China 'begins emergency water diversion to Beijing'

Yahoo News 18 Sep 08;

Emergency water started flowing to Beijing Thursday as a six-month scheme kicked off to keep the city of 17 million from running out of the resource, the government said.

Some 300 million cubic metres (10.6 billion cubic feet) of water will be redirected from Hebei province, which surrounds the capital, the state's government said.

Hebei also suffers severely from a lack of water, and the fact that it must pass on the scarce resource is testimony to Beijing's political clout, experts say.

The water will flow along a newly-dug 305-kilometre (190-mile) canal stretching from the Hebei capital of Shijiazhuang to Beijing and fed by three major reservoirs, a statement on the Hebei water resources department website said.

"The transfer of emergency water to the capital Beijing is a politically important issue of major significance to the economy of our province," the statement said.

The transfer was ordered by the State Council, China's cabinet, the Hebei government said.

According to official figures, Beijing's average water use was about 9.4 million cubic metres a day in 2005, meaning the transfer, when completed, will be equal to about a month of supply.

The canal is the northern part of China's ambitious North-South Water Diversion Project, a multi-billion dollar scheme to bring water from the nation's longest river, the Yangtze, to the parched north.

According to Xinhua, Beijing and the surrounding region, including most of Hebei, has suffered droughts every year since 1999.

Increased rainfall this summer has partly alleviated the crisis, it said, while also allowing the three reservoirs in Hebei to amass about 1.33 billion cubic metres of water.

Xinhua said that by 2010, when more of the north-south water diversion project is completed, up to one billion cubic metres of water will be diverted to Beijing annually mostly from the Yangtze.

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Swedish city turns the tap on bottled water

Yahoo News 18 Sep 08;

Sweden's second city Gothenburg has decided to stop buying bottled water due to environmental concerns and will only provide civil servants with tap water, a city councillor said Thursday.

"From October 1 city employees such as politicians and teachers will only be offered tap water in the workplace," city councillor Max Reijer told AFP.

In 2007, the city -- home to Swedish industrial groups Volvo and SKF, camera maker Hasselblad and Scandinavia's biggest university -- purchased 39,000 liters (10,303 gallons) of bottled water for its public workers.

"Bottled water is transported long distances and therefore causes environmental problems. The alternative is tap water, which in Gothenburg is of the highest quality," according to a proposal presented to the council.

"By no longer buying bottled water, the city of Gothenburg is also using taxpayers' money more efficiently since tap water is much cheaper."

Patrons in establishments run by the city of nearly 500,000 people -- such as restaurants and nursing homes -- would still be able to request bottled water.

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US environmental agency doing little to curb e-waste exports, report says

Old computers exported can lead to the use of 'acid baths' and children being threatened by burning of hazardous metals

McClatchy newspapers, guardian.co.uk 18 Sep 08;

Those old computers Americans discard often end up in developing countries, bridging the so-called digital divide - when they work.

But there's a dark side to computer exports in which children are threatened by open-air burning of hazardous metals and the "acid baths" used to recover bits of gold, a report from the US government accountability office report said yesterday.

The report put the blame on the US environmental protection agency, saying the anti-pollution agency has done little to stem illegal exports of old computers and other e-waste by unscrupulous "recyclers" to places like China and west Africa.

The scathing report by Congress's investigative arm - which the EPA disputes - was initiated after complaints by advocacy groups and a series by the St Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper in 2006 detailing the activities of some e-waste brokers and exporters.

Despite evidence of harm, the government report said, the EPA has all but ignored its own 2007 rule clamping down on computer-monitor exports, refusing even to set a timetable to develop an enforcement program.

"To date, the agency has established no enforcement targets, done no monitoring, conducted only preliminary follow-up of suspected violations and taken only one enforcement action" - five months after the GAO told the agency about the case, the report found.

As part of the newspaper series, the Post-Dispatch reported from Nigeria that roughly three-fourths of the thousands of discarded computers arriving monthly in that west African nation are in bad shape or beyond repair, creating messes that pollute the air and land in one of the world's poorest countries. E-waste contains mercury, lead, cadmium and dangerous flame retardants.

The series also showed how Americans can become victims at the hands of identity thieves in foreign lands who retrieve social security numbers and other personal information from discarded computers.

The GAO report focused primarily on dumping in Asian countries, with its investigators posing as foreign buyers of broken computer terminals.

Responding to fictitious e-mails, 43 US companies expressed willingness to export the non-working computers in apparent violation of EPA rules - including companies "that publicly tout their exemplary environmental practices", the investigators reported.

Unlike European nations, the US allows export of most e-waste, such as computer hard drives, printers and old cell phones. The government has estimated that as much as 80% of electronic garbage collected for recycling ends up in foreign lands.

Starting in January of 2007, a new EPA rule applying only to computer monitors which contain about four pounds of lead — required notification of EPA by exporters and consent of receiving countries.

The GAO report noted that since the rule went into effect, Hong Kong officials alone intercepted and returned 26 containers of illegally exported computer monitors but that the EPA had fined just one exporter, a California company.

The EPA contested the GAO report, even the title: EPA Needs to Better Control Harmful US Exports Through Stronger Enforcement and More Comprehensive Regulation.

In a letter to the GAO, the EPA defended its use of voluntary and "non-regulatory approaches" to controlling e-waste exports, arguing that broader rules could take years to take effect.

EPA spokesman Tim Lyons added yesterday that his agency had opened 20 investigations in 18 months since the computer-monitor rule went into effect.

"We're certainly committed to improving the compliance and improving the enforcement," he said.

The report is expected to hasten broader export controls in Congress but perhaps not soon.
Noting "implications for international health problems", Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, introduced legislation yesterday that would impose an outright ban on e-waste exports.

But Representative Gene Green, a Texas Democrat, who heads the House environment subcommittee on hazardous materials and who has proposed similar legislation, told reporters that such efforts this late in Congress amount to "laying down markers" and that he doesn't expect serious congressional efforts until 2009.

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France Throws "Picnic Tax" in the Bin

PlanetArk 19 Sep 08;

ROME - France has dropped plans to introduce a so-called "picnic tax", French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Thursday, looking to head off controversy over the eco-friendly measure.

The French environment minister announced on Monday the government was going to increase taxes on throwaway plates, cups and cutlery to encourage people to buy recyclable products.

Opposition politicians dubbed it the "picnic tax" and said the government should be hiking levies on rich people rather than penalising ordinary people enjoying a day out.

Embarrassed by the bad publicity, Fillon immediately pulled the plug on the project.

"There will be no new tax," he told reporters on a visit to Italy. "There is no picnic tax."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was elected in 2007 promising to reduce taxes and introduced a package of cuts worth 7.7 billion euros (US$11.17 billion) shortly after taking office.

However, he has subsequently introduced more than 10 new levies to pay for other campaign promises, including taxes on the Internet, telephone and USB keys, making him and his government an easy target for the opposition.

Fillon's move on Thursday is a setback for Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo, the number two in the government who has staked much political credibility on his drive to make France a more environmentally-friendly economy.

To do that, Borloo wanted to extend a tax system already applied to cars which imposes hefty levies on the most heavily polluting vehicles while the greenest get a tax break.

French newspaper Le Figaro said this week that beside the picnic tax, the government had agreed on a list of new items that could be included, such as fridges, washing machines, televisions, batteries and wooden furniture.

But Fillon denied this. "There is no list," he said. (Reporting by Sophie Louet, writing by Crispian Balmer)

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Best of our wild blogs: 18 Sep 08

International Seagrass Biology Workshop
Seagrass news from Siti from afar on the teamseagrass blog

More cleanup updates
Lim Chu Kang mangroves on the News from International Coastal Cleanup blog

Six new nerite records for Singapore
on the wild shores of singapore blog

Toxic paint and Singapore snails
on the wild shores of singapore blog

Publications of the Bird Ecology Study Group (2)
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Good (G)reef celebrations!!
a good day for the reefs without diving Compressed air junkie blog

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Energy Security in Singapore: Making power affordable to all

Chang Youngho & Nur Azha Putra, Straits Times 18 Sep 08;

ENERGY security traditionally focuses on ensuring supply, but we also need to address how all levels of society have access to affordable power.

In Singapore, industries, rather than households, account for the bulk of electricity consumption - 80 per cent in 2004, according to the Energy Market Authority (EMA).

How does Singapore's energy policy affect both types of consumers? Released in November last year by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the National Energy Policy Report (NEPR) outlines an energy policy framework at three levels: national, regional and global.

At the national level, the Government pursues open market principles and initiatives, such as the liberalisation of electricity and gas markets and the diversification of energy resources. At the regional and international levels, Singapore collaborates with other states via platforms like Asean, the East Asia Summit and the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change.

The three main aims of the NEPR are economic competitiveness, environmental sustainability and energy security.

For Singapore to remain competitive, the Government has to ensure electricity prices and resource allocation are determined by the market. Therefore, since 1995, the Government has liberalised the electricity and gas industries, once state-owned and managed.

As for environmental sustainability, the Energy Efficiency Programme Office was set up to turn Singapore into an energy-efficient nation. And as for energy security, the strategy is to diversify the nation's energy mix, currently skewed too much towards piped natural gas (PNG) and oil imports.

Last year, Singapore's electricity was generated mainly by PNG, followed by fuel oil, refuse and diesel. About 70 per cent of its crude oil is imported from the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia accounting for almost 33 per cent of it. Singapore's PNG supplies come from Indonesia and Malaysia.

Singapore's energy mix and gas sources are one of the least diversified in Asean. To fix this, the Government plans to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal. It will enable Singapore to import LNG from countries far away. The Government is also exploring solar energy and photovoltaic technology.

At a recent regional workshop on energy security organised by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies' Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, some participants questioned the NEPR's premises. Will diversification really lead to energy security? Importing LNG may widen Singapore's supply base, but can energy security be achieved when some of the world's largest gas suppliers are in politically volatile regions? Is it feasible to rely on solar energy? Isn't photovoltaic technology just a 'fair-weather' friend?

The free market system has its problems. Its benefits may not be felt when there is a wide income gap, and the market equilibrium is determined by the demands of the middle or upper class. Lower-income groups could be left behind if a fixed tariff is applied across all households, regardless of their income level. The efficient transmission of electricity does not mean that everyone will be able to afford it. More attention should be paid to consumers who do not have alternative electricity sources or suppliers.

Unlike residents in landed properties who can opt for other energy sources, those who live in Housing Board flats depend mainly on electricity provided by SP Services. Perhaps this is why the EMA and SP Services introduced the Pay-As-You-Use (Payu) metering scheme and the Electricity Vending System (EVS) in 2005 and last year respectively.

Under the Payu scheme, consumers pay in advance for their electricity. The scheme is available to households who have defaulted on their payments or are in arrears. Though the scheme helps these households manage their electricity use better, it does not address the issue of affordability. They still pay the same tariff as customers on the conventional scheme. The EVS, now being tested, allows households and small businesses to choose their own retailers and packages that suit their needs.

Energy security should not simply revolve around market equilibrium and diversifying sources. It should make energy affordable for everyone.

Chang Youngho is an assistant professor and Nur Azha Putra is an associate research fellow at the S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University.

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18 new cases of chikungunya fever reported

Wong Siew Ying, Channel NewsAsia 17 Sep 08;

SINGAPORE : The Ministry of Health (MOH) said 18 new cases of chikungunya fever have been reported, bringing the total number of cases to 218 as of September 17.

Most of the patients have since recovered, except for a few recent cases who are still hospitalised.

Of the 18 new cases, 5 are imported as the victims had a history of travel to Malaysia.

Among the remaining 13 local cases, 9 were found in two new clusters.

One cluster was at Bah Soon Pah Road where 7 construction workers developed symptoms between September 6 and 14, and were admitted to hospital.

A couple in their 60s came down with chikungunya fever in the second new cluster Bang Kit Road.

MOH said the other 4 cases were linked to existing clusters in Lim Chu Kang and Sungei Kadut.

The National Environment Agency continues to conduct checks in those areas to eradicate mosquito breeding sites.

MOH advises persons who develop symptoms of chikungunya - which include fever, joint pain and rashes - to consult their doctors immediately. - CNA /ls

2 new chikungunya clusters found
Straits Times 18 Sep 08;

TWO new chikungunya clusters were discovered last week in Bah Soon Pah Road, off Sembawang Road, and Bangkit Road in the Bukit Panjang area.

The Ministry of Health said yesterday that seven construction workers living or working in Bah Soon Pah Road were hospitalised after coming down with symptoms linked to the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus.

At Bangkit Road, an elderly couple also developed symptoms and sought outpatient treatment. They have since recovered.

Investigations by the National Environment Agency (NEA) found a total of 15 mosquito breeding sites in Bah Soon Pah Road and Bangkit Road, providing fertile ground for the chikungunya virus.

The latest cases brought to 18 the number of new cases discovered over the last six days.

The total number of cases so far this year has reached 218.

About half of these cases involved travellers or workers from Malaysia and Indonesia who came back with the illness.

The NEA said its officers would continue their search-and-destroy operations in the identified clusters, including Kranji Way, Sungei Kadut and Lim Chu Kang.

There are 50 NEA officers in Kranji Way alone every day.

This hot spot has had 41 chikungunya infections to date, and 81 detected mosquito breeding sites.

Health officials urge anyone who develops symptoms such as fever, joint pains and rashes to see a doctor immediately.

Owners of premises who do not comply with orders to take steps to prevent mosquito breeding can be fined up to $50,000.

APRIL CHONG

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Palawan's wildlife faces extinction risk due to mining, pet trade

Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com 17 Sep 08;

Scientists warn that species on the Philippine island of Palawan are rapidly headed toward extinction due to habitat loss and the illegal wildlife trade. Last week ornithologist Aldrin Mallari presented a paper showing that all of Palawan's endangered species inhabit lowland forest, according to an article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Lowland forest has been largely converted to agriculture, whereas areas above a thousand meters have government protection.

By placing all their hopes on highland rainforest, Mallari believes that Palawan is risking many species. Mining is the major threat to Palawan wildlife in the remaining lowland forests according to Mallari. The ornithologist noted that it is easier to obtain a mining permit than a permit for scientific study. Even with the number of mining permits granted, illegal mining still occurs.

The wildlife trade poses an additional threat to Palawan's endangered species, including the islands flagship species, the Philippine Cockatoo. Abundant before 1980 the cockatoo's population plummeted due to habitat destruction and capture for the pet trade according to the Katala Foundation, a group that works to protect Palawan's endangered birds. Currently the Philippine Cockatoo is listed as critically endangered in the IUCN Red List. The Katala Foundation said that Palawan contains 13 mammals and 11 birds threatened by illegal trading. Many of the birds end up as pets in the U.S.

Palawan is home to 232 endemic species, one of the highest densities of unique species anywhere in the world. Some notables are the pilandok, or Philippine mouse deer, which lives in a small island off the southern coast of Palawan; the strange Palawan bearcat, an arboreal nocturnal mammal; and the Palawan hornbill, classed as Vulnerable by the IUCN. Many of these species are at risk should the lowland forests of Palawan be lost.

The threats to Palawan's biodiversity and ecosystems come despite the island's reputation as a pioneer in conservation. The island retains 56 percent total forest cover — concentrated in mountainous areas that are difficult to log and unsuitable for agriculture — and the entire island is classified as a game reserve, meaning that all hunting is illegal. Nevertheless, despite its history of strong conservation initiatives, many scientists and NGOs increasingly worry that some of Palawan's most endangered wildlife won't be around for much longer.

Related

New shrew species, orchid discovered in the Philippines August 10, 2007
An unknown shrew species has been discovered on Palawan, a large island in the Philippines, by a Conservation International-led expedition.

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Tourists may be watching Australia's dolphins 'to death'st

Neil Keene news.com.au 16 Sep 08;

RESEARCHERS fear tourists to Australia's dolphin-watching capital could be loving the popular marine mammals to death.

A study is under way to count the number of bottlenose dolphins living in Port Stephens on the NSW coast and assess whether they are affected by sightseeing cruises and other human interaction.

Dolphin and whale watching, which attract tens of thousands of visitors to the area each year, generate more than $40 million in tourism for the Hunter region.

A survey 10 years ago estimated there were between 120 and 160 dolphins living in the port but researcher Caroline Waring said there were probably about 90.

She and her Macquarie University colleagues will spend the next year photographing the dolphins, using unique markings on each animal's fins to identify them and estimate numbers.

Using a grant from the Department of Environment and Climate Change, the team will then see whether the dolphins are more prominent when there are no cruise boats and other vessels in the area.

Under guidelines introduced in 2006, dolphin-watching cruises must stay 50m from dolphin pods and 150m from mothers with calves. "We want to make sure that the existing regulations work positively for both the tourist industry and dolphin population," Ms Waring said.

"The smaller the population, the bigger the potential impact. We can't say yet whether there has been an impact on this population but it has happened in other places and that is our biggest concern."

Whale and Dolphin Watch Australia - an industry body representing cruise operators - welcomed the study yesterday.

But spokesman Frank Future said current regulations were more than enough to minimise any impact. He suggested private vessels were the real problem, particularly speedboats.

"Speed is the killer inside the bay to most wild marine animals," he said.

Mr Future said he received regular reports of dolphins and other wildlife killed after being struck by speedboat propellers.

And operators had reported at least 24 new dolphin calves over the past two years.

"The dolphin-watching industry has been going here for over 16 years and if anything there are probably more dolphins now."

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Call to ban recreational diving to protect abalones

Vic divers urged to follow Tas lead
ABC 17 Sep 08;

The Victorian Abalone Divers Association says state authorities should follow Tasmania's lead and ban recreational diving from some waters.

Tasmania's south-east coastline has been quarantined because of the discovery of abalone virus ganglioneuritis.

Vincent Gannon, from the Abalone Divers Association, says recreational diving should also be banned around Port Campbell, where the virus has been found.

Mr Gannon says Victorian authorities have been slow to stop the spread of the virus.

"Maybe Victorians can look at what the Tasmanians have done. They're actually trying to contain the virus and or slow the virus down," he said.

"This whole issue about human movement and not taking action and controlling access to these areas have been a major concern to us."

Fisheries Victoria says attempts to quarantine the state's south west coast failed two years ago.

The authority's executive director, Peter Appleford, says the only way to stop the disease is to disinfect boats and equipment.

"Unfortunately the virus travels via the water so it just moved out of the area, we extended the area a bit further and it moved outside of it again," he said.

"And it was at that stage that we realised that bio-security measures were the best way to address the spread, not by closing the area to other people."

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South Korea, Indonesia sign deal on fuel from seaweed

Yahoo News 17 Sep 08;

South Korea has signed an initial deal to lease 25,000 hectares (61,750 acres) of Indonesian coastal waters to grow seaweed for bioethanol fuel, the government said Wednesday.

The letter of intent was signed between the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and its Indonesian counterpart.

Yonhap news agency said the seaweed would be used to make commercial pulp products and bioethanol, a more environmentally friendly fuel used in internal-combustion engines either in pure form or as an additive.

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Sapphire Raises Over US$100 Mln for Algae Crude

Yahoo News 18 Sep 08;

NEW YORK - Private company Sapphire Energy, which aims to squeeze "green" crude oil from blooms of one of the planet's oldest life forms, said on Wednesday it has raised over US$100 million from investors.

The San Diego-based company hopes to make commercial amounts of the fuel in three to five years for a cost of US$50 to $80 per barrel. Sapphire selects and genetically modifies algae to maximize their internal production of lipids, or fats and then squeezes that from algae. It says the oil can be used in refineries like normal crude.

"The goal of Sapphire is to produce a crude product that can be introduced into the existing crude stream for production costs that are similar to other new opportunities like oil shales, oil sands, and even deep, deep water drilling," Jason Pyle, Sapphire's chief executive said in an interview.

The money more than doubles initial investor of about US$50 million the company got in June. New investors include Cascade Investment, LLC, an investment company owned by Bill Gates.

Amid lofty prices for crude oil and rising concerns about global warming, companies are racing to make algal fats into oils that can be turned into fuels.

Algae absorb the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide as they grow, so the net effect on global warming of the fuel is considered to be neutral.

The burning of traditional fossil fuels, on the other hand, releases carbon dioxide that has been stored for eons underground.

There are challenges in making fuel from slime that have dogged scientists for decades. One problem has been "layering" or the tendency of algae to slow down their process of making lipids once they multiply quickly in a pond, or in specially-made containers.

Pyle said Sapphire modifies algae and processes it in a way that avoids that problem.

Another company, Solazyme, Inc, hopes to get around the problem by feeding algae with renewable resources, such as waste sugars and starches, so they can make oil without sunlight and no matter where they are in a container. Solazyme recently got US$45 million from venture capital firms.

Sapphire anticipates relying on its existing investors to achieve initial commercial production of 10,000 barrels per day of the crude. That is equal to the amount of fuel from one large ethanol plant and tiny fraction of US oil demand of about 20 million barrels per day.

Pyle was confident that oil prices would remain high enough to support the business, despite falling from a record US$147 a barrel in July to about US$91 on Tuesday.

"I don't think the current trend bothers us one bit," Pyle said. He said the business could be very competitive even if oil fell to US$80 a barrel.

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