'Tougher laws' to protect friendly dolphins

Brian Unwin, The Telegraph 22 Jan 08;

Stronger legislation to protect "friendly" bottlenose dolphins from being "loved to death" is being urged by a leading conservation organisation.

The problem with existing measures aimed at preventing harm to or disturbance of these charismatic marine mammals is that they weren't designed to deal with problems arising from exceptional individuals going out of their way to court human attention.

So the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society is highlighting how such creatures invariably end up with fatal injuries as a first step in a campaign for a new law to discourage people from responding to their overtures.

Bottlenose dolphins, averaging around three metres long and weighing about 200kgs, have long been at the centre of myths about relations with humans. Blowing away such mystical nonsense is part of the WDCS effort to protect them from becoming victims of their popularity.

Solitary-sociable" is how WDCS labels those that, for no obvious reason, are not part of a dolphin group and hang around harbours, increasingly associating with boat users, divers and bathers.

Social misfit would also be an appropriate description for an animal apparently preferring the company of a different species. It is not trying to deliver a message to mankind, one of the wackier theories for such behaviour - but performing in what invariably becomes a tragedy.

"There is a definite need for existing legislation to be improved to protect solitary-sociable dolphins", said Mark Simmonds, WDCS's Director of Science. "Law to prevent harm and deliberate or reckless disturbance to dolphins doesn't adequately cater for situations in which one chooses to interact with people."

WDCS has already tried to tackle this by simply giving a "back off" message to the public. Information about this is available on the Solitary dolphins page of the WDCS website. When news emerges of a dolphin showing signs of becoming "friendly" they and other bodies make more direct appeals.

The most recent case to come to light was on the Kent coast, involving a dolphin that was initially nicknamed "Dave", though this was switched to Davina when its sex was confirmed. Anticipating problems ahead, various welfare groups and volunteers worked together under the Marine Animal Rescue Coalition.

"Initially efforts were directed at trying to ensure the dolphin did not become habituated to human contact", said Mr Simmonds. "When this failed, the focus was switched to at least trying to prevent any harmful activities."

They ran poster and media campaigns, operated beach patrols and last March organised a well attended public meeting. The result was that people continued to swim and generally play around with Davina; clearly it would only be a matter of time before her stay that began in April 2006 would end in tears.

This came just three months ago when a significant part of Davina's tail was severed by a boat propeller. She hasn't been seen since early November; infection resulting from the injury could well have killed her but even if she overcame that, survival prospects with such a disability would have been limited.

The pattern had followed that of a female bottlenose dolphin known as Marra that became a celebrity on the Cumbria coast after being rescued from a dock at Maryport in January 2006. She sustained propeller and rope wounds during the following summer and in December was found dead on shore at Skinburness.

Tests confirmed that septicaemia resulting from bacterial infection of the wounds - a result of lingering in polluted inshore waters - was the cause. It was another example of what ultimately happens after the four behaviour change stages typical of solitary-social dolphins:

1) Dolphin appears and remains in a new home range, sometimes as little as one square kilometre. It may follow fishing boats or inspect fishing gear, but doesn't approach people at this point.

2) Becomes habituated to new range. Local people aware of its presence may attempt to swim with the animal but it still keeps at a distance from them. May bow ride with boats or inspect ropes, chains and buoys.

3) Becomes familiar with a limited number of people and interacts with them. Behaviour may include swimming in close proximity or diving side by side. It allows touching, including having its dorsal fin held to allow swimmers to be pulled along as it swims.

4) Gains the status of local celebrity and tourist attraction after its presence becomes widely known. During this stage, inappropriate human actions may provoke unwanted and possibly dangerous dominant, aggressive and sexual behaviour by the dolphin.

Such "sexual" behaviour led to a sensational trial at Newcastle upon Tyne Crown Court in 1991. This arose from complaints from onlookers about the interaction between a 39-year-old man and Freddie the name given to the dolphin that was then very much at Stage Four of its lengthy stay at Amble Harbour, Northumberland.

After five days of evidence, which included descriptions of how Freddie was known to tow bathers through the water by hooking his large penis around them, the jury took just one hour to clear the man of the charge of sexually assaulting the dolphin.

Subsequently it was reported the then Attorney-General, Sir Patrick Mayhew, was to be questioned in the Commons about the cost to public funds of this case. One Tory MP, Geoffrey Dickens commented that the decision to mount a prosecution had been "batty beyond belief."

The Freddie case showed how existing legislation fails to protect dolphins from potentially harmful interaction with humans. While the direct physical contact with people may not have damaged him, he had serious boat propeller scars by the time of the trial - and not long afterwards he disappeared.

Sixteen years later public enthusiasm for close encounters with dolphins with amicable tendencies shows no sign of waning. Having failed with their appeals to people to avoid contact, WDCS sees no alternative but to press for tougher laws.

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Orissa coasts turning graveyard for sea turtles

The Times of India 22 Jan 08;

The experts blamed illegal fishing by the mechanised trawlers along the state's coastline as one of the main reasons for the death of the turtles.

BERHAMPUR: Orissa coast is fast becoming a graveyard for olive ridley turtles as several carcasses of this endangered species have been found in the prominent nesting sites.

Several carcasses of olive ridley turtles have been found in the prominent nesting sites such as Gahiramatha, Rushikulya and Devi river mouths, wildlife experts said.

According to official sources, as many as 1,208 carcasses of the turtles were found dead along the state coastline from November one, 2007 to January 15. Most of the carcasses were found at the Devi river mouth, they added.

Environmentalists and experts, however, claimed the actual mortality was much higher than the official figures. They said it was too early to conclude that there was a declining trend in the mortality of the turtles as claimed by wildlife officials.

The experts blamed illegal fishing by the mechanised trawlers along the state's coastline as one of the main reasons for the death of the turtles.

"Non-enforcement of the Orissa Marine Fisheries (Regulation) Act, 1982 helps them to flout the norms and to kill the visiting turtles," a wildlife expert said.

Several lakhs olive ridley turtles visit the Orissa coast every year for mass nesting. The biggest nesting site for this species in the world is identified as the Gahiramatha beach followed by Rushikulya and Devi river mouths off Orissa coast.

"Most of the turtles died inside the deep sea and their carcasses reached the shore," said the Chief Conservator of the Forests (wildlife) S S Srivastav.

He, however, said the exact cause of the death of the turtles could not be known.

Several steps have been initiated against fishing inside the restricted areas where the turtles congregated for their annual nesting, Srivastav said.

As many as 72 persons were arrested and 12 fishing boats including nine trawlers and one gill-net were seized from them by the enforcement wing of the department so far, he added.

"We have also set up at least 45 camps (40 on-shores and five off-shores) along the coastline to make a strict vigil on the illegal fishing activities. The APR forces have deployed in the camp to assist the wildlife persons," the CCF said.

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Cuba Bans Marine Turtle Hunt in Bow to Conservation

PlanetArk 23 Jan 08;

HAVANA - Cuba has banned the hunting of marine turtles endangered in the Caribbean by the illegal trade in shells used to make combs, an official said on Tuesday.

The decision was applauded by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as a lifeline to all turtle species hatching on beaches throughout the Caribbean, but above all the critically endangered hawksbill turtle.

The ban took effect this weekend, said the Cuban Fisheries Ministry's director of regulations, Elisa Garcia. She said it would remain in effect "until it is scientifically proven that the species is recovering."

"This far-sighted decision represents an outstanding outcome for Cuba, for the wider Caribbean and for conservation," said the WWF species program director, Dr. Susan Lieberman.

For many years, Cuba had a legal fishery quota of 500 hawksbills a year to keep up its export of turtle shells, but has finally acted on the pleas of conservationists.

Two fishing communities that still hunted turtles, Nuevitas in Camaguey province and Cocodrilo on the Isle of Youth, will get funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to find alternative sources of income and modernize their fishing fleets.

Fishermen will be retrained and engaged in the protection of turtles and their nests, the WWF said in a statement.

The turtles are threatened by the loss of nesting and feeding habitats, egg collection, entanglement in fishing gear, as well as climate change and pollution. But the main threat comes from the continuing illegal trade in tortoise shells. (Reporting by Anthony Boadle, editing by Todd Eastham)

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India sets up anti-poaching force as tigers dwindle

Yahoo News 22 Jan 08;

India on Tuesday opened a national wildlife crime prevention bureau aimed at intensifying a difficult fight against the poaching of tigers and other endangered species, officials said.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ordered the setting-up of the federal agency in March last year after a national outcry over the large-scale slaughter of tigers.

The Indian forest ministry said the bureau will draw experts from the police, environmental agencies and customs, and try to "reduce demand for wildlife and its products."

The government admitted in 2005 that poachers killed 122 tigers between 1999 and 2003. An earlier official count in 2001-02 estimated that there were 3,642 tigers in India, down from about 40,000 before the 1947 independence from Britain.

Wildlife protection groups say that the states of Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, which previously accounted for most of India's tiger population, may today have less than 500 animals left.

Around 8,000 leopards are also officially listed in India's 592 state-protected forests.

In November last year, India began recruiting retired soldiers to guard sanctuaries sheltering the increasingly rare Royal Bengal Tiger after a study showed their numbers were also far below previous estimates.

Tiger hunting is illegal worldwide, and the trade in tiger skins, claws and other products often wanted for use in traditional Chinese medicine is banned under a treaty binding 167 countries, including India.

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WWF calls for moratorium on oil exploration in Arctic

Yahoo News 22 Jan 08;

Global conservation group WWF called on Tuesday for a moratorium on all new oil exploration in the Arctic, insisting that the environmental risks to the sensitive eco system there were too great.

"The WWF is formally calling for a moratorium on new oil and gas development in the Arctic," Neil Hamilton, director of the group's Arctic programme, said at a conference in northern Norway on environmental challenges in the polar region.

Responding to oil and gas industry claims that the risks can be minimised, he insisted that the special conditions in the Arctic, including little natural light, extreme cold, strong winds and little to no visibility, could trip up emergency plans and increase the risk of oil spills.

While acknowledging that industry players had made efforts to improve security, he maintained that "an effective response (to oil spills in the region) cannot be achieved because technologies are not available or effective."

"There is no good way to clean up the oil in sea ice," he said, pointing out that "the Arctic offers the (world's) highest level of ecological sensitivity and the lowest level of capacity to clean up after an accident."

The polar regions are the most sensitive to the effects of global warming, with the area surrounding the North Pole having experienced a temperature hike of about two degrees Celsius over the past century, or double the average global temperature increase during the same period.

In December, US scientists reported that the Arctic ice cap was rapidly melting and during last summer alone had lost an area of ice the size of the state of Alaska.

The researchers predicted the Arctic Ocean could be completely ice-free during the three summer months by 2013.

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Architect Foster Sees Future in Green Desert City

PlanetArk 23 Jan 08;

DUBAI - Imagine a city of 50,000 with no cars, no carbon, no waste, a green city of the future. Now imagine it in the Gulf desert, where summer temperatures can hit 50 degrees and 24-hour air conditioning is a way of life.

British architect Norman Foster has his work cut out in Masdar City, a project the Abu Dhabi government hopes will bring the United Arab Emirates' carbon footprint down to size.

"We are involved in a number of projects in Abu Dhabi and this is without question the most idealistic. It is probably the most idealistic project in the world today and the most relevant to any conferences from Kyoto to Davos," Foster told Reuters.

"This is not about fashion, this is about survival."

The rapid economic growth of the United Arab Emirates and fellow Gulf Arab countries flush from record oil prices comes at a time of mounting international concern over climate change.

The UAE is among the highest per capita emitters of greenhouse gas in the world but the capital Abu Dhabi announced on Monday it would be investing US$15 billion in developing renewable and clean energy, including Masdar City, which is scheduled to be built in seven phases from 2008 to 2018.

To do that in a desert climate is no mean task and the formidable Foster, whose firm is behind a slew of famous designs from London's Millennium Bridge to Berlin's rebuilt Reichstag, says he went back to basics in designing Abu Dhabi's green city.

"This is a specific response to a place that is more climatically demanding in terms of achieving zero carbon. It is more difficult in the desert than in temperate environments. it would be easier in the Mediterranean or northern Europe," he said in a telephone interview.

"But I think it is all about working with nature, working with the elements and learning from traditional models."

Masdar will be a walled city in traditional Arab style. With no cars allowed, it will be a compact city, with narrow, shaded streets amenable to walking, not dissimilar to the way urban spaces were traditionally organised to shelter shoppers and pedestrians from the harsh sun of the Middle East.

It will also feature eco-friendly transport systems to ferry people around, including a light railway, unusual in a part of the world where public transport is minimal and people rely heavily on big cars.

Rather than spreading out buildings, which is common in Gulf Arab countries that have plenty of empty desert to work with, Masdar will go for density not sprawl.

It will draw its power from solar panels in a part of the world with year-round sunshine, will harness wind and thermal power and rely on photovoltaic farms, all with the aim of making it self-sustaining.

"Take Venice. You don't feel any deprivation in Venice because there are no cars. Quite the reverse. It is so attractive it is in danger from being too popular," Foster said. "We are talking about the technology to do more with less."

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

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Tuvalu struggles to hold back tide

David Shukman, BBC News 22 Jan 08;

The fragile strips of green that make up the small islands of Tuvalu are incredibly beautiful but also incredibly vulnerable. The group of nine tiny islands in the South Pacific only just break the surface of the ocean - but for how much longer?

During a King Tide, which is what the islanders call the highest tides of the year, waves rolling off the ocean can have a devastating effect. The islands' main road is submerged and nearby homes are threatened by the rising waters.

"We have never seen this in the past," a concerned resident tells me. "We have never seen water coming in this far."

No respect

It is not just the shoreline that is at the mercy of the King Tide's sovereignty, the water also surges up from underground through the coral on which the islands are built.

In the space of just an hour, the lowest areas are all flooded.

Everyone feels the impact; a priest has to step carefully through the waters on his way to conduct a funeral.

The higher the King Tides get, the harder it is to keep things going here. A woman tells me that she is unable to grow any food crops because the land has become too salty.

The sea water is poisoning the soil and people are nervous. "It makes me feel scared," another woman confesses. "What will happen to us in 10 years' time?"



The rising waters are slowly creeping into the heart of these islands and slowly but effectively killing them off.

Water bubbles up in tiny streams; and everywhere you look, it just lies on the surface.

And the problem is getting worse. A local meteorologist tells me that the King Tides are getting higher, and it is a trend set to continue.

"The King Tides are getting worse and most of the coastal areas will be washed out," he forecasts for the coming decade.

Runway 'essential'

It is a gloomy prognosis for life on these shores. A typical high tide reaches about two-and-a-half metres, while a King Tide like this can be more than three metres.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecasts a rise of up to another half metre.

It is cold comfort for Tuvaluans, when the highest point of the islands reaches just about four-and-a-half metres above the encroaching waves.

Each scenario will cost Tuvalu precious land. Only a small rise will see parts of the islands disappear.

This includes the runway, which is a vital lifeline to the outside world.

People here say there must be a technological fix if a rich country like Dubai can build entirely new islands.

But the problem is that these islands are founded on coral which is porous; saving these islands will cost a fortune.

For the children, the floods are fun. However, for them to lead their lives on these islands will require massive international support.

But with a population of just 11,000 people, will the outside world think it is worthwhile?

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Flying not the real climate culprit

Flying clouds the real climate culprit
Martin Wright, BBC 21 Jan 08;

The Stern Report, no less, warned that rainforest destruction alone would, in the next four years, release more carbon into the atmosphere than every flight from the dawn of aviation until 2025.

The aviation industry has become public enemy number one for environmental groups, says Martin Wright. But, he argues in this week's Green Room, they should focus their efforts on "the real elephant in the room" - forest destruction.

Ask some vaguely green people what's the single biggest thing they can do to tackle climate change, and most will respond with a guilty smile: "yes, I know, I should stop flying."

A few brave, selfless souls do just that. But the rest of us are far too used to cheap, quick getaways to kick the habit completely.

There's nothing like a few months of unremitting English mizzle to soften the resolve of the most committed "no flyers".

Environmentalists will always struggle to persuade people to eschew pleasure in favour of the planet. After all, no-one likes being told off for having a good time. Any argument that says, in effect: "save the planet - stay at home in the wet" is hardly going to win hearts and minds.

Sure, there's always the slow train to Provence. But like so much of the Slow Movement (food; travel; life, even), it still reeks of privilege. It's more expensive, it takes (and lasts) longer.

There could be all kinds of ways - from subsidies to sabbaticals - of making it more accessible for those whose only hope of a great escape is an Easyjet south. But for the moment, life in the slow lane is still a velvety green luxury for the favoured few.

So until such time as fuel prices go through the roof, or draconian caps on carbon stifle the market, air travel will remain a seductive option for all but the deepest of greens.

Real carbon culprit

But while we're agonising over our aircraft addiction, we're missing the real "elephant in the living room" of climate change: forest destruction.

It is already the largest single source of carbon emissions after energy, contributing up to 10 times as much as aviation.

The Stern Report, no less, warned that rainforest destruction alone would, in the next four years, release more carbon into the atmosphere than every flight from the dawn of aviation until 2025.

Burning forests produces a particularly nasty double whammy of warming. As they burn, they send vast swathes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. And once they're gone, they can't soak up the carbon from industry, cars and power plants.

But despite all this, people get far more exercised over the evils of aviation than they ever do over forest loss.

This is partly because aviation looms large on those instant "carbon calculators", designed to give a rough-and-ready guide to an individual's impact.

Deforestation, for the most part, doesn't, as it's virtually impossible to quantify individual responsibility for forest loss - unless you happen to be a timber trader or a palm oil planter.

But it's also because the forests are disappearing in "faraway countries": the chainsaws and fires aren't exactly on our doorstep, so it's easy to believe it's nothing to do with us - and there's nothing we can do about it, either.

This is bitterly ironic, because politically and economically it would be much easier to make massive reductions in deforestation than to achieve similar cuts in air travel. And in terms of curbing climate change, that would be massively more effective, too.

Tree hugging

So if we could just persuade people to be as excited about saving forests as they feel guilty about flying, then maybe we'd achieve something.

That means making forest conservation everyone's business - literally. And one of the best ways of doing so is to make the future of forests worth investing in - not just for the planet, but for your own pocket, too.

After all, you don't need complex technical fixes to stop forest destruction. You just have to make trees worth more standing than felled. And with the fate of civilisation cradled in their canopy, they should carry quite a price tag.

On paper, it's a no brainer. By any rational calculation, forests can yield better returns when kept intact than when cleared.

Take their role in protecting watersheds, for example, or their value as a source of fruit, nuts, shade-grown coffee, game and medicinal herbs - even, in some cases, a genuinely sustainable source of high-quality timber.

That's been the basis for a range of initiatives known as "payments for ecological services".

In essence, these are deals between forest communities and "buyers", who benefit from the forest remaining in place - such as towns and cities downstream, or the owners of mines or hydro plants, all of whom depend on the water supply that the forest ensures.

Cool Earth, a charity set up by businessman Johan Eliasch, allows individuals to buy parcels of rainforest - not for their own profit, but to hold them in trust on behalf of local communities, so taking them out of the clutches of the loggers.

It's an intriguing scheme, but it's still driven by charity, not business.

Sound investment

But once you introduce forests' ability to store carbon into the equation, then the balance sheet really starts to shift in their favour.

According to one recent study, most ventures which drive forest destruction - whether logging or for agriculture - generate around $5 (£2.50) for every tonne of carbon released as a result of the forest loss.

Europeans are typically paying up to seven times that amount to offset the same amount of carbon.

And as emissions trading takes off, so the carbon price will rise. One estimate puts the value of greenhouse gas storage in some forests at a healthy $2,200 (£1,100) per hectare.

And it's that which is pricking the interest of the financial markets. Invest in a forest now, and you can expect its value to appreciate substantially over the years - especially since, after the recent UN climate conference in Bali, forest owners can expect to "sell" their benefits on the emerging global carbon markets.

All of a sudden, it opens up the prospect of massive investments from pension funds, drawn to the long-term security which standing forests can provide.

Halving forest destruction by 2030, says the Stern Report, would cost around £10-£15 billion a year - that's roughly the same as we spend on alcohol in Britain alone. It is, in other words, a sum which should be readily available - as long as there's the prospect of a decent return.

The Global Canopy Programme - an alliance of forest scientists - is urging the adoption of a global market in forest carbon credits to help unleash a tide of investment.

Forum for the Future and others are working on schemes for forest-backed bonds; some are predicting the launch of Forest PEPs. Such is the potential value in keeping forests intact that even those masters of the dark arts of finance, the hedge funds, are starting to sniff around.

There are all manner of pitfalls, of course. For some, it smacks of "carbon colonialism".

Others warn that such schemes will inevitably favour wealthy landowners, who can cope with all the complex legal processes involved, rather than forest peoples themselves.

Then there's the question of proving that a particular stretch of forest, which may lie in a remote, hard-to-monitor area, really has survived intact.

But these are not insuperable obstacles. Investors don't have to buy up forests to make a return on them; they merely have to ensure they share in the proceeds of their conservation over times.

So they can for example rent, or lease, an interest in the forests from local communities, who are in any case best placed to safeguard the assets - and so can reasonably expect to share in the profits, too.

On the monitoring side, satellite mapping is now sophisticated enough to zero in to the scale of individual trees, providing pinpoint, 24-hour surveillance. Microchips inserted in selected trunks can report instantly if they're felled - and then track the timber, electronically fingering everyone involved.

So in a few years' time, you could sit at home on the sofa, and, via your laptop, check up on the health of "your" patch of forest, in real time.

Result? The world will have a million or more eagle-eyed forest monitors, casting a protective eye over the green canopy of their investments. (And only occasionally, you'd hope, needing to utter the anguished cry: "Oi! That's my pension plan going up in smoke!")

The logic is simple; the implementation will be anything but. But if we wait till we've a perfect system, we'll be wasting precious time; time in which thousands of square miles of forest will be irrevocably lost.

Martin Wright is editor (at large) of Green Futures Magazine

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

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Organic foods hit the big time but some have second thoughts

Mathilde Richter, Yahoo News 22 Jan 08;

Organic foods are a victim of their own success, with production no longer able to keep up with demand while purists claim that the initial ideals of clean, natural and healthy produce have been sacrificed for profit.

Sales grew 15 percent in Germany last year and by almost 10 percent in France, with a multiplication of organic brands and the launch of such produce lines by large supermarket chains previously associated with cheaper foods.

Enthusiasm for all things organic began as a movement led by hard-core nature enthusiasts, mainly in northern Europe, but now gains more and more adepts.

A "Green Week" at Germany's agricultural fair saw organic brands with a hall of their own while visitors tucked into organically produced sausages before enjoying a glass of equally pure organic wine.

The flip side of the coin however is that European production is not keeping pace with demand. Many fruits, vegetables and honey must now be imported from places as far away as Turkey and Latin America.

"That poses a problem of credibility," according to Alexander Rogge of the French federation of commerce and distribution FCD.

The organic label refers to methods of production which exclude the use of fertilizers and pesticides and which respect certain norms of animal feeding.

But for many it is also a profession of faith in a healthy lifestyle that respects the environment -- a view that fits poorly with tomatoes flown from Chile or lamb from New Zealand, generating pollution in the process.

"For many, organic products are regional products," said Rainer Mihr, editor of the German food industry trade magazine Lebensmittel Praxis.

"What is the situation regarding quality and certification" of imported products, wondered Uli Schnier, who runs a group of Dutch organic distributors.

How can one be sure that dried fruit from Turkey is produced according to the same criteria as those in France, for example?

Beyond the question of certification, for purists the rapid expansion of the sector itself poses a problem.

"We are happy that the commercial sector, including major distributors, have joined the movement," said Alexander Gerber, who runs the German federation of organic food traders.

But finding organic foods in low-cost supermarkets gives him food for thought.

"These days, quality is seen only from the point of view of the produce," Gerber complained, but organic is or should mean as much more than that, being a broad "respect for the environment and for nature" and linked to "an emotional quality."

For Wolfgang Gutberlet, head of the German supermarket chain tegut: "Organic is not just the lack of toxic elements, it is something that looks at the entire production process."

Organic sausages sold in certain supermarkets may have been made with organically produced meat but they can still contain additives that purists would reject, Gerber explained.

In the end, he said, you get the best products in organic food stores.

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Greenhouse Gas Makes Food Less Nutritious

Andrea Thompson, LiveScience.com Yahoo News 22 Jan 08;

Your baked potato may not be quite as nutritious by the end of the century, a new study suggests.

As carbon dioxide levels continue to accumulate in the atmosphere due to the use of fossil fuels, the increase could cause a decrease in the nutritional value of many key food crops, says Max Taub of Southwestern University in Texas, who analyzed more than 200 experiments conducted by other researchers.

The experiments looked at the effects of higher levels of the greenhouse gas on the protein amounts in barley, rice, wheat, soybean and potatoes, key food crops, especially in poorer countries, where residents rely on plants for the bulk of the protein in their diet.

Taub's analysis, detailed in the March issue of the journal Global Change Biology, found that when grown in elevated carbon dioxide levels, potatoes showed almost a 14 percent decrease in protein. Protein concentrations decreased by more than 15 percent in barley and almost 10 percent in wheat and rice. Soybeans had the smallest protein reduction at 1.4 percent.

"This is just one more example of the impact global changes could have on us," Taub said.

As carbon dioxide levels rise in the atmosphere, most plants accumulate more carbon in their tissues, Taub explained, which can reduce concentrations of other elements, such as nitrogen, a key component of proteins.

Taub says that the decrease in nitrogen could be partially overcome by using fertilizers that contain nitrogen, but that these can have negative environmental consequences of their own, particularly for nearby waterways. Another option would be to breed strains of grains that have higher protein concentrations under elevated carbon dioxide levels, he said.

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Beijing Olympic water scheme drains parched farmers

Chris Buckley, Reuters 22 Jan 08;

BAODING, China (Reuters) - Dusty villages far from China's capital are paying their own price for the government's plan to stage a postcard-perfect Olympic Games, enduring shrunken crops, drained wells and contention over lost land and homes.

China is rushing to finish canals to pump 300 million cubic meters of "emergency" water to Beijing for its "green" Games, ensuring a lush, sparkling host city greets the world in August.

The 309 km of channels and pipes cut into Hebei province, next to the capital, will take water from farming country already beset by drought and environmental strains.

Villagers watching a frantic "100-day battle" to complete the main canal by a late-April deadline wondered how much of the price of a leafy Beijing they should bear.

"For the country, it's a good thing. It will bring water to Beijing so everything runs smoothly," said Shi Yinzhu, herding sheep near the 100-metre wide canal in Tang county.

"But for us here, they had to pump away underground water to dig the canal and we've lost a lot of land too ... Sometimes you wonder if they need all the water more than us here."

China is determined to make 2008 a live-to-air affirmation of its economic miracle. But Beijing's plan to draw water from its parched neighbor also dramatizes the environmental blowback from the country's explosive, city-skewed growth.

"There have been many basic problems with the geology and local circumstances that just weren't anticipated," Dai Qing, a Beijing environmental activist long critical of government policy, said of the Olympics water project.

"But the fundamental one is they don't have enough water in northern China to begin with. Why should they pay such a heavy price for Beijing?"

SACRIFICES

The Olympic plan is one segment of the larger South-to-North Water Transfer Project planned to tap the Yangtze River and tributaries by 2010 and quench northern China, where explosive industrial and urban growth has exhausted rivers and aquifers.

Beijing officials initially hoped the entire central route of the project would be ready for the Games, when water demand is expected to spike by up to 30 percent above average, reaching 2.75 million cubic meters a day.

But as preparations lagged, the government opted to build first the most northern leg, recruiting Hebei and neighboring Shanxi province to set aside "back-up" water to supplement river and rain sources.

The scheme has piled most pressure on Hebei, one of the country's most water-short provinces after a decade-long drought, which nonetheless supplies Beijing with about 80 percent of its water.

Hebei ranks near the bottom of China's 31 provinces and province-status cities in water resources per head, with about one eighth of the national average, according to province estimates.

Around Baoding city alone, a mostly rural area criss-crossed by the project, 31,000 residents have lost land and maybe homes for its sake, according to the city water office. Many more have been displaced in other parts of Hebei.

Even in this tightly controlled state where the majority of people are proud to hold the Olympics, Hebei's gripes have echoed in local news reports and the national parliament.

"Conflicts over water between Beijing and Hebei have been chronic," said Liu Changming, a water engineer at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who advised officials about the scheme.

"But there was no other choice. The Olympics are a major national event for China, so sacrifices had to be made."

Wang Junqiang, a ruddy-faced farmer from Xigu Village near Wangkuai Dam, which is part of the scheme, spoke of abandoned fields and lost income.

Two years ago, Wang said, authorities more than tripled the price of water from the dam and she abandoned some of her fields.

"We're too poor to dig our own wells for all the land, and even with the high price of grain, it didn't make sense to grow," she said as she dug corn stalks from stubborn winter earth to use as fuel.

"Of course it affects us. We were poor to start with and now we're poorer".

Farmers across Hebei have received government payments to abandon fields or grow wheat rather than rice or vegetables, but some, including Wang, said they had not received such money.

None of the villagers interviewed denounced the Olympic Games or suggested they should not be held in Beijing. But many seemed stoic rather than proud about their part in ensuring Games visitors enjoy verdant views and glinting waterways.

"I don't know about the Olympics thing. We're just poor ordinary people. I can't even read," Wang said. "We have to make a living before we can think about big things."

DELAYS AND DISCONTENT

In parts of Hebei, discontent about the canal has been sharper, with petitions and protests sometimes delaying work, to judge by official speeches.

In September, a Baoding official said building of bridges across the canal had lagged, and ruined irrigation channels remained unrepaired, angering displaced farmers.

Wages and construction bills for one section of a dam also went unpaid, prompting contractors to protest, Wang Lanfen, a deputy Communist Party secretary of Baoding, said in a speech put on the city water authority Web site (www.bdsl.gov.cn).

Villagers were competing for higher compensation for land lost to the canal, stirring unrest, Wang added, urging "stability before all else".

Last week, Zhang Jiyao, the official in charge of the whole Transfer Project, urged Hebei to quickly resolve problems over land taken for the Olympic project, state media reported.

Most perversely for a scheme intended to defeat incessant drought, engineers sometimes struck underground water that hasty blueprints did not anticipate and then pumped away the obstructing water, drying up nearby wells, according to Wang.

Shi, the herder, said he had extended his family well from a dozen meters below ground to 25 meters after engineers lowered local underground supplies.

"We must ensure water security for Beijing," Shi said, echoing an official slogan daubed on many Baoding village walls. "But we want to be sure we'll get enough too."

With deeper drought threatening much of Hebei, his hope seems far from assured this year. Baoding recently warned in local papers of "extraordinarily severe" water shortfalls.

Xidayang Dam, that supplies the area, appeared short on water even for dry winter months, and officials have ordered emergency transfusions from Wangkuai Dam some 50 km away, which also looked far from full. Yet both dams are also marked to help replenish Beijing.

"Baoding's water shortage has been severe for a decade," said Wei Jianqiang, a city water official who stressed he supported helping Beijing. "But this year is beginning to look especially serious. It's a big test."

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Brian Rhoads and Nick Macfie)

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Iceland's hydrogen ship heralds fossil-free future

Kristin Arna Bragadottir, Reuters 22 Jan 08;

REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - At first glance, the red ship hardly looks like a herald of the future. Even its owner admits the hull needs a coat of paint and the interior some spit and polish.

But in a few weeks, the Elding -- Icelandic for "Lightning" -- will be transformed into the world's first hydrogen-equipped commercial vessel, the latest sign that Iceland is pushing hard to become the first nation to break free from the constraints of fossil fuel.

Come April, visitors to Europe's northernmost capital will get a taste of that future by taking whale-watching tours aboard the ship, or renting one of the world's first hydrogen-powered hire cars.

The conversion of the Elding to hydrogen power will initially be confined to the use of a fuel cell to power the engine that runs its lighting, but for 43 euros ($62.26) a trip, the ship will offer whale-watchers unprecedented peace.

When the crew spot whales at sea, they shut down the main engines to let people hear the mammals swim and blow water -- an experience owner Vignir Sigursveinsson said had been marred in the past by the rumble of a diesel auxiliary engine below.

"When we have the hydrogen machine, the boat will be completely soundless, which will make the experience of seeing the whales in their natural habitat even more magical," Sigursveinsson told Reuters.

Besides appealing to tourists seeking greener travel, the 155-passenger ship will take Iceland a step closer to its goal of converting its entire transport system to hydrogen by 2050.

Jon Bjorn Skulason, head of Icelandic New Energy, the venture between companies, academia and the government shepherding the process, said the ship would help show whether the fuel could work at sea: essential if Iceland wants to convert its fishing fleet, one of the world's largest.

"We think, with the testing we're doing over the next two or three years, our society will be quite well prepared to accept this technology on a larger scale," Skulason said.

Icelanders seem ready to embrace hydrogen as a fuel. Skulason cited one survey that showed 93-percent public acceptance, a fact that he attributed to the relatively few negative associations the gas has for Icelanders.

In Japan, it is sometimes linked in the public consciousness to atomic bombs, while for some in the United States it recalls the 1937 Hindenburg airship disaster.

"JUST DIFFERENT"

With limited global supplies of oil and gas and mounting worries about greenhouse gas emissions, the race to find an ideal green transportation fuel is gaining urgency.

Since hydrogen can be made from plain water and produces only electricity and water vapor when burned, its backers see it as a prime candidate.

But producing it from water takes electricity: according to 2005 data from the International Energy Agency, 67 percent of the world's electric power still comes from non-renewable sources such as coal, gas and other fossil fuels.

Two-thirds of electricity in volcanic Iceland is already derived from renewable sources -- its plentiful rivers and waterfalls and the geothermal heat that boils beneath its crust.

This has allowed the country to break new ground in hydrogen testing, with the world's first commercial hydrogen refueling station in 2003 and the first hydrogen-powered rental cars last year.

"It has a very exotic energy system where hydrogen could make sense," said Dolf Gielen, senior energy analyst at the International Energy Agency's Energy Technology Office.

The North Atlantic country with a population of just 300,000 is in big-league company in testing the scope for hydrogen.

Countries including the United States, Japan, Canada, Germany and France are also exploring the fuel, but Iceland leads many with its progress on dry land.

The hydrogen filling station, at first reserved for three buses in a European Union-backed pilot, opened to cars late last year and will fill the fuel tanks of the Elding.

Now one of dozens in the world, the station looks similar to its petrol-dispensing counterpart, but is instead hooked up to water, and power to separate the water into its components, hydrogen and oxygen.

The oxygen is dispersed, while the hydrogen is compressed for piping directly into vehicles.

Skulason said hydrogen was safe when treated with respect, but people would need to learn its peculiarities.

"Not long ago you could see people smoking when they were refueling cars," he said, adding that now drivers know to treat gasoline with respect.

"We're not saying hydrogen is more or less dangerous than gasoline. It's just a different thing."

HYDROGEN-FUELLED RENTALS

The station's expansion coincided with the November arrival in Reykjavik of 10 specially adapted Toyota Priuses. The cars, which charge their batteries with internal combustion engines that burn hydrogen instead of petrol, joined a Daimler Chrysler fuel-cell car imported in mid-2007.

Seven went to Icelandic companies for testing in their corporate fleets, while three went to the rental company Hertz, which now offers hydrogen-fuelled rentals.

Skulason expects to see up to 20 hydrogen-powered cars on the road by year-end and twice that after 2-1/2 years. By 2030 or 2035, he believes most of Iceland's vehicles could be hydrogen-fuelled, although this depends on the arrival of affordable models.

So far, he said, customer feedback had been positive.

Margret Lindal Steinthorsdottir, marketing manager of Hertz in Iceland, said she has had queries about the rentals from all over the world, although few have led to bookings so far.

"But we remain optimistic. The weather has been awful, the tourist season has not begun and the cars are expensive to rent," she said.

Skulason said Icelandic New Energy made a forecast seven years ago for how long it would take Iceland to convert fully.

"We're maybe somewhere between 12 and 18 months behind schedule. So if you think about a 50-year timeframe, that's very little," he said.

Full conversion will take time. It will need changes to infrastructure, affordable hydrogen cars -- now as much as five times as expensive as conventional ones -- and, in Iceland's case, a viable shipping technology.

"Hydrogen may work for whale-watching, but it is challenging for most shipping applications because of the long distances traveled and therefore significant amounts of hydrogen storage volume needed," said the IEA's Gielen.

(Reporting by Kristin Arna Bragadottir, writing by Sarah Edmonds; editing by Sara Ledwith and Andrew Dobbie)

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