Nature Walks with Cicada Tree Eco-Place
and other fantastic outings on their brand new cicada tree blog
To Infinity and beyond
about the Planetary Coral Reef Foundation vessel on the compressed air junkie blog
Seagrass monitoring at Labrador
by the RGS team on their labrador blog
Fate of eco-paradise in the balance after fervent champion's departure
Serene Goh, Straits Times 13 Aug 08;
THE vision of the southern islands as an eco-paradise hangs in the balance with the departure of their champion, Mrs Pamelia Lee.
Sentosa Leisure Group (SLG) announced last week that Mrs Lee would be 'stepping aside' as managing director of the six-island cluster after 17 years on the project.
Her last day was July 31. The group's management has yet to announce a successor, or if there would even be one.
Pundits and eco-enthusiasts have raised concerns about whether the next head will share Mrs Lee's passion for nature conservation.
Last year, The Straits Times reported rumours in the tourism industry of a possible third casino to be housed on the islands - Kusu, St John's, the Sisters Islands, Kias, Lazarus and Seringat - perhaps by 2016.
It was a move Mrs Lee opposed. She felt the unspoilt nature of the islands could be preserved while generating revenue through eco-getaways or boutique residences.
When asked, the 66-year-old tourism veteran shied from hints that a difference of opinion had led to her parting ways with the group.
SLG also declined to comment on this at its low-key farewell for Mrs Lee, and remained tight-lipped about plans for the Southern Islands.
It would only say: 'There is no change to how the development is being handled and we will provide an update at an appropriate time.'
Mrs Lee had led efforts to lay the islands' basic infrastructure for development, including reclamation works, island links as well as the construction of a submarine trench for power cables, all completed in 2006.
She told The Straits Times in an interview yesterday that she had hoped to place the project, finally, in the 'gentle hands' of a developer who would undertake construction that would 'fit, not fight' the green environment there, a counterpoint to Sentosa's playground for the masses.
New inhabitants might be happy to walk, ride bicycles and dwell in houses 'no taller than coconut trees', she said, 'or stop and watch a sunset or a hermit crab running on the sand'.
In December 2006, investors voiced concerns that it would be complicated to maintain the islands' pristine environments while generating maximum yields, Mrs Lee said then.
Then in April last year, the Southern Islands' development was put on ice, with little explanation from the Singapore Tourism Board (STB). The temples on Kusu and St John's swimming lagoons and trekking routes were left as existing attractions.
More than a year later, this delay has become the reason for Mrs Lee's departure.
With the islands' infrastructure completed, her work is done. Further developments of the islands can proceed only in tandem with a concrete plan from a developer.
The fate of the Southern Islands lies in the hands of SLG's new CEO Mike Barclay. He takes over on Aug 25.
Mrs Lee, a mother of four, moved to Singapore from Hawaii after marrying Dr Lee Suan Yew.
She joined the then Singapore Tourist Promotion Board in 1978. In the early 1990s, she began studying the feasibility of developing Sentosa and the Southern Islands.
She will continue working on tourism development. As senior consultant to STB, she will oversee the acquisition and use of the 9th-Century Tang Shipwreck Treasure, a project to showcase Singapore's maritime heritage.sereneg@sph.com.sg
Related articles
Keep southern islands' natural and spiritual wealth
Letter from Malcolm Tan, Straits Times Forum 14 Aug 08;
Links
Fate of the Southern Island on the wildfilms blog
Buyers are willing to pay premiums of up to 10% for properties that come with good views
Jessica Cheam, Straits Times 12 Aug 08;
WHAT do home buyers look for in their dream home?
No doubt, it is a combination of an affordable price, the perfect location and other sought-after attributes.
But if there is one factor that often makes or breaks a sale, it is the view.
Property agents agree that all things being equal, a great vista helps to seal the deal for many home buyers.
In fact, in the current softer property market, a captivating outlook might give a home that vital edge to ensure it sells, they add.
Buyers are willing to fork out a premium of anything up to 10 per cent for a home with a great view. For well-heeled home seekers, price is no issue if the outlook is stunning, they say.
As a rule of thumb, analysts say flat prices increase up to 1.5 per cent for each floor in high-rise properties - so a 15th- floor unit might be 15 per cent more expensive than a comparable fifth-storey unit.
Securing that room with a view is particularly relevant for a built-up city such as Singapore.
Recent developments such as The Sail @ Marina Bay - which has two towers, one of which is 70 storeys high - have increasingly catered to Singaporeans' growing appetite for high-rise apartments with stunning views.
Depending on what type of view you get on the higher floors, another premium of 3 per cent can be added, said Mr Colin Tan, head of research and consultancy at Chesterton International.
To pin down exactly how much a view is worth, a 'hedonic regression model' can be used, said Mr Nicholas Mak, Knight Frank's director of research and consultancy. This method breaks down individual aspects of a home and estimates the value of each characteristic.
'This is mostly used by academics who want precise values. Developers tend to decide on the value of a view based on experience, or from valuers,' said Mr Mak. With the model, value is calculated based on past transactions, he added.
A view can change a property's worth as much as 10 per cent, said Mr Mak. What is difficult, though, is guessing a buyer's preference.
'One man's meat may be another man's poison. It's hard to isolate the price difference between, say, a city view and a greenery one,' he said.
A buyer's willingness to cough up money for a view depends on individual tastes.
Home buyer Victoria Ho, 25, prefers a city view over a green one any day. 'I'll pay up to 10 per cent more for a view, but not much more, because the location matters more than, say, if I were facing barren land or another block.'
But for 26-year-old Hoe Qing An, who is hunting for his dream home, greenery is of the utmost importance.
'We already live in an urban jungle; a home needs to have that green element and I won't mind paying for it,' he said.
So where are the spectacular views in Singapore and how affordable are they?
Property agents told The Straits Times buyers generally look for views such as an ocean outlook, the Central Business District skyline and expansive natural vistas.
The obvious favourites are those from properties on the East Coast, and city homes that provide a bird's-eye view of prime districts 9, 10 or 11.
For buyers who cannot get a high-floor unit, condos such as The Pier at Robertson allow all owners a view at least part of the time.
They can gaze at the Singapore River against the city skyline while at the gym or during a swim.
Property developer Hong Fok Corp has an upcoming residential project in Beach Road - still unnamed - that offers a stunning view of both the sea and the city.
The two towers, of 40 and 28 storeys and with 360 units, will offer panoramic views of Marina Bay, the sea, the city skyline or the Kallang River, depending on the direction the unit faces.
Prices have not been revealed, but in the vicinity, Southbank in North Bridge Road and Citylights at Lavender have been sold at about $1,000 to $1,200 psf recently.
Then there are homes that offer alternative views such as those near the island's nature reserves - which can be easier on the pocket.
Orange Tee property agent Vincent Loke, 36, for example, is selling a 13th-floor unit at Parc Oasis in Jurong which offers an expansive view of Jurong Lake. The 1,507 sq ft apartment is selling for about $930,000 - up to $80,000 more than a similar unit with no view.
In densely populated Singapore, greenery is highly sought after by home owners, said agents. Take, for example, the calming landscapes of Bukit Batok's Little Guilin, from Guilin View.
Property agent Simon Tan, 46, said a 29th-floor unit with a lake view sells for about $850,000. Units in the same block without the view cost about $780,000.
Some HDB flats in Marsiling enjoy an unblocked view of Johor Baru across the strait.
Malaysia can even be glimpsed from as far inland as former HUDC estate Braddell View. Its owners also enjoy panoramic views of MacRitchie Reservoir.
Mr Alan Lim, who owns a unit on a high floor, said he can even spot fireworks set off across the Causeway sometimes. Latest data shows homes at the estate selling for about $500 to $600 psf, or slightly under $1 million.
More affordable sights can also be found in the heartlands.
At Sengkang's Rivervale Drive, for example, high floor unit owners can look onto the meandering Sungei Serangoon for soothing greenery.
Mr Steven Koh, 48, who is one such owner, bought his five-
room flat for $310,000 in 2000. He reckons it is now worth more than $400,000 and that his view adds at least a few tens of thousands to the value of his flat.
'But I'm not looking to sell. I consider myself lucky to have such a beautiful view to gaze on every day. You can't put a value on that feeling,' he said.
Letter from Rahul Ahluwalia, Straits Times Forum 13 Aug 08;
THIS National Day, Kit Chan's 1998 song, Home, seems relevant as ever. "This is Home, surely, as my senses tell me," she croons.
My senses don't seem to agree. The primary school I studied in just six years ago has been razed; my secondary school's hall, stadium and (most importantly) canteen, I can no longer recognise.
Buildings as physical reminders of the past form perhaps the strongest of our cultural associations with a place. John Ruskin once remarked, "Without architecture, we cannot remember." So when we have strong associations with a building, it forms a part of our identity and it is imperative that we conserve it. For if the building is removed, most or all of the bond with the place goes with it.
Singapore's architectural heritage is largely confined to some colonial buildings in the Civic District, the racial heritage zones and novel but pointless things like our first bus stop.
However, even these are under severe threat in modern Singapore. The demolition of our first bus stop may have been averted, but such wondrous buildings as City Hall and the old Supreme Court have fallen prey to a plan which could diminish their charm.
The National Art Gallery, due to open in 2012, will join these two monuments with floating bridges; between the two buildings, a giant glass box, populated with giant steel trees.
The fa�ade's integrity will be maintained (by law), but inside, the buildings will have lost much of their character. I envisage it being quite difficult to relive Mountbatten securing the surrender of the Japanese in City Hall when there are alien staircases hovering above me. And Norman Foster's spaceship in the background surely won't make the view from the Padang any prettier.
I fear the same tragic fate awaits the two buildings as befell Dempsey Village. An outpost that was once rustic, quaint and comfortingly anachronistic has now been overrun by rowdy seafood restaurants and hip bars.
A similar invasion is planned for the Gallery, where only a fifth of floor space is to be for exhibitions, with shops and restaurants that hope to make it the city's next "lifestyle destination" taking up the rest of the area. It does not seem as if the Gallery will be any different from the upcoming Ion Orchard or indeed, the rest of Singapore.
"There'll always be Singapore," Chan goes on to sing. True, our little red dot will grow bigger and glow brighter, yet somehow, I believe we may end up bereft of true attachment to Singapore, and that may be the biggest tragedy of all.
Kelvin Chow, Today Online 13 Aug 08;
SINGAPORE’S bid to become a leading player in the field of clean and sustainable technology has received another boost. Wellington Drive Technologies, a leading supplier of energy-saving motors and fans, opened its manufacturing and logistics head office here yesterday.
The 15,000-square-foot facility in Tampines — representing $4 million in investment— which houses some key research and development efforts, was officially opened Minister for National Development,Mr Mah Bow Tan.
Once the New Zealand-listed company’s initial phase is fully operational early next year, it will employ more than 120 staff, including research and production engineers, churning out 1.2 million units per annum.
Its motors consume just a third of the electricity normally used. The company will mainly export them to Western Europe and North America. Its customers include leading retailers like Walmart, Tesco and Aldi.
Why Singapore? Wellington’s chief executive Dr Ross Green pointed to “Singapore’s respect for intellectual property, strong legal system, world-leading infrastructure, talented and hardworking population makes us delighted to be here”.
Mr Mah said: “The opening of the Wellington is timely. Not only does it reflect the high level of confidence and trust that the manufacturing industry has in Singapore and the region, it also demonstrates Singapore’s commitment to supporting technologies that can help reduce the impact on climate change.”
Looking forward, Wellington intends to increase production to five million units per annum in early 2010. It is also in early stages of discussion with local Nanyang Technological University on some research and development projects.
NZ's Wellington Drive to shift production to Singapore
Business Times 12 Aug 08;
SINGAPORE - New Zealand's Wellington Drive Technologies, which makes energy-saving motors and fans, said on Tuesday it plans to shift manufacturing to Singapore and that it expects to turn a profit by the second half of 2009.
The firm will shift volume production from New Zealand to Singapore by next year, leaving staff in its home country to focus on engineering and short-run production, the firm said.
It did not say how many jobs will be affected by the move.
Wellington Drive chief executive Ross Green told Reuters the firm's $4 million (US$2.84 million) Singapore facility, which will be ready next year, will produce an initial 1.2 million motors and fans or double the firm's existing production capacity.
Output will increase to 5 million units a year by 2010 as the firm expects increasing global demand for its products, which are used in electric appliances like airconditioners and refrigerators.
'Looking at our growth, we have gone from essentially nothing to making hundreds and thousands of motors a year in less than three years, and we are now able to see earnings taking off,' Mr Green said.
He said the firm expects to report a profit for the second half of 2009 after posting losses in the past three years.
Wellington Drive counts US supermarket operator Kroger Co and Japanese appliance-makers like Matsushita Electric and Sanyo among its major customers.
The company reported a net loss of NZ$3.9 million (US$2.7 million) for the six months ended December 2007, narrowing from a loss of NZ$6.3 million in the year-ago period. -- REUTERS
Yahoo News 12 Aug 08;
Austria, which has only two brown bears left, needs to take action if it wants to prevent the species from dying out again, according to the World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) local branch.
"If nothing is done, there won't be any brown bears left in Austria in a few years' time, it's an endangered species," said WWF Austria's Christoph Walder.
Walder, who heads up the brown bear preservation project, was addressing a public meeting in Vienna Monday alongside by experts from the Research Institute for Wildlife and the Environment (FIWI).
The WWF is pushing for a "grand coalition to support brown bears" with the help of provincial governments, hunters and farmers, Walder said.
Brown bears disappeared from Austria's forests in the 19th century, chased away by hunters.
But after a single bear wandered in from neighbouring Slovenia in 1972, WWF Austria launched a programme to reintegrate them in the early 1990s, during which period the population grew to 35 bears.
Now however only two males -- Djuro and Moritz -- remain. The unexplained disappearance last year of Elsa, the last female, has ended hopes of re-building the Austrian bear population.
Experts are still puzzled as to what happened to Elsa.
"We've considered everything: disease, migration, but some of our bears may also have been killed illegally," said FIWI expert Georg Rauer.
In May, a first such attempt to reintroduce the bears was launched in Upper Austria province, uniting local government officials, hunting groups, farmers' groups, the Austrian economic chamber, FIWI and WWF.
Under this initial project, two or three animals will be brought into Austria from its southern neighbour Slovenia, which has some 700 bears.
Todd Korol, Yahoo News 12 Aug 08;
In this arid river valley in southeastern Alberta, Adam Martinson is trying to find out why rattlesnakes cross the road.
Martinson, a University of Calgary student working on a Masters degree has come to Dinosaur Provincial Park, listed as a United Nations World Heritage site, to study why snakes slither onto -- and too frequently die on -- the asphalt blacktop of the region's roads.
"Road mortality is a significant factor of influencing snake populations around the world," Martinson said. "In southern Alberta it's particularly important because the snakes aren't moving very fast across the roads and there is a huge amount of development."
Snakes are pressured by both oil and gas exploration in the Western Canadian province's semi-desert southeast, but also by residential development in the booming region.
For prairie rattlesnakes, considered to be potentially a "species at risk" by the Alberta government, and bull snakes, their nonvenomous cousins, roads are a deadly hazard.
The snakes move onto roads looking for safety, food, mates and the heat absorbed by the asphalt. However, when a vehicle approaches the snakes don't move.
They coil themselves up in a defensive posture and the rattlers shake their tails to warn off the danger.
It's a strategy that has served them well for millions of years but is of little use in fending off a truck.
"It happens almost every day," Martinson said.
One South Carolina study found that more than 80 percent of timber rattlesnakes that tried to cross roads traveled by 2,000 or more vehicles a day were killed.
"We're trying to learn ... how we can design roads and plan for roadways that are going to have less of an impact on snakes," he said.
Part of Martinson's study includes trying to get a firmer handle on just how many bull and rattlesnakes there are in southern Alberta. Both species are considered "data deficient" by wildlife conservation agencies, meaning that no one really knows how many of the reptiles live in the region.
The snakes are a key to the area's ecosystem, keeping a check on rodent populations. They are also prey for other creatures.
For his study, Martinson traps snakes within the park and releases them onto a control road, where he tracks how fast they move across the surface and at what angle.
He'll use the data to create a model to predict the probability of a snake being killed based on traffic density.
But here, just before the prairie descends to meet the Red Deer River, an area famous for striking badlands geography and its rich beds of dinosaur fossils, it's clear what the risks are for the reptiles.
Stretched out on the asphalt, partially flattened is a prairie rattler nearly three feet (one meter) long. A conservation officer stops his truck, scoops up the dead serpent and throws it into the vehicle's bed. It's another statistic for Martinson's study.
(Writing by Scott Haggett; editing by Rob Wilson)
Paul Eccleston, The Telegraph 12 Aug 08;
A new long-term strategy has been launched to help improve stocks of salmon and sea trout.
The Government wants to forge partnerships with landowners, anglers and river authorities to protect the fish and to ensure the best conditions for them to thrive.
The strategy, drawn up by the Environment Agency after a lengthy consultation period, was launched by new chairman Lord Smith as he formally opened the Blachford Fish Pass near Ivybridge, Devon.
"These special fish are very valuable as they bring social, economic and environmental benefits to local communities.
"Their sensitivity and need for a good quality environment means we need to work together with our partners to address the complex factors affecting them, he said."
Work to protect the game fish, one or both of which appear in more than 100 rivers in England and Wales, has helped increase salmon numbers by 40,000 in the last 10 years.
There is a growing acknowledgement that as well as being good indicators of healthy rivers, people enjoy seeing them in their wild state.
Sea trout and salmon fisheries also generate millions of pounds per year to local economies.
The main aims of the strategy include:
# Improving the quality and increase the availability of good habitats
# Promoting and realising better land management practices
# Working with partners to remove or reduce impacts of barriers affecting fish migration
# Reducing the exploitation of at-risk stocks
# Making the most effective use of resources by working to the strength of our partners
# Establishing sea trout and salmon as widely recognised environmental icons
Lord Smith said the work at the Blachford Fish Pass, where the existing 7m long stone upper weir was replaced with a 'pool and traverse' fish pass for fish to swim up, was a good example of the co-operation that was needed.
At least 15km of spawning grounds has been opened up by the new fish pass and as many as 50 sea trout and salmon were seen to move up it on the first day it was used.
"The Better sea trout and salmon fisheries strategy will help us focus our work over the next decade to be more efficient and effective. It's not just about us - we need everyone with an interest in our rivers to work in partnership, to help bring more sea trout and salmon into more rivers, bringing more benefit," Lord Smith said.
The strategy was welcomed by Paul Knight, director of the Salmon and Trout Association, who said: "We have been consulted at all stages during the evolution of the strategy, which is an excellent example of the Environment Agency involving partners in a major project.
"It is fitting that another partnership, the Blachford Fish Pass on the River Yealm, should be chosen for Lord Smith to launch the strategy. Opening up new spawning and juvenile areas to migratory fish is an essential part of managing and conserving fish stocks.
"The Environment Agency has joined forces with local fisheries and environmental interests to make this happen, helping improve the river's salmon and trout populations."
Madeline Chambers, Yahoo News 12 Aug 08;
BERLIN (Reuters) - Environmental group Greenpeace started dropping three-tonne granite rocks on the North Sea bed off Germany on Tuesday to try to stop trawling it says is decimating fish, porpoises and other marine life.
Destructive fishing methods, such as deep net trawling near the seabed, are depleting stocks of plaice and sole near the Sylt Outer Reef and destroying the reef itself, a feeding ground for creatures such as common and grey seals, say activists.
The stone reef, an EU-protected area, is similar to a coral reef but made of rock, and is located off one of Germany's North Frisian Islands, near Schleswig Holstein and Denmark.
"The harbor porpoise population is one of the most threatened species of whale and dolphin in Europe and giving protection to this species was one of the primary objectives for the area," said Greenpeace.
The organization is demanding Germany and the EU enforce a ban on heavy net bottom trawling in the protected area.
The German Office for the Protection of Nature is in talks with fishermen to stop destructive fishing methods.
German fishermen, however, condemned Greenpeace, saying the rocks could damage fishing boats and even endanger human life.
"We believe what they've done is illegal and risks the lives of fishermen," Peter Breckling, general secretary of the German Fishing Association, told Reuters. He denied German fishermen used nets in the area and insisted the reef was not in danger.
Greenpeace denied suggestions it might be damaging marine life itself by dropping the rocks on the seabed.
"We have a very clear knowledge of this and are placing the stones next to the old reef, effectively extending it. There is no damage," Greenpeace oceans campaigner Iris Menn told Reuters.
The German Office for the Protection of Nature agreed the move probably did no ecological damage but expressed concern that it might hinder its talks with fishing groups.
"My worry is that at a time when we had been hoping to reach an agreement with fishermen, the Greenpeace campaign does not help dialogue," Henning von Nordheim, the Office's Scientific Director for Marine Nature Conservation, told Reuters.
He says British, Dutch, Danish and German fishermen are active in the area and that sand and gravel extraction is also a problem for the reef.
The European Commission has long argued for tighter curbs on bottom trawling, which involves dragging a cone-shaped net along the seabed, but getting a deal has proved difficult.
(Editing by Giles Elgood)
Lewis Smith, Times Online 12 Aug 08;
Labels stating that tuna is “dolphin-friendly” are misleading consumers into believing that the fish they are eating has been caught using environmentally friendly techniques, campaigners say.
The labels indicate only that the fishing methods employed to catch the tuna have avoided the incidental killing of any dolphins. The certification system fails to assess any other measure of sustainability.
Although dolphins have been afforded a degree of protection from tuna fleets, other marine creatures are still commonly caught and killed as bycatch from tuna fishing, particularly rare turtles and sharks.
Moreover, tuna are being fished out of existence because they are being caught in unsustainable numbers, according to a Greenpeace report, Tinned Tuna’s Hidden Catch, which calls for dolphin-friendly standards to be extended to other marine species.
The use of fish aggregation devices and purse seine nets (lures and a wall of netting that encircles a school of fish) comes in for special condemnation because of the quantity of bycatch and the number of juvenile tuna that get caught and killed. Ten per cent of the fish caught using the technique are unwanted bycatch, amounting to at least 100,000 tonnes around the world annually.
Conservationists recognise the positive effect that the dolphin-friendly labels had but believe that consumers need more information to judge which types of tuna are harvested sustainably. In Britain the fish is most commonly sold in tins and the assessment by Greenpeace of some of the main brands shows that Sainsbury, followed by the Coop, offers the most sustainable canned tuna. John West and Princes were judged to be the least sustainable, largely because of their reliance on aggregation devices and purse seine nets.
Spacer
Dolphin-friendly labels were a success because of their simplicity (Frank Pope, Oceans Correspondent, writes). If the tin had the stamp, you could eat the contents. Trying to eat fish that is not threatened with population collapse isn’t so easy. We need a new form of certification to help consumers to choose sustainable seafood.
A worldwide network of marine protected areas – where all fishing is banned – would give fishermen a simple rule: either you can fish here or you cannot. Even trawlers, the most destructive form of fishing, could win a sustainable seafood label if they could prove that they had not ploughed the seabed in a protected zone.
Dolphin-friendly labelling has shown that consumer choice can stop destructive fishermen. Now we need a simple sticker that says good or bad, not just for dolphins but for all life that depends on the sea.
Fishing for change
— Of the 23 commercially exploited tuna stocks, nine are rated as endangered or worse, three of which are considered vulnerable to being exhausted
— 70 per cent of tuna fishing is done using fish aggregation devices, which lure tuna to gather under a platform. From there they can be caught in huge nets called purse seines
— A tenth of everything caught in this way is unwanted bycatch
Source: Greenpeace
Dolphin-friendly tuna may not be environmentally friendly
Caroline Gammell, The Telegraph 13 Aug 08;
Dolphin-friendly tuna is not as environmentally friendly as consumers think, with "destructive" fishing practices placing other marine life at risk, research has revealed.
Pressure from shoppers forced the industry to change its methods to avoid trapping the mammals, but the "by-catch" caught up in the net is still a significant problem, Greenpeace said.
John West, the UK's largest seller of tinned tuna, ranked bottom of the environmentally friendly league because it relies on fishing methods which kill thousands of sharks and turtles a year.
They use fish aggregation devices (FADs) - huge nets that scoop up all forms of marine life - and for every 10 kg of tuna caught, they catch 1kg of other species.
The fishermen also catch juvenile tuna which are not suitable for use and kills off the stock before it matures.
According to Greenpeace's Tinned Tuna Hidden Catch report, John West "never tells consumers how the tuna was caught, imposes no restrictions on FADs for the majority of their catch and no support for marine reserves and more widespread use of tuna from stocks under specific threat".
In comparison, Sainsbury's own brand tuna proved the most environmentally friendly, using a pole and line to snare the fish.
David Ritter, from Greenpeace, said: "Thousands of turtles and sharks are killed every year while catching tuna to be put in tins. And John West - the biggest tinned tuna seller in the UK - is currently the worst supplier of the lot.
"Whilst the label on the tin may say 'dolphin-friendly', some tuna fishing methods can be hugely destructive.
"John West must stop selling tuna caught in this way. And, if the whole fishing industry is going to be truly sustainable, then they must support the introduction of large scale marine reserves across the world's oceans."
The Greenpeace report warned that tuna stocks were being over-fished and without effective management, the entire industry could collapse.
The UK is the second highest consumer of tinned tuna in the world, devouring more than 700 million tonnes of tuna in 2006.
Greenpeace urged consumers to stop buying tuna which was caught using FADs and to support retailers who have adopted sustainable catch methods.
A spokesman for John West said: "We are surprised by the comments made by Greenpeace and do not recognise the assessments made of our tuna procurement.
"John West cooperated with Greenpeace by responding to its questionnaire and does not understand how the statements in the press release and the report have been arrived at, based on the answers it provided.
"It is the company's intention to seek an open and constructive meeting with Greenpeace to gain clarification on the conclusions reached in its report and to share with them its examples of environmental best practice."
Martin Hickman, The Independent 13 Aug 08;
The Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell misled the public about the green credentials of a vastly polluting oil project in Canada, in an attempt to assure consumers of its good environmental record, a media watchdog will rule today.
In an embarrassing rejection of Shell's "greenwash", the Advertising Standards Authority said the company should not have used the word "sustainable" for its controversial tar sands project and a second scheme to build North America's biggest oil refinery. Both projects would lead to the emission of more greenhouse gases, the ASA said, ruling the advert had breached rules on substantiation, truthfulness and environmental claims.
Carried by the Financial Times on 1 February to accompany Shell's financial results, the company claimed: "We invest today's profits in tomorrow's solutions."
The advert continued: "A growing world needs more energy, but at the same time we need to find new ways of managing carbon emissions to limit climate change. Continued investment in technology is one of the key ways we are able to address this challenge, and continue to secure a profitable and sustainable future."
Shell explained it was harnessing its technical expertise "to unlock the potential of the vast Canadian oil sands deposits".
The WWF (formerly the Worldwide Fund for Nature) complained that extracting low-grade bitumen from sand was highly inefficient and destroyed huge tracts of virgin forest. In its defence, Shell maintained that new technology was reducing pollution from the Athabasca Oil Sands Project in Alberta in which it owns a 60 per cent stake.
Shell quoted a critical WWF report as rating its Muskeg River Mine one of the least damaging coal-tar sands projects because it sought to limit emissions of nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide and organic compounds.
Making its ruling, the ASA quoted Canada's independent National Energy Board that oil sand developments had considerable social and economic impacts on water conservation, greenhouse gas emissions, land disturbance and waste management.
David Norman, the WWF's director of campaigns, said: "The ASA's decision to uphold WWF's complaint sends a strong signal to business and industry that greenwash is unacceptable."
Shell rapped by ASA for 'greenwash' advert
Oil company's claim that its work in Alberta's tar sands was 'sustainable' is branded 'misleading' by Advertising Standards Authority
John Vidal, guardian.co.uk 13 Aug 08;
Oil giant Shell misled the public when it claimed in an advertisement that its giant $10bn oil sands project in northern Canada was a "sustainable energy source", according to the Advertising standards authority.
The tar sands cover over 140,000 square kilometres of Alberta and contain nearly 173bn barrels of oil in the form of bitumen. This is strip-mined from vast open pits and the bitumen is then heated, using far larger amounts of energy than in normal oil operations, therefore causing greater carbon dioxide emissions. A recent report suggested that the production of oil from tar sands can create up to eight times as many emissions as producing conventional oil.
In one of the most significant "greenwash" rulings in some years, the independent body responsible for regulating UK advertising upheld a complaint from green campaign group WWF that Shell's advert in the Financial Times was "misleading".
"We considered that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' (Defra) best practice guidance on environmental claims stated that green claims should not 'be vague or ambiguous, for instance by simply trying to give a good impression about general concern for the environment. Claims should always avoid the vague use of terms such as 'sustainable', 'green', 'non-polluting' and so on", said the ASA.
"Defra had made that recommendation because, although 'sustainable' was a widely used term, the lack of a universally agreed definition meant that it was likely to be ambiguous and unclear to consumers. Because we had not seen data that showed how Shell was effectively managing carbon emissions from its oil sands projects in order to limit climate change, we concluded that the ad was misleading", said the ruling.
WWF argued that Shell was not helping provide a sustainable future by exploiting the oil sands. WWF said the oil sands were one of the world's dirtiest sources of fuel and had a major impact on the environment. "Their extraction cannot be described as a sustainable process and for Shell to claim otherwise was wholly misleading," said David Norman, Director of Campaigns at WWF-UK.
Shell had responded to the challenge that the accepted definition of the phrase "sustainable development" was "development which meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". It argued that this definition supported strong economic and social development over time, and recognised the importance of affordable and convenient energy in achieving that, whilst underlining the importance of protecting the environment.
Contributing towards "sustainable development", said the company, "meant helping to meet the world's growing energy needs in economic, social and environmentally responsible ways, and that in all their operations they integrated economic, environmental and social considerations into their business decision making".
"The ASA's decision to uphold WWF's complaint sends a strong signal to business and industry that 'greenwash' is unacceptable," said Norman. "If Shell were serious about sourcing sustainable energy, then they would be far better placed investing in renewable energy, such as wind, tidal or solar power".
The ASA also ruled that Shell's construction of the world's largest refinery in Texas, also mentioned in the advertisement, was not helping sustainable energy production.
With over 35 multinational companies racing to tap into oil and gas reserves situated in peak biodiversity spots, conservationists urge an environmental impact assessment
Ian Sample, guardian.co.uk 13 Aug 08;
Vast swathes of the western Amazon are to be opened up for oil and gas exploration, putting some of the planet's most pristine and biodiverse forests at risk, conservationists have warned.
A survey of land earmarked for exploration by energy companies revealed a steep rise in recent years, to around 180 zones, which together cover an area of 688,000 sq km, almost equivalent to the size of Texas.
Detailed mapping of the region shows the majority of planned oil and gas projects, which are operated by at least 35 multinational companies, are in the most species-rich areas of the Amazon for mammals, birds and amphibians.
Researchers used government information on land that has been leased to state or multinational energy companies over the past four years to create oil and gas exploration maps for western Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Colombia. The maps showed that in Peru and Ecuador, regions designated for oil and gas projects already cover more than two thirds of the Amazon. Of 64 oil and gas regions that cover 72% of the Peruvian Amazon, all but eight were approved since 2003. Major increases in activity are expected in Bolivia and western Brazil.
"We've been following oil and gas development in the Amazon since 2004 and the picture has changed before our eyes," said Matt Finer of Save America's Forests, a US-based environment group. "When you look at where the oil and gas blocks are, they overlap perfectly on top of the peak biodiversity spots, almost as if by design, and this is in one of the most, if not the most, biodiverse place on Earth."
Some regions have established oil and gas reserves, but in others, companies will need to cut into the forest to conduct speculative tests, including explosive seismic investigations and test drilling. Typically, companies have seven years to explore a region before deciding whether to go into full production.
"The real concern is when exploration is successful and a zone moves into the development phase, because that's when the roads, drilling and pipelines come in," said Finer.
Writing in the journal PLoS One, Finer and others from Duke university in North Carolina and Land is Life, a Massachusetts-based environment group, call for governments to rethink how energy reserves in the Amazon are exploited.
One issue, the authors argue, is that while companies must submit an environmental impact assessment for their project, these are often considered individually instead of collectively. "They're not looking at the bigger picture of what happens if there are lots of projects going on at the same time.
"You could have each individual company thinking they're being relatively responsible and keeping their own road networks under control and so on, but what happens when you have 15 other projects around you? All of a sudden, when you look at the bigger picture, you have a sprawling road network," said Finer.
The creation of widespread road networks will put previously inaccessible forest at risk of deforestation, illegal hunting and logging, the authors argue.
The researchers urge companies to adopt a moratorium on new road building, and instead use helicopters to ferry personnel and machinery to and from the sites, as has been done in some locations. They also call for governments to take a broader view of the environmental impacts of new projects, by assessing them as a group rather than individually.
Further research by the team found that many of the planned exploration and extraction projects were on land that is home to indigenous people, who whilst being consulted, have no say in whether a project goes ahead or not. At least 58 of the 64 regions in Peru are on land where isolated communities live, with a further 17 infringing areas that have existing or proposed reserves for indigenous groups.
"The way that oil development is being pursued in the western Amazon is a gross violation of the rights of the indigenous peoples of the region," said Brain Keane of Land is Life. "International agreements and inter-American human rights law recognise indigenous peoples have rights to their lands, and explicitly prohibit the granting of concessions to exploit natural resources in their territories without their free, prior and informed consent," he added.
The report adds that the international community should pay countries in the Amazon to leave forest lands untouched. Ecuador has said it will not develop its largest untapped oil reserve if it receives compensation by the end of the year, an offer that countries have yet to take them up on.
Scientists say oil exploration threatens Amazon
Michael Astor, Associated Press Yahoo News 14 Aug 08;
Oil exploration in the Amazon rain forest represents the latest, perhaps greatest, threat to preserving what remains of the world's largest remaining tropical wilderness, scientists said Wednesday.
Scientists from Duke University said a new study revealed a Texas-size chunk of rain forest stretching across Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and western Brazil has been approved for petroleum exploration and production.
"Filling up with a tank of gas could soon have devastating consequences to rain forests, their people and their species," said Dr. Stuart Pimm, a professor of conservation ecology at Duke and one of the study's authors.
The study, conducted together with the environmental groups Save America's Forests and Land is Life, was published Tuesday in the open-access journal PLoS ONE.
Dr. Matt Finer, of Save America's Forests, said the study's mapping of oil and gas activities across the western Amazon showed the exploration blocks were concentrated in the most intact jungle regions.
Development of these blocks almost certainly would bring with them roads and pipelines, spelling unparalleled rain forest destruction, Finer said.
The situation is most troubling in the Peruvian Amazon, according to the study, which found 64 oil and gas blocks covering approximately 72 percent of that country's share of the rain forest.
In Brazil, the government recently sold off 25 exploration concessions in remote regions of the western Amazon, close to areas inhabited by some the world's last tribes uncontacted by anthropologists.
The Amazon rain forest covers about 4.1 million square kilometers (1.6 million square miles) or about 40 percent of the South American continent. About 20 percent of the forest already has been razed.
1 in 3 of UK's honeybees did not survive winter and spring
Pollination of fruit and vegetables at risk
Alison Benjamin, guardian.co.uk 12 Aug 08;
Britain's honeybees have suffered catastrophic losses this year, according to a survey of the nation's beekeepers, contributing to a shortage of honey and putting at risk the pollination of fruits and vegetables.
The survey by the British Beekeepers' Association (BBKA) revealed that nearly one in three of the UK's 240,000 honeybee hives did not survive this winter and spring.
The losses are higher than the one in five colonies reported dead earlier this year by the government after 10% of hives had been inspected.
The BBKA president, Tim Lovett, said he was very concerned about the findings: "Average winter bee losses due to poor weather and disease vary from between 5% and 10%, so a 30% loss is deeply worrying. This spells serious trouble for pollination services and honey producers."
The National Bee Unit has attributed high bee mortality to the wet summer in 2007 and in the early part of this spring that confined bees to their hives. This meant they were unable to forage for nectar and pollen and this stress provided the opportunity for pathogens to build up and spread.
But the BBKA says the causes are unclear. Its initial survey of 600 members revealed a marked north-south divide, with 37% bee losses in the north, compared to 26% in the south. "We don't know why there is a difference and what is behind the high mortality," said Lovett.
The government recognises that the UK's honeybee hives - run by 44,000 mostly amateur beekeepers - contribute around £165m a year to the economy by pollinating many fruits and vegetables. "30% fewer honeybee colonies could therefore cost the economy some £50m and put at risk the government's crusade for the public to eat five portions of fresh fruit and vegetables a day," Lovett warned.
The Honey Association warned last month that English honey will run out by Christmas and no more will be available until summer 2009. It blames the shortage on fewer honeybees and farmers devoting more fields to wheat, which has soared in price but does not produce nectar.
The UK's leading honey company is so concerned by the crisis that it has pledged to donate money to honeybee research. From next month, for each jar of Rowse English honey sold in supermarkets 10p will be donated to a fund dedicated to improving the health of the nation's honeybees.
Stuart Bailey, chairman of Rowse Honey said: "We are working with the UK Bee Farmers' Association and are sponsoring research to the minimum value of £25,000 over the next 12 months to selectively breed a hardier bee that can better withstand parasites and diseases."
Rowse's clear English honey comes mainly from the borage plant, also known as starflower, which has been grown increasingly as a source of a fatty acid rich in omega-6 for pharmaceutical products. But farmers have planted much less borage this year as ready-processed borage oil is being imported and wheat is more profitable to grow due to the increase in demand for biofuels.
Bailey added that the shortage had been exacerbated by an 11% rise in demand for English honey over the last year.
Although British honey only accounts for 10% of the 30,000 tonnes of honey consumed in the UK, other major honey producing countries have also been severely hit by poor weather and bee diseases. Argentina is the world's honey pot, producing up to 75,000 tonnes a year - three times that of its nearest rival Mexico. But Argentina has suffered a 27% drop in yield due to droughts and the planting of huge swathes of land with soya beans for biofuel. As a result, there has been a 60% rise in the price of raw honey.
In the US, honey yields have been decimated by honeybee loses of 36%, many due to colony collapse disorder (CCD), a mysterious disappearance linked to the blood-sucking varroa mite, lethal viruses, malnutrition, pesticides, and a lack of genetic diversity. CCD has spread to Canada, France, Germany and Italy but has not yet been confirmed by government in the Britain.
The BBKA is calling on the the UK government to put £8m over five years into researching honeybee losses and improving bee health.
Farming minister, Lord Rooker, has predicted the demise of the honeybee within a decade. Last November, he told parliament: "We do not deny that honeybee health is at risk. Frankly, if nothing is done about it, the honeybee population could be wiped out in 10 years."
Yet the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spends just £1.3m on bee health each year- less than one per cent of the bees' value to the economy - with an additional £200,000 for research.
The National Farmer's Union said it was essential for government to increase its funding of honeybee research. "Research is vital into varroa, bee breeding and the Nosema parasite," said Chris Hartfield, NFU horticultural adviser. "We are talking about food security and world food supplies being put at risk."
Defra said a further £90,000 had been allocated to the NBU this year to expand investigations into colony losses. It is currently consulting on a honeybee health strategy, with responses required by the end of this month.
A Defra spokesman said: "Significant public funds are already provided to support this area of work but to ensure this intervention is effective, it it vital that work is driven by a well thought out strategy agreed by all relevant parties."
India and China hoard fertilisers to guarantee food stocks, while riots break out in Vietnam, Africa and Pakistan
John Vidal, guardian.co.uk 12 Aug 08;
A global fertiliser crisis caused by high oil prices and the US rush to biofuel crops is reducing the harvests of the world's poorest farmers and could lead to millions more people going hungry, according to the UN and global food analysts.
Optimism that soaring food commodity prices could lift millions of developing country farmers out of poverty and lead to more food being grown have been dashed, says the UN. This is because small farmers either consume their own crop or have no access to global markets to take advantage of the higher food prices.
There is little prospect of relief. A world fertiliser forecast report, due to be published by the UN this week but seen by the Guardian, states that prices will remain high for at least three years and possibly longer.
Fertiliser prices have mostly doubled and in some cases risen by 500% in 15 months as US farmers have rushed to plant more biofuel crops and countries such as India and China have bought fertiliser stocks in large quantities to guarantee their food stocks.
But while the unprecedented price explosion has barely affected large commercial farmers, it is leading directly to civil unrest among small farmers in developing countries. There have been fertiliser riots or demonstrations in Vietnam, India, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan and Taiwan in the last few months. Last week one man was killed in a stampede at a government handout of fertiliser in Hyderabad, India.
Senior UN Food and Agriculture organisation analyst Dr Jan Poulisse warned the poor were being hurt the most by the crisis. "High commodity prices allow commercial farmers in developed countries to cope with high fertiliser prices. But rising food prices hurt subsistence farmers, particularly in Africa," Poulisse told the Guardian. "People just cannot afford [fertiliser]. They were in dire straits before, but now the situation is worse."
Farmers in sub-Saharan Africa have been hardest hit because they have the least chance to benefit from soaring food prices on the world market, but desperately need fertilisers to replenish nutrient-depleted soils.
World fertiliser prices have risen more than oil or any other commodities in the last 18 months. Of the three main types, diammonium phosphate (Dap) sold for US $250 per tonne in January 2007 but has risen to $1,230 per tonne. Potash-based fertilisers have risen from $172 to over $500 a tonne, and nitrogen based fertilisers have risen from $277 to over $450 per tonne.
Much of the price rise is attributed to first world farmers who have applied high levels of fertilisers to maximise harvests of grain to take advantage of record grain prices, said Dr Balu Bumb, policy leader at the International centre for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development (IFDC) in the US.
The UN fertiliser forecast blames capacity constraints for the price rises. "Strong global demand for fertilisers is stretching current production capacity to its technical limits. This situation will persist until new capacity comes on line", it states.
"It can take 5-7 years to open a phosphate mine, 10 years for a potash mine and three years for a major nitrogen plant", said Dr Poulisse, one of the report's authors. At least 50 new plants to make nitrogen fertiliser are believed to be under construction, and phosphorous and potassium mines are being expanded.
Fertiliser prices have in the past been largely controlled by governments because they are so politically sensitive. But keeping prices down in the current crisis is now impacting heavily on other areas, such as education and health.
India is expecting to have to spend $24bn supporting fertiliser prices this year compared to only $4bn three years ago and countries such as Malawi have had to borrow millions to introduce a fertiliser subsidy programme. However, the president of Malawi admitted last week that the subsidy programme was failing the poor. "Sadly, it is the rich who are benefiting a great deal. They are selling maize to the poor at exorbitant prices," he said.
Agriculture and development experts say the world has few alternatives to its growing dependence on fertiliser. As population increases and a rising global middle class demands more food, fertiliser has become the preferred route to higher yields.
"Rises in basic commodity prices should be good for small growers but we are seeing that agri-business is reaping all the benefits. It needs a fundamental reform of the way agriculture is managed as well as more sustainable farming", said Amy Barry, an Oxfam spokeswoman.
The Telegraph 12 Aug 08;
The mass development of genetically modified crops risks causing the world's worst environmental disaster, The Prince of Wales has warned.
In his most outspoken intervention on the issue of GM food, the Prince said that multi-national companies were conducting an experiment with nature which had gone "seriously wrong".
The Prince, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Telegraph, also expressed the fear that food would run out because of the damage being wreaked on the earth's soil by scientists' research.
He accused firms of conducting a "gigantic experiment I think with nature and the whole of humanity which has gone seriously wrong".
"Why else are we facing all these challenges, climate change and everything?".
Relying on "gigantic corporations" for food, he said, would result in "absolute disaster".
"That would be the absolute destruction of everything... and the classic way of ensuring there is no food in the future," he said.
"What we should be talking about is food security not food production - that is what matters and that is what people will not understand.
"And if they think its somehow going to work because they are going to have one form of clever genetic engineering after another then again count me out, because that will be guaranteed to cause the biggest disaster environmentally of all time."
Small farmers, in particular, would be the victims of "gigantic corporations" taking over the mass production of food.
"I think it's heading for real disaster," he said.
"If they think this is the way to go....we [will] end up with millions of small farmers all over the world being driven off their land into unsustainable, unmanageable, degraded and dysfunctional conurbations of unmentionable awfulness."
The Prince of Wales's forthright comments will reopen the whole debate about GM food.
They will put him on a collision course with the international scientific community and Downing Street - which has allowed 54 GM crop trials in Britain since 2000.
His intervention comes at a critical time. There is intense pressure for more GM products, not fewer, because of soaring food costs and widespread shortages.
Many scientists believe GM research is the only way to guarantee food for the world's growing population as the planet is affected by climate change.
They will be dismayed by such a high profile and controversial contribution from the Prince of Wales at such a sensitive time.
The Prince will be braced for the biggest outpouring of criticism from scientists since he accused genetic engineers of taking us into "realms that belong to God and God alone" in an article in the Daily Telegraph in 1998.
In the interview the Prince, who has an organic farm on his Highgrove estate, held out the hope of the British agricultural system encouraging more and more family run co-operative farms.
When challenged over whether he was trying to turn back the clock, he said: "I think not. I'm terribly sorry. It's not going backwards. It is actually recognising that we are with nature, not against it. We have gone working against nature for too long."
The Prince of Wales cited the widespread environmental damage in India caused by the rush to mass produce GM food.
"Look at India's Green Revolution. It worked for a short time but now the price is being paid.
"I have been to the Punjab where you have seen the disasters that have taken place as result of the over demand on irrigation because of the hybrid seeds and grains that have been produced which demand huge amounts of water.
"[The] water table has disappeared. They have huge problems with water level, with pesticide problems, and complications which are now coming home to roost.
"Look at western Australia. Huge salinisation problems. I have been there. Seen it. Some of the excessive approaches to modern forms of agriculture."
He said that the scientists were putting too much pressure on nature.
"If you are not working with natural assistance you cause untold problems. which become very expensive and very difficult to undo.
It places impossible burdens on nature and leads to accumulating problems which become more difficult to sort out."
In a keynote speech last year the Prince of Wales warned that the world faces a series of natural disasters within 18 months unless a £15 billion action plan is agreed to save the world's rain forests.
He has set up his own rain forest project with 15 of the world's largest companies, environmental and economic experts, to try to find ways to stop their destruction.
Only two weeks ago British GM researchers lobbied ministers for their crops to be kept in high-security facilities or in fields at secret locations across the country to prevent them from being attacked and destroyed.
They spoke out after protesters ripped up crops in one of only two GM trials to be approved in Britain this year.
Scientists claim the repeated attacks on their trials are stifling vital research to evaluate whether GM crops can reduce the cost and environmental impact of farming and whether they will grow better in harsh environments where droughts have devastated harvests.
Yahoo News 13 Aug 08;
Against a backdrop of global food and energy crises, the UN atomic watchdog opened a four-day conference Tuesday on ways of using radiation to improve crop yields and resistance.
The International Symposium on Induced Mutations in Plants, hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), brings together some 600 plant scientists, researchers and breeders from around the world.
The 80-year old technique of induced mutation uses radiation to alter genetic material in crop plants to boost output and disease resistance.
Selective mutation can also help crops adapt to changing climates and conditions.
Some 3,000 mutant varieties from 170 plant species spread over 60 countries -- including cereals, pulses, oil, root and tuber crops -- are currently cataloged in a seed database jointly run by the IAEA and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Unlike bio-engineered genetic modification, induced mutation does not splice foreign genes into the plant, but rather reorganises its existing genetic material, the head of plant breeding and genetics at the IAEA, Pierre Lagoda, told journalists.
"Spontaneous mutations are the motor of evolution," he said.
But while, in nature, it could take millions of years for a favorable mutation to occur, "we're concentrating time and space for the breeder so he can do the job in his lifetime."
No residual radiation is left on the plant, according to Lagoda. And because the technique mimics nature, it has encountered less resistance than genetically modified organisms (GMOs), derided by critics as potentially dangerous "Frankenfoods".
At the symposium, IAEA Deputy Director General Werner Burkart cited some of the technique's success stories.
Mutant varieties of barley that thrive at altitudes of up to 5,000 metres in Peru had led to a 52-percent increase in yields between 1978 and 2002, he said.
In Kenya, a modified variety of wheat could withstand droughts; and in Vietnam a new strain of rice thrived in the saline region of the Mekong Delta.
Participants at the conference spoke of a growing awareness that the problems of climate change, food shortages, and the energy crisis were deeply intertwined.
Given increasing pressures on the planet's natural resources, mutation induction "is a non-hazardous and low-cost technology that has the ability to address current challenges in agriculture," Burkart said.
"It's about cutting through the Gordian Knot of food, feed and fuel," noted Lagoda.
Induced mutation in plants would not solve the global food crisis by itself, he said. "But it's another tool in the tool box, just like GMO."
Soyoung Kim, Reuters 12 Aug 08;
TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan (Reuters) - Mounting losses for the U.S. auto industry threaten investment in cutting-edge battery development, raising the risk U.S. companies will be shut out in the race to produce the most valuable components in electric cars, industry executives say.
Executives at U.S. auto parts companies gathered for a forum in Traverse City, Michigan, said the U.S. government needs to provide incentives to support the industry until costs for electric vehicles, including plug-in hybrids, fall far enough to make investments profitable.
That process could take up to a decade, executives said, warning that key battery technology for the emerging electric car market will otherwise be dominated by companies from Japan, Korea and China.
"For electric vehicles, nearly all major components come from Asia. We don't want to create another cartel for renewable energy, sustainable mobility," said MaryAnn Wright, who runs the hybrid business of Johnson Controls Inc.
The U.S. auto industry has become increasingly outspoken about the need for the next U.S. administration to dedicate more funding to support electric car development efforts, shifting the focus of policymakers away from hydrogen and ethanol production.
While automakers including General Motors Corp are racing to take a lead in electrification of vehicles, the bulk of key components, such as next-generation lithium-ion batteries, are supplied by Asian companies.
Toyota Motor Corp, which dominates the global market for gasoline-electric hybrids with its Prius, plans to start producing lithium-ion batteries next year from a joint venture with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.
Nissan Motor Co also has joint ventures with NEC Corp to mass-produce lithium-ion batteries next year.
Lithium-ion batteries -- lighter, smaller, longer-lasting and capable of holding more power than the nickel-metal batteries which power the current gasoline-electric hybrids -- are used for plug-ins such as GM's heavily-touted Chevrolet Volt, which will be powered entirely by an electric motor and can be charged through an ordinary power socket.
"The role of the local and state governments is going to be the incentives they can provide to companies who want to get into the business and establishing that infrastructure," said Wright, who previously headed hybrid development efforts at Ford Motor Co.
A sharp rise in gasoline prices and a consumer stampede from large trucks and SUVs have made it more urgent for the U.S. automakers to develop fuel-efficient cars.
But investment costs are a big burden to the struggling U.S. automakers and their suppliers, executive say.
U.S.-based auto suppliers lost a combined $10 billion between 2002 and 2007, while Asian suppliers racked up a combined $42 billion profit in that period and European suppliers earned $24 billion, according to restructuring advisory Alix Partners.
In addition, analysts estimate plug-in batteries could add $10,000 or more to the cost of a vehicle, a higher premium on the sticker price than for current gas-electric hybrids.
GM, which plans to limit production of the highly-touted Volt, has indicated it will not make money on the planned 2010 launch of the plug-in hybrid.
Toyota, the world's largest automaker, has plans for more extended real-world testing of a plug-in Prius around the time of the Volt's planned launch.
LOBBYING FOR HELP
In June, the U.S. Department of Energy announced it would give $30 million over the next three years to help fund plug-in projects undertaken by Chrysler LLC, General Motors Corp and Ford.
"We must ensure we have a domestic battery supply," Ford's president of North American operations Mark Fields said at the time in urging more substantial government aid.
Arvin Innovation Inc, the auto parts business being spun off from ArvinMeritor Inc, plans to focus in part on electronic control systems and electric motors, aiming to take advantage of the industry's move toward electric and hybrid vehicles.
Chief Executive Phil Martens, speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the Center for Automotive Research's Management Briefing Seminar, said U.S. government support was crucial for the industry.
"We have to become competitive with worldwide capabilities for fuel economy and emissions, and I think in certain areas we are behind," Martens said.
(Additional reporting by David Bailey; Editing by Brian Moss)
Timothy Gardner, Reuters 12 Aug 08;
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. Coast Guard cutter will embark on an Arctic voyage this week to determine the extent of the continental shelf north of Alaska and map the ocean floor, data that could be used for oil and natural gas exploration.
U.S. and University of New Hampshire scientists on the Coast Guard Cutter Healy will leave Barrow, Alaska, on Thursday on a three-week journey. They will create a three-dimensional map of the Arctic Ocean floor in a relatively unexplored area known as the Chukchi borderland.
The Healy will launch again on September 6, when it will be joined by Canadian scientists aboard an icebreaker, who will help collect data to determine the thickness of sediment in the region. That is one factor a country can use to define its extended continental shelf.
With oil at $114 a barrel, after hitting a record $147 in July, and sea ice melting fast, countries like Russia and the United States are looking north for possible energy riches.
"These are places nobody's gone before, in essence, so this is a first step," said Margaret Hays, the director of the oceanic affairs office at the U.S. State Department. She said the data collected may provide information to the public about future oil and natural gas sources for the United States.
This will be the fourth year that the United States has collected data to define the limits of its continental shelf in the Arctic.
Russia, which has claimed 460,000 square miles of Arctic waters, last summer planted its flag on the ocean floor of the North Pole.
Hays said the Alaskan continental shelf may lie up to 600 nautical miles from the coastline, far beyond the 200-mile (322-km) limit where coastal countries have sovereign rights over natural resources.
The research could also shed light on other potential energy resources, like methane frozen in ice under the ocean, that Hays said might one day have some commercial interest.
Larry Mayer, a university scientist, said melting sea ice, presumably from global warming, helped last year's mission. "It was bad for the Arctic, but very very good for mapping."
Arctic cold war as US sends a ship to claim riches under the ocean
Tim Reid, Times Online 13 Aug 08;
A US Coast Guard cutter will depart for the Arctic this week as part of a race against Russia to claim the vast spoils of oil and natural gas below the sea floor that both nations are scrambling to exploit.
The cutter Healy will leave Barrow, Alaska, tomorrow on a three-week journey to map the Arctic Ocean floor in a relatively unexplored area at the northern edge of the Beaufort Sea, in an attempt to bolster US claims to the area by proving that it is part of its extended outer continental shelf.
The rush to stake out territory across the Arctic has intensified since last August, when a Russian submarine planted the nation's flag on the sea floor beneath the North Pole, which was viewed as a provocative land grab.
That triggered an immediate response from the Canadian Government, which within a week announced that it was going to build two new military bases in the Arctic wilderness, a warning shot in the new Cold War over the far North's energy resources. The Healy will be joined by a Canadian icebreaker on September 6.
On board the Healy will be scientists from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They will use an echo sounder to make a three-dimensional map of the sea floor in an area known as the Chukchi borderland.
The US Geological Survey believes that the Arctic region contains 90 billion barrels of oil waiting to be explored, about 15 per cent of the world's undiscovered reserves, and a third of the world's undiscovered natural gas.
Under international law each of five Arctic countries — Canada, Russia, the United States, Norway and Denmark — controls an economic zone within 200 miles of its continental shelf. The limits of that shelf are in dispute, and as Russia seeks to expand its gas and oil reserves, the region is at the centre of a battle for energy rights and ownership.
Last summer's Russian expedition, when two mini-submarines reached the seabed 13,980ft (4,260m) beneath the North Pole, was part of a push by Moscow to find evidence for its claim that the Arctic seabed and Siberia are linked by a single continental shelf, thus making the polar region a geological extension of Russia.
The vessels recovered samples from the seabed in an attempt to demonstrate that the Lomonosov Ridge, an underwater shelf that runs through the Arctic, is an extension of Russian territory.
The United Nations rejected that claim in 2002, citing lack of proof but Moscow is expected to make its case again next year.
Denmark and Canada also argue that the Lomonosov Ridge is connected to their territories. Norway too is conducting a survey to strengthen its case. All five Arctic nations are competing to secure subsurface rights to the seabed.
The Healy mission comes amid growing concerns in the US over Russia's strategic advantages in the Arctic. Russia has seven icebreakers to America's three and the Russian vessels are bigger and more powerful.
In recent testimony to Congress Admiral Thad Allen, the head of the US Coast Guard, said: “We are losing ground in the global competition. I'm concerned we are watching our nation's icebreaking capabilities decline.”
Reuters 12 Aug 08;
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Human activity and the El Nino weather pattern over the last century have warmed West Antarctica, part of the world's coldest continent, according to a study based on four years of collecting ice core data.
The West Antarctic warmed in response to higher temperatures in the tropical Pacific, which itself has been warming due to weather patterns like a major El Nino event from 1939 to 1942 and greenhouse emissions from cars and factories, according to the study.
"An increasingly large part of the signal is becoming due to human activity," said the study's lead author David Schneider of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The study appeared on Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Previous studies had showed the West Antarctic had cooled partly due to winds caused by depletion of the ozone layer.
The El Nino pattern is a periodic shift in air pressure accompanied by oceanic warming in the tropical Pacific.
Scientists are interested in whether warming will destabilize the West Antarctic ice sheet, which covers a region the size of Mexico and averages about 6,500 feet deep. If it all melted, it would raise sea levels by 8 to 16 feet.
There are few historical records and little understanding of how ice sheets might react to rising temperatures due to global warming.
The study, supported by the National Science Foundation, showed the West Antarctic warned about 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 C) over the 20th century, or slightly more than the global average of about 1.3 degrees F (0.7 C), though there was some uncertainty in the estimate.
The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change figured last year that Antarctica would not contribute to rising sea levels, and in fact predicted a growth of the big ice sheet the covers much of the continent from enhanced precipitation.
There are parts of Antarctica that are gaining snowfall and ice, Schneider said, but the overall trend for the continent is that the ice is diminishing.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner, editing by Chris Wilson)
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