Warming pushes bushed birds to migrate farther

Yahoo News 14 Apr 09;

PARIS (AFP) – Climate change will force bone-weary birds migrating to Europe from Africa to log extra mileage, with possibly devastating consequences, according to a study released Wednesday.

The annual voyage of some species, which fly north in search of food and suitable climes, could increase by as much as 400 kilometres (250 miles), the research found.

"Marathon migrations for some birds are set to become even longer," said Stephen Willis, a professor at Durham University in Britain and the main architect of the study.

"This is bad news for birds like the Whitethroat, a common farmland bird. The added distance is a considerable threat.

"As temperatures rise and habitats change, birds will face their biggest challenge since the Pleistocene era," which ended 11,000 years ago, he said in a statement.

Some 500 million birds migrate each year from Africa, some weighing as little as nine grammes (three-tenths of an ounce).

To complete a voyage that can be thousands of kilometres (miles) long, birds have to fatten themselves up to twice their normal weight. Some even shrink their internal organs to become more fuel efficient, so any additional distance travelled takes its toll.

"These tiny birds make amazing journeys, pushing themselves to the limits of endurance. Anything that makes those journeys longer ... could mean the difference between life and death," said co-author Rhys Green of Cambridge University.

The study, published in the Journal of Biogeography, looked at the current migration patterns of European Sylvia warblers, a group of birds common in Europe.

Using simulation models, the scientists predict that breeding ranges will shift further northward over the 21st century, while wintering ranges will remain constant for most species.

From 2071 to 2100, nine out of 17 species examined are projected to face longer migrations, particularly birds that cross the Sahara desert, the study found.

Some birds traverse the Sahara and the Mediterranean Sea in a one go, while others make a pit-stop in northern Africa before crossing. Many fly at night, when temperatures are cooler.

A few -- such as the Blackcap -- have started to adapt by spending winters in Britain, but such behaviour remains exceptional, the study said.

"The projected distances for migration would require long- and short-distance fliers to increase their fuel loads by nine percent and five percent of lean body mass respectively," said Nathalie Doswald, a Durham graduate student who worked on the study.

The study forecast that the migration distance of the Orphean Warbler will jump from 2,700 kilometres (1,700 miles) to between 3,050 and 3,350 kilometres (1,900 and 2100 miles), with even longer increases for the Subalpine and Barred Warblers.

Birds face longer migrations due to climate change
Alister Doyle, Reuter 14 Apr 09;

OSLO (Reuters) - Some European birds will have to fly further as global warming shifts their breeding grounds northwards in the biggest challenge to the tiny migrants since the Ice Age, scientists said on Wednesday.

Some types of warbler would have to add 400 kms (250 miles) to twice-yearly trips up to 6,000 kms to and from Africa, according to the report which said it was the first to examine the potential impact of climate change on avian migration.

"For some birds the extra distance might make the difference between being able to make it or not," Stephen Willis of Durham University told Reuters of the study he led with a team of British-based scientists.

The report, adding to projected threats to animals and plants from global warming, said an estimated 500 million birds migrate from Africa to Europe and Asia every year. Some weigh just 9 grams (0.3 ounces).

Nine of 17 warbler species studied would have to fly further under projected warming by 2071-2100, especially the whitethroat, the barred warbler or the Orphean warbler that cross the Sahara Desert, according to the study in the Journal of Biogeography.

"Some species may be able to adapt and change, for example by adopting shorter migration routes, if they can find enough food at the right time," Willis said in a statement. Some blackcap warblers in Germany had dropped winter flights south.

"As temperatures rise and habitats change, birds will face their biggest challenge since the Pleistocene era," he said.

The end of the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago marked the end of the Pleistocene.

The study said breeding grounds were moving northwards because of climate change, while wintering regions nearer the equator were less affected. The Arctic region is warming almost twice as fast as the rest of the globe.

STOPOVERS

The report, which also involved experts from Cambridge University and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said the European Union should review protected areas for migrant species that need stopovers on their marathon flights.

Still, Willis said migratory birds had proved adaptable before -- surviving Ice Ages and the drying out of the once greener Sahara region about 6,000 years ago.

Willis said the scientists picked warblers because of their widely differing strategies.

Cyprus warblers, for instance, stay on the Mediterranean island year round and would be among those unaffected.

(Reporting by Alister Doyle; Editing by Sophie Hares)

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Protest as Japan whaling factory ship returns to port

Harumi Ozawa Yahoo News 14 Apr 09;

TOKYO (AFP) – Greenpeace activists protested Tuesday as the last of six Japanese whaling ships returned to port from a five-month Antarctic mission marked by tense standoffs at sea with militant activists.

Waiting on shore at Shimonoseki harbour, Greenpeace anti-whaling campaigners shouted and held up a placard that read: "Southern Ocean Whaling: Cover-ups, Lies, 1.2 billion yen (12 million dollars) in taxes."

Japan kills whales using a loophole in a 1986 international moratorium on commercial whaling that allows "lethal research" on the mammals, and makes no secret of the fact that the animals' meat is then served as food.

During their most recent mission, the whaling fleet's six ships were harassed by the environmentalist group the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, resulting in a catch far smaller than the expected haul.

The Japanese Fisheries Agency said the Sea Shepherds made it impossible for the whaling vessels to operate on 16 days of the 100-day whale hunt.

Canadian Paul Watson, captain of the group's ship, the Steve Irwin, has vowed to "be their ongoing nightmare every year until they stop their horrific and unlawful slaughter of the great whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary".

The five other ships earlier arrived back in Japan -- including the Yushin Maru No. 3, which was damaged in a collision with the Steve Irwin -- and the Nisshin Maru factory ship sailed into Shimonoseki port on Tuesday.

The Japanese Coast Guard immediately sent officers to inspect the vessel for signs of attacks by the Sea Shepherds, an official said.

Shigetoshi Nishiwaki, the fleet's 'research leader', said the animal rights activists had thrown bottles of foul-smelling liquid and paint and tried to entangle ships' screws with rope, the Kyodo news agency reported.

Sea Shepherd has accused Japan of deploying acoustic weapons, which send out high-frequency sound waves to disorient the activists.

On their mission since November, the six ships caught 680 whales -- including 679 minke and just one fin whale -- well below a planned haul of between 765 and 935 of the giant mammals, the Fisheries Agency said.

Greenpeace -- whose ships have faced off with whalers on nine past Antarctic missions -- said it stayed away this year to focus on another case, defending two of its activists set to go on trial on charges of stealing whale meat as part of a bid to expose alleged corruption involving whalers.

The environmental group said it sought and failed to be allowed to document the offloading of the ship's cargo of whale meat this year.

Greenpeace said that last year, boxes of the whale meat, some falsely labelled 'cardboard', were couriered to the homes of the ship?s crew and later declared "souvenirs" by authorities.

The Greenpeace activists Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, who the group said first exposed the "embezzlement of whale meat", are on trial and facing up to ten years in prison, the statement said.

"If the 'souvenir' practice has been legitimised, the public should at least be told how much of the 1.2 billion yen it has spent subsidising the so-called scientific whaling expedition has been spent on buying gifts for the crew," said Junichi Sato, of Greenpeace Japan, in a statement.

"With warehouse full to over-flowing with whale meat from previous years' hunts, which can?t even be given away, this year's catch of 680 whales is still 680 too many," said Sato.

"The writing is on the wall for this economically and ecologically bankrupt practice. This must be the last of these so-called 'scientific' whaling expeditions."

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Fishing fleets squander half their catches

Andy Coghlan, New Scientist 15 Apr 09;

Huge volumes of captured fish go to waste either because they're non-target species or because fishing fleets make no effort to record and manage non-target species sustainably.

That's the conclusion of an international study (pdf) by WWF, which estimates how much of the fish harvest goes to waste as bycatch, the species thrown back dead into the sea or used for other purposes, such as feed for aquaculture.

WWF says the study reinforces the need for a complete paradigm shift in how fisheries are managed, so that everything taken from the sea is accounted for. What's also needed is a clear and consistent new definition of bycatch to avoid existing disparities in how "waste" fish is recorded and accounted for.

"We want to see everything taken out to be managed in some way to make sure we are fishing within the limits of what's sustainable," says study author, Robin Davies of WWF International.

Davies suggests that from now on, bycatches should include fish that are either unused and thrown back, or fish that are caught but are not currently monitored to check for any species in danger.
Mass waste

Two earlier landmark studies cited by Davies estimated that between 7 and 27 million tonnes of fish go to waste as bycatch.

Davies new study estimates that 38 million tonnes go to waste, some 40 per cent of the total tonnage landed.

"If 40 per cent of the global catch is unused or unmanaged, how can we make sure it's fished sustainably?" says Davies, whose study will appear in Marine Policy later this month.

Davies arrived at the estimates by analysing public fisheries data from 2000 to 2003, covering 44 countries, two oceanic regions (the northeast Atlantic, and the Mediterannean and Black Sea) and global tuna and sharkfin fisheries.

The waste was greatest in sharkfin fisheries, which typically discarded 92 per cent of non-target species.

There were also disparities in what counted as bycatch. In some parts of the world, non-target fish were still utilised. In prawn fisheries in Asia, for example, owners paid their deck-hands in bycatch fish.

Davies also found that the use of technology to allow non-target fish to escape – such as in the prawn fisheries of Europe – was patchy on a global basis.
Monitor system

Equally, there were big differences in how and whether independent observers were allowed on boats to keep records of the species caught, and their fate.

Such a system has been operating in Europe for at least 20 years, and WWF argues that the latest estimates justify installing such systems everywhere. Even in Europe, for example, too many skates and rays are caught and discarded but not recorded.

"Monitors are so important, to show that fisheries are implementing technologies they should, and to get accurate data on bycatch," says Giles Bartlett, fisheries policy officer at WWF-UK. "The key is that they're in place, and part of overall fisheries management plans everywhere," he said. Otherwise, fisheries will continue to collapse.

Mark Tasker, head of marine advice at the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, which advises the UK government on nature management, says the new study is useful and sound. "It keeps the spotlight on the major environmental impact of fisheries, and it's a reasonable attempt to make bycatch estimates with good conclusions," he says.

"We know that 40 to 50 per cent of catches are being killed by being thrown back, and that's not a good thing," says Tasker.

He applauds the attempt to re-define bycatch, but wonders whether management of stocks will itself be difficult to define and implement. "I agree recording of total catch is a good thing, and then you could think about preserving rarer fish caught by accident," he said. "And we all agree that unused fish count as bycatch."

Forty percent of global fisheries catch wasted or unmanaged - WWF
WWF 15 Apr 09;

Gland, Switzerland - Nearly half of the world’s recorded fish catch is unused, wasted or not accounted for, according to estimates in a new scientific paper co-authored by WWF, the global conservation organization.

The paper, Defining and estimating global marine fisheries bycatch, estimates that each year at least 38 million tonnes of fish, constituting at least 40% of what is taken from our oceans by fishing activities, is unmanaged or unused and should be considered bycatch.

“The health of our oceans cannot be restored and fisheries sustainably managed if 40% of the global fishing catch is unused or unmanaged,” says James P. Leape, Director General, WWF International.

When fishing vessels go to sea, they go after their so called “target” catch, but as most fishing gear is unselective, fishing fleets also catch millions of tonnes of other marine life, commonly known as bycatch. The catch of so called “non-target” fish and marine creatures often occurs with no oversight or management.

In redefining bycatch as anything fishers take from our oceans that is “unused or unmanaged,” the paper’s estimates go well beyond previous global estimates, which focus mainly on catch which is thrown away and vary from 7 to 27 million tonnes a year.

“In many cases, fish and marine animals are thrown back to sea dead or dying and currently even if bycatch is used there is no way to tell whether it was sustainable to remove it in the first place. It is an insidious and invisible form of over-fishing.” says Amanda Nickson, Leader of WWF’s Bycatch Initiative and co-author of the paper.

The paper, to be published in an upcoming edition of the leading journal of ocean policy studies, Marine Policy, estimates the proportion of bycatch in 46 fishing countries and two global fisheries, tuna and shark fin.

In the north-east Atlantic, for example, a fifth of that region's total marine catch is tossed overboard. It is likely that the worst case of wasteful fishing is seen in fisheries that target sharks exclusively for their fins where 92% of what is caught is discarded back in the ocean.

“In addition to ensuring that all fishing activities are appropriately managed, simple, proven methods, such as more selective fishing gear and observers on fishing vessels, already exist to reduce bycatch.” adds Ms Nickson. “But they must become the rule, as part of long-term sustainable marine management, and not the exception.”

According to WWF, bycatch costs fishers time and money contributing to overfishing, jeopardizing future revenue, livelihoods, and long-term food security. It’s also a major killer of marine wildlife, putting several species at risk of extinction and drastically altering the sensitive balance of marine ecosystems.

The conservation organization believes that every form of fishing, and the removal of all marine life from our oceans, should be managed for sustainability, and that anything taken from the ocean by fishing activity is considered part of that fishing effort.

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Corn, soy yields gain little from genetic engineering: study

Yahoo News 14 Apr 09;

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The use of genetically engineered corn and soybeans in the United States for more than a decade has had little impact on crop yields despite claims that they could ease looming food shortages, a study released on Tuesday concluded.

"A hard-nosed assessment of this expensive technology's achievements to date gives little confidence that it will play a major role in helping the world feed itself in the forseeable future," said the report by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The study evaluated the effect on corn and soybean crop yields of genetically engineered varieties commercialized in the United States over the past 13 years, examining peer-reviewed academic studies that date back to the early 1990s.

"Based on that record, we conclude that GE (genetic engineering) has done little to increase overall crop yields," it said.

The report said genetically engineered soybeans account for 90 percent of soybeans grown in the United States, while genetically engineered corn accounts for 63 percent of the US corn crop.

"Overall, corn and soybean yields have risen substantially over the last 15 years, but largely not as a result of the GE traits," the report said. "Most of the gains are due to traditional breeding or improvement of other agricultural practices."

It found that corn and soybeans that were genetically modified to increase their tolerance to herbicides "have not increased operational yields, whether on a per acre or national basis, compared to conventional methods that rely on other available herbicides."

Corn modified with genes from Bt, or Bacillus thuringienisis, bacteria for resistance to several kinds of insects did provide higher yields, but the study estimated the increase at between 0.2 and 0.3 percent a year on average over the past 13 years.

Overall corn yields in the United States have increased an average of about one percent a year, it said.

"More specifically, US Department of Agriculture data indicate that the average corn production per acre nationwide over the past five years (2004-2008) was about 28 percent higher than for the five-year period 1991-1995," it said.

"But our analysis of specific yield studies concludes that only 4-5 percent of that increase is attributable to Bt, meaning an increase of about 24-25 percent must be due to other factors such as conventional breeding," it said.

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Cattle, not soy, drives Amazon deforestation: report

Raymond Colitt, Reuters 14 Apr 09;

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Cattle ranchers are far bigger culprits in Amazon deforestation than soy farmers, a study showed on Tuesday, as the environmental record of Brazil's commodity exporters comes under increasing international scrutiny.

The study, produced jointly by environmental groups and the soy industry, showed that only 12 of 630 sample areas deforested since July 2006 -- or 0.88 percent of 157,896 hectares (390,000 acres) -- were planted with soy.

By comparison, nearly 200 were converted into pasture land for cattle. The rest of the deforested areas had not yet been put to use.

"The big villain of Amazon destruction is cattle ranching," said Paulo Adario, Amazon campaign coordinator with Greenpeace, one of the groups that sponsored the report.

Each year country-sized chunks of the world's largest rain forest are devastated, although the rate has fallen sharply from a few years ago and preliminary data shows it fell further in the past 10 months.

In addition to loggers, ranchers and peasants, large-scale farmers are often blamed for contributing to the devastation as Brazil's agricultural frontier has expanded due to strong foreign demand for the country's commodities in recent years.

Brazil is the world's biggest beef exporter and the second-largest exporter of soy, much of which is bought by China.

Adario said the size of deforested plots had been falling consistently in recent years. That suggests that soy farmers, who require large areas to be efficient, were no longer involved directly in clearing forest.

SOY ACCORD

Brazil's soy industry, with exports of $18 billion last year, agreed in July 2006 not to trade soy from deforested areas.

That accord helped prevent farmers from clearing large, new areas, the authors of the report said.

"Soy is no longer a big threat to the Amazon," said Carlo Lovatelli, head of the soy industry association Abiove.

Foreign farm competitors in the United States and Europe often criticize Brazilian exports, such as sugar and beef, for contributing to deforestation.

Lovatelli acknowledged the accord did not cover about 10 percent of Brazil's soy output and that mechanisms to control its implementation were still inadequate.

Asked what would happen to a farmer who planted soy illegally on deforested land, Lovatelli said, "He'll sell to a Chinese trader on the spot market."

Some environmental economists say the expansion of soy has been to blame for deforestation by displacing cattle ranchers deeper into the Amazon in search of cheaper land.

Still, Environment Minister Carlos Minc said the accord was a good first step.

"It's a model for other sectors to follow," said Minc, adding he was eyeing a similar accord with the beef industry.

Brazil's government, which last year abandoned years of opposition to deforestation targets, aims to reduce deforestation in the 12 months through July to about 9,500 square km (3,667 square miles) from 11,900 square km (4,595 square miles) the year before.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)

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Bottled Water Sales Flatten During Recession

Nancy Eve Cohen, NPR 14 Apr 09;

After years of double-digit increases, bottled water sales have stopped rising. Industry analysts say the economy is driving the change, but they also say environmentalists may be having an effect.

Decades ago, when people were thirsty, they looked for a water fountain or turned on the tap.

Caitlin Corner-Dolloff of the group Corporate Accountability International is running a taste test at the University of Hartford to convince students that there's not much difference between bottled water and tap water.

Bottled Water Critics

Criticism of bottled water was first sparked a couple of years ago when concern about dependence on fossil fuels coincided with a rise in bottled water consumption.

Environmentalists have been calling for people to give up the bottle ever since, and for states to increase recycling. Now the entire bottled water market is down 1 percent.

"Anecdotally, we believe that consumers last year increasingly drank more tap water," says Gary Hemphill, who tracks sales for the Beverage Marketing Corporation.

He says the sale of most nonalcoholic beverages fell last year because of the economy.

But he says that with water, there may be another issue: "The secondary reason — perhaps a little bit more difficult to measure, but nonetheless probably a factor — are environmental questions."

Bottles Under Fire

Attack on the bottle isn't only coming from environmentalists. Bottled water competitors, like Brita, which sells water filters, launched an ad campaign knocking the bottle.

NPR aired one this month: The ad says "Brita — providing water filtration solutions to help reduce bottled water waste."

But bottled water is still selling. Americans spent more than $11 billion on it last year. Kim Jeffrey, CEO of Nestle Waters North America, which owns Poland Spring and other brands, says that if environmental concerns are influencing sales, they're not having much of an impact.

"The problems we're seeing right now are very much attributable to the economic downturn, not to the fact that people are leaving bottled water in droves — because it's just not happening," he says.

The Plastic Tally

At Geissler's Supermarket in East Windsor, Conn., some people are buying two cases, or 48 bottles, a week. Other customers are cutting back.

"I used to buy a case once in a while, but I don't anymore," says Linda Lamarre, a special education consultant who's now down to a couple of bottles a week. She says she's watching her pennies.

Lenny Whitten, a plumber, used to buy a case a week, but now fills the same bottle with tap water over and over. He says he does it because he doesn't want to fill up landfills with plastic that doesn't decompose.

Jeffrey of Nestle Waters says his company is trying to use less plastic resin. A one-half liter of Poland Spring used to be made from 14 1/2 grams.

"Today it's less than 12 1/2 grams," he says. "That move down saved us about 65 million pounds of resin a year and had about a 10 percent reduction in our greenhouse gas emissions. But the fact that the bottle's still there suggests we have more work to do, and that's in the area of recycling."

Jeffrey says there should be curbside recycling for everyone. But bottled water critics still want fewer bottles.

Nancy Cohen reports for member station WNPR.

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City air pollution 'shortens life'

Humphrey Hawksley, BBC News 14 Apr 09;

It has taken a quarter of a century, but US researchers say their work has finally enabled them to determine to what extent city air pollution impacts on average life expectancy.

The project tracked the change of air quality in 51 American cities since the 1980s.

During that time general life expectancy increased by more than two and half years, much due to improved lifestyles, diet and healthcare. But the researchers calculated more than 15% of that extra time was due to cleaner air.



"We think about five months of that is due to the improvement of air quality," said Dr Douglas Dockery, head of the Environmental Health Department at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, which undertook the research.

He added that, due to the relatively clean air in the US, the impact was far larger than anticipated.

Dr Dockery said there were many factors which had an impact on life expectancy.

But he added: "Clean or dirty air is something that is being imposed on you.

"You do have a choice on whether you smoke, drink, exercise or what type of food you eat. But you do not have a choice on what air you breathe."

Dr Dockery believes that if his research was transposed onto the heavily polluted cities of the developing world, such as Beijing or Mexico City, the life expectancy impact would be far greater.

Lung damage

"We would be talking about several years," he said. "Three to four years - a significant change in how long you live for.

"We looked at fine particles that penetrate deep in the lungs, those that are not caught in the nose and the mouth, and directly damage the blood vessels. Most of those come from combustion, from automobiles, diesel trucks and buses and power plants."


Dr Dockery hopes his findings will encourage governments to work towards making air even cleaner over the next 25 years.

Even in Boston, which has comparatively clean city air, pollution levels change suddenly from being safe to highly dangerous.

Bruce Hill, a scientist with the Clean Air Task Force, measured two sets of pollution levels.

One was on a bridge over a highway with only cars and the other over a highway with diesel-powered trucks.

"Just now that truck passed and the levels spiked up to five times higher than they were in the rest of the city," said Hill.

"Now, see, it's gone 25 times higher." From there he went down onto the underground platform of a commuter train station.

"This is bad," he said. "The monitors can't go any higher, meaning the level here could be a hundred time higher than the cleaner air outside.

"Some people commute for five per cent of the day, which is the amount of time they're being exposed to these particles."

Comparable to smoking

Hill describes the damage caused by regularly breathing such air as like living with someone who smokes.

In the long term, he argued, it can cause cancer and cardio-vascular problems. In the short term, it can create asthma attacks and allergies.

Cait Maas, who already has a respiratory problem, lives in an apartment that looks out on a shipping terminal, an oil depot and a multi-lane highway.

A main road near her home is a key route for diesel trucks.

"On a bad day, I can taste the particles. I feel them constricting my airways and I have to cover my mouth so that I can breathe."

Over the next generation, however, it's expected that pollution, especially that created by dangerous diesel particles, will be cut dramatically.

Standard filters are now being fitted to buses. Bio-fuels and cleaner energy in general, brought about by climate change pressures, will make the air safer.

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California Utility to Capture Solar Power in Space

livescience.com Yahoo News 14 Apr 09;

Solar power beamed down from space will generate electricity for California homes as soon as 2016, under a new plan by a utility company to ramp up renewable energy technology far beyond solar panels on roofs.

PG&E would buy 200 megawatts of space solar power from Solaren Corp. over 15 years under a power purchase agreement, enough to power tens of thousands of homes. The utility company has begun seeking approval for the deal from California state regulators.

Solaren would use solar panels on satellites in orbit to capture the sun's power, and then convert it into radio frequency energy that could beam down to a receiving station. The energy would then undergo a conversion to electricity and feed into PG&E's power grid.

Having solar panels in orbit could provide a clean, reliable source of solar power that avoids the interruptions of cloudy days and bad weather on Earth. That tempting prospect has led NASA and the U.S. Defense Department to investigate possibilities for space solar power, despite the hefty cost of launching solar panels into orbit.

A former NASA scientist went so far as to demonstrate the radio wave transmission technology that would carry energy from space to Earth. He and his team transmitted solar power over a distance of 92 miles between two Hawaiian islands, during a four-month experiment in 2008.

No one has built a system with equivalent size and scale to what Solaren envisions. But the transmission technology is "very mature" and based on what communications satellites use today, said Gary Spirnak, Solaren CEO.

"For over 45 years, satellites have collected solar energy in Earth orbit via solar cells, and converted it to radio frequency energy for transmissions to Earth receive stations," Spirnak noted.

The pilot power satellites designed by Solaren would make use of existing launch capabilities, meaning that the plan does not require new types of rockets. The ground receiving station would also sit close to existing power transmission lines, somewhere in Fresno County, Calif.

More details about Solaren's pilot project for its power satellites are expected this summer.

California's latest source of low-carbon electricity
Suzanne Goldenberg, guardian.co.uk 16 Apr 09;

It sounds like an idea drawn from the wilder shores of science fiction: a set of solar panels in outer space that would beam enough clean energy back to Earth to power half a million homes and could one day potentially help save the planet.

But a leading American power company is hoping to turn the stuff of speculative fiction into reality by supporting a project that would put solar panels into orbit.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company, which serves San Francisco and northern California, has agreed to buy electricity from a startup company claiming to have found a way to unlock the potential power supply in space.

The initial plan is for the firm Solaren Corp to provide some 200MW of electricity. Solaren, which is based in Manhattan Beach, California, says it will launch a satellite with an array of solar panels around 22,000 miles above the earth's equator using existing rocket technology, and then convert the power generated into radio-frequency transmissions. The radio waves would be beamed back down to antennae in Fresno, California and then converted into electricity and fed into the regular power grid, PG&E said.

Although spacecraft and satellites routinely use solar panels, the project marks the first serious attempt to take advantage of the powerful and near-constant supply of sunshine in space.

Though solar power advocates of solar power regularly extol its potential on land as solar panels become more efficient, it is a fraction of the energy resources thought to be available in space.

Orbiting solar farms are not new a new concept: Nasa and the Pentagon have been studying the technology since the 1960s. Critics argue that the major barrier is cost, because sending rockets carrying solar panels into space is so expensive.

The idea has also captured the imagination of screen writers, with Blofeld, the evil villain of James Bond movies, plotting to launch a giant death ray-emitting satellite into space that could hold the world to ransom.

But Solaren Corp, founded by a former spacecraft engineer, says it has developed a technology that would make it commercially viable within the next seven years.

The company had been in discussion with PG&E for 18 months before the company announced this week that it had agreed to buy 200 megawatts of electricity from Solaren starting in 2016. The deal has yet to be approved by California state government regulators and PG&E has not put any money into Solaren, but the promise alone has turned the notion of space based solar power from fantasy to reality.

Because sunshine in space is practically constant, apart from a few days around the spring and autumn equinoxes, the space-based solar panels could potentially produce a steady supply of electricity. The sunlight hitting the solar panels in space would be 10 times as powerful as the light coming to Earth via the atmosphere.

Solaren's founder, Gary Spirnak, did not give details of how the technology would work but said it was based on what is currently used by communications satellites, describing it as "very mature".

And there most definitely won't be any death rays, Spirnak joked, while not stroking a sinister white cat. He said the radio beam would pose no danger to people on the ground or even aircraft that fly through it. The satellites would project a large oval footprint on earth at the receiving point. They would also shut down automatically if the signal goes astray.

Daniel Kammen, professor in energy and resources at the University of California, Berkeley, said: "The ground rules are looking kind of promising ... it is doable. Whether it is doable at a reasonable cost, we just don't know."

Others have paved the way. In 2008, John Mankins, a former Nasa expert on space solar power, proved it was possible to transmit solar power as radio waves when he beamed a signal between two Hawaiian islands 90 miles apart.

But Spirnak will face a challenge raising funds for his project during a recession. He said he was seeking in the low billions of dollars in investment, under $5bn. But that is still much higher than the usual $100m (£67m) to $200m costs for projects in renewable energy.

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China orders governments to go green: state media

Yahoo News 14 Apr 09;

BEIJING (AFP) – Local governments in China have been ordered to buy more energy efficient products as part of the national drive to curb pollution and combat global warming, state press reported on Tuesday.

China's State Council, or cabinet, issued a statement Monday calling for all local governments to place a higher priority on eco-friendly products in their public purchases, the China Daily reported.

Governments will be required to strictly follow a compulsory green procurement list, which was published in 2007 and includes nine types of items such as air conditioners and computers, it said.

Previously agencies could shop around for other goods if they could justify buying them on cost and energy saving grounds, the report added.

China's public authorities are influential consumers.

In 2005, governments around China had an annual budget of 292.8 billion yuan (42.9 billion dollars), or 1.6 percent of the country's overall economy that year, the newspaper said.

Thanks to their strong spending power, local governments have the capacity to expand the production of greener products into the mainstream market, it said.

Green goods remain a niche category as general consumers are less interested in them due to higher initial costs.

But government purchases can boost demand, which will stimulate greater and faster technological breakthroughs and help the products move into the mainstream markets by ultimately allowing lower unit costs and mass production.

China has come under growing pressure to improve energy efficiency as its dependence on imported energy has risen, while its environment has continued to deteriorate.

China now ranks alongside the United States as the world's biggest emitters of the greenhouse gases that are blamed for global warming.

As part of its efforts to cut energy consumption, the government has said it would subsidise the sale of 100 million energy-efficient light bulbs nationwide this year, doubling the number subsidised in 2008.

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Even Deep Cuts in Greenhouse Gas Emissions Will Not Stop Global Warming

Drastic emissions cuts won't stop the global warming from gases already in the atmosphere
Douglas Fischer, Scientific American 14 Apr 09;

BOULDER – Drastic, economy-changing cuts to greenhouse gas emissions will spare the planet half the trauma expected over the next century as the Earth warms.

And that's the good news.

Because failure to significantly curb these planet-warming gases will truly transform our world in less than 100 years.

A new study to be published by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research finds that a 70 percent cut in emissions should stabilize temperatures at a mark not too much higher than today.

Such a cut, most experts agree, would require vast retooling of a fossil-fuel-based economy and an unprecedented level of global cooperation.

But that major effort to slash emissions, the scientists warn, won't stop global warming. The question confronting politicians throughout the world, in other words, is not whether they want the planet to warm: It is to what degree.

"We can no longer avoid significant warming during this century," NCAR scientist Warren Washington, the lead author, said in a statement. But "we could stabilize the threat of climate change and avoid catastrophe."

The study, employing the latest-generation computer models, will be published next week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Mitigating emissions, the authors reported, blunts projected climate impacts and avoids the most dangerous potential impacts of climate disruption:

*The late-summer polar ice cap, already at historic lows today, would shrink only another quarter and hold steady by century's end, instead of melting by more than three-quarters with no let-up in sight.

*Arctic warming is potentially cut in half, stabilizing the northern Bering Sea and reducing impacts on commercial and subsistence fisheries.

*Regional heat wave intensity also drops by half, with the greatest reduction occurring over the western United States, Canada and most of Europe, Russia and Northern Africa.

*Flooding risk drops in half for the western tropical Pacific, Northeast United States and Canada, eastern Asia and South America.

But the emissions slash will not stem the tide: Global average temperatures would still rise by nearly 1º F, about what scientists attribute to date from industrial emissions since 1900.

Sea levels would creep up nearly six inches as a result of that extra heat, with any additional rise due to melting ice sheets unaccounted for in the study's calculations. And they would keep rising beyond 2100, given the oceans' thermal inertia.

"Note that despite a 70 percent reduction in emissions over the 21st century," the authors write, "there is virtually no cooling."

And while the cut would stabilize atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, it holds them at about 450 parts-per-million, according to the study. That's nearly 20 percent higher than today's concentrations and at or even above a threshold many scientists fear will trigger a series of cascading and transformative catastrophes.

Pre-industrial carbon dioxide levels were 284 ppm. Unchecked, emissions are on track to reach 750 ppm by 2100. Scientists don't even know what that would look like: Assumptions used by the computer models were drawn up before recent large emission increases from China and elsewhere, leaving scientists to conclude that their "business-as-usual" benchmark is a conservative estimate for what might actually happen.

Massive emissions cuts can save Arctic ice: study
Yahoo News 15 Apr 09;

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Cutting greenhouse gases by 70 percent this century would spare the planet the most traumatic effects of climate change, including the massive loss of Arctic sea ice, a study said Tuesday.

Warming in the Arctic would be almost halved, helping preserve fisheries, as well as sea birds and Arctic mammals like polar bears in some regions, including the northern Bering Sea, according to scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

But the massive cuts of greenhouse gas emissions advocated by the researchers would only "stabilize the threat of climate change and avoid catastrophe," said NCAR scientist Warren Washington, the study's lead author.

The cuts would also prevent huge losses of permafrost and a significant rise in the sea level, said the study to be published next week in Geophysical Research Letters.

"This research indicates that we can no longer avoid significant warming during this century," said Washington, who ran a series of global supercomputer studies.

The planet's average temperatures have warmed by nearly one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) since the pre-industrial era. Most of the warming is due to emissions from greenhouse gases, chief among them carbon dioxide, the study noted.

Those gases have increased from a pre-industrial level of about 284 parts per million (ppm) in the atmosphere to more than 380 ppm today. Recent studies have found that temperatures would reach the threshold for dangerous climate change if they rise by an additional one degree Celsius.

If carbon dioxide emissions were to plateau and maintained at 450 ppm -- cited as an attainable target by the US Climate Change Science Program if dramatic emissions cuts are enacted -- global temperatures would rise by 0.6 degrees Celsius (one degree Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, the study said.

But if emissions were allowed to continue their current trend, temperatures would rise by almost four times that amount, to 2.2 degrees Celsius (four degrees Fahrenheit).

The researchers pointed to several major benefits from cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

Holding emissions at 450 ppm would translate to sea levels rising by 14 centimeters (5.5 inches) instead of 22 centimeters (8.7 inches) due to thermal expansion.

Arctic ice volume would shrink by almost a quarter in summertime and stabilize by 2100, rather than shrinking at least by three-quarters and continuing to melt.

The researchers also found that the climate system would stabilize by about 2100, rather than continuing to warm.

"This study provides some hope that we can avoid the worst impacts of climate change--if society can cut emissions substantially over the next several decades and continue major cuts through the century," Washington said.

European Union nations have agreed to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels, rising to 30 percent if the rest of the developed world -- mainly the United States and Japan -- agrees to follow suit.

During the 2008 US presidential campaign, Barack Obama vowed to match the European Union's mid-century objectives of cutting CO2 emissions by 80 percent.

But as president, Obama has offered a more modest goal for 2020 of returning the United States to 1990 level emissions, a reduction of about 14 percent from current levels.

Obama's promise of a leading US role on climate change broke with his predecessor George W. Bush's stance, which had long frustrated Washington's EU partners.

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World will not meet 2C warming target, climate change experts agree

Guardian poll reveals almost nine out of 10 climate experts do not believe current political efforts will keep warming below 2C
David Adam, The Guardian 14 Apr 09;

Almost nine out of 10 climate scientists do not believe political efforts to restrict global warming to 2C will succeed, a Guardian poll reveals today. An average rise of 4-5C by the end of this century is more likely, they say, given soaring carbon emissions and political constraints.

Such a change would disrupt food and water supplies, exterminate thousands of species of plants and animals and trigger massive sea level rises that would swamp the homes of hundreds of millions of people.

The poll of those who follow global warming most closely exposes a widening gulf between political rhetoric and scientific opinions on climate change. While policymakers and campaigners focus on the 2C target, 86% of the experts told the survey they did not think it would be achieved. A continued focus on an unrealistic 2C rise, which the EU defines as dangerous, could even undermine essential efforts to adapt to inevitable higher temperature rises in the coming decades, they warned.

The survey follows a scientific conference last month in Copenhagen, where a series of studies were presented that suggested global warming could strike harder and faster than realised.

The Guardian contacted all 1,756 people who registered to attend the conference and asked for their opinions on the likely course of global warming. Of 261 experts who responded, 200 were researchers in climate science and related fields. The rest were drawn from industry or worked in areas such as economics and social and political science.

The 261 respondents represented 26 countries and included dozens of senior figures, including laboratory directors, heads of university departments and authors of the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The poll asked the experts whether the 2C target could still be achieved, and whether they thought that it would be met: 60% of respondents argued that, in theory, it was still technically and economically possible to meet the target, which represents an average global warming of 2C since the industrial revolution. The world has already warmed by about 0.8C since then, and another 0.5C or so is inevitable over coming decades given past greenhouse gas emissions. But 39% said the 2C target was impossible.

The poll comes as UN negotiations to agree a new global treaty to regulate carbon pollution gather pace in advance of a key meeting in Copenhagen in December. Officials will try to agree a successor to the Kyoto protocol, the first phase of which expires in 2012. The 2C target is unlikely to feature in a new treaty, but most of the carbon cuts proposed for rich countries are based on it. Bob Watson, chief scientist to Defra, told the Guardian last year that the world needed to focus on the 2C target, but should also prepare for a possible 4C rise.

Asked what temperature rise was most likely, 84 of the 182 specialists (46%) who answered the question said it would reach 3-4C by the end of the century; 47 (26%) suggested a rise of 2-3C, while a handful said 6C or more. While 24 experts predicted a catastrophic rise of 4-5C, just 18 thought it would stay at 2C or under.

Some of those surveyed who said the 2C target would be met confessed they did so more out of hope rather than belief. "As a mother of young children I choose to believe this, and work hard toward it," one said.

"This optimism is not primarily due to scientific facts, but to hope," said another. Some said they thought geoengineering measures, such as seeding the ocean with iron to encourage plankton growth, would help meet the target.

Many of the experts stressed that an inability to hit the 2C target did not mean that efforts to tackle global warming should be abandoned, but that the emphasis is now on damage limitation.

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Rocket Launches Damage Ozone Layer, Study Says

Anne Minard, for National Geographic News 14 Apr 09;

Plumes from rocket launches could be the world's next worrisome emissions, according to a new study that says solid-fuel rockets damage the ozone layer, allowing more harmful solar rays to reach Earth.

Thanks to international laws, ozone-depleting chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and methyl bromide have been slowly fading from the atmosphere. But when solid-fuel rockets launch, they release chlorine gas directly into the stratosphere, where the chlorine reacts with oxygen to form ozone-destroying chlorine oxides.

Increased international space launches and the potential commercial space travel boom could mean that rockets will soon emerge as the worst offenders in terms of ozone depletion, according to the study, published in the March issue of the journal Astropolitics.

If the space tourism industry alone follows market projections, rocket launches are "going to run up against Montreal Protocol," said study co-author Darin Toohey of the University of Colorado at Boulder. The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, an international treaty, prescribes measures intended to hasten the recovery of Earth's depleted ozone layer.

"This isn't urgent," Toohey said. "But if we wait 30 years, it will be."

Rocket Pollution

Currently the U.S., European, and Indian governments power their rockets with a mix of liquid and solid fuels, which generally take the form of powder or crystals. Russia and China use liquid fuels almost exclusively.

In general, the liquid rocket propellants havent yet undergone the level of scrutiny that solid propellants have, noted study leader Martin Ross, an atmospheric scientist from the Aerospace Corporation in Los Angeles.

"There is a general assumption that the various liquid rocket engines use 'green propellants,' and this is likely true to some extent," Ross said.

"But how do liquids compare to solids as far as ozone loss is concerned? We do not know for sure.

"What we have shown in the Astropolitics paper is that the rockets of the future will use liquid propellants and that they will fly ten or one hundred times more often than today's rockets," he continued.

"We do not have enough scientific information to predict how these high flight rates will affect the ozone layer in 10 or 20 years."

Further complicating matters, individual mission trajectories pollute to different degrees, he added.

Some launches release chemicals into the lower atmosphere, where most of them "rain out" fairly quickly. Others pollute the stratosphere, where they can linger and react with other chemicals.

Also, "we don't know enough about the real atmospheric impacts of all the various types [of fuels] to say for sure which are best," study co-author Toohey said.

"We need to get some observations in a variety of rockets to start to reduce uncertainties."

Global Warming vs. Ozone

Toohey is also sending out a pollution warning about so-called geoengineering proposals that have surfaced to combat global warming.

Some researchers, for example, want to seed the stratosphere with particles of sulfur dioxide and aluminum oxide to spur global cooling. (Read "Extreme Global Warming Fix Proposed: Fill the Skies With Sulfur.")

But aluminum oxide is one of the chemicals in solid rocket fuel that depletes ozone, Toohey pointed out.

"There are people in the engineering world who think we could address global warming in a way that could destroy our ozone layer," he said.

"If people are going to put particles into the stratosphere, they'd better be careful."

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