Leatherback landings in Terengganu, Malaysia

Leatherback land
The Star 18 Feb 09;

KUALA TERENGGANU: There has been an increase in leatherback turtle landings in Terengganu, especially at Rantau Abang in Dungun, with nine landings detected on its shores last year.

From the landings, 511 eggs were produced, of which 419 were incubated at the Turtle Information Centre in Rantau Abang.

Terengganu Turtle Sanctuary chairman Datuk Mokhtar Nong, however, said the incubated eggs did not result in baby turtles.

“The eggs did not hatch. They are believed to have been created by the female turtle without the male,” he sais here recently.

Mokhtar, who is also the state secretary, said that two years ago, no leatherback turtles could be found nesting or landing in the area.

Besides the leatherback turtles, he said there were 2,023 other landings of hawksbill turtles and painted terrapins.

He said that 38 turtles and two painted terrapins died last year due to the use of fish contrapments and nets.

“Setiu, Kuala Terengganu, Kertih and Kemaman recorded the highest number of dead turtles,” he said. — Bernama

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Rare Philippines quail spotted - on way to cooking pot

Yahoo News 17 Feb 09;

MANILA (AFP) – A rare Philippines quail that was feared to have become extinct has been photographed alive for the first time -- as it was headed for the cooking pot, according to ornithologists.Hunters snared the Worcester's buttonquail (Turnix worcesteri) in the Caraballo mountain range last month and a TV crew took pictures and video footage of the live bird at a poultry market, the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines said.

Club president Michael Lu said the group was "ecstatic" about the find, but they also "feel sad that the locals do not value the biodiversity around them."

He added: "What if this was the last of its species? Much more has to be done in creating conservation awareness and local consciousness about our unique threatened bird fauna."

Named after Dean Conant Worcester, an American zoologist who worked in the Philippines in the early 20th century, the bird was previously only known through drawings based on dead museum specimens collected decades ago.

"This is a very important finding," said Philippines-based Arne Jensen, a Danish ornithologist who heads the bird club's records committee.

"Once you don't see a bird species in a generation, you start to wonder if it's extinct, and for this bird species we simply do not know its status at all."

The quail's breeding area remains unknown though ornithologists suspect it resides in the high mountain grasslands of the Cordillera mountain range to the west of the Caraballos on the main island of Luzon.

The quail was being sold at a Manila wet market in Manila in 1902 and since then, just a few single specimens have been documented in Nueva Vizcaya and Benguet provinces, which form part of the two mountain ranges, the club said.

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Russian PM proposes outlawing fishing with drift nets

Putin puts writing on 'walls of death' in Russia
WWF 17 Feb 09;

Moscow, Russia - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has proposed outlawing fishing with drift nets, otherwise known as “walls of death”, following a lengthy campaign by fishermen and politicians in Kamchatka as well as local organizations including WWF-Russia.

Drift nets are used to catch fish migrating in open sea. Each net can be several kilometres long and their use results in a large bycatch of sharks, turtles, seabirds and marine mammals which are usually thrown back dead into the ocean.

Large-scale ocean drift netting was banned by the UN in international waters in 2002 and near-shore drift netting is carefully regulated in US and EU waters. In the Russian Far East two kinds of ocean drift net fishing exist: Japanese, in accordance with the bilateral agreement with Russia, and the so-called “scientific” drift netting. Both are principally aimed at the highly prized sockeye salmon and it is estimated that 60,000 tons of other less valuable salmon are discarded annually.

Over the past three months WWF-Russia, together with the Kamchatka coalition “Save the Salmon Together”, has collected signatures in support of a ban on drift net fishing. The coalition, supported by WWF, unites local NGOs, fishermen and representatives of the Kamchatka legislative and executive authorities.

The Kamchatka coastal fishermen, including indigenous people, have been fighting for several years for a ban on drift net fishing. Now, according to the press service of the Kamchatka Parliament (Duma), Prime Minister Putin has given orders for documents to be prepared on the complete ban of drift nets in Russian waters.

“We welcome this proposal because we consider ocean drift netting to be environmentally dangerous and there are better ways of catching fish,” said Konstantin Zgurovsky, Head of WWF-Russia Marine Programme.

It is not for nothing that drift nets are called walls of death. Pacific salmon and marine mammals including whales, dolphins, seabirds and even threatened species such as the Short-tailed Albatross get caught in the nets.

Another consequence of drift net fishing is that the nets become a barrier for fish on their way from the ocean to the rivers to spawn, thus depriving local fishermen of their potential catch.

“This month in Kamchatka there will be a public hearing on the drift net ban and there are some commercial interests of people who want to continue using the drift net, so the struggle is not over,” said Zgurovsky.

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Huge oil slick heads for Ireland and Wales

Brian Hutton, Press Association The Independent 17 Feb 09;

The biggest oil slick to threaten Ireland and the UK for more than ten years was tonight being tracked as it moved closer towards coastlines.

The spill, discovered near to where a Russian warship was refuelling in the Celtic Sea, is now believed to be 1000 tonnes - over three times the original estimate - and could reach Irish and Welsh shores in just over two weeks.

The incident in Irish-patrolled waters has sparked a flurry of diplomatic contact between Dublin and Russia, while British authorities have also been drawn into the ongoing investigations.

Environmentalists said it has the potential to devastate marine and wildlife, with knock-on effects on seaside tourism and fishing hot-spots.

A Russian destroyer, a British destroyer, an Irish Naval vessel and a Russian aircraft carrier remain at the scene of the spill about 50 miles south of Fastnet Rock, off the west Cork coast, along with an ocean-going tug and two refuelling tankers.

The Irish government has asked the Russian embassy in Dublin to hand over samples of the oils carried onboard the Russian tankers and aircraft carrier.

While some of the slick - originally covering an area of around 2.8 miles by 3.1 miles - will break up or evaporate, the bulk of it is expected to remain on the surface, and is veering eastwards at around 12 miles a day.

"The residual oil remaining is expected to develop into tar balls," said a spokeswoman for Ireland's Department of Transport.

"Depending on weather conditions these may end up on the Irish south east coast in approximately 16 days time and also impact on the Welsh coastline."

Both the Irish Coast Guard and the UK Coastguard are carrying out aerial surveillance flights, using special sonar equipment, over the area while a tug is being launched from Cork to carry out tests to see if the oil is recoverable at sea.

But authorities believe from past international experience that it is too difficult to contain and capture such a slick.

Friends of the Earth (FoE), the environmental organisation, has described it as a "significant spill" bound to cause serious damage to marine life and has called for a full investigation.

"It's extremely significant at that size. Damage to marine life is likely to be devastating, and this will have, as many environmental things do, economic repercussions," said Molly Walsh, FoE spokeswoman.

Samples of the oil have been taken from the scene for analysis, while Government departments and agencies are being constantly briefed about the potential impact to the environment.

Irish authorities were alerted to the spill on Saturday through a satellite surveillance pollution report by the European Maritime Safety Agency in Lisbon.

The Russian Navy confirmed one its carriers was refuelling at sea from a Russian supply tanker and said it was carrying out its own internal investigation.

The incident happened outside Irish territorial waters, but within an area known as Ireland's Exclusive Economic Zone, which it patrols, according to the Irish Government.

John Lucey, a senior biologist with Ireland's Environmental Protection Agency, said it was the biggest oil spillage in the waters around Ireland for more than 10 years and its impact depends on when it hits our shores.

When the Sea Empress ran aground off Milford Haven in south west Wales, in 1996, shedding 72,000 tonnes, it caused widespread damage to the nearby coastline.

By the time it reached Irish shores, the oil had formed into "tar balls" and had little or no impact.

But a spillage of just 31 tonnes in Cork Harbour a year later proved disastrous for marine and wildlife, particularly birds.

"If it did land here, and if it was two weeks, it could start forming tar balls and not be as potentially dangerous as a big, fresh slick coming onshore as we've had in the past," said Mr Lucey.

"If it's a slick, that's the danger."

Ireland scrambles over Russian navy oil spill
Andrew Bushe Yahoo News 18 Feb 09;

DUBLIN (AFP) – Irish aircraft monitoring an oil spill believed to come from a Russian navy refuelling accident off Ireland's south coast have recorded 522 tonnes of fuel spreading across the sea, officials said Tuesday.

Following an overfly of the spill, Irish authorities downgraded an earlier estimate of 1,000 tonnes given by the British coastguard, and said the fuel oil was now in three distinct slicks in the North Atlantic, heading east.

The spill, thought to have occurred at the weekend, was about 48 to 64 kilometres (30 to 40 miles) off the south coast and could eventually pollute the Irish or Welsh coastlines, the transport ministry said.

But it added it was too early to predict how much could come ashore, noting that oil had already begun dispersing late Tuesday.

Ireland has scrambled aircraft and a naval vessel to monitor the spill, and a tug was sent out to establish whether the oil can be mechanically recovered at sea, in theory starting on Wednesday.

Irish naval vessel Aisling and British destroyer HMS Gloucester have taken samples of the oil which will be sent for testing in Scotland.

Other vessels at the scene Tuesday included two refuelling tankers, one aircraft carrier, one Russian ocean-going tug and one Russian destroyer. The Coast Guard said it had established that no nuclear vessels are involved.

The Irish authorities were alerted on Saturday by a satellite surveillance pollution report from the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) in Lisbon.

The ministry said aerial surveillance "confirmed an oil spill covering approximately 4.5 km by 5 km surrounding a Russian aircraft carrier and a refuelling tanker."

The Russian naval attache confirmed on Monday that the carrier had been carrying out a fuel transfer at sea -- called bunkering -- from a Russian supply tanker, the transport ministry said.

"The attache confirmed an internal investigation is being carried out into the cause of the incident and said that Russian aerial surveillance considered that approximately 300 tonnes of oil was on the sea surface," it said.

The statement said the attache "could not tell the Coast Guard how this happened or whether it was from their refuelling operations."

In Moscow, the head of the Russian chief of staff Nikolai Makarov confirmed that a group of Russian warships had been refuelling in the area but denied there had been any significant leaking of fuel.

"In this area a group of warships carried out refuelling but according to the commander of the group Admiral Korolev the refuelling proceeded normally and no significant outflow of fuel took place," he said, cited by Interfax news agency.

A Russian naval spokesman, Igor Dygalo, disputed the size of the oil spill, saying it neither "has a catastrophic character nor constitutes a threat to coastal ecology."

The Russian embassy in Dublin has been asked to supply samples of the oils carried on board the Russian tankers and the aircraft carrier and for oil characteristic data sheets.

"The oil spill is forecast to continue to disperse and to break up. The residual oil remaining is expected to develop into tar balls," the ministry said.

"Depending on weather conditions these may end up on the Irish south-east coast in approximately 16 days time and also impact on the Welsh coastline. At this point it is too early to predict accurate volumes."

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Climate crisis needs empowered people

Jacqueline McGlade, BBC Green Room 17 Feb 09;

People power is at the heart of the effort to beat climate change, says Professor Jacqueline McGlade, head of the European Environment Agency. In this week's Green Room, she says that the task is so great, and the timescale so tight, that we can no longer wait for governments and businesses to act.

The key to protecting and enhancing our environment is in the hands of the many, not the few.

To adapt effectively to the challenges that will come with climate change, including biodiversity loss, water stress and forced migrations of species, we need to harness the information available and will to act at the local level.

That means empowering citizens to engage actively in improving their own environment, using new observation techniques and innovative economic ideas.

Sadly, the political, economic and administrative mechanisms that we design to tackle environmental concerns all too often leave citizens sidelined as silent observers.

Information is made available as lists of figures or spreadsheets that only experts can interpret.

Imagine if all the statistics that inform our evening weather forecasts were presented in this way, or all the data that drives popular software like Google or Windows.

Do you think they would continue to be as popular?

To encourage and benefit from participation we need to present our information in a way everyone can understand.

To address this urgent need the European Environment Agency (EEA) is working with the European Union, developing new systems to engage citizens as suppliers and users of environmental data.

The Shared Environmental Information System is one such collaboration between the EU and EEA.

The initiative will guide Europe's collection and dissemination of environmental information over the coming years.

This new approach supports the shift from paper to web-based reporting, managing information as close as possible to its source and making it available to users openly and transparently.

For Europe's citizens, this will mean both greater access to information and a bigger role in reporting.

When EU bodies review members' compliance with environmental standards, they will increasingly refer to national websites where everyone can access the relevant data, rather than relying on confidential submissions.

Meanwhile, data collected pursuant to regulatory obligations will be integrated with information from voluntary, professional and amateur groups as well as from empowered citizens.

This will build a much more complete and nuanced picture of the state of Europe's environment.

Silent witnesses

Citizens have a role to play in data gathering the world over.

In the Arctic, for instance, indigenous people form part of the EEA's global observation network, providing evidence of the real change taking place to complement our observational data and models.

We know already that the Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the globe.

Yet outside the territories, little is understood of the true cost to indigenous people of retreating ice or the impact of seasonal change on hunting.

We need to rectify this if we are to make the right decisions.

It is no longer sufficient to develop passive lists or reports to "inform" citizens of changes in our environment.

We need to engage with citizens and ask how they can inform us. Obtaining and using local knowledge will help us empower citizens, and will also give us a better indication of what we need to do to be truly sustainable.

To really engage the public, more co-ordinated and timely gathering of complex data needs to be complemented by "real time" delivery of the information, in language that is accessible to all.

The EEA's recently launched online portal, which is called the Global Citizen's Environmental Observatory, will enable European environmental information to be gathered and presented in a single location.

The Observatory will give governments, policymakers and citizens easy access to clear, comprehensible data in real time.

It will provide information on all environmental media - from the global perspective to the view from the street - at levels of detail previously unseen.

Water Watch, which provides information on bathing water quality, represents an illustration of the services to come.

Launched by the EEA and Microsoft last summer, it was visited almost 265,000 times in the first three weeks of August; a clear indication of public demand for user-friendly environmental information.

Crucially, the Observatory will afford every one of us a role in the information process by prioritising two-way communication.

In the case of Water Watch, local people are encouraged to give their opinion on the quality of the beach and water, thereby supplementing and validating official information.

Information technologies offer new ways to use all available data to the full and to present findings in ways that engage citizens and policymakers alike.

An example is the Climate Change Simulator, known as C-ROADS, currently being developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with support from the EEA.

C-ROADS allows users to see how decisions on greenhouse gas emissions made by political leaders today will influence the climate over the next 100 years.

If the world cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, 50% or 80%, what impacts will climate change have? The simulator provides some of the answers.

Importantly, it will be available to everyone, and isn't only for super computers and technicians.

That means each of us can use the same data as governments to model the change in his or her country.

From personal experience, I have noticed that people find the simulator simple to use and convincing in terms of its output.

It gives immediate feedback, which is essential when we want heads of state and ministers to see the consequences of their actions.

And it gives them and their citizens an insight into the scale of change that is needed.

Professor Jacqueline McGlade is executive director of the European Environment Agency

This article is based on a lecture hosted by environmental charity Earthwatch

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

Climate curbs need 'people power'
Mark Kinver, BBC News 17 Feb 09;

The battle against climate change can only be won "in the hands of the many, not the few", a top scientist has said.

Jacqueline McGlade, head of the European Environment Agency (EEA), warned the current approach left the public sidelined as "silent observers".

Political and business leaders were not able to tackle the problem without help from ordinary people, she added.

Professor McGlade said environmental policies would also benefit from data based on public observations.

"There is just no way that we are going to be able to shift ourselves to tackle the fundamental problems of the crisis without addressing public participation," she told BBC News.

By observing what was happening on the ground from more and more locations, Professor McGlade said that scientists and policymakers would get a more detailed picture of the impacts and what responses were needed.

She outlined her views during a lecture hosted by environmental charity Earthwatch.

'Silent witnesses'

However, coinciding with Earthwatch's annual lecture, an international survey of 12,000 people in 12 nations suggested that the people questioned actually wanted to see greater leadership from politicians and businesses.

The research, conducted by the HSBC Climate Partnership during autumn 2008, also indicated that most of those questioned wanted their governments to take more "direction action", such as investing in renewable energy.

Professor McGlade said these findings highlighted why it was important to encourage more public involvement.

"What we see around the world, even in China, is a yo-yo between government intervention, such as regulation and legislation, and the markets.

"It is this yo-yo effect that has created, in many cases, the boom-and-bust cycles.

"It is absolutely apparent that we need to balance that with much more explicit public participation."

In an article for BBC News' Green Room, she explained why she felt the current approach was not working.

"Sadly, the political, economic and administrative mechanisms that we design to tackle environmental concerns all too often leave citizens sidelined as silent observers," she wrote.

"Information is made available as lists of figures or speadsheets that only experts can interpret.

"Imagine if all of the statistics that inform our evening weather forecasts were presented in this way; do you think they would continue to be as popular?"

Professor McGlade said the EEA had launched an initiative that it hoped would overcome these barriers.

"The EEA's online portal, which is called the Global Citizen's Environmental Observatory, will enable European environmental information to be gathered and presented in a single location.

"It will give governments, policymakers and citizens easy access to clear, comprehensible data in real time," she explained. "It is no longer sufficient to develop passive lists or reports.

"We need to engage with citizens and ask how they can inform us, and it will also give us a better indication of what we need to do to be truly sustainable."

Read more!

Tree Rings Tell Of Killer Droughts

David Fogarty, PlanetArk 18 Feb 09;

SINGAPORE - Along the mountainous spine of Vietnam grow ancient conifers whose tree rings tell of droughts lasting more than a generation that helped push civilizations toward collapse, a climate change conference heard on Tuesday.

Research by scientists from the United States and Japan has revealed a record of drought in Indochina that goes back more than 700 years by studying tree ring core samples from Fokienia hodginsii, a rare species that lives in Vietnam's cloud forests.

What the samples show are two lengthy droughts between the late 1300s early 1400s, around the time the vast and wealthy Angkor civilization in modern-day Cambodia collapsed.

"There was a very significant multi-decadal drought in the early 1400s with the worst drought year being 1417," said Brendan Buckley of the Tree Ring Laboratory at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in the United States.

Another major drought lasting at least 30 years hit in the mid-18th century, said Buckley, speaking by telephone from the sidelines of the conference in Dalat, southern Vietnam, that is focusing on climate variability along the Mekong River basin.

"All of the kingdoms in Southeast Asia collapsed, in Thailand, Vietnam and Laos between 1750-80," he said.

Buckley teamed up with Masaki Sano and Tatsuo Sweda of Ehime University of Japan to study the tree rings of Fokienia.

The research is helping unravel the complexity of the annual monsoon that usually begins during March-May and on which millions rely to grow crops, particularly rice in the Mekong Delta. It could also help understand how climate change could affect the densely populated region and its economies.

Buckley said the chronology constructed from the tree rings showed a strong correlation between dry spells and the El Nino weather pattern that typically brings drought to Southeast Asia and eastern Australia.

CAUSE A MYSTERY

But what caused the much longer periods of drought was a mystery, although it could possibly be linked to a recently discovered multi-decadal switch of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific.

Buckley said the chronology was built from cores from 36 conifer trees found in a national park near Dalat.

"It's an amazing site, really, so it's a real breakthrough in tropical tree ring studies," he said, adding that a lot of the sites where the tree is found in Vietnam are being logged.

"Fokienia is an exceptional tree species because of the way it grows and responds to drought," he said, adding the data was corroborated with a lot of historical records, such as ancient lanna palm leaf texts from Thailand and accounts of foreign merchants, plus tree-ring data from teak trees in Thailand.

"What the Fokienia trees are most keenly tuned into is the length of the monsoon. Longer the monsoon, the trees grow more."

Dan Penny, part of a separate project investigating the collapse of Angkor, said drought was likely to be have been one of many reasons for the collapse of the city, which covered about 1,000 square kilometers and was the most extensive of its kind.

"There's no doubt that it was a contributory factor," he told Reuters from the conference.

Angkor was built around irrigation channels and was heavily focused on growing rice, he explained, but said evidence suggested the city was already in decline by the time the drought hit.

Buckley said the tree-ring data painted an awful scenario for the region, particularly the Mekong Delta, where sea levels are predicted to rise a meter or more in coming decades.

"When you measure the sea level rises that have already taken place across the Mekong Delta, it's really scary," he said.

"There's a real threat right there. Picture that with a major drought that lasts 30 years in the area and you can imagine the kind of chaos that could easily lead to some significant turmoil and societal collapse."

(Editing by Alex Richardson)

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UN weather agency says La Nina climate pattern weakening

Yahoo News 17 Feb 09;

GENEVA (AFP) – La Nina, the weather phenomenon that has been blamed for icy conditions that claimed dozens of lives across Europe since November, is weakening, the World Meteorological Organization said Tuesday.

La Nina is produced by cooler surface water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean and, like its Pacific sibling El Nino, is credited with upsetting climate patterns around the world.

"As these conditions weaken, the outlook for March-May 2009 is for 'neutral' conditions to be the most likely outcome," the UN's weather agency said in a statement.

However, forecasts for the remainder of this year were "very uncertain" at the moment, the statement added.

The average global temperature for 2008 was slightly lower than any other year since 2000, due partly to La Nina, according to the WMO.

In December, "unusually cold" sea-surface temperatures, or over 0.5 degrees Celsius (32.9 degrees Fahrenheit) below normal temperatures, were recorded in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific.

In 2007, the WMO linked the La Nina climate pattern to a long-running drought in Australia.

Cooler Pacific To Normalize In Coming Months: WMO
Laura MacInnis, PlanetArk 18 Feb 09;

GENEVA - Cooler than usual Pacific sea-surface temperatures should return to normal in the coming months, and no major La Nina or El Nino events are expected, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday.

The United Nations weather agency said that the tropical Pacific Ocean saw temperatures 0.5 degrees Celsius below normal in December, and was now regularizing. La Nina weather results in cooler-than-normal waters in the Pacific Ocean and is believed to spur hurricane formation in the Atlantic basin.

"La Nina-like conditions will most likely dissipate over the next couple of months, returning the tropical Pacific to neutral conditions by March-May 2009," the WMO said in its latest quarterly report.

For the first half of this year, it found that "the likelihood of El Nino conditions developing is no higher than that of La Nina conditions."

The El Nino weather phenomenon results in warmer-than-normal Pacific waters that can wreak havoc in weather patterns. The most devastating was in 1997/98 when it caused major drought in Australia and Indonesia and spawned floods in Peru and Ecuador.

(Editing by Louise Ireland)

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UK Astronomer devises giant sun shield to reverse global warming

An astronomer has proposed to reverse global warming by creating a giant sunshield to protect the planet.

Jessica Salter The Telegraph 17 Feb 09

Professor Roger Angel thinks he can diffract the power of the sun by placing trillions of lenses in space and creating a 100,000-square-mile sunshade.

Each lens will have a diffraction pattern etched onto it which will cause the sun's rays to change direction. He intends to use electromagnetic propulsion to get the lenses into space.

If work was started immediately Prof Angel thinks the sunshield could be operation by 2040.

He said: “Things that take a few decades are not that futuristic.”

Researchers at the University of Victoria, Canada, have started experiments using computers to test the idea.

Climate scientists are beginning to imagine options like the sunshield as a way of halting climate change.

However Prof Martin Hoffert from New York University said: “What you have to be prepared for is that many of these experiments aren’t going to work – this is the way science and engineering progress. You build something, you try it, it doesn’t work, you try it again. This is sometimes called learning by doing.

“We’re not doing and therefore we’re not learning.”

One of the world's leading environmental scientists warned this week that global warming is likely to accelerate at a much faster pace and cause more environmental damage than previously anticipated.

Professor Chris Field, of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said that higher temperatures could ignite tropical forests and melt the Arctic tundra, releasing billions of tons of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.

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Cheap food damages the environment, says Waitrose boss

Since end of second world war food has been 'a disposable commodity that does not merit more than passing consideration'
Juliette Jowit, guardian.co.uk 17 Feb 09;

The culture of cheap food has damaged public health, farming and the environment, according to the head of Waitrose .

Mark Price, the supermarket chain's managing director, attacked aggressive price cutting championed by his larger rivals such as Tesco and Asda. He blamed the government for encouraging a trend of cheap food after the second world war, which consumers "have now got used to".

"The headlong rush since the end of the second world war for ever greater quantities of cheap food has not only made us fatter, it has led to fewer, more indebted farms and an impoverished environment," Price told the National Farmers' Union conference yesterday.

"Food is seen as a disposable commodity that does not merit more than passing consideration. Food is seen as cheap. Food is neither of these things."

With price cutting moving up the agenda after years of rising prices and more recently growing unemployment and job insecurity since the economic downturn, Price defended Waitrose's higher prices.

Like-for-like products were less than 5% more expensive than in Tesco or Sainsbury's, and the difference between the cheapest chicken in rival supermarkets and Waitrose was only £1, Price told the Guardian.

Waitrose could demand better standards for a relatively small extra cost by making less profit on these products, something the supermarket could afford to do because it had a higher proportion of high-value, high-margin fresh food and top-range produce, said Price.

"Despite the recession, on average, Britons are financially and materially better off than at any other point in history," he told the conference in Birmingham.

"This is not to say that some families are not suffering very badly. They are. But the fact is that food now makes up a smaller portion of household expenditure than ever before.

"This may be good for our pockets, but it isn't good for our farmers, our health, our communities or our attitude to the natural environment – and that means it isn't good for anyone."

As well as naming his rival supermarkets, Price made an indirect attack on Tesco's chief executive Terry Leahy, linking him in his introduction to a clip of Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko making his infamous "greed is good" speech in the 1980s film Wall Street.

A Tesco spokeswoman said the company did not want to respond directly to Price's speech, but added: "We're wholly committed to British farming, but equally customers need us to be able to offer them great value."

Price also criticised the boss of Asda, Andy Bond, for putting down celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Heston Blumenthal. "His [Bond's] criticism centred on a belief that asking consumers to pay a little more for high-quality, ethically reared meat is out of step with public mood," said Price.

Peter Kendall, the NFU president, welcomed recognition of the pressures on farmers, which he said had increased during the credit crunch.

Methods used by supermarkets included forcing down prices after contracts were signed by changing products from normal to cheap "value" ranges, and demanding more money for marketing and promotions, said Kendall.

More education was needed to persuade people that cheap food was not good "value", said Kendall.

"A lot of people here have built a good business on the back of [supermarkets], they have got some long-term relationships with them. But there's an air of short-termism which does damage our long-term supply base," he said.

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Pay packaging recycling costs, UK stores told

Phil Medlicott, Press Association, The Independent 17 Feb 09;

A report which says supermarkets are using excessive food packaging and should contribute towards the cost of dealing with it was branded "nonsense" and "naive" by the industry today.

The study by the Local Government Association (LGA) said people's efforts to recycle rubbish were being undermined by the stores they shopped in.

It showed that although the weight of supermarket food packaging had gone down over the past two years, almost 40 per cent of it still could not be easily recycled.

But the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said the survey failed to acknowledge the key role packaging played in preserving food and thereby reducing waste.

Its head of environment, Bob Gordon, said: "It's a nonsense to suggest that retailers swathe their goods in masses of unnecessary packaging. This would simply be a pointless cost. Packaging reduces waste by protecting and preserving products."

Jane Bickerstaffe, director of the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment, added: "The report is naive and shows a singular lack of knowledge of the modern supply chain and what it takes to feed a nation of 60 million.

"Products have different supply chains and different amounts of transport packaging. Some products have a short shelf life, others are made to last longer. The amount of packaging has to reflect this."

The LGA report argues that supermarkets should contribute towards the cost of recycling and waste disposal services so they are encouraged to produce less packaging in general.

As well as making recycling easier and more affordable this would also ease the burden of landfill tax on local government, it says.

Landfill tax costs councils £32 for every tonne of rubbish they throw away - a figure that will rise to £48 a tonne by 2010 - meaning that by 2011 an estimated £1.8 billion will have been spent on it since 2008.

LGA chairman Cllr Margaret Eaton said: "Britain is the dustbin of Europe with more rubbish being thrown into landfill than almost any other country in Europe.

"Taxpayers don't want to see their money going towards paying landfill taxes and EU fines when council tax could be reduced instead.

"At a time when we're in recession and shoppers are feeling the pinch, we have to move on from a world that tolerates cling filmed coconuts and shrink wrapped tins of baked beans. Families are fed up with having to carry so much packaging home from the supermarket."

She added: "If we had less unnecessary packaging it would cut costs and lead to lower prices at the tills. When packaging is sent to landfill, it's expensive for taxpayers and damaging for the environment.

"Supermarkets need to up their game so it's easier for people to do their bit to help the environment. If retailers create unnecessary rubbish, they should help taxpayers by paying for it to be recycled."

The British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) was commissioned by the LGA to look at eight supermarkets and the type and weight of food packaging they used in a typical shopping basket.

The survey found Sainsbury's had the highest level of packaging that could be easily recycled (67 per cent) while Lidl had the lowest (58 per cent).

Waitrose had the heaviest packaging and Tesco had the lightest. The LGA said since its first survey in October 2007 the weight of food packaging had been reduced overall but the proportion that could be recycled had changed little.

The British Retail Consortium's Mr Gordon said: "Retailers pay over £5 billion a year in business rates towards local authority funding. The biggest barrier to recycling is local authorities' failure to agree on which materials they're prepared to recycle."

A Waitrose spokeswoman added: "Waitrose has cut product packaging weight by over a third since 2001.

"We were disappointed the LGA did not allow us to see a copy of the Report or provide us with a right to reply to the claims before it was issued.

"We are currently going through the report and believe it to be misleading. It fails to use accurate comparisons - a 500g tomato punnet at Waitrose is compared to a 250g punnet at most other stores. An accurate way to assess packaging would be by comparing per 100g of a product."

Supermarkets fail to shine in packaging study to find the greenest of them all
Jill Sherman, The Times 17 Feb 09;

It prides itself on being one of Britain’s greenest supermarkets, but when it comes to packaging, Waitrose scores surprisingly badly.

A study by the Local Government Association found that Waitrose had the heaviest packaging per shopping basket, although Lidl, the German-owned budget retailer, had the worst record on recyclable materials.

The report said that while the total weight of supermarket food packaging had reduced in the past two years, almost 40 per cent still cannot be easily recycled.

An analysis of the typical shopping basket at eight supermarkets by the British Market Research Bureau found that Sainsbury’s had the highest proportion of packaging that could easily be recycled (66 per cent) while Lidl had the lowest (58 per cent). Waitrose had the heaviest packaging (803g) and Tesco the lightest (646g).

The analysis makes it difficult to tease out the worst overall offender on packaging, but Waitrose had the third-lowest percentage of recyclable packaging (62 per cent), behind Asda (60 per cent) and Lidl.

The contents of the typical shopping basket included fruit and vegetables, minced beef, chicken breasts, lamb chops, salmon, Stilton, eggs, pizza, crisps, cookies and staples such as sugar, tea, jam, bread and sunflower spread.

The LGA said that excessive packaging was undermining householders’ efforts to recycle more. It called on supermarkets to contribute to the cost of processing waste.

Landfill now costs councils £32 for every tonne of rubbish they throw away, which will rise to £48 a tonne by 2010. At the current rate of landfill, this will mean councils paying an extra £360 million in landfill taxes over the next two years, the LGA said. Councils will spend an estimated £1.8 billion on landfill tax between 2008 and 2011, it said.

Margaret Eaton, the chairman of the LGA, said that families were fed up with having to carry so much packaging home from the supermarket. “At a time when we’re in recession and shoppers are feeling the pinch, we have to move on from a world that tolerates clingfilmed coconuts and shrink-wrapped tins of baked beans,” Mrs Eaton said. “If we had less unnecessary packaging, it would cut costs and lead to lower prices at the tills.

When packaging is sent to landfill, it’s expensive for taxpayers and damaging for the environment. If retailers create unnecessary rubbish, they should help taxpayers by paying for it to be recycled.”

Waitrose said yesterday that it had cut the weight of its product packaging by a third since 2001, and insisted that some of the LGA report was misleading. The supermarket said that the report “fails to use accurate comparisons: a 500g tomato punnet at Waitrose is compared with a 250g punnet at most other stores.

“Around 20 per cent of our fish and meat sales are over the counter but this study chose to only compare the prepacked option, which produces a higher but misleading figure.”

Waitrose also complained that the report had failed to highlight the store’s greener efforts. When the study was carried out, milk was purchased in a plastic bottle, but all Waitrose stores now offered milk in an eco-pouch that used 75 per cent less plastic than an equivalent bottle, it said. Waitrose own-label Easter eggs were also sold in packaging that was both recycled and recyclable, the supermarket said.

The report acknowledged that there had been a big improvement in labelling of supermarket products generally since previous reports, with many items showing details about whether packing is widely recyclable, recyclable in some areas where facilities exist, or not recyclable. However, it said: “There is still a long way to go for some retailers to provide sufficient information for consumers about recycling and there is scope for improvement among all retailers in the amount of packaging made from recycled materials.”

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Can Hybrid Solar Provide Nonstop Electricity?

Ari Rabinovitch, PlanetArk 18 Feb 09;

KIBBUTZ SAMAR - Israeli energy company AORA wants to prove it doesn't have to be sunny for a solar power plant to make electricity. Like weaning a car from total dependence on fuel, the answer, it says, is to go hybrid.

Their idea is to combine traditional fuel such as biomass or diesel with low-carbon solar power, during daylight, to generate uninterrupted electricity.

The approach is a novel answer for handling the variability of solar power, a major challenge which otherwise requires expensive batteries or other forms of storage to provide round-the-clock power.

AORA is constructing its first hybrid solar power station on a half-acre (0.2 hectare) plot in Israel's Negev desert, where companies are competing to create more efficient technologies and tap into the multi-billion dollar clean energy market.

The Negev plant, unveiled to the public this week at an energy conference in Israel's Red Sea resort of Eilat, uses diesel for now.

It will be online next month, producing 100 kilowatts, enough energy to power about 40 houses, said Pinchas Doron, AORA's chief technology officer.

The module looks like a smaller version of solar "power towers" being developed in the United States and Europe, with 30 large mirrors reflecting sunlight onto a generator on top of a 30 meter (90-foot)-high tower.

What is unique in AORA's design is a gas turbine that can handle super-high temperatures and then work off external fuel when sunlight is unable to produce the necessary heat, Doron said. "It can shift seamlessly between using the sun as fuel and a conventional or another renewable fuel."

That is important in off-grid locations where there is no alternative power source. And even where there is a grid, the lack of predictability of solar power is a problem, creating a headache for network operators.

"LOGICAL STEP"

Clean energy experts welcome the new design, though some say the technology has its limitations.

"This was a logical step. In certain contexts, like remote places, this could be the way to go," said Ken Zweibel of the Institute for the Analyses of Solar Energy in Washington, DC.

"It's dispatchable. You can't have that from photovoltaic alone," he said, referring to traditional solar panels.

Israel Kroizer, president of California-based BrightSource Energy Inc, said his company's steam turbine solar tower, which uses hundreds of mirrors, is more efficient than AORA's hybrid gas engine for larger scale production of electricity.

BrightSource last week signed contracts to supply Southern California Edison with 1,300 megawatts of solar thermal power.

One of the main hurdles was creating a generator that could handle concentrated sunlight that reaches nearly 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit), much hotter than any other power tower model, said AORA's operations manager, Yuval Susskind. "Most materials melt in that heat," Susskind said.

Air in a special receiver at the top of the tower capable of handling the high temperature is heated by the concentrated sunlight and shot into a combustion chamber, where it expands and powers a turbine, producing electricity.

A separate route can bypass the solar receiver and use a secondary fuel to power the turbine when necessary, allowing the solar power plant to produce continuous electricity.

The process also creates a by-product of some 170 kw of heat, which can be used to heat water for homes or factories, Susskind said.

"Because each of these units sits on just a half-acre, it can provide electricity in the most remote areas," he said. "You can build one outside a village in Africa or have many together in a desert in California."

A 100 kw plant using traditional photovoltaic panels, which can have up to 15 percent efficiency, would need twice the land, AORA said, than its hybrid-solar plant running at 28 percent solar efficiency.

Susskind said no other plant has hybrid technology at the same scale and efficiency.

AORA said the cost of their electricity is competitive with other solar technologies: between $3,500-$5,000 per installed kilowatt, meaning each 100 kw hybrid plant may cost up to $500,000. Total production costs depend on the price of the external fuel.

A full system prototype constructed in Nanjing, China in 2006 proved the technology worked, the company said, and it expects to begin commercial production later this year.

(Editing by James Jukwey)

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Mobile World Congress: Manufacturers agree on eco-friendly universal phone chargers

The world's biggest mobile phone manufacturers and network operators have agreed to adopt a new universal standard of phone recharger in an effort to be more environmentally friendly.

Claudine Beaumont, The Telegraph 17 Feb 09;

Until now, most mobile phones have used proprietary chargers that will only work on one kind of device.

But the GSMA, the trade organisation that represents the mobile phone industry, has called on manufacturers to be more eco-conscious and adopt a single phone charger that will work with all handsets.

Most of the main manufacturers, including Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson, have signed up to the scheme, which will see the mini-USB plug adopted as the universal standard.

The new universal chargers will consume half as much energy when on standby as today's charging cables, said the GSMA, and will be supported by the majority of mobile phones by 2012.

"This is a broad agreement that will move the industry to a single, energy-efficient charger for all mobile phones," said Michael O'Hara, marketing director for the GSMA.

"By supporting this industry initiative on common charging solutions, and enabling consumers to choose if they need a charger with every new device or can re-use existing ones, we can contribute further in improving the industry's environmental footprint," said Mitti Storckovius, a senior director at Nokia.

Green technology has been one of the key themes at this year's Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona. Several major manufacturers, including LG and Samsung, unveiled solar-powered mobile phones, while other companies have been keen to underline their commitment to the use of recyclable materials and sustainable production.

The announcement was welcomed by technology experts. "A universal charger is well overdue, especially one that is as energy-efficient as this," said Ernest Doku, an analyst with mobile phone comparison site Omio.com. "The announcement from the GSMA isn't just welcome from an environmental standpoint, but will bring immediate benefits to the consumer. Wherever you are, you'll be able to charge your phone and stay connected."


Universal mobile phone charger unveiled as industry gets greener
• New device will include a 50% reduction in standby energy consumption
• Solar-powered phones set for launch

Richard Wray , guardian.co.uk 17 Feb 09;

The mobile phone industry plans to introduce a universal charger as part of a drive to improve its previously patchy environmental record.

The plan from industry body the GSM Association (GSMA) is just one of a raft of "green" announcements at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Not only will it mean phone users no longer have to hunt for the right charger, but the specifications for the new device include a 50% reduction in standby energy consumption.

All five of the UK's mobile phone companies have signed up to the universal charger, as have the major handset manufacturers, and phones which can use the new charger - which relies upon the micro-USB connection found in the new BlackBerry Storm - will start appearing later in the year. By 2012, the GSMA has pledged that the majority of phones shipped around the world will use the universal charger.

The mobile phone industry has been attacked by environmental campaigners in the past for being one of the least green areas of technology, but mobile phones made from recycled materials or sporting solar panels have been one of the most interesting features in Barcelona so far.

Samsung unveiled the Blue Earth touchscreen phone which has a solar panel on the back that can charge the phone. Available in the UK in the second half of the year, the handset is made from recycled plastic from water bottles and is also free from harmful substances such as brominated flame retardants, beryllium and phthalate.

It also includes an in-built pedometer which tells the user how much CO2 they have saved by walking instead of using motorised transport. Samsung's SGH-F268 handset was last year named as the industry's greenest in a survey by Greenpeace.

A range of solar-powered phones are also being created by Dutch company Intivation, in a joint venture with ZTE, China's largest mobile phone manufacturer, and mobile phone network Digicel, which has operations in such remote places as the South Pacific islands.

And Sweden's Flexenclosure has showcased the latest in wind-powered mobile phone masts.

LG pledged yesterday that it would remove brominated flame retardants, chlorinated flame retardants and polyvinyl chloride from the manufacturing process by next year. It also pledged to use green packaging across its entire line of 2009 mobile handset models.

The company has used the trade fair to unveil a handset equipped with a solar panel battery cover as part of what it termed an "aggressive green initiative".

"Using renewable solar energy in a mobile handset is an example of our ongoing efforts to help create a safer, cleaner environment for our customers," said LG's chief executive, Skott Ahn.

Exposing the phone to the sun for 10 minutes gives it enough power for a three-minute call. Left in natural light for long periods, the solar panel generates enough standby power to enable the phone to be used without any further charging.

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