Coasts under threat, fisheries vulnerable: U.N.

Reuters 4 Jun 08;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Editing by Elizabeth Piper))

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

# Development that disrupts marine environments and ecosystems.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yahoo News 4 Jun 08;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Elephants caught in Sri Lanka war

Roland Buerk, BBC News 3 Jun 08;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'Unintended'

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

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

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

Just four died of natural causes.

The elephants are not straying into the frontlines.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Killed

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

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

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

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

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

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

By the time her husband got there she was dead.

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

They are erecting low-voltage electric fences around villages.

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

Training

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Afghanistan's natural environment a victim of war: activists

Bronwen Roberts, Yahoo News 4 Jun 08;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Kiribati likely doomed by climate change: president

Yahoo News 5 Jun 08;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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World Environment Day calls for end to CO2 addiction

Gyles Beckford, Reuters 5 Jun 08;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GLOBAL EVENTS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Food, oil crises should not overshadow climate danger: UN

Yahoo News 5 Jun 08;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Indonesian president calls for mass tree planting

Yahoo News 5 Jun 08;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On the occasion, Indonesian First Lady Ani Yudhoyono and Forestry Minister MS Kaban, received a "Certificate of Global Leadership", an award from the United Nations, for promoting the planting of millions of trees in Indonesia as part of the Billion Tree Planting Campaign spearheaded by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Agro-forestry Center (ICRAF).

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

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Recycling boom adds to hazardous life of Cambodian children

Lucie Lautredou, Yahoo News 4 Jun 08;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Climate change spurs scrap metal recycling

Anna Stablum, Reuters 4 Jun 08;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CLIMATE CHANGE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Reporting by Anna Stablum; editing by Christopher Johnson)

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

Timothy Gardner, Reuters 4 Jun 08;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SET TO GO GLOBAL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Editing by Michelle Nichols and Cynthia Osterman)

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

Alister Doyle, Reuters 4 Jun 08;

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

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

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

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

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

Fewer look at how individuals can do it themselves.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on:

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

(Editing by Giles Elgood)

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