Tough to raise awareness about rising sea levels

Jennifer Smith, Newsday 18 Feb 09;

It's hard to whip up concern for a creeping threat whose predicted advance can be compared to "being attacked by a giant snail."

That's how environmental advocate Sarah Newkirk of the Nature Conservancy, at a recent forum in Upton, described sea level rise.

Her phrase was a rueful nod to empty seats at the meeting, convened by state planners to seek public input on rising oceans. Just a few dozen residents had shown up, though the turnout was more than in Nassau the day before, when organizers outnumbered audience members.

This despite new predictions that global sea level rise - already pegged at 2 feet by 2100 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - could come decades sooner. The changes would worsen flooding and erosion on Long Island's low-lying South Shore, home to half a million people, key roads and the region's largest sewage plants.

But the wide range of possible outcomes makes sea level rise a tricky thing to plan for, much less a popular public meeting topic. Local governments are still adjusting to revised federal flood maps that recalculated the risks coastal communities face now. Planners walk a tightrope: They could underestimate the ocean's advance, or overspend to protect buildings and shorelines that might face a relatively low risk of damage.

"No one is good enough to say, 'In 50 years, this is what it's going to look like,'" said Joseph Vietri, chief of planning and policy for the North Atlantic Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Looking ahead

Despite the uncertainty, a New York State task force that is readying recommendations on the best way to adapt to sea level rise soldiers on. That work comes as a federal report released last month by the Environmental Protection Agency said coastal regions "need to rigorously assess vulnerability" to sea level rise and plan strategies to protect property, wetlands and barrier islands.

"The issue that all of us have to deal with is the reality that the projections contain some uncertainty," said Alan Belensz, a climate scientist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which is leading the task force. "So how do we plan given that fact?"

Among the advice the task force could deliver: direct development away from coastal areas; elevate roads and other infrastructure; or change wetlands regulations to increase no-development zones so marshes threatened by sea level rise have room to migrate upland.

"If we're building an outfall pipe for a sewage treatment plant, obviously sea level rise is going to be a serious consideration," said task force member Brad Tito, Nassau's deputy director of environmental coordination. "But if we're going to build a new basketball court at a park on Long Beach, we're not going to build a big wall around it to protect it."

More evidence

At the recent Long Island forums, Newkirk, Belensz and others on the task force made an aggressive case for action.

Exhibit A: Tide gauge records showing sea level rising at faster rates at Montauk, Port Jefferson, Willets Point in Queens and New York City than the 20th century average.

Exhibit B: Before and after pictures of drowning wetlands at Goose Island in South Oyster Bay, where nearly one-fourth of the marsh was submerged between 1974 and 1998.

Exhibit C: New projections that sea level along Long Island's South Shore could rise 2 to 5 inches in the 2020s - and a worst-case scenario of an almost 4-feet rise in the 2080s.

Those numbers were developed for the Nature Conservancy by the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the Columbia University Earth Institute. The advocacy group is using the information to build inundation maps that will show the range of future risk faced by South Shore communities.

The Columbia estimates are based on seven global climate models and three scenarios assuming low, medium and high greenhouse gas emissions. The high-end numbers factor in rapid ice melt in Greenland and the Antarctic.

Message reaches few

"We're not trying to scare anybody," said the DEC's Mark Lowery. "Sea level rise is very real, and it's important to understand the magnitude of the risk that these coastal communities face."

But few people heard the message that week. Organizers attributed low attendance to a winter storm and scheduling conflicts for local officials, including Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy's state of the county address.

And those who did show - mostly academics, environmental and civic advocates, and a handful of town staffers - seemed to be those least in need of philosophical conversion.

"You guys need to get Joe the Plumber to understand what this is all about," said Michael Bilecki, chief of natural resources at Fire Island National Seashore, at the Jan. 29 task force presentation at Brookhaven National Labs.

Some voiced concern that the task force's recommendations - due to the legislature at the end of the year - would be ignored by state lawmakers preoccupied with other matters.

Others wondered if local planners, who often have the final say on coastal projects, would heed state advice given Long Island's customary resistance to regional planning.

"It's kind of hard when you've got developers on a board making decision in favor of what they do," Walter Bundy, Southampton Town's storm water manager, said later. "It's a problem."

Robert Wieboldt, a consultant for the Long Island Builders Institute, said New York needs a comprehensive plan for sea level rise and erosion, but that it's too early to make hard decisions.

"It may well be that within the next few years we decide that we're going to assume a 2-foot rise in the ocean, and we'll deal with it," Wieboldt said. "But we need a few more years of ice-cap measurement to really know what we're going to be dealing with here."

How high could it go?

Researchers have projected how high sea levels might rise along the South Shore, using global climate and greenhouse gas emissions models. Graph below shows the middle range of water under those scenarios, as well as a worst-case situation that factors in faster rates of ice melt in Greenland and Antarctica.

2020s

Middle range: 2 inches - 5 inches

Worst-case scenario: 7 inches

2050s

Middle range: 7 inches - 12 inches

Worst-case scenario: 22 inches

2080s

Middle range: 12 inches - 23 inches

Worst-case scenario: 45 inches

SOURCES: Projections were developed for the nature conservancy by the goddard institute for space studies and the Columbia University earth institute

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Protected mangroves face petroleum threat

New Scientist 18 Feb 09;

THE world's largest surviving mangrove ecosystem - home to the endangered royal Bengal tiger - faces a new threat: petrochemicals.

On 3 February, the state government of West Bengal along with an Indian government committee approved plans for a petrochemicals hub on the island of Nayachar. A final national decision about the plant, which will refine crude oil and produce petroleum by-products, is expected within weeks.

Environmental groups in India are gearing up for the worst. The island is barely 10 kilometres from the Sunderbans, a biodiversity hotspot containing a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

"Setting up a petrochemical cluster in that region is tantamount to ecocide," says Santanu Chacraverti of the Society for Direct Initiative for Social and Health Action, a Kolkata-based NGO. "Noxious effluents will flow into the coastal waters and spread into the vast network of rivers and creeks. Sunderban, the nursery of a range of marine, coastal, and estuarine lifeforms, will be subjected to pollution," he adds.

India has a history of industrialising with little regard for the environment. The most notable example in recent times has been the building of over 3000 dams across the Narmada river, which devastated the river's ecosystem and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

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Green Revolution with a Capital G is Needed to Feed the World

Cutting Food Losses from Farm to Kitchen and Converting Wastes into Animal Feeds a Key Opportunity
UNEP 17 Feb 09;

Nairobi, 17 February 2009 - A seven point plan to reduce the risk of hunger and rising food insecurity in the 21st century is outlined in new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Changing the ways in which food is produced, handled and disposed of across the globe- from farm to store and from fridge to landfill - can both feed the world's rising population and help the environmental services that are the foundation of agricultural productivity in the first place.

Unless more intelligent and creative management is brought to the world's agricultural systems, the 2008 food crisis - which plunged millions back into hunger - may foreshadow an even bigger crisis in the years to come, says the rapid assessment study.

The report, entitled 'The Environmental Food crises: Environment's role in averting future food crises', has been compiled by a wide group of experts from both within and outside UNEP. It supports UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's task force on the world food crisis.

Major findings:

- The one hundred year trend of falling food prices may be at an end, and food prices may increase by 30-50 per cent within decades with critical impacts for those living in extreme poverty spending up to 90 per cent of their income on food. These findings are supported by a recent report from the World Bank stating that if agricultural production is depressed further, food prices may rise.

- Up to 25 per cent of the worlds food production may become lost due to 'environmental breakdowns' by 2050 unless action is taken. Already, cereal yields have stagnated worldwide and fish landings are declining.

- Today, over one third of the world's cereals are being used as animal feed, rising to 50 per cent by 2050. Continuing to feed cereals to growing numbers of livestock will aggravate poverty and environmental degradation.

- The report instead suggests that recycling food wastes and deploying new technologies, aimed at producing biofuels, to produce sugars from discards such as straw and even nutshells could be a key environmentally-friendly alternative to increased use of cereals for livestock.

- The amount of fish currently discarded at sea - estimated at 30 million tonnes annually - could alone sustain more than a 50 per cent increase in fish farming and aquaculture production, which is needed to maintain per capita fish consumption at current levels by 2050 without increasing pressure on an already stressed marine environment.

The report shows that many of the factors blamed for the current food crisis - drought, biofuels, high oil prices, low grain stocks and especially speculation in food stocks may worsen substantially in the coming decades.

Climate change emerges as one of the key factors that may undermine the chances of feeding over nine billion people by 2050. Increasing water scarcities and a rise and spread of invasive pests such as insects, diseases and weeds - may substantially depress yields in the future.

This underlines yet another reason why governments at the UN climate convention meeting in Copenhagen in some 300 days' time must agreed a deep and decisive new global deal.

Other actions under the seven point plan include:

- Re-organizing the food market infrastructure to regulate prices and generate food safety nets for those at risk backed by a global, micro-financing fund to boost small-scale farmer productivity in developing countries.

- Removal of agricultural subsidies and the promotion of second generation biofuels based on wastes rather than on primary crops - this could reduce pressure on fertile lands and critical ecosystems such as forests.

Medium to long term measures include managing and better harvesting extreme rainfall on Continents such as Africa, alongside support to farmers for adopting more diversified and ecologically-friendly farming systems - ones that enhance the 'nature-based' inputs from pollinators such as bees as well as water supplies and genetic diversity.

A recent report by UNEP and the UN Conference on Trade and Development surveyed 114 small-scale farms in 24 African countries, publishing our findings in late 2008.

- Yields had more than doubled where organic, or near-organic practices had been used, with the in yield jumping to 128 per cent in east Africa.

- The study found that organic practices outperformed traditional methods and chemical-intensive conventional farming and also found strong environmental benefits such as improved soil fertility, better retention of water and resistance to drought.

The research also highlighted the role that adapting organic practices could have in improving local education and community cooperation.

A report launched by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in April 2007 also highlighted the key role of ecosystems in food production. The Rapid Food Assessment also follows the IAASTD report on sustainable agricultural production, which was co-produced by UNEP in 2008.

Only last week UNCTAD reported that, despite the economic crisis, organic agriculture would continue to grow, representing an opportunity for developing country farmers including those in Africa.

It estimated that sales of certified organic produce could reach close to $70 billion in 2012, up from $23 billion in 2002.

"We need a Green revolution in a Green Economy but one with a capital G", says UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner. "We need to deal with not only the way the world produces food but the way it is distributed, sold and consumed, and we need a revolution that can boost yields by working with rather than against nature."

He said the report also shone a light on perhaps one of the least discussed areas - food waste, from the farm and the seas to the supermarket and the kitchen.

"Over half of the food produced today is either lost, wasted or discarded as a result of inefficiency in the human-managed food chain. There is evidence within the report that the world could feed the entire projected population growth alone by becoming more efficient while also ensuring the survival of wild animals, birds and fish on this planet," he added.

- Losses and food waste in the United States could be as high as 40-50 per cent, according to some recent estimates. Up to one quarter of all fresh fruits and vegetables in the US is lost between the field and the table.

- In Australia it is estimated that food waste makes up half of that country's landfill. Almost one-third of all food purchased in the United Kingdom every year is not eaten.

- Food losses in the developing world are also considerable, mainly due to spoilage and pests. For instance, in Africa, the total amount of fish lost through discards, post-harvest loss and spoilage may be around 30 per cent of landings.

- Food losses in the field between planting and harvesting could be as high as 20-40 per cent of the potential harvest in developing countries due to factors such as pests and pathogens.

This underlines the need for greater agricultural research and development which in Africa amounts to just 13 per cent of global investment, versus over 33 per cent in Latin America and over 40 per cent in Asia.

Innovative solutions are also required. A case in point is Niger where an estimated 60 per cent of the national onion crop, or some 3,000 tonnes a year, can be lost. The losses also lead to emissions of the greenhouse gas methane as the vegetables rot. Experts are looking at using solar dryers and other systems to preserve the onions so they do not rot in storage or on the way to market.

Environmental degradation poses a major risk to food production. For instance:

- The melting and disappearing glaciers of the mighty Himalayas, linked to climate change, supply water for irrigation for near half of Asia's cereal production or a quarter of the world production.

- Globally, water scarcity may reduce crop yields by up to 12 per cent. Climate change may also accelerate invasive pests of insects, diseases and weeds, reducing yields by an additional 2-6 per cent worldwide.

- Continuing land degradation, particularly in Africa, may reduce yields by another 1-8 per cent. Croplands may be swallowed up by urban sprawl, biofuels, cotton and land degradation by 8-20 per cent by 2050, and yields may become depressed by 5-25 per cent due to pests, water scarcity and land degradation.

- In Sub-Saharan Africa, population growth is projected to increase from the current 770 million to over 1.7 billion in less than 40 years, while also being the Continent on the front-line in terms of climate change, land degradation, water scarcity - and conflicts. Unless a major economic, agricultural and investment boom takes place, the situation may become very serious indeed.

- Increased use of artificial fertilizers, pesticides, increased water use and cutting down of forests will result in massive decline in biodiversity.

Already, nearly 80 per cent of all endangered species are threatened due to agricultural expansion, and Europe has lost over 50 per cent of its farmland birds during the last 25 years of intensification of European farmlands.

"Simply ratcheting up the fertilizer and pesticide-led production methods of the 20th Century is unlikely to address the challenge", says Achim Steiner. "It will increasingly undermine the critical natural inputs and nature-based services for agriculture such as healthy and productive soils, the water and nutrient recycling of forests, and pollinators such as bees and bats."

Notes to editors

The report 'The environmental food crisis: Environments role in averting future food crises' can be accessed at at www.unep.org or at www.grida.no including high and low resolution graphics for free use in publications.

The report is released during the 25th session of the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum taking place in Nairobi, Kenya from 16-20 February. The meeting's main focus is on finding solutions to the current environmental, financial, food and energy crisis through the emerging concept of Green Economy.

More information can be found online at: www.unep.org/gc/gc25

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Best of our wild blogs: 18 Feb 09

First record of some marine fishes in Singapore!
on the wild shores of singapore blog

New Facebook group: "Bad Idea for Whale Shark in Sentosa IR"
on the wild shores of singapore blog

Plant Magic: Auspicious and Inauspicious Plants from Around the World on the Biodiversity crew @ NUS blog

nemos & giant carpet anemone at terumbu raya
video clip on the sgbeachbum blog

Barn Owl asleep on highway
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Craig Robson revised
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Seen on STOMP: lots of fiery posts
on the Lazy Lizard's Tales blog

Voluntourism – A more rewarding travel experience?
on Wild Asia

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City light-up: tiered electricity charges fairer

One bright idea on charging for electricity usage
Straits Times Forum 18 Feb 09;

I REFER to "Let there be light, bright ideas for the city" in Saturday's Life! section, on the trend of integrating lights into architectural design.

The article mentioned that the glittery facades in architectural design were in line with the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) Lighting Masterplan.

I find that the masterplan contradicts the Government's aim to conserve electricity.

The article mentioned that developers and architects used light-emitting diodes on building facades, which consume less power than conventional fluorescent lights. However, brightening up entire facades still involves large amounts of electricity consumption.

Singapore may be nowhere near the brash neon lights of Hong Kong and Japan, or Paris. However, the URA, developers and architects ought to bear in mind that electricity tariffs here are generally very much higher than these countries.

Whenever the Government announces that electricity usage has gone up, I believe that it has taken into account usage by commercial and public buildings, as well as private dwellings. Ultimately, electricity charges will increase and apply across the board to all.

Developers would not feel the pinch from the increase of electricity tariffs as the cost would have been factored into the construction costs, and it would also be included in the tenancy or sale of the units.

Ultimately, home owners are the ones that would be badly affected whenever electricity tariffs increase.

To be fair to home owners, I would like to suggest to the Government to implement two different charges: One for commercial/public buildings, as these account for the bulk of electricity consumption, and the other for home owners.

Michael Yeo

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Bukit Batok bush fires keep firemen busy

Sujin Thomas & Kimberly Spykerman, Straits Times 18 Feb 09;

FIREFIGHTERS have been virtually camped out in a vegetated area along Bukit Batok West Avenue 3, where pockets of fire have been breaking out over the last 11/2 days.

Soon after one blaze is brought under control, another springs up.

The fires have been breaking out atop a hill, which sits on land about the size of five football fields. It is a steep slope, rising on a 70-degree incline to a height of between 50m and 60m.

Officers from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) have been taking 45 minutes to clamber up it using long retractable ladders.

The incline aside, they have had to carry tools to cut through the undergrowth.

The first fire broke out at around 4.45pm on Monday in two areas there, each the size of half a basketball court.

Fifty officers brought the blaze under control in half an hour, but they ended up being on standby for the next 17 hours on the chance that embers, fanned by winds, would re-ignite.

The SCDF officers left the area at 9.35am, but barely five hours later, twice the number of firefighters were back battling flames in four fresh areas, each about the size of two basketball courts.

Between Jan 1 and Monday, a record 292 fires had erupted in bushland and forested areas. The spate of fires in Bukit Batok is believed to be one of the longest bush-fire operations in recent years.

Those living nearby have been finding ways to cope with the choking cloud of thick smoke. Many have kept their windows and doors shut to keep out the fine white ash.

Some have had breathing difficulties.

Canteen helper Fauzlinda Tahir, 44, who lives on the ground floor of Block 123 in Bukit Batok Central, said: 'My husband has even joked that it is snowing outside. His asthma started acting up on Monday evening too.'

A minor traffic jam built up along Bukit Batok West Avenue 3. Thick water hoses were lying on the streets, some as far as 30m from fire hydrants.

Republic Polytechnic student Ganesh Murusamy, 20, said he had not seen bush fires this big in his 12 years living there. 'From my flat on the fourth floor, I saw a tree on fire. The flames were huge.'

For some residents, it is business as usual. They have been jogging and walking their dogs amid the smoky haze.

Sales engineer S. S. Chua, 52, was not unduly worried: 'There is nothing for us to be scared about as there have been many firemen in the area trying to put out the fire.'

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BCA launches green award

Ananya Roy, Straits Times 18 Feb 09;

A NEW green award designed to spur builders to adopt green practices has been launched by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA).

The Green and Gracious Builders' Award - the first of its kind in Singapore - seeks to encourage builders to use more recycled materials in construction. It also wants them to put public access high on their agendas.

The award uses three assessment criteria - green practices, what it terms 'gracious' practices and innovation - and is supported by most builders, according to the BCA.

'Our efforts at developing a sustainable built environment have so far been accepted by developers and consultants,' said BCA chief executive John Keung. 'Given the high visibility and impact of construction works, it is important for builders to go green and adopt friendlier construction site management and practices.'

Key features of the award include a two-tier rating system to quantify performance and enable the differentiation of performance standards between builders.

Mr Pek Lian Guan, director of Tiong Seng Contractors, welcomed the launch, which he said provided 'an excellent platform to recognise the efforts of builders in adopting environmentally friendlier and considerate best practices on the site'.

The inaugural Green and Gracious Builders Award is open for nomination till March 14 and will be presented at the annual BCA Awards ceremony in May.

Apart from this latest launch, BCA also distributes awards under the Construction Excellence, Green Mark and Universal Design for the Built Environment banners. It launched the Design and Engineering Safety Excellence award last year.

'Together with the BCA Green Mark Scheme, the Green and Gracious Builders Award will form part of the holistic framework to shape a sustainable built environment,' added Dr Keung.

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Leatherback landings in Terengganu, Malaysia

Leatherback land
The Star 18 Feb 09;

KUALA TERENGGANU: There has been an increase in leatherback turtle landings in Terengganu, especially at Rantau Abang in Dungun, with nine landings detected on its shores last year.

From the landings, 511 eggs were produced, of which 419 were incubated at the Turtle Information Centre in Rantau Abang.

Terengganu Turtle Sanctuary chairman Datuk Mokhtar Nong, however, said the incubated eggs did not result in baby turtles.

“The eggs did not hatch. They are believed to have been created by the female turtle without the male,” he sais here recently.

Mokhtar, who is also the state secretary, said that two years ago, no leatherback turtles could be found nesting or landing in the area.

Besides the leatherback turtles, he said there were 2,023 other landings of hawksbill turtles and painted terrapins.

He said that 38 turtles and two painted terrapins died last year due to the use of fish contrapments and nets.

“Setiu, Kuala Terengganu, Kertih and Kemaman recorded the highest number of dead turtles,” he said. — Bernama

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Rare Philippines quail spotted - on way to cooking pot

Yahoo News 17 Feb 09;

MANILA (AFP) – A rare Philippines quail that was feared to have become extinct has been photographed alive for the first time -- as it was headed for the cooking pot, according to ornithologists.Hunters snared the Worcester's buttonquail (Turnix worcesteri) in the Caraballo mountain range last month and a TV crew took pictures and video footage of the live bird at a poultry market, the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines said.

Club president Michael Lu said the group was "ecstatic" about the find, but they also "feel sad that the locals do not value the biodiversity around them."

He added: "What if this was the last of its species? Much more has to be done in creating conservation awareness and local consciousness about our unique threatened bird fauna."

Named after Dean Conant Worcester, an American zoologist who worked in the Philippines in the early 20th century, the bird was previously only known through drawings based on dead museum specimens collected decades ago.

"This is a very important finding," said Philippines-based Arne Jensen, a Danish ornithologist who heads the bird club's records committee.

"Once you don't see a bird species in a generation, you start to wonder if it's extinct, and for this bird species we simply do not know its status at all."

The quail's breeding area remains unknown though ornithologists suspect it resides in the high mountain grasslands of the Cordillera mountain range to the west of the Caraballos on the main island of Luzon.

The quail was being sold at a Manila wet market in Manila in 1902 and since then, just a few single specimens have been documented in Nueva Vizcaya and Benguet provinces, which form part of the two mountain ranges, the club said.

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Russian PM proposes outlawing fishing with drift nets

Putin puts writing on 'walls of death' in Russia
WWF 17 Feb 09;

Moscow, Russia - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has proposed outlawing fishing with drift nets, otherwise known as “walls of death”, following a lengthy campaign by fishermen and politicians in Kamchatka as well as local organizations including WWF-Russia.

Drift nets are used to catch fish migrating in open sea. Each net can be several kilometres long and their use results in a large bycatch of sharks, turtles, seabirds and marine mammals which are usually thrown back dead into the ocean.

Large-scale ocean drift netting was banned by the UN in international waters in 2002 and near-shore drift netting is carefully regulated in US and EU waters. In the Russian Far East two kinds of ocean drift net fishing exist: Japanese, in accordance with the bilateral agreement with Russia, and the so-called “scientific” drift netting. Both are principally aimed at the highly prized sockeye salmon and it is estimated that 60,000 tons of other less valuable salmon are discarded annually.

Over the past three months WWF-Russia, together with the Kamchatka coalition “Save the Salmon Together”, has collected signatures in support of a ban on drift net fishing. The coalition, supported by WWF, unites local NGOs, fishermen and representatives of the Kamchatka legislative and executive authorities.

The Kamchatka coastal fishermen, including indigenous people, have been fighting for several years for a ban on drift net fishing. Now, according to the press service of the Kamchatka Parliament (Duma), Prime Minister Putin has given orders for documents to be prepared on the complete ban of drift nets in Russian waters.

“We welcome this proposal because we consider ocean drift netting to be environmentally dangerous and there are better ways of catching fish,” said Konstantin Zgurovsky, Head of WWF-Russia Marine Programme.

It is not for nothing that drift nets are called walls of death. Pacific salmon and marine mammals including whales, dolphins, seabirds and even threatened species such as the Short-tailed Albatross get caught in the nets.

Another consequence of drift net fishing is that the nets become a barrier for fish on their way from the ocean to the rivers to spawn, thus depriving local fishermen of their potential catch.

“This month in Kamchatka there will be a public hearing on the drift net ban and there are some commercial interests of people who want to continue using the drift net, so the struggle is not over,” said Zgurovsky.

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Huge oil slick heads for Ireland and Wales

Brian Hutton, Press Association The Independent 17 Feb 09;

The biggest oil slick to threaten Ireland and the UK for more than ten years was tonight being tracked as it moved closer towards coastlines.

The spill, discovered near to where a Russian warship was refuelling in the Celtic Sea, is now believed to be 1000 tonnes - over three times the original estimate - and could reach Irish and Welsh shores in just over two weeks.

The incident in Irish-patrolled waters has sparked a flurry of diplomatic contact between Dublin and Russia, while British authorities have also been drawn into the ongoing investigations.

Environmentalists said it has the potential to devastate marine and wildlife, with knock-on effects on seaside tourism and fishing hot-spots.

A Russian destroyer, a British destroyer, an Irish Naval vessel and a Russian aircraft carrier remain at the scene of the spill about 50 miles south of Fastnet Rock, off the west Cork coast, along with an ocean-going tug and two refuelling tankers.

The Irish government has asked the Russian embassy in Dublin to hand over samples of the oils carried onboard the Russian tankers and aircraft carrier.

While some of the slick - originally covering an area of around 2.8 miles by 3.1 miles - will break up or evaporate, the bulk of it is expected to remain on the surface, and is veering eastwards at around 12 miles a day.

"The residual oil remaining is expected to develop into tar balls," said a spokeswoman for Ireland's Department of Transport.

"Depending on weather conditions these may end up on the Irish south east coast in approximately 16 days time and also impact on the Welsh coastline."

Both the Irish Coast Guard and the UK Coastguard are carrying out aerial surveillance flights, using special sonar equipment, over the area while a tug is being launched from Cork to carry out tests to see if the oil is recoverable at sea.

But authorities believe from past international experience that it is too difficult to contain and capture such a slick.

Friends of the Earth (FoE), the environmental organisation, has described it as a "significant spill" bound to cause serious damage to marine life and has called for a full investigation.

"It's extremely significant at that size. Damage to marine life is likely to be devastating, and this will have, as many environmental things do, economic repercussions," said Molly Walsh, FoE spokeswoman.

Samples of the oil have been taken from the scene for analysis, while Government departments and agencies are being constantly briefed about the potential impact to the environment.

Irish authorities were alerted to the spill on Saturday through a satellite surveillance pollution report by the European Maritime Safety Agency in Lisbon.

The Russian Navy confirmed one its carriers was refuelling at sea from a Russian supply tanker and said it was carrying out its own internal investigation.

The incident happened outside Irish territorial waters, but within an area known as Ireland's Exclusive Economic Zone, which it patrols, according to the Irish Government.

John Lucey, a senior biologist with Ireland's Environmental Protection Agency, said it was the biggest oil spillage in the waters around Ireland for more than 10 years and its impact depends on when it hits our shores.

When the Sea Empress ran aground off Milford Haven in south west Wales, in 1996, shedding 72,000 tonnes, it caused widespread damage to the nearby coastline.

By the time it reached Irish shores, the oil had formed into "tar balls" and had little or no impact.

But a spillage of just 31 tonnes in Cork Harbour a year later proved disastrous for marine and wildlife, particularly birds.

"If it did land here, and if it was two weeks, it could start forming tar balls and not be as potentially dangerous as a big, fresh slick coming onshore as we've had in the past," said Mr Lucey.

"If it's a slick, that's the danger."

Ireland scrambles over Russian navy oil spill
Andrew Bushe Yahoo News 18 Feb 09;

DUBLIN (AFP) – Irish aircraft monitoring an oil spill believed to come from a Russian navy refuelling accident off Ireland's south coast have recorded 522 tonnes of fuel spreading across the sea, officials said Tuesday.

Following an overfly of the spill, Irish authorities downgraded an earlier estimate of 1,000 tonnes given by the British coastguard, and said the fuel oil was now in three distinct slicks in the North Atlantic, heading east.

The spill, thought to have occurred at the weekend, was about 48 to 64 kilometres (30 to 40 miles) off the south coast and could eventually pollute the Irish or Welsh coastlines, the transport ministry said.

But it added it was too early to predict how much could come ashore, noting that oil had already begun dispersing late Tuesday.

Ireland has scrambled aircraft and a naval vessel to monitor the spill, and a tug was sent out to establish whether the oil can be mechanically recovered at sea, in theory starting on Wednesday.

Irish naval vessel Aisling and British destroyer HMS Gloucester have taken samples of the oil which will be sent for testing in Scotland.

Other vessels at the scene Tuesday included two refuelling tankers, one aircraft carrier, one Russian ocean-going tug and one Russian destroyer. The Coast Guard said it had established that no nuclear vessels are involved.

The Irish authorities were alerted on Saturday by a satellite surveillance pollution report from the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) in Lisbon.

The ministry said aerial surveillance "confirmed an oil spill covering approximately 4.5 km by 5 km surrounding a Russian aircraft carrier and a refuelling tanker."

The Russian naval attache confirmed on Monday that the carrier had been carrying out a fuel transfer at sea -- called bunkering -- from a Russian supply tanker, the transport ministry said.

"The attache confirmed an internal investigation is being carried out into the cause of the incident and said that Russian aerial surveillance considered that approximately 300 tonnes of oil was on the sea surface," it said.

The statement said the attache "could not tell the Coast Guard how this happened or whether it was from their refuelling operations."

In Moscow, the head of the Russian chief of staff Nikolai Makarov confirmed that a group of Russian warships had been refuelling in the area but denied there had been any significant leaking of fuel.

"In this area a group of warships carried out refuelling but according to the commander of the group Admiral Korolev the refuelling proceeded normally and no significant outflow of fuel took place," he said, cited by Interfax news agency.

A Russian naval spokesman, Igor Dygalo, disputed the size of the oil spill, saying it neither "has a catastrophic character nor constitutes a threat to coastal ecology."

The Russian embassy in Dublin has been asked to supply samples of the oils carried on board the Russian tankers and the aircraft carrier and for oil characteristic data sheets.

"The oil spill is forecast to continue to disperse and to break up. The residual oil remaining is expected to develop into tar balls," the ministry said.

"Depending on weather conditions these may end up on the Irish south-east coast in approximately 16 days time and also impact on the Welsh coastline. At this point it is too early to predict accurate volumes."

Read more!

Climate crisis needs empowered people

Jacqueline McGlade, BBC Green Room 17 Feb 09;

People power is at the heart of the effort to beat climate change, says Professor Jacqueline McGlade, head of the European Environment Agency. In this week's Green Room, she says that the task is so great, and the timescale so tight, that we can no longer wait for governments and businesses to act.

The key to protecting and enhancing our environment is in the hands of the many, not the few.

To adapt effectively to the challenges that will come with climate change, including biodiversity loss, water stress and forced migrations of species, we need to harness the information available and will to act at the local level.

That means empowering citizens to engage actively in improving their own environment, using new observation techniques and innovative economic ideas.

Sadly, the political, economic and administrative mechanisms that we design to tackle environmental concerns all too often leave citizens sidelined as silent observers.

Information is made available as lists of figures or spreadsheets that only experts can interpret.

Imagine if all the statistics that inform our evening weather forecasts were presented in this way, or all the data that drives popular software like Google or Windows.

Do you think they would continue to be as popular?

To encourage and benefit from participation we need to present our information in a way everyone can understand.

To address this urgent need the European Environment Agency (EEA) is working with the European Union, developing new systems to engage citizens as suppliers and users of environmental data.

The Shared Environmental Information System is one such collaboration between the EU and EEA.

The initiative will guide Europe's collection and dissemination of environmental information over the coming years.

This new approach supports the shift from paper to web-based reporting, managing information as close as possible to its source and making it available to users openly and transparently.

For Europe's citizens, this will mean both greater access to information and a bigger role in reporting.

When EU bodies review members' compliance with environmental standards, they will increasingly refer to national websites where everyone can access the relevant data, rather than relying on confidential submissions.

Meanwhile, data collected pursuant to regulatory obligations will be integrated with information from voluntary, professional and amateur groups as well as from empowered citizens.

This will build a much more complete and nuanced picture of the state of Europe's environment.

Silent witnesses

Citizens have a role to play in data gathering the world over.

In the Arctic, for instance, indigenous people form part of the EEA's global observation network, providing evidence of the real change taking place to complement our observational data and models.

We know already that the Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the globe.

Yet outside the territories, little is understood of the true cost to indigenous people of retreating ice or the impact of seasonal change on hunting.

We need to rectify this if we are to make the right decisions.

It is no longer sufficient to develop passive lists or reports to "inform" citizens of changes in our environment.

We need to engage with citizens and ask how they can inform us. Obtaining and using local knowledge will help us empower citizens, and will also give us a better indication of what we need to do to be truly sustainable.

To really engage the public, more co-ordinated and timely gathering of complex data needs to be complemented by "real time" delivery of the information, in language that is accessible to all.

The EEA's recently launched online portal, which is called the Global Citizen's Environmental Observatory, will enable European environmental information to be gathered and presented in a single location.

The Observatory will give governments, policymakers and citizens easy access to clear, comprehensible data in real time.

It will provide information on all environmental media - from the global perspective to the view from the street - at levels of detail previously unseen.

Water Watch, which provides information on bathing water quality, represents an illustration of the services to come.

Launched by the EEA and Microsoft last summer, it was visited almost 265,000 times in the first three weeks of August; a clear indication of public demand for user-friendly environmental information.

Crucially, the Observatory will afford every one of us a role in the information process by prioritising two-way communication.

In the case of Water Watch, local people are encouraged to give their opinion on the quality of the beach and water, thereby supplementing and validating official information.

Information technologies offer new ways to use all available data to the full and to present findings in ways that engage citizens and policymakers alike.

An example is the Climate Change Simulator, known as C-ROADS, currently being developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with support from the EEA.

C-ROADS allows users to see how decisions on greenhouse gas emissions made by political leaders today will influence the climate over the next 100 years.

If the world cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, 50% or 80%, what impacts will climate change have? The simulator provides some of the answers.

Importantly, it will be available to everyone, and isn't only for super computers and technicians.

That means each of us can use the same data as governments to model the change in his or her country.

From personal experience, I have noticed that people find the simulator simple to use and convincing in terms of its output.

It gives immediate feedback, which is essential when we want heads of state and ministers to see the consequences of their actions.

And it gives them and their citizens an insight into the scale of change that is needed.

Professor Jacqueline McGlade is executive director of the European Environment Agency

This article is based on a lecture hosted by environmental charity Earthwatch

The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website

Climate curbs need 'people power'
Mark Kinver, BBC News 17 Feb 09;

The battle against climate change can only be won "in the hands of the many, not the few", a top scientist has said.

Jacqueline McGlade, head of the European Environment Agency (EEA), warned the current approach left the public sidelined as "silent observers".

Political and business leaders were not able to tackle the problem without help from ordinary people, she added.

Professor McGlade said environmental policies would also benefit from data based on public observations.

"There is just no way that we are going to be able to shift ourselves to tackle the fundamental problems of the crisis without addressing public participation," she told BBC News.

By observing what was happening on the ground from more and more locations, Professor McGlade said that scientists and policymakers would get a more detailed picture of the impacts and what responses were needed.

She outlined her views during a lecture hosted by environmental charity Earthwatch.

'Silent witnesses'

However, coinciding with Earthwatch's annual lecture, an international survey of 12,000 people in 12 nations suggested that the people questioned actually wanted to see greater leadership from politicians and businesses.

The research, conducted by the HSBC Climate Partnership during autumn 2008, also indicated that most of those questioned wanted their governments to take more "direction action", such as investing in renewable energy.

Professor McGlade said these findings highlighted why it was important to encourage more public involvement.

"What we see around the world, even in China, is a yo-yo between government intervention, such as regulation and legislation, and the markets.

"It is this yo-yo effect that has created, in many cases, the boom-and-bust cycles.

"It is absolutely apparent that we need to balance that with much more explicit public participation."

In an article for BBC News' Green Room, she explained why she felt the current approach was not working.

"Sadly, the political, economic and administrative mechanisms that we design to tackle environmental concerns all too often leave citizens sidelined as silent observers," she wrote.

"Information is made available as lists of figures or speadsheets that only experts can interpret.

"Imagine if all of the statistics that inform our evening weather forecasts were presented in this way; do you think they would continue to be as popular?"

Professor McGlade said the EEA had launched an initiative that it hoped would overcome these barriers.

"The EEA's online portal, which is called the Global Citizen's Environmental Observatory, will enable European environmental information to be gathered and presented in a single location.

"It will give governments, policymakers and citizens easy access to clear, comprehensible data in real time," she explained. "It is no longer sufficient to develop passive lists or reports.

"We need to engage with citizens and ask how they can inform us, and it will also give us a better indication of what we need to do to be truly sustainable."

Read more!

Tree Rings Tell Of Killer Droughts

David Fogarty, PlanetArk 18 Feb 09;

SINGAPORE - Along the mountainous spine of Vietnam grow ancient conifers whose tree rings tell of droughts lasting more than a generation that helped push civilizations toward collapse, a climate change conference heard on Tuesday.

Research by scientists from the United States and Japan has revealed a record of drought in Indochina that goes back more than 700 years by studying tree ring core samples from Fokienia hodginsii, a rare species that lives in Vietnam's cloud forests.

What the samples show are two lengthy droughts between the late 1300s early 1400s, around the time the vast and wealthy Angkor civilization in modern-day Cambodia collapsed.

"There was a very significant multi-decadal drought in the early 1400s with the worst drought year being 1417," said Brendan Buckley of the Tree Ring Laboratory at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in the United States.

Another major drought lasting at least 30 years hit in the mid-18th century, said Buckley, speaking by telephone from the sidelines of the conference in Dalat, southern Vietnam, that is focusing on climate variability along the Mekong River basin.

"All of the kingdoms in Southeast Asia collapsed, in Thailand, Vietnam and Laos between 1750-80," he said.

Buckley teamed up with Masaki Sano and Tatsuo Sweda of Ehime University of Japan to study the tree rings of Fokienia.

The research is helping unravel the complexity of the annual monsoon that usually begins during March-May and on which millions rely to grow crops, particularly rice in the Mekong Delta. It could also help understand how climate change could affect the densely populated region and its economies.

Buckley said the chronology constructed from the tree rings showed a strong correlation between dry spells and the El Nino weather pattern that typically brings drought to Southeast Asia and eastern Australia.

CAUSE A MYSTERY

But what caused the much longer periods of drought was a mystery, although it could possibly be linked to a recently discovered multi-decadal switch of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific.

Buckley said the chronology was built from cores from 36 conifer trees found in a national park near Dalat.

"It's an amazing site, really, so it's a real breakthrough in tropical tree ring studies," he said, adding that a lot of the sites where the tree is found in Vietnam are being logged.

"Fokienia is an exceptional tree species because of the way it grows and responds to drought," he said, adding the data was corroborated with a lot of historical records, such as ancient lanna palm leaf texts from Thailand and accounts of foreign merchants, plus tree-ring data from teak trees in Thailand.

"What the Fokienia trees are most keenly tuned into is the length of the monsoon. Longer the monsoon, the trees grow more."

Dan Penny, part of a separate project investigating the collapse of Angkor, said drought was likely to be have been one of many reasons for the collapse of the city, which covered about 1,000 square kilometers and was the most extensive of its kind.

"There's no doubt that it was a contributory factor," he told Reuters from the conference.

Angkor was built around irrigation channels and was heavily focused on growing rice, he explained, but said evidence suggested the city was already in decline by the time the drought hit.

Buckley said the tree-ring data painted an awful scenario for the region, particularly the Mekong Delta, where sea levels are predicted to rise a meter or more in coming decades.

"When you measure the sea level rises that have already taken place across the Mekong Delta, it's really scary," he said.

"There's a real threat right there. Picture that with a major drought that lasts 30 years in the area and you can imagine the kind of chaos that could easily lead to some significant turmoil and societal collapse."

(Editing by Alex Richardson)

Read more!

UN weather agency says La Nina climate pattern weakening

Yahoo News 17 Feb 09;

GENEVA (AFP) – La Nina, the weather phenomenon that has been blamed for icy conditions that claimed dozens of lives across Europe since November, is weakening, the World Meteorological Organization said Tuesday.

La Nina is produced by cooler surface water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean and, like its Pacific sibling El Nino, is credited with upsetting climate patterns around the world.

"As these conditions weaken, the outlook for March-May 2009 is for 'neutral' conditions to be the most likely outcome," the UN's weather agency said in a statement.

However, forecasts for the remainder of this year were "very uncertain" at the moment, the statement added.

The average global temperature for 2008 was slightly lower than any other year since 2000, due partly to La Nina, according to the WMO.

In December, "unusually cold" sea-surface temperatures, or over 0.5 degrees Celsius (32.9 degrees Fahrenheit) below normal temperatures, were recorded in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific.

In 2007, the WMO linked the La Nina climate pattern to a long-running drought in Australia.

Cooler Pacific To Normalize In Coming Months: WMO
Laura MacInnis, PlanetArk 18 Feb 09;

GENEVA - Cooler than usual Pacific sea-surface temperatures should return to normal in the coming months, and no major La Nina or El Nino events are expected, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday.

The United Nations weather agency said that the tropical Pacific Ocean saw temperatures 0.5 degrees Celsius below normal in December, and was now regularizing. La Nina weather results in cooler-than-normal waters in the Pacific Ocean and is believed to spur hurricane formation in the Atlantic basin.

"La Nina-like conditions will most likely dissipate over the next couple of months, returning the tropical Pacific to neutral conditions by March-May 2009," the WMO said in its latest quarterly report.

For the first half of this year, it found that "the likelihood of El Nino conditions developing is no higher than that of La Nina conditions."

The El Nino weather phenomenon results in warmer-than-normal Pacific waters that can wreak havoc in weather patterns. The most devastating was in 1997/98 when it caused major drought in Australia and Indonesia and spawned floods in Peru and Ecuador.

(Editing by Louise Ireland)

Read more!

UK Astronomer devises giant sun shield to reverse global warming

An astronomer has proposed to reverse global warming by creating a giant sunshield to protect the planet.

Jessica Salter The Telegraph 17 Feb 09

Professor Roger Angel thinks he can diffract the power of the sun by placing trillions of lenses in space and creating a 100,000-square-mile sunshade.

Each lens will have a diffraction pattern etched onto it which will cause the sun's rays to change direction. He intends to use electromagnetic propulsion to get the lenses into space.

If work was started immediately Prof Angel thinks the sunshield could be operation by 2040.

He said: “Things that take a few decades are not that futuristic.”

Researchers at the University of Victoria, Canada, have started experiments using computers to test the idea.

Climate scientists are beginning to imagine options like the sunshield as a way of halting climate change.

However Prof Martin Hoffert from New York University said: “What you have to be prepared for is that many of these experiments aren’t going to work – this is the way science and engineering progress. You build something, you try it, it doesn’t work, you try it again. This is sometimes called learning by doing.

“We’re not doing and therefore we’re not learning.”

One of the world's leading environmental scientists warned this week that global warming is likely to accelerate at a much faster pace and cause more environmental damage than previously anticipated.

Professor Chris Field, of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said that higher temperatures could ignite tropical forests and melt the Arctic tundra, releasing billions of tons of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.

Read more!

Cheap food damages the environment, says Waitrose boss

Since end of second world war food has been 'a disposable commodity that does not merit more than passing consideration'
Juliette Jowit, guardian.co.uk 17 Feb 09;

The culture of cheap food has damaged public health, farming and the environment, according to the head of Waitrose .

Mark Price, the supermarket chain's managing director, attacked aggressive price cutting championed by his larger rivals such as Tesco and Asda. He blamed the government for encouraging a trend of cheap food after the second world war, which consumers "have now got used to".

"The headlong rush since the end of the second world war for ever greater quantities of cheap food has not only made us fatter, it has led to fewer, more indebted farms and an impoverished environment," Price told the National Farmers' Union conference yesterday.

"Food is seen as a disposable commodity that does not merit more than passing consideration. Food is seen as cheap. Food is neither of these things."

With price cutting moving up the agenda after years of rising prices and more recently growing unemployment and job insecurity since the economic downturn, Price defended Waitrose's higher prices.

Like-for-like products were less than 5% more expensive than in Tesco or Sainsbury's, and the difference between the cheapest chicken in rival supermarkets and Waitrose was only £1, Price told the Guardian.

Waitrose could demand better standards for a relatively small extra cost by making less profit on these products, something the supermarket could afford to do because it had a higher proportion of high-value, high-margin fresh food and top-range produce, said Price.

"Despite the recession, on average, Britons are financially and materially better off than at any other point in history," he told the conference in Birmingham.

"This is not to say that some families are not suffering very badly. They are. But the fact is that food now makes up a smaller portion of household expenditure than ever before.

"This may be good for our pockets, but it isn't good for our farmers, our health, our communities or our attitude to the natural environment – and that means it isn't good for anyone."

As well as naming his rival supermarkets, Price made an indirect attack on Tesco's chief executive Terry Leahy, linking him in his introduction to a clip of Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko making his infamous "greed is good" speech in the 1980s film Wall Street.

A Tesco spokeswoman said the company did not want to respond directly to Price's speech, but added: "We're wholly committed to British farming, but equally customers need us to be able to offer them great value."

Price also criticised the boss of Asda, Andy Bond, for putting down celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Heston Blumenthal. "His [Bond's] criticism centred on a belief that asking consumers to pay a little more for high-quality, ethically reared meat is out of step with public mood," said Price.

Peter Kendall, the NFU president, welcomed recognition of the pressures on farmers, which he said had increased during the credit crunch.

Methods used by supermarkets included forcing down prices after contracts were signed by changing products from normal to cheap "value" ranges, and demanding more money for marketing and promotions, said Kendall.

More education was needed to persuade people that cheap food was not good "value", said Kendall.

"A lot of people here have built a good business on the back of [supermarkets], they have got some long-term relationships with them. But there's an air of short-termism which does damage our long-term supply base," he said.

Read more!

Pay packaging recycling costs, UK stores told

Phil Medlicott, Press Association, The Independent 17 Feb 09;

A report which says supermarkets are using excessive food packaging and should contribute towards the cost of dealing with it was branded "nonsense" and "naive" by the industry today.

The study by the Local Government Association (LGA) said people's efforts to recycle rubbish were being undermined by the stores they shopped in.

It showed that although the weight of supermarket food packaging had gone down over the past two years, almost 40 per cent of it still could not be easily recycled.

But the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said the survey failed to acknowledge the key role packaging played in preserving food and thereby reducing waste.

Its head of environment, Bob Gordon, said: "It's a nonsense to suggest that retailers swathe their goods in masses of unnecessary packaging. This would simply be a pointless cost. Packaging reduces waste by protecting and preserving products."

Jane Bickerstaffe, director of the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment, added: "The report is naive and shows a singular lack of knowledge of the modern supply chain and what it takes to feed a nation of 60 million.

"Products have different supply chains and different amounts of transport packaging. Some products have a short shelf life, others are made to last longer. The amount of packaging has to reflect this."

The LGA report argues that supermarkets should contribute towards the cost of recycling and waste disposal services so they are encouraged to produce less packaging in general.

As well as making recycling easier and more affordable this would also ease the burden of landfill tax on local government, it says.

Landfill tax costs councils £32 for every tonne of rubbish they throw away - a figure that will rise to £48 a tonne by 2010 - meaning that by 2011 an estimated £1.8 billion will have been spent on it since 2008.

LGA chairman Cllr Margaret Eaton said: "Britain is the dustbin of Europe with more rubbish being thrown into landfill than almost any other country in Europe.

"Taxpayers don't want to see their money going towards paying landfill taxes and EU fines when council tax could be reduced instead.

"At a time when we're in recession and shoppers are feeling the pinch, we have to move on from a world that tolerates cling filmed coconuts and shrink wrapped tins of baked beans. Families are fed up with having to carry so much packaging home from the supermarket."

She added: "If we had less unnecessary packaging it would cut costs and lead to lower prices at the tills. When packaging is sent to landfill, it's expensive for taxpayers and damaging for the environment.

"Supermarkets need to up their game so it's easier for people to do their bit to help the environment. If retailers create unnecessary rubbish, they should help taxpayers by paying for it to be recycled."

The British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) was commissioned by the LGA to look at eight supermarkets and the type and weight of food packaging they used in a typical shopping basket.

The survey found Sainsbury's had the highest level of packaging that could be easily recycled (67 per cent) while Lidl had the lowest (58 per cent).

Waitrose had the heaviest packaging and Tesco had the lightest. The LGA said since its first survey in October 2007 the weight of food packaging had been reduced overall but the proportion that could be recycled had changed little.

The British Retail Consortium's Mr Gordon said: "Retailers pay over £5 billion a year in business rates towards local authority funding. The biggest barrier to recycling is local authorities' failure to agree on which materials they're prepared to recycle."

A Waitrose spokeswoman added: "Waitrose has cut product packaging weight by over a third since 2001.

"We were disappointed the LGA did not allow us to see a copy of the Report or provide us with a right to reply to the claims before it was issued.

"We are currently going through the report and believe it to be misleading. It fails to use accurate comparisons - a 500g tomato punnet at Waitrose is compared to a 250g punnet at most other stores. An accurate way to assess packaging would be by comparing per 100g of a product."

Supermarkets fail to shine in packaging study to find the greenest of them all
Jill Sherman, The Times 17 Feb 09;

It prides itself on being one of Britain’s greenest supermarkets, but when it comes to packaging, Waitrose scores surprisingly badly.

A study by the Local Government Association found that Waitrose had the heaviest packaging per shopping basket, although Lidl, the German-owned budget retailer, had the worst record on recyclable materials.

The report said that while the total weight of supermarket food packaging had reduced in the past two years, almost 40 per cent still cannot be easily recycled.

An analysis of the typical shopping basket at eight supermarkets by the British Market Research Bureau found that Sainsbury’s had the highest proportion of packaging that could easily be recycled (66 per cent) while Lidl had the lowest (58 per cent). Waitrose had the heaviest packaging (803g) and Tesco the lightest (646g).

The analysis makes it difficult to tease out the worst overall offender on packaging, but Waitrose had the third-lowest percentage of recyclable packaging (62 per cent), behind Asda (60 per cent) and Lidl.

The contents of the typical shopping basket included fruit and vegetables, minced beef, chicken breasts, lamb chops, salmon, Stilton, eggs, pizza, crisps, cookies and staples such as sugar, tea, jam, bread and sunflower spread.

The LGA said that excessive packaging was undermining householders’ efforts to recycle more. It called on supermarkets to contribute to the cost of processing waste.

Landfill now costs councils £32 for every tonne of rubbish they throw away, which will rise to £48 a tonne by 2010. At the current rate of landfill, this will mean councils paying an extra £360 million in landfill taxes over the next two years, the LGA said. Councils will spend an estimated £1.8 billion on landfill tax between 2008 and 2011, it said.

Margaret Eaton, the chairman of the LGA, said that families were fed up with having to carry so much packaging home from the supermarket. “At a time when we’re in recession and shoppers are feeling the pinch, we have to move on from a world that tolerates clingfilmed coconuts and shrink-wrapped tins of baked beans,” Mrs Eaton said. “If we had less unnecessary packaging, it would cut costs and lead to lower prices at the tills.

When packaging is sent to landfill, it’s expensive for taxpayers and damaging for the environment. If retailers create unnecessary rubbish, they should help taxpayers by paying for it to be recycled.”

Waitrose said yesterday that it had cut the weight of its product packaging by a third since 2001, and insisted that some of the LGA report was misleading. The supermarket said that the report “fails to use accurate comparisons: a 500g tomato punnet at Waitrose is compared with a 250g punnet at most other stores.

“Around 20 per cent of our fish and meat sales are over the counter but this study chose to only compare the prepacked option, which produces a higher but misleading figure.”

Waitrose also complained that the report had failed to highlight the store’s greener efforts. When the study was carried out, milk was purchased in a plastic bottle, but all Waitrose stores now offered milk in an eco-pouch that used 75 per cent less plastic than an equivalent bottle, it said. Waitrose own-label Easter eggs were also sold in packaging that was both recycled and recyclable, the supermarket said.

The report acknowledged that there had been a big improvement in labelling of supermarket products generally since previous reports, with many items showing details about whether packing is widely recyclable, recyclable in some areas where facilities exist, or not recyclable. However, it said: “There is still a long way to go for some retailers to provide sufficient information for consumers about recycling and there is scope for improvement among all retailers in the amount of packaging made from recycled materials.”

Read more!

Can Hybrid Solar Provide Nonstop Electricity?

Ari Rabinovitch, PlanetArk 18 Feb 09;

KIBBUTZ SAMAR - Israeli energy company AORA wants to prove it doesn't have to be sunny for a solar power plant to make electricity. Like weaning a car from total dependence on fuel, the answer, it says, is to go hybrid.

Their idea is to combine traditional fuel such as biomass or diesel with low-carbon solar power, during daylight, to generate uninterrupted electricity.

The approach is a novel answer for handling the variability of solar power, a major challenge which otherwise requires expensive batteries or other forms of storage to provide round-the-clock power.

AORA is constructing its first hybrid solar power station on a half-acre (0.2 hectare) plot in Israel's Negev desert, where companies are competing to create more efficient technologies and tap into the multi-billion dollar clean energy market.

The Negev plant, unveiled to the public this week at an energy conference in Israel's Red Sea resort of Eilat, uses diesel for now.

It will be online next month, producing 100 kilowatts, enough energy to power about 40 houses, said Pinchas Doron, AORA's chief technology officer.

The module looks like a smaller version of solar "power towers" being developed in the United States and Europe, with 30 large mirrors reflecting sunlight onto a generator on top of a 30 meter (90-foot)-high tower.

What is unique in AORA's design is a gas turbine that can handle super-high temperatures and then work off external fuel when sunlight is unable to produce the necessary heat, Doron said. "It can shift seamlessly between using the sun as fuel and a conventional or another renewable fuel."

That is important in off-grid locations where there is no alternative power source. And even where there is a grid, the lack of predictability of solar power is a problem, creating a headache for network operators.

"LOGICAL STEP"

Clean energy experts welcome the new design, though some say the technology has its limitations.

"This was a logical step. In certain contexts, like remote places, this could be the way to go," said Ken Zweibel of the Institute for the Analyses of Solar Energy in Washington, DC.

"It's dispatchable. You can't have that from photovoltaic alone," he said, referring to traditional solar panels.

Israel Kroizer, president of California-based BrightSource Energy Inc, said his company's steam turbine solar tower, which uses hundreds of mirrors, is more efficient than AORA's hybrid gas engine for larger scale production of electricity.

BrightSource last week signed contracts to supply Southern California Edison with 1,300 megawatts of solar thermal power.

One of the main hurdles was creating a generator that could handle concentrated sunlight that reaches nearly 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit), much hotter than any other power tower model, said AORA's operations manager, Yuval Susskind. "Most materials melt in that heat," Susskind said.

Air in a special receiver at the top of the tower capable of handling the high temperature is heated by the concentrated sunlight and shot into a combustion chamber, where it expands and powers a turbine, producing electricity.

A separate route can bypass the solar receiver and use a secondary fuel to power the turbine when necessary, allowing the solar power plant to produce continuous electricity.

The process also creates a by-product of some 170 kw of heat, which can be used to heat water for homes or factories, Susskind said.

"Because each of these units sits on just a half-acre, it can provide electricity in the most remote areas," he said. "You can build one outside a village in Africa or have many together in a desert in California."

A 100 kw plant using traditional photovoltaic panels, which can have up to 15 percent efficiency, would need twice the land, AORA said, than its hybrid-solar plant running at 28 percent solar efficiency.

Susskind said no other plant has hybrid technology at the same scale and efficiency.

AORA said the cost of their electricity is competitive with other solar technologies: between $3,500-$5,000 per installed kilowatt, meaning each 100 kw hybrid plant may cost up to $500,000. Total production costs depend on the price of the external fuel.

A full system prototype constructed in Nanjing, China in 2006 proved the technology worked, the company said, and it expects to begin commercial production later this year.

(Editing by James Jukwey)

Read more!

Mobile World Congress: Manufacturers agree on eco-friendly universal phone chargers

The world's biggest mobile phone manufacturers and network operators have agreed to adopt a new universal standard of phone recharger in an effort to be more environmentally friendly.

Claudine Beaumont, The Telegraph 17 Feb 09;

Until now, most mobile phones have used proprietary chargers that will only work on one kind of device.

But the GSMA, the trade organisation that represents the mobile phone industry, has called on manufacturers to be more eco-conscious and adopt a single phone charger that will work with all handsets.

Most of the main manufacturers, including Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson, have signed up to the scheme, which will see the mini-USB plug adopted as the universal standard.

The new universal chargers will consume half as much energy when on standby as today's charging cables, said the GSMA, and will be supported by the majority of mobile phones by 2012.

"This is a broad agreement that will move the industry to a single, energy-efficient charger for all mobile phones," said Michael O'Hara, marketing director for the GSMA.

"By supporting this industry initiative on common charging solutions, and enabling consumers to choose if they need a charger with every new device or can re-use existing ones, we can contribute further in improving the industry's environmental footprint," said Mitti Storckovius, a senior director at Nokia.

Green technology has been one of the key themes at this year's Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona. Several major manufacturers, including LG and Samsung, unveiled solar-powered mobile phones, while other companies have been keen to underline their commitment to the use of recyclable materials and sustainable production.

The announcement was welcomed by technology experts. "A universal charger is well overdue, especially one that is as energy-efficient as this," said Ernest Doku, an analyst with mobile phone comparison site Omio.com. "The announcement from the GSMA isn't just welcome from an environmental standpoint, but will bring immediate benefits to the consumer. Wherever you are, you'll be able to charge your phone and stay connected."


Universal mobile phone charger unveiled as industry gets greener
• New device will include a 50% reduction in standby energy consumption
• Solar-powered phones set for launch

Richard Wray , guardian.co.uk 17 Feb 09;

The mobile phone industry plans to introduce a universal charger as part of a drive to improve its previously patchy environmental record.

The plan from industry body the GSM Association (GSMA) is just one of a raft of "green" announcements at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Not only will it mean phone users no longer have to hunt for the right charger, but the specifications for the new device include a 50% reduction in standby energy consumption.

All five of the UK's mobile phone companies have signed up to the universal charger, as have the major handset manufacturers, and phones which can use the new charger - which relies upon the micro-USB connection found in the new BlackBerry Storm - will start appearing later in the year. By 2012, the GSMA has pledged that the majority of phones shipped around the world will use the universal charger.

The mobile phone industry has been attacked by environmental campaigners in the past for being one of the least green areas of technology, but mobile phones made from recycled materials or sporting solar panels have been one of the most interesting features in Barcelona so far.

Samsung unveiled the Blue Earth touchscreen phone which has a solar panel on the back that can charge the phone. Available in the UK in the second half of the year, the handset is made from recycled plastic from water bottles and is also free from harmful substances such as brominated flame retardants, beryllium and phthalate.

It also includes an in-built pedometer which tells the user how much CO2 they have saved by walking instead of using motorised transport. Samsung's SGH-F268 handset was last year named as the industry's greenest in a survey by Greenpeace.

A range of solar-powered phones are also being created by Dutch company Intivation, in a joint venture with ZTE, China's largest mobile phone manufacturer, and mobile phone network Digicel, which has operations in such remote places as the South Pacific islands.

And Sweden's Flexenclosure has showcased the latest in wind-powered mobile phone masts.

LG pledged yesterday that it would remove brominated flame retardants, chlorinated flame retardants and polyvinyl chloride from the manufacturing process by next year. It also pledged to use green packaging across its entire line of 2009 mobile handset models.

The company has used the trade fair to unveil a handset equipped with a solar panel battery cover as part of what it termed an "aggressive green initiative".

"Using renewable solar energy in a mobile handset is an example of our ongoing efforts to help create a safer, cleaner environment for our customers," said LG's chief executive, Skott Ahn.

Exposing the phone to the sun for 10 minutes gives it enough power for a three-minute call. Left in natural light for long periods, the solar panel generates enough standby power to enable the phone to be used without any further charging.

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