Japan detects bird flu in four wild swans

Yahoo News 28 Apr 08;

Japan has detected a strain of bird flu in four wild swans after stepping up checks following major outbreaks of the disease in neighboring South Korea, local and government officials said on Monday.

The birds, three of which had died, were found on the shores of Lake Towada in Akita prefecture in the north on April 21, the prefectural government said in a news release.

Inspectors detected the H5 strain of bird flu in the swans, the prefectural government said, but they were still checking whether it was the highly virulent H5N1 strain.

Authorities have patrolled the area but have not found any incidents of large numbers of deaths or unnatural deaths in wild fowl.

There are no chicken farms within a 10 km radius of the area where the swans were found, and no unusual incidents were noted at other farms.

"We've asked to step up surveillance measures at poultry farms in the prefectures of Aomori, Akita and Iwate," a farm ministry official said, referring to the prefectures in the area.

"Japan has asked poultry farms to strengthen surveillance after the case in South Korea in early April," he said.

The official said Japan's last case of bird flu was found in a wild bird in March 2007 in Kumamoto prefecture on Japan's southern island of Kyushu.

Prior to that, Japan reported cases of bird flu at four poultry farms in January 2007.

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Indian villagers protest deep-sea port

Jatindra Dash, Reuters 28 Apr 08;

BHUBANESWAR, India, April 28 (Reuters) - Authorities in eastern India arrested at least 100 villagers and deployed a huge police force to quell a protest against a proposed deep-sea port, officials said on Monday.

Villagers in Orissa state, fearing they will lose their land without adequate compensation, forced officials to suspend construction work late on Sunday in Dhamra, where India is planning to build one of its biggest ports.

The proposed port on the eastern coast will handle 83 million tonnes of cargo per year, said Santosh Mohapatra, chief executive of Dhamra Port Company Ltd.

The project is a joint venture between Tata Steel Ltd and leading engineering and construction firm Larsen & Tubro Ltd.

"The project has local support and only a small number of people are making unreasonable demands," Mohapatra told Reuters.

On Monday, villagers complained they were losing land to the Dhamra port project without adequate compensation. Some said they will not hand over land for the port at all.

"The administration cannot take away land forcibly and we will fight for the right of the people," Upendra Roul, a lawyer representing the villagers said.

Armed policemen surrounded the site, but protestors were still shouting anti-government slogans, witnesses and officials said.

THREAT TO TURTLES ?

The Dhamra port project has been mired in controversy with international conservation group Greenpeace saying the project would kill thousands of rare Olive Ridley turtles.

The port site in Dhamra is not a turtle nesting ground, but Greenpeace says it is part of a breeding and feeding ground and very near to one of the world's largest nesting areas in Gahirmatha.

"The area is also ecologically significant besides the turtles, and the proposed port should be shifted," Sanjiv Gopal, a Greenpeace ocean campaigner told Reuters from Bangalore.

Officials on Monday said there were no major obstacles and work would resume soon.

Regular protests by villagers have delayed a slew of projects in the mineral-rich state.

A $12 billion steel plant by South Korean firm POSCO and an alumina refinery by Britain's Vedanta Resources Plc are among the main ones yet to take off. (Editing by Bappa Majumdar and Bill Tarrant)

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Kenya conservationists seek chemical ban as hippos die

Reuters 28 Apr 08;

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Conservationists in Kenya demanded on Monday that the government ban the pesticide carbofuran after five hippos died and four lions were paralyzed.

Rangers in the sprawling Maasai Mara game reserve found traces of the granular pesticide, which is used to kill insects in food crops, in the hippos' bodies and in areas where they grazed. The sick lions had been feeding on the hippo carcases.

Renowned Kenyan environmentalist Richard Leakey said carbofuran was extremely toxic, cheap and freely available, and he urged the government to follow the example of Europe and the United States by banning its importation and sale.

"We believe there are significant human health concerns and environmental risks associated with using this chemical, which is widely abused because it is easily available over the counter," Leakey said in a statement.

Carbofuran concerns were first raised in Kenya in the 1990s when it was reported to have killed huge numbers of birds and entered the human food chain. There have also been more recent cases of the pesticide being used intentionally to kill predators like lions and other wildlife.

(Reporting by Daniel Wallis, edited by Richard Meares)

Agricultural chemical kills wildlife in Kenya
Paul Eccleston, The Telegraph 29 Apr 08;

Conservationists in Kenya have called for a ban on an agricultural pesticide which is killing wildlife.

Four lions were poisoned - two of them fatally - after feeding on a hippo carcass found close to a river.

It is believed the hippo had eaten plants containing the toxic agricultural chemical carbofuran which was then passed to the lions.

The first signs of sickness came three days after the lions had fed when a young male was found to be weak and staggering. By the following morning it was paralysed in both front legs and was using its rear limbs in an attempt to hop.

It was quickly followed by another young male from the same pride which was in an even worse condition quickly becoming totally paralysed.

Two more males also showed signs of paralysis but were not as severely affected probably because they had eaten less meat from the infected hippo.

The first lion was put down by a Kenyan Wildlife Service vet and toxicology tests later revealed a high concentration of carbofuran in the animal's stomach.

Agencies involved in wildlife protection say poisoning incidents involving carbofuran - which is a cheap and easily available toxic pesticide - are on the rise and pose a critical threat to Kenya's animals.

Dr Richard Leakey, Chairman of WildlifeDirect.org called on the Kenyan government to impose a ban on the use of carbofuran, a member of the organophosphate family of chemicals linked to nervous system damage in humans.

"We are appealing to the government, the importer, Juanco SPs, the agrochemical association of Kenya, and the Pest Control Products Board to go the way of Europe and USA and ban the importation, sale, distribution and use of this deadly chemical in Kenya," he said.

"We believe that there are significant human health concerns and environmental risks associated with using this chemical which is widely abused because it is easily available over the counter from any Agrovet."

Concerns over the use of the chemical were first raised in the 1990s when huge numbers of waterfowl died in Ahero in western Kenya and Mwea in the central part of the country. Some of the birds were sold on for human consumption.

There are reports that it is also being used to catch fish in Lake Victoria which are also then sold in food markets.

The Kenya Wildlife Service has also been warned that carbofuran is being put down in a deliberate attempt to kill predators which threaten cattle.

Earlier this year the conservation group, Lion Guardians, reported a case of two lions intentionally poisoned in Kajiado.

Poisoning poses a serious threat to Kenya's lion population which is estimated to be down to only 2,000 individuals. Scavengers, such as vultures and birds of prey, are also being affected.

In 2004, 187 vultures died as a result of just one poisoning incident and raptor specialist, Simon Thomsett said: "If the current level of usage continues, it is possible that two different species of vultures in Kenya could go extinct within the next 10 years."

Poisoning incidents:
# November 2007: near Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, Isiolo District a camel that had been killed by lions was subsequently laced with Furadan by local farmers. The result was the death of at least two lions and 15 vultures collected in the immediate vicinity of the carcass. Also recently near Lewa, a group of nine lions from the nearby Samburu reserve were poisoned, five of which died along with significant numbers of birds of prey and other scavengers.

# In April 2005 30 vultures were poisoned near Athi River.

# March 2005 a breeding Mackinder's eagle owl was a victim of secondary poisoning after eating dying mousebirds that were poisoned with Furadan by farmers near Mweiga, Nyeri District.

# April 2004 the largest known incident of vulture deaths in Kenya occurred near Athi River when 187 vultures died as a result of Furadan poisoning. The hardest hit species were white-backed vultures, but Ruppell's griffon and lappet-faced vultures also died. A large portion of the resident hyena population was also wiped out.

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Feds sued for taking gray wolves off endangered list

Matthew Brown, Associated Press Yahoo News 29 Apr 08;

Environmental and animal rights groups sued the federal government Monday, seeking to restore endangered species status for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lifted federal protections for the estimated 1,500 wolves in March. It turned over management responsibilities to state officials in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana for the first time in more than three decades.

The lawsuit alleges those states lack adequate laws to ensure wolves are not again eradicated from the region. At least 37 were killed in the last month.

The groups are seeking an immediate court order to restore federal control over the species until the case is resolved.

"We're very concerned that absent an injunction, hundreds of wolves could be killed under existing state management plans," said attorney Jason Rylander with Defenders of Wildlife, one of twelve groups that filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Missoula.

Sharon Rose, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said her agency had not yet received the lawsuit and could not comment on the allegations.

Rose did say the agency's decision was based on science that will hold up in court.

"We believe we made the right decision — that the wolf had recovered and the regulatory mechanisms are there" to ensure its continued survival, Rose said.

When the wolves came off the endangered list, federal biologists argued the wolves' rapid reproductive rate would allow them to withstand increased hunting. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has said it will put them back on the endangered list if the population dips below 300 animals.

The lawsuit argues that a "spate of wolf killings" last month showed state management could quickly reverse the wolf's fortunes. The injunction said state officials would allow wolves to be eliminated across most of Wyoming and large parts of Montana and Idaho.

Rocky Mountain gray wolf killings prompt lawsuit
Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters 28 Apr 08;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Renewed killing of gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains prompted an environmental lawsuit on Monday, two months after the U.S. government declared these animals no longer needed protection.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Missoula, Montana, asks for reinstated protection for gray wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

The U.S. government announced on February 21 it was ending protection for this group of gray wolves, and that decision became effective on March 28.

Since then, conservation groups said in the suit, dozens of gray wolves have been killed in the three states.

"Wolves have not yet recovered," said Louisa Willcox of the Natural Resources Defense Council, which was among those groups seeking renewed federal protection for the species.

"Biologically, you need several thousand wolves in connected populations between Yellowstone (national park in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho) and Canada to achieve what scientists and geneticists believe is true recovery," Willcox said by telephone. "This plan calls recovery good at 300 animals."

The government defended its stance. "We believe it was time to de-list the Rocky Mountain population of the gray wolf, and we stand by that," said Sharon Rose of the Denver office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Rose declined further comment, saying she had not seen the lawsuit.

Once plentiful in the 48 contiguous U.S. states, gray wolves were eradicated from the northern Rocky Mountain region and southwestern Canada by the 1930s. The species was listed as endangered in 1973; 66 wolves were re-introduced to the area in 1995.

The endangered species law is aimed at preventing extinction and protects species and their habitats.

By February of this year, there were 1,513 wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, including 107 breeding pairs, and wolf populations in these states grew by 24 percent annually since they were re-introduced, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said when the de-listing decision was announced.

Since the de-listing, the three states have taken over responsibility for managing wolf populations.

The lawsuit was filed by Earthjustice on behalf of NRDC, Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, The Humane Society of the United States, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Friends of the Clearwater, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands Project, Western Watersheds Project and Wildlands Project.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

US pressed to put wolves back on endangered species list
Yahoo News 28 Apr 08;

Several environmental groups said they filed a legal complaint Monday to force the federal government to put the wolf back on the list of endangered species, claiming some states were allowing indiscriminate killing of the animal.

The US government early last year removed the wolf from the list of endangered species in six US states, after successful recovery and reintroduction programs brought the animal back from the brink of extinction.

Since the protective measure was lifted, management of local wolf populations has reverted to state governments on condition they ensure the species' survival.

However, 12 environmental groups went to federal court in Missoula, Montana, asking that the protective measure be restored in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, where northern Rockies gray wolves "remain threatened by biased, inadequate state management plans."

Defenders of Wildlife said in a statement that Wyoming and Idaho authorities had given their residents a blank check for the "senseless and indiscriminate killing of wolves."

"For example, on the very day delisting took effect -- March 28, 2008 -- Idaho Governor Butch Otter signed into law a new Idaho law allowing Idaho citizens to kill wolves without a permit whenever wolves are annoying, disturbing or 'worrying' livestock or domestic animals," the environmental groups said in another statement.

They added that Wyoming, in turn, "has implemented its 'kill on sight' predator law in nearly 90 percent of the state.

"Not surprisingly, these hostile state laws have resulted in a wave of wolf killings."

Wolves in 1974 almost disappeared as a species in 48 US states -- excluding Alaska and Hawaii -- except for some isolated packs in Minnesota and Michigan.

In 1995, 66 wolves were released by the government in Idaho and in the nearby Yellowstone National Park with the hope they would propagate and multiply.

The program was successful. Currently, an estimated 1,200 wolves roam Idaho, Montana and Wyoming and, to tourists' delight, in Yellowstone's 8,900 square kilometers (3,440 square miles) of parkland.

However, influential farmers in the region opposed to the reintroduction of the predator argue strongly about the financial drain caused by wolf attacks on livestock.

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Poor children main victims of climate change: U.N.

Jeremy Lovell, Reuters 28 Apr 08;

LONDON (Reuters) - Millions of the world's poorest children are among the most vulnerable and unwitting victims of climate change caused by the rich developed world, a United Nations report said on Tuesday, calling for urgent action.

The UNICEF report "Our Climate, Our Children, Our Responsibility" measured action on targets set in the Millennium Development Goals to halve child poverty by 2015. It found failure on counts from health to survival, education and sex equality.

"It is clear that a failure to address climate change is a failure to protect children," said UNICEF UK director David Bull. "Those who have contributed least to climate change -- the world's poorest children -- are suffering the most."

The report said climate change could add 40,000-160,000 extra child deaths a year in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa through lower economic growth.

It also noted that if temperatures rose by two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels -- up to 200 million people globally would face hunger -- a figure rising to 550 million with a temperature rise of three degrees.

The UNICEF report said economic damage due to climate change would force parents to withdraw children from schools -- the only place that many of them are guaranteed at least one meal a day in many areas -- to fetch water and fuel instead.

The environmental changes wrought by climate change will also expand the range of deadly diseases like malaria, which already kills 800,000 children a year and is now being seen in previously unaffected areas.

Scientists predict that global average temperatures will rise by between 1.6 and 4.0 degrees Celsius this century due to carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels for power and transport, causing floods, famines, violent storms and droughts.

Efforts are being made to reach an international agreement on action to ensure temperatures do not rise more than 2.0 degrees.

But some environmentalists say 2.0 degrees is inevitable whatever action is taken now, partly because of the 30-year time lag in climate response to emitted carbon and partly because nations like China can't and won't stop burning carbon.

China, with vast coal reserves and an economy growing at 10 percent a year, is set to overtake the United States as the world's biggest carbon emitter as it opens a new coal-fired power station a week.

Developing nations, under pressure to sign up to new curbs on carbon emissions at the end of next year, say there is no reason they should keep their people in poverty when the problem has been caused by the rich developed world.

"Rich countries' responsibility for the bulk of past emissions demands that we give our strong support," said Nicholas Stern whose report in 2006 on the economic implications of the climate crisis sparked international concern.

"Business-as-usual or delayed action would lead to the probability of much higher temperature increases which would catastrophically transform our planet," he wrote in a foreword to Tuesday's report.

"It will be the young and the poor and developing countries that will suffer earliest and hardest. We cannot allow this to happen."

(Editing by Kate Kelland)

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Nature's carbon balance confirmed

BBC News 28 Apr 08;

Scientists have found new evidence that the Earth's natural feedback mechanism regulated carbon dioxide levels for hundreds of thousands of years.

But they say humans are now emitting CO2 so fast that the planet's natural balancing mechanism cannot keep up.

The researchers, writing in the journal Nature Geoscience, say their findings confirm a long-believed theory.

Carbon spewed out by volcanoes is removed from the air by rock weathering and transported to the ocean floor.

Using evidence from an Antarctic ice core, the team calculated that over a period of 610,000 years the long-term change in atmospheric CO2 concentration was just 22 parts per million (ppm), although there were larger fluctuations associated with the transitions between glacial and interglacial conditions.



By comparison, two centuries of human industry have raised levels by about 100 ppm - a speed of rise about 14,000 times faster.

"These long term cycles are way too slow to protect us from the effect of (anthropogenic) greenhouse gases," said Richard Zeebe from the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.

"They will not help us with our current CO2 problem. Right now, we have put the system entirely out of equilibrium."

Deep level

Scientists have long believed that the Earth’s climate was stabilised by a natural carbon thermostat.

In their model, carbon released into the atmosphere, primarily by volcanoes, is slowly removed through the weathering of mountains, washed downhill into oceans, and finally buried in deep sea sediments.

"A lot of people had tried to refute this hypothesis, but our study provides the first direct evidence (that it is correct)," said Dr Zeebe.

He studied levels of CO2 recorded in air bubbles trapped in a 3km ice core drilled from an Antarctic region called Dome Concordia (Dome C).

Data from the ice core, drilled by the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (Epica), was first published in 2005.

But rather than focusing on the peaks and troughs of CO2 - as other researchers have done - this group looked at the long term trend, and compared the ice core data with records of carbonate saturation in the deep sea for the last six glacial cycles.

"It is remarkable how exact the balance is between the carbon input from volcanoes and the output from rock weathering," said Dr Zeebe.

"This suggests a natural thermostat which helps maintain climate stability."

The delicately balanced carbon thermostat has been a key factor in allowing liquid water, and life, to remain on Earth, he said.

"If it weren’t for these feedbacks, the Earth would look very different today."

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Diving deep for climate clues

Daniel Schweimler, BBC News 28 Apr 08;

Earlier in April, UK scientists attending a conference in Vienna warned that sea-levels could rise by up to 1.5 metres by the end of this century, putting low-lying countries such as Bangladesh under threat.

One of the main causes is the rapidly melting glaciers which cover huge areas of the world's surface - mostly in the Antarctic, Greenland and the south of Argentina and Chile.

Glaciers melt and grow naturally, but the rate of change is raising concerns.

Two million hectares of ice are found in the Magellan Strait at the southern tip of South America. Charles Darwin came here in the 1830s.

It is where he began to formulate his Theory of Evolution, before sailing on to the Galapagos Islands.

But the remoteness and difficult weather conditions, as well as the high cost of transport, mean few have studied in this particular area since.

As a result, there is little scientific data about the fauna and flora of the Tierra del Fuego region.

But there is plenty of anecdotal evidence from the few who work here - fishermen and tour guides.

Early penguins

A huge lump of ice falling from the melting Pia glacier is a dramatic sight. Tourists gasp in wonder.

Mauricio Alvarez has been bringing tourists here on the Australis cruiser for six years and has seen significant changes in that time.

"This is one of the highlights of our journey," he said.

"We have a very personal opinion about the behaviour of this glacier. We're not really sure. It's really hard to determine whether it's advancing or growing or whatever. But the effects of global warming are undeniable down here."

The tourists should also have seen penguins, but the birds refused to cooperate and migrated, several weeks earlier than in previous years.

Those who have been observing them believe this is because temperatures are rising.

Another person who has been living and working in these remote and often hazardous waters for many years is Sergio Ruiz.

He was a fisherman, then a ship builder and now works as the bosun on the Australis.

Standing on the deck in a short-sleeved shirt in freezing temperatures he told me that in 10 years he has seen dramatic changes.

"The glaciers, you can see they have moved backwards or forwards.

"You can easily see the changes, on the beach area for instance. From one week to another, if you do the same route all the time you can't help note the changes."

The cruiser also carries scientists, desperate to get to the area and confirm, or not, what the fishermen and tourist guides are telling them about what all believe to be the effects of global warming.

Diving down

Americo Montiel San Martin and Cesar Cardenas are from the University of Punta Arenas in southern Chile and are two of the few marine biologists to have dived in the icy waters of the Magellan Strait.

Mr Cardenas has discovered several sub-species.

The two researchers have come with diving dry-suits and underwater cameras.

Their plans to dive are often thwarted by strong currents and bad weather.

Both said they were pretty much starting from scratch since, apart from the 19th Century works of Charles Darwin, they have very little scientific data to work with.

They are starting small, studying plankton and seaweed.

"There's plenty of studies on the romantic animals - the penguins and killer whales, but very little on the tiny stuff," says Mr Cardenas.

Dinghies take us from the ship to a small beach which the researchers say has probably never been investigated. Dolphins accompany us on both sides.

The marine biologists were hoping to find a spot on the rocky bottom to conduct long-term studies on the changing habits of the life forms that inhabit the icy waters.

But as he emerged from the water Mr Cardenas wore a look of disappointment.

"Plenty of sand and king crabs and kelp," he said. "But it's not for us. We'll have to keep looking."

Pressing questions

The Magellan Strait is home to 11 major glaciers and hundreds of smaller ones.

Some are melting at a rapid rate while others are growing. No-one really knows why.

The glaciers began their retreat from this region just 7,000 years ago, so the life that then bloomed here is still relatively young.

Mr Montiel was cautious about blaming global warming for the changes, aware of the scarcity of data and the need for long-term research.

But what proof do they need that global warming is having an impact?

"There are creatures that live in cold water," he explained.

"And if we start to find creatures that like the warmer water, then that would be a strong sign.

Few doubt that the compromised ozone layer and human behaviour thousands of kilometres from here are having an effect.

The changes have increased the desire for scientists such as Mr Montiel and Mr Cardenas to follow in the footsteps of Charles Darwin.

Their work is only just beginning - while the ice keeps melting.

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'Sustainable' bio-plastic can damage the environment

Corn-based material emits climate change gas in landfill and adds to food crisis
John Vidal, The Guardian 26 Apr 08;

The worldwide effort by supermarkets and industry to replace conventional oil-based plastic with eco-friendly "bioplastics" made from plants is causing environmental problems and consumer confusion, according to a Guardian study.

The substitutes can increase emissions of greenhouse gases on landfill sites, some need high temperatures to decompose and others cannot be recycled in Britain.

Many of the bioplastics are also contributing to the global food crisis by taking over large areas of land previously used to grow crops for human consumption.

The market for bioplastics, which are made from maize, sugarcane, wheat and other crops, is growing by 20-30% a year.

The industry, which uses words such as "sustainable", "biodegradeable", "compostable" and "recyclable" to describe its products, says bioplastics make carbon savings of 30-80% compared with conventional oil-based plastics and can extend the shelf-life of food.

Concern centres on corn-based packaging made with polylactic acid (Pla). Made from GM crops, it looks identical to conventional polyethylene terephthalate (Pet) plastic and is produced by US company NatureWorks. The company is jointly owned by Cargill, the world's second largest biofuel producer, and Teijin, one of the world's largest plastic manufacturers.

Pla is used by some of the biggest supermarkets and food companies, including Wal-Mart, McDonald's and Del Monte. It is used by Marks & Spencer to package organic foods, salads, snacks, desserts, and fruit and vegetables.

It is also used to bottle Belu mineral water, which is endorsed by environmentalists because the brand's owners invest all profits in water projects in poor countries. Wal-Mart has said it plans to use 114m Pla containers over the course of a year.

While Pla is said to offer more disposal options, the Guardian has found that it will barely break down on landfill sites, and can only be composted in the handful of anaerobic digesters which exist in Britain, but which do not take any packaging. In addition, if Pla is sent to UK recycling works in large quantities, it can contaminate the waste stream, reportedly making other recycled plastics unsaleable.

Last year Innocent drinks stopped using Pla because commercial composting was "not yet a mainstream option" in the UK.

Anson, one of Britain's largest suppliers of plastic food packaging, switched back to conventional plastic after testing Pla

in sandwich packs. Sainsbury's has decided not to use it, saying Pla is made with GM corn. "No local authority is collecting compostable packaging at the moment. Composters do not want it," a spokesman said.

Britain's supermarkets compete to claim the greatest commitment to the environment with plant-based products. The bioplastics industry expects rising oil prices to help it compete with conventional plastics, with Europe using about 50,000 tonnes of bioplastics a year.

Concern is mounting because the new generation of biodegradable plastics ends up on landfill sites, where they degrade without oxygen, releasing methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. This week the US national oceanic and atmospheric administration reported a sharp increase in global methane emissions last year.

"It is just not possible to capture all the methane from landfill sites," said Michael Warhurt, resources campaigner at Friends of the Earth. "A significant percentage leaks to the atmosphere."

"Just because it's biodegradable does not mean it's good. If it goes to landfill it breaks down to methane. Only a percentage is captured," said Peter Skelton of Wrap, the UK government-funded Waste and Resources Action Programme. "In theory bioplastics are good. But in practice there are lots of barriers."

Recycling companies said they would have to invest in expensive new equipment to extract bioplastic from waste for recycling. "If we could identify them the only option would be to landfill them," said one recycler who asked to remain anonymous. "They are not wanted by UK recycling companies or local authorities who refuse to handle them. Councils are saying they do not want plastics near food collection. If these biodegradable [products] get into the recycling stream they contaminate it.

"It will get worse because the government is encouraging more recycling. There will be much more bioplastic around."

Problems arise because some bioplastics are "home" compostable and recyclable. "It's so confusing that a Pla bottle looks exactly the same as a standard Pet bottle," Skelton said. "The consumer is not a polymer expert. Not nearly enough consideration has gone into what they are meant to do with them. Everything is just put in the recycling bin."

Yesterday NatureWorks accepted that its products would not fully break down on landfill sites. "The recycling industry in the UK has not caught up with other countries" said Snehal Desai, chief marketing officer for NatureWorks. "We need alternatives to oil. UK industry should not resist change. We should be designing for the future and not the past. In central Europe, Taiwan and elsewhere, NatureWorks polymer is widely accepted as a compostable material."

Other users said it was too soon to judge the new technology. "It's very early days," said Reed Paget, managing director of Belu. "The UK packaging industry does not want competition. It's shortsighted and is blocking eco-innovation." Belu collects its bottles and now sends them to mainland Europe.

"People think that biodegradable is good and non-biodegradable is bad. That's all they see," said Chris Goodall, environmental analyst and author of How to Live a Low-carbon Lifestyle. "I have been trying to compost bags that are billed as 'biodegradable' and 'home compostable' but I have completely failed. They rely on the compost heap really heating up but we still find the residues."

Bioplastics compete for land with biofuels and food crops. About 200,000 tonnes of bioplastics were produced last year, requiring 250,000-350,000 tonnes of crops. The industry is forecast to need several million acres of farmland within four years.

There is also concern over the growing use by supermarkets of "oxy-degradable" plastic bags, billed as sustainable. They are made of conventional oil-based plastic, with an additive that enables the plastic to break down. The companies promoting it claim it reduces litter and causes no methane or harmful residues. They are used by Wal-Mart, Pizza Hut and KFC in the US, and Tesco and the Co-op in the UK for "degradable" plastic carrier bags.

Some environmentalists say the terminology confuses the public. "The consumer is baffled," a Wrap briefing paper said. "It considers these products degradable but ... they will not degrade effectively in [the closed environment of] a landfill site."

A spokesman for Symphony Plastics disputed that. "Oxy-bioplastic can be re-used and recycled, but will degrade and disappear in a short timescale", he said.

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Real cause of food shortage is grain diverted to produce meat

Letter to the editor, Business Times 29 Apr 08;

I REFER to your editorial 'Tackle food crisis as urgently as credit one' and to the column 'Biofuel not the main culprit behind rising food prices' by G Panicker (both in BT, April 25).

Contrary to what most people would think, the fundamental cause of this crisis is not a shortage of food. In fact, as The Independent newspaper of the UK states (April 16), in 2007, there was a record global grain harvest, with more than 2.1 billion tonnes produced - an increase of 5 per cent.

Instead, the current food crisis stems not from inadequate supply but from inefficient distribution of the plant food that we do grow. In particular, meat production wastes food, as Mr Panicker states. For every kilogramme of food that cows, chickens, pigs, etc, are fed, only a fraction of the calories are returned in the form of edible flesh. The rest of those calories burn away in the daily life processes of our fellow animals or contribute to the feathers, blood and other parts of these ill-treated beings that are not eaten by humans.

A central fact that everyone needs to grasp is that just the amount of food used by the meat industry could feed all the people on the planet. For instance, the Audubon Society estimates that about 70 per cent of the grain grown in the US goes to the meat industry - not to directly feed people. In poor countries, food that could go to feed hungry people goes to meat production.

The food crisis is a complicated one, but eating less or no meat is a part of the solution that each of us can help with - every day, three times a day.

George Jacobs
President, Vegetarian Society (Singapore)

Read more!

US corn belt faces drought risk this year

A drought would bring on crop failure and wreak havoc on global food prices
Business Times 29 Apr 08;

(WASHINGTON) The US Midwest has enjoyed nearly 20 years without a major drought but forecasters worry the corn belt's luck could dry up this year, further squeezing tight global supplies amid soaring food prices.

With its last major drought in 1988, the Midwest has reached its average span of 18.6 years between droughts.

Considering that statistic and current weather conditions, Iowa State University extension climatologist Elwynn Taylor said the corn belt has a one in three chance of drought this year.

'We do have to be prepared,' Mr Taylor said. 'A 33 per cent chance is high, that's a risk.' The Midwest's chances of drought are exacerbated by La Nina, an unusual cooling of Pacific Ocean surface temperatures that can trigger widespread changes in global weather patterns.

If La Nina has not dissipated by July, Mr Taylor saw a 70 per cent chance for US corn yields below the 30-year trend of 372 bushels per hectare. 'We don't have any reason to think La Nina causes drought, but it certainly does aggravate it,' Mr Taylor said.

Drought is not a foregone conclusion for the Midwest, where excessive wetness has held up spring corn plantings. Crops may benefit from that extra soil moisture during a dry summer, said Brad Rippey, a US Department of Agriculture meteorologist.

'It's way too soon to have any great alarm,' Mr Rippey said.

But crops planted during wet springs can develop shallow roots, making them more susceptible to a summer drought, warned National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration drought specialist Doug Lecomte.

Mr Lecomte said he saw a slightly heightened risk of drought, largely because there is tendency for dryness and warmth in western corn belt during and after La Nina.

If a drought brought on a major crop failure in the United States, the world's breadbasket, it would wreak havoc on global food prices, already at record levels.

A drought could push the price of corn to US$8 to US$10 a bushel, said Ron Plain, a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Missouri. May corn on the Chicago Board of Trade was at US$5.82-1/4 a bushel at midday on Friday.

'Immediately, there would not be a whole lot of impact on the US,' Mr Plain said. 'The way we'd be impacted would be through meat, milk, and egg prices.' A spike in corn prices would hit US livestock producers especially hard, since they use corn to feed their animals.

'Pork producers, they're not weathering this current storm of high prices for corn that well,' said Stewart Ramsey, a senior economist at Global Insight. Unless they received extensive aid, Mr Ramsey said a severe drought 'would clean house' in the hog industry, leaving only the strongest pork producers in business. Poultry and cattle producers also would suffer, and eventually American consumers would face a surge in prices at the supermarket.

As a wealthy country, the United States could weather higher food prices and declining supplies. But as the world's largest exporter of corn, America's recovery may come at the expense of the rest of the world.

The United States exported 2.13 billion bushels of corn in 2007, but a drought would force America to purchase corn back from the international market, leaving other countries scrambling for food staples. 'We would buy food out of the mouths of the rest of the world,' Mr Ramsey said.

World grain stocks already are at historically low levels. Further shortages would intensify competition between importing countries for available grain supplies, said Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute. Governments would probably have to ration food, said Mr Brown, warning that levels of world hunger would rise.

'There are hundreds of millions of people in the world who are on the lower rungs of the global economic ladder and even with the current price increases a lot of them are losing their grip and starting to fall off,' he said.

In the event of a crop failure, the US government would need to ease cost pressures from livestock producers by offering feed assistance programmes or providing loans. The government would also have to roll back its corn-based ethanol usage mandate, which requires the use of nine billion gallons of ethanol in motor gasoline in 2008\. \-- Reuters

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Vietnam slaps ban on rice speculation

Business Times 29 Apr 08;

This comes as prices soared nearly 100% over last 2 weeks

(HO CHI MINH CITY) Vietnam has banned rice speculation amid panic buying while Malaysia and the Philippines took steps to ensure that their citizens could afford the grain as soaring prices triggered unease across Asia.

Global rice prices have risen sharply this year because of growing demand and poor weather in some rice-producing countries.

Some Asian countries, including India and Vietnam, have curbed rice exports to guarantee their own supplies.

In Vietnam, crowds flocked to rice markets over the weekend in Ho Chi Minh City, the country's largest city, to stock up on rice as prices soared nearly 100 per cent over the last two weeks, traders and media reports said yesterday.

'I have been in this business 33 years and I have never seen anything like it,' said Huyuh Kim Hoa, a trader at the city's Tran Chanh Chieu rice market. The top quality rice at the market was selling for US$1.25 per kilogram, traders said.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung insisted supplies in Vietnam - the world's second-largest rice exporting country after Thailand - were 'completely adequate' for domestic consumption, state media quoted him as saying late on Sunday. He warned that organisations and individuals speculating in the commodity would be 'severely punished.'

State media called the weekend buying 'rice fever' and told readers that the country had enough rice.

'Don't panic,' read the headline in the Phapluat daily.

The Vietnam Food Association said speculators, including real estate companies, had rushed to buy rice in recent days, while wholesalers in the southern Mekong Delta, the country's main rice-growing region, were also holding back supplies.

Unrest over the food crisis has led to deaths in Cameroon and Haiti, cost Haitian Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis his job, and caused hungry textile workers to clash with police in Bangladesh.

Asian governments are trying to cushion the blow for millions of people who live below or close to the poverty line. Malaysia said it planned to subsidise locally grown rice.

'At the moment there is no rice subsidy,' said Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Shahrir Samad. 'We just control the price. But that (subsidy) will come,' he said, without specifying when any measure would be introduced.

Malaysia grows about 65 to 70 per cent of the rice its people consume, while the rest is imported, mainly from Thailand. With the price of Thai rice nearly tripling over the last five months to US$1,000 a tonne, the government expects consumers to switch to local rice, whose price - so far steady - is expected to rise.

Meanwhile, Thai rice prices are likely to ease by about 20 per cent in the coming weeks as arrivals from the new domestic crop have improved substantially, said Korbsook Iamsuri, secretary general of the Thai Rice Exporters' Association, yesterday.

'It is very likely that prices will ease. After the Philippines tender, I don't see any strong bullish factor for the market to drive it higher,' Mr Korbsook said in an interview.

Mr Shahrir warned that Malaysians must face the reality of the global food crisis.

'We will need to see changes in lifestyle among Malaysians to accommodate this economic situation,' he said.

Philippine government officials said they plan to issue special cards for the poor to allow them to buy government-subsidised rice at 18 pesos (S$0.58) a kilogram, compared to the current commercial price of 35 pesos.

The rice cards are supposed to benefit the bottom third of the poorest families in the capital, Manila. Outside the capital, the government said it will distribute separate bank cash cards to help families. -- AP, Reuters

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Food crisis sparks role reversal in WTO

Channel NewsAsia 28 Apr 08;

GENEVA : The food crisis is bringing about a role reversal in the World Trade Organisation: traditionally liberal major food exporters are now imposing restrictions on exports while protectionist states are pushing for liberalisation.

To deal with the recent hike in food prices, Argentina, Brazil, Vietnam, India and Egypt have all imposed limitations on the export of certain produce in order to ensure food security for their populations.

This is unusual for some of these countries. Argentina and Brazil, for instance, are part of the Cairns group, among the most aggressive proponents of liberalisation in the Doha round of trade liberalisation negotiations at the WTO.

The members of this group want the European Union and the United States to lower tariffs so they can export their food produce.

The direction taken by these developing nations is embarrassing their representatives in Geneva.

A Brazilian official told AFP that he "does not understand" his government's decision to announce Thursday a temporary stoppage of rice exports.

Brazil's government also said it was digging into its 1.6-million-ton reserve of rice to alleviate price pressure on the staple, which has become increasingly expensive worldwide as consumption grows in Asia, its main market.

"These measures concern stocks of rice owned by the government and not the sale by private companies," he explained, but added that this "element of intervention on the markets" could be viewed negatively in the WTO negotiations.

Voices of dissent are already being raised. Japan will on Wednesday table the issue during the WTO agricultural committee meeting.

A net food importer, Japan imposes extremely high tariffs of some 500 percent on rice to protect its own market.

"We are not against the prohibitions and the restrictions of exports," said Takaaki Kawakami, first secretary at the Japanese mission to the WTO.

"But the countries heavily dependant on the imports like us do not want the food security of our population to be put in danger," he said.

The plan proposed by Tokyo would require countries imposing restrictions to notify the WTO within 90 days and to justify the move. Such restrictions should also not last more than a year.

While it would not stop countries from imposing restrictions, Japan hopes that the additional procedure would lead to discussions among nations on the subject.

Currently, according to the 1994 agreement on agriculture, developing countries can impose restrictions on exports.

EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson recently said that taxes of exports or quotas provide nothing but an "illusion of food security."

For some observers of developing nations, such restrictions on exports risk aggravating the situation for the world's poorest.

These restrictions "could put poor countries which are dependant on imports in a situation which is more volatile and critical than it is currently," said Carin Smaller, director of the association Institute for Agriculture and Trade policy in Geneva.

"African countries, like Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast or Cameroon depend mainly on imports which they buy on the world market, such as rice from India, soya from Brazil or wheat from Argentina" she said.

As a gesture of appeasement, India, which recently suspended its rice exports, promised to supply Senegal with 600,000 tonnes of rice per year for six years. - AFP/de

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