Best of our wild blogs: 3 Apr 09

Film Friday: Screening of EARTHLINGS & Film Discussion
on Otterman speaks

Dredging at Changi Point from Apr to Jun 09
on the wild shores of singapore blog

The Okenia Nudibranch With 3 Gills Is ...
on the colourful clouds blog

Blue Films
Green Porno goes blue from wild shores of singapore blog

Great Hornbill sunbathing
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Courtship of the Purple-throated Sunbird
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

What a long, strange trip: lifecycle assessment
on SUNfiltered

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"Extinction Sucks"! new online full-length wildlife show

WWF says "Extinction Sucks"!
WWF 3 Apr 09;

Gland, Switzerland - Elephants, rhinos, dolphins and marine turtles are just some of the threatened species which come under the spotlight in a brand-new online TV series making its debut today (Friday April 3). Extinction Sucks is a first – a first for WWF, a first for online video and a first for endangered animals!

Extinction Sucks is a unique co-production between WWF and Babelgum to bring high-quality conservation programming to web audiences. It's thought to be the first time that an online video channel has commissioned original, full-length wildlife shows specifically for the internet. The series will be broadcast over the next six weeks on www.panda.org and www.babelgum.com.

The six half-hour episodes feature Australians Ashleigh Young and Aleisha Caruso as they raise funds for much-needed equipment to be used in wildlife conservation projects from Nepal to New Zealand and from Vietnam to India. The duo put on sports events, enter dance competitions and hold garage sales to raise the cash for camera traps, a quad bike and other essential supplies. They then visit the projects to hand over the gifts and find out more about the threatened species.

In the first episode of Extinction Sucks, Ash and Aleisha help WWF India's elephant conservation programme by raising the cash for night vision binoculars, to use in the fight against poaching and the illegal ivory trade. They also lend a hand directing traffic in the Mudumalai National Park in Southern India, where speeding motorists have claimed the lives of wild elephants. Ash and Aleisha are faced with the brutalities of poaching when they come across an elephant which has been shot for its tusks.

“We believe online audiences deserve the same quality and viewing experience as traditional television has offered,” said Babelgum's commissioning chief editor Claudio Scotto di Carlo. “We also believe passionately in the power of the internet to help protect threatened species. WWF are the world's leading conservation organisation so it made sense for us to partner with them to bring this exciting series to life.”

“Extinction Sucks breaks the mould of traditional wildlife programmes – both with its fast-paced, humorous style and by being online – and will appeal to a wide range of audiences. It's a wildlife series for the digital age,” said Scotto di Carlo.

Babelgum commissioned award-winning Amsterdam-based filmmakers Off The Fence to produce the series, in association with WWF. “It was a first for us,” said OTF boss Ellen Windemuth, “but it proves you can make funny, engaging wildlife programmes with a serious message for online viewing. Working with WWF meant we could get access to great stories, great characters and great locations.”

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Favourite nature walk now blocked

Straits Times Forum 3 Apr 09;

I RECENTLY visited the Upper Peirce Reservoir Park with the intention of taking one of my favourite morning walks across the dam and then along the embankment between the reservoir and the Singapore Island Country Club (SICC) golf course.

This is one of the few walks available in Singapore that provide extensive inland vistas. It enables access via the SICC road to the HSBC Treetop Walk and on to MacRitchie Park, creating some longer distance walking opportunities.

However, I found that access to the embankment has been blocked to protect walkers from being hit by golf balls.

It appears that those of us who can neither afford nor wish to play golf are being denied simple pleasures for the benefit of those who can afford and wish to do so.

Moreover, how many people have actually been hit by golf balls while walking along that embankment?

To over-protect people from minuscule risks does seem to be the height of "nanny-ism".

By all means erect a notice warning walkers of the risk, but then allow common sense and responsibility to rule.

Brian Dalby

Why close popular jogging route?
Straits Times Forum 6 Apr 09;

I BELONG to a group of joggers that is disappointed by the closure of a jogging route between MacRitchie and Upper Peirce reservoirs.

My friends and I are not the only ones to be disappointed, as the route is also very popular with many members of the public. The stretch is also part of the route for many running events held at the MacRitchie Reservoir by local clubs.

I have also enjoyed running in that area for the past 25 years.

We would appreciate it if the authorities could clarify the closure.

Steve Choo Weng Moon

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No ships laid up in Singapore: MPA

Robin Chan, Straits Times 3 Apr 09;

THERE are no ships laying idle in Singapore waters despite a global trade collapse that has left a record 485 'unemployed' vessels around the world.

The assurance came from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) yesterday, in response to questions over whether local ports may be unsafe due to a large number of empty ships clogging the waterways.

Captain Lee Cheng Wee, MPA's Port Master, told The Straits Times in an e-mailed statement: 'While hundreds of ships are reported to be laid up across the globe, there are no vessels laid up in the Singapore port. Singapore does not encourage the laying up of vessels in our port waters.'

The number of idle ships around the world has risen spectacularly in the past few months, according to Paris-based consultancy AXS-Alphaliner, as global trade grinds to a halt amid the worst recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

The shipping industry has also been hit by the credit squeeze as trade financing has all but dried up.

Ship owners have not been helped by the fresh supply of vessels coming on stream from orders made during the boom time. This has forced shipping rates to plummet to near zero.

In a bid to stay afloat, ship owners have resorted to laying up vessels to cut capacity and prop up freight rates.

The number of laid-up ships hit a then record 392 in February - almost 9 per cent of the total world fleet. By March 30, this had shot up to 485 - or 1.41 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) of capacity - but there are signs that the rate of laying-up has slowed. Analysts say idle container ships are starting to be redeployed.

Shipping giant Maersk Line, which has laid up eight vessels since December but none here, confirmed to The Straits Times that 'across the industry in general, vessels are not laid up in Singapore'.

A company spokesman said: 'The choice of location to lay up vessels depends on many factors, including the lay-up duration, costs, water temperatures and weather conditions. Another key factor is the vessel's schedule, specifically where and when it was taken out of rotation, and where it will be reinstated afterwards.'

Capt Lee said that since late last year, some ships have been staying longer than the usual 10 days at port. About 70 vessels have stayed more than 10 days each month since the beginning of the year.

But this is 'less than 2 per cent of the total number of vessels using our anchorages', he said. 'Singapore has sufficient anchorage capacity to meet the needs of the shipping industry, and...concerns over congestion and navigational safety are unwarranted.'

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How much electricity was saved during Earth Hour last Saturday?

Today Online 3 Apr 09;

How much electricity was saved during Earth Hour last Saturday?

According to the Energy Market Authority (EMA), consumption dipped by 42 megawatts — equivalent to 420,000 hundred-watt light bulbs being switched off for the hour.

The reduction, however, makes up only 0.044 per cent of average daily electricity consumption of about 95,455 megawatts, said EMA.

This year, about 450 organisations and 10,000 people had pledged to switch off the lights from 8.30pmto 9.30pm.

Malaysia recorded a dip of 550MW during Earth Hour, which was organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature.

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Climate change to bring more whale beachings

Amy Coopes Yahoo News 2 Apr 09;

SYDNEY (AFP) – Experts studying the mass beaching of whales along Australia's coast have warned that such tragedies could become more frequent as global warming brings the mammals' food stocks closer to shore.

Almost 90 long-finned pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins died after washing up last week at Hamelin Bay, on the country's west coast.

It was the second mass stranding in March, and took the total number of cetaceans to beach in southern Australia in the past four months beyond 500, including a single stranding of almost 200 on King Island.

Researchers tracking the beaching of whales in the region since 1920 said strandings tended to occur in 12-year cycles which coincided with cooler, nutrient-rich ocean currents moving from the south and swelling fish stocks.

"These animals, most of the time they're trying to find food, that's what they do," said the project's Corey Bradshaw, from Adelaide University.

"If you bring them closer to an area that could be dangerous, simply because there's more food there than there normally is you'd expect to find these temporal peaks in strandings, and that's exactly what we've found," Bradshaw told AFP.

The current cycle last peaked in the 2004/2005 southern hemisphere summer, said Bradshaw, when there were 30 strandings in a period of weeks and a new animal washed up every four days.

The total number of stranding events that summer was almost equivalent to those recorded for the entire previous year, he said, adding that the numbers again appeared to be reaching a peak.

"With climate change it is more likely that these kinds of oscillations will be more variable so you get more extreme conditions," he said.

"Where you maybe get a really cold pulse once every ten years it might happen every five years, and we're already seeing that."

"We could see more and more frequent strandings simply as a function of higher frequency (of) extreme events," he added.

Little concrete was known about what caused whales to beach en masse, according to marine scientist Catherine Kemper, who said the theories were almost endless.

Only highly social species beached in groups, she said, and if one creature got into trouble or fled a predator such as a killer whale the rest would follow.

Geomagnetic interference from elements such as iron ore could also scramble a cetacean's sonar, and complex coastlines such as that of Tasmania could be difficult to navigate, said Kemper, of the South Australian museum.

"Toothed whales have echo location, and one of the theories is that something happens to their ability to navigate," she said.

The island of Tasmania, Australia's southernmost state, also had a narrow continental shelf, meaning there was deep water close to the coast.

"If a few of them come onshore the rest follow because of this incredible social bond," said Kemper.

Storm events could also impair navigation by stirring up sediment, said government scientist Nick Gales, who works for the Antarctic authority.

"This becomes incredibly confusing for animals that use sound in the water column to navigate in the shallower waters," he said.

"There is no real way of predicting these (incidents).

"The main advances in science have been in trying to deal with those animals once they are ashore, understanding a lot more about the animals from access to them and most recently in actually tracking animals that are able to be refloated and pushed out to sea."

Of the pod which came ashore at Hamelin Bay, 11 were released back into the ocean using cranes fitted with giant slings.

Once lifted to a truck, the 3.5-tonne mammals were transported 15 kilometres (nine miles) to a more sheltered harbour for release.

It was only the third time such an ambitious rescue of whales had been attempted in Western Australia state, and the first involving the long-finned pilot species.

Only three managed to return to deeper waters, with the remaining seven either euthanised or dying after re-beaching themselves, including a female and her calf.

Kemper said the success of rescue operations often depended on the fate of the "ringleaders".

"Either they die and (rescuers) get them out of the way, or they get them alive and back out to sea," she said.

"The chances of success for rescuing at least some are greater because, again, I guess it's like follow the leader."

Ultimately though, Bradshaw said mass beachings remained one of nature's great mysteries.

"There are reams of hypotheses, predilections and pet theories, most of them have absolutely no basis whatsoever," he said.

"Let's face it, this is biological life, we're all prone to making mistakes."

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Indonesian Government should intervene against wildlife poaching: NGO

The Jakarta Post 2 Apr 09;

An environmental non-governmental organization (NGO) has on Thursday called for the government to intervene in the prevention of further wildlife poaching in Sumatra following the death of two female elephants at an elephant conservation center in Bengkulu last week.

"Elephant and tiger poaching is increasing and the death of the female elephants wasn't the first. At least seven others were killed at the conservation park between 2004 and 2007," representative of wildlife protection NGO ProFauna Radius Nursidi said.

He added that the perpetrators were never caught nor processed.

Apart from endangered elephants, the second most poached wildlife animal is the Sumatran tiger.

A survey conducted by ProFauna in March this year revealed 12 tiger snares were found around a conservation park in Bengkulu.

One of these snare had successfully trapped a Bornean leopard in 2007.

The authorities were informed of the perpetrator but no legal recourse was taken.

“The police need to fully enforce the law on wildlife crime. Without law enforcement, elephant and tiger poaching in Bengkulu will persist”, Nursidi argued.

Under the law, poaching and trading protected species is against the law and offenders are liable to a maximum of five years in jail and a Rp 100 millions (10,000 USD) fine. (amr)

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The hunt for Sumatra's killer tigers

Lucy Williamson, BBC News 1 Apr 09;

Fear often seems to begin with a road.

Driving into tiger territory, all voices in the jeep gradually fell silent.

The only sound was the thick vegetation swishing against the windows as we lurched along the muddy track.

The forest in Jambi province, Sumatra, is the site of Indonesia's newest conflict. Tigers are killing people here at the rate of one a week.

As their forests disappear under loggers' saws or to make way for plantations, Sumatra's endangered tigers are, quite simply, turning to humans for food.

We were on our way to the site of one attack. Soon, the tell-tale signs of illegal loggers appeared out of the forest - piles of wood, neatly stacked in a small clearing. We pulled up, and started down their tracks into the forest.

For Indonesia's tiger catchers, this is their daily commute.

In just a few months, these forest rangers have gone from chasing illegal loggers to finding and catching the tigers who are killing them.

And even now, their guns and camaraderie do not completely hide their fear.

Victims or thieves?

The silence was thick with it as we made our way into the forest.

Everything at the illegal logging site was pretty much as Khoiry left it before he was attacked and killed.

Felled trees were piled up ready for transport out of the forest, the ground was thick with sawdust.

There were no footprints left for the team to track, and no sign of a tiger.

But in terms of why these attacks are happening, chief tiger ranger Nurazman Nurdin said this site was right on target.

"The main problem is illegal logging," he explained. "It's destroying the tigers' habitat. This place, for example, they don't have a permit for what they're doing here - it's illegal."

It might be illegal, but for the people living here the punishment seems disproportionate.

In one village, we found Supari on the front porch of her house. She lost her husband and son in a tiger attack here only a few weeks ago.

She buckled with tears as she told us how they were killed while cutting wood just a short distance from the house.

But Supari's son-in-law Coko says it is wrong to blame them for what happened.

"We're victims, not thieves," he told me. "We go to the forest to put food on the table. You can't blame us for this conflict with the tigers."

Vanishing territory

Hundreds of kilometres away in the provincial capital, district chief Burhanuddin Hanir agreed.

He said this latest conflict was probably the result of a new logging company which started operating nearby - with official permission.

But why was a logging company given permission to operate in the tigers' dwindling territory?

"We only found out there were tigers in the area after the investors started chopping down the trees," he said.

"Now we have more regulations to protect the tigers' habitat. But the problem is that the tigers are already disturbed and angry."

As in many parts of Indonesia's vast territory, regulations are one thing - enforcing them is quite another.

There could be as few as 250 tigers left here, but Sumatra's forest is now so depleted it is struggling to support even this tiny number.

Back at the attack site, ranger Nurazman Nurdin sounded dejected.

He told me there was no long-term plan - the rangers were just trying to keep the humans and tigers apart.

It is dangerous work - and not a job he enjoys.

But Sumatra's tiger catchers are up against more than just hungry tigers. They're battling the world's demand for Indonesia's forests, and the timber and paper and palm oil they provide.

These are lucrative exports for Indonesia. The question is whether their tigers are worth any more.

Read more!

Kenyan lions being poisoned by pesticides'

Conservationists call for ban after 'staggering' number of deaths
Daniel Howden, The Independent 2 Apr 09;

Conservationists in Kenya are calling for a deadly pesticide to be banned after it was linked to the poisoning of a "staggering" number of lions and other wildlife.

The East African nation famous for its immense game reserves is also home to traditional cattle herders whose livestock often comes under threat from predators such as lions and hyenas. In the past, this has seen lions shot or speared but more recently herders have switched to using deadly chemicals sprinkled over animal carcasses and left as traps for the big cats.

The lion researcher Laurence Frank, from the University of California, said lions were dying at a "staggering rate" with as many as 75 poisoned in the past five years. Combined with other threats including loss of habitat, this could eventually see the lion become extinct, Dr Frank told CBS's 60 Minutes.

Kenya's lion population is a fifth of what it was in the 1970s and across Africa the numbers are down to 30,000 from highs of 200,000. Herders living on the fringe of parks such as the Masai Mara are said to be using a tasteless and odourless chemical known as carbofuran, which, when eaten by animals, leads first to paralysis and then death over the course of 24 to 36 hours.

The drug is marketed as Furudan and is available in small pellet form over the counter in Kenya. Furudan is already banned in the EU and its use is restricted in the US, where it was blamed for the deaths of two million birds. In its granular form it is used to eradicate insects on crops such as rice and corn.

The Kenyan conservationist Richard Leakey said: "We are appealing to the government... to go the way of Europe and the USA and ban the importation, sale, distribution and use of this deadly chemical in Kenya." The drug has become well known in rural Kenya, Dr Leakey said, as a way to easily dispose of predators.

The Philadelphia-based manufacturer of Furudan says it is taking "aggressive action" to prevent misuse of the product. It has halted sales to Kenya and is trying to buy back supplies.

"We will not resume sales until such time as we can be assured that the deliberate widespread misuse of our product won't occur, and if we can't be assured of that there is going to be no more sales to Kenya," said Milton Steele, the vice-president of the FMC corporation. The company had no evidence that its product was directly involved, he added, but would work with conservationists to address the issue.

Simon Thomsett, a Kenyan bird expert, said he feared that Furudan-poisoned carcasses were also connected to "the dramatic drop-off in the number of birds of prey" in recent years. Big predators poisoned with carbofuran are consumed by carrion eaters.

Efforts have been made to ease tensions between Kenya's many herder communities and its multimillion-pound tourist industry.

However, little profit from the safari industry trickles down to the pastoralists and a compensation scheme in Masai Mara had to be scrapped because of a lack of funds last year.

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Disease outbreak kills endangered bonobos

Ewen Callaway, New Scientist 2 Apr 09

A deadly outbreak of what appears to be flu is threatening a group of bonobos in a sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Known also as pygmie chimpanzees, bonobos live exclusively in the DRC and are listed as endangered on the IUCN red list. Researchers put their total numbers somewhere between 29,500 and 50,000.

"Three days ago, there were 10 bonobos face-down in the building, breathing really hard," says Vanessa Woods, a bonobo researcher at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who is currently at the sanctuary. "We've never seen anything like it before."

At least four animals have died from the illness out of a total of 60 living in Lola Ya Bonobo reserve. The 40-hectare forest sanctuary is just outside of the capital city of Kinshasa and houses bonobos orphaned by the bush meat trade.

A flu outbreak raced through the human population of Kinshasa in February, and Woods suspects sanctuary visitors spread the illness to the animals. "They get 30,000 Congolese visitors a year and most of them are school children," she says.

Scientists studying wild chimpanzees in Côte d'Ivoire's Taï National Park have documented disease outbreaks there, including a respiratory illness likely acquired from humans.

As a result, researchers at Taï now keep their distance from chimpanzees and wear face masks to contain the spread of pathogens.

The bonobo sanctuary's animals are isolated from wild populations, so there is no chance the disease will spread, Woods says.

She and her colleagues have quarantined some sick animals and are keeping a close eye on the rest. "The worst seems to have passed, but you just don't know."

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China's E6 electric car: 'We're not trying to save the world – we're trying to make money'

Its release imminent, BYD Auto's revolutionary E6 electric car is integral to China's plan to dominate the global market for 'clean-transport'. Jonathan Watts reports
Jonathan Watts, guardian.co.uk 2 Apr 09;

When BYD Auto launches one of China's first mass produced fully electric sedans later this year, it will be trying to conquer the world rather than save it. But such is the explosive growth of China's car market and thirst for petrol that the two goals are likely to become ever more synonymous.

The E6 plug-in is currently under wraps at the company's sprawling industrial complex in Shenzhen, but it will soon be at the vanguard of a company's – and a nation's – plans to dominate the global market for "clean-transport".

Senior government leaders have initiated a major push for hybrid and electric vehicles in a bid to bypass car makers overseas and avoid an environmental meltdown at home.

The consultancy McKinsey estimates that China's car market will grow tenfold between 2005 and 2030, which will drive up demand for diesel and petrol from 110 million tonnes to 500 million tonnes. That will mean a sharp rise in carbon emissions from a country that has already overtaken the US as the world's biggest source of greenhouse gases.

Hybrid, electric and fuel cell vehicles could ease the burden, but they will not solve the problem because at the moment more than 70% of China's electricity is powered by coal, the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. Even if there is a large scale take up of the new technologies, which could cut emissions by 19%, McKinsey estimates that the combined emissions from road transport would still increase more than fourfold within the next two decades.

Faced by this nightmare, the authorities recently announced plans for 50,000 yuan rebates for electric and hybrid cars, encouraged city taxi fleets to buy vehicles with the new technology, and prompted state and regional grids to set up charging stations.

BYD is likely to be a major beneficiary. The initials stand for Build Your Dreams, which prompted snickers when the company debuted in US car shows last year, as did the soaring ambitions of the founder Wang Chuanfu, who has stated that BYD will be the biggest carmaker in China by 2015 and the biggest in the world by 2025.

Despite it making a third of the world's mobile phone batteries, until recently few people outside of China had heard of BYD. But the company exploded into the international consciousness late last year by beating Toyota and General Motors to launch the world's first mass-produced plug-in hybrid.

At the company's sprawling headquarters in Guangdong province, there is little outward sign that BYD is a world beater. Apart from the golden pillars at the entrance, the company's offices are as grimly utilitarian as any other factory in the workshop of the world.

But style is not the point. The company has built an empire by offering cheap, high-quality batteries and now it aims to do the same for cars.

In February, just six years after its was formed, the firm sold 28,000 gasoline and diesel cars in China, more than any foreign or domestic rival. Its 10,000 research engineers have also designed the ferrous battery technology of the E6, which will be released before mass-produced electric cars from Honda and Nissan.

The plug-in five-seater will reportedly be able to travel 400km on a single charge and reach a top speed of 160km/h. "We are trying to make an electric car that people can use like a normal car," says Henry Li, the head of BYD Auto's export and trade division, as we drive around the company's car park in the BYD's other new breakthrough vehicle, the F3DM.

Like the company, the hybrid starts out so quietly you barely notice it moving. At low speeds, the battery-powered engine makes only a fraction more noise than the tyres on the road. But put your foot on the pedal and the vehicle roars to life as the gas kicks in.

Acceleration from 0-60km/h in 10.5 seconds will not win any Formula One races. Neither will the hybrid's current sales scare

rivals. The company says orders are only in the "several hundred" range, mostly from the Shenzhen local governments and BYD's main bank.

Analysts are withholding judgment on whether BYD can achieves its ambitious targets. "BYD's battery technology is good and that is important, but cars are more complicated than that," says Zhao Junhua of CSM Worldwide in Shanghai. "BYD will need more experience. Chinese firms are still behind Japanese rivals like Toyota, Honda and Nissan."

There are also many questions about the environmental benefits of electric cars, given China's reliance on coal.Electric vehicles drive down carbon emissions best if they are charged at night with wind or other forms of renewable energy, but this is not currently possible in China.

But they do use energy more efficiently than both petrol and diesel driven cars, and environment groups says electric vehicles can at least reduce the huge negative impact from the spread of car culture in China.

"Electric cars would be a big step forward," said Greenpeace executive director Gerd Leipold on a visit to Beijing this week. "Hybrid cars have a better reputation than their ecological performance merits."

BYD may lead the pack in China, but the government is encouraging others to move into clean transport manufacturing – an area where it hopes domestic companies can overtake bigger foreign rivals.

At an exhibition of clean energy technology in Beijing last week, the science and technology minister, Wan Gang, said the country aimed to come out of the economic downturn greener and more advanced than it went in. "Accompanying every financial crisis is a revolution in technology that serves as an engine for economic development. This time, new energy technology will probably be the new driving force."

Every few weeks there is fresh news that China is upgrading its transport and energy infrastructure. Last month, Chery Auto unveiled a battery electric vehicle – the S18EV – that it says has a range of 150km on a single charge. Shortly before that, Xinri Electric Vehicle started building an industrial park capable of producing five million electric scooters and bicycles per year. And Tianjin-Qingyuan has recently announced that it may precede BYD with the autumn release of a fully battery-powered Saibao sedan.

More than a dozen other firms have begun manufacturing electric buses. However, the gusto with which many Chinese people have embraced the idea of clean energy was most evident however in a display of a sanlunche – the boxed three-wheel scooters that are a familiar sight in Beijing's alleyways – fitted with wing-like solar panels.

But, so far, none have gone as far as BYD. Li says it is simply a matter of business. "We are not trying to save the world, we are making money. Our strategy aims to give value to shareholders. If we can help the planet at the same time, all the better."

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Clean tech investment drops in first quarter: surveys

David Lawsky, Reuters 2 Apr 09;

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Worldwide investment in clean technology suffered a steep decline in the first quarter of 2009 as the difficulty of pushing through initial public offerings (IPOs) of start-ups across many sectors hit record lows, three surveys showed on Wednesday.

Although the surveys used different methodologies, their messages were the same -- investment is down in clean tech and other areas and it won't rebound in the near-term.

Deloitte and Cleantech Group reported that investment in clean technology dropped 41 percent in the first quarter, compared to the last quarter of 2008.

Greentech Media surveyed a different set of clean tech companies but its overall conclusions were the same:

"The numbers are approximately back to 2007 levels," Greentech said. It found 59 deals worth $836 million, while Cleantech -- which included China and India -- found 82 deals worth $1 billion.

Eric Wesoff, author of the Greentech Media study, said that the IPO situation would not improve soon.

"Before we see a wave of IPOs in 2012, we're going to see attrition and consolidation in the next couple of years," he said. He predicted that of more than 200 solar companies founded in the past two years only 20 will survive, based on historic patterns.

"Clean tech venture investments have now declined for two consecutive quarters since peaking at $2.6 billion" in the third quarter of 2008, Cleantech reported. Cleantech said the lack of money has forced companies to turn to government.

"Governments globally are allocating historic amounts of capital to clean technologies through stimulus packages, loan guarantees and tax incentives, which will enable the clean tech industry to continue to develop," it said.

Both surveys found that the biggest sector in clean, green technology continues to be solar.

Cleantech said that there was $346 million invested among its 82 companies, while Greentech found $356 million invested among its 59 companies. The companies broke out their deals in different ways so no direct comparison is possible.

Cleantech found biofuels at $96 million, advanced batteries at $94 million, and electric vehicles at $78 million. Greentech's figures were slightly higher for some of the sectors, but the picture was the same.

Cleantech said there were four IPOs in the clean tech sector, but none were in the United States. One was in Switzerland and three in China.

The biggest IPO was by China Singyes Solar Technologies Holdings Ltd., a solar service provider, which raised $8.1 million on the Hong Kong Futures Exchange.

Meanwhile, yet another survey showed the dwindling number of IPO's across sectors.

The National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters did their own survey and found that for the first time ever, two consecutive quarters elapsed without any initial public offerings (IPOs) for venture-backed U.S. companies.

A traditional source of funds has been universities, but they pulled back because of the recession.

"Endowments and foundations, because they have operating needs within their entities, are much more selective about investing in venture because it has such a long time horizon," said Joanna Rees, managing partner of VSP Capital in San Francisco.

The payback period can be five years, seven years or more and hard-hit universities and pension funds need a quick return on investment these days, she said.

(Reporting by David Lawsky; Editing by Bernard Orr)

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New exchange seeks funds for "green" start-ups

Nichola Groom, Reuters 2 Apr 09;

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Seeking to breathe life into the bleak fund-raising environment for clean technology companies, a new private exchange wants to make it easier to invest in promising biofuels, solar or other green start-ups.

Known as GREENDAQ, the new exchange goes live on Wednesday at www.greendaq.com. It claims to be the world's first equity and commodities exchange created exclusively for the green technology sector.

Chief executive and founder Andrew McLean said GREENDAQ will provide a key benefit to investors who might be wary of pouring cash into new technologies -- allowing them to trade the shares of start-ups.

"We are offering them a way to have liquidity in the early stages in the investment process," McLean said in an interview. "From an investors' point of view you are getting excellent global deal flow and an opportunity for liquidity. Otherwise you invest in a private company and you have no liquidity."

Companies will be vetted before they are listed, McLean said. He expects to have 5 companies listed in the next two months and 20 companies or green commodities listed in the exchange's first 12 months.

The first company listed will be a British maker of jatropha-based biofuels, Carbon Credited Farming Plc.

For equity offerings, McLean expects the minimum investment will be about $100,000.

The exchange also plans to list "new classes of commodities" it calls green oil, green energy and green lumber, McLean said. Green oil units could go toward raising capital for a plantation of cellulosic material to produce biodiesel, for instance.

The exchange is not open to the general public. Investors must apply to become members of the exchange and, once approved, will have access to GREENDAQ's full range of offerings. The exchange hopes to have 10,000 investment professionals registered by the end of its first year.

Aruba-based GREENDAQ will generate its own revenue by charging fees for companies to list and for investors to execute trades.

(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Andre Grenon)

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Oil Not To Blame For Climate Change: OPEC

Tom Bergin, PlanetArk 3 Apr 09;

PARIS - OPEC said oil was not to blame for climate change and consuming countries should pay to fight the threat, while the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell said drivers could help by not buying Hummer sports utility vehicles.

"Oil is not responsible," the producer group's Secretary General, Abdullah al-Badri, told reporters on Thursday on the sidelines of the International Oil Summit in Paris.

"It is the industrialized countries which are making all this pollution in the world."

Scientists say the burning of fossil fuels, such as oil, is a key factor in climate change.

Badri said the revenues from high taxes that some industrialized countries, including most western European nations, place on oil products should be diverted to environmental projects.

OPEC, whose member countries pump more than a third of the world's oil, has supported the United Nations Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol, which encourage reductions in emissions of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2).

However, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has also opposed plans to reduce oil consumption and advocated adaptation to climate change.

Badri criticized the subsidies developed countries offer to promote renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.

Most of the larger international oil companies accept the role of oil and gas in man-made climate change.

Jeroen van der Veer, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, the world's second-largest oil company by market value, told the same conference that drivers should help fight climate change by using more fuel efficient vehicles.

Recalling his happy student days driving a 2CV, a famously basic, and fuel efficient, Citroen, van der Veer said: "You don't need a Hummer to be happy."

Consumers and General Motors, which owns the Hummer brand, have come to the same conclusion. Falling sales of the military-derived vehicle, which has become synonymous with gas-guzzling excess, have prompted GM to put the Hummer brand up for sale.

(Editing by Anthony Barker)

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Climate Change May Cost California Billions

Peter Henderson, PlanetArk 3 Apr 09;

SAN FRANCISCO - Climate change may cost California tens of billions of dollars annually in coming years as sea levels rise and hot days cause people to turn up the air conditioning, a draft report from the state said on Wednesday.

Thirsty cities may be able to buy water from farmers and high-altitude forests are expected to benefit for most of the century as trees enjoy the warmer weather, but a long-term effort to understand the details of climate change suggests costs will be higher than expected.

Much depends on whether global efforts to slow the Earth's heating are successful.

"Climate change will impose substantial costs to Californians in the order of tens of billions of dollars annually," the Climate Action Team draft report said, adding that "costs will be substantially lower if global emissions of greenhouse gases are curtailed."

"On the whole, I am actually less optimistic," said Michael Hanemann, an economist co-director of the California Climate Change Center at the University of California, Berkeley, and an author of the report.

The summary of 37 climate change studies is the latest in a series that America's most populous state publishes every two to three years, adding detail as it goes. "As you fill in the detail, the whole gets worse," Hanemann said by telephone.

California leads the United States in setting climate change goals, aiming to cut carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, although proposed federal legislation could set similar targets for the nation.

Major concerns include a possible $100 billion loss from flooding concentrated around San Francisco Bay if sea levels were to rise and a hundred-year flood hit.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who wants Californians to approve billions of dollars in bonds to build fresh water projects, focused on water scarcity.

"Today's new research reveals that California's severe drought conditions are only a preview of what is likely to come because of our changing climate," he said in a statement.

Heat may increase the output of some crops, but water will be a limiting factor. The study concluded the impact of climate change on the water sector itself could be modest -- but Hanemann said studies thus far assumed a perfect market where cities could buy extra water from farms, a situation that he said was not possible.

One of the major changes in the new report, based on an hourly look at California energy use, is that electricity demand may rise by 55 percent by the end of the century.

(Reporting by Peter Henderson, Editing by Peter Cooney)

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Arctic Summers Could Be Ice-Free in 30 years

LiveScience Yahoo News 2 Apr 09;

Summers in the Arctic may be ice-free in as few as 30 years, not at the end of the century as previously expected, a new study suggests.

Previous research had suggested the summer ice in the Arctic could last until the end of the century.

The updated forecast, detailed in the April 3 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters, comes from combining a new analysis of computer models with the most recent summer ice measurements.

Arctic sea-ice has been thinner and covered a smaller area in recent years. The summer of 2007 saw a dramatic meltdown that opened up the fabled Northwest Passage. This past summer saw the second lowest summer ice area on record.

"The Arctic is changing faster than anticipated," said study co-author James Overland, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "It's a combination of natural variability, along with warmer air and sea conditions caused by increased greenhouse gases."

Overland and his co-author, Muyin Wang, of the University of Washington, analyzed projections from six computer models, including three with sophisticated sea ice physics capabilities. That data was then combined with observations of summer sea ice loss in 2007 and 2008.

The area covered by summer sea ice is expected to decline from its current about 2.8 million square miles (4.6 million square kilometers) to about 620,000 square miles (1 million square kilometers) - a loss approximately four-fifths the size of the continental U.S.

Much of the sea ice would remain in the area north of Canada and Greenland and decrease between Alaska and Russia in the Pacific Arctic.

The melting of sea ice can cause what is called a "feedback," by further fueling the warming trend.

"The Arctic is often called the 'Earth's refrigerator' because the sea ice helps cool the planet by reflecting the sun's radiation back into space," Wang said. "With less ice, the sun's warmth is instead absorbed by the open water, contributing to warmer temperatures in the water and the air."

Study: Arctic sea ice melting faster than expected
Randolph E. Schmid Associated Press Yahoo News 3 Apr 09;

WASHINGTON – Arctic sea ice is melting so fast most of it could be gone in 30 years. A new analysis of changing conditions in the region, using complex computer models of weather and climate, says conditions that had been forecast by the end of the century could occur much sooner.

A change in the amount of ice is important because the white surface reflects sunlight back into space. When ice is replaced by dark ocean water that sunlight can be absorbed, warming the water and increasing the warming of the planet.

The finding adds to concern about climate change caused by human activities such as burning fossil fuels, a problem that has begun receiving more attention in the Obama administration and is part of the G20 discussions under way in London.

"Due to the recent loss of sea ice, the 2005-2008 autumn central Arctic surface air temperatures were greater than 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) above" what would be expected, the new study reports.

That amount of temperature increase had been expected by the year 2070.

The new report by Muyin Wang of the Joint Institute for the Study of Atmosphere and Ocean and James E. Overland of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, appears in Friday's edition of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

They expect the area covered by summer sea ice to decline from about 2.8 million square miles normally to 620,000 square miles within 30 years.

Last year's summer minimum was 1.8 million square miles in September, second lowest only to 2007 which had a minimum of 1.65 million square miles, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

The Center said Arctic sea ice reached its winter maximum for this year at 5.8 million square miles on Feb. 28. That was 278,000 square miles below the 1979-2000 average making it the fifth lowest on record. The six lowest maximums since 1979 have all occurred in the last six years.

Overland and Wang combined sea-ice observations with six complex computer models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to reach their conclusions. Combining several computer models helps avoid uncertainties caused by natural variability.

Much of the remaining ice would be north of Canada and Greenland, with much less between Alaska and Russia in the Pacific Arctic.

"The Arctic is often called the Earth's refrigerator because the sea ice helps cool the planet by reflecting the sun's radiation back into space," Wang said in a statement. "With less ice, the sun's warmth is instead absorbed by the open water, contributing to warmer temperatures in the water and the air."

The study was supported by the NOAA Climate Change Program Office, the Institute for the Study of the Ocean and Atmosphere and the U.S. Department of Energy.

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Small Islands Urge Deep CO2 Cuts, Fear Rising Seas

Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 3 Apr 09;

BONN - Small island states have sharpened their calls for the rich to make deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, saying low-lying atolls risk being washed off the map by rising ocean levels.

An alliance of 43 island states, backed by more than a dozen nations in Africa and Latin America, urged developed countries at U.N. climate talks in Bonn on Thursday to cut greenhouse emissions by "at least 45 percent below 1990 levels by 2020."

"The scientific findings about climate change are frightening," M.J. Mace, a legal advisor to the Federated States of Micronesia who presented the demands at the March 29-April 8 meeting, told Reuters.

A group of leading researchers last month projected a quickening pace of sea level rise this century, of about a meter (3 feet) or roughly double the projections by the U.N. Climate Panel in 2007.

The small islands had called at a U.N. climate meeting in Poznan, Poland, in December 2008 for cuts of "more than 40 percent" in industrialized nations' emissions by 2020.

"Why would small island states be happy with a level of ambition that is going to destroy their countries?" Mace said. The highest points of some Pacific, Caribbean or Indian Ocean states are only a few meters above sea level.

Many other nations, including China and India, have called at Bonn for at least 40 percent cuts by the rich. Small islands range from Antigua to Vanuatu while other countries backing Thursday's call included Kenya, Tanzania, Argentina and Peru.

The cuts are far beyond goals set by developed nations, in a widening stand-off about how to split up the burden of fighting global warming amid a global economic slowdown under a new U.N. pact meant to be agreed at a meeting in Copenhagen in December.

OBAMA

U.S. President Barack Obama plans to cut U.S. emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020, a cut of between 16 and 17 percent from current levels. The European Union has agreed cuts of 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and of 30 percent if other developed nations followed suit.

The U.N. Climate Panel has said that developed nations would have to cut emissions by between 25 and 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 to avoid the worst of climate change such as floods, droughts, melting glaciers and heatwaves.

"We found the 25 to 40 range to be insufficient," Mace said, adding that it left open a risk of dangerous temperature rises.

Mace said that the alliance also wanted the rich to promise to cut emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, by at least 95 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern told the meeting on Sunday that far U.S. deeper cuts than Obama plans would be "unrealistic." He said that Washington should be guided by pragmatism, as well as by climate science.

"We have heard the words realistic and pragmatic here," Mace said. "Let's look at it the other way around: what's realistic and pragmatic for these small island countries?"

(Editing by Matthew Jones)

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Obama: U.S. To Lead On Climate So China, India Follow

PlanetArk 3 Apr 09;

LONDON - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday the United States would "lead by example" in combating climate change so that developing nations such as India and China would follow suit.

Speaking at the G20 meeting of major economies, he used his presidential debut on the world stage to contrast his policies with those of former President George W. Bush, who had twinned U.S. action to curb climate greenhouse gases with pressure on emerging economic powerhouses.

"China and India ... justifiably chafe at the idea that they should somehow sacrifice their development for our efforts to control climate change," Obama told a news conference at the conclusion of the London summit.

He told reporters he had pledged U.S. climate leadership in a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"We talked about ... how important it is for the United States to lead by example to reducing our carbon footprint so that we can help to forge agreements with countries like China and India."

Obama said that developing countries such as China, the world's top carbon emitter, must also act on the climate, but used a light touch which may bode well for U.N. talks meant to forge a new climate treaty in Copenhagen in December.

"If China and India with their populations had the same energy usage as the average American then we would all have melted by now," he said.

Developing countries say that the developed world has earned its wealth from more than two centuries of industrialization, spewing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in the process from burning fossil fuels like coal and oil.

They say the North must act first and help pay the bill for carbon cuts in the South.

The main outcome of the G20 summit was a $1 trillion pledge to rescue the global economy. Leaders also re-affirmed a previous commitment to sign a U.N. climate deal this year, and accelerate the transition to a greener economy.

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Environmental Groups See Snub At G20 Summit

Gerard Wynn, PlanetArk 3 Apr 09;

LONDON - World leaders at the G20 summit disappointed environmental groups on Thursday who said their commitment to fight climate change had been vague.

The leaders reaffirmed a previous commitment to sign a U.N. climate deal this year, a step the U.N. climate-change chief said was useful, though action would be better.

The London summit had focused on averting a financial meltdown, pledging a $1 trillion package to save the world economy and boost fragile consumer and business confidence.

On "green" causes the leaders affirmed a 15-month-old commitment to agree in December this year a new climate treaty and resolved to "accelerate the transition" to a low-carbon economy.

"In mobilizing the world's economies to fight back against recession we are resolved to ... promote low-carbon growth and to create the green jobs on which our future prosperity depends," said summit host British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

"We are committed to ... working together to seek agreement on a post-2012 climate change regime at the UN conference in Copenhagen in December."

Environment experts and lobbyists had wanted a stronger message to re-build a leaner economy run on wind and solar power to avoid a future climate crisis and energy crunch even worse then the financial crisis.

"For making the transition to a 'green' economy there is no money on the table, just vague aspirations," said environmental group Greenpeace's executive director John Sauven.

COMMON UNDERSTANDING

U.N. climate change chief Yvo de Boer said words were good, but action better.

"It's always useful to reiterate the commitment, better to actually do it," he said.

"I think it's good," he told Reuters of the G20 outcome. "This is a good example of the major economies of the world coming together and developing a common understanding." The summit was never likely to assign targets for green spending estimated at up to 15 percent of recovery plans now -- and which green policy analysts say should be between a fifth and a half.

Countries led by China, the United States, South Korea and the European Union have already committed to use a portion of recovery spending for green causes.

A report for WWF and environment think-tank E3G published on Thursday said Britain's and Italy's recovery plans did more climate harm than good when road-building was included.

British energy and climate minister Ed Miliband told Reuters stimulus spend on climate wasn't about "plucking figures out of the air" but shifting the issue into mainstream economic debate.

A representative of small island states at 175-nation climate talks in Germany said the G20 leaders should have put more money into preventing rising seas caused by climate change.

"If they can mobilize trillions of dollars to create jobs why can't they do more to stop climate change?" said M.J. Mace, legal advisor to the Federated States of Micronesia.

G20 forgets the environment
George Monbiot The Guardian 2 Apr 09;

Climate breakdown, peak oil and resource depletion all dwarf the financial crisis in financial and humanitarian terms

Here is the text of the G20 communique, in compressed form.

"We, the Leaders of the Group of Twenty, will use every cent we don't possess to rescue corporate capitalism from its contradictions and set the world economy back onto the path of unsustainable growth. We have already spent trillions of dollars of your money on bailing out the banks, so that they can be returned to their proper functions of fleecing the poor and wrecking the Earth's living systems. Now we're going to spend another $1.1 trillion. As an exemplary punishment for their long record of promoting crises, we will give the IMF and the World Bank even more of your money. These actions constitute the greatest mobilisation of resources to support global financial flows in modern times.

Oh - and we nearly forgot. We must do something about the environment. We don't have any definite plans as yet, but we'll think of something in due course."

The G20's strategy for solving the financial and economic crisis, in other words, is detailed, innovative, fully costed and of vast scale and ambition. Its plans for solving the environmental crisis are brief, vague and uncosted. The environmental clauses - which contradict almost everything that goes before - have been tacked onto the end of the communique as an afterthought. No new money has been set aside. No new ideas are proposed; just the usual wishful thinking: let's call the whole package green and hope for the best.

So much for the pledge, expressed in different forms by most of the governments present at the talks, to put the environment at the heart of decision-making. Though the economy is merely a measure of our engagement with the environment; though, as most of the leaders acknowledge, continued prosperity is impossible without sustainability, the communique shows that the environment still comes last. No expense is spared in saving the banks. Every expense is spared in saving the biosphere.

This suggests to me that our leaders have learnt nothing from the financial crisis. It was caused by allowing powerful agents (the banks) to exploit a common resource (the global economy) without proper control or regulation. Governments deployed a form of magical thinking: that the boom would go on forever, that a bunch of predatory psychopaths would regulate themselves, that profits, dividends and share prices could grow indefinitely even though they bore no relation to actual value.

They treat the environmental crisis the same way. Climate breakdown, peak oil and resource depletion will all dwarf the current financial crisis, in both financial and humanitarian terms. But, just as they did with the banks, the G20 leaders appear to have decided to deal with these problems only when they have to - in other words, when it's too late. They persuade themselves that getting the economy back to where it was - infinite growth on a finite planet - can somehow be reconciled with the pledge "to address the threat of irreversible climate change".

Next time this magical thinking fails, there'll be no chance of a bail-out.

Civil society wants sustainable growth package from G-20
WWF 2 Apr 09;

WWF International Director General James Leape and others have signed an open letter addressed to G-20 heads of state on behalf of an "international global coalition for a green economy” asking the group to pick an economic stimulus package that supports sustainable growth.

Signatories include top leaders from environment, development, business and labour groups, such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Bellagio Forum for Sustainable Development.

“We urge you to ensure that the entirety of the G20 emergency package supports three goals: (1) building economic resilience; (2) social justice and distributional equity by promoting decent work for all; (3) protection and sustainable use of the environment,” Leape and others wrote in the letter.

The letter goes on to ask G-20 leaders “to allocate $750 billion of this stimulus package, which is around 1% of global GDP, to investments that will build an inclusive and green economy.”

Established in 1999, the Group of Twenty, known better as the G-20, is composed of finance ministers, political leaders and central bank governors and aims to bring together industrialized and developing economies to discuss key issues in the global economy, according to its website. Heads of state are currently meeting to participate in the G-20 in London.

Download the letter here (PDF).

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