The importance of being informed

James Fairbairn, ScienceAlert 20 Aug 09;

The Earth’s climate is changing. Of that there is no doubt. Then again there is also no doubt that the Earth’s climate has always been changing, since day one. The debate that is raging is whether, this time, man in all his dark glory is causing it. This is not an article about the complex science of climate, it is an article about why it is important that each of us does our research and makes an informed decision.

This topic is the single most important topic of our times. What governments do as a result will affect us all. None of us can afford to be agnostic or to go with the flow. It is not being overly dramatic to say that the entire future of the human race potentially depends upon the outcome.

The argument that you are presented with each day is very simple. It has to be. Our entire mass media system is based on short bursts of information: sound bites. The hypothesis is that carbon dioxide (CO2) is a “greenhouse gas” and its increasing concentration in the Earth’s atmosphere - from about 0.0290 per cent to 0.0385 per cent in the last 100 years - has been caused by mankind's use of fossil fuels. The CO2 is “polluting” the atmosphere and leading to a “runaway greenhouse effect” where the planet will get warmer and warmer, leading to mass extinctions, sea level rises and will threaten our entire civilisation. CO2 is to blame. And we have caused it. Therefore we must and can solve it.

The solutions presented are, again, pretty simple. Governments will tax CO2 emissions through a quota system by which companies will have to buy permits allowing them the right to “pollute” the Earth with additional CO2, and will be able to trade their quotas in a global carbon trading system. Over time the quotas will become more and more stringent, reducing CO2 envisions, and hence saving the planet from doom. It all sounds pretty sensible.

If only life and science were that simple in reality. As I said before this is not an article about the science of climate, however it is essential to briefly consider the Earth’s ever changing climate and the factors that have historically influenced it. So what are they?

The Sun, the source of our heat and light. Does its energy output ever vary, and what impact does that have on climate?

Volcanoes. Do the vast releases of gases and heat from surface and submarine volcanoes influence climate? Are we measuring all these releases?

Water Vapour. It too is a greenhouse gas, and it is more than 30 times more prevalent in the atmosphere than CO2. Does the cloud cover of Earth affect climate, and if so what affects this cloud cover?

Further considerations include other greenhouse gases, such as methane; the inter-action of gases between the air, plants, oceans, bacteria, animals; wobbles in the Earth’s orbit, and its movement through the universe in general…

And I’m afraid that is just the tip of the mountain of information with which you will need to familiarise yourself. I bet you wish you had paid more attention during school geography and science lessons now, don’t you?

So what other questions do you need to ask?

Is the recent CO2 increase being caused by man? Does the increase in CO2 cause climate to change or is it caused by changing climate? Is the speed and amount of modern climate change unprecedented? Is the temperature range in the last 100 years outside normal variability? Has CO2 been considerably higher, and lower, than present and yet the Earth’s oceans have neither boiled away nor permanently frozen solid? Is CO2 actually pollution? Plants rather thrive on it after all.

So why is all this important? If we are to believe that “CO2 is a pollutant” and it is the only problem, then you have a problem because, if you take the argument to its ultimate conclusion then you are the problem. You exhale more than 350kg of CO2 each year. Your lifestyle leads to further CO2 emissions through the use of transportation, your consumables and your food supply - whether it be methane emitting livestock or the transportation of your food from the farm to your table.

Therefore if man is the problem, surely the only effective solution will be fewer humans: a lot less than the seven billion who are currently causing the apparent problem.

You are probably saying to yourself “But why would governments go along with this if it wasn’t necessarily correct?” And for that matter why would corporations or scientific bodies either?

Let’s look at governments first. Politicians have two raisons d’etre: to be seen to be taking positive action by the electorate; and when in power to raise taxes to pay for services to appease the never satisfied voters. Making CO2 the problem addresses both of these issues very effectively.

A politician who is seen to be taking action to combat “carbon pollution” (probably the most unscientific term ever created as it is open to debate whether it is pollution) gains lots of kudos when it comes to the all important “green” vote.

As for taxation well there are literally billions of reasons. Take Australia for example. Its carbon emissions scheme is expected to raise revenues of about $20 billion a year by 2012. More than enough, for example, to pay off the deficits created by the recent economic stimulus packages. And the best bit is that the voters love it. A tax that is popular is manna from heaven.

So what about corporations: surely they hate extra taxes? Well, yes and no. Certainly, there are some industry sectors which will thrive for as long as CO2 is seen as the problem, and will naturally manipulate the agenda to their benefit as much as they can. Examples such as the nuclear power industry (remember Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Sizewell?), or arable agri-businesses (nasty old farting cows causing global warming) spring to mind. But anyway, as with any tax, the ultimate payers will be the end consumers, you and I, through higher costs passed on by the corporations.

But the biggest winners by far will be the banks. There are literally trillions of reasons why they love this scheme. It is estimated that by 2020 the global market in “carbon” will be worth more than US$2 trillion, thus making it the single biggest market in the world! And, what’s more, it is a market created out of, and trading in, thin air. Can you think of any reasons why they might be motivated to smooth the agenda onwards?

Yes, that’s all very well. Corporations are all in it for themselves, as are politicians. We all know and expect that. However we are told daily in the (corporate or government owned) media that the scientific debate is over and consensus has been achieved, aren’t we? But has it?

Where do scientists get their research grants from? And who wouldn’t like to attend all expenses paid junkets, sorry conferences, in exotic locations?

In a way this whole CO2 thing is our placebo. We are “doing something about our wicked ways” after-all. And maybe our polluting ways have given us an over inflated sense of power and control over nature itself. Maybe we can do what King Canute failed to do and we can hold back the tide. Assuming that is that CO2 is the only cause.

However the big danger is that while we sit there at the waters edge, shouting “stop!” at the rising tide, we ignore what we are actually doing to the environment. More than 99 per cent of environment-related media stories are about CO2. But is it 99 per cent more dangerous to our survival than all the other things we are doing?

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not pro-car: or in the pay of the oil companies. To survive our species must live sustainably in harmony with the eco-system. We must stop polluting in every way. We must change the way we live or eventually Mother Nature will punish us and we will go the way of T-Rex. That is inevitable. The big question here is, by “tackling CO2” are we addressing the problem, or ignoring it and potentially making it a damn sight worse for our ultimate survival? No doubt other pollution reducing benefits will come from CO2 reducing activities; however, would it not be more efficient to deal with the actual problem directly rather than indirectly? Recent media reports have shown that corporations are already simply moving their worst polluting activities to the developing world where carbon restrictions will be less onerous. Is the human life there worth any less?

The world economy is being re-shaped through the development of a new multi-trillion dollar global financial industry paid for by an indirect tax on all consumers. The question you must ask yourself is whether this is the right solution to the problem at hand?

The downside with making an informed opinion from this is, of course, is that you can never be 100 per cent sure you are right. You can only make the most informed choice based on the balance of probabilities from the information you have received. Many of us, no doubt, will have placed considerable intellectual credibility on taking a stance on this whole subject. However each one of us must keep our minds open to new arguments and information. There is too much at stake and ultimately we must be prepared to take a volte-face if necessary.

As CS Lewis very presciently once said “We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”

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E. O. Wilson: We must save the living environment

Roger Highfield, New Scientist 22 Aug 09;

Saving Earth's biodiversity will take nothing less than an IPCC for species, says the world's leading biologist and ant guru.

What's this idea all about?

It sounds immodest but I call it Wilson's law. It says that if you save the living environment, you will automatically save the physical environment. But if you only try to save the physical environment, you will lose them both. That is a defensible law.

So we need a major rethink?

When we talk about the world going green, the media and the public think of pollution or fresh-water shortage. They understand, and want to do something. But that is the physical world; concern for the living environment has been slow to take off, as Julia Marton-Lefèvre, head of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), will agree. We are not making the headway we should be in preventing the destruction of ecosystems and species. I have written book after book arguing that if we don't start caring about holding onto them, we will have big problems - some unforeseeable. Most Americans have only the vaguest notion about any of that, even though they can talk intelligently about climate change. Yet when it comes to the living world they are in danger of losing something they scarcely understand.

What are these people missing out on?

People see nature as trees, plants and vertebrates. Yet the world is run by little creatures most people have not heard of; 99 per cent of Earth's organisms are extremely small. For example, some of the most abundant and crucial land animals are the tiny oribatid mites, which are the size of a pinhead and look like a cross between a turtle and a spider. They are a linchpin organism of the environment, but 20 years ago when I set out to identify them no one had heard of them. Back then there were just two people in the US able to identify them. Fortunately one agreed to work with me. Yet we still don't know what the vast majority of oribatids do.

Do you have a plan for what we should do?

I am working on a joint proposal with Simon Stuart, head of the Species Survival Commission at the IUCN. I want to set up an effort along the lines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to protect species. The panel has had huge success marshalling global science to address climate change, providing models and the evidence to show climate change is happening, and that it is due to human activity. But it is still all about the physical world.

This sounds like a natural fit with your other big project, the Encyclopedia of Life

Yes, it is. In 2003, I suggested we set up an electronic encyclopedia to register everything known about the 1.8 million or so species on Earth. People thought it would be a wonderful base from which to find out about millions of species we don't know about. We ended up with $30 million, and the EoL went live in February 2008. Now, if we can have a partnership between the EoL, the IUCN and other key conservation organisations, we would soon be able to make much more "surgical" recommendations about conserving species.
Profile

E. O. Wilson is Pellegrino University Research Professor at Harvard University. His latest book, with Bert Hölldobler, is The Superorganism: The beauty, elegance, and strangeness of insect societies (W. W. Norton, 2008)

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Malaysia's Penan tribe ups anti-logging campaign

Sarah Stewart, AFP Google News 23 Aug 09;

LONG BELOK, Malaysia — Hundreds of Penan tribespeople armed with spears and blowpipes have set up new blockades deep in the Borneo jungles, escalating their campaign against logging and palm oil plantations.

Three new barricades, guarded by Penan men and women who challenged approaching timber trucks, have been established in recent days. There are now seven in the interior of Malaysia's Sarawak state.

"They are staging this protest now because most of their land is already gone, destroyed by logging and grabbed by the plantation companies," said Jok Jau Evong from Friends of the Earth in Sarawak.

"This is the last chance for them to protect their territory. If they don't succeed, there will be no life for them, no chance for them to survive."

Penan chiefs said that after enduring decades of logging which has decimated the jungles they rely on for food and shelter, they now face the new threat of clear-felling to make way for crops of palm oil and planted timber.

"Since these companies came in, life has been very hard for us. Before it was easy to find animals in the forest and hunt them with blowpipes," said Alah Beling, headman of Long Belok where one of the barricades has been built.

"The forest was once our supermarket, but now it's hard to find food, the wild boar have gone," he said in his settlement, a scenic cluster of wooden dwellings home to 298 people and reachable only by a long suspension bridge.

Alah Beling said he fears that plans to establish plantations for palm oil -- which is used in food and for biofuel -- on their ancestral territory, will threaten their lifestyle and further pollute the village river with pesticide run-off.

"Once our river was so clear you could see fish swimming six feet deep," he said as he gestured at the waterway, which like most others in the region has been turned reddish-brown by the soil that cascades from eroded hillsides.

Indigenous rights group Survival International said the blockades are the most extensive since the late 1980s and early 1990s when the Penan's campaign to protect their forests shot to world attention.

"It's amazing they're still struggling on after all these years, more than 20 years after they began to try to fight off these powerful companies," said Miriam Ross from the London-based group.

Official figures say there are more than 16,000 Penan in Sarawak, including about 300 who still roam the jungle and are among the last truly nomadic people on Earth.

The blockades, which Friends of the Earth said involve 13 Penan communities home to up to 3,000 people, are aimed at several Malaysian timber and plantation companies including Samling, KTS, Shin Yang and Rimbunan Hijau.

After clearing much of the valuable timber from Sarawak, a vast state which lies on Malaysia's half of Borneo island, some of these companies are now converting their logging concessions into palm oil and acacia plantations.

"They told us earlier this month they were coming to plant palm oil, and I said if you do we will blockade," said Alah Beling.

"They told us we don't have any rights to the land, that they have the licence to plant here. I felt very angry -- how can they say we have no right to this land where our ancestors have lived for generations?"

Even on land that has been logged in the past, Penan can still forage for sago which is their staple food, medicinal plants, and rattan and precious aromatic woods which are sold to buy essential goods.

"Oil palm is worse because nothing is left. If they take all our land, we will not be able to survive," the Long Belok headman said.

Sarawak's Rural Development Minister James Masing admitted some logging companies had behaved badly and "caused extensive damage" but said the Penan were "good storytellers" and their claims should be treated with caution.

"The Penan are the darlings of the West, they can't do any wrong in the eyes of the West," he said.

Masing said disputes were often aimed at wringing more compensation from companies, or stemmed from conflicts between Penan and other indigenous tribes including the Kenyah and Kayan about overlapping territorial claims.

He said the current surge in plantation activity was triggered by Sarawak's goal to double its palm oil coverage to 1.0 million hectares (2.47 million acres) -- an area 14 times bigger than Singapore.

"The time we have been given to do this is running short. 2010 is next year so we want to make that target and that is why there may be a push to do it now, to fulfil our goal established 10 years ago," he said.

"In some areas the logging has not been done in accordance with the rules and some of the loggers have caused extensive damage. That does happen and I do sympathise with the Penan along those lines," he said.

"But the forest has become a source of income for the state government so we have to exploit it".

Driving through the unsealed roads that reach deep into the Borneo interior, evidence of the new activity is clear with whole valleys stripped of vegetation and crude terraces carved into the hills ready for seedlings.

Most of the companies declined to comment on the allegations made by the Penan, but Samling said it "regrets to learn about the blockades".

"We have long worked with communities in areas we operate to ensure they lead better lives," it said in a statement.

Its website says its acacia timber plantations in Sarawak will "enhance the health of the forests" and that it uses "only the most sensitive ways to clear the land".

The Penan allegations could discredit Malaysia?s claims that it produces sustainable palm oil, particularly in Europe and the US where activists blame the industry for deforestation and driving orangutans towards extinction.

Indigenous campaigners say that past blockades have seen violence and arrests against tribespeople, but village chiefs -- some of whom were detained during the 1980s blockades -- said they did not fear retribution.

"We're not afraid. They're the ones destroying my property. Last time we didn't know the law and now to protect ourselves, but now we know our rights," said Ngau Luin, the chief of Long Nen where another barricade was set up.

An AFP team reporting at the blockades was photographed by angry timber company officials, and later intercepted at a roadblock by police armed with machineguns and taken away for questioning.

The plight of the Penan was made famous in the 1980s by environmental activist Bruno Manser, who waged a crusade to protect their way of life and fend off the loggers. He vanished in 2000 -- many suspect foul play.

Read more!

Fortune nest

The New Straits Times 23 Aug 09;

The bird's nest industry is a money-spinner, which explains the sudden proliferation of swiftlet 'motels' in the country. The downside is that many are operating without licences, write HEIDI FOO and DHARSHINI BALAN.

THE edible bird's nest industry in Malaysia is a potentially lucrative one but not enough is being done to develop it.

Operators are hampered by confusing rules and guidelines, and this has resulted in 90 per cent of them operating without licences.

Currently, Malaysia is the third largest producer of the costly delicacy behind Indonesia and Thailand, which dominate the export market at 80 and 12 per cent respectively.


"Our share is only about eight per cent, which is worth RM1 billion per annum. We hope to increase our export market and generate some RM5 billion per annum within the next five years," says Datuk Beh Hee Seong, president of the Federation of Malaysian Edible-Nest Swiftlet Merchants Association.

The largest consumer of the interwoven strands of hardened bird's saliva is China, followed by the United States.

Beh said there were 40,000 operators in the country, but the majority were operating without licences.

The reason: the complicated hodgepodge of rules and guidelines set by local authorities in the districts.



As many are operating without licences, it is difficult to monitor their practices. This has resulted in public complaints and protests over the noise and unhygienic conditions of premises where the birds roost.

Beh admits that complaints over noise is a major issue. The operators use recorded bird sounds to attract the swiftlets to nest at their premises.

"The operators will turn up the volume or fail to turn it off after a certain time."

He suggests that licensed operators be given a sticker with a hotline number for complaints. They can affix the sticker on their premises.


As for the business being messy and unhygienic, Beh says the converse is true.

"The public is ill-informed. They think that the birds put them at risk of diseases such as dengue. But with the technology available, most operators are using humidity controllers.

"The swiftlets also eat mosquitoes and flies and only excrete inside the building."

He said the association had proposed that only those who could show a letter of support from residents in the vicinity of the bird motel, be given a licence.

Beh said an operator was considered successful if he could produce 100 bird's nests in a year from one premise.

"For every 1kg of bird's nest, they can get between RM5,000 and RM18,000, depending on the grade of the product," he adds.

Fortunately, the government has given an undertaking to look into the problems faced by the industry.

It has set up a committee to coordinate activities as well as come up with standard rules and regulations for those who want to venture into the business.

Veterinary Services Department director-general Datuk Dr Abdul Aziz Jamaluddin admitted that at present, there was an overlapping of local government by-laws, the Animals Act and also the Wildlife Protection Act.

"The role of this technical committee will be to look into the issues faced by the breeders and work with them to come up with standard rules and regulations which will be applicable for the entire industry.

"However, this will take time and for now, we will do our best to assist breeders obtain approval to run their businesses."

He said the cabinet had acknowledged that the industry was highly profitable and had tasked the department with developing it.

"We have started work on a blueprint for the industry and expect it to be ready by the end of the year."

Dr Aziz said there has also been complaints about red tape and problems in applying for a licence.

"We have been informed that there are discrepancies in the export procedures and this eventually leads to the smuggling of the products. We are also looking into a product grading system."

Dr Aziz said the department would help operators obtain the necessary certification, including the halal label.

"This will make their products more marketable, especially in Organisation of Islamic Conference member countries."

He said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak would be meeting operators soon at a forum in Pekan.

"We are fully supportive of this industry and encourage more people, especially Bumiputeras to venture into it."

He said the department was also looking into the possibility of captive breeding and providing feed throughout the year.

"This way, the birds will be ensured food throughout the year. This kind of environment will also help the birds produce better quality nests.

"However, this method is still being researched. Once we obtain a grant from the government, we will proceed with our pioneer project."


Chinese delicacy for over 400 years

EDIBLE bird's nest is among the most expensive animal product in the world. They have been used in traditional Chinese cooking for more than 400 years.

The nests are built by the male swiftlet over a period of 35 days during the breeding season. It takes the shape of a shallow cup and is stuck to the walls of a cave or building.

The nests consist of interwoven strands of salivary laminae cement and have high levels of calcium, iron, potassium and magnesium.

Negri Sembilan Association of Bird's Nest Traders president Datuk Lee Yuen Fong said the nests were harvested thrice a year, with each harvesting period lasting for up to three months.

"Swiftlets are monogamous birds and both partners take turns caring for the nestlings. The average life span of a swiflet is between 15 and 18 years."

Traditionally, the nests were harvested from limestone caves such as Niah Caves at Niah National Park and Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak. However, over the years, businessmen have turned houses into breeding grounds for swiftlets.

To lure the birds, which breed in colonies, recorded sounds of chirping females are played constantly on speakers.

Lee said it was important to be able to distinguish between genuine and fake bird's nest.

"One of our problems is the increasing number of fake bird's nest in the market."

He said anyone who was familiar with the product would be able to tell them apart.

"Swiftlets build their nests with their saliva. These strands of saliva will detach from each other when soaked in water and will be of different lengths and sizes.

"The strands in a fake product will be identical in size."

He said genuine high quality bird's nests would expand to double its size after being soaked and cooked.

"This is a multi-million ringgit industry and because of this there are many unscrupulous parties trying to cash in."

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Australian oil spill threatens ocean as driller faces multimillion bill

Josh Gordon, The Age 23 Aug 09;

THE operator of an oil rig responsible for a massive oil leak off the West Australian coast will be forced to pay millions of dollars to clean up the spill, which authorities warn poses a serious threat to the environment.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority yesterday launched a major clean-up operation as oil and gas continued to seep from a 1200-metre-deep well drilled by the West Atlas - an oil rig located 690 kilometres west of Darwin, 250 kilometres off the far north Kimberley coast and 150 kilometres south-east of Ashmore Reef.

The spill, which is eight nautical miles long and 30 metres wide, began early on Friday, forcing the evacuation of 69 workers to Darwin.

The company responsible for the rig, PTTEP Australasia, said the leak had not yet been brought under control.

PTTEP director Jose Martins said the leak was mainly gas, with a much lower oil content than when the spill began, but the related fire risk meant it was impossible to get back on to the platform.

''So that option for bringing the leak under control is ruled out for now,'' he said.

He said early reports that poisonous hydrogen sulphide gas had been released were wrong.

The company has called in gas and oil spill experts to help with the clean-up.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority was put in charge of the operation after the size of the spill became apparent. It warned that the remote location of the rig would make the clean-up difficult.

Authority chief executive Graham Peachey said it was too early to determine the environmental impact, cost, or when the leak would be stopped.

''It hasn't been contained but the slick hasn't grown overnight, and indications are it is either breaking down or evaporating as quickly as it is leaking out of the ocean floor, but all of that has to be confirmed by the science,'' Mr Peachey said.

While the slick remained a long way offshore and had not moved closer to the coastline, Mr Peachey said the environmental threat remained serious.

''Oil on the water is not good for the environment. What we are trying to do is mitigate the risks to the environment and to do so as quickly as we can.''

The authority has chartered a Hercules aircraft from Singapore to spray the slick with about 50 tonnes of chemicals to help disperse the oil. Two more aircraft are on standby for support.

Mr Peachey said the clean-up would be expensive but he would not speculate on the final bill.

He said only that the authority had insisted that PTTEP agree to meet the cost.

''I'd be speculating, but you can imagine, we've got two aircraft on the spot, we've got personnel all round the north, we've got a Hercules chartered from Singapore, and we've got a lot of stockpile of dispersant moved up there, so this is going to cost a lot,'' he said.

One of the evacuated rig workers told ABC Radio his colleagues had detected a gas leak and observed bubbling around one of the platform's 1200-metre-deep drilling holes.

He said the rig had been evacuated after concerns that hydrogen sulphide was leaking from the area.

Australian Marine Conservation Society director Darren Kindleysides said there was huge potential for damage to unique marine biodiversity.

''With the west continuing to grow as a frontier for oil and gas exploration, this could become more regular,'' Mr Kindleysides said.

WA Greens senator and the party's marine spokeswoman, Rachel Siewert, accused the company of withholding information and said the clean-up plan was taking too long.

''We should be putting out emergency response equipment much closer to those sites so that we don't have to wait 24 hours,'' Senator Siewert said.

Green group urges oil spill action
ABC Net 23 Aug 09;

An environmental action group says the delay in cleaning up an oil spill off Australia's north-west coast shows the shortcomings in the Federal Government's emergency planning for oil spills at sea.

But the Government say the spill, at the West Atlas mobile offshore drilling unit in the Timor sea, is smaller than first thought.

The incident occurred early Friday morning and 69 workers were evacuated from the site when oil and gas began leaking from the rig.

The slick is 14 kilometres long and 30 metres wide and is about 100 kilometres off the Western Australia coast.

Authorities on Saturday declared a 37-kilometre exclusion zone around the rig, which is owned by Norwegian company Seadrill and operated by Thai-based PTTEP Australasia.

John Dee from the environmental action group Do Something says urgent steps need to be taken.

"This is a particularly pristine marine environment and that's what makes this spill so concerning," he said.

"It's teeming with baby turtles at this time of year, it's a migratory whale route, and of course we need to make sure that this spill is contained because the Ashmore Reef is just 150 kilometres away.

"That's why the Government needs to make sure all efforts are made to ensure it's cleaned up as soon as possible."

Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson says the slick is beginning to evaporate naturally and chemical dispersants will be used to speed up that process.

He has told Channel 10 that it poses no threat to the Australian coastline.

"The oil spill is not as big as first thought. It's in the Montara [oil] field," he said.

"The Australian Maritime Safety Authority is on the job. They're in charge of the clean-up and the company itself has flown in the necessary technical advice to work out how they cap the developed well as quickly as possible."

Size assessment

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority says a search and rescue aircraft has just left Darwin to assess whether an oil slick off the Western Australian coast has grown overnight.

The Authority's Tracey Jiggins says a plane was sent out this morning to assess the situation, but it is expected the spill has stayed the same size.

She says a Hercules aircraft carrying chemicals to start dispersing the oil spill has also just left Darwin.

"What they'll do is they'll go out and assess the situation all the safety measurements and things will be put in place to make sure it's safe to go," she said.

"Our information is that the slick has remained quite constant. It appears to be evaporating at the same rate as it's leaking.

"We don't expect that will have changed overnight but we'll have to wait until those aircraft get on scene and feed back information about how it's going this morning."

She says a decision will then be made on how much chemical will be sprayed, with the aircraft allowed to fly within two nautical miles of the rig.

Jose Martins from PTTEP Australasia says any environmental impact will be minimal.

"The oil is dispersing very quickly, so the rate of dispersement [sic] is quite quick," he said.

"Therefore there's no visible endangerment to any wildlife at this stage, and it's quite far from any land. It is a remote location."

Fix 'could take days'

He says a group of experts is trying to work out how to fix the leak.

"Until we can get a proper report ... only then we can tell you what the next stage is and how long this will take to repair," he said.

Mr Martins says the leaking gas poses a major fire risk, making it difficult for anyone to access the site.

"We have engaged international experts and they will be given whatever resources they need to bring the situation under control," he said.

Australian oil well to gush for nearly two months
Reuters 23 Aug 09;

SYDNEY, Aug 23 (Reuters) - A leaking Australian oil well is likely to pour oil into the Timor Sea for nearly two months before it can be stopped, the operator said on Sunday, as environmentalists expressed grave fears for rare wildlife.

Rig operator PTTEP Australasia said it planned to drill a relief well and pour mud to stop the leak, which began on Friday with a blow-out more than three kilometres (two miles) deep.

It would take 20 days to bring a new offshore drilling rig by barge from Singapore, plus four weeks to drill, the company said in a statement.

Asked if this meant the well would flow for nearly two months, a company spokesman told Reuters: "That is pretty much the estimation."

Environmentalists have expressed concern about the giant slick, saying the entire area is ecologically significant and part of an "ocean super highway" for migrating animals between the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Many breathe air and could surface in the oil, an official of WWF Australia said.

Earlier on Sunday the Australian Maritime Safety Authority used C-130 Hercules aircraft to spray dispersant chemicals on the slick, which was in excess of 8 nautical miles (15 kilometres) in length.

Spokeswoman Tracey Jiggins said the results were encouraging but the agency was prepared for a long operation.

PTTEP Australasia, a unit of Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production PCL PTTE.BK, said a team of international experts recommended drilling a relief well, to intersect the existing well and stop its flow.

Company spokesman Ian Williams gave no estimate of the amount of oil that would be released, but said the company believed it would be possible to prevent the slick spreading.

"There is a blow-out of some kind. It is very deep," Williams told Reuters, putting the depth at around 3,500 metres.

An air exclusion zone had been set up and ships advised to stay more than 20 nautical miles away from the rig, considered too dangerous to board.

WWF Australia called for changes to ensure better preparations for such disasters, noting it took three days for the first dispersant to be sprayed.

"From a global scale this is one of the most important places on the planet for ocean wildlife," Gilly Llewelyn, WWF Australia's director of conservation, told Reuters.

Among the animals affected were three endangered species of turtles, plus sea snakes, she said. Even a pygmy blue whale has been monitored there.

"It seems to be one of these critical migration routes -- an oceanic super highway," she said.

The spill occurred at the Montara development, a project due to come on stream later this year. The West Atlas drilling unit is owned by Norway's SeaDrill Ltd (SDRL.OL: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), but operated by PTTEP Australasia.

The location has been given as about 250 km (155 miles) off the far north Kimberley coast of Western Australia state.

Australia's official overseer for the petroleum industry, the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority, was investigating the incident. (Editing by Jerry Norton) (Sydney Newsroom +612 6273 2730)

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El Nino threatens Indonesian farmers’ livelihood

The Jakarta Post 22 Aug 09;

The El Nino heat wave, predicted to strike in September, will potentially reduce the country’s rice production by at least 750,000 tons, a discussion heard on Saturday.

“The Agricultural Ministry even predicted recently that the decline in rice production could reach 1.6 million tons due to El Nino,” said Darmayanto, a member of the House of Representatives Commission IV on agriculture.

“That means around 300,000 farmers and their families will face a serious economic problem.”

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) has predicted that rice production this year would reach 60.93 million tons, slightly higher from last year’s 60.25 million tons.

State Logistics Agency (Bulog) chief Mustafa Abubakar expressed his confidence the national rice stock would remain adequate despite the El Nino weather anomaly.

“We plan to increase our rice reserves to five million tons from currently 2.5 million tons to anticipate prolonged drought as a result of El Nino,” he said.

The country currently has about 12.4 million hectares of rice fields, 4 million of which are irrigated.

Mustafa said that without securing extra reserves the country would not run out of rice stock for at least in the next three or four months.

“If we manage to increase the reserves, we hope to provide a sufficient back-up of rice supply for the next five or six months.” (hdt)

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Rainforest dies for your cattle feed, NZ farmers warned

Kim Knight, Sunday Star Times, Stuff.co.nz 23 Aug 09;

Dairy farmers have been implicated in a new palm oil scandal after revelations that last year the national herd ate one-quarter of the world's palm kernel stock food supply.

More than one million tonnes of palm kernel expeller (PKE) was imported last year, mostly from Indonesia and Malaysia, where environmental groups are concerned at the palm industry's role in the loss of tropical rainforest and destruction of tiger and orang-utan habitat.

An international body, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, has been set up to ensure sustainable supply of palm product, but secretary-general Dr Vengeta Rao said last week that "very little" of what entered New Zealand would have been certified.

His comment follows Cadbury's decision to back down on plans to introduce palm oil to its Dairy Milk chocolate, after a public outcry.

PKE is created when palm fruit is crushed and processed to produce palm kernel oil. Based on figures provided by the roundtable, a maximum 330,000 tonnes of PKE on the global market since last August could be considered certified. This country imported 1,104,387 tonnes, putting our consumption rates second only to the combined 27 countries of the European Union.

Two weeks ago, the Sunday Star-Times travelled to Indonesia with Greenpeace communications manager Suzette Jackson and Waitakaruru farmer Max Purnell to see, first hand, the impact of this trade that the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry says has increased one thousand-fold since 2000.

We spoke to community leaders who said they had been jailed in their fight to keep land from palm companies, and conservationists who feared for the future of animals such as the Sumatran orang-utan.

"Not only is this trade damaging to the environment on the ground here, it's also really damaging to how we are trying to portray ourselves internationally, as a country that does care, that does give a damn, and wants to live up to what we trade on our clean, green identity," said Jackson.

Farmers argue the spike in imports was due to last year's devastating drought and the need to provide supplementary feed. But, says Jackson, "the figures have climbed really steadily over the past 10 years. Drought has a little bit to do with it, but the major reason this increase has come about is through the intensification and corporatisation of New Zealand's dairy sector."

Purnell said he had witnessed the "systematic, deliberate, studied rape and desecration of land and the local people's ability to have a future with it". He believed that if dairy farmers knew the potential impact of the PKE trade, they would find alternatives.
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Hew Dalrymple, Federated Farmers' grain and seed section vice-chairman, said there were serious biosecurity concerns about PKE. "There are threats from imported insects, risk from soil contamination and foot and mouth disease and food safety issues... with that amount of product coming into the country, shipload after shipload, it is a real biosecurity issue for us."

Lachlan McKenzie, Federated Farmers' dairy chairman, said farmers needed supplementary feed during last year's drought, and PKE was just a by-product. "The palm is grown for oil, not its by-product. This is the husk that is left after the oil is taken out... palm oil is the prime driver of this."

He said it was up to importers, not farmers, to ensure the product was being sustainably produced.

Biosecurity and Agriculture Minister David Carter said the government recognised the importance of New Zealand's reputation and image in world markets, and the dairy industry was aware of the need to improve sustainability.

"It has made significant progress on sustainability in recent years, for example the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord and recent work on greenhouse gas footprinting."

The emergence of the palm kernel issue, Carter said, "reinforces the importance of the dairy industry continuing to work on its sustainability".

Fed Farmers fight off palm kernel criticism
tvnz.co.nz 24 Aug 09;

Federated Farmers is rejecting claims that the importation of palm kernel extract for dairy feed is contributing to the destruction of rainforests.

Dairy giant Fonterra is being accused of buying cheap cow feed at the expense of the environment.

Greenpeace says Fonterra imported a quarter of the world's palm kernel based animal feed for New Zealand cows last year.

Greenpeace says rainforests in Indonesia and Malaysia are cleared to produce cheap palm oil.

But Federated Farmers says the kernel is a waste product and the real cause of deforestation is consumer demand for palm oil based products.

Federated Farmers says it is more concerned by the biosecurity risks of the huge amount of uncertified palm kernel entering New Zealand.

Meanwhile, the Green Party is calling on the government and Fonterra to reduce the importation of palm kernel feed.

Palm kernel imports went from 0.4 tonnes in 1999 to 455,000 tonnes in 2007 and then to 1.1 million tonnes in 2008.

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman Norman says this was a quarter of all global palm kernel production which threatened not only the local grain industry but New Zealand's environmental reputation.

He says the government and Fonterra, which part owns rural supply chain RD1, had to do something to stop the "addiction" to the cheap but unsustainable palm kernel, which was being used to prop up unsustainable dairy farming.

Greenpeace NZ climate campaigner Simon Boxer also said it was a "scandal" that Fonterra was feeding its dairy cows a product that was directly contributing to the destruction of the world's remaining rainforests - and climate change.

Wilmar International, the company supplying kernel to RD1 to sell, was the world's largest trader of palm oils and kernel and had a bad reputation for rainforest destruction, he said.

But Fonterra sustainability manager John Hutchings told Radio New Zealand Wilmar International was a reputable company.

"They've been working very hard to ensure that all of their mills and plantations are RSPO - Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil - certified, and they have almost completed that task."

Hutchings said palm kernel was an important feed supplement when grass was in short supply.

Last week chocolate maker Cadbury bowed to public pressure and removed palm oil from its chocolate recipe.

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Asia-Pacific quakes herald a disaster? Experts say no

Arlina Arshad Yahoo News 23 Aug 09;

JAKARTA (AFP) – Powerful earthquakes that have jolted Asia recently do not presage a disaster, although it is only a matter of time before the next catastrophe befalls the quake-prone region, seismologists say.

From India to Japan, Indonesia and as far south as New Zealand, the region has been rattled by what appear to be a connected spate of strong quakes in the past few weeks.

Luckily they have caused little damage and few casualties, but for people living in countries straddling the so-called "Pacific Ring of Fire" of major fault-lines, each new tremor raises the question: when will the "big one" hit?

The bottom line is that earthquakes are impossible to predict and, while catastrophic quakes are inevitable, no one can say when they will strike.

Japan in particular has been bracing itself for an expected magnitude-eight quake believed most likely to strike in the Tokai region near Tokyo. People even have a name for the anticipated disaster: the Tokai Quake.

"Series of earthquakes can often be monitored, but last week's earthquake does not appear to be a sign pointing to the 'big one'," Tokyo University honorary professor of seismology Ryohei Morimoto told AFP, referring to a 6.6-magnitude quake that struck Japan on August 17.

Around 20 percent of the world's most powerful earthquakes strike Japan. The megacity of Tokyo in particular sits on the intersection of three continental plates -- the Eurasian, Pacific and Philippine Sea plates.

The last time a "big one" struck Tokyo was in 1923, when the Great Kanto Earthquake claimed more than 140,000 lives, many of them in fires. Previously, in 1855, the Ansei Edo quake also devastated the city.

Experts say quakes in particular areas may be related, but they see no link between quakes on different boundaries of tectonic plates, such as the huge 7.5-magnitude tremor that shook the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean and the 6.4-magnitude quake that hit Japan almost simultaneously on August 11.

D. Srinageswar, a senior seismologist with India's National Geophysical Research Institute based in the southern city of Hyderabad, said scientists simply did not know enough about the movements of the earth's crust to be able to predict when and where the next cataclysmic event would take place.

"Prediction of a quake in time is not possible. The process will need data going back hundreds or even thousands of years," he explained.

"It was only in 1960 that instruments came up that helped understand at what depths the quakes occur, the magnitude of the quakes.... Spatially we know where it is going to happen, but in time we can't say."

Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency technical chief Suharjono likened the tectonic shifts of the earth's surface to a speeding car.

"There was a big 6.9-magnitude quake in Sumatra recently, followed by aftershocks. The aftershocks aren't unusual... they happen so that a new stability can be achieved," he said.

"Just like putting a brake on a speeding vehicle, it will wobble a little as it tries to stabilise itself. It's the same with earthquakes."

Suharjono said it might look like there had been a lot of quakes recently but the numbers from year to year were stable.

"About 5,000 to 6,000 quakes over a magnitude of 4.5 take place in the Indonesian region every year, this number hasn't changed," he said.

"If the concern is because of what's been happening recently, I'd say there's no need to worry."

The apparent spate of quakes is nothing unusual, but they have fuelled debate over whether seismic activity can be considered a precursor to a bigger one in the same region, or whether it reduces the risk by releasing tectonic pressure.

"When there is a large earthquake, it will release stress on that part of the system but it might transfer some of that stress to another part which might bring forward another earthquake," said Ken Gledhill, a government seismologist in New Zealand where a giant 7.8-magnitude quake hit on July 15.

"This will happen every now and again where there appear to be a group of earthquakes near in time if not in space. That's bound to happen -- these earthquakes happen all the time."

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NASA Heads Out to Sea: focus on seagrasses

Red Orbit 22 Aug 09;

NASA scientists Maury Estes and Mohammad Al-Hamdan have been seafaring in the Gulf of Mexico, and one of them grew a bit green around the gills. It's not surprising that a space agency scientist might have trouble getting his sea legs, but what was he doing out there in the surf to begin with?

"We were gathering water samples," explains Estes.

That doesn't sound much like rocket science, but consider the following:

At this moment, a fleet of NASA Earth-observing satellites is silently passing overhead, gathering vital information about our planet. Estes and Al-Hamdan are combining that heavenly data with local water samples to help the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program, or NEP, check the health of the coast.

"We're most interested in sea grass and marine vegetation," says Al-Hamdan. "A region's plant health tells you a lot about the health of the area itself."

"It's fair to say that if seagrass is in trouble, so is everything else in the area," explains Dr. Ken Heck of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Mobile. "Sea grass beds provide shelter and food for many ecologically and economically important fish and shellfish, and even for the manatee -- an endangered gentle giant that regularly visits Mobile Bay. These beds also stabilize the shoreline, prevent erosion, and even help filter and cleanse the water that enters our estuaries from the watershed."

According to Estes and Al-Hamdan, the way the land is used throughout the watershed influences how much fresh water flows into the salt water areas and what that fresh water contains. Homes, farms, forests, small towns, big cities, etc., all affect the water in distinctive ways. "For instance, sediments cloud the fresh water flow," explains Estes. "And fertilizers can boost invasive species and algae that choke out the 'good' plants like sea grass."

"So we knew we'd get environmentally valuable information by looking at how the land was used in the past and how it's used now," says Al-Hamdan. "Historical NASA satellite data told us what we wanted to know."

That "heavenly" data, along with local water samples, revealed land use-related trends in water flow quality and properties like salinity, temperature, and clarity. These factors have both a literal and figurative trickle-down effect on marine plant life and therefore overall habitat health.

"This research helps us model, or predict, how different types of land use might affect the coastal environment in the future, not only in the Mobile Bay area but also in other coastal areas," says Al-Hamdan.

"The work NASA's doing will help coastal resource managers direct the limited resources available for habitat conservation and restoration," says Mobile Bay NEP Director Roberta Swann. "It will help us focus restoration efforts where they're most needed and most likely to succeed."

When Estes and Al-Hamdan aren't in the office pouring over satellite images to help foresee the coastal future, they're heading out to sea, where they collect water samples to analyze for "ground truth" to validate their model. The ocean voyages also give them a first-hand view of what they're studying and why.

"You do science in the real world – not in the office," explains Estes. "Going out there gives you a good perspective on the research data. If you don't physically know the area you're studying, it limits your understanding."

"From the boat, we got to see the coastal areas we're targeting. Turns out that the northern third of the Mobile Bay environment is natural shore, but the southern two thirds is primarily sea walls, rip raps [man-made piles of big rocks], and revetments [sea wall /rip raps combination]. Plant and animal life can't flourish in rocks and concrete."

Estes sees the modification of natural coastline as a self-perpetuating problem.

"Development feeds on itself," says Estes. "If your neighbor builds a sea wall to help protect his own shore from eroding, your shore starts eroding, so you put up a sea wall too. And it's much more difficult to get a permit to restore a natural beach or marsh area on one's property than to get permission to build a sea wall. Plus there are all kinds of docks and boat launches along the coast."

The scientists spent an entire day, recently, on the open ocean gathering water samples and mentally cataloging the coast line. They're quite serious about their work but will take a few moments for fun.

"I got a nice tan out in the boat," jokes Al-Hamdan. "It sure beats green."

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Rare Madagascar ducks 'on brink of extinction'

The Madagascar Pochard, the world's rarest duck, is on the brink of becoming extinct, wildlife experts have warned.

The Telegraph 23 Aug 09;

There are thought to be just 19 of the diving ducks left in the world - only six of which are female - living on a small remote lake on the Indean Ocean island.

The lake was visited last month by staff from the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (Durrell) and The Peregrine Fund.

The charities planned to set up a breeding programme for the ducks, but were alarmed to find dwindling numbers because none of the 11 birds born last year had survived.

They are now trying to take emergency action before the species dies out.

Nigel Jarrett, WWT's aviculture manager was one of the staff who made the trip. He said: "With possibly only six females, the total population of Madagascar Pochard might well number just six pairs, and with no successful fledglings from the 2008 season the need to establish a captive breeding facility has become even more urgent.

"The plan is to develop a conservation breeding centre in collaboration with the government of Madagascar in 2010. However, following the expedition, discussions are underway to see if temporary measures can be taken to secure the population in the interim. If so, the team will return to the lake in October this year.

"Once we have secured eggs from the wild, WWT's and Durrell's extensive experience of rearing endangered wildfowl at Slimbridge and Jersey will be used to breed the birds at a purpose-built facility in Madagascar. This will act as a safety net, greatly reducing the immediate risk of extinction.

"Within three years, we hope to at least double the total numbers of pochards. In time, these will be released into the wild at suitable sites."

The species is classed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List. During the 1990s it was thought Madagascar Pochards were already extinct, but biologists rediscovered the birds in 2006.

WWT has blamed their declining numbers on degraded wetlands following agricultural conversion, deforestation and the introduction of non-native fish. The charity's long-term goal is to restore the wetlands and their endemic wildlife, and work with local communities to make sure they are used sustainably.

Glyn Young, Durrell's project leader, said: "The window of opportunity to save the species from extinction is incredibly small, and we must all muster the energy and resources necessary to stop another species from becoming extinct."

Lily-Arison Rene de Roland, national director of The Peregrine Fund's Madagascar project, said: "Since the 2006 rediscovery, the birds have successfully raised only 11 young. This low productivity is a great concern and warrants a captive breeding programme and conservation of the site."

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EU 'considering bluefin tuna protection'

Yahoo News 22 Aug 09;

BRUSSELS (AFP) – The European Union will decide in the autumn whether to add bluefin tuna to a list of threatened species, a move that would mean a temporary ban on its sale on world markets, a spokeswoman said Saturday.

"An EU position will be established this autumn, in line with the normal process for the preparation of the Cites (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) meeting," said the European Commission spokeswoman, Katharina von Schnurbein.

She confirmed the existence of an internal document prepared by the commission which recommends putting bluefin tuna on the list of threatened species. The draft document, which will form the basis of discussions between the 27 EU member nations, was revealed Saturday by the Financial Times.

"From a scientific and technical point of view, the criteria for the listing of Atlantic bluefin tuna (as an endangered species) appear to be met," the newspaper cited the document as saying.

"There is no doubt about the link between international trade and over-exploitation of the species."

However, the commission -- which oversees fisheries policy in the 27-nation European Union -- stipulated that any decision on a ban would not be made before the end of the 2010 fishing season.

A common position will nevertheless be difficult to find with some fishing nations such as Spain, Italy and Malta remaining lukewarm to the idea of a ban, the newspaper said.

"The commission has taken note of the individual positions expressed by some member states supporting the listing of bluefin tuna under the Cites convention," Von Schnurbein said.

"However it is clear that internal coordination is still to come on this issue."

She said the European Commission would be working with all member states "towards the establishment of a common EU position" before the Cites meeting in March 2010.

At the moment bluefin tuna has no protection under Cites, the only global body with the power to limit or ban international trade in endangered species.

If bluefin tuna are given protected status at the meeting in Qatar next March the sale of the fish on international markets would be banned although it could still be sold locally.

Such a measure would eliminate the main cause of over-fishing: the strong demand for the delicacy as sushi and sashimi in countries such as Japan and the United States.

France, Germany, Britain and the Netherlands have said they would support a ban.

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To save lives, an Indian doctor rethinks the toilet

Sebastien Buffet Yahoo News 23 Aug 09;

STOCKHOLM (AFP) – By rethinking the humble toilet, Indian sanitation expert Bindeshwar Pathak has found a way that can save water -- and lives -- in developing countries.

For four decades, His Sulabh Sanitation Movement has equipped more than 1.2 million households with eco-friendly toilets and installed 7,500 public lavatories across India.

Yet almost three out of four Indians, or around 700 million people, still have no access to basic sanitation.

This leads to up to half a million deaths each year, Pathak, 66, told AFP at the World Water Week conference in Stockholm, where he was awarded this year's Stockholm Water Prize for his groundbreaking work.

To lower the risk to human health, Pathak developed a twin-pit, pour-flush toilet known as the Sulabh, that uses a pair of tanks to store waste matter with no smell or soil pollution, pending recycling as fertiliser.

It uses significantly less water than a standard toilet, Pathak said.

"It requires only 1.0 to 1.5 liters to flush instead of 10 liters," he said. "It saves trillions of litres of water each year."

The idea is to discourage both open-air defecation and the use of bucket toilets -- options that ramp up the risk of the spread of disease and diarrhoea.

"People have died of cholera cleaning the bucket toilets," Pathak explained.

When a Sulabh is sold to households, its price is adjusted according to a family's ability to pay. The poorest families pay 15 dollars (10 euros) whereas richer families can be asked to pay up to 1,000 dollars.

The Sulabh Sanitation Movement's campaign to raise awareness of health issues has also seen more and more Indians prepared to pay user charges for its 7,500 public toilets.

Staffed 24 hours a day, they cost one dollar a month to use them by subscription -- with an exemption for slum dwellers, women and children.

"For the whole month, you can go to the toilet, you can have a bath, you can drink water," Pathak said.

The Sulabh has been exported to Afghanistan and Bhutan, and there are also plans to ship some to 15 other countries, most of them in Africa.

"I feel very happy because what we have been doing for the last 40 years, now it feels that we are going in the right direction," Pathak told AFP.

As the winner of the Stockholm Water Prize, Pathak receives a cheque for 150,000 dollars (104,700 euros) in recognition of his work to conserve water and improve public health.

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