'Karachi faces tsunami risk as mangroves reducing’

Amar Guriro, The Daily Times 15 Apr 09;

KARACHI: Environmental experts have expressed concern over the reduction of mangrove forests along the Sindh coast, warning that if the mangroves are not protected, the city fears a greater risk of being hit by a tsunami in the future.

“Land reclamation along the coastal areas is the cause of this rapid reduction in mangrove forests,” said United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Pakistan National Coordinator Masood Lohar. “Besides the reclamation, the domestic and highly toxic industrial effluent that is being poured in the Arabian Sea has also damaged the mangrove forests,” added Lohar, as he guided a group of journalists on a visit to the mangrove forests located near the Kakapir village, Sandspit, where the UNDP, in collaboration of the Small Grants Programme, has launched an awareness programme among the indigenous communities.

“Mangroves are the shields of the coast that stop tsunamis. The level of damage caused by the industrial effluent to the mangroves can be gauged from the fact that most of the mangrove forests along the coasts of Karachi are filled with chemicals, severely affecting the natural growth of these trees,” he said, while adding that the decreasing mangrove plantation is also the reason for the changes in the weather pattern of the city.

During the tour, journalists visited the newly-built safety shed. “Local people have initiated a boat ride and a safety shed in the sea, to promote eco-tourism,” said Abdul Ghani, a resident of the village. Federal Additional Secretary for Environment Imtiaz Inayat Elhai had inaugurated the safety shed, which floats in the backwaters of the village.

Talking to the media, Elahi said that the federal government is planning to launch an awareness program to highlight the importance of the mangrove forests. Interestingly, when the agreement between the Sindh government and the federal government for the release of 10 million acre feet (MAF) of water in downstream Kotri, annually, to facilitate the survival of the mangroves and the subsequent inaction in this regard was brought to his notice, the federal additional secretary expressed completed ignorance about any such an agreement.

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Mangrove swamps declining in Sri Lankan waters

indopia.in 14 Apr 09;

Colombo, Apr 14 Commercial considerations are taking an heavy toll on the popular mangrove swamps of the lush green and picturesque Sri Lanka, with environmentalists asking for effective measures to preserve them.

Mangrove plants, covering a consideration area in the Island country have provided habitat for the oysters, a tourist attraction here, besides helping in water flow and enhancing the possession of sediments in the water system.

A study said healthy mangrove forests helped save Sri Lankan villagers during the Asian tsunami disaster that claimed the lives of several thousand people in December 2004.

" Mangrove protect from erosion as their massive root system is efficient. Fishing in these lagoons is the livelihood of many coastal dwellers. Of the entire land mass of sri lanka, Mangroves cover an area of 0.1 per cent,"said an official of the Sri Lankan Mangrove Conservation and Demonstration Centre.

Regarding practical conservation strategies, several hectares of degraded land are being reconverted to mangrove forest, the official pointed out.

As much as 12,000 hectares of area in Sri Lanka are covered under mangroves that include very rare species and types of plant associations in different climatological zones. Fishing in these lagoons is the livelihood for over 120,000 coastal people.

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Rare dolphin spits to catch its prey, scientists find

Australian snubfin dolphin fires jets of water from its mouth to round up fish, WWF discovers

Toni O'Loughlin, guardian.co.uk 14 Apr 09;

A rare species of Australian dolphin has been found to catch its fish prey by spitting water, according to research by WWF. The small snubfin dolphins hunt in groups and use their spitting technique to round up fish they have chased to the surface by firing jets of water from their mouths.
The unusual behaviour has only been observed in one other dolphin species, the Irrawaddy dolphin, which lives throughout south and south-east Asia.

"This is incredibly unusual behaviour, first seen in Australia off the Kimberley Coast," said WWF Australia's marine and coasts manager, Lydia Gibson. "It also confirms the snubfin dolphin is a fascinating animal, one which we know so little about."

The snubfin dolphin (Orcaella heinsohni) was discovered in 2005 and is Australia's only endemic dolphin species, meaning that it is unique to northern Australia. Virtually nothing is known about its behaviour or habits.

First sighted off the Kimberley coast near the resort town of Broome and dubbed "snubby" because of its blunt dorsal fin and rounded snout, the snubfin is struggling to survive.

New research by WWF indicates that Australia's heavily populated coastline and rapidly expanding tourist developments near environmental wonders, such as the Great Barrier Reef, could see this species disappear before it is properly understood.

Classified as near threatened by the IUCN 'red list' of endangered species, WWF's research shows the dolphin is particularly vulnerable to pollution, viruses and bacteria. It is also more likely than other dolphins to be ensnared by fishing nets because it prefers inshore estuarine habitats where river-nets are set.

"There are already development proposals – like the extension of the Townsville port – that could have major impacts on these species," said Gibson. Dying mangroves, rising sea levels, dam construction and dredging of estuaries are also pushing the snubfins to the edge of extinction, according to the WWF.

New research reveals extraordinary habits of rare Aussie dolphin
WWF 17 Apr 09;

A preliminary study on Australia’s mysterious snubfin dolphin has given researchers new insight into the mammal’s habits and behaviour, including that it uses an extraordinary spitting technique to catch prey.

The research, funded by ING DIRECT, has given an overview of the life and habits of this very rare marine mammal, affectionately named ‘snubby’ by researchers, which lives in tight-knit social groups along the northern coastlines of Australia.

The small dolphins hunt in groups and use a spitting technique to catch their prey - chasing fish to the surface of the water, and rounding them up by shooting jets of water from their mouths, said WWF-Australia’s Marine and Coasts Manager Lydia Gibson.

“This is incredibly unusual behaviour, first seen in Australia off the Kimberley Coast, has only been noted before in Irrawaddy dolphins, which are closely related to this species,” Gibson said. “It also confirms the snubfin dolphin is a fascinating animal, one which we know so little about.”

Gibson said the WWF/ING DIRECT research has been collating existing information from many sightings over the years while also gathering new valuable data about snubfin habitats across northern Australia.

The ten key findings from the research so far show that:

• Threats to mangrove systems from rising sea levels predicted with climate change and from human impacts such as dam construction, dredging and other destructive activities are the greatest threat to the snubfin. Where mangrove systems are destroyed or damaged, the snubfins will lose their food and their habitat/home.

• Snubfins are very susceptible to chemical pollution, viruses and bacteria because they live close to shore and have a relatively small range. A parasite found in cat faeces (Toxoplasma gondii) is of particular concern, as it was found - via contaminated run-off - to be the cause of death of three Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins recovered around Townsville in the period 2000-2001.

• Snubfin dolphins are more likely than other dolphins to be caught in gill nets because they prefer inshore estuarine habitats where river-nets are set.

• Snubfin families appear to spend much of their lives in very small territories close to shore. This means snubfin populations can be heavily impacted by habitat destruction and unsustainable development.

“These top ten facts were uncovered to better understand what we do and do not know about the snubfin dolphin. They will provide us with the benchmark we need to inform conservationists, government and scientists about how best to conserve and manage this unique and threatened species for future generations.”

Ms Gibson said that habitat destruction was the key threat to these coastal dolphins.

“There are already development proposals around the Great Barrier Reef that could affect their habitat – like the extension of the Townsville Port – that could have major impacts on these species. We must work with all relevant stakeholders to initiate a strategic environment assessment of future developments close to snubfin habitats.”

Australia’s largest online bank, ING DIRECT, joined WWF-Australia’s flagship species conservation program to help fund research into the snubfin dolphin, primarily in Queensland.

“We are even more proud now that we have been able to help researchers uncover a range of remarkable facts and insights that may help preserve this remarkable creature long into the future,” said Christian Bohlke, ING DIRECT Head of Branding and Communications.

ING DIRECT’s funded research has not only given insights into the, until now, secret lives of these dolphins, it has also revealed the threats they face from man.

“This overview sets the stage for the ongoing research needed to help us discover ways to minimise our impact on these unique Australian creatures. Companies like ING DIRECT that fund this research are helping us preserve an extraordinary creature and are building a legacy that will be enjoyed by Australians for generations to come,” Bohlke said.

Rare "Snubby" Dolphins Spit to Hunt
Brian Handwerk, National Geographic News 20 Apr 09;

Spitting in public isn't rude in snubfin dolphin society—it's expected.

The rare marine mammals hunt together by chasing fish to the surface and then "spitting" water at them to herd them for the kill, researchers with the conservation nonprofit WWF recently discovered.

As their name implies, snubfin—or "snubby"—dolphins have especially short dorsal fins, but they may be more recognizable by their melon-like heads and beakless profiles. The social animals dwell in groups of six or more.

The six-foot-long (two-meter-long) snubfins are now the second dolphin species known to use a cooperative hunting technique in which they shoot jets of water from their mouths to drive fish toward other dolphins.

"It's incredibly unusual behavior that has only been noted before in Irrawaddy dolphins," said WWF-Australia's marine and coasts manager, Lydia Gibson.

"It's a bizarre kind of technique. Some were seen spitting water high into the air and [others] straight along the surface of the water. It's a fascinating behavior, but we still know so little about them and about exactly how they do it."

Snubfin and Irrawaddy dolphins were thought to be the same species until 2005, when scientists learned that snubfins were a unique species swimming the mangroves, rivers, estuaries, and coastal waters of northern Australia.

Snubfins are coastal dwellers and appear to inhabit small territories, so they may be especially susceptible to pollution, coastal development, and other threats to mangrove ecosystems, Gibson noted.

"Their presence is an indicator of a healthy ecosystem, so we have an [important] opportunity" to learn more about the mysterious dolphin's lifestyle and thus make better decisions about preserving its habitat, she said.

"It's critical to do what we can to protect our coastal ecosystems."

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Sturgeon reappears in Baltic after century absence

Yahoo News 14 Apr 09;

STOCKHOLM (AFP) – A fisherman trawling off the Swedish island of Oeland netted a sturgeon from a species which had disappeared from the Baltic Sea a century ago, news agency TT reported Tuesday.

Fisherman Ulf Aakerlund was at first stumped when he found the 78-centimeter (two-and-a-half-foot) fish in his nets last week.

"Initially I had no idea what it was. But when we looked it up on the Internet and looked in a few books we realised it was a sturgeon," he told TT.

The specimen was an Atlantic sturgeon, or Acipenser oxyrhynchus, which was thought to have been extinct in the Baltic Sea since the early 1900s due to overfishing.

But according to fish expert Mikael Svensson of the Swedish Species Information Centre, efforts have in recent years been made in Poland to breed sturgeon, and the specimen may have come from there.

"This is a good sign. It would be great if we could have this species in Swedish waters again. The sturgeon is a very special fish that doesn't resemble anything else we have in our waters," Svensson told TT.

Atlantic sturgeon can grow as big as 4.5 meters (15 feet) and weigh 360 kilograms (795 pounds).

The species is rare in European waters but is more common off North America's eastern coast.

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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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