (AA-CAES), in which the heat that is removed from the air during compression is stored and later used to reheat the gas as it is discharged.

"In this case, the air is hot enough to drive an air turbine without using combustion gases," Marquardt said.

The efficiency could be increased to 70 percent, and if combined with wind power, an AA-CAES system would release no carbon dioxide, a major driver of global warming.

RWE and GE are currently doing a feasibility study looking in particular at what material would be best for storing the immense heat. Marquardt thinks the likely choice will be ceramic bricks, but a possible alternative solution is a bed of rock pebbles.

Once the technical difficulties are all ironed out, Marquardt expects a first demonstrator project - supplying around 30 megawatts of power - sometime around 2012. The future goal is to have an AA-CAES facility that can supply 10 times that.

Green-enabling

In the United States, traditional CAES is being considered by several companies, but only one new project, the Iowa Storage Energy Park (ISEP), is in the design stage. Funded by a group of municipal utilities, ISEP would store enough wind and off-peak energy to supply 270 megawatts of power for 16 hours each day.

Because CAES can stabilize the power output from a variable source, it could help make wind energy more attractive. But CAES "doesn't have to be coupled with renewables to be a green technology," Peek said.

She explained that CAES can also store off-peak electricity from traditional coal-fired power plants. This allows the plants to run at a steady optimum pace, rather than ramping up and down to meet consumer demand. And this steady pace means less carbon dioxide emissions.

"I like to say that CAES is a green-enabling technology," Peek said.

Read more!

China builds plant to turn coal into barrels of oil

Nao Nakanishi and Niu Shuping, PlanetArk 5 Jun 08;

ERDOS, China - With oil prices at historic highs, China is moving full steam ahead with a controversial process to turn its vast coal reserves into barrels of oil.

Known as coal-to-liquid (CTL), the process is reviled by environmentalists who say it causes excessive greenhouse gases.

Yet the possibility of obtaining oil from coal and being fuel self-sufficient is enticing to coal-rich countries seeking to secure their energy supply in an age of increased debate about how long the world's oil reserves can continue to meet demand.

The United States, Australia and India are among those countries looking at CTL technology but are constrained by environmental concerns associated with the process which releases excessive amounts of carbon gases into the atmosphere and consumes huge amounts of water.

But China, which lacks the powerful environmental lobbyists that might stymie any widescale initiative elsewhere, is building a major complex on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia.

"Those countries with large coal reserves, like South Africa, China or the United States, are very keen on CTL as it helps ensure energy security," said Yuichiro Shimura at Mitsubishi Research Institute Inc (MRI) in Tokyo.

"However, the problem is that it creates a lot of carbon dioxide. Also you need a huge amount of energy for liquefaction, which means you end up wasting quite a lot of energy," the chief consultant at MRI in charge of energy told Reuters.

In Erdos, Inner Mongolia, about 10,000 workers are putting the final touches to a CTL plant that will be run by state-owned Shenhua Group, China's biggest coal mine.

The plant will be the biggest outside of South Africa, which adopted CTL technology due to international embargoes on fuel during the apartheid years.

"We cannot fail," Zhang Jiming, deputy general manager at Shenhua Coal Liquefaction, told Reuters. "If things go smoothly, we will start with the expansion next year," he said.

The plant will start operating later this year and is expected to convert 3.5 million tonnes of coal per year into 1 million tonnes of oil products such as diesel for cars.

That's the equivalent of about 20,000 barrels a day, a tiny percentage of China's oil needs as oil consumption in China is around 7.2 million barrels a day.

If all goes well, then Inner Mongolia will push on with an ambitious plan to turn half of its coal output into liquid fuel or chemicals by 2010. This would be around 135 million tonnes, or about 40 percent of Australia's annual coal output.

The region, as big as France, Germany and England put together, hopes CTL will propel development while contributing to Beijing's plan to have CTL capacity of 50 million tonnes by 2020.

That would be about 286,000 barrels a day, or about four percent of China's energy needs based on current consumption.


UNITED STATES LOOKS AT CTL

CTL is also being considered by a number of coal-rich countries such as the United States, which has the world's largest coal reserves.

The relatively low cost of CTL produced oil given current oil prices, plus the chance to be more energy self-sufficient is a powerful incentive.

The technology is being seen in some quarters as offering an opportunity for the US to reduce its dependency on other countries for oil and a small US CTL industry is emerging.

DRKW Advanced Fuels plans to start construction on a plant in Wyoming next year in partnership with Arch Coal Inc and with technologies licensed by General Electric and Exxon Mobil. The defense department is experimenting with CTL in an effort to cut reliance on fuel from countries unfriendly to the United States.

But CTL is highly controversial. Experts say the whole lifecycle releases about twice as much carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas, as fossil fuel. Liquefying coal also requires large amounts of energy and drains water supplies.

The fuel produced through this method has a shelf life of up to 15 years, unlike other motor fuels which is attractive to the military and to governments keen to ensure fuel security.

Though CTL technology was developed about 100 years ago, it has been little used, except in Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa, which had difficulty accessing then-inexpensive oil.

Oil prices, which have more than quadrupled this decade to above $130 a barrel, have reignited interest in CTL.

The Oil and Gas Journal in April suggested it costs $67 to $82 a barrel to produce CTL fuel, based on the experiences of South Africa's Sansol. Exact prices would depend on a range of factors including coal and water prices and of course it is very expensive to build CTL plants.

Shenhua will be the first to use direct CTL technology on a large scale. It is different from indirect CTL, proven in Nazi Germany and by South Africa's Sasol, and converts coal directly into liquid fuel, skipping gasifying coal into syngas.

"CTL happened only twice in world history, and both times it's been in nations facing some kind of state of emergency with respect to energy. It should sound an alarm bell," said Gary Kendall, from the WWF conservation group.

"There are two defining issues in the 21st century: one is carbon dioxide and one is water ... and the (CTL) process is horrifically carbon intensive. It is also very water intensive."

The "holy grail" for CTL enthusiasts is to find a way to turn coal into liquid without releasing carbons into the air. The idea is that the carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas, would be captured and stored deep under ground.

Carbon capture and storage, which is still the subject of much research, would alleviate the environmental impact of carbon dioxide being released into the environment, the main argument against CTL by critics. This could spur CTL development in the United States and other western countries.

Coal lobbyists in the US have been clamouring for more research into CTL but they have failed to override environmental concerns due to the carbon emissions of the process. Pro-CTL amendments were dropped from the 2007 US energy bill.

"If there is no good solution for CO2, the (CTL) industry will not flourish," Chen Linming, executive vice president at Sasol China, told a conference last month, urging the government to support carbon capture and storage technology.

Shenhua and Sasol are conducting a feasibility study to build two more CTL plants in the provinces of Shaanxi and Ningxia.


WATER, ELECTRICITY

Whether CTL technology could ever be used on a large-scale will depend on how coal companies deal with the massive amount of water used in the process.

China faces serious water shortages and the Gobi desert, which spans across Inner Mongolia, is expanding rapidly. There are drinking water shortages in northwest China and ground water levels are sinking every year.

Shenhua plans to use ground water and recycled water from coal mines to supply the 8 million tonnes it will need a year.

Yet Zhang said it would need to tap other sources, such as the Yellow River, in the second phase. He would not disclose how much the company spent to build the complex, or how much carbon dioxide it is expected to emit.

"There's no doubt with oil at over $100 a barrel, CTL is very economic ... However the constraint is the availability of water," said Michael Komesarroff from Urandaline Investments.

"The Yellow River often dries up ... In some parts of China, 30 years ago, the water table was 5 metres below the ground. Today it is 35-40 metres below the ground because they take the ground water in an unsustainable way."

Environmentalists say that rather than invest in a process that will probably never be environmentally sound, China and other countries should move towards running cars on batteries rather than liquid fuel.

"If China's primary concern is energy security, then I think you would want to take the most efficient way of using the resources," said WWF's Kendall.

"If you turn coal into electricity at high efficiency, and charge electric vehicles, you can get three times as many kilometres per unit of coal."

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Dearer sushi? Blame it on the oil price

A third of the world's fleet sent to catch prized tuna could be docked as fuel costs rise
Straits Times 5 Jun 08;

TOKYO - AFTER stocks and cars, it is sushi that is in danger of falling victim to high oil prices.

According to Financial Times (FT) reports, fishing industry groups have warned that a third of the world's long-line tuna fleet - the ships that catch the high-grade tuna used in the Japanese dish - could remain docked this year as soaring fuel costs make fishing unprofitable.

The business is already in decline because of dwindling fish stocks. Japan Tuna, an industry group, said the cost of heavy fuel for long-range tuna ships had doubled over the past year to 120,000 yen (S$1,560) a kilolitre.

It said that 20 per cent of Japan's fleet of 360 ships may suspend operations between next month and October, when catches tend to be lowest.

Wholesale prices for the choicest tuna cuts - those served in high-end restaurants - have risen by about 25 per cent in the past year, although the price of lesser grades sold in supermarkets has barely budged, according to the FT.

Japan had more than 800 long-range tuna ships a generation ago, but the worsening economics of fishing and tighter global quotas have reduced that number by more than half.

Mr Yuichiro Harada, the managing director of the Organisation for the Promotion of Responsible Tuna Fisheries, a Tokyo-based group covering 12 countries, said 140 Taiwanese, Chinese and Korean ships have already decided to suspend operations during the season and more are likely to do so.

The organisation estimates that a third of the global long-line fleet - about 400 ships - could be out of action.

Mr Harada said many owners were only sending ships out to generate cash flow to pay off loans. Daily hauls have already fallen by about 20 per cent due to overfishing, while international quotas on the most valuable tuna varieties, such as the southern bluefin, mean captains can no longer target them to maximise revenues.

'The quotas are bearable because we know that after a few years, stocks will recover, but who knows when oil prices will come down again?' he said.

In Japan, experts say low-cost competition from Taiwan, South Korea and China, combined with consolidation among supermarkets - which has increased retailers' pricing power - have made it difficult for the country's fishermen to pass on higher costs.

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AVA monitoring Tyson chicken products

15,000 chickens culled after being exposed to mild strain of H7N3 virus in Arkansas

Tan Hui Leng, Today Online 5 Jun 08;

THE Singapore Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) is keeping an eye on the situation following reports, out of the United States, that Tyson Foods has begun culling 15,000 chickens that had been exposed to a mild strain of avian flu in Arkansas.

An AVA spokesperson said Singapore imported 289 tonnes of Tyson chicken products this year.

“We are monitoring the situation and are in close contact with our counterparts,” he said. “Only chicken that are safe to eat and free from bird flu are allowed to be imported into Singapore.”

News broke on Tuesday that the US meat company would cull the chickens in north-west Arkansas that had been exposed to a mild strain of bird flu, the H7N3. The company also said it will test other flocks in the area for bird flu. Affected chickens will not enter the food supply.

Director of the state’s Livestock and Poultry Commission, Mr Jon Fitch, told the Associated Press the birds tested positive for exposure to the H7N3 strain — not the H5N1 strain that ravaged Asian poultry stocks in late 2003 and has killed 241 people worldwide.

“There is absolutely no human health threat,” he said. “The speculation at this point in time was that a large group of Canadian geese made home on a pond very near this facility.”

Meanwhile, in central England, an outbreak of the H7 strain of bird flu at a farm has been described by officials as “highly pathogenic” :— meaning the virus has a relatively high ability to produce disease.

All the chickens on the farm have been slaughtered following detection of the virus, which does not pose a high risk to humans, AFP reported. Nevertheless, Japan announced it was suspending imports of poultry from Britain. Singapore has already suspended import of poultry from the UK.

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Fishermen back plan to merge Middle Rocks

Straits Times 5 Jun 08;

JOHOR BARU - A PROPOSAL being floated to merge the rock outcrops called the Middle Rocks next to Pedra Branca has won support from fishermen, who say they will benefit from development there.

Pengerang Fishermen Association chairman Abu Bakar Mohamad said the waters around Middle Rocks are a strategic location for fishermen, who fish there and seek shelter in storms and strong winds.

He gave a thumbs-up to the Foreign Ministry proposal to develop the Middle Rocks, which Malaysia was awarded sovereignty of by the International Court of Justice last month. The proposal included the possibility of setting up a meteorological research centre and a maritime observatory.

'I am confident if the rock outcrops are merged, various activities can be carried out to benefit the fishermen,' he told Utusan Malaysia yesterday.

Foreign Minister Rais Yatim had announced the proposal on Tuesday, saying the two rock outcrops, which lie about 1.1km south of Singapore's Pedra Branca, could be merged to make them longer and wider.

Engineers have also described the idea as feasible, reported Utusan Malaysia.

'Although it looks difficult, we have the expertise to do it,' the Malay-language daily quoted Malaysian Engineering Institute president Gue See Sew as saying.

'The construction can be done, but we have to do a little bit of research to ensure everything goes smoothly.'

Research and Postgraduate Dean of Universiti Utara Malaysia Mohd Mustapha Ishak was also reported as hailing the idea.

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Of sharks' fins and highrollers

liang dingzi, Today Online 5 Jun 08;

AS someone who abhors any form of cruelty to animals, whether inflicted out of perversion or for commercial purposes, I applaud Resorts World at Sentosa (RWS) for its decision to keep sharks’ fin off its menu when it opens in 2010. I hope other restaurants will soon follow suit.

I find the commitment, however, somewhat half-hearted and disconcerting when it was revealed that high rollers at the resort may continue to feast on the Chinese delicacy. This is clearly a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul, negating the good that would have been otherwise achieved.

Worse, it suggests that compassion is a tradeable commodity — that wealth buys the right to be above the civilised norm that is being promoted. It does not matter that the consumption by high rollers will be confined to private rooms.

However surreptitious, it does not disguise the fact that some sharks had their flippers chopped off before they were thrown back into the sea to die an agonizing death.

Surely, it would be an insult to suggest that high rollers, many of whom are said to be businessmen and perhaps leaders in their fields, are less compassionate than the plebians of the casino community.

Besides, this is an academic proposition. The dish is expensive and, therefore, less affordable for those whose pockets are not as deep.

The outcry to ban sharks’ fins is not new. Many premium airlines — including Singapore Airlines — which used to serve the delicacy in its first class cabins have long ceased the practice.

These airlines have shown that there are alternatives that are just as good, and they have not lost their customers because the dish is absent from their in-flight menus.

By the same argument, surely it is not the sharks’ fin that will attract the high rollers to the integrated resort.

RWS’s launch of a marine conservation fund is laudable, so too is its openness to work in consultation with wildlife welfare groups.

However, it is ironical, if not somewhat hypocritical, that while fronting such efforts as a socially-responsible corporation, they continue to support the slaughtering of sharks for their fins just because they can never say no to a high roller.

Social responsibility includes practising what one preaches. While RWS has said it will “educate and persuade” its high-heeled patrons, it is a pity that many more sharks will continue to be subject to such senseless killing.

If it is a matter of principle, why wait till then, especially when it is not even known when? You do not buy time to halt an undesirable activity.

Mahatma Gandhi once said: “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way in which its animals are treated.”

Sharks may not be the best-loved animals in the world, but there is no reason to treat them barbarously. They may not be harvested by us, but we do not have to be accomplices in crime.

RWS has taken what may be viewed as the first step, which is not something to be pooh-poohed. I only wish it was just a one and only step, without exception.

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 5 Jun 08

Speaking up for our shores
lots of interviews on the lazy lizard tales blog

7 Jun (Sat): Talk on Cyrene and our shores
come and find out more without getting your feet wet on the wildfilms blog

Super low at Changi
with super finds on the wonderful creations blog

Final Sentosa field trip for the 2008 Biophilia programme
with thoughts by the students including "perhaps more might learn to value this more than the monetary profits it could bring" on the lekowala! blog

Zoanthids of Kusu Island
the first of trips with Dr James, cool zoanthid expert on the wildfilms blog

How Much Nature is Enough?
Responses to “Does the world need leatherback turtles? Most likely not.” on the new york times blog

Blue-eared Barbet’s prominent black pouch
on the bird ecology blog

Kingfishers and ornamental fishes
on the bird ecology blog

Read more!

Resort's shark's fin ban 90% effective

Reply from Resorts World Sentosa, Straits Times Forum 5 Jun 08;

WE REFER to Mr Ace Kindred Cheong's online letter yesterday, 'Shark's fins menu: Why the double standards?', penned in response to Resorts World at Sentosa's (RWS) decision not to have shark's fin on the menu when we open in 2010.

First, we are glad to have another supporter for the shark conservation cause. RWS decided last year that we would not want to have shark's fin on the menu in order to advance our message to protect the oceans.

It is a bold decision for any casino resort to take, given that the majority of customers to global casinos are Asians, for whom delicacies such as shark's fin soup is a popular item at banquets.

RWS' final decision carries the concession that an exemption will be made only in the private gaming rooms, only upon request, and only if the customer rejects similar quality alternatives on the menu.

We recognise that this policy is a compromise, not the ideal, and open to criticism. Nevertheless, we are consoled by the fact that having the dish removed from menus effectively does away with at least 90 per cent of any shark's fin that could have been consumed on the premises.

We had to contend with a piece of business reality, but we believe that taking the first step to make a difference is better than not moving at all.

RWS' hope is that, somewhere down the road, we could report that we have not had to serve up a single bowl of shark's fin at the resort, for as long as shark finning remains unsustainable. To do that, we would need all the help from conservation supporters like Mr Cheong. You could help us convince the unconverted.

Krist Boo,
Vice-President, Communications
Resorts World at Sentosa

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Warming up to energy efficiency

Lin Yanqin, Today Online 5 Jun 08;

ADVERTISEMENTS for the free energy audits for households have been running, volunteers have been out and about doing the checks and prizes are even being dangled for being energy-efficient.

But so far, consumers have been slow to respond to the call.

Last year, just 600 of the 3,000 households visited by volunteers in the North West district agreed to undergo an energy audit — a simple process of calculating how much energy each household appliance consumed. The programme, initiated by the North West Community Development Council (CDC), aims to reduce electricity consumption by households, which in turn will lower the amount of greenhouse gases emitted.

This year, only 105 of the 520 homes in the Radin Mas ward of the Central CDC agreed to an audit since the programme, supported by the National Environment Agency (NEA), began in April. The rest were either not at home when the student volunteers knocked on their doors or they declined to be audited.

The reasons for declining? According to a CDC spokesperson, about half the residents visited found energy saving to be “troublesome and do not wish to change their lifestyle habits”. Other residents said they would do the audits themselves, according to Radin Mas grassroots leader Agnes Ong.

The best way to get residents’ attention was to emphasise how much money they could be save by being energy efficient, Ms Ong said.

“If you go with how much money they can save, they are more receptive. If you just talk about climate change, they can’t really relate, even if they know it’s important,” she said.

With this in mind, the North West CDC will be installing an energy consumption tracking device in 200 homes during its next round of energy audits in Bukit Panjang. The device, made by Bridex Singapore, will show not only a household’s electricity consumption but also the dollar value of the energy used.

The CDC hopes the device will convert the skeptics.

“They can see for themselves the instantaneous effects of applying our energy-saving tips,” said a CDC spokesperson.

For example, significant savings of about 20 per cent can be achieved by switching off the power at the socket instead of leaving household appliances in stand-by mode.

Bridex director Lawrence Lee says households will increasingly feel the pinch as energy prices continue to soar. Bridex, which is sponsoring the CDC’s drive, will be launching the device next month in stores, retailing between $150 and $200.

The NEA will be pushing out the energy audit programme to more wards this year, beginning in Bishan-Toa Payoh North and Kolam Ayer in the Central District. Sharing energy-saving tips through house visits, while labour intensive, is key to its efforts to raise public awareness.

Residents from different income groups will be given different advice.

“With the middle income, it is more about aircon usage, while with the lower income group, it is more about their lighting,” said Ms Ong. “They tend to use incandescent light bulbs, which are cheaper, but actually add more to their bill.”

Read more!

Reusable bags are still not as eco-friendly as recycled bags

Letter from Mariann Maes, Today Online 5 Jun 08;

I SHARE Daniel Lim’s concerns on reusable bags being non-biodegradable in “It’s all in the bags” (June 3) and would like to add some concerns on this issue.

I am a reformed user of plastic and paper bags, and I am using my reusable bags more often.

As much as I applaud the Government’s move to encourage the public to reduce their consumption of plastic bags, I am truly appalled at the number of reusable bags being rolled out for the campaign, and even more astounded by the sheer oblivion to the resources and energy wasted in making these bags.

The message that the National Environment Agency (NEA) has been sending out — use reusable bags to reduce the number of plastic bags — has been grossly skewed.

It started to produce reusable bags in large numbers and created a mad rush for manufacturers to cash in on this trend. In the end, an average shopper ends up with more reusable bags than needed.

Here are my concerns: Firstly, NEA has failed to remind the public that there is no need to buy reusable bags just to reduce the use of plastic bags. Any bag that anyone already has at home can be used for shopping needs. I’m sure every one of us has a decent bag at home. Why is there a need to waste natural resources to produce extra bags?

Secondly, the reusable bags produced by NEA and the supermarkets are not made of recycled materials. These days, recycled bags, :such as those made of hemp, are already available in the market. Why hasn’t NEA capitalised on this market trend to send this important message — use recycled products to reduce plastic bag usage — to the public?

My last comment is that to evoke a decreased use of plastic bags, the Government should really impose a legislation whereby customers have to pay for plastic bags.

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Bring Your Own Bag Day' campaign gets positive response

Channel NewsAsia 4 Jun 08;

SINGAPORE : The 'Bring Your Own Bag Day' campaign became a weekly affair, starting Wednesday. The Singapore Environment Council and the National Environment Agency hope that by making 'Bring Your Own Bag Day' a weekly, rather than monthly event, greener habits can be formed.

Hardware chain Home-Fix is the latest retailer to join the campaign, bringing the total number of participating retailers to 14, double that from when the campaign first started in April 18 last year.

The anti-plastic bag campaign is also picking up pace in several parts of Asia. In Bangladesh for instance, polythene bags have been banned since 2002, while in Taiwan, consumers are charged for the plastic bags upon request.

In Singapore, the 'Bring Your Own Bag' (BYOB) campaign has been in place for over a year now, but studies show that only 1 in 5 actually bring their own bags while grocery shopping. Inconvenience or forgetfulness are the main reasons cited.

"When you are shopping for the whole family, it's hard to bring like 10 bags. As you can see, my trolley is so full," said one female shopper.

"I do bring my own bag, but today, I forgot to bring it," said another shopper.

NTUC FairPrice said those who forget to bring their own bags can buy reusable ones. It added that it has sold over 250,000 of them since April 2007.

Fortunately, some customers have been more enthusiastic about the campaign. "Today is Wednesday, so I should bring my own bag," said a shopper.

Over at Home-Fix, store assistants will tie up bulky items with a string to make them easier to carry.

The hardware chain, which has 17 outlets, is the latest to join in the campaign. It estimates that by taking the more eco-friendly option, it will cut down on the use of over 330,000 plastic bags. - CNA /ls

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