Dr John Yong's mangrove flickr site
from wild shores of singapore
Oysters of Singapore, new species of mud lobster, slug and more!
from wild shores of singapore
Orange-breasted Trogon feeding on a cicada
from Bird Ecology Study
"Take nothing but Photos, leave nothing but Footprints"
from You run, we GEOG
What Hung Above...
from Life's Indulgences
Rhythm Of The Rain
from Manta Blog
2 Sep (Fri): Scene City Singapore - Semakau and Pulau Ubin
from wild shores of singapore
monstersandcritics.com 31 Aug 09;
Hanoi - Surging international demand for sand is leading to excessive dredging in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, damaging the terrain and the environment, officials said Monday.
The jump in sand excavation is fueled by demand from Singapore's construction industry, which is searching for new sources after Indonesia and Cambodia banned exports.
Nguyen Van Be, director of the department of Natural Resources and the Environment in the province of An Giang, said illegal dredging in the Mekong Delta had caused landslides and altered the courses of rivers.
Be's colleague Tran Anh Thu said oil discharges from dredging barges were polluting river water, damaging the region's fish farms.
'We have strengthened inspections of this illegal activity, but it is difficult to stop,' said Be. 'When we go to check, people stop dredging, but when we go away, they start again.'
According to the customs department in the Mekong Delta port of Can Tho, the volume of sand exported to Singapore from the area in the first half of 2009 topped 7 million tons, up from just 1.1 million tons last year. Total exports for 2009 are expected to top 10 million tons.
The surge has taken place even though the national government banned all sand exports last October.
The ban exempts all contracts signed before November 30, 2008. Can Tho customs official Nguyen Minh Thong said sand exporters were simply altering the dates on contracts to make it appear they had been signed before the deadline.
Thong said his department was not responsible for checking that the dates on contracts were correct.
Sand exporters have responded to a surge in the price of sand after Cambodia banned exports on May 18.
Construction industry sources said sand, which had sold for 1 dollar per cubic meter or less before the Cambodian ban, was now selling for 2.35 dollars per cubic meter or more.
Vu Duc Hung, a water police official in Can Tho, said the local channels of the Mekong River were 'filled' with sand-dredging barges.
Concern over Singaporean demand led Malaysia to ban sand exports in 1997. Indonesia followed suit in 2007 after environmentalists complained that the island of Riau, used as a source for Singapore, was disappearing.
Singapore uses the sand both in construction projects and to extend its own territory via landfill. The island country is 33 square kilometers larger than it was at independence in 1965, and has plans to expand further.
thanhniennews.com 25 Aug 09;
Vietnam’s prime minister has asked relevant ministries to inspect Mekong Delta sand exports after a local newspaper said exports to Singapore were booming, altering the area’s water flow and causing environmental damage.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Ministry of Construction need to verify whether the report is true and submit the findings to PM Nguyen Tan Dung by September 15, the government office said Monday.
Earlier, Tuoi Tre newspaper said the volume of sand shipped from the Mekong Delta region to foreign countries in the first half of 2009, mainly Singapore, shot up to nearly 7 million tons, a seven-fold increase compared to 2008 and equivalent to the total exports of the last 10 years, citing the Customs Agency of Can Tho City.
Exports from Vietnam to Singapore jumped after Cambodia banned sand exports in May on concerns over the potentially devastating impacts of sand dredging, the newspaper said.
Prior to May, sand from Vietnam’s Delta was not favored by other countries due to its lower quality compared with Cambodian sand.
With demand for the natural product remaining high, Vietnamese exporters have grasped the opportunity to profit, according to the newspaper.
In the past, Cambodia sold its sand to Singapore at VND90,000 (US$5.05) per cubic meter. Now, Vietnamese firms ship the resource for VND40,000 ($2.25) per cubic meter, but still earn high profits after purchasing the sand for just VND17,000 ($0.95), the newspaper said.
In October 2008, the Vietnamese government announced a temporary ban on exports of sand. However, exports under contracts signed before November 30, 2008 were still allowed.
But the government did not specify the deadline for exports under the deals, Tuoi Tre quoted Nguyen Minh Thong, deputy head of Can Tho City’s Customs Agency, as saying.
“Thanks to [good] profits and high demand in Singapore, exporters change the dates of signing deals to before November 30 so that they can continue shipping the resource,” he said.
Source: Thanh Nien
Alvin Foo, Straits Times 1 Sep 09;
GOING green in manufacturing can go hand in hand with boosting a company's bottom line, participants at a seminar on sustainable manufacturing were told yesterday.
In fact, it is the way forward for Singapore-based electronics and precision engineering firms, as global businesses move towards sustainable manufacturing, according to trade promotion agency International Enterprise (IE) Singapore. This means such firms need to adopt sustainable manufacturing practices to remain globally competitive and relevant.
Mr Yew Sung Pei, IE Singapore's assistant chief executive, said local companies can do their part to protect the environment while keeping the bottom line in mind.
He said: 'Heightened awareness of environmental sustainability is affecting business and consumer decisions. It is more important than ever for companies to look into reducing their carbon footprint.'
Going green could translate into brighter profits. Mr Yew said it can help a company save the environment, cut down energy costs, reach out to more global customers and expand the business.
It could also boost a firm's branding by attracting new customers who are seeking environmentally friendly products and processes, said IE Singapore.
This means companies in sectors that use green manufacturing measures can enhance their export competitiveness in markets such as the European Union, the United States and Japan.
Dr Howard Lightfoot of Britain's Cranfield University noted that many opportunities now exist for companies to gain competitive advantages via a reputation for having green behaviour.
He said: 'Product performance and quality no longer guarantee you a position at the front row of the grid.'
However, several challenges stand in the way of companies adopting green manufacturing.
For instance, a cultural shift is required. Dr Lee Hui Mien, an assistant research scientist from the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), said: 'It's not something that will happen overnight...you need a mindset change first.'
She urged firms to take the first step by assessing their current carbon footprint.
Organised by IE Singapore together with SIMTech and the Singapore High Technology Association, the seminar aimed to help local companies understand the increasing focus on green manufacturing, its global opportunities and how firms here can go green.
It drew about 120 participants from 70 organisations.
Deal within indicative price; asset to be held in business trust
Lynette Khoo, Business Times 1 Sep 09;
KEPPEL Corporation's environmental solutions unit Keppel Integrated Engineering (KIE) has completed the acquisition of Senoko Incineration Plant (SIP) from the government.
The deal was done within the indicative price of $462 million, which was mutually agreed between KIE and the government on a willing-buyer, willing-seller basis.
The asset is being held in a business trust - Senoko Trust - with KIE as the sponsor and investor of the trust. Plans to publicly list the business trust are still in the bag.
'We continue to seek a listing of this asset when suitable market conditions return,' said a Keppel spokesman. There is no timeframe for the listing.
With this acquisition, which is funded internally, KIE will be the only private operator of incineration plants treating general waste in Singapore.
SIP's capacity to treat 2,400 tonnes of waste per day will enable KIE to treat more than a third or 35.8 per cent of Singapore's total volume of waste sent for incineration.
'Our agreement with the Singapore government for incineration services will create steady recurring income and generate strong cash flow for Keppel, which is particularly attractive in the current times of economic uncertainty,' said KIE deputy chairman Michael Chia.
KIE will provide incineration services for 15 years starting today to the National Environment Agency. KIE will also maintain and repair SIP, and upgrade the flue gas treatment system of the plant.
Last September, the government decided to divest SIP through a trade sale instead of a public listing of a business trust due to market conditions.
Foreigners cannot own them but they are welcome to run islands on lease
Lynn Lee, Straits Times 1 Sep 09;
JAKARTA: Foreigners cannot own land in Indonesia. However, to boost tourism, the local authorities are inviting them to lease available islands across the sprawling archipelago.
On Sunday, Mr Ismeth Abdullah, governor of Riau Islands province, said he welcomes overseas investors who wish to manage islands in his province.
Bordering Singapore and Malaysia, the province is made up of 1,795 islands, of which only 394 are inhabited.
Mr Ismeth told The Jakarta Post that the presence of foreign investments has raised revenues for the province. He cited the popular Nikoi Island resort, located 21/2 hours away from Singapore by ferry and speedboat.
The province's Investment Coordinating Agency usually takes about a month to issue leasing permits to investors, in line with government regulations, he added.
Separately, the head of Gorontalo province's Investment Coordinating Board told The Jakarta Globe that a Singapore-based investor was keen on leasing three islands off North Sulawesi that boast a panoramic view.
Mr Rustamrin Akuba said the provincial government was currently reviewing the proposal.
The two men's comments came days after a ruckus erupted over an alleged advertisement on the Canadian website www.privateislandsonline.com offering to sell three islands off the coast of West Sumatra to foreigners. This was reported by local media, which said the website was hawking Macaroni, Siloinak and Kandui - part of a group of 70 islands known as the Mentawai islands - for between US$1.6 million (S$2.3 million) and US$8million.
Many Indonesians were up in arms over the reports, with legislators lambasting the government for its lax attention to the country's assets.
West Sumatran governor Gamawan Fauzi denied last Thursday that any of the Mentawai islands were for sale. A website check also found that Macaroni, Siloinak and Kandui referred to resorts located on three different islands that are popular with surfers.
Mr Gamawan told reporters that the resorts were run by a partnership of local and foreign businessmen, but the management wanted to sell their shares now because of an 'internal problem'.
Mr Aji Sularso, a director-general at the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, confirmed that the islands were still owned by Indonesia, adding that it was not possible for foreigners to own islands.
'It is not supported by any regulation,' he told The Jakarta Post.
Indonesia's estimated 17,000 islands hold vast potential for maritime tourism, from diving to surfing to beach resorts. Only 5,000, though, have been named to date. The government has said it will set aside six billion rupiah (S$858,000) to determine the exact number of islands and register them as the country's assets with the United Nations.
While he did not elaborate, Mr Aji said he anticipated a loosening of regulations with regard to coastal areas and remote islands, so that those areas could be put to 'better use' for the community and local government.
He did point out, however, that the government was getting only 600 million rupiah in tourist receipts from the Mentawai region each year.
'This amount is too small, since Mentawai has some of the most beautiful waves in the world, and these are worth much more than that.'
Nikoi Island
ITS white sandy beaches, coral reefs and proximity to Singapore are Nikoi Island's selling point for Singapore-based tourists who flock there every weekend.
The island's only resort - which charges $330 per night for a one-bedroom beach house - is owned by a group of six foreigners, five of whom are based in Singapore.
One of them, Mr Andrew Dixon, an Australian, first came across the island with his wife in 2001.
He and his partners then negotiated a deal to lease the island from the Indonesian government for 30 years, with an option for renewal. Construction of the resort began in 2005 and it was opened in May 2007.
By the end of this month, the resort will have 15 beach houses, which can accommodate up to 60 people.
There is a strong emphasis on conservation - the houses are constructed with driftwood from nearby islands, there is no air-conditioning and solar panels are used to heat water.
The management is also involved in micro-financing schemes to help residents of the Kawal fishing village on Bintan set up small businesses.
Speaking to The Straits Times yesterday, Mr Dixon said getting the resort up-and-running was not easy, as there was a lot of red tape involved.
He and his partners are now looking to get another project on a neighbouring island off the ground.
Solomon Star 1 Sep 09;
SOLOMON Islands Marine Wildlife Park yesterday caught about nine dolphins at the Marine school seashore in Honiara.
This came days after dolphin advocacy organisation like Earth Island Institute attacked the Government’s policy to export live dolphins overseas.
It was a rare moment yesterday as hundreds of people turned up to watch the Park’s fishermen trapping the live dolphins with their nets.
The show has turned into an excitement towards the end as the fishermen struggled with the mammals and lifted them onto their boats.
Inside the boat, the fishermen laid new mattresses bought from a shop as bed for the dolphins to rest on.
One of the workers, Erick Chow said the dolphins were taken to their Park’s pen.
The Park’s pen is located behind the Prime Minister’s office.
Mr Chow said as part of their catch, there were 10 dolphins kept in their pen.
He said they were still to verify the number of new dolphins caught when Solomon Star contacted them.
However, Mr Chow said he was not sure which place Park will going to export the dolphins.
Solomon Islands Government’s support for dolphins export has turned into a backfire for the tuna investment on Guadalcanal and Malaita.
This was after Earth Island Institute has informed investors during the 11th Tuna congress in General Santos City, Philippines last week that both Provinces have practised dolphins catch.
However, Western province was singled out because it did not allow dolphins catch in its waters.
By EDDIE OSIFELO
Dolphin capture condemned
Solomon Star 3 Sep 09;
EARTH Island Institute (EII) yesterday condemned recent capturing of nine dolphins in Honiara describing it as a disaster.
Earth Island Institute Regional Director and dolphin campaigner Lawrence Makili told Solomon Star from Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG) that he was disturbed by the news of the capture.
"This is another disaster for the Solomon Islands reputation as a nation especially when such capture of dolphins happens the day before the Pacific Tuna Conference takes place in Port Moresby," he said.
Mr Makili is attending the tuna conference along with his Director Mark Berman.
He said they are going to announce the event in the conference among the Tuna industry investors who also attended the Conference.
He said the capture goes to show that an export will be done soon.
"This also confirms the hypocritical denials of the Minister of Fisheries Nollen Leni of the next shipment of dolphins Overseas.
"The continuation of capturing dolphins confirms that the dolphin traders are certainly continue to export wild captured dolphins overseas," he said.
Mr Makili also questioned Prime Minister Dr Derek Sikua's behavior over this ongoing capture saying Dr Sikua is being controlled and powerless on this issue.
"The continuation of dolphin capture in the Solomon Islands affirms that the Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands Dr Derick Sikua has no control over the Minister for the Fisheries Mr Nollen Leni and the Minister for Environment Gordon Darcy Lilo," he said.
By MOFFAT MAMU
Narelle Towie, PerthNow 1 Sep 09;
AN aerial survey has revealed hundreds of humpback whales off the Kimberley coast amassing near the site proposed for a massive industrial gas hub.
A staggering 162 humpback whales in 102 separate pods were recorded off the Kimberley coast over the weekend in an aerial survey conducted by The Wilderness Society .
The highest numbers of whales were spotted near James Price Point - a site controversially proposed for Woodside's massive LNG gas processing facility.
Woodside is spearheading the Kimberley hub proposal, which has been championed by WA Premier Colin Barnett, who successfully pushed through an agreement with indigenous landowners after threatening to requisition the proposed site at James Price Point, north of Broome.
Mr Barnett originally favoured North Head, a site further north on the Dampier peninsula, as the preferred site for LNG processing, however this site was abandoned to avoid the high whale populations in the area.
The Kimberley hub is proposed to process gas from the Woodside-operated Browse Basin gas fields joint venture, which also includes BHP Billiton Ltd, BP, Chevron and Shell.
Local whale expert Mr Richard Costin said the results show how many whales rely on the area to feed and give birth.
“Based on our recent research, there is no doubt that the area around James Price Point is at least as significant for humpback whales as other sites that have been considered unsuitable for industrial development due to whale activity,” Mr Costin said.
“This whole region is important for these amazing creatures which would be severely impacted if the proposed LNG plant goes ahead on the Kimberley coast.”
Conservation Council of WA's Director Piers Verstegen said despite these amazing and unique creatures being internationally significant less than 1 per cent of the Kimberley’s waters are protected in marine sanctuaries.
The conservation groups are calling on the State and Commonwealth Governments to immediately place a moratorium on oil and gas development on the Kimberley coast and establish large marine sanctuary zones to protect the globally significant marine biodiversity in this region.
They are also asking Prime Minister Kevin Rudd conduct a similar survey in the James Price Point area while he is in WA to witness the threat to humpback whales posed by industry plans.
Yahoo News 31 Aug 09;
KAMPALA (AFP) – Users of the social networking sites Facebook and Twitter will be able to "befriend" rare Ugandan mountain gorillas and track their movements, a Wildlife Authority spokeswoman said Monday.
In a scheme designed to promote Uganda's nascent tourism industry, users will receive regular updates about their endangered primate friends, Lillian Nsubuga told AFP.
"Through geo-tracking and GPS, you?ll be able to get information about new births within the family and other information," she said, referring to a programme that will launch online next month.
Wildlife officials also plan to install cameras around Uganda?s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, home to roughly half of the world?s estimated 740 mountain gorillas, one of most endangered species on the planet.
Online users will be able to watch live footage of their "friends" eating and trekking through the thick terrain.
Mountain gorillas, who were famously brought to the world's attention by the late Dian Fossey, are one of Uganda's main tourist attractions and can only be found in two other countries, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Australian Platypus Conservancy, ScienceAlert 31 Aug 09;
One of Australia’s most unusual animals, the platypus, is being put at risk by yabby traps. “Opera house” traps and other enclosed yabby traps are killing platypuses, as well as other native species such as turtles, Australian water-rats and water birds. Up to five dead platypuses have been recovered from a single trap.
Now a conservation coalition, including the Australian Platypus Conservancy, Dr Tom Grant from the University of NSW (one of Australia’s leading platypus biologists) and the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland are joining forces to call for measures to reduce the death toll.
Dr Melody Serena from the Australian Platypus Conservancy noted that platypuses are probably particularly vulnerable to being killed because yabbies form part of their natural diet. “Once lured into a trap, a platypus will drown in less than three minutes,” she said. “If a breeding female is killed in this way during the summer months (which is the most common time of the year for such traps to be set) then any dependent babies waiting in the nursery burrow for her return will slowly starve to death”.
While the platypus is not regarded as a threatened species, numbers have already declined in many places because of habitat degradation, while prolonged drought and major floods are creating further difficulties. In this context, unnecessary deaths caused by yabby traps can potentially tip the balance against the long-term survival of some local platypus populations, especially in small streams where overall numbers are often quite low anyway.
Dr Grant said that there was considerable confusion about the use of yabby traps because of different regulations in each state and even within parts of the same state.
“In essence,” he said, “opera house traps have been banned in public waters in Victoria, the ACT, much of NSW and all of Tasmania because of the threat that they pose to aquatic wildlife. Unfortunately, they are still legal in Queensland. Until there is uniform national legislation, it is imperative that anglers make themselves fully aware of the regulations in the state where they are yabbying since heavy fines and/or prison sentences can apply for illegal use of traps and nets. This is particularly important for inter-state travellers – for example, fisheries inspectors have already reported problems with some Queensland “grey nomads” bringing their opera house nets with them when they visit Tasmania.”
More importantly, the platypus conservation coalition believes that recreational anglers should consider using hoop-style lift nets or baited lines with no hooks as alternatives to opera house traps. These methods pose a lesser risk to platypus and other wildlife, although specified bag-limits for yabbies must still be observed, since over-harvesting threatens crayfish populations. The coalition is also calling on angling and outdoor retailers to consider phasing out the sale of opera house traps and instead stock only safer alternatives, such as lift nets.
“It is difficult for shops selling yabby traps to know the full details of the law, especially if they are located close to state boundaries,” noted Dr Grant. “Most retailers would have no idea that they are inadvertently selling people platypus death-traps for a few dollars. Therefore, we are hoping that most shops will do the right thing and quit selling opera house nets altogether.”
It is also hoped that more members of the community will look out for the illegal use of nets and report them immediately to state fisheries and wildlife officers. Likewise, people finding a dead platypus or other animal in a yabby trap or other illegal fishing gear, such as nets, are asked to report the details so that better information can be collected about the scale of the current problem.
The platypus is dependent on water bodies for its food and with predictions suggesting that much of its present range will become drier as climate change progresses, the platypus needs all the help it can get. Eliminating deaths in yabby traps will make an important contribution to the long-term survival of this unique mammal.
Matthew Brown, Associated Press Yahoo News 31 Aug 09;
MISSOULA, Mont. – Gray wolf hunting was set to begin in the Northern Rockies, even as a federal judge eyed a request to stop the killing of the predators just four months after they were removed from the endangered species list.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy said Monday he would rule as quickly as he could on a last-minute injunction sought by environmental and animal welfare groups opposed to the hunts in Idaho and Montana.
Hunters were poised to head into the field Tuesday in Idaho, where a quota allowed as many as 220 wolves to be killed. Montana's season is set to begin Sept. 15, with a quota of 75 wolves.
Missoula hunter Mac McLaughlin attended Monday's court hearing then left to buy his hunting tag, saying he was tired of the wolves attacking elk. He intended to use an elk call to lure wolves.
"If the opportunity comes up, you bet I'll shoot one," he said. "There's got to be a balance and our game populations have taken a terrible beating."
More than 9,000 hunters in Idaho already have bought tags allowing them to kill a wolf. Tags went on sale Monday in Montana.
Wolves were removed from the endangered species list in Idaho and Montana in May, with management of the animals transferred to the state wildlife agencies.
Doug Honnold of the environmental law firm Earthjustice said wolves remained at risk because the states had insufficient safeguards to ensure their safety.
"It's the endangered species that need to be protected, not the states' rights to kill wolves," Honnold said during the hearing.
Michael Eitel, representing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the agency would keep monitoring the wolves and step in to return the species to the endangered list if warranted.
"The Northern Rocky Mountain wolves are doing very well," Eitel said. "Yes there might be wolves that are killed, but that will not affect the population in Idaho and Montana."
Wolves once roamed North America but by the 1930s had been largely exterminated outside Alaska and Canada. An estimated 1,650 of the animals now live in the Northern Rockies — the result of a contentious $30 million reintroduction program that began in 1995.
Today, the debate centers on whether that population will remain viable if hunting is allowed. That population is now five times the original recovery goal set in the 1990s.
Wyoming was carved out of the territory where wolves were removed from the endangered list.
That prompted Honnold to claim the government had "flip-flopped" on a prior policy against making endangered species decisions based on political boundaries.
In court, Eitel acknowledged his agency changed its position on the issue but urged Judge Molloy to accept its latest interpretation of the law.
Molloy appeared doubtful. "How am I supposed to make judgment as to which of their positions to give deference to?" he asked.
Molloy gave no indication how he might rule on the injunction request. State wildlife officials said the hunts would proceed pending the ruling.
Last year, Molloy sided with environmentalists in a similar case.
As a result, the federal government kept about 300 wolves in Wyoming on the endangered list.
Wolf hunt is on in Idaho — for now
Todd Dvorak, Associated Press Yahoo News 2 Sep 09;
BOISE, Idaho – Gray wolves were back in the cross hairs of hunters on Tuesday, just months after they were removed from the federal endangered species list and eight decades since being hunted to extinction across the Northern Rockies.
Hunters in Idaho began stalking gray wolves in a handful of districts in the central and northern mountains. Shortly after dawn, an Idaho real estate agent became the first to report a kill.
Robert Millage of the lumber town of Kamiah bagged an adult female from 25 yards away in the mountains near the Lochsa River, state officials said.
"I just wanted to beat my buddies to the punch, but I didn't know I'd beaten everybody in the state," said Millage, 34, who has hunted in Idaho for 22 years. "It was really an adrenaline rush to have those wolves all around me, howling and milling about after I fired the shot."
It remained unclear, however, just how much longer hunters would have to thin the wolf population in Idaho and Montana, which is scheduled to open its season in two weeks.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Montana was expected to rule soon on a request by environmental groups to stop the hunts in both states.
"The human population successfully eradicated wolves from this region in the early part of the 20th century, and it would be a true shame after all the efforts that went into recovery if that happened again," said Jenny Harbine, an attorney for Earthjustice, a plaintiff in the case.
An estimated 1,650 of the animals now live in the Northern Rockies thanks to a controversial reintroduction program that started in 1995.
Idaho set a quota of 220 wolves for this hunting season as part of its plan for managing the wolf population. The quota is 75 in Montana.
Idaho officials say they have no idea how many hunters headed into the woods to track the predators. State rules require hunters to notify game officials within 24 hours of a wolf kill and present the skull and pelt to wardens within five days.
So far, Idaho has sold more than 10,700 wolf permits, mostly to hunters who will head to the backcountry next month when elk and deer season begins. Hunters in Montana snatched up more than 2,600 tags on Monday, the first day of sales for the upcoming hunt.
The wolves were removed from the endangered species list in those states just four months ago. The environmental groups fear there aren't enough state protections in place to maintain their comeback.
The creatures were once abundant across North America, but by the 1930s had been largely exterminated outside Alaska and Canada.
About 300 wolves in Wyoming are still under federal protection because the government has not approved the state's management plan.
Last year, about a dozen wolves were killed in Wyoming during a brief period when the state management plan declared wolves wandering outside established recovery zones could be shot and killed on sight. That policy was later scrapped by a federal judge.
Idaho officials and hunting guides say the opening weeks of the season are likely to be slow.
Outfitters said they are not booking trips for hunters exclusively looking to bag a wolf. But guides are encouraging clients to buy wolf tags to have handy when tracking deer and elk later this fall.
"Any success we have with wolves will be more of a happenstance sort of thing," said Richard Huff, a guide for Silver Spur Outfitters and Lodge near Grangeville.
Wolves are difficult to track because they move 30 to 50 miles a day, and hunters can't use bait or artificial calls.
"But I can tell you if I see one it's going to be adios," Huff said.
Hunting of grey wolves resumes in western US after 30 years
If courts do not intervene, hunters will be allowed to kill up to 220 wolves in Idaho and 75 in Montana
Ed Pilkington, guardian.co.uk 1 Sep 09;
For the first time in more than 30 years, the northern Rockies are set today to echo with the sound of guns being fired at one of the symbols of the American wilderness: the grey wolf.
Hunters armed with tags permitting them to "harvest" the animals were preparing to set out in the mountainous western and northern regions of Idaho. To the dismay of environmentalists, the Obama administration lifted protection for wolves under the Endangered Species Act in March.
Environmental groups went to court yesterday to try and block the renewed hunting, but a judge sitting in Montana has reserved judgement and until he rules, the shooting will be allowed to go ahead.
The fate of the wolf is taken by conservationists as a litmus test of America's ability to safeguard its natural heritage. In the early 20th century, the animals, placed on a literary pedestal in such works as Jack London's White Fang, were virtually exterminated. Since 1995 they have been reintroduced to Idaho and the Yellowstone national park and federal officials argue that their current numbers, about 1,650, would support restricted hunting.
By the end of the year, hunters will be allowed to kill up to 220 wolves in Idaho and 75 in Montana, assuming the courts do not intervene.
Under the terms of the tagging system, wolves of either sex may be shot, though kills must be reported to the authorities within 24 hours and the skull and hide presented to federal officials within four days after that. Baiting of the animals is not allowed.
Earthjustice, an environmental group that is leading the legal case for continuing to protect the wolves, argues that renewed hunting could disrupt the flow of wolf populations between Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. The group's Doug Honnold told the Idaho Statesman newspaper: "It's the endangered species that need to be protected, not the states' rights to kill wolves."
Wolf hunt is on in Idaho — for now
Todd Dvorak, Associated Press Yahoo News 1 Sep 09;
BOISE, Idaho – Gray wolves were back in the cross hairs of hunters on Tuesday, just months after they were removed from the federal endangered species list and eight decades since being hunted to extinction across the Northern Rockies.
Hunters in Idaho began stalking gray wolves in a handful of districts in the central and northern mountains. Shortly after dawn, an Idaho real estate agent became the first to report a kill.
Robert Millage of the lumber town of Kamiah bagged an adult female from 25 yards away in the mountains near the Lochsa River, state officials said.
"I just wanted to beat my buddies to the punch, but I didn't know I'd beaten everybody in the state," said Millage, 34, who has hunted in Idaho for 22 years. "It was really an adrenaline rush to have those wolves all around me, howling and milling about after I fired the shot."
It remained unclear, however, just how much longer hunters would have to thin the wolf population in Idaho and Montana, which is scheduled to open its season in two weeks.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Montana was expected to rule soon on a request by environmental groups to stop the hunts in both states.
"The human population successfully eradicated wolves from this region in the early part of the 20th century, and it would be a true shame after all the efforts that went into recovery if that happened again," said Jenny Harbine, an attorney for Earthjustice, a plaintiff in the case.
An estimated 1,650 of the animals now live in the Northern Rockies thanks to a controversial reintroduction program that started in 1995.
Idaho set a quota of 220 wolves for this hunting season as part of its plan for managing the wolf population. The quota is 75 in Montana.
Idaho officials say they have no idea how many hunters headed into the woods to track the predators. State rules require hunters to notify game officials within 24 hours of a wolf kill and present the skull and pelt to wardens within five days.
So far, Idaho has sold more than 10,700 wolf permits, mostly to hunters who will head to the backcountry next month when elk and deer season begins. Hunters in Montana snatched up more than 2,600 tags on Monday, the first day of sales for the upcoming hunt.
The wolves were removed from the endangered species list in those states just four months ago. The environmental groups fear there aren't enough state protections in place to maintain their comeback.
The creatures were once abundant across North America, but by the 1930s had been largely exterminated outside Alaska and Canada.
About 300 wolves in Wyoming are still under federal protection because the government has not approved the state's management plan.
Last year, about a dozen wolves were killed in Wyoming during a brief period when the state management plan declared wolves wandering outside established recovery zones could be shot and killed on sight. That policy was later scrapped by a federal judge.
Idaho officials and hunting guides say the opening weeks of the season are likely to be slow.
Outfitters said they are not booking trips for hunters exclusively looking to bag a wolf. But guides are encouraging clients to buy wolf tags to have handy when tracking deer and elk later this fall.
"Any success we have with wolves will be more of a happenstance sort of thing," said Richard Huff, a guide for Silver Spur Outfitters and Lodge near Grangeville.
Wolves are difficult to track because they move 30 to 50 miles a day, and hunters can't use bait or artificial calls.
"But I can tell you if I see one it's going to be adios," Huff said.
Supermarkets in talks on how to educate public about benefits of science
Martin Hickman, The Independent 1 Sep 09;
Britain's food giants have privately warned that they are struggling to maintain their decade-long ban on genetic modification and called for the public to be educated about the increasing cost of avoiding GM, The Independent reveals today.
As major producers such as the US and Brazil switch to GM, supermarkets are now paying 10 to 20 per cent more for the dwindling supplies of conventional soya and maize, according to a report by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Marks & Spencer, Somerfield, Aldi and Co-op met civil servants to explain their problems in finding non-GM supplies.
Warning of the price hikes, the report – quietly published online last month – said: "Retailers were concerned that they may not be able to maintain their current non-GM sources of supply as producers increasingly adopt GM technology around the world."
Despite legislation requiring GM food to be labelled in the UK's cafes, restaurants and takeaways, customers were already eating food saturated with GM fat without knowing, added the report.
Although fierce public opposition to so-called "Frankenstein foods" has fallen from its peak at the end of the 1990s and early 2000s, when retailers vowed not to stock anything with GM ingredients, changing genes in human food remains highly controversial.
Campaigners such as Friends of the Earth fear GM crops could damage human health and the environment and place control of the food supply in the hands of a few multinational chemical companies, warning of a "corporate takeover of agriculture".
Despite the potential public backlash, ministers believe it may now be the right time to consider its introduction as a way of meeting a UN target to raise global food production by 2050. Asked whether GM was the answer to his call last month for a new green revolution, Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, whose new food security strategy this autumn is expected to move closer to backing GM, praised "science".
Supermarkets and manufacturers can sell food made from GM ingredients grown elsewhere, but must state that products contain GM ingredients.
After meeting industry stakeholders, the joint FSA and Defra document – GM Crops and Foods: Follow-up to the Food Matters Report – reported that there "is some use of GM food ingredients in the UK, particularly in the catering sector where oil from GM crops is often supplied to customers who are working to lower prices, and bulk packs are suitably labelled. It was considered unlikely that relevant information regarding food produced using such oils is provided to the final consumer, as required in EC legislation."
The FSA noted that spontaneous concern about GM voiced by consumers had fallen steadily from a peak in December 2003, when 20 per cent of shoppers were worried, to 6 per cent last September.
Supermarket bosses are rethinking their approach. After delivering the City Food Lecture in February, Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco, said that giving in to concern about GM could have been a mistake: "It may have been a failure of us all to stand by the science.
"Maybe there is an opportunity to discuss again these issues and a growing appreciation by people that GM could play a vital role in feeding the world's growing population."
At the time, International Supermarket News quoted an industry source as saying: "I am pretty certain that several parties involved are actively looking for the way out of their Canute-like positions. Maybe the reality of the costs of GM-avoidance is finally striking home."
The FSA/Defra document reported that many stakeholders noted "it may be timely to inform consumers of the issues surrounding GM and non-GM supply chains so that they have a clear understanding of current science, the status of non-GM market being reliant on only a few exporting countries, and the steady increase in GM production".
Tesco was unavailable for comment yesterday, but the British Retail Consortium, which speaks for the major grocery retailers, denied British shops would change their approach. "Retailers are not stocking GM products and there are no plans to change that – it's a response to customers' views," said spokesman Richard Dodd.
Pete Riley, director of GM Freeze, the anti-GM campaign, accused the Government of being "desperate" to back GM, adding that it had pressurised Defra and the FSA into producing a "scaremongering" report. Supermarkets could work with growers to produce a long-term, non-GM supply, he said, adding any store that broke ranks by introducing GM would be "brave".
Steve Gorman, Reuters 30 Aug 09;
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Prius hybrid automobile is popular for its fuel efficiency, but its electric motor and battery guzzle rare earth metals, a little-known class of elements found in a wide range of gadgets and consumer goods.
That makes Toyota's market-leading gasoline-electric hybrid car and other similar vehicles vulnerable to a supply crunch predicted by experts as China, the world's dominant rare earths producer, limits exports while global demand swells.
Worldwide demand for rare earths, covering 15 entries on the periodic table of elements, is expected to exceed supply by some 40,000 tonnes annually in several years unless major new production sources are developed. One promising U.S. source is a rare earths mine slated to reopen in California by 2012.
Among the rare earths that would be most affected in a shortage is neodymium, the key component of an alloy used to make the high-power, lightweight magnets for electric motors of hybrid cars, such as the Prius, Honda Insight and Ford Focus, as well as in generators for wind turbines.
Close cousins terbium and dysprosium are added in smaller amounts to the alloy to preserve neodymium's magnetic properties at high temperatures. Yet another rare earth metal, lanthanum, is a major ingredient for hybrid car batteries.
Production of both hybrids cars and wind turbines is expected to climb sharply amid the clamor for cleaner transportation and energy alternatives that reduce dependence on fossil fuels blamed for global climate change.
Toyota has 70 percent of the U.S. market for vehicles powered by a combination of an internal-combustion engine and electric motor. The Prius is its No. 1 hybrid seller.
Jack Lifton, an independent commodities consultant and strategic metals expert, calls the Prius "the biggest user of rare earths of any object in the world."
Each electric Prius motor requires 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of neodymium, and each battery uses 10 to 15 kg (22-33 lb) of lanthanum. That number will nearly double under Toyota's plans to boost the car's fuel economy, he said.
Toyota plans to sell 100,000 Prius cars in the United States alone for 2009, and 180,000 next year. The company forecasts sales of 1 million units per year starting in 2010.
As China's industries begin to consume most of its own rare earth production, Toyota and other companies are seeking to secure reliable reserves for themselves.
Reuters reported last year that Japanese firms are showing strong interest in a Canadian rare earth site under development at Thor Lake in the Northwest Territories.
A Toyota spokeswoman in Los Angeles said the automaker would not comment on its resource development plans. But media accounts and industry blogs have reported recently that Toyota has looked at rare earth possibilities in Canada and Vietnam.
(Editing by Alan Elsner and Mary Milliken)
California mine digs in for "green" gold rush
Steve Gorman, Reuters 31 Aug 09;
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The future of wind farms and hybrid cars may well hinge on what happens to a 55-acre (22.3-hectare) hole in the ground at the edge of California's high desert.
The open-pit mine at Mountain Pass, California, holds the world's richest proven reserve of "rare earth" metals, a family of minerals vital to producing the powerful, lightweight magnets used in the engines of Toyota Motor Corp's Prius and other hybrid vehicles as well as generators in wind turbines.
Seeking to replace China as the leading supplier of these scarce materials, Colorado-based Molycorp Minerals LLC plans to reopen its long-idled quarry to resume extracting and refining thousands of tons of rare earth ore in the next few years.
Last month, Molycorp reached a joint venture deal with Arnold Magnetic Technologies Corp. of Rochester, New York, to make "permanent" magnets from rare metals at Mountain Pass.
Backed by hundreds of millions of dollars from equity investors, including Goldman Sachs, Molycorp aims to avert a looming rare-earths supply crunch that threatens to muffle the green-technology boom.
"The world has been looking for an alternative to these rare-earth permanent magnets for over 20 years, and one has not been found," Molycorp chief executive Mark Smith said. "What Molycorp is proposing as a business strategy is to fill that supply chain and go all the way from mining to magnets."
Success hinges on Molycorp's ability to operate the mine and its processing facilities much more efficiently than in the past.
At the peak of its operations two decades ago, the mine produced 20,000 tonnes of rare earth oxides a year, accounting for the entire U.S. supply and about a third of the world's total. Most of the rest came from China.
CHINA FACTOR
But as Chinese production and exports grew through the 1990s, rare earth prices worldwide plunged, undercutting business for Molycorp, then owned by oil company Unocal.
Mountain Pass operations came under further pressure after a 1996 wastewater spill. Mining there ceased in 2002 when Molycorp's old permit expired.
"Most companies that were in the business stopped producing because it wasn't profitable anymore," said James Hedrick, a rare earths specialist for the U.S. Geological Survey.
Refinement of previously extracted ore at Mountain Pass resumed on a small scale in 2007, two years after Unocal was acquired by Chevron Corp. Last year, Molycorp was sold to a group of private investors.
Chinese rare earth production, meanwhile, has swelled to about 97 percent of global supplies, or 139,000 tonnes of refined material in 2008, experts say. Output is expected to reach 160,000 tonnes a year by the middle of the next decade.
But global demand is climbing faster, driven by the clamor for clean energy and clean cars, leading to projections of a 40,000-tonne annual shortfall by 2015.
"We're reaching a crunch point," said Jack Lifton, a commodities analyst and leading authority on rare metals.
Rare earths go into hundreds of gadgets and consumer goods, usually in minuscule amounts. Some products use more.
The electric motor in Toyota's market-leading hybrid car, the Prius, requires 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of neodymium, the key component in the alloy for permanent magnets. And each Prius battery uses 10 to 15 kg (22-33 lb) of another rare earth, lanthanum, according to Lifton.
"The Prius automobile is the biggest user of rare earths of any object in the world," he said.
CRUNCH POINT
With China seen sharply curtailing its rare earth exports to feed rapid expansion of its own industries, the projected global shortage will only grow more acute.
Looking to meet the challenge is Molycorp, with a new 30-year mining plan given final approval in the summer of 2004 following a 15-year regulatory review.
Smith said his company has since been perfecting an advanced extraction process that will allow Molycorp to nearly double the amount of rare earth metals it can pull from the bastnaesite ore it mines.
"It means I don't have to extract as much ore from the surface pit to have the equivalent amount of material for sale to a customer," he said. "It lowers our costs tremendously."
Plans call for mining to resume at Mountain Pass by 2012, at the rate of about 1,000 tons of ore a day, enough to produce 20,000 tonnes of rare earth oxides for sale each year. Smith said the mine has approval to double that volume in time.
"If we put our facilities into the fully permitted production rates, we could come very close to meeting the needs of most of the rest of the world," he said.
But Molycorp first needs to drain some 95 million gallons (360 million litres) of water that has filled the pit's bottom and remove surface rock covering the ore, a two-year process.
Mountain Pass is considered the world's richest reserve of its kind, with ore deposits averaging a concentration of rare earths above 9 percent. Most deposits around the world outside China report ore grades under 5 percent, Smith said.
It's also the largest outside of China, estimated to hold 20 million to 47 million tonnes of ore. The mine is further blessed with negligible traces of uranium and thorium -- two radioactive elements often found together with rare earths that can make recovery of them more costly.
Mountain Pass, not far from Las Vegas, first opened in the 1940s, when rare earths were mined for use in tracer ammunition for the military and the flints of cigarette lighters.
With the advent of color television in the 1960s, Mountain Pass became the world's only supplier of europium, used to produce red picture tones. By the 1980s, lanthanum, neodymium and other rare earths were being mined for new discoveries in batteries and magnets.
Molycorp is ahead of the game but not alone. A number of companies are seeking to develop rare earth deposits elsewhere, including two promising sites in western Canada and two more in Australia that have attracted Chinese interest.
(Editing by Alan Elsner and Mary Milliken)
China tries to calm unease over rare earths curbs
Reuters 3 Sep 09;
BEIJING – A Chinese official tried to calm unease about curbs on exports of rare earths used in clean energy products and superconductors, saying Thursday that sales will continue but must be limited to reduce damage to China's environment.
China produces nearly all the rare earths used in batteries for hybrid cars, mobile phones, superconductors, lightweight magnets and other high-tech products. Reports of a plan to reduce exports sparked concern about the impact on industry abroad.
Beijing will encourage sales of finished rare earths products but will limit exports of semi-finished goods, said Wang Caifeng, deputy director-general of the materials department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Exports of raw ores already is banned, and said that will continue, Wang said at an industry conference.
Wang refused to confirm Chinese news reports that this year's exports will be cut to about 8 percent below 2008 levels and future exports will be capped at similar levels. She said a plan will be be issued later this year.
"China, as a responsible big country, will not go back and will not take the road of closing the door," Wang said.
But she said China has to limit output to protect its environment. She said production of one ton of rare earths produces 2,000 tons of mine tailings.
"China has made a big sacrifices for rare earths extraction," said Wang, who said she has spent her whole 30-year career overseeing the industry. "It has damaged our environmental resources."
Wang spoke at the Minor Metals & Rare Earths 2009 conference, cohosted by China Chamber of Commerce of Metals Minerals & Chemicals Importers & Exporters and Metal Pages Ltd., a London-based metals trading and information company.
China accounts for 95 percent of global production and about 60 percent of consumption of rare earths, which include such metals as dysprosium, terbium, thulium, lutetium and yttrium, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The United States supplied nearly all its rare earths needs from its own mines as recently as 1990, according to the USGS. But it says output plunged after the market was flooded with low-cost ore from China, which has lower labor costs and less-stringent environmental controls.
China wants to develop its industries to process rare earths and create products from them, Wang said.
China banned new wholly foreign-owned processing ventures in 2002 but some French and Japanese companies set up operations before that, Wang said. She said new foreign investors will be required to work through joint-ventures with Chinese partners.
Last year, China exported 10,000 tons of rare earths magnets worth $400 million and 34,600 tons of other rare earths products worth $500 million, according to Wang.
China used 70,000 tons of rare earths in 2008 out of reported total global consumption of 130,000 tons, Wang said. She said she believed global consumption was higher than indicated by the official statistics.
China's demand for rare earths has surged as manufacturers shifted production of mobile phones, computers and other products to Chinese factories.
The United States and European Union have objected to similar Chinese controls on exports of other industrial materials. They filed a World Trade Organization complaint in June accusing Beijing of improperly favoring its industries by limiting exports of nine materials including bauxite and coke in which it is a major supplier.
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Associated Press researcher Bonnie Cao contributed to this article.
'We all live on the Greenland ice sheet now. Its fate is our fate'
Patrick Barkham, The Guardian 1 Sep 09;
It is calving season in the Arctic. A flotilla of icebergs, some as jagged as fairytale castles and others as smooth as dinosaur eggs, calve from the ice sheet that smothers Greenland and sail down the fjords. The journey of these sculptures of ice from glaciers to ocean is eerily beautiful and utterly terrifying.
The wall of ice that rises behind Sermilik fjord stretches for 1,500 miles (2,400km) from north to south and smothers 80% of this country. It has been frozen for 3m years.
Now it is melting, far faster than the climate models predicted and far more decisively than any political action to combat our changing climate. If the Greenland ice sheet disappeared sea levels around the world would rise by seven metres, as 10% of the world's fresh water is currently frozen here.
This is also the season for science in Greenland. Glaciologists, seismologists and climatologists from around the world are landing on the ice sheet in helicopters, taking ice-breakers up its inaccessible coastline and measuring glaciers in a race against time to discover why the ice in Greenland is vanishing so much faster than expected.
Gordon Hamilton, a Scottish-born glaciologist from the University of Maine's Climate Change Institute, is packing up equipment at his base camp in Tasiilaq, a tiny, remote east coast settlement only accessible by helicopter and where huskies howl all night.
With his spiky hair and ripped T-shirt, Hamilton could be a rugged glaciologist straight from central casting. Four years ago he hit upon the daring idea of landing on a moving glacier in a helicopter to measure its speed.
The glaciers of Greenland are the fat, restless fingers of its vast ice sheet, constantly moving, stretching down into fjords and pushing ice from the sheet into the ocean, in the form of melt water and icebergs.
Before their first expedition, Hamilton and his colleague Leigh Stearns, from the University of Kansas, used satellite data to plan exactly where they would land on a glacier.
"When we arrived there was no glacier to be seen. It was way up the fjord," he says. "We thought we'd made some stupid goof with the co-ordinates, but we were where we were supposed to be." It was the glacier that was in the wrong place. A vast expanse had melted away.
When Hamilton and Stearns processed their first measurements of the glacier's speed, they thought they had made another mistake. They found it was marching forwards at a greater pace than a glacier had ever been observed to flow before. "We were blown away because we realised that the glaciers had accelerated not just by a little bit but by a lot," he says. The three glaciers they studied had abruptly increased the speed by which they were transmitting ice from the ice sheet into the ocean.
Raw power
Standing before a glacier in Greenland as it calves icebergs into the dark waters of a cavernous fjord is to witness the raw power of a natural process we have accelerated but will now struggle to control.
Greenland's glaciers make those in the Alps look like toys. Grubby white and blue crystal towers, cliffs and crevasses soar up from the water, dispatching millenniums of compacted snow in the shape of seals, water lilies and bishops' mitres.
I take a small boat to see the calving with Dines Mikaelsen, an Inuit guide, who in the winter will cross the ice sheet in his five-metre sled pulled by 16 huskies.
It is not freezing but even in summer the wind is bitingly cold and we can smell the bad breath of a humpback whale as it groans past our bows on Sermilik Fjord. Above its heavy breathing, all you can hear in this wilderness is the drip-drip of melting ice and a crash as icebergs cleave into even smaller lumps, called growlers.
Mikaelsen stops his boat beside Hann glacier and points out how it was twice as wide and stretched 300 metres further into the fjord just 10 years ago. He also shows off a spectacular electric blue iceberg.
Locals have nicknamed it "blue diamond"; its colour comes from being cleaved from centuries-old compressed ice at the ancient heart of the glacier. Bobbing in warming waters, this ancient ice fossil will be gone in a couple of weeks.
The blue diamond is one vivid pointer to the antiquity of the Greenland ice sheet. A relic of the last Ice Age, this is one of three great ice sheets in the world. Up to two miles thick, the other two lie in Antarctica.
While similar melting effects are being measured in the southern hemisphere, the Greenland sheet may be uniquely vulnerable, lying much further from the chill of the pole than Antarctica's sheets. The southern end of the Greenland sheet is almost on the same latitude as the Shetlands and stroked by the warm waters of the Gulf Stream.
Driven by the loss of ice, Arctic temperatures are warming more quickly than other parts of the world: last autumn air temperatures in the Arctic stood at a record 5C above normal. For centuries, the ice sheets maintained an equilibrium: glaciers calved off icebergs and sent melt water into the oceans every summer; in winter, the ice sheet was then replenished with more frozen snow. Scientists believe the world's great ice sheets will not completely disappear for many more centuries, but the Greenland ice sheet is now shedding more ice than it is accumulating.
The melting has been recorded since 1979; scientists put the annual net loss of ice and water from the ice sheet at 300-400 gigatonnes (equivalent to a billion elephants being dropped in the ocean), which could hasten a sea level rise of catastrophic proportions.
As Hamilton has found, Greenland's glaciers have increased the speed at which they shift ice from the sheet into the ocean. Helheim, an enormous tower of ice that calves into Sermilik Fjord, used to move at 7km (4.4 miles) a year. In 2005, in less than a year, it speeded up to nearly 12km a year. Kangerdlugssuaq, another glacier that Hamilton measured, tripled its speed between 1988 and 2005. Its movement – an inch every minute – could be seen with the naked eye.
The three glaciers that Hamilton and Stearns measured account for about a fifth of the discharge from the entire Greenland ice sheet. The implications of their acceleration are profound: "If they all start to speed up, you could have quite a large rise in sea level in the near term, much larger than the official estimate by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) would project," says Hamilton.
The scientific labours in the chill winds and high seas of the Arctic summer seem wrapped in an unusual sense of urgency this year. The scientists working in Greenland are keen to communicate their new, emerging understanding of the dynamics of the declining ice sheet to the wider world. Several point out that any international agreement forged at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen in December will be based on the IPCC's fourth assessment report from 2007. Its estimates of climate change and sea-level rise were based on scientific research submitted up to 2005; the scientists say this is already significantly out of date.
The 2007 report predicted a sea level rise of 30cm-60cm by 2100, but did not account for the impact of glaciers breaking into the sea from areas such as the Greenland ice sheet. Most scientists working at the poles predict a one metre rise by 2100. The US Geological Survey has predicted a 1.5 metre rise. As Hamilton points out: "It is only the first metre that matters".
Record temperatures
A one metre rise – with the risk of higher storm surges – would require new defences for New York, London, Mumbai and Shanghai, and imperil swaths of low-lying land from Bangladesh to Florida. Vulnerable areas accommodate 10%of the world's population – 600 million.
The Greenland ice sheet is not merely being melted from above by warmer air temperatures. As the oceans of the Arctic waters reach record high temperatures, the role of warmer water lapping against these great glaciers is one of several factors shaping the loss of the ice sheet that has been overlooked until recently.
Fiamma Straneo, an Italian-born oceanographer, is laboriously winding recording equipment the size of a fire extinguisher from the deck of a small Greenpeace icebreaker caught in huge swells at the mouth of Sermilik fjord.
In previous decades the Arctic Sunrise has been used in taking direct action against whalers; now it offers itself as a floating research station for independent scientists to reach remote parts of the ice sheet. It is tough work for the multinational crew of 30 in this rough-and-ready little boat, prettified below deck with posters of orang-utans and sunflowers painted in the toilets.
Before I succumb to vomiting below deck – another journalist is so seasick they are airlifted off the boat – I examine the navigational charts used by the captain, Pete Willcox, a survivor of the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior in 1985. He shows how they are dotted with measurements showing the depth of the ocean but here, close to the east coast of Greenland, the map is blank: this part of the North Atlantic was once covered by sea ice for so much of the year that its waters are still uncharted.
Earlier in the expedition, the crew believe, they became the first boat to travel through the Nares Strait west of Greenland to the Arctic Ocean in June, once impassable because of sea ice at that time of year. The predicted year when summers in the Arctic would be free of sea ice has fallen from 2100 to 2050 to 2030 in a couple of years.
Jay Zwally, a Nasa scientist, recently suggested it could be virtually ice-free by late summer 2012. Between 2004 and 2008 the area of "multiyear" Arctic sea ice (ice that has formed over more than one winter and survived the summer melt) shrank by 595,000 sq miles, an area larger than France, Germany and the United Kingdom combined.
Undaunted by the sickening swell of the ocean and wrapped up against the chilly wind, Straneo, of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, one of the world's leading oceanographic research centres, continues to take measurements from the waters as the long Arctic dusk falls.
According to Straneo, the rapid changes to the ice sheet have taken glaciologists by surprise. "One of the possible mechanisms which we think may have triggered these changes is melting driven by changing ocean temperatures and currents at the margins of the ice sheet."
She has been surprised by early results measuring sea water close to the melting glaciers: one probe recovered from last year recorded a relatively balmy 2C at 60 metres in the fjord in the middle of winter. Straneo said: "This warm and salty water is of subtropical origin – it's carried by the Gulf Stream. In recent years a lot more of this warm water has been found around the coastal region of Greenland. We think this is one of the mechanisms that has caused these glaciers to accelerate and shed more ice."
Straneo's research is looking at what scientists call the "dynamic effects" of the Greenland ice sheet. It is not simply that the ice sheet is melting steadily as global temperatures rise. Rather, the melting triggers dynamic new effects, which in turn accelerate the melt.
"It's quite likely that these dynamic effects are more important in generating a near-term rapid rise in sea level than the traditional melt," says Hamilton. Another example of these dynamic effects is when the ice sheet melts to expose dirty layers of old snow laced with black carbon from forest fires and even cosmic dust. These dark particles absorb more heat and so further speed up the melt.
After Straneo gathers her final measurements, the Arctic Sunrise heads for the tranquillity of the sole berth at Tasiilaq, which has a population of fewer than 3,000 but is still the largest settlement on Greenland's vast east coast. Here another scientist is gathering her final provisions before taking her team camping on a remote glacier.
Invisible earthquakes
Several years ago Meredith Nettles, a seismologist from Colombia University, and two colleagues made a remarkable discovery: they identified a new kind of earthquake. These quakes were substantial – measuring magnitude five – but had been invisible because they did not show up on seismographs. (While orthodox tremors registered for a couple of seconds, these occurred rather more slowly, over a minute.)
The new earthquakes were traced almost exclusively to Greenland, where they were found to be specifically associated with large, fast-flowing outlet glaciers. There have been 200 of them in the last dozen years; in 2005 there were six times as many as in 1993.
Nettles nimbly explains the science as she heaves bags of equipment on to a helicopter, which will fly her to study Kangerdlugssuaq glacier. "It's quite a dramatic increase, and that increase happened at the same time as we were seeing dramatic retreats in the location of the calving fronts of the glaciers, and an increase in their flow speed," she says. "The earthquakes are very closely associated with large-scale ice loss events."
In other words, the huge chunks of ice breaking off from the glaciers and entering the oceans are large enough to generate a seismic signal that is sent through the Earth. They are happening more regularly and, when they occur, it appears that the glacier speeds up even more.
The scientists rightly wrap their latest observations in caution. Their studies are still in their infancy. Some of the effects they are observing may be short-term.
The Greenland ice sheet has survived natural warmer periods in history, the last about 120,000 years ago, although it was much smaller then than it is now. Those still sceptical of the scientific consensus over climate change should perhaps listen to the voices of those who could not be accused of having anything to gain from talking up climate change.
Inuit warnings
Arne Sorensen, a specialist ice navigator on Arctic Sunrise, began sailing the Arctic in the 1970s. Journeys around Greenland's coast that would take three weeks in the 1970s because of sea ice now take a day. He pays heed to the observations of the Inuit. "If you talk to people who live close to nature and they tell you this is unusual and this is not something they have noticed before, then I really put emphasis on that," he says. Paakkanna Ignatiussen, 52, has been hunting seals since he was 13. His grandparents travelled less than a mile to hunt; he must go more than 60 miles because the sea ice disappears earlier – and with it the seals. "It's hard to see the ice go back. In the old days when we got ice it was only ice. Today it is more like slush," he says. "In 10 years there will be no traditional hunting. The weather is the reason."
The stench of rotting seal flesh wafts from a bag in the porch of his house in Tasiilaq as Ignatiussen's wife, Ane, remarks that, "the seasons are upside down".
Local people are acutely aware of how the weather is changing animal behaviour. Browsing the guns for sale in the supermarket in Tasiilaq (you don't need a licence for a gun here), Axel Hansen says more hungry polar bears prowl around the town these days. Like the hunters, the bears can't find seals when there is so little sea ice. And the fjords are filled with so many icebergs that local people find it hard to hunt whales there.
Westerners may shrug at the decline of traditional hunting but, in a sense, we all live on the Greenland ice sheet now. Its fate is our fate. The scientists swarming over this ancient mass of ice, trying to understand how it will be transformed in a warming world, and how it will transform us, are wary of making political comments about how our leaders should plan for one metre of sea level rise, and what drastic steps must be taken to cut carbon emissions. But some scientists are so astounded by the changes they are recording that they are moved to speak out.
What, I ask Hamilton, would he say to Barack Obama if he could spend 10 minutes with the US president standing on Helheim glacier?
"Without knowing anything about what is going on, you just have to look at the glacier to know something huge is happening here," says the glaciologist. "We can't as a scientific community keep up with the pace of changes, let alone explain why they are happening.
"If I was, God forbid, the leader of the free world, I would implement some changes to deal with the maximum risk that we might reasonably expect to encounter, rather than always planning for the minimum. We won't know the consequences of not doing that until it's way too late. Even as a politician on a four-year elected cycle, you can't morally leave someone with that problem."
Yahoo News 31 Aug 09;
WASHINGTON – Folks living along the East Coast were in higher water early this summer thanks to a change in the wind and current flow.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday the higher than normal sea levels were caused by persistent winds from the northeast — pushing water toward shore — and a weakening of the Florida current that feeds water into the Gulf Stream.
Water levels ranged from six inches to two feet above normal in areas from Maine to Florida during June and July, the agency said.
While the ocean varies and unusual conditions do occur, Mike Szabados, director of NOAA's Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services, said in a statement, "What made this event unique was its breadth, intensity and duration."
The high water was intensified in June by a strong spring tide, officials added.
While it wasn't a record for northeasterly winds or for the decline in the Florida current, the combination of the two helped raise sea levels all along the coast.
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On the Net:
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: http://www.noaa.gov
Sea Levels Rose Two Feet This Summer in U.S. East
Brian Handwerk, National Geographic News 10 Sep 09;
Sea levels rose as much as 2 feet (60 centimeters) higher than predicted this summer along the U.S. East Coast, surprising scientists who forecast such periodic fluctuations.
The immediate cause of the unexpected rise has now been solved, U.S. officials say in a new report (hint: it wasn't global warming). But the underlying reason remains a mystery.
Usually, predicting seasonal tides and sea levels is a pretty cut-and-dried process, governed by the known movements and gravitational influences of astronomical bodies like the moon, said Rich Edwing, deputy director for the Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
But NOAA's phones began ringing this summer when East Coast residents reported higher than predicted water levels, much like those associated with short-term weather events like tropical storms. But these high seas persisted for weeks, throughout June and July.
The startling rise caused only minor coastal flooding—but major head scratching among scientists.
Gulf Stream Mysteriously Slowed
Now a new report has identified the two major factors behind the high sea levels—a weakened Gulf Stream and steady winds from the northeastern Atlantic.
The Gulf Stream is a northward-flowing superhighway of ocean water off the U.S. East Coast. Running at full steam, the powerful current pulls water into its "orbit" and away from the East Coast.
But this summer, for reasons unknown, "the Gulf Stream slowed down," Edwing said, sending water toward the coasts—and sea levels shooting upward.
Adding to the sustained surge, autumn winds from the northeastern Atlantic arrived a few months early, pushing even more water coastward.
Beaches "Eaten Up"
The higher waters caused inconveniences for some anglers and boaters and rearranged a bit of shoreline.
"A couple of sand beaches we'd normally fish from were eaten up. And the volume of water was higher than it normally would be," said Paulie Apostolides, owner of Paulie's Tackle in Montauk (map) on New York State's Long Island.
Even before the new report, released by NOAA on September 2, Apostolides said many local fishers had already attributed the sea level rise to the "ferocious" winds from the northeast.
But the underlying puzzle remains.
"Why did the Gulf Stream slow down? Why did the fall wind pattern appear earlier?" NOAA's Edwing said. "We don't have those answers."
Yahoo News 31 Aug 09;
STOCKHOLM (AFP) – Air pollution has over the past 50 years led to a reduction of the light rainfall in China essential for the country's agriculture and water resources, a Chinese researcher said Monday.
A recent study conducted in Sweden, the United States and China showed that the number of days with light rainfall (less than 0.1 millimetre per day) dropped by 23 percent in China from 1956 to 2005.
That was because of air pollution particles that reduced the formation of rain clouds, researcher Deliang Chen of Gothenburg University told AFP.
"The particles of air pollution, named aerosols, make the drops of water considerably smaller and that makes them more difficult to aggregate into rain clouds that can release rain," he said.
While the amount of rain has remained stable over the years, the reduction of light rainfalls, or "good rainfalls", poses a threat to China as the country drags its feets on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, he said.
"Light rains in a country like China are counted upon because they're easy for the soil to absorb. But heavy rains make the soil run off and the water is not absorbed and can cause problems such as erosion or floodings," he said.
"Now we have evidence that air pollution is not only bad for the climate but also for the agriculture and the economy," he added.
The study, entitled "Heavy pollution suppresses light rain in China," was published recently in the US Journal of Geophysical Research.
Northern China is the region most exposed to drought.
It is currently experiencing its worst drought in 60 years, leaving nearly five million people short of water, state media have reported.
UN Experts' Report to Governments Charts Ways Forward
UNEP 31 Aug 09;
New York/Nairobi/Paris, 31 August 2009 - The world's oceans and seas-covering 70 per cent of the planet - may soon be subject to the same kind of systematic scientific scrutiny as the globe's land surface.
Governments are meeting today to consider a series of options and recommendations on establishing just such a monitoring process. It is aimed at plugging significant and serious knowledge gaps that are undermining humanity's ability to better manage a wealth of natural and nature-based marine resources.
If governments give the process the green light, the first globally integrated oceans assessment could be delivered under the auspices of the United Nations by 2014.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said: "The marine environment is facing a multiplicity of challenges. Some, such as the decline in fish stocks and land-based sources of pollution are persistent ones. Others, from the emergence of 'dead zones' and the impacts of climate change including acidification are rapidly emerging ones. A systematic assessment process is long overdue. This meeting in New York represents a tremendous opportunity for governments to put the best marine science at their service in order to make the best management choices over the coming years and decades."
"Significantly, a very real concern has been acknowledged today with the launch of the Assessment of Assessments report - the first ever comprehensive overview of the marine assessment landscape - which also considers socio-economic factors. The report is a clear signal that the world needs a more inclusive approach on its oceans and resources. It provides a framework and options for how this can be done," said Mr. Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Despite the central role oceans play in the economic, environmental and social affairs of the planet's 6.7 billion inhabitants, significant gaps exist in our understanding and management of the complex processes at work - from the global climate system, to the water cycle and circulation of nutrients, to changes affecting marine habitats.
In addition, the vastness of the world's oceans have for far too long been perceived as impervious and indestructible to human impact.
The clearing of mangroves and coastal wetlands, the over-exploitation of fish stocks, rising tides of pollution, among many other challenges, are affecting the marine environment's ability to sustain livelihoods and life itself.
Meanwhile, climbing concentrations of greenhouse gases - equal to a third or more of annual carbon dioxide emissions - are being absorbed, as well as untold amounts of heavy metals, triggering mounting concern over the marine food chain.
To deal with this situation, improved monitoring and observation practices, regular assessments to provide a deeper understanding of the status and trends of environmental changes, and the know-how and ability to prevent, mitigate and adapt to these changes are urgently required.
That is why governments - at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) and, subsequently, the UN General Assembly in 2005 - recommended that a regular UN process for the global reporting and assessment of the state of the marine environment, including its socio-economic aspects, be initiated. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO) were asked to serve as the lead agencies in this work.
The initial phase of the process came to be known as the "Assessment of Assessments". Under it, an Expert Group set up in 2006 examined various existing marine assessments, evaluating factors central to the influence of assessments, such as scientific credibility, policy relevance and legitimacy, which also helped identify best practices; thematic, geographic or data gaps, scientific uncertainties, as well as research and capacity-building needs, particularly in the developing world.
The Group will today present their findings to a special Working Group of the UN General Assembly, which will have before it a set of options and recommendations for governments to consider, on ways to move the envisioned "Regular Process" forward. These include clear formulations of the overall objective, the products to be delivered in the first five years of the process, its functionality and funding.
If established, the Regular Process for the reporting and assessment of the state of the marine environment will "serve as the mechanism to keep the world's oceans and seas under continuing review by providing regular assessments at global and supra-regional levels."
The Working Group will also have before it a set of organizational options. These deal with the relationship of the "Regular Process" to the UN at the intergovernmental level; and the establishment of a management oversight body, a new expert group, and secretariat support mechanisms. The report provides a set of financing options which could average between $4 million and $5.6 million a year.
The GA Working Group was established to recommend a course of action on the Regular Process to the General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session in late 2009.
U.N. talks hope to improve climate data and aid poor
Alister Doyle and Laura MacInnis, Reuters 31 Aug 09;
GENEVA (Reuters) - Delegates from 150 nations met in Geneva on Monday to try to plug gaps in climate information to help the world cope with global warming and threats like floods, wildfires and rising sea levels.
The August 31-September 4 World Climate Conference aims to improve everything from weather monitoring to distributing forecasts, especially to help poor nations adapt in areas such as health, agriculture, fisheries, transport, tourism and energy.
"There's a major gap: how can we better link decision-making with information?" Michel Jarraud, secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization which is a leading organizer of the talks, told a news conference.
"What we need is a formal system that all people can trust to access vital information that can save their lives and protect property and economies," he said of the planned "Global Framework for Climate Services" to be agreed in Geneva.
People living on the coast, for instance, are sometimes not alerted in time to a looming storm. Cyclone Nargis killed about 84,000 people in May in Myanmar.
In the longer term, shifts in monsoon rains could affect where a company decides to site a hydro-power dam. Better understanding of ice sheets in Antarctica or Greenland could help predict sea level rise and risks of coastal floods.
"It's not only governments, it's the private sector, it's individuals, it's farmers -- everyone who has to make a decision that is affected by the climate," Jarraud said of the spinoffs of the planned framework.
The conference, of about 2,500 delegates with leaders from about 20 nations and ministers from 80 attending the final two days, is due to agree to set up the framework and a task force to work out details.
HURRICANES
Better advance warning of disasters like hurricanes has already helped cut the number of people killed in climate-related disasters to 220,000 in the decade to 2005, from 2.66 million in the decade to 1965, U.N. data show.
But the number of weather-related disasters rose almost tenfold and economic losses surged 50-fold in the same period, it said. Damaging wildfires, such as those in California now, are projected to become more frequent with rising temperatures.
Delegates said most of those taking part in the talks were scientists and big disputes were unlikely.
"There is an expectation that we are closely aligned -- everybody wins if we move forward on this," said Sherburne Abbott, associate director for environment at the White House.
She told Reuters that a lot could be achieved with available resources, rather than new cash. Jarraud also said the initiative would not lead to the creation of a new U.N. agency.
Among people left out, farmers in the Horn of Africa were not told of a widely predicted drought in 2006, said Gro Harlem Brundtland, a special envoy for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the conference.
If they had been alerted, they could have slaughtered and sold their animals earlier, rather than see them starve to death. "It is always the poor who are left out of the information stream," she said.
FACTBOX: Climate risks, and how to limit damage
Reuters 31 Aug 09;
(Reuters) - A 150-nation conference in Geneva is looking at ways to improve climate information to help people cope with ever more droughts, floods, sandstorms and rising sea levels projected this century.
The August 31-September 4 talks are to agree a "Global Framework for Climate Services" that will improve information in areas ranging from health to energy.
Among examples of risks and solutions from around the world given by U.N. agencies:
DISASTER RISKS
Between 1991 and 2005, natural disasters killed 960,000 people and economic losses totaled $1.19 trillion. Nine out of 10 natural disasters in the past 50 years have been caused by extreme weather and climate events.
-- The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) supplies early warnings of disasters including cyclones and dust storms. Vietnam is replanting mangroves along the Mekong River delta to help protect low-lying areas from floods as seas rise.
HUMAN HEALTH
Water-borne diseases may become more frequent because of climate change -- for instance, warmer oceans can lead to toxic algal blooms and cholera epidemics. A heatwave in Europe in 2003 caused 70,000 more deaths than normal.
-- Botswana is using seasonal rain forecasts to help predict malaria outbreaks. The forecasts give time to deploy resources against mosquitoes and provide nets to keep the insects at bay.
TRANSPORT AND TOURISM
Tourism generated $735 billion in revenue in 2006, of which $221 billion was in developing nations. Projected sea level rise this century would worsen coastal erosion and lead to the loss of beaches on tropical islands that depend on tourists.
-- Some ski resorts are using temperature projections for coming decades to site ski lifts. In Vermont, one ski resort has built a reservoir to feed water to snow-making machines.
MANAGING WATER
More than 1 billion people worldwide lack access to clean water. Drought and desertification worldwide threaten the livelihoods of 1.2 billion people.
-- Countries in the Himalayas are working to assess risks of floods from lakes, now held in behind glaciers. A thaw of the glaciers could lead to an "outburst flood."
ENERGY
In 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed more than 100 offshore oil and gas platforms off the United States. Energy industry losses from hurricanes in 2005 were estimated at $15 billion.
-- Developing countries such as India and Mali are turning to jatropha, which grows with little rain on wasteland and does not compete with crops. Jatropha can be burned as fuel, helps store carbon in the ground and slows desertification.
SECURING FOOD SUPPLIES
Climate change will disrupt farming and fishing just as the world population rises to a projected 9 billion by 2050 from more than 6 billion now.
-- Farmers in the Ningxia region of China are trying to work out better ways to allocate water during droughts and think how crops will change in the next 70 years.
UN meet aims to boost global network against climate change
Peter Capella Yahoo News 31 Aug 09;
GENEVA (AFP) – Meteorologists opened the World Climate Conference on Monday in what a US official called a "critical" attempt to share information globally and help communities worldwide adapt to climate change.
Some 2,500 experts gathered against the backdrop of troubled negotiations to strike a global agreement on climate change at another conference in Copenhagen in December, which are marked by a rift between rich and poor nations.
The Geneva conference would discuss how to boost long-term weather and climate forecasting, especially in Africa and developing nations, said Michel Jarraud, director general of the UN's World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
"We have now come to the point that we feel there is a major gap that needs to be filled," he told journalists.
The proposed "Global Framework for Climate Services" under discussion in Geneva could shape decisions on water, agriculture, fisheries, health, forestry, transport, tourism, energy, and preparations for natural disasters.
It would largely build on successful, existing international cooperation on weather forecasting to expand the scope of climate predictions, Jarraud said.
Instead of looking at timescales of days and sometimes weeks ahead, the aim was to "extend the window" and produce forecasts that look seasons and even decades ahead, a US weather official explained.
The Geneva conference is not part of the Copenhagen process, which includes talks on steps to help countries prevent or adapt to the impact of more extreme weather conditions produced by global warming, including finance for poor nations.
But officials said that by allowing all countries to access information that would help them assess and adapt to changing temperatures, humidity levels, storm and wind patterns, it would provide a key building block.
The outcome of the five-day meeting was "critical to coping with climate variability," White House associate director for environment Sherburne Abbott told reporters in Geneva.
After years of scepticism on climate change under the administration of former president George W. Bush, the United States had turned up with a 50-strong delegation.
And they were intent on "sharing a large amount of information with the developing world," Abbott said.
During the conference scientists will take the opportunity to swap the latest research on issues such as the warming of the Arctic Circle and the potential social and economic impacts of climate change.
The WMO has warned that global warming is transforming thinking on issues such as flood defences, farming or power generation, which have often relied on experience of past weather patterns and sea levels.
"Now we need to anticipate change," said Jarraud before the conference. "We can no longer base ourselves on the past to take decisions for the future."
The proposed framework is also aimed at improving forecasts of localised effects that can be much harsher than those predicted at a national or global level, especially in mountain and coastal areas.
About 15 heads of state or government mainly from from African, European and island states, as well as several dozen ministers, are due to attend from Thursday, led by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu.
The United Nations has only held two World Climate Conferences before, the last of which was 19 years ago.
The first, in 1979, was credited with pinpointing a problem with carbon build-ups in the earth's atmosphere and setting in motion a global approach to climate research.
And that ultimately produced the panel of international scientists which provided groundbreaking scientific evidence of climate change -- and of humanity's influence on global warming.
UN seeks better data on hurricanes, droughts
Writer Alexander G. Higgins, Associated Press Yahoo News 31 Aug 09;
GENEVA – The world needs more innovative projects - like putting weather stations on cellular phone towers across Africa - to help it better predict the increased hurricanes, tsunamis, droughts and floods that climate change will bring, Kofi Annan said Monday.
The former U.N. chief was referring to a new system that brings more accurate weather information to farmers and fishermen in five African nations.
"We cannot hope to manage climate change unless we measure it accurately," Annan told 1,500 officials, diplomats and scientists as a weeklong U.N. meeting opened on adapting to climate change.
The World Climate Conference in Geneva is seeking to help developing countries generate better data on their own changing climates and share that information with other countries.
This week's meeting will not discuss the controversial issue of cutting carbon emissions — those talks will come in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December.
In a keynote speech, Annan said wealthy countries must provide large amounts of money, knowledge and equipment to the developing world. He suggested a model should be the project announced in June by his Global Humanitarian Forum to install automated weather stations on mobile phone towers across Africa.
Weather data will be fed into national — and global — networks and sent back to farmers, fishermen and others on Africa's rapidly expanding cell phone system, alerting "them to storms which threaten crops, livestock and lives," Annan said.
Annan's project began with the installation of 19 stations in East Africa's Lake Victoria region, taking advantage of the security, maintenance and electrical power already provided for the towers.
Phone towers in almost every part of Africa already greatly exceed the continent's traditional weather monitoring systems, Annan said.
The project, which will cost $9 million for complete coverage of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda by 2012, has the backing of wireless equipment maker LM Ericsson and mobile company Zain. The long-range goal is to install 5,000 automatic weather stations on towers across Africa.
"Around the world, the costs for adapting to climate change will run to several tens of billions of U.S. dollars every year, with more than half of the expenditure being required in developing countries," said Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz.
Merz said better weather forecasts and hazard maps "could also prevent deaths and reduce the extent of the damage."
"What we need is a formal system that all people can trust to access vital information that can save their lives and protect property and economies," said Michel Jarraud, head of the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization.
He noted that hydrological networks in Africa are "totally insufficient" and that "many water basins are managed without any information about precipitation and runoff."
A large U.S. delegation is attending the conference, eager to highlight the new Obama administration's commitment to combatting climate change.
Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said decision-makers need reliable information about the current and projected impacts of climate change but many countries lack even basic weather information.
The Geneva conference will set up a task force to determine what each country can do to create a global network that makes sure early warnings for tsunamis and hurricanes reach everyone.
Governments across the globe are facing a December deadline for separate U.N. talks aimed at forging a new accord to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gases blamed for global warming and climate change.
Organizers of the Dec. 7-18 U.N. meeting in Copenhagen hope to reach an agreement on limiting the warming of the Earth's temperature to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above levels 150 years ago.
_____
Associated Press writers Eliane Engeler and Bradley S. Klapper contributed to this report.
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