ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A conservation organization has requested that Alaska and six other states add bodies of water to their list of impaired waterways: the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
The Center for Biological Diversity, based in San Francisco, requested that Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii list the Pacific Ocean as impaired under the federal Clean Water Act. The group wants New York, New Jersey and Florida to list the Atlantic.
The reason: ocean acidification, the changing of sea water chemistry because of absorption of carbon dioxide produced by humans.
A center attorney, Miyoko Sakashita, said listing the oceans as impaired under the Clean Water Act would allow states to set limits on the discharge of pollutants.
Lynda Giguere, spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, said neither Commissioner Larry Hartig nor Division of Water Director Lynn Kent had seen the request Wednesday.
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Alaska periodically reviews such requests, she said, and this one will be considered in a process allowing public comment.
The ocean's absorption of CO2 is quietly and lethally altering its fundamental chemistry, Sakashita said.
"We must act now to prevent global warming's evil twin, ocean acidification, from destroying our ocean ecosystems," she said.
A similar petition was submitted in California in February.
A comprehensive national policy to curb greenhouse gas emissions would be preferable, Sakashita said.
"Since we don't have that right now, using the Clean Water Act is the strongest law we have that addresses water quality," she said.
The law applied to oceans traditionally has been used to stop land-based pollution. However, the law covers both point and "nonpoint" sources of pollution such as farm runoff, she said, and has been used against mercury emitted from smokestacks.
It's not the first time the group has taken on greenhouse gas emissions by using laws on the books. The center filed the initial petition seeking protection for America's polar bears under the Endangered Species Act because of the effect of global warming on the animals' primary habitat, Arctic sea ice.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in December proposed listing polar bears as "threatened" and must make a final listing decision near the end of the year.
In polar bears, the beloved and revered symbols of the Arctic, the group has a "charismatic megafauna" to raise the visibility of its cause. For ocean acidification, one fear is the effect on a far tinier organism, plankton.
According to the request to states, oceans absorb millions of tons of carbon dioxide each day and have absorbed about half of the CO2 released by human activities. Excess carbon dioxide makes sea water more acidic, about 25 to 30 percent more since preindustrial times because of human-generated carbon dioxide, Sakashita said.
The change makes certain compounds unavailable that are necessary for marine organisms to build shells and skeletons, impeding the growth of plankton, Sakashita said.
Brendan Cummings, the center's ocean program director, said plankton is a basic thread in the ocean food web, a source of food for sockeye salmon and the prey of the other four Pacific salmon. Krill eat plankton and other species feed on krill, including baleen whales, he said.
"If you lose these species," Cummings said of the plankton, "the whole food web unravels."
Hawaii and Florida have coral reefs that ocean acidification will erode more quickly than they can rebuild, Cummings said. The growth of starfish, urchins, oysters and other shelled organisms also could be affected.
If ocean waters are listed, the law would require states to limit carbon dioxide pollution entering the ocean waters under their jurisdiction, according to the center.
Alaska has more than 6,600 miles of coastline. Like global warming, ocean acidification will be felt in Alaska sooner and could undermine the basis of oceanic life, Cummings said.
"Ocean acidification is one of those things we hope the public and the policymakers wake up to," he said.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Appeal for Help after Congo Gorilla Massacre
LONDON -- Wildlife conservation experts appealed on Friday for funds to help protect rare mountain gorillas in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after four adults were found shot dead last month.
The Zoological Society of London said a special protection zone with extra patrols had been set up in the area where the one dead silverback male and three females were found, but funds were desperately needed to help pay for it.
"The massacre of four mountain gorillas was a devastating tragedy and it is now essential that we provide constant protection to the remaining families," Noelle Kumpel, ZSL's Bushmeats and Forests Conservation Programme Manager, said.
"Shockingly, this is not the first time that gorillas in the park have been slaughtered in this way and we are calling on the public to support our appeal for funds to help us ensure that it does not happen again," she added.
The four were found dead in the southern sector of the Virunga National Park which contains more than a fifth of the world's population of 700 mountain gorillas.
ZSL said another female and her infant were still missing and the killing had orphaned one gorilla.
Earlier this year another two silverbacks and a female were shot in Virunga, apparently by Congolese rebels for bush meat.
Virunga is the oldest national park in Africa and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It was a significant tourist attraction before Congo's 1998-2003 war which devastated the east of the vast Central African country, triggering a humanitarian disaster that has killed more than 4 million people.
The Zoological Society of London said a special protection zone with extra patrols had been set up in the area where the one dead silverback male and three females were found, but funds were desperately needed to help pay for it.
"The massacre of four mountain gorillas was a devastating tragedy and it is now essential that we provide constant protection to the remaining families," Noelle Kumpel, ZSL's Bushmeats and Forests Conservation Programme Manager, said.
"Shockingly, this is not the first time that gorillas in the park have been slaughtered in this way and we are calling on the public to support our appeal for funds to help us ensure that it does not happen again," she added.
The four were found dead in the southern sector of the Virunga National Park which contains more than a fifth of the world's population of 700 mountain gorillas.
ZSL said another female and her infant were still missing and the killing had orphaned one gorilla.
Earlier this year another two silverbacks and a female were shot in Virunga, apparently by Congolese rebels for bush meat.
Virunga is the oldest national park in Africa and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It was a significant tourist attraction before Congo's 1998-2003 war which devastated the east of the vast Central African country, triggering a humanitarian disaster that has killed more than 4 million people.
Scientists Track Climate-Driving Atlantic Current
WASHINGTON -- The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation -- also known as the conveyor belt -- was featured in the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" and the disaster flick "The Day After Tomorrow" as a changeable force that could wreak havoc on the climate in Europe and North America if it slowed down.
Now scientists are tracking the massive flows of shallow warm and deep cold ocean water that make up the current. They are taking detailed measurements in a line stretching across the Atlantic from the Bahamas to Africa, researchers wrote Thursday in the journal Science.
The current is called the conveyor belt because it forms a giant loop from the Gulf of Mexico to Iceland and back. Warm water -- the Gulf Stream -- flows north near the ocean surface along the U.S. East Coast, then veers northeast before breaking into several streams.
Some of these continue north past Iceland while the rest return south.
On its northward journey, the warm water cools and becomes more dense, sinking as it gets to extreme northern latitudes and returning southward at depths down to 3 miles. It also becomes less salty, fueled by fresh water runoff from rain and melting glaciers, including the Greenland Ice Sheet.
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A year of observation indicates the circulation system may vary widely over 12 months, the scientists reported.
There is not yet enough data to tell whether global warming is having an impact, said study co-author Stuart Cunningham of the National Oceanography Centre in Britain.
"I think it's too soon to tell," he told Reuters. "Basically, the previous observations have been snapshot estimates so there is quite a large amount of uncertainty associated with interpreting these estimates."
But the detailed findings agree with previous estimates, which indicates no "dramatic changes" so far.
Cunningham said climate models suggest that changes caused by humans to the current will be relatively steady, slowing down the conveyor belt during the next 50 years.
However, he said, "A lot of paleoclimate evidence suggests that transitions can be rather large and abrupt, maybe 50 percent changes over a few years, and if that happens we'd see it immediately."
To track the current, researchers placed a series of anchored instruments at latitude 26.5 degrees north, some clustered in the western Atlantic near the Bahamas, others off the north African coast.
These instruments measure changes in pressure, temperature and salinity throughout the water column from the surface to the sea bottom. The published study offers measurements from March 2004 through March 2005, but the instruments will continue observing at least through 2014.
Source: Reuters
Now scientists are tracking the massive flows of shallow warm and deep cold ocean water that make up the current. They are taking detailed measurements in a line stretching across the Atlantic from the Bahamas to Africa, researchers wrote Thursday in the journal Science.
The current is called the conveyor belt because it forms a giant loop from the Gulf of Mexico to Iceland and back. Warm water -- the Gulf Stream -- flows north near the ocean surface along the U.S. East Coast, then veers northeast before breaking into several streams.
Some of these continue north past Iceland while the rest return south.
On its northward journey, the warm water cools and becomes more dense, sinking as it gets to extreme northern latitudes and returning southward at depths down to 3 miles. It also becomes less salty, fueled by fresh water runoff from rain and melting glaciers, including the Greenland Ice Sheet.
ADVERTISEMENT
A year of observation indicates the circulation system may vary widely over 12 months, the scientists reported.
There is not yet enough data to tell whether global warming is having an impact, said study co-author Stuart Cunningham of the National Oceanography Centre in Britain.
"I think it's too soon to tell," he told Reuters. "Basically, the previous observations have been snapshot estimates so there is quite a large amount of uncertainty associated with interpreting these estimates."
But the detailed findings agree with previous estimates, which indicates no "dramatic changes" so far.
Cunningham said climate models suggest that changes caused by humans to the current will be relatively steady, slowing down the conveyor belt during the next 50 years.
However, he said, "A lot of paleoclimate evidence suggests that transitions can be rather large and abrupt, maybe 50 percent changes over a few years, and if that happens we'd see it immediately."
To track the current, researchers placed a series of anchored instruments at latitude 26.5 degrees north, some clustered in the western Atlantic near the Bahamas, others off the north African coast.
These instruments measure changes in pressure, temperature and salinity throughout the water column from the surface to the sea bottom. The published study offers measurements from March 2004 through March 2005, but the instruments will continue observing at least through 2014.
Source: Reuters
Arctic Sea Ice Expected to Hit Record Low in September
NEW YORK -- The extent of Arctic sea ice will likely have melted to a record low this September partially due to man-made greenhouse gas emissions, researchers at the University of Colorado said Thursday.
There is a 92 percent chance that Arctic sea ice extent in September will melt to its lowest level at least since the 1970s, when satellite measuring efforts began, the researchers said. They had predicted a 33 percent chance of a record low in April, but changed the forecast after a rapid disintegration of sea ice during July.
Such high levels of ice melting could have wide implications in coming years such as changes in temperature and rain patterns across much of the United States.
"Similar to the way the El Nino pattern affects weather in the United States, more ice melt could change rain patterns and temperature patterns in the middle of the United States, which could have economic impacts on farmers," Sheldon Drobot, who leads Arctic ice forecasting at CU-Boulder's aerospace engineering department, said in an interview.
It could also open the Northwest Passage along the northern coast of North America and connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to shipping by as early as 2020 or 2025, he said. That could be a cheaper option for many shippers than the Panama Canal.
Whatever the effects, a rise in heat-trapping emissions such as carbon dioxide is partially responsible, the university said.
"There is an element of human activity in the cause of this melt," said Drobot. "Natural variations can't explain everything."
High levels of greenhouse emissions from smokestacks and tailpipes have combined with natural fluctuations, such as an increase in cloud-free days over the Arctic this summer, to spur the melt, he said.
Arctic sea ice researchers pay particular attention to the months of September and March because they generally mark the annual minimum and maximum sea ice extent, respectively. Sea ice extent, the area of an ocean covered by at least 15 percent ice, has been declining at least since the late 1970s.
The CU-Boulder department used satellite data from the U.S. Department of Defense and temperature records from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the ice forecasts, which it has been producing for five years.
The record low September minimum for sea ice, set in 2005, is 2.15 million square miles. For 2007, the highest probability minimum extent is 1.96 million square miles , and there is a 25 percent chance the low will fall to 1.88 million square miles , Drobot said.
The melt itself can act as a feedback loop and cause ever more melting, because water has a darker surface than snow. "Water acts like a sponge sucking up a lot more solar energy," Drobot said.
Source: Reuters
There is a 92 percent chance that Arctic sea ice extent in September will melt to its lowest level at least since the 1970s, when satellite measuring efforts began, the researchers said. They had predicted a 33 percent chance of a record low in April, but changed the forecast after a rapid disintegration of sea ice during July.
Such high levels of ice melting could have wide implications in coming years such as changes in temperature and rain patterns across much of the United States.
"Similar to the way the El Nino pattern affects weather in the United States, more ice melt could change rain patterns and temperature patterns in the middle of the United States, which could have economic impacts on farmers," Sheldon Drobot, who leads Arctic ice forecasting at CU-Boulder's aerospace engineering department, said in an interview.
It could also open the Northwest Passage along the northern coast of North America and connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to shipping by as early as 2020 or 2025, he said. That could be a cheaper option for many shippers than the Panama Canal.
Whatever the effects, a rise in heat-trapping emissions such as carbon dioxide is partially responsible, the university said.
"There is an element of human activity in the cause of this melt," said Drobot. "Natural variations can't explain everything."
High levels of greenhouse emissions from smokestacks and tailpipes have combined with natural fluctuations, such as an increase in cloud-free days over the Arctic this summer, to spur the melt, he said.
Arctic sea ice researchers pay particular attention to the months of September and March because they generally mark the annual minimum and maximum sea ice extent, respectively. Sea ice extent, the area of an ocean covered by at least 15 percent ice, has been declining at least since the late 1970s.
The CU-Boulder department used satellite data from the U.S. Department of Defense and temperature records from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the ice forecasts, which it has been producing for five years.
The record low September minimum for sea ice, set in 2005, is 2.15 million square miles. For 2007, the highest probability minimum extent is 1.96 million square miles , and there is a 25 percent chance the low will fall to 1.88 million square miles , Drobot said.
The melt itself can act as a feedback loop and cause ever more melting, because water has a darker surface than snow. "Water acts like a sponge sucking up a lot more solar energy," Drobot said.
Source: Reuters
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Stocks Drop As Credit And Economy Worries Rise
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks slid sharply on Thursday as signs of further deterioration in credit conditions sparked fears about the potential impact on the economy and profits.
A much weaker-than-expected reading in a gauge of economic activity in the Mid-Atlantic region added to already frayed nerves and sent stocks sliding, triggering downside trading curbs on the New York Stock Exchange.
After the numbers from the Philly Fed came out, the Nasdaq erased all its gains for the year.
All three major indexes were 10 percent below their 52-week highs from mid-July. That is a threshold professional investors label a market correction, as opposed to a signal that a bull market has ended. Bear markets are defined by a 20 percent drop in prices from their highs.
The latest blow to investor confidence came from the mortgage sector. Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, said it had to draw down an entire $11.5 billion bank credit line to fund its operations after it was essentially shut out of other credit markets.
"There are credit fears, commercial paper fears, asset- backed market fears and then you throw in weak numbers like the Philly Fed," said Kevin Kruszenski, head of listed trading at KeyBanc Capital Markets in Cleveland.
"If you start seeing the theme of slower economic activity, that is not going to be good for stocks."
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 307.60 points, or 2.39 percent, at 12,553.87. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 34.16 points, or 2.43 percent, at 1,372.54. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 67.81 points, or 2.76 percent, at 2,391.02.
© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved.
A much weaker-than-expected reading in a gauge of economic activity in the Mid-Atlantic region added to already frayed nerves and sent stocks sliding, triggering downside trading curbs on the New York Stock Exchange.
After the numbers from the Philly Fed came out, the Nasdaq erased all its gains for the year.
All three major indexes were 10 percent below their 52-week highs from mid-July. That is a threshold professional investors label a market correction, as opposed to a signal that a bull market has ended. Bear markets are defined by a 20 percent drop in prices from their highs.
The latest blow to investor confidence came from the mortgage sector. Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, said it had to draw down an entire $11.5 billion bank credit line to fund its operations after it was essentially shut out of other credit markets.
"There are credit fears, commercial paper fears, asset- backed market fears and then you throw in weak numbers like the Philly Fed," said Kevin Kruszenski, head of listed trading at KeyBanc Capital Markets in Cleveland.
"If you start seeing the theme of slower economic activity, that is not going to be good for stocks."
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 307.60 points, or 2.39 percent, at 12,553.87. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 34.16 points, or 2.43 percent, at 1,372.54. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 67.81 points, or 2.76 percent, at 2,391.02.
© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved.
Distressed denim trend costs Mexican farmers the earth
Fields affected by chemicals from thriving blue jeans industry, activists claim
Mariano Baragán looked down at the blue-grey crust peeling off the field he irrigates from a canal. Nearby factories were the problem - dozens of them, which are dedicated to doing to jeans in hours what used to take years of wear.
"As well as being blue, it burns the seedlings and sterilises the earth," the 67-year-old subsistence farmer said. And the cause? A wry smile hovered on his lips. "It's the fashion."
Fashion is no stranger to suffering, as the peasants in the Tehuacán valley in central Mexico can attest.
Overlooked by volcanoes and laced by underground waterways, the city of Tehuacán was once famous for its mineral springs and spas. The "city of health" was already in decline by the time the area became a hub for the global denim industry in the 1990s.
More recently competition from Asia and Central America has closed some factories, but Tehuacán still has more than 700 clothes manufacturers. Many of these produce jeans for big US brands as well as lesser-known local labels, which copy the new styles set by the bigger players.
"Jeans were born to be used by workers," said a local activist, Martín Barrios. "Now they can cost thousands of dollars and are produced on the backs of exploitation and environmental destruction."
Mr Barrios and his colleagues in the local Human Rights Commission spend most of their time defending workers' rights in the factories, which range from large well-established facilities to clandestine sweatshops that disappear at the first hint of inspection.
Of most concern environmentally are the laundries where the clothes are sent for distressing. There, jeans are sandpapered, marked with mechanical tools and faded with large quantities of potassium permanganate - a bleaching agent once commonly used to trigger illegal abortions.
Then there is the stonewashing, fabric softening and a final crescendo of washing and rewashing. The clean garments are left ready for sale, while in many factories the chemicals used to treat them are left to flow away in bright indigo waste.
Over the years consciousness-raising campaigns, aided by US-based international solidarity groups, have persuaded the multinationals to pressure Tehuacán's most established factories to fulfil minimum international standards.
Last week inspectors sent by Gap were in town to visit Grupo Navarra - the city's biggest manufacturer, which supplies the multinational - prompted by a dispute involving a group of workers who say they were sacked for trying to form an independent union. The company is one of the few with a water treatment plant on site.
"The contamination is mainly the fault of the companies that act outside the law," said Juan Carlos López, the firm's chief of health, hygiene and the environment. He points to the transparent water flowing from his plant. "We are always getting inspected. Nobody inspects the others."
But activists claim the government is simply not prepared to take on the economic interests of the factory owners.
A substantial array of institutions at local, state and federal level have some degree of responsibility. Those contacted all recognised that the problem is serious, but claimed they were doing everything within their jurisdiction while implying that other authorities were not.
"We don't think that the problem is wearing denim," Mr Barrios said, standing on a small mountain of blue pumice stone beside the waste canal leaving Tehuacán's Lavacolor laundry. "The problem is the toxic styles imposed by the big brands."
Mariano Baragán looked down at the blue-grey crust peeling off the field he irrigates from a canal. Nearby factories were the problem - dozens of them, which are dedicated to doing to jeans in hours what used to take years of wear.
"As well as being blue, it burns the seedlings and sterilises the earth," the 67-year-old subsistence farmer said. And the cause? A wry smile hovered on his lips. "It's the fashion."
Fashion is no stranger to suffering, as the peasants in the Tehuacán valley in central Mexico can attest.
Overlooked by volcanoes and laced by underground waterways, the city of Tehuacán was once famous for its mineral springs and spas. The "city of health" was already in decline by the time the area became a hub for the global denim industry in the 1990s.
More recently competition from Asia and Central America has closed some factories, but Tehuacán still has more than 700 clothes manufacturers. Many of these produce jeans for big US brands as well as lesser-known local labels, which copy the new styles set by the bigger players.
"Jeans were born to be used by workers," said a local activist, Martín Barrios. "Now they can cost thousands of dollars and are produced on the backs of exploitation and environmental destruction."
Mr Barrios and his colleagues in the local Human Rights Commission spend most of their time defending workers' rights in the factories, which range from large well-established facilities to clandestine sweatshops that disappear at the first hint of inspection.
Of most concern environmentally are the laundries where the clothes are sent for distressing. There, jeans are sandpapered, marked with mechanical tools and faded with large quantities of potassium permanganate - a bleaching agent once commonly used to trigger illegal abortions.
Then there is the stonewashing, fabric softening and a final crescendo of washing and rewashing. The clean garments are left ready for sale, while in many factories the chemicals used to treat them are left to flow away in bright indigo waste.
Over the years consciousness-raising campaigns, aided by US-based international solidarity groups, have persuaded the multinationals to pressure Tehuacán's most established factories to fulfil minimum international standards.
Last week inspectors sent by Gap were in town to visit Grupo Navarra - the city's biggest manufacturer, which supplies the multinational - prompted by a dispute involving a group of workers who say they were sacked for trying to form an independent union. The company is one of the few with a water treatment plant on site.
"The contamination is mainly the fault of the companies that act outside the law," said Juan Carlos López, the firm's chief of health, hygiene and the environment. He points to the transparent water flowing from his plant. "We are always getting inspected. Nobody inspects the others."
But activists claim the government is simply not prepared to take on the economic interests of the factory owners.
A substantial array of institutions at local, state and federal level have some degree of responsibility. Those contacted all recognised that the problem is serious, but claimed they were doing everything within their jurisdiction while implying that other authorities were not.
"We don't think that the problem is wearing denim," Mr Barrios said, standing on a small mountain of blue pumice stone beside the waste canal leaving Tehuacán's Lavacolor laundry. "The problem is the toxic styles imposed by the big brands."
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
China River Pollution Kills 40,000 Kilograms of Fish
BEIJING -- Waste water dumped by factories into a river in southwest China has poisoned and killed about 40,000 kg (88,180 lb) of fish, media said on Tuesday.
Eighty government officials went door to door in Chongan town, Guizhou province, to warn villagers not to eat, sell or transport the fish, state radio and news portal www.sina.com.cn reported.
Dead fish were found floating on a 5-km (3-mile) stretch of the murky and foul-smelling river on Aug. 10, the media said, adding it would take another four to five days to clear them away.
Officials blamed the deaths on upstream factories dumping excessive levels of fluorine, phosphate and arsenium into the river, the media reports said.
The government has been struggling to curb pollution from factories and mines that have driven frantic economic growth.
Last month the nation's top environmental protection official warned public anger with worsening pollution was fuelling increasing protests. He also criticised local governments for turning a blind eye to factories transforming rivers into "sticky glue".
Source: Reuters
Eighty government officials went door to door in Chongan town, Guizhou province, to warn villagers not to eat, sell or transport the fish, state radio and news portal www.sina.com.cn reported.
Dead fish were found floating on a 5-km (3-mile) stretch of the murky and foul-smelling river on Aug. 10, the media said, adding it would take another four to five days to clear them away.
Officials blamed the deaths on upstream factories dumping excessive levels of fluorine, phosphate and arsenium into the river, the media reports said.
The government has been struggling to curb pollution from factories and mines that have driven frantic economic growth.
Last month the nation's top environmental protection official warned public anger with worsening pollution was fuelling increasing protests. He also criticised local governments for turning a blind eye to factories transforming rivers into "sticky glue".
Source: Reuters
Coal-to-Liquids Quietly Becoming a Reality in U.S.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- While the energy industry has been focused on alternative fuels and new sources of oil, the coal industry is going forward with plants to turn coal into liquid fuels such as diesel and gasoline.
Supporters say at least some plans are a certainty, even if Congress doesn't approve incentives sought by coal-to-liquids supporters. But they argue some form of subsidy is vital to build enough plants to dent the nation's reliance on foreign oil.
"You're going to have a coal-to-liquids industry in the United States," said John Ward, vice president for marketing and government relations for Headwaters Inc. "The question is how fast will it happen."
The National Mining Association's Coal-To-Liquids Coalition is hosting a conference this week in Beckley, W.Va. The event's agenda includes speeches by Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and other politicians and updates on various coal-to-liquids projects by representatives of the U.S. Air Force and Rentech Inc., which is working to develop proposed plants around the country.
South Jordan, Utah-based Headwaters is working on a coal-to-gasoline plant proposed for North Dakota and researching the feasibility of coal-to-liquid plants for Pittsburgh-based Consol Energy.
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While most plants are years away from construction, Los Angeles-based Rentech hopes to convert a natural gas-fed fertilizer plant in East Dubuque, Ill., by the end of 2009 or 2010. Production would start low -- 920 tons of fertilizer and 1,800 barrels of diesel a day.
That's at once a drop in the bucket compared with the nation's energy use and, to the industry's way of thinking, a big step in the right direction. Rentech Chief Executive Hunt Ramsbottom and others figure at least one of several larger proposed plants will be built.
The coal industry and coal-state politicians in particular say the nation can't afford to patiently wait for small developers to build plants on their own or in conjunction with coal companies.
But so far the notion hasn't gotten very far in Washington.
"There's not a concerted effort to be truly energy independent," said West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin. "How are you going to get us from A to B and still be a world superpower?"
Supporters argue using domestic coal would reduce dependence on imported oil from unstable parts of the world.
"It has the potential to be a meaningful supply of fuel that would take the price off of gasoline and diesel fuel and would take the dependence down on the Mideast," said Don Blankenship, chief executive of Massey Energy Co., the nation's fourth-largest coal producer by revenue.
Environmentalists contend conservation and energy efficiency would do the same thing. And they argue coal to liquids plants double the greenhouse gases of oil refining, consume of vast quantities of water and increase coal production.
"Why in heaven's name would we be subsidizing anything that's giving double the greenhouse gases?" said Vivian Stockman of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. "It's basically a way to prop up the coal industry and give them more subsidies and hold people economic hostage."
Ramsbottom and others contend they'll be able to reduce overall carbon dioxide emissions by capturing the gas and selling it to oil producers to extend the life of aging wells, among other things. If several plants get off the ground quickly, they can actually cut down carbon emissions, he said.
"It actually increases your pollution and decreases safety not to do coal to liquids," he said, explaining that oil producing countries "don't care anything about the environment. ... It's so backwards I don't really know how to describe it."
Source: Associated Press
Supporters say at least some plans are a certainty, even if Congress doesn't approve incentives sought by coal-to-liquids supporters. But they argue some form of subsidy is vital to build enough plants to dent the nation's reliance on foreign oil.
"You're going to have a coal-to-liquids industry in the United States," said John Ward, vice president for marketing and government relations for Headwaters Inc. "The question is how fast will it happen."
The National Mining Association's Coal-To-Liquids Coalition is hosting a conference this week in Beckley, W.Va. The event's agenda includes speeches by Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and other politicians and updates on various coal-to-liquids projects by representatives of the U.S. Air Force and Rentech Inc., which is working to develop proposed plants around the country.
South Jordan, Utah-based Headwaters is working on a coal-to-gasoline plant proposed for North Dakota and researching the feasibility of coal-to-liquid plants for Pittsburgh-based Consol Energy.
ADVERTISEMENT
While most plants are years away from construction, Los Angeles-based Rentech hopes to convert a natural gas-fed fertilizer plant in East Dubuque, Ill., by the end of 2009 or 2010. Production would start low -- 920 tons of fertilizer and 1,800 barrels of diesel a day.
That's at once a drop in the bucket compared with the nation's energy use and, to the industry's way of thinking, a big step in the right direction. Rentech Chief Executive Hunt Ramsbottom and others figure at least one of several larger proposed plants will be built.
The coal industry and coal-state politicians in particular say the nation can't afford to patiently wait for small developers to build plants on their own or in conjunction with coal companies.
But so far the notion hasn't gotten very far in Washington.
"There's not a concerted effort to be truly energy independent," said West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin. "How are you going to get us from A to B and still be a world superpower?"
Supporters argue using domestic coal would reduce dependence on imported oil from unstable parts of the world.
"It has the potential to be a meaningful supply of fuel that would take the price off of gasoline and diesel fuel and would take the dependence down on the Mideast," said Don Blankenship, chief executive of Massey Energy Co., the nation's fourth-largest coal producer by revenue.
Environmentalists contend conservation and energy efficiency would do the same thing. And they argue coal to liquids plants double the greenhouse gases of oil refining, consume of vast quantities of water and increase coal production.
"Why in heaven's name would we be subsidizing anything that's giving double the greenhouse gases?" said Vivian Stockman of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. "It's basically a way to prop up the coal industry and give them more subsidies and hold people economic hostage."
Ramsbottom and others contend they'll be able to reduce overall carbon dioxide emissions by capturing the gas and selling it to oil producers to extend the life of aging wells, among other things. If several plants get off the ground quickly, they can actually cut down carbon emissions, he said.
"It actually increases your pollution and decreases safety not to do coal to liquids," he said, explaining that oil producing countries "don't care anything about the environment. ... It's so backwards I don't really know how to describe it."
Source: Associated Press
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
After Russia and Canada, U.S. Ship Headed for Arctic
August 14, 2007 — By Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters
WASHINGTON -- A U.S. Coast Guard cutter is headed to the Arctic this week on a mapping mission to determine whether part of this area can be considered U.S. territory, after recent polar forays by Russia and Canada.
The four-week cruise of the Coast Guard Cutter Healy starts Friday and aims to map the sea floor on the northern Chukchi Cap, an underwater plateau that extends from Alaska's North Slope some 500 miles northward.
This is the third such U.S. Arctic mapping cruise -- others were in 2003 and 2004 -- and is not a response to a Russian mission this month to place a flag at the North Pole seabed, or a newly announced Canadian plan for an Arctic port, U.S. scientists said.
"This cruise was planned for three years and we've had the earlier cruises; this is part of a long and ongoing program, not at all a direct response," said Larry Mayer of the University of New Hampshire, who will be on the voyage.
So why are the countries with Arctic coastlines all heading northward now?
Under the U.N. Law of the Sea treaty, every coastal state that has the potential to claim some part of the Arctic's undersea mineral wealth must make a claim to the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.
The United States is not now a party to the sea treaty, but Mayer and Andy Armstrong, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, held out hope that Washington might join.
Armstrong, who will also be aboard the U.S. cutter, acknowledged that this cruise will "map the location of features that would have a role in the U.S. extension of the continental shelf."
Most of the area the scientists want to map will be covered in ice, even in the northern summer. They will use an echo sounder that bounces many bits of sound in a swath across the sea floor, Mayer said by telephone.
"We don't map just a single spot beneath the vessel," Mayer said. "We can map a wide swath beneath the vessel in relatively high resolution."
The mission will look for features specified by the treaty, including the place where the slope turns into the flat plain of the deep sea bottom, Armstrong said on the same phone call.
Coastal states have rights to resources of the sea floor of their continental shelves. Under the Law of the Sea, a country gets 200 nautical miles of continental shelf automatically but may extend that if it meets certain geologic criteria, the oceanic administration said in a statement.
The Bush administration wants Senate consent to join the Law of the Sea convention, which would give the United States the same rights as other treaty parties to protect coastal and ocean resources.
Source: Reuters
WASHINGTON -- A U.S. Coast Guard cutter is headed to the Arctic this week on a mapping mission to determine whether part of this area can be considered U.S. territory, after recent polar forays by Russia and Canada.
The four-week cruise of the Coast Guard Cutter Healy starts Friday and aims to map the sea floor on the northern Chukchi Cap, an underwater plateau that extends from Alaska's North Slope some 500 miles northward.
This is the third such U.S. Arctic mapping cruise -- others were in 2003 and 2004 -- and is not a response to a Russian mission this month to place a flag at the North Pole seabed, or a newly announced Canadian plan for an Arctic port, U.S. scientists said.
"This cruise was planned for three years and we've had the earlier cruises; this is part of a long and ongoing program, not at all a direct response," said Larry Mayer of the University of New Hampshire, who will be on the voyage.
So why are the countries with Arctic coastlines all heading northward now?
Under the U.N. Law of the Sea treaty, every coastal state that has the potential to claim some part of the Arctic's undersea mineral wealth must make a claim to the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.
The United States is not now a party to the sea treaty, but Mayer and Andy Armstrong, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, held out hope that Washington might join.
Armstrong, who will also be aboard the U.S. cutter, acknowledged that this cruise will "map the location of features that would have a role in the U.S. extension of the continental shelf."
Most of the area the scientists want to map will be covered in ice, even in the northern summer. They will use an echo sounder that bounces many bits of sound in a swath across the sea floor, Mayer said by telephone.
"We don't map just a single spot beneath the vessel," Mayer said. "We can map a wide swath beneath the vessel in relatively high resolution."
The mission will look for features specified by the treaty, including the place where the slope turns into the flat plain of the deep sea bottom, Armstrong said on the same phone call.
Coastal states have rights to resources of the sea floor of their continental shelves. Under the Law of the Sea, a country gets 200 nautical miles of continental shelf automatically but may extend that if it meets certain geologic criteria, the oceanic administration said in a statement.
The Bush administration wants Senate consent to join the Law of the Sea convention, which would give the United States the same rights as other treaty parties to protect coastal and ocean resources.
Source: Reuters
Australia Holds the Last Great Savanna in the World
August 14, 2007 — By Rob Taylor, Reuters
CANBERRA -- Northern Australia contains the world's largest remaining savannas and is one of the last great pristine wilderness zones, covering an area larger than western Europe, Australian researchers said on Tuesday.
The country's tropics, stretching 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) across the continent, accounted for more than a quarter of the world's remaining savanna after the decline of grasslands that once spread over South America, Africa and Asia, they said.
"In other parts of the world, tropical savanna is in decline due to landclearing, unsustainable grazing regimes and over-population, but this vast area of Northern Australia is remarkably intact," said Professor Brendan Mackey, who led a team of scientists on a three-year study of the remote region.
Savanna marks the divide between areas of desert and forest, and includes grasslands and trees. The savannas of Eastern Africa's wildlife plains and northern Australia are typical.
But after satellite mapping 1.5 million square kilometres (580,000 square miles) of Australia's north, a team of scientists from the WildCountry Science Council said the area now ranked with Antarctica and South America's Amazon rainforests in environmental importance.
While 70 percent of the world's savanna had been seriously damaged by human activity, Australia's northern rivers and forests remained largely untouched by small Aboriginal communities amidst World Heritage-listed parks.
"You feel as if you are walking in the footsteps of the people who have managed this land for millennia," West Arnhem Land Fire Abatement Project spokesman Peter Cooke told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.
The study found Australia's savanna was four times the size of Africa's remaining woodlands.
But the report called for caution.
"What we don't want is people coming up here with incompatible forms of development that will degrade this natural asset," Mackey told local radio.
He was referring to a government-ordered inquiry into whether Australian farmers should consider moving from the drought-hit south to the more fragile north to take advantage of heavy seasonal monsoon rains for cropgrowing.
Much of Australia is suffering from a 10-year drought expected to wipe up to one percent from the country's economic output. Farmers in the southeast, a major agricultural region, will learn in weeks whether they will receive any water for irrigated cropping.
The northern tropics, Mackey said, would be able to cope with some economic development, but government must be cautious before deciding on exploitation.
"Before our analysis, we didn't really understand to what extent northern Australia really represents the last, best opportunity we have to do something sensible with a large tropical region," he said.
Source: Reuters
CANBERRA -- Northern Australia contains the world's largest remaining savannas and is one of the last great pristine wilderness zones, covering an area larger than western Europe, Australian researchers said on Tuesday.
The country's tropics, stretching 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) across the continent, accounted for more than a quarter of the world's remaining savanna after the decline of grasslands that once spread over South America, Africa and Asia, they said.
"In other parts of the world, tropical savanna is in decline due to landclearing, unsustainable grazing regimes and over-population, but this vast area of Northern Australia is remarkably intact," said Professor Brendan Mackey, who led a team of scientists on a three-year study of the remote region.
Savanna marks the divide between areas of desert and forest, and includes grasslands and trees. The savannas of Eastern Africa's wildlife plains and northern Australia are typical.
But after satellite mapping 1.5 million square kilometres (580,000 square miles) of Australia's north, a team of scientists from the WildCountry Science Council said the area now ranked with Antarctica and South America's Amazon rainforests in environmental importance.
While 70 percent of the world's savanna had been seriously damaged by human activity, Australia's northern rivers and forests remained largely untouched by small Aboriginal communities amidst World Heritage-listed parks.
"You feel as if you are walking in the footsteps of the people who have managed this land for millennia," West Arnhem Land Fire Abatement Project spokesman Peter Cooke told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.
The study found Australia's savanna was four times the size of Africa's remaining woodlands.
But the report called for caution.
"What we don't want is people coming up here with incompatible forms of development that will degrade this natural asset," Mackey told local radio.
He was referring to a government-ordered inquiry into whether Australian farmers should consider moving from the drought-hit south to the more fragile north to take advantage of heavy seasonal monsoon rains for cropgrowing.
Much of Australia is suffering from a 10-year drought expected to wipe up to one percent from the country's economic output. Farmers in the southeast, a major agricultural region, will learn in weeks whether they will receive any water for irrigated cropping.
The northern tropics, Mackey said, would be able to cope with some economic development, but government must be cautious before deciding on exploitation.
"Before our analysis, we didn't really understand to what extent northern Australia really represents the last, best opportunity we have to do something sensible with a large tropical region," he said.
Source: Reuters
Making Global Warming Cuts Expensive but Feasible for Power Industry, Study Says
August 14, 2007 — By Alan Zibel, Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Making big cuts in emissions linked to global warming could trim U.S. economic growth by $400 billion to $1.8 trillion over the next four decades, a new study says.
The study published Monday by a nonprofit research group partially funded by the power industry concludes that halving emissions of carbon dioxide -- the main greenhouse gas linked to global warming -- will require "fundamental" changes in energy production and consumption.
The Electric Power Research Institute said the most cost-effective way to reduce the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is to make many changes at once, including expanding nuclear power, developing renewable technologies and building systems to capture and store carbon dioxide emitted from coal plants. Reducing demand for electricity is also key, the institute said.
Still, the shift to cleaner technologies will raise the price of both electricity and natural gas, whose use in power generation is expected to grow in a carbon-constrained world.
The EPRI cost estimate is based on a 50 percent cut in total U.S. carbon emissions from 2010 levels by 2050. Without such a cut and the shifts in technology it would bring, the Energy Department projects that U.S. carbon emissions will rise from about 6 billion metric tons a year in 2005 to 8 billion metric tons by 2030.
The report calls for more modest cuts in emissions than some proposals currently being considered in Congress. Bigger cuts could well be more expensive.
However, a leading environmental group said the study misses a key point: the economic costs of not doing anything to stop global warming -- which they warn will lead to problems as diverse as flooding damage, refugee crises and less snow at ski resorts.
"We think it will be more expensive to do nothing," David G. Hawkins, director of the climate center at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said. "We think the economy is going to be threatened by unabated global warming."
Over the past year, power industry officials have been gearing up for what many see as an inevitable move to regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. Top executives from Duke Energy Corp., PNM Resources Inc. and American Electric Power Company Inc. have urged lawmakers to give them enough flexibility to cut emissions at an affordable cost.
Revis James, one of the EPRI report's authors, said it would be difficult but possible for the electric power industry to cut back on its share of greenhouse gas emissions, which make up about one-third of total U.S. emissions.
"It's not like hoping for a miracle," James said. "The manned space flight program happened because there was a very strong national consensus that it was important and it needed to be done...I think we are dealing with something here that is similar to that. It's going to take 25 years of concerted effort."
The report also concludes that making cuts in emissions more slowly rather than mandating big cuts right away, is the most cost-effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions because doing so gives advanced technologies more time to develop.
EPRI uses 2000 dollars in its calculations, so adjusting for inflation, the economic effects would be far higher.
Earlier this month, Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va., outlined a plan to cut U.S. economywide emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to 70 percent of current levels by 2050.
EPRI's researchers envision the power industry cutting greenhouse emissions though a fivefold increase in nuclear power from Energy Department projections, twice as much renewable power, more efficient coal plants, widespread adoption of technology to capture and store carbon emissions from coal plants and the spread of plug-in cars that can send electricity back to the power grid.
In addition, demand growth would be held to 1.1 percent per year, compared with the 1.5 percent annual growth that the Energy Department projects.
Source: Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Making big cuts in emissions linked to global warming could trim U.S. economic growth by $400 billion to $1.8 trillion over the next four decades, a new study says.
The study published Monday by a nonprofit research group partially funded by the power industry concludes that halving emissions of carbon dioxide -- the main greenhouse gas linked to global warming -- will require "fundamental" changes in energy production and consumption.
The Electric Power Research Institute said the most cost-effective way to reduce the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is to make many changes at once, including expanding nuclear power, developing renewable technologies and building systems to capture and store carbon dioxide emitted from coal plants. Reducing demand for electricity is also key, the institute said.
Still, the shift to cleaner technologies will raise the price of both electricity and natural gas, whose use in power generation is expected to grow in a carbon-constrained world.
The EPRI cost estimate is based on a 50 percent cut in total U.S. carbon emissions from 2010 levels by 2050. Without such a cut and the shifts in technology it would bring, the Energy Department projects that U.S. carbon emissions will rise from about 6 billion metric tons a year in 2005 to 8 billion metric tons by 2030.
The report calls for more modest cuts in emissions than some proposals currently being considered in Congress. Bigger cuts could well be more expensive.
However, a leading environmental group said the study misses a key point: the economic costs of not doing anything to stop global warming -- which they warn will lead to problems as diverse as flooding damage, refugee crises and less snow at ski resorts.
"We think it will be more expensive to do nothing," David G. Hawkins, director of the climate center at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said. "We think the economy is going to be threatened by unabated global warming."
Over the past year, power industry officials have been gearing up for what many see as an inevitable move to regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. Top executives from Duke Energy Corp., PNM Resources Inc. and American Electric Power Company Inc. have urged lawmakers to give them enough flexibility to cut emissions at an affordable cost.
Revis James, one of the EPRI report's authors, said it would be difficult but possible for the electric power industry to cut back on its share of greenhouse gas emissions, which make up about one-third of total U.S. emissions.
"It's not like hoping for a miracle," James said. "The manned space flight program happened because there was a very strong national consensus that it was important and it needed to be done...I think we are dealing with something here that is similar to that. It's going to take 25 years of concerted effort."
The report also concludes that making cuts in emissions more slowly rather than mandating big cuts right away, is the most cost-effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions because doing so gives advanced technologies more time to develop.
EPRI uses 2000 dollars in its calculations, so adjusting for inflation, the economic effects would be far higher.
Earlier this month, Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va., outlined a plan to cut U.S. economywide emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to 70 percent of current levels by 2050.
EPRI's researchers envision the power industry cutting greenhouse emissions though a fivefold increase in nuclear power from Energy Department projections, twice as much renewable power, more efficient coal plants, widespread adoption of technology to capture and store carbon emissions from coal plants and the spread of plug-in cars that can send electricity back to the power grid.
In addition, demand growth would be held to 1.1 percent per year, compared with the 1.5 percent annual growth that the Energy Department projects.
Source: Associated Press
Study Suggests Carbon Market Encourages Chopping Forests
August 14, 2007 — By Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters
WASHINGTON -- The current carbon market actually encourages cutting down some of the world's biggest forests, which would unleash tons of climate-warming carbon into the atmosphere, a new study reported Monday.
Under the Kyoto Protocol aimed at stemming climate change, there is no profitable reason for the 10 countries and one French territory with 20 percent of Earth's intact tropical forest to maintain this resource, according to a study in the journal Public Library of Science Biology.
The Kyoto treaty and other talks on global warming focus on so-called carbon credits for countries and companies that plant new trees where forests have been destroyed. Trees and other plants absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas emitted by petroleum-fueled vehicles, coal-fired power plants and humans.
At this point, there is no credit for countries that keep the forests they have, the study said.
"The countries that haven't really been the target of deforestation have nothing to sell because they haven't deforested anything," said Gustavo Fonseca, one of the study's authors.
PERVERSE INCENTIVE
"So that creates a perverse incentive for them to actually start deforesting, so that in the future, they might be allowed to actually cap-and-trade, as they call it: you put a cap on your deforestation and you trade that piece that hasn't been deforested," Fonseca said in a telephone interview.
The countries most at risk for this kind of deforestation, because they all have more than half their original forests intact, are Panama, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Peru, Belize, Gabon, Guyana, Suriname, Bhutan and Zambia, along with the French territory of French Guiana.
These places need a system of credits to involve them in the "global deforestation avoidance market," said Fonseca, of the World Bank's Global Environment Facility.
Under this kind of system, these countries could agree to keep deforestation rates below the global average and get credit for how much below the average they are, Fonseca said.
These market mechanisms are still being worked out and are likely to be debated at a series of international meetings on climate change this year at the United Nations, in Washington and in Bali, Indonesia.
Besides curbing greenhouse gas emissions, this system could offer other benefits that intact forests provide, according to Russell Mittermeier, a study co-author and president of the environmental group Conservation International.
Intact forests protect watersheds, encourage pollination and preserve biodiversity, Mittermeier said by telephone.
Mittermeier said perhaps 20 to 25 percent of world carbon emissions come from the destruction of tropical forest, but this issue is not at the center of the global warming discussion.
"People are talking a lot about vehicle emissions, industrial emissions, biofuels and recycling," Mittermeier said. "Forests were barely in there and yet forests are ... perhaps the major contributor" to global climate change.
Source: Reuters
WASHINGTON -- The current carbon market actually encourages cutting down some of the world's biggest forests, which would unleash tons of climate-warming carbon into the atmosphere, a new study reported Monday.
Under the Kyoto Protocol aimed at stemming climate change, there is no profitable reason for the 10 countries and one French territory with 20 percent of Earth's intact tropical forest to maintain this resource, according to a study in the journal Public Library of Science Biology.
The Kyoto treaty and other talks on global warming focus on so-called carbon credits for countries and companies that plant new trees where forests have been destroyed. Trees and other plants absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas emitted by petroleum-fueled vehicles, coal-fired power plants and humans.
At this point, there is no credit for countries that keep the forests they have, the study said.
"The countries that haven't really been the target of deforestation have nothing to sell because they haven't deforested anything," said Gustavo Fonseca, one of the study's authors.
PERVERSE INCENTIVE
"So that creates a perverse incentive for them to actually start deforesting, so that in the future, they might be allowed to actually cap-and-trade, as they call it: you put a cap on your deforestation and you trade that piece that hasn't been deforested," Fonseca said in a telephone interview.
The countries most at risk for this kind of deforestation, because they all have more than half their original forests intact, are Panama, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Peru, Belize, Gabon, Guyana, Suriname, Bhutan and Zambia, along with the French territory of French Guiana.
These places need a system of credits to involve them in the "global deforestation avoidance market," said Fonseca, of the World Bank's Global Environment Facility.
Under this kind of system, these countries could agree to keep deforestation rates below the global average and get credit for how much below the average they are, Fonseca said.
These market mechanisms are still being worked out and are likely to be debated at a series of international meetings on climate change this year at the United Nations, in Washington and in Bali, Indonesia.
Besides curbing greenhouse gas emissions, this system could offer other benefits that intact forests provide, according to Russell Mittermeier, a study co-author and president of the environmental group Conservation International.
Intact forests protect watersheds, encourage pollination and preserve biodiversity, Mittermeier said by telephone.
Mittermeier said perhaps 20 to 25 percent of world carbon emissions come from the destruction of tropical forest, but this issue is not at the center of the global warming discussion.
"People are talking a lot about vehicle emissions, industrial emissions, biofuels and recycling," Mittermeier said. "Forests were barely in there and yet forests are ... perhaps the major contributor" to global climate change.
Source: Reuters
Monday, August 13, 2007
Weather Service Raises La Nina Probability
August 10, 2007 — By Carole Vaporean, Reuters
NEW YORK -- The U.S. National Weather Service on Thursday predicted slightly increased chances of greater than 50 percent that the La Nina phenomenon would develop during the next couple of months.
In the meantime, its Climate Prediction Center projected neutral conditions prevailing through August.
Recent atmospheric patterns are consistent with movements toward La Nina conditions, despite their falling short of temperature thresholds for the weather anomaly, the Climate Prediction Center said.
La Nina -- Spanish for "little girl" -- is an unusual cooling of Pacific Ocean surface temperatures, which can trigger widespread changes in weather around the world, including a higher-then-usual number of hurricanes and storms.
The La Nina weather pattern occurs about every three to five years and often follows El Nino, a warming of Pacific waters, which can also wreak havoc on weather around the world.
The latest atmospheric conditions and forecast models suggest a slightly greater than 50 percent chance of La Nina developing during the next couple of months. Historically, August through October has been a critical period for the onset of La Nina events, the government group said.
Nearly all of the models predict below average sea surface temperatures for the remainder of the year, in some El Nino regions, which extend from the United States to South America and Asia.
Recent forecasts range from neutral to La Nina conditions, with a majority of dynamic models indicating a more immediate transition to La Nina, sometimes referred to as a Pacific cold episode.
Over the past several months, however, those models have consistently predicted a stronger and more rapid cooling than has actually occurred.
By contrast, a majority of statistical models indicate more neutral conditions, but some forecast weak La Nina conditions during the fall or winter.
For example, low-level easterly winds remained stronger than average in the west-central equatorial Pacific and heat movement within the atmosphere remains suppressed across most of the equatorial Pacific.
Also, the report said, upper-ocean heat in the central equatorial Pacific region remained below average.
Collectively, oceanic and atmospheric conditions show neutral conditions continuing during August.
Also on Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted the Atlantic hurricane season would be slightly less active this year than first predicted, with up to nine hurricanes expected to form.
Still, "the conditions are ripe for an above normal season," NOAA meteorologist Gerry Bell said.
So far this hurricane season, which ends on Nov. 30, there have been three named storms in the Atlantic -- Andrea, Barry and Chantal -- but no hurricanes.
La Nina last occurred from 1998 to 2001 and resulted in drought across much of the western United States.
The CPC forecast is available on: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/ensodisc.html
(Additional reporting by Christopher Doering)
Source: Reuters
NEW YORK -- The U.S. National Weather Service on Thursday predicted slightly increased chances of greater than 50 percent that the La Nina phenomenon would develop during the next couple of months.
In the meantime, its Climate Prediction Center projected neutral conditions prevailing through August.
Recent atmospheric patterns are consistent with movements toward La Nina conditions, despite their falling short of temperature thresholds for the weather anomaly, the Climate Prediction Center said.
La Nina -- Spanish for "little girl" -- is an unusual cooling of Pacific Ocean surface temperatures, which can trigger widespread changes in weather around the world, including a higher-then-usual number of hurricanes and storms.
The La Nina weather pattern occurs about every three to five years and often follows El Nino, a warming of Pacific waters, which can also wreak havoc on weather around the world.
The latest atmospheric conditions and forecast models suggest a slightly greater than 50 percent chance of La Nina developing during the next couple of months. Historically, August through October has been a critical period for the onset of La Nina events, the government group said.
Nearly all of the models predict below average sea surface temperatures for the remainder of the year, in some El Nino regions, which extend from the United States to South America and Asia.
Recent forecasts range from neutral to La Nina conditions, with a majority of dynamic models indicating a more immediate transition to La Nina, sometimes referred to as a Pacific cold episode.
Over the past several months, however, those models have consistently predicted a stronger and more rapid cooling than has actually occurred.
By contrast, a majority of statistical models indicate more neutral conditions, but some forecast weak La Nina conditions during the fall or winter.
For example, low-level easterly winds remained stronger than average in the west-central equatorial Pacific and heat movement within the atmosphere remains suppressed across most of the equatorial Pacific.
Also, the report said, upper-ocean heat in the central equatorial Pacific region remained below average.
Collectively, oceanic and atmospheric conditions show neutral conditions continuing during August.
Also on Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted the Atlantic hurricane season would be slightly less active this year than first predicted, with up to nine hurricanes expected to form.
Still, "the conditions are ripe for an above normal season," NOAA meteorologist Gerry Bell said.
So far this hurricane season, which ends on Nov. 30, there have been three named storms in the Atlantic -- Andrea, Barry and Chantal -- but no hurricanes.
La Nina last occurred from 1998 to 2001 and resulted in drought across much of the western United States.
The CPC forecast is available on: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/ensodisc.html
(Additional reporting by Christopher Doering)
Source: Reuters
Heat on Australia PM over Climate Sceptic MPs
August 13, 2007 — By Rob Taylor, Reuters
CANBERRA -- A report questioning climate change and calling global warming a "natural phenomenon" on Monday led to accusations Australia's Prime Minister John Howard was a climate sceptic, possibly denting his re-election hopes.
A group of four government lawmakers -- two of them former ministers -- said climate change had been observed on other planets and moons including "Mars, Jupiter, Triton, Pluto, Neptune and others".
But this statement triggered a scornful response from the opposition.
"Prime Minister, what planet are these government MPs on?" Labor Party environment spokesman and former rock star Peter Garrett asked Howard in Parliament.
The four released a report debating the science of carbon capture and underground storage, or geosequestration, opening a climate rift in the government.
"Climate change is a natural phenomenon that has always been with us and always will be," they said in a document challenging the findings of a cross-party parliamentary report looking at carbon capture options for Australia.
"It is the natural property of planets with fluid envelopes to have variability in climate. Thus, at any given time, we may expect about half the planets to be warming. This has nothing to do with human activities," the four said.
Howard, 11 years in power, is fighting accusations he has been slow to respond on climate change, which is shaping up as a key issue for national elections widely tipped for November.
He has announced projects to combat climate change as polls show eight in 10 Australians are concerned about global warming. International reports say the drought-stricken country will be hard hit by rising temperatures and greater extremes in weather.
The four lawmakers -- a majority of the six government MPs on Parliament's Science Committee -- took issue with the parliamentary report recommendation calling for government funding and tenders backing major carbon storage projects.
The Australian Greens said their leader -- former scientist turned MP Dennis Jensen -- was a climate "dinosaur", while Howard remained a self-confessed global warming sceptic.
"His language has changed because he recognises the opinion polls show that Australians are really worried about climate change, are angry that he's done nothing," Greens Senator Christine Milne told radio, referring to Howard.
"While these are the musings of Liberal backbenchers, what they demonstrate is how climate scepticism goes to the heart of the Liberal Party and indeed the coalition," she said.
Howard told parliament he did not agree with the four, but his opponents envisaged "a planet inhabited by people who hate the Australian coal industry". Australia is the world's largest coal exporter.
In a major report, the U.N. climate panel said in February that there was at least a 90 percent probability human activities were the main cause of global warming in the past 50 years.
Delegates who approved the U.N. report at a meeting in Paris agreed a "best estimate" that temperatures will rise by 3 Celsius (5.4 Fahrenheit) by 2100 over pre-industrial levels, the biggest change in a century for thousands of years.
Science Committee chairman Petro Georgiou, a Liberal and frequent critic of Howard's tough immigration policies, said his party colleagues were wrong to question climate change.
"The link between greenhouse gas emissions from human activity and higher temperatures is convincing," he said.
An ACNielsen poll published in Fairfax newspapers on Monday found support for Howard's coalition was rising, but not enough to ward off a landslide victory for the rival Labor Party.
Support for Labor was at 55 percent against 45 percent for Howard's government. A separate poll at the weekend said Howard was in danger of losing his own Sydney-based seat, which he has held since 1974.
Source: Reuters
CANBERRA -- A report questioning climate change and calling global warming a "natural phenomenon" on Monday led to accusations Australia's Prime Minister John Howard was a climate sceptic, possibly denting his re-election hopes.
A group of four government lawmakers -- two of them former ministers -- said climate change had been observed on other planets and moons including "Mars, Jupiter, Triton, Pluto, Neptune and others".
But this statement triggered a scornful response from the opposition.
"Prime Minister, what planet are these government MPs on?" Labor Party environment spokesman and former rock star Peter Garrett asked Howard in Parliament.
The four released a report debating the science of carbon capture and underground storage, or geosequestration, opening a climate rift in the government.
"Climate change is a natural phenomenon that has always been with us and always will be," they said in a document challenging the findings of a cross-party parliamentary report looking at carbon capture options for Australia.
"It is the natural property of planets with fluid envelopes to have variability in climate. Thus, at any given time, we may expect about half the planets to be warming. This has nothing to do with human activities," the four said.
Howard, 11 years in power, is fighting accusations he has been slow to respond on climate change, which is shaping up as a key issue for national elections widely tipped for November.
He has announced projects to combat climate change as polls show eight in 10 Australians are concerned about global warming. International reports say the drought-stricken country will be hard hit by rising temperatures and greater extremes in weather.
The four lawmakers -- a majority of the six government MPs on Parliament's Science Committee -- took issue with the parliamentary report recommendation calling for government funding and tenders backing major carbon storage projects.
The Australian Greens said their leader -- former scientist turned MP Dennis Jensen -- was a climate "dinosaur", while Howard remained a self-confessed global warming sceptic.
"His language has changed because he recognises the opinion polls show that Australians are really worried about climate change, are angry that he's done nothing," Greens Senator Christine Milne told radio, referring to Howard.
"While these are the musings of Liberal backbenchers, what they demonstrate is how climate scepticism goes to the heart of the Liberal Party and indeed the coalition," she said.
Howard told parliament he did not agree with the four, but his opponents envisaged "a planet inhabited by people who hate the Australian coal industry". Australia is the world's largest coal exporter.
In a major report, the U.N. climate panel said in February that there was at least a 90 percent probability human activities were the main cause of global warming in the past 50 years.
Delegates who approved the U.N. report at a meeting in Paris agreed a "best estimate" that temperatures will rise by 3 Celsius (5.4 Fahrenheit) by 2100 over pre-industrial levels, the biggest change in a century for thousands of years.
Science Committee chairman Petro Georgiou, a Liberal and frequent critic of Howard's tough immigration policies, said his party colleagues were wrong to question climate change.
"The link between greenhouse gas emissions from human activity and higher temperatures is convincing," he said.
An ACNielsen poll published in Fairfax newspapers on Monday found support for Howard's coalition was rising, but not enough to ward off a landslide victory for the rival Labor Party.
Support for Labor was at 55 percent against 45 percent for Howard's government. A separate poll at the weekend said Howard was in danger of losing his own Sydney-based seat, which he has held since 1974.
Source: Reuters
Eating Fish: Good for Heart, Bad for Environment?
August 13, 2007 — By Ed Stoddard, Reuters
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia -- Doctors recommend a good dose of salmon or tuna in the diet because of its benefits to the heart. But is it good for the environment?
Surging demand for salmon in particular has been spurred in part by numerous studies touting the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, which are present in some kinds of fish.
A study published in June in the American Heart Association journal Circulation said a diet with liberal servings of fish, nuts and seeds rich in such nutrients can help lower a person's blood pressure. Other studies have shown benefits to eye and brain development and preventing heart disease, Alzheimer's disease and eye disorders.
Conservationists point out that while global fish stocks were getting hammered long before sushi became chic, health trends could add pressure to already vulnerable fisheries.
"Over-fishing has predated the interest in omega-3 and healthy eating. But now there are places where it is certainly going to accentuate it," said Jason Clay, vice president of markets at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
"The FAO (U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization) estimates that by 2030 average annual per capita global consumption of fish will increase by 1.5 kgs (3.4 pounds) and some of it will be driven by health-related demand," he said.
SUSTAINABLE VERSUS UNSUSTAINABLE
When it comes to omega-3 fatty acids, not all fish are equal. Fatty fish such as trout, salmon, mackerel and Alaska pollock are rich in this crucial group of nutrients.
Tuna are, too, but few wild tuna fisheries are regarded by conservationists as sustainable.
"It depends on your source ... Omega-3s are very high in wild salmon and the Alaskan salmon fishery is well-managed," said Phil Kline, an ocean campaigner with Greenpeace.
Alaska salmon are among the fisheries that have been certified as sustainable by the British-based Marine Stewardship Council. It uses stringent criteria for a fishery to get its seal of approval and the right to bear its eco-label.
It has not yet given its blessing to any tuna fishery but is assessing the sustainability of the U.S. Pacific coast albacore tuna industry.
Demand for salmon has certainly been soaring.
According to the U.S. National Fisheries Institute, American per capita consumption of salmon has risen from 0.87 pounds per year in 1992 to 2.026 pounds in 2006. The species also went from being America's sixth most popular fish to eat to its third over the same period of time.
In a well-managed situation, such demand can lead to conservation: it's in no one's interest to deplete something of value.
"In the long run, the more valuable wild salmon are the better they are likely to be protected," said Gunnar Knapp, a professor of economics at the University of Alaska's Institute of Social and Economic Research.
He said high demand and prices gave people an incentive to protect vital salmon habitat such as spawning grounds in rivers from other industries such as logging and mining.
"In Alaska, even if the price of salmon were to quadruple it would not lead to too many fish being caught because the limiting factor is not the price but how much the managers allow the fishermen to catch, and they make that assessment purely on biological grounds," Knapp told Reuters by phone from Anchorage.
But he said Russia's salmon fishery, for example, was not so well managed and could suffer overfishing as prices rise.
Much of the burgeoning demand for salmon is being met by the rapidly growing aquaculture industry, but experts say there are environmental concerns linked to that, too.
WWF's Clay said fish being caught for fishmeal to feed the aquaculture industry include species such as anchovies, which are rich in omega-3s but which have questions over their sustainability.
"One out of every three fish that is caught right now is used to make feed for other fish," he said.
Fish don't actually produce omega-3 fatty acids, they capture it from the food chain.
And there are plenty of substitutes out there such as walnuts, flaxseed and canola oil, which can provide the same omega-3-related benefits as fish.
In the past, children in many parts of the world were given cod liver oil as a health supplement. These days, they are more likely to take fish oil capsules made from other species.
For conservationists, the question is whether the latest health trend will result in salmon and other species going the same way as eastern Canada's cod fishery, once one of the world's richest which utterly collapsed last decade.
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia -- Doctors recommend a good dose of salmon or tuna in the diet because of its benefits to the heart. But is it good for the environment?
Surging demand for salmon in particular has been spurred in part by numerous studies touting the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, which are present in some kinds of fish.
A study published in June in the American Heart Association journal Circulation said a diet with liberal servings of fish, nuts and seeds rich in such nutrients can help lower a person's blood pressure. Other studies have shown benefits to eye and brain development and preventing heart disease, Alzheimer's disease and eye disorders.
Conservationists point out that while global fish stocks were getting hammered long before sushi became chic, health trends could add pressure to already vulnerable fisheries.
"Over-fishing has predated the interest in omega-3 and healthy eating. But now there are places where it is certainly going to accentuate it," said Jason Clay, vice president of markets at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
"The FAO (U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization) estimates that by 2030 average annual per capita global consumption of fish will increase by 1.5 kgs (3.4 pounds) and some of it will be driven by health-related demand," he said.
SUSTAINABLE VERSUS UNSUSTAINABLE
When it comes to omega-3 fatty acids, not all fish are equal. Fatty fish such as trout, salmon, mackerel and Alaska pollock are rich in this crucial group of nutrients.
Tuna are, too, but few wild tuna fisheries are regarded by conservationists as sustainable.
"It depends on your source ... Omega-3s are very high in wild salmon and the Alaskan salmon fishery is well-managed," said Phil Kline, an ocean campaigner with Greenpeace.
Alaska salmon are among the fisheries that have been certified as sustainable by the British-based Marine Stewardship Council. It uses stringent criteria for a fishery to get its seal of approval and the right to bear its eco-label.
It has not yet given its blessing to any tuna fishery but is assessing the sustainability of the U.S. Pacific coast albacore tuna industry.
Demand for salmon has certainly been soaring.
According to the U.S. National Fisheries Institute, American per capita consumption of salmon has risen from 0.87 pounds per year in 1992 to 2.026 pounds in 2006. The species also went from being America's sixth most popular fish to eat to its third over the same period of time.
In a well-managed situation, such demand can lead to conservation: it's in no one's interest to deplete something of value.
"In the long run, the more valuable wild salmon are the better they are likely to be protected," said Gunnar Knapp, a professor of economics at the University of Alaska's Institute of Social and Economic Research.
He said high demand and prices gave people an incentive to protect vital salmon habitat such as spawning grounds in rivers from other industries such as logging and mining.
"In Alaska, even if the price of salmon were to quadruple it would not lead to too many fish being caught because the limiting factor is not the price but how much the managers allow the fishermen to catch, and they make that assessment purely on biological grounds," Knapp told Reuters by phone from Anchorage.
But he said Russia's salmon fishery, for example, was not so well managed and could suffer overfishing as prices rise.
Much of the burgeoning demand for salmon is being met by the rapidly growing aquaculture industry, but experts say there are environmental concerns linked to that, too.
WWF's Clay said fish being caught for fishmeal to feed the aquaculture industry include species such as anchovies, which are rich in omega-3s but which have questions over their sustainability.
"One out of every three fish that is caught right now is used to make feed for other fish," he said.
Fish don't actually produce omega-3 fatty acids, they capture it from the food chain.
And there are plenty of substitutes out there such as walnuts, flaxseed and canola oil, which can provide the same omega-3-related benefits as fish.
In the past, children in many parts of the world were given cod liver oil as a health supplement. These days, they are more likely to take fish oil capsules made from other species.
For conservationists, the question is whether the latest health trend will result in salmon and other species going the same way as eastern Canada's cod fishery, once one of the world's richest which utterly collapsed last decade.
Brazil Says Amazon Deforestation Down
August 13, 2007 — By Associated Press
BRASILIA, Brazil -- Destruction of the Amazon rainforest dropped by nearly a third during the last year, reaching the lowest rate since Brazil's space research agency began keeping track in 1988, according to preliminary figures released Friday.
The government credited increased enforcement of environmental regulations for the drop. But environmentalists say deforestation has slowed largely because of a drop in the price of soybeans and the strengthening of Brazil's currency, making it less profitable to clear forest to grow the crop.
The rainforest lost about 3,700 square miles during the 12 months ending in August, compared with 5,400 square miles in the same period the previous year, Environment Ministry Executive Secretary Joao Paul Coapobianco said.
The National Institute of Space Research said in a statement that the final figures would be ready in November.
Brazil is home to the bulk of the world's largest remaining tropical wilderness, the Amazon, which covers about 1.6 million square miles.
The Amazon rainforest is thought to contain at least 30 percent of all plant and animal species on the planet, most of them uncatalogued.
About 20 percent of the Amazon has already been cut down, and while the rate of destruction has slowed in recent years, environmentalists say it remains alarmingly high.
Source: Associated Press
BRASILIA, Brazil -- Destruction of the Amazon rainforest dropped by nearly a third during the last year, reaching the lowest rate since Brazil's space research agency began keeping track in 1988, according to preliminary figures released Friday.
The government credited increased enforcement of environmental regulations for the drop. But environmentalists say deforestation has slowed largely because of a drop in the price of soybeans and the strengthening of Brazil's currency, making it less profitable to clear forest to grow the crop.
The rainforest lost about 3,700 square miles during the 12 months ending in August, compared with 5,400 square miles in the same period the previous year, Environment Ministry Executive Secretary Joao Paul Coapobianco said.
The National Institute of Space Research said in a statement that the final figures would be ready in November.
Brazil is home to the bulk of the world's largest remaining tropical wilderness, the Amazon, which covers about 1.6 million square miles.
The Amazon rainforest is thought to contain at least 30 percent of all plant and animal species on the planet, most of them uncatalogued.
About 20 percent of the Amazon has already been cut down, and while the rate of destruction has slowed in recent years, environmentalists say it remains alarmingly high.
Source: Associated Press
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