Aussie town dumps Japan sister city over dolphins

Yahoo News 24 Aug 09;

MELBOURNE (AFP) – An Australian town with deep historical ties to Japan has severed its sister city relationship with a Japanese village to protest an annual dolphin slaughter, civic leaders said Monday.

Councillors in the remote West Australian town of Broome voted unanimously to end sister city ties with Taiji at a meeting on Saturday because they felt the dolphin cull was unacceptable, said Broome's mayor, Graeme Campbell.

The decision was taken reluctantly, he said, as Broome's links to the southern Japanese village dated back to the late 1800s, when Japanese migrants pioneered the Australian town's pearl diving industry.

"It's a sad day for Broome, given the historical and cultural contribution made by many people from Japan to the town and the number of people living here who still have relatives in Taiji," he told AFP.

"It's very disheartening and sad for those people. It was a unanimous decision by council, none of us can condone the slaughter."

Animal welfare activists accuse Japan of slaughtering some 2,000 dolphins every year in waters near Taiji by driving them close to the shore then hacking them to death.

The cull is the subject of a recently released US documentary called "The Cove", in which filmmakers covertly recorded dolphins being killed near the village.

Campbell said the documentary had resulted in Broome being inundated with protests against the sister city relationship.

"We've had a tsunami of electronic and written protest to us, both nationally and internationally," he said.

"We had 5,000 emails in one day."

He said there were concerns the links to Taiji could lead to visitors avoiding Broome, some 2,200 kilometres (1,370 miles) northeast of the western hub of Perth, which is reliant on tourism.

"That was a consideration that was taken in when councillors were examining the issue," Campbell said.

He said Broome would be keen to resume the sister city relationship with Taiji if the dolphin slaughter was stopped.

"I have no doubt that they (Taiji) will be extremely saddened and disappointed by the decision," he said. "Whether or not it has any effect is up to themselves," he added.

Read more!

New clue found to disappearing honey bees

Yahoo News 25 Aug 09;

WASHINGTON – Researchers have a new clue to the collapse of honey bee colonies across the country — damage to the bees' internal "factories" that produce proteins. Theories about the cause of bee colony collapse have included viruses, mites, pesticides and fungi.

The new study of sick bees disclosed fragments of ribosomal RNA in their gut, an indication of damage to the ribosomes, which make proteins necessary for life, according to a study in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

RNA, which is made from DNA, is central to protein production.

The sick bees suffered an unusually high number of infections with viruses that attack the ribosome, the researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported.

"If your ribosome is compromised, then you can't respond to pesticides, you can't respond to fungal infections or bacteria or inadequate nutrition because the ribosome is central to the survival of any organism. You need proteins to survive," May R. Berenbaum, head of the department of entomology at Illinois, said in a statement.

The researchers said the varroa mite, which was accidentally introduced to the U.S. in 1986, is a carrier of picorna-like viruses that damage the ribosomes.

The mite may act as a tipping factor leading to ribosome breakdown, the researchers said.

The study was funded by the Department of Agriculture.

___

On the Net:

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: http://www.pnas.org

DNA clue to honey bee deaths
Judith Burns, BBC News 24 Aug 09;

Science and Environment reporter, BBC News

Scientists say that mass bee deaths may be caused by viruses that disrupt gene expression.

The team analysed which genes were turned on and which were turned off in healthy bees and those from hives with colony collapse disorder (CCD).

Since 2006, CCD has caused the catastrophic loss of US bee hives and is implicated in bee deaths elsewhere.

Writing in PNAS journal, the team say they used "whole genome microarrays" to compare cells from bees' guts.

Lead scientist May Berenbaum from the University of Illinois told BBC News that the research was made possible by publication of the bee genome in 2006.

"It's an incredibly useful repository of information which allowed the construction of the microarray - a slide which has all 10,000 bee genes on it," she said.

"We used it to compare colony collapse disorder bees with healthy ones and looked at the differences. There are of course 10,000 genes. So there were a whole lot of differences but we could rule out many of them."

Gut feeling

The team concentrated on analysing gene expression from cells in the bees' guts because this is the primary site of pesticide detoxification and immune defence.

Previous theories for CCD have included pesticide poisoning as well as infection and mite infestation.

But the team's genetic analysis of the bees' guts failed to reveal elevated expression of pesticide response genes.

In addition, genes involved in immune response showed no clear expression pattern despite the increased prevalence of viruses and other pathogens in CCD colonies.

What did show up in the guts of the CCD bees was an abundance of fragments from the ribosome, a structure which is the cell's protein making factory.

According to the researchers, this finding suggests that protein production is likely to be compromised in bees from CCD hives.

Previous research shows that the viruses that bees carry all attack the ribosome.

Little problem

The microbes in question are known as "picorna-like" viruses. The word derives from pico, which means little, and RNA (ribonucleic acid).

"These picorna-like viruses all attack at the same spot," said Professor Berenbaum.

"What they do is to work their way into the ribosome and instead of making honey bee protein they make virus proteins.

"So maybe what's happening is basically the ribosome wears out. So we looked to see if the CCD bees have more of these viruses than healthy bees. And they do.

The viruses in question include "deformed wing virus" and "Israeli acute paralysis virus".

The scientists believe that if a number of similar picorna-like viruses attack simultaneously, they may be able to overwhelm the ribosome.

"We talk about a smoking gun. We have the bullet hole!" said May Berenbaum.

"We now need to look for how multiple viruses might interact on the ribosome."

The honey bee is the US's key agricultural pollinator. As such it is worth $14bn to the country's economy.

CCD was first identified in 2006. In the winter of 2007-8 more than a third of US bees were lost.

Similar losses have been reported in Europe, giving rise to fears that CCD is a global problem.

Read more!

Fifth of UK honeybees died in winter

BBC News 24 Aug 09;

Almost a fifth of the UK's honeybees died last winter, the British Beekeepers' Association has said.

Combined with an average 30% loss the year before, it means beekeepers are struggling to keep colonies going.

Honeybees are worth £200m a year to UK agriculture because of their work pollinating crops.

Bees are suffering from viruses, a parasitic mite and changes in the weather. Experts are calling for more money to be put into research.

A survey by the British Beekeepers' Association (BBKA) suggested an average of 19.2% of colonies died over winter, which is "double" the acceptable level.

The highest losses were recorded in the north of England, where 32.1% perished, and the lowest in eastern England, where 12.8% did not survive.

The survey showed an improvement on the previous year, which the BBKA put down to the period of really cold weather in the winter which encouraged the bees to "cluster" together, helping them to survive.

It also said the good weather in early spring enabled them to forage for nectar and pollen.

'Onslaught of threats'

But there was still a "worrying and continuing high level of colony loss", said the BBKA's president Tim Lovett.

"It underlines the need for research into the causes and remedies for disease in order to ensure that our principal economic pollinator, the honeybee, can survive the onslaught of the threats it currently faces," he said.

"These ongoing losses in the pollination army of honeybees cannot continue if we are to secure food supplies."

Nearly all the UK's 250 species of bee are in decline. In the last two years, honeybee numbers have fallen by 10-15%.

The conservation watchdog Natural England recently called on people living in urban areas to consider keeping bees.

Its chief scientist Tom Tew told the BBC: "We want urban people to engage with wildlife and get joy and pleasure from it. The more hives you have the more resilient the whole population is to the outbreak of disease."

'Really distressing'

The BBC presenter Martha Kearney is an amateur beekeeper and has seen for herself the decline in numbers.

She told Breakfast on BBC One: "They've died out on me before and it was really distressing.

"You put the bees away for the winter and you hope they're going to be OK.

"And when you open up the colony in the spring and see lots of dead bees in there, it's unpleasant.

"Beekeeping is a fascinating hobby and I love it. But they are dying. This year is slightly better than last year though."

A report by the Parliamentary Accounts Committee last month warned the government was giving "little priority" to the health of the nation's bees despite their importance to the agricultural economy.

Experts say sustaining bee populations is essential to ensuring the survival of Britain's plants and crops.

Beekeepers lose one fifth of hives
The Telegraph 24 Aug 09;

Beekeepers in Britain lost a fifth of their hives to disease this winter, according to new research which sheds light on the scale of the global collapse in the bee population.


By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent
Published: 7:01AM BST 24 Aug 2009

In the winter of 2007/08 beekeepers lost a third of hives due to a combination of bad weather and disease.

This year losses are slightly better but still double the natural rate of seven to ten per cent.

Tim Lovett, President of the British Beekeepers Association, said it was a “worrying level of loss.”

“It underlines the need for research into the causes and remedies for disease in order to ensure that our principal economic pollinator, the honey bee, can survive the onslaught of the threats it currently faces.," he said. "Also, it still shows that there is a worrying and continuing high level of colony loss which we have to attribute to disease and for which we currently have few answers in terms of husbandry or medication.”

Bees are key to a third of all food we eat by pollinating fruits, grains and vegetables but hives have been dying worldwide.

The possible reasons behind the mysterious death of whole hives known as “colony collapse disorder”, are explored in a new film The Vanishing of the Bees explores

The documentary talks to beekeepers around the world who claim that a system of farming where thousands of acres of one type of food are grown, known as “monoculture”, has contributed to the decline of honeybees as the insects cannot get enough variety of plants all year round. This means new bees are brought in every season to ensure the plants are pollinated, spreading disease. For example bees are being transported regularly from Australia to America to pollinate crops. Beekeepers also claim that pesticides that were judged to be safe are affecting bees over time and causing the insects to die.

Film maker George Langworthy hoped the film will raise awareness so that Governments invest more money in research, outlaw harmful pesticides and ensure farms grow "bee-friendly" crops.

“The honeybee is under threat," he said. "Millions are dying and no one knows why. The honeybee pollinates a third of all food we eat and without it our diet would be very different. This film explores the collapse of the Earth’s key pollinator through the eyes of those whose livelihoods depend on them and tries to unravel nature’s biggest whodunit.”

Fifth of UK honeybee colonies died last winter, says beekeeper association
Figure is improvement on previous year, but mortality levels still double acceptable level, warns British Beekeepers Association
guardian.co.uk 24 Aug 09;

Nearly a fifth of the UK's honeybee colonies died last winter, figures from the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) revealed today.

The figure is an improvement on the previous year when almost a third of hives did not make it through the winter, but is double "acceptable" levels, the BBKA's president Tim Lovett warned.

Across the country an average of 19.2% of colonies died over winter, with the highest losses in the north of England, where 32.1% perished, and the lowest in the east of England, where just 12.8% did not survive.

According to the BBKA, the period of really cold weather in the winter encouraged the bees to "cluster" together, helping them to survive, while good weather in early spring enabled them to forage for nectar and pollen.

The association also believes beekeepers took more care to feed colonies where necessary to prevent them starving.

But there was still a "worrying and continuing high level of colony loss" which the BBKA put down to diseases threatening the bees.

Lovett said: "The improved figure is very welcome, compared with the 30.5% for winter 2007-2008, but is way short of the 7% to 10% which until the last five years has been considered acceptable.

"It underlines the need for research into the causes and remedies for disease in order to ensure that our principal economic pollinator, the honey bee, can survive the onslaught of the threats it currently faces.

"Also, it still shows that there is a worrying and continuing high level of colony loss which we have to attribute to disease and for which we currently have few answers in terms of husbandry or medication.

He said similar levels of losses in other areas of farming would be considered "disastrous" with dramatic effects on food prices, and answers through research were urgently needed.

"These ongoing losses in the pollination army of honey bees cannot continue if we are to secure food supplies," he warned.

Bees are estimated to be worth around £200m to the UK economy each year, as they pollinate many of the food crops grown here, such as apples and oilseed rape.

But in recent years they have been hit by agricultural changes which have reduced the availability of the wildflowers that are so important in providing food for the insects.

Diseases such as the varroa mite have infected hives, killing the bees, while climate change and pesticide use have also been suggested as possible factors in the insects' decline

A report by the parliamentary accounts committee last month warned the government was giving "little priority" to the health of the nation's bees despite their importance to the agricultural economy.

Honeybee colonies are disappearing at an "alarming" rate and ministers have until recently taken little interest in the problem, the report claimed.

The cross-party public accounts committee wants the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to ring-fence research spending on bee health and not allow it to be diluted by looking at other pollinating insects — a call backed by Lovett today.

Read more!

U.S. Wolf Hunts May Kill Hundreds -- Spurs Demand, Ire

John Roach, National Geographic News 24 Aug 09;

Starting today, hunters can walk into any license vendor in Idaho and buy a tag to kill a gray wolf.

Vendors such as Daniel Stephenson, owner of River of No Return Taxidermy in Salmon, Idaho, expect robust demand.

"In our area, there're lots of [wolves] and they're not a real popular thing for deer and elk hunters," Stephenson said. "So everybody wants a chance to go get one."

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission approved a plan August 17 to allow up to 220 wolves to be killed by the public this coming fall and winter. Licensed hunters will be allowed to kill wolves starting September 1. Most hunting will be finished by December 31.

Montana, another state with a growing wolf population, already approved a 75-animal quota for its wolf hunt, which gets underway September 15 and lasts until November 29.

Both hunts come just months after the predators were removed from protection under the federal Endangered Species Act.

(Related: "N. Rockies Gray Wolf Removed From U.S. Endangered List.")

Isolated

But there's still a chance wolf season won't open this year.

A coalition of environmental groups, including the Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for Biological Diversity, filed a motion August 20 in a federal district court to block the wolf hunts, pending the outcome of a lawsuit seeking to restore federal protections for the wolves.

A hearing on the motion is set for August 31.

The groups, represented by the environmental law firm Earthjustice, argue that wolf populations in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming are isolated from each other and thus unable to interbreed.

Genetic diversity is considered crucial for a species to survive, especially one that's still struggling to rebound. That's why the hunts would further isolate the three populations, conversationists argue.

"The Greater Yellowstone population in particular is too small to persist in the long-term without wolves coming in from other populations and breeding," said Jenny Harbine, an associate attorney with Earthjustice in Bozeman, Montana.

The tristate region had about a hundred breeding pairs and 1,600 individuals at the end of 2008. Biologists estimate 500 wolf pups were born this spring.

The current population is "right around the corner from legitimate wolf recovery," Harbine said. "But under the delisting, the states are free to aggressively reduce their wolf populations."

Population Management

Ed Bangs, the wolf coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Helena, Montana, said the hunts are in line with management plans created when the wolves were delisted.

Those plans call for maintaining a wolf population of at least 45 breeding pairs and 450 individuals across the three states.

After the coming hunting season ends, the tristate wolf population will be greater than 1,500, Bangs noted.

"The [hunts] are not going to have any impact on wolf population overall, or population viability, or genetics, or dispersal, or anything else," he said.

Living with Wolves

The restoration of gray wolves to the Northern Rockies has been controversial ever since the predators migrated to northwest Montana from Canada in the early 1980s.

The debate heated up when 66 wolves were reintroduced to Idaho and Wyoming between 1995 and 1996, Bangs said.

Environmental and wildlife advocates argued that the gray wolf, a top predator, is vital to the healthy functioning of the Northern Rockies ecosystem.

But many ranchers were concerned the wolves would prey on their livestock, and hunters said wolves would kill too many deer and elk.

The pro-wolf argument prevailed, and now federal and state biologists have determined that wolves have reached sustainable levels and should be managed like any other wildlife species.

"Hunting is one of the conservation tools that lets local people participate in local wildlife management," Bangs said.

Harbine, the Earthjustice attorney, said her clients believe that wolf hunting could be an appropriate management tool—once the population is robust enough to support it.

"I think most people recognize that wolves are here to stay in the Northern Rockies and we simply have to learn the best way to live with them," she said.

"My clients would like to see wolves be allowed to be wolves and have a naturally sustainable population that's not constantly the subject of aggressive population reduction efforts."

Read more!

'Cyber-traffic' endangering primates in Cameroon

Reinnier Kaze Yahoo News 24 Aug 09;

YAOUNDE (AFP) – Advertisements on the Internet to woo buyers into taking "playful primates" from Cameroon into their homes have become one of the primary means of further threatening already endangered species.

Such sales would be illegal, since dealing in primates is forbidden in the central African country. In the past three years, however, the Internet has led to a flourishing trade in endangered species, according to an environmental activist in the front line.

Ofir Drori directs a small non-governmental organisation, the Last Great Ape Organization (Laga-Cameroon), which works in conjunction with the Cameroonian ministry of forestry and wildlife to try to stem the lucrative trade in beasts both dead and alive.

"Kiki is ready for a new family. He has gentle and charming manners. Kiki is handsome and playful," reads an advertisement on the Internet to sell a chimpanzee from Cameroon.

The ad says that the chimpanzee comes with "veterinary health documents, a "permit" from CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and a year's health care guarantee."

CITES, whose ban on trade in listed endangered species is a ban on international trade, does not, however, issue such individual "permits".

The seller alleges that he lives in the forested region of Kilum and "is incapable of giving Kiki the good home and all the care that he deserves," but the whole advertisement is a scam.

Laga-Cameroon tries to infiltrate the black market sales networks and carry out investigations in conjunction with the police. They found and partially dismantled eight groups of Internet fraudsters between 2007 and August 2009.

"To begin with, we thought that the sellers we found on the Internet were simple swindlers, who extorted money without providing the product announced," Drori said. But some of the traffickers were genuinely dealing in endangered species, including animal heads and hides for use as trophies, he said.

In February, the police arrested a 27-year-old man who had in two years made 22 sales on the Internet, mainly for the skulls of primates, but it took a team effort to track him down.

Authorities in the United States helped Laga and Cameroonian officials to locate him via his exchanges on the Internet, and the man now faces up to 20 years in jail.

To reassure clients, the cyber-dealers use a false sales permit, with the forged signature of the wildlife minister. They are able to do this because trading in some protected species is legal under a quota system.

In 2008, another trafficker was arrested while he was trying to sell turtles to a Malaysian importer with the help of a Cameroonian accomplice based in China.

John Sellar, the enforcement assistance chief at CITES in Geneva, said that "the Internet certainly facilitates illegal trade in wildlife, but it is very difficult to assess the scale," in email comments to AFP.

"We are aware of some of the work that has been conducted in places like Cameroon with regard to trade in primates and recognize that the Internet is used to sell live animals," he said. But he said the majority of such offers he has seen "are simply criminal frauds" to scam people out of money, with no intention to supply live animals.

He said CITES has issued fraud warnings and "in general are examining trade that is facilitated by the Internet." In fact the anonymity of the Internet has helped law enforcement agencies in catching some criminals, he said.

To initiate contact with clients, the dealers generally place advertisements on specialist websites, and demand is high in the United States, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Belgium and South Africa, particularly for primates like gorillas and chimpanzees.

A successful sale can be rewarding. A baby chimpanzee sold locally for 75 euros (105 dollars) can sell for 100 times or even 200 times that much abroad.

The Internet has "a potential that can facilitate connections between the buyers abroad and the local dealers," Drori said. "One of the things that up until now has prevented a massacre of animals has been the absence of such a connection."

A specialist in wildlife crime who asked not to be named added that people trying to prevent the traffic were hindered by corruption and "complicities in the public administrations, the banks, airports and the police."

"For the struggle to make progress, the authorities should get more involved," the source added.

Read more!

France to claim exclusive Mediterranean fishing zone

Yahoo News 24 Aug 09;

CASSIS, France (AFP) – France said Monday it intends to assert sovereign rights over marine resources off its Mediterranean coast, declaring a 70-mile Exclusive Economic Zone in a bid to protect dwindling fish stocks.

French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo made the announcement during a trip to southern France, saying he hoped that other Mediterranean nations would follow suit to prevent overfishing by fleets from outside the region.

Under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), an EEZ gives states sovereign rights over fishing and marine resources, outside its 12-mile territorial waters and up to 200 miles from its shores.

France has the world's second largest EEZ after the United States thanks to its many overseas territories, but had not previously staked a claim in the Mediterranean "because there was no justification for doing so," Borloo said.

Paris in 2004 declared an Ecological Protection Zone in the Mediterranean, under the MARPOL anti-pollution convention, enabling it to prosecute ships that dump waste at sea up to 60 nautical miles from its coast.

But Borloo said France needed to go further in order to "protect French fishing, but especially to protect fish."

"The French government has decided to declare an EEZ in the Mediterranean ... with a perimeter of approximately 70 nautical miles, corresponding to our existing environmental protection area," he told reporters.

"We are changing policy because it is unacceptable for boats from around the world to be able to draw on resources, especially of fish, anywhere except in the 15-mile territorial waters, without any control," he said.

He said Paris hoped to "avoid the arrival of powerful industrial fleets in the closed sea of the Mediterranean."

Under the terms of the UN convention, an EEZ gives a coastal state the right to regulate fishing activities, explore and exploit all natural resources within the zone's waters, seabed and subsoil.

States have the right to determine the fish catch and deliver licences within their EEZ, while working to prevent over-exploitation in concert with regional and international organisations.

France's national fisheries committee welcomed the move, saying it would give Paris "the means to exercise controls, even if we are not talking about shutting down any fisheries."

Until now, very few countries have declared exclusive zones in the Mediterranean. Were all coastal states to do so, every point in the sea would fall under one or other state's jurisdiction.

Borloo said France hoped to see more countries decree EEZs within the framework of the Union for the Mediterranean, "and for us to have a debate among ourselves for the total protection of the Mediterranean."

Launched in Paris a year ago, the 43-member grouping aims to foster cooperation in one of the world's most volatile regions, with protecting marine resources one of its main stated goals.

Read more!

Lead poisoning haunts Chinese smelter communities

Lucy Hornby, Reuters 24 Aug 09;

FENGXIAN, China (Reuters) - Chinese provinces have begun shutting lead smelters for environmental checks, after hundreds of children tested for high levels of lead in two separate cases this month.

At least three lead smelters in Henan province and two in Shaanxi province, with a combined capacity of about 6 percent of China's annual production, were ordered to temporarily halt operations in recent days, officials said.

The closures came after parents protested at a lead and zinc smelter operated by Dongling Group in Changqing, Shaanxi Province, and at a manganese smelter in Hunan this month.

China's pollution and lax product safety standards have long been a source of tension and unrest, particularly when residents of pollution hotspots -- dubbed "cancer villages" because of high disease rates -- feel they are being ignored.

Lead poisoning is endemic among villages near Chinese smelters, interviews conducted this weekend showed.

In Shaanxi's Fengxian, where smoke billows from a Dongling Group zinc smelter, two wan and listless toddlers tested with high levels of lead in their blood earlier this year. Villagers requested but did not get testing for 30 other children.

"These problems are really common actually. It's just that the Dongling case in Changqing got some attention," said a villager surnamed Tu. Older villagers developed circulatory problems and some workers at the plant got too sick to work.

"This environmental pollution is not unique to Fengxian. It's all over."

Lead poisoning due to air and water pollution from poorly regulated smelters and mines haunts the valleys of the ore-rich Qinling range, in a poor and remote part of China.

The problem dogs heavy metals bases in Hunan, Henan, Yunnan and Guangdong provinces. Closing polluting plants has pushed the industry to poorer areas where any investment is welcome.

The shift to poorer regions echoes the migration of the lead smelting industry to China over the last decade, as stricter environmental laws forced smelters in richer countries to close.

China's output of refined lead rose nearly 20 percent in 2008 to 3.26 million metric tons. Output feeds the Chinese battery industry, the world's largest, which then exports worldwide.

CONTAMINATED

The casualties of China's heavy metals industry only get attention when officials respond to cases too large to ignore.

In late 2005, two of China's largest zinc smelters shut temporarily after cadmium contaminated the Pearl River Delta and the Xiang River, sources of drinking water for millions in Hunan and Guangdong Provinces. Cadmium hurts kidney and lung function.

Elevated cadmium levels also showed up in tests of children near the Dongling Group's lead and zinc smelter in Changqing.

Children are most vulnerable to lead poisoning because they are still developing, but smelter workers also fall sick because they absorb it through their skin. Ingestion of large amounts of lead may result in anemia, muscle weakness and brain damage.

"My dad couldn't stand it any more, so he quit working. It got so he could only work 20 days at a time, then he would have to stop," said a young woman surnamed Zhang.

"Dad's tummy would always hurt. When it's bad, he doesn't want to eat and has no energy."

Zhang's husband now works at a different smelter after her family's employer, Shaanxi Nonferrous Metals Holding, halted work at its 50,000 ton Wenjiangsi lead smelter earlier this month.

Workers at the Wenjiangsi plant said the plant's internal clinic regularly treats workers who get to the point that they cannot work. They resume work when they feel better.

"It's not a problem if you drink a lot of alcohol," said a young man in a blue work uniform.

(Additional reporting by Polly Yam in Hong Kong; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

Q+A: China's pressing pollution problem
Reuters 24 Aug 09;

BEIJING (Reuters) - Over the last month, China has reported two cases of large-scale lead poisoning among children living close to heavily polluting factories.

Here are some questions and answers about pollution problems in China, the world's most populous nation:

HOW BAD IS POLLUTION IN CHINA?

For decades, there were few fetters on the waste that factories, plants and power stations in China pumped into the air and water. Parts of the countryside have been blighted by pollution, which has become widespread following the rapid growth that has made China the world's third-largest economy.

Over the past decade, Beijing has strengthened efforts to limit pollution, punishing and shutting down some offenders. But growth is still a priority, especially for local governments, and environmental protection officials have relatively little sway.

In 2008, 45 percent of key river and waterway sections monitored by the Ministry of Environmental Protection were classified as polluted to such an extent they were unsuitable for human contact and in some cases even for irrigation.

Of 113 key cities under air quality monitoring, 58 percent reported an average of good or excellent air quality in 2008, an improvement of 13 percentage points compared to previous years.

But some experts have said those numbers reflect official manipulation and do not reflect the real level of air pollution.

The World Bank has previously estimated that of the world's 30 most polluted cities, 20 are in China.

WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES?

The most immediate consequence is health problems. Areas badly hit by pollution often report higher-than-normal levels of cancers, respiratory diseases, diarrhea and other illnesses.

Two years ago, the World Bank estimated that 460,000 Chinese died prematurely every year from breathing polluted air and drinking or washing in dirty water.

Pollution also restricts the country's scare supplies of water suitable for drinking, and it can dent crop yields.

All of this adds up to economic costs that at least partly offset gains from fast growth. The World Bank estimated in 2007 that the health and other consequences of outdoor air and water pollution cost China's economy around $100 billion a year, equal to about 5.8 percent of the nation's GDP.

WHAT DOES THE CHINESE PUBLIC THINK?

Many Chinese long saw pollution as an unavoidable cost of economic growth. But in recent years, growing public awareness, accompanied by greater official and media attention to the problem, has stoked rising complaints about toxic air and water.

Officials say protests over the problem have been growing, especially in the countryside, where farmers' crops and water supplies can be spoiled by filthy waste from industry.

Pan Yue, the deputy chief of the national environment watchdog, has said that in 2005 alone there was a 29 percent rise in the number of "mass incidents" -- an official term for protests -- over pollution and other environmental problems.

In cities, residents have also become more vocal about pollution worries, sometimes launching protests and petitions against proposed industrial developments.

In 2007, residents of Xiamen, a coastal city in Fujian province, held large demonstrations against a proposed chemical plan. The Xiamen city government later dropped the project, and there have been similar citizen mobilizations in other cities.

WHAT IS THE GOVERNMENT DOING?

The government says it is committed to greener growth. The current five-year development plan, which runs through 2010, has set a goal of cutting sulfur dioxide emissions and a key water pollution indicator, COD, by 10 percent compared to 2005 levels.

China's environmental protection watchdog was raised to ministry-level last year, giving it more power.

But officials are still under government and public pressure to keep up economic growth and job creation, and so local governments can turn a blind eye to polluters.

WHAT COULD HAPPEN NEXT?

Contention over environmental issues is likely to flare from time to time. The government is trying to clean up growth, but public expectations are also rising. That could stoke greater public opposition to industrial plants, nuclear power stations and other proposed developments.

But those rising public expectations must compete with a belief that economic growth and jobs remain paramount -- and the government is most unlikely to sacrifice that priority.

(Sources: Reuters; Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection; Woodrow Wilson International Center China Environment Forum www.wilsoncenter.org; World Bank, "Cost of Pollution in China")

(Reporting by Chris Buckley, Ben Blanchard and Liu Zhen, Editing by Dean Yates)

More provinces join China lead checks
Nick Trevethan and Polly Yam, Reuters 25 Aug 09;

SINGAPORE/HONG KONG (Reuters) - The impact of a Chinese lead poisoning scandal spread to another two provinces on Tuesday, threatening further cuts in supply from the world's top producer of the metal.

Hunan, the second-biggest producer of refined lead among China's provinces, and Guangxi, which ranks number five, are checking smelters after protests by parents at a lead and zinc smelter operated by Dongling Group in Changqing, Shaanxi Province, and at a manganese smelter in Hunan earlier this month.

China's pollution and lax product safety standards have long been a source of tension and unrest, particularly when residents of pollution hotspots -- dubbed "cancer villages" because of high disease rates -- feel they are being ignored.

"The result of the checks will come in another few days," a smelter official in Hunan said, adding that possible closures of lead smelters would depend on the findings.

Henan province has already shut as much as 240,000 tons of annual lead smelting capacity, equivalent to around 6 percent of China's total, sending prices of the heavy metal used to make automotive batteries soaring 8.7 percent on the international market on Monday.

Analysts said the market would continue to be underpinned by the threat to supply, but investors were reluctant to drive prices, which have doubled from $999 at the start of the year, too much higher.

"This is a major supply issue for the market in the short term," Mark Pervan, senior commodities analyst at ANZ, said.

"But prices are already very inflated and investors will be uncomfortable pricing in more upside on this supply adjustment, but it will put a floor under lead."

Ingestion of large amounts of lead may result in anemia, muscle weakness and brain damage.

China, which supplies more than a third of the world's refined lead output, updated its industry standards about 2 years ago. But analysts from state-owned research group Antaike have said as much as 60 percent of the nation's capacity does not comply with the latest standards.

Hunan has more than 600,000 tons of lead smelting capacity, including the 100,000 tons of capacity owned by Zhuzhou Smelter.

In Guangxi around 80,000 tons of capacity has been shut of the more than 200,000 tons across the province.

MORE IMPORTS POSSIBLE

China, which has seen huge growth in automobile production, is likely to have to go to the international market to replace the 20,000 tons of monthly output that has shut.

It imported 11,500 tons of refined lead in July, and that could rise sharply as the closures start to bite.

"The lead market is one of the most finely balanced. The surplus in the first half was around 37,000 tons and before this, I was expecting a surplus of 20,000 tons next year," David Moore, an analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said.

"If supply is impaired for a sustained period of time it will become quite serious. (China's) lead consumption rose 25 percent in the first-half versus last year and given the trends in auto production it is probable that a large proportion will have gone to end demand."

As long as the closure edicts stem from provincial authorities and not Beijing, analysts and traders expect them to be fairly brief.

"The central government is not asking us to close. It is the local government's decision," a source at one of the closed smelters said. "The closure should last for two months at the most. If longer, who is going to contribute to the GDP?"

If more cases of poisoning turn up, Beijing may step in and impose stricter controls, Lan Ke, analyst at Southwest Securities in Beijing said, but for now it would be left to the provincial governments.

That view was also echoed by ANZ's Pervan who said the market was unlikely to see anything similar to the lengthy outage at the Magellan lead mine in Western Australia, which was shut for around two years ago when the port of Esperance banned lead shipments over environmental health concerns.

The mine, owned by Canadian-listed Ivernia is starting shipment of stockpiled concentrate and will re-open the mine next year.

"The Chinese will try and address this a little more quickly than the Australians did at Magellan where they had to reconstruct transport infrastructure.

"There will be pressure to get these plants cleaned up quickly and bring them back on line.

(Editing by Michael Urquhart)

Q+A: How does lead harm health and what can be done?
Reuters 25 Aug 09;

(Reuters) - China has begun shutting down lead smelters for environmental checks after hundreds of children tested for high levels of lead in two separate cases this month. Below are some facts on lead and its impact on human health:

HOW DOES IT HARM HUMAN HEALTH?

Lead is a metal with no known biological benefit to humans. Too much can damage various systems of the body including the nervous and reproductive systems and the kidneys, and it can cause high blood pressure and anemia.

Lead accumulates in the bones and lead poisoning may be diagnosed from a blue line around the gums. Lead is especially harmful to the developing brains of fetuses and young children and to pregnant women.

Lead interferes with the metabolism of calcium and Vitamin D. High blood lead levels in children can cause consequences which may be irreversible including learning disabilities, behavior problems and mental retardation. At very high levels, lead can cause convulsions, coma and death.

HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

- Even a blood level of 10 micrograms per deciliter can have harmful effects on children's learning and behavior.

- About 250,000 children in the United States aged five and below have blood lead levels that are higher than that limit.

HOW ARE PEOPLE EXPOSED TO LEAD?

- People are exposed to lead through the air they breathe, water and food. People can be exposed to lead from motor vehicle exhaust of leaded gasoline, industrial sources such as smelters and lead manufacturing and recycling industries, from cottage industry uses and contaminated landfills.

Lead from natural sources is present in tap water to some extent, but analysis of both surface and ground water suggests that lead concentration is fairly low.

Other sources include use of ceramics (containing lead) for cooking, eating or drinking. In some countries, people are exposed to lead after eating food products from cans that contain lead solder in the seams.

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

- Remove lead from petrol/gasoline, paint and plumbing

- If lead pipes cannot be removed, cold water should be flushed through in the morning before drinking

- Surveillance of potentially exposed population groups

- Water treatment

- Removing lead solder from food cans

- Use lead-free paint in homes

- Screen children for blood lead levels over acceptable limits and referral for medical care if necessary

- The World Health Organization says anything over 0.1 milligrams of lead per liter of drinking water is unsafe. If high levels are detected, alternative supplies or bottled water maybe necessary to protect young children.

Sources: World Health Organization, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

(Reporting by Tan Ee Lyn)

Read more!

Satellites Used to Predict Infectious Disease Outbreaks

From avian flu to cholera, infectious diseases may not be able to hide for long. Some researchers have their sights trained on predicting their every move with detailed satellite data

Katherine Harmon, Scientific American 24 Aug 09;

Rather than searching for weird weather or enemy missiles, some satellites are helping researchers to track—and predict—the spread of deadly diseases.

With the pandemic spread of H1N1 swine flu and the continued advance of the H5N1 avian flu, scientists are anxious to better predict the spread of infectious diseases and are looking for new tools wherever they might be—even if that's hundreds of miles in the sky.

"Ideally we could predict conditions that would result in some of these major outbreaks of cholera, malaria, even avian flu," says Tim Ford of the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine. Ford and a group of experts have co-authored a perspective paper (pdf), due out next month in Emerging Infectious Diseases, that proposes making use of environmental data—tracked via satellite—to predict disease outbreaks.

"As climate changes, and even with many of our weather patterns, [it] directly affects the distribution of disease," Ford says. Hantavirus, the pulmonary disease spread by rodents, for example, has been linked to changes in precipitation. With more rainfall, vegetation increases, which then fuels rodent populations. And pinpointing an area as relevant conditions emerge—before an outbreak starts—buys precious time to spread public health messages.

Satellite imaging can also help warn of cholera outbreaks, which are predicted to worsen with climate change. The satellites provide information about water surface temperatures, which are key to the spread of this waterborne disease. One study found that giving people simple preventative instructions, such as filtering water through a sari cloth, reduced cholera-related deaths by an estimated 50 percent in some areas.

Remote data have already been used to map the avian flu in Asia. Xiangming Xiao, associate director of the University of Oklahoma's Center for Spatial Analysis in Norman, has been tracking likely outbreaks of this highly pathogenic flu by looking for key habitat and weather changes. The domestic duck—determined to be the main carrier of the disease—is a common inhabitant of Southeast Asia's rice paddies, and the movement of migratory birds—a secondary carrier—could be predicted based on temperatures. So using both land-use and temperature information from satellites, Xiao and his team could track the spread of the flu by estimating where the birds would be.

If visual data from satellites is combined with information from radar and LiDAR, (light detecting and ranging, which provides laser-measured data about 3-D contours), Xiao explains, researchers can really hone prediction of some diseases down to a tree line. "You can look at… the transition of pasture grassland to forests," he says, habitats which determine the range of deer. "And this has very important implications for tick-borne diseases, like Lyme disease."

Much of the satellite work, however, still relies on clear skies. And all of it has been dependent on quality information from willing providers, such as NASA and its Earth Observing System, the availability of which researchers hope will continue in the future.

Even with the clearest NASA images, though, current methods are far from perfect. They employ complex models and incomplete information, risking false alarms and missed outbreaks.

The satellite data are still just a portion of the equation. They allow researchers to start "standing back and looking at the picture from a distance," Ford says. He and others are heavily reliant on ground-based measurements and observations. Xiao notes that, "the in situ observations are still very, very important. So the key is to combine those together—that's a real challenge."

Read more!

Blocked rivers threaten livelihood of Brazilian tribes

Plans to build more than 200 hydroelectric dams bring prospect of cheap electricity but destruction of Amazon habitats

Tom Phillips, guardian.co.uk 23 Aug 09;

Once they were threatened by wildcat gold-miners and a measles epidemic that slashed their population to just 56. But now the Ikpeng, a proud tribe of Amazon warriors, say a new catastrophe looms over their future: the damming of the rivers they depend upon for food.

Across Brazil alarm bells are ringing over plans to build at least 229 small hydroelectric dams, known as PCHs, which the government hopes will generate electricity and drive economic development.

Opponents say they will damage the environment and destroy the livelihoods of thousands of Brazilian tribespeople.

There are 346 PCHs in Brazil, with another 70 under construction and 159 awaiting licences. If the construction of dams continues, "the fish will run out and the waters will start to go down," warned Komuru Txicao, a local tribesman. "Here in the forest we don't need electricity. We need fish, water and land."

Other hydroelectric projects planned by the government are huge — the $4bn Belo Monte dam further north along the Xingu river from Pavuru would be the third biggest plant of its kind on earth, producing over 11,000 megawatts of electricity. While Belo Monte has been described by the government as a "gift from God", critics say it will destroy lives, homes and traditions.For Komuru and his neighbours, the immediate concern is the construction of a network of PCHs around the Xingu national park in Mato Grosso state. Komuru fears the dams will block the tributaries of the Xingu, itself the largest tributary of the Amazon.

According to the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel), four PCHs – the Paranatinga II, Culuene, ARS and Ronuru – operate near the reserve; another, Paranatinga I, is waiting for its licence. Aneel says 13 PCHs are being built in Mato Grosso state, while another 19 projects are awaiting licences. The government says such dams will help power the agricultural revolution that is sweeping Brazil's mid-west and bring electricity to small towns.

Recent years have seen the Ikpeng, a proud tribe of Amazon warriors, embrace many of the comforts and distractions of the outside world.

Three months ago wireless internet was installed here in Pavuru, one of over 30 villages located in the Park — a vast, 2.8 million hectare indigenous reserve home to some 5,000 Indians from 14 different ethnic groups. Today Ikpeng teenagers spend their afternoons downloading tracks by artists such as Enrique Iglesias and the US rapper 50 Cents while many of the tribe's hunters use shot-guns rather than the traditional bow and arrow to hunt spider monkeys and wild-boar in the surrounding forests.

"Things are changing," admitted Karane Txicao, 28, sat behind an HP laptop in the village's concrete internet cafe. "Now people never leave the front of the computer screen."

Several of the traditional huts – or owros – also shelter large television sets, powered by a diesel generation which is switched on at 9am each day and turned off at 9pm.

But unlike the telenovelas and MP3s, government plans for PCHs around the Xingu Park have met with a furious reception.

"It is very worrying," said Kumare, a resident who is the local head of Funai, Brazil's indigenous agency. "This will directly affect us. They are damming all of the rivers." Kumare said the dams would make it impossible for the fish to migrate upstream thus decimating the main source of food for the reserve's Indians.

Last March the conflict escalated when eight staff from the electricity company responsible for one PCH spent five days held "hostage" near Pavuru. They were released only after the president of Brazil's indigenous agency, Funai, personally intervened. "We didn't kill them, we 'arrested' them," recalled Komuru.

Similar battles are raging across the Amazon region, where plans to build roads, hydroelectric dams and other major infrastructure projects have triggered a conflict between those who want to protect the world's largest tropical rainforest and its indigenous tribes and those wishing to drive development and relieve poverty. A dispute over the Belo Monte dam turned violent in May when an engineer from the Brazilian power company Eletrobras was attacked during a presentation about the plant. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has sought to allay fears over the dam, vowing that it "would not be shoved down anyone's throat".

But concerns grew in July when a federal court lifted an embargo on the Belo Monte licensing process, clearing the way for a bidding round later this year.

Having witnessed the Ikpeng's plight in the 1960s, Melobo, an Ikpeng shaman, who says he is around 60 years old and wears 15 shell ear-rings in each ear, fears history may be repeating itself. "The farmers ruin the Indian's things," Melobo said, in heavily accented Portuguese, standing on the banks of the Xingu river. "They ruin the Indian's water. They ruin the Indian's land.""We don't want to negotiate," added Komuru. "We don't want money. We don't want things that are worth nothing. We want our land."

Read more!

Wind farms and polluted skies: the great paradox of China

China is on its way to becoming the world's largest producer of renewable energy, yet it remains one of the most polluted countries on earth. From Yale Environment 360, part of the Guardian Environment Network

From Yale Environment 360, part of the Guardian Environment Network
guardian.co.uk 24 Aug 09;

This month, on the first anniversary of the opening of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, Beijing's skies were a hazy gray. Walking down the street, one was left with a tickle in the throat and burning eyes.

A recent study published in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, conducted jointly by Peking University and Oregon State University, found that Beijing's $20 million investment to scrub the skies for the Olympics in fact had little impact on air quality. The U.S. embassy in Beijing now maintains a Twitter feed posting data from an air-quality monitoring station on the embassy compound; readings of large particulates in the air in recent weeks have ranged from "unhealthy" to "very unhealthy" to "hazardous."

The experience of daily life in Beijing hardly gives the impression that the last year has been a watershed for the environment in China. Being in the capital, one can't help but feel a little quizzical glancing at recent headlines from newspapers in Washington, New York, and London announcing China's green-tech revolution. (This is what an eco-friendly revolution feels like?) It's tempting to shrug and wonder whether the legacy of new green initiatives will be as lackluster as the "green Olympics" – or to feel blue at the lack of promised "blue skies."

Yet for an entirely different perspective on China's recent environmental progress, take the ultra-modern bullet train a half-hour southwest of Beijing to the port city of Tianjin. In just a little over four years, a mix of government and foreign investment has transformed this mid-sized Chinese city into the global manufacturing hub of the world's wind power industry. China's installed wind capacity has doubled in each of the past four years. Many experts seem reasonably optimistic that China could meet its ambitious renewable energy plans to derive at least 15 percent of all energy from renewable sources by 2020. The country also is striving to reduce energy intensity per unit of GDP by 20 percent over a five-year period.

These two targets represent some of the most ambitious green goals in the world, and are expected to make China — in just over a decade — the world's largest producer and consumer of alternative energy.

China watchers worldwide have taken note. Earlier this month, a prominent American venture capitalist and the CEO of General Electric published a joint op-ed in The Washington Post, enthusing, "China's commitment to developing clean energy technologies and markets is breathtaking" — even outpacing the U.S. and putting Beijing "in the lead today."

From the outside, China is seen as passing spectacular new renewable energy goals, building massive wind farms and hydropower stations overnight and perhaps one day even giving American and European companies a run for their money in the global green-tech market. But from the inside, what emerges is a more muddled picture. The daily experience is that the air and water quality is bad, in some places getting marginally better or staying the same, in some cases getting worse.

"How do you reconcile these different pictures of China?" asks Barbara Finamore, founder and director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's China Program. "Both are true at once. It's something we struggle with all the time."

Indeed, China may soon be simultaneously the greenest and the blackest place on earth. The country is poised to be at once the world's leader in alternative energy — and its leading emitter of C02. Alternative energy as a percentage of the total energy mix is increasing, but it will complement — not replace — growth in coal power. In fact, in a decade coal is expected to supply about 70 percent of China's energy. Because of the sheer scale, diversity, and complexity of China, it is possible for the country to take some great green leaps forward, in particular progress toward its alternative energy and energy efficiency targets, while at the same time having its rivers remain black and its air quality a health hazard.

To some extent this varied picture is to be expected. As Deborah Seligsohn, a senior fellow at the World Resources Institute's China Program, explains: "I think the government is trying very hard, and they're a developing country with huge challenges — different things will move forward at different speeds."

But there may also be another pattern at work. As Beijing-based political commentator Zhao Jing — who writes in the English-language press under the name of Michael Anti — puts it: "There are really two sets of 'green' issues in China, the global and the domestic — those where economic interests align with green targets, and those where they don't." In his estimation, China has made striking progress on the former set of issues, and rather less on the second.

For example, China has made impressive gains in quickly developing its alternative energy industry, in part because large new investments benefit everyone — from wind turbine manufacturers to local governments (which gain tax revenue from new industry) to future consumers. Yet, on domestic air and water pollution — where what is needed is stricter regulatory enforcement, potentially limiting industry — Chinese environmental groups believe the picture may be getting worse. And the environmental lawyers and advocates who would bring these issues to the attention of authorities are facing tougher crackdowns than ever.

At the same time, China is pouring billions of dollars into alternative energy — a commitment that, when taken as a percentage of GDP, is 10 times that of the United States. "China's biggest green achievement has been to develop alternative energy," says Jin Jiamin, founder and executive director of Global Environmental Institute, a Chinese NGO based in Beijing. "In the U.S., it takes time for ideas to become reality. But in China, it's different. It's easy for any new policies to be implemented quickly."

Julian L. Wong, founder of the Beijing Energy Network and now a Senior Policy Analyst at the Center for American Progress, says that the outlook and reported figures so far look good. He points to government statistics indicating that energy consumption per unit of GDP dropped by 10 percent between 2006 and 2008. One reason for rapid progress, he explains, is that these key energy initiatives are backed by China's powerful National Development and Reform Commission, the ministry responsible for economic development.

"Using energy more efficiently makes good economic sense," he says. And diversifying China's energy portfolio also appeals to Beijing, which has been concerned with energy security since the 1980s.

Of course, there are some important caveats. In China, "alternative energy" includes both hydro and nuclear power, which are often not classified as such elsewhere. "Please remember, there are negative environmental consequences for dams and nuclear," says Hu Kanping, editor of the Beijing-based Environmental Protection Journal. "I do not think those are really 'clean' energy sources." This month China announced plans to increase nuclear energy capacity tenfold over the next decade.

While the installation of wind turbines has proceeded at a furious pace in China, not all of the newly installed capacity is actually available to consumers through the grid. "Renewable energy providers often can't always get access to the market," says Ray Cheung, a senior associate at the World Resources Institute. "If you're a solar or wind energy company in China and you can't gain access to the grid, nobody's going to buy your power."

Forbes recently reported that as many as 30 percent of "wind power assets" are not adequately connected to the grid. The obstacles are in part technical (the existing grid has not been designed for the fluctuating energy production from wind power), and in part political (the powerful companies that control access to the grid often have cozy relationships with coal energy suppliers and can block green newcomers).

Finally, while progress is almost certainly being made on both alternative energy and energy efficiency in China, it's worth noting that most data for quantifying that progress has been supplied by the government itself. For instance, the state-owned People's Daily publishes the quarterly figures on energy efficiency that are in turn cited by both domestic and international press. "There's still the question of how can we verify figures," says Wong.

Overall, however, on these emerging fronts the trends seem positive. But on domestic environmental issues — those that impact the daily lives of the Chinese people — the picture is less rosy.

"Water quality is probably deteriorating," says Jin Jiamin, of the Global Environmental Institute. "The reason is industrial pollution." Indeed, the Ministry of Environmental Protection's most recent annual report on the state of the environment acknowledges that cleanup efforts failed to make improvements in the water quality of China's seven major rivers. Mortality from cancers linked with pollution — including stomach cancer and liver cancer — continues to rise, according to Ministry of Health statistics. Smog blankets large Chinese cities. The toxic industry of importing dangerous "e-waste" (used electronics and computer parts containing hazardous chemicals) continues to flourish in Guizhou, as documentary photographer Alex Hofford has demonstrated, despite laws in place to shut down the profitable trade.

The reality is that, even as investment to stimulate new green industries is thriving in China, enforcement of green regulations that may limit industrial and economic activity is not. As Charles McElwee, a Shanghai-based environmental lawyer, explains: "Most actions aimed at energy will have some impact on local environment, but China has not shown willingness to commit the same level of resources to enforce existing environmental laws, which would have the most immediate impact on citizens."

And as The Washington Post has reported, tough economic times have brought even laxer environmental enforcement for factories in southern China. Peng Peng, research director of the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, a government-affiliated think tank, told the Post: "With the poor economic situation, officials are thinking twice about whether to close polluting factories, whether the benefits to the environment really outweigh the dangers to social stability."

While China's national priorities have shifted, its politics haven't. When economic and environmental priorities align, astoundingly rapid transformation is possible. But when interests compete, the economy still trumps the environment.

Read more!

The Big Question: Should Africa be generating much of Europe's power?

Daniel Howden, The Independent 25 Aug 09;

Why are we asking this now?

Two hugely ambitious power-generating schemes have been launched in recent weeks, one offering to create the world's largest solar farm and the other to create the biggest hydroelectric dam on the planet.

In both cases the location for the mega-projects is Africa: the solar-power scheme envisages harnessing the sun in the Moroccan and/or Algerian Sahara; while the hydroelectric plan centres on damming the mighty Congo River.

What the two projects have in common is that they seek to export the majority of the power they intend to generate from impoverished countries to more developed economies.

In the case of the Sahara to Southern Europe and in the case of Congo to South Africa, foreign mining interests inside the Democratic Republic of Congo and again, Europe. Even in the best-case scenario neither project will be up and running for 15 years.

How would it work?

Planners behind the Desertec scheme point out that the solar energy that falls on the Sahara in six hours would power Europe for one year. Although the difficulty in harnessing, storing and transferring that electricity means that the eventual aim is to supply 15 per cent of Europe's power needs. The Inga Dam project in DRC aims to generate 40,000MW, meaning twice the capacity of the giant Three Gorges dam in China, which would be more than the output of South Africa's entire troubled national power industry. In terms of how it works, however sophisticated power stations become, they all do broadly the same thing as a bicycle dynamo – they either boil water or harness moving water to turn turbines that generate resistance and charge. In the Sahara it would be done by a new concentrated solar power (CSP) technology which is in effect a vast field of mirrors which collect heat, boil water and turn turbines. The electricity generated would be channelled through direct current cables under the Mediterranean and into Europe. In the case of the Congo it would involve absorbing the extraordinary power of the Inga Falls to power the turbines. The same cables would then transfer that electricity as far afield as South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and southern Europe.

What would the cost be?

The Desertec plan has been costed at €400bn, while the Grand Inga Dam would weigh in at $80bn, always assuming that the projects are delivered on budget. The main backers of the Sahara scheme are a dozen finance and industrial firms, mainly from Germany, including household names such as Siemens. One of the biggest cost factors will be the direct current cables which will cost as much as $1bn each, even to cross from the Sahara to Southern Europe and at least 20 of them are needed. There are a host of risk factors involved in both that stretch from political and regional instability in the Maghreb to prolonged conflict in the DRC. Add to these Saharan sandstorms and the costs of providing the water necessary to clean solar panels and cool turbines in a desert.

Why are developed economies shopping for power in the third world?

The simplest answer is that there are no equivalents of the Saharan solar power or the roaring waters of the Inga Falls in southern England, or anywhere else in crowded Europe. But another aspect is the difficulty that governments and private investors have had in establishing large renewable energy projects in Europe. Some, such as Portugal, have forged ahead with widespread windfarms but others, such as the UK, have met with organised, local resistance to big projects that would transform the environment. By contrast, the Sahara offers proximity to Europe, a tiny population and intense sunlight.

How will Europe benefit?

In Europe the energy question is a strategic one. Most governments are looking for ways to reduce their reliance on Russian gas which some would argue has given too much power to Moscow. Many administrations are pursuing the nuclear option but often without being honest about the timescale involved in launching next-generation civilian reactors – at least 20 years from now in most cases. All of this is happening while the long-term goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent below 1995 levels before 2050. In any case, many EU countries are behind on their commitments to switch at least 15 per cent of their energy needs to renewable resources by 2015.

How will Africa benefit?

According to the World Bank, The Grand Inga project has the potential to bring electricity to 500 million homes in Africa. It would solve at a stroke the electricity crisis in South Africa which has seen the continent's biggest economy plunged into darkness for days at a time. However, there are two previous Inga dams, which were costly and corrupt failures. If it worked, it could also deal with the energy needs of DRC's mining sector in Katanga, power Namibia and fill the shortfall in Nigeria's generating capacity. A quick look at satellite images of the Earth at night are sufficient to show that Africa remains in an electrical dark age. Fewer than 30 per cent of African households have access to electricity and that number plunges to one in 10 in many countries.

So why the controversy?

A new report by Usaid this week estimated that there are now one billion people living in Africa. Despite urbanisation, the majority of them live outside cities, or without access to basic services. Exporting African electricity to Europe's businesses and consumers strikes some as grotesquely wrong. Many development agencies favour a patchwork of smaller projects using existing solar technology – photovoltaic – which is cheaper and more suited to a dispersed population. In contrast, an open energy market would see Africans competing with far richer Europeans for electricity generated from their natural resources. Considering the scant benefits that have accrued to ordinary people from other natural boons such as oil and minerals, these projects can be seen as a power grab. Then there is climate change, to which Africa contributes least and suffers the worst consequences. In Kenya climate change is contributing to a drought that has crippled the hydropower the country relies on. A similar crisis in Uganda means the country is running on generators. Rich industrial nations are already committed to setting up global-warming adaptation funds and technology transfer through the UN climate talks. Critics of the mega-projects believe the billions would be better spent there than in indirect subsidies to Western multinationals under the guise of helping Africa.

Should Europe be allowed to continue its power-generating schemes in Africa?

Yes...

*Europe needs renewable energy and Africa needs massive investment, it's a win-win situation

*The Sahara is empty and barraged with more solar power every morning than Europe needs in a year

*A new grand dam on the Congo River would power up to 500 million African homes

No...

*These mega-schemes are huge indirect subsidies from rich nations to multinationals seeking mega-profits

*The centralised grand designs don't meet Africa's dispersed power needs and are a huge distraction

*Africa is full of Western-funded white elephants, two of them already on the Congo River

Read more!

Africa wants $67 billion a year to fight climate change

Tsegaye Tadesse, Reuters 24 Aug 09;

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - African leaders will ask rich nations for $67 billion per year to mitigate the impact of global warming on the world's poorest continent, according to a draft resolution seen by Reuters on Monday.

Ten leaders are holding talks at African Union (AU) headquarters in the Ethiopian capital to try to agree a common stance ahead of a U.N. summit on climate change in Copenhagen in December.

Experts say Africa contributes little to the pollution blamed for warming, but is likely to be hit hardest by the droughts, floods, heatwaves and rising sea levels forecast if climate change is not checked.

The draft resolution, which must still be approved by the 10 leaders, called for rich countries to pay $67 billion annually to counter the impact of global warming in Africa.

It said there had been serious limitations on Africa's ability to negotiate in the past because of a lack of a coherent stance on global warming by African governments.

"The negotiating team need to be backed with the political weight at the highest level in the continent to ensure that the African voice on climate change negotiations is taken with the seriousness it deserves," the document said.

CALLS FOR COMPENSATION

Earlier this year, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi called on rich countries to compensate Africa for warming, arguing that pollution in the northern hemisphere may have caused his country's ruinous famines in the 1980s.

A study commissioned by the Geneva-based Global Humanitarian Forum that was released in May said poor nations bear more than nine-tenths of the human and economic burden of climate change.

The 50 poorest countries, however, contribute less than 1 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions that scientists say are threatening the planet, the report said.

Africa is the region most at risk from warming and is home to 15 of the 20 most vulnerable countries, it said. Other areas also facing the highest level of threat include South Asia and small island developing states.

Developing nations accuse the rich of failing to take the lead in setting deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, and say they are trying to get the poor to shoulder more of the burden of emission curbs without providing aid and technology.

A new climate treaty is due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December. But a senior U.N. official has warned the discussions risk failure if they are accelerated.

Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said only "selective progress" had been made toward trimming a 200-page draft treaty text in Bonn earlier this month, one of a series of talks meant to end with a U.N. deal in Denmark.

(Writing by Jeremy Clarke; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

Africa seeks climate change cash
BBC News 24 Aug 09;

Ministers from 10 African countries are meeting in Ethiopia to try to agree a common position on climate change, months before a crucial UN meeting.

They are expected to renew demands for billions of dollars in compensation for Africa because of damage caused by global warming.

And they are likely to ask rich nations to cut emissions by 40% by 2012.

African nations are among the lightest polluters but analysts say they will suffer the most from climate change.

BBC science reporter Matt McGrath says the move to agree a common negotiating platform for Africa recognises the continent's failure to make its voice heard on the debate.

'Dismal co-ordination'

Kenya's environment secretary, Alice Kaudia, told the BBC that the continent had to learn from other countries' mistakes.

"One single country will not solve its environmental problems on its own, it will need partners, and that's why it's very important that there's that unified common position," she said.

"The development of Africa should not go alongside the same mistakes that the developed world already made - to have these high emissions that are now affecting the whole world."

One of the documents prepared for the meeting refers to the "dismal co-ordination" of the African negotiation process.

So far, delegations from individual countries have had limited success in making the case that Africa needs special help to cope with climate change.

The "representatives and experts" of African Union (AU) leaders - who include environment and agriculture ministers from the 10 countries - are meeting in Addis Ababa under Libyan chairmanship in an attempt to change this.

Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, said all African leaders should support the AU's efforts to form a clear message.

But she said Africa too had its responsibilities.

"We are all hoping we will develop and attain a higher quality of life, so there has to be a very serious commitment on the part of Africa that we will not be opting for development patterns that will reverse whatever other countries are trying to do," she said.

Kyoto replacement

Delegates from powerhouses South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya are among those attending the AU conference.

They will discuss a suggestion that developed countries should cut emissions by at least 40% by 2020, and that richer nations should provide $67bn (£40bn) a year to help the least well-off cope with rising temperatures.

They will also attempt to agree a set of key ideas in order to help national delegations to the UN negotiations in Copenhagen this December to present a co-ordinated position.

The Copenhagen conference will try to negotiate a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, elements of which expire in 2012.

Correspondents say the US, China, India and the EU will have the greatest sway at the UN conference.

But African leaders will be hoping that by speaking with one voice at Copenhagen, their negotiating position can be significantly enhanced.

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