news20090825gc1

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Climate Camp]
Watching the detectives: Climate Camp hits London
> Activists will try to set up site in secret location
> Met may still use 'kettling' despite tactics change
Paul Lewis
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 25 August 2009 20.19 BST Article history

Climate change activists will tomorrow attempt to construct a sustainable campsite at a secret location in London, kick-starting a week-long training camp for environmental protesters.

The event, an annual gathering known as Climate Camp, will begin when campaigners gather at one of six locations across the capital at noon and await text messages revealing the location of the site, which has been kept secret.

Teams from the Metropolitan police, which is facing its first test of public order policing since controversy over the G20 protests, will be forced into a "cat and mouse" exercise with hundreds of protesters – many of whom will be on bicycles – as they "swoop" on the chosen destination.

The Met has signalled a change in its approach since the April demonstrations, which resulted in the death of a news-paper vendor, Ian Tomlinson. In five planning meetings with camp representatives, senior officers have promised "neighbourhood-style" policing, with fewer stop and searches and "no ring of steel".

Last week the force hosted Climate Camp delegates at its public order training centre, in Gravesend. Senior officers have also promised that sleep deprivation techniques, used during last year's Climate Camp at the Kingsnorth power station in Kent, will not be used.

There has been a backlash, however, among some in the camp network who resent the notion of meeting with police, who they suspect of seeking to obstruct their objectives. Police have not ruled out the use of "kettling", in which cordons are used to contain activists against their will for hours. But sources with knowledge of the Met's "tactical plan" say senior officers are keen to avoid an early confrontation, and are working on the assumption that they will have to allow protesters to set up their campsite unimpeded.

Senior officers then plan to contact the protesters after they have held discussions with whichever local authority, or landowner, the site is based in. The Met has also activated a Twitter account – C011Metpolice – to communicate with campers, 326 of whom appear to have signed-up as "followers" of the service.

Either way, with protesters and journalists also simultaneously using the social networking site to disseminate messages, events on the ground are likely to be significantly influenced by remote messaging.

Previous camps at Kingsnorth, Heathrow airport and the Drax power station have revolved around mass direct actions. This year the campsite will be used as a training camp to teach the science of climate change as well as civil disobedience techniques. The training will be put into practice in October, during a large-scale protest against coal power – the target of which is being decided in an online poll.

Campaigners intend the camp to be an example in sustainable living, with solar, wind and pedal power used throughout the site, as well as compost toilets.

The secret location has been decided by a core group of activists who have taken care to avoid police surveillance during regular meetings and reconnaissance. They have said the camp could be anywhere within the M25, including any of the capital's major parks, but are rumoured to have chosen an area in east London – possibly Hackney Marshes.

The protesters are understood to want to use the campsite as a base to launch spontaneous protests targeted at carbon- polluting firms throughout the week.

Wherever the tents appear, their location is likely to have a political significance: today's rendezvous points include the headquarters of Shell, which the camp accuses of "a long history of human rights abuses connected to its extraction of oil and gas", and BP, which protesters have been told is "trailblazer for greenwash".

In a sign that tensions remain between police and protesters, other locations include Stockwell, where Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead by police after being mistaken for a terrorist, and the Bank of England, where Tomlinson died after being struck by a member of the Met's Territorial Support Group.

Action agenda

Stepping into direct action

A lesson in the best way to form a human chain, evade police surveillance, occupy buildings and invade runways.

Singing

"Singing and playing music can help us to get to grips with the feelings of sadness, rage and emptiness that climate change triggers."

12v pedal-powered sound systems

In a tent dedicated to "bicycology power", a workshop will use pedal power to create a 12v, carbon-friendly sound system.

Fitwatch: stopping the cops

How to counter the activities of police surveillance units known as forward intelligence teams. It will include briefings on individual police officers.

Stops, searches and seizures: the basic survival guide

Daily lessons in the law surrounding police stop and search.

Training: How to use tripods

Activists erect metal tripods as part of civil disobedience. Police cannot dismantle the structures without injuring activists – who are mounted on top.

Source: Climate Camp

news20090825gc2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[World news > Uganda]
Oil find sparks new hope for Uganda's people
Vast discovery could transform the economy – but only if managed well
Xan Rice in Lake Albert
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 25 August 2009 22.13 BST Article history

On the remote western edge of Uganda the land suddenly drops down into the western arm of the Great Rift Valley to reveal the vast expanse of Lake Albert and the blue mountains of Congo beyond. Hippos and marabou storks wander the shoreline near the tiny fishing villages whose hauls of Nile perch, tilapia, catfish and white herring sustain the local economy. But now there are new, less natural features marking the landscape, ones that could change the course of the country.

"We never knew we were sitting on oil here," said James Ocham, a 27-year-old fisherman outside the Classic Inn Lodge and Bar as he gazed towards an oilrig erected alongside a nearby lagoon. "In time we are all going to benefit – there will be jobs, even for the unemployed."

The discovery of vast oil reserves in Uganda has caused excitement across the country, and more than a touch of anxiety too. Energy companies have recently found more than 700m barrels of commercially viable oil in the pristine Albertine Graben region, representing the first major petroleum strike in east Africa. Tullow Oil, the FTSE 100 company leading the exploration, believes the exploitable deposits could exceed 1.5bn barrels, reserves comparable to Equatorial Guinea and the Republic of Chad .

If managed well, the petrodollars could transform the economy of the landlocked country, potentially doubling the state's revenues, creating thousands of jobs and help realise President Yoweri Museveni's dream of industrialising the country.

If not, sceptics point to Nigeria, where billions of dollars of oil income has brought great wealth to the few but failed to solve widespread poverty, and whose mere mention makes Ugandan government officials bristle.

"Why must people always look at the bad examples and say we will suffer the same curse?" said Fred Kabagambe-Kaliisa, permanent secretary in the ministry of energy and mineral development. "Why not mention the good ones, like Norway?"

Norway is in fact assisting the Ugandan government through its energy, finance and environmental ministries and is funding a feasibility study on building a large refinery near Lake Albert. While the oil companies would prefer to export the petroleum to recoup investment costs quickly, Museveni is insisting on "value addition" inside Uganda to ensure a greater share of the profit remains in the country, and an end to the reliance on Kenyan ports for imported fuel.

The first oil production is expected in 2011, though the peak flow of 150,000 barrels a day for up to 25 years may only be reached by 2015. Some of the oil will be used for power production, but the bulk will be sold domestically and in the region. According to government plans, part of the revenue will be used for infrastructure and development projects and part safeguarded for future generations.

While the windfall will reduce the government's reliance on overseas aid, which accounts for 30% of the state budget, there are concerns that the glut of petrodollars could distort the economy – and its politics. Godber Tumushabe, executive director of the thinktank Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment, in Kampala, said that oil discoveries typically "encourage political longevity".

Museveni, who has ruled since 1986 and will stand for a fourth term in 2011, would not tolerate a handover of power with oil revenues about to flow, he said. "It could happen that the government is disciplined enough to use the resource to develop the country. But given that we are not using existing revenues to deliver services effectively I don't think this is the most likely scenario."

There are also environmental challenges. Some of the biggest oil deposits so far have been discovered in the Murchison Falls National Park – Uganda's biggest and most visited reserve. Wells have been sunk in the Kabwoya Wildlife Reserve, where herds of Ugandan kob antelope roam close to the site office of Tullow, which has pledged to ensure minimal environment degradation.

Within Uganda, there have been concerns that the revenue sharing agreements between the energy companies and the government have not been made public. But Simon D'Ujanga, minister of state for energy, said the agreements were commercially confidential. "We know this is a big opportunity and we won't mess it up," he said.

The petroleum curse

The history of oil in sub-Saharan Africa does not make for happy reading. Nigeria is the most often cited example of the petroleum curse, with billions of pounds in oil revenues siphoned off by corrupt leaders while communities in the environmentally scarred, oil-producing regions still live in poverty. Oil windfalls – and the complicity of western energy companies – have helped corrupt and dictatorial leaders like the late Omar Bongo of Gabon and President Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea remain in power for decades, while their countries remained underdeveloped. In Sudan and Angola, the struggle to control oil revenues contributed to lengthy civil wars.


[Environment > Wave, tidal and hydropower]
Islay to be entirely powered by tides
Exclusive: ScottishPower is to build turbines in the Sound of Islay that will generate enough electricity for the island's 3,500 inhabitants – and its famous distilleries
Tim Webb
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 25 August 2009 20.32 BST Articl

ScottishPower is planning a tidal energy project that will supply all the electricity for one of Scotland's most famous islands, the Guardian can reveal.

The company is close to signing a supply contract with Diageo, the drinks group, to provide electricity from the project to eight distilleries and maltings on Islay – including the makers of the renowned Laphroaig and Lagavulin whiskies.

The 10MW tidal project, one of the world's largest, will provide enough electricity for Islay's 3,500 inhabitants for 23 hours a day.

ScottishPower will submit a planning application in the next couple of months and expects the ten 30-metre underwater turbines to be operational in 2011. The turbines will cost about £50m to install.

The tidal waters in the Sound of Islay, the channel dividing Islay from the Jura, move at up to three metres a second.

Energy companies and representatives from the Scottish government will publish on Wednesday a "marine energy roadmap" outlining how to reach the target of generating up to 2GW (2,000MW) of electricity from tidal and wave power by 2020. It will call for more grants and revenue support to enable developers to build commercial scale demonstration projects, such as the Islay installation, over the next two years.

The renewable energy industry admits the techniques to generate electricity from marine energy are in their infancy. Morna Cannon, from Scottish Renewables, said: "This makes it very hard to pin down the costs of the technology at the moment."

Alan Mortimer, head of renewables at ScottishPower, admitted tidal energy is more expensive than offshore wind, which costs up to £3m for each megawatt built and itself is only barely economic. Tidal developers earn more subsidies under the Renewable Obligation Scheme than offshore wind, but only once schemes are operational.

Marine energy developers such as Martin Wright, managing director of start-up company MCT, complain that few investors want to risk their money. But the Islay project has heavyweight backers. ScottishPower is owned by Spanish group Iberdrola and has teamed up with Norwegian oil firm StatoilHydro to develop and finance the project.

There is also strong support on the island, although it is by no means universal. Kevin Sutherland, manager of the Islay group of Diageo distilleries, works at the Caol Ila distillery, which overlooks the Sound. The distillery, like the rest of the island, gets the majority of its electricity from the Hunterston nuclear reactor on the mainland. But the reactor is being decommissioned in 2016 and the distillery suffers frequent power cuts in stormy weather when pylons are blown over.

When the tidal project is built, the distilleries on the island will enjoy a much more secure electricity supply, confounding critics of renewable energy – primarily wind power – who say it is intermittent and unreliable.

One of the biggest obstacles for renewables in Britain has been planning permission. Onshore wind applications are frequently rejected because locals object to the visual impact. Because the Islay generators will be on the seabed, no one can see them and the Scottish government will have the final say on planning.

Operating underwater brings its own problems, says Cannon from Scottish Renewables. George J Gillies is a local fisherman who fishes for crab and lobster at either end of the channel in winter. He complains that his lobster nets could get tangled in the turbines and says the project threatens the livelihood of eight local fishing families. But he seems resigned: "If it's going to generate money, it will get the go-ahead."

The Islay Energy Trust, a community organisation chaired by Philip Maxwell, has been helping to lobby local politicians and opponents of the project. In return, it will receive a small slice of the revenue to fund community projects on the island, such as a swimming pool.

news20090825nn

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[Nature News]
Published online 25 August 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.856
News
Frog serenade foiled
Amphibians raise their pitch to counter traffic noise.
Emma Marris

Frogs in the Australian metropolis of Melbourne are having trouble getting together to mate, and the culprit is traffic noise, according to Kirsten Parris, an ecologist at the University of Melbourne. One species of frog is even changing the pitch of its love song to be heard above the roar of the road, she reported on 20 August at the International Congress of Ecology in Brisbane, Australia.

Parris visited many urban ponds and pools inhabited by frogs, measuring traffic noise, which is, unfortunately, at the same low frequencies as many frog mating calls. For a frog such as the onomatopoeic 'pobblebonk' (Limnodynastes dumerilii), she found that a call that could originally be heard by a female 800 metres away may only carry 98 metres above 60 decibels of traffic noise, an average value for Melbourne.

She has also discovered that the southern brown tree frog (Litoria ewingii) seems to be compensating for the traffic noise by increasing the pitch of its calls¹ (listen to before and after calls).

Parris suggests that installing noise barriers at strategic points around a road could help urban frogs to hear each other. Creating habitats where they thrive — such as ponds with sloping rather than steep sides — would also make sense, she adds. "Cities provide some of the last habitat for a range of frog species around the world. So if we only worry about conserving frogs and their habitats outside cities, some of these frogs may well go extinct."

"Some frog species," she says, "are very sensitive to environmental changes", but "others are quite adaptable and can persist in urban habitats if we gave them a bit of help".

However, Kris Kaiser, an ecology graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has also looked at the effects of anthropogenic noise on amphibians, sounds a note of caution on the subject of these amphibians' adaptability: "Frogs, unlike birds, are thought to have the frequency of their calls somewhat constrained by their anatomy."

"There is often a relationship between body size and frequency of call," she says, so the creatures' ability to compensate for traffic noise may be limited.

Glenn Cunnington, a biologist at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, says he's also heard frogs shifting the pitch of their calls in response to noise pollution. But, he says, "direct mortality and habitat loss likely represent greater threats to these species in urban environments".

"I don't think anyone is arguing that noise is the number-one cause of amphibian declines," says Kaiser, "but I think it has been underrepresented in the literature, and I think it is a threat that will continue to grow as humans continue to fragment the landscape".

References
1. Parris, K. M., Velik-Lord, M. & North, J. M. A. Ecol. Soc. 14, 25 (2009).


[naturenews]
Published online 25 August 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/4601067b
News
Fossil protection law comes under fire
Palaeontologists aim to clamp down on illegal trade.
Rex Dalton

{Fossils found in Chinese rock formations have fuelled a cottage industry in illegal trading of specimens.M. Leong/Redux/eyevine}

Chinese palaeontologists met government officials in Beijing last week to lobby for strict federal control of fossil specimens. The researchers are working to get changes incorporated into a draft law released in March by the Legislative Office of the State Council, which advises China's leaders, and the Ministry of Land and Resources.

As China has experimented with private enterprise, poor farmers have burrowed into hillsides, uncovering fossils from the Cretaceous to the Jurassic that have rewritten the palaeontological literature. With international traders paying tens of thousands of dollars for important finds, provincial officials have fought with the federal government for control over permits to dig and regulate the bounty.

Yet many scientists inside and outside China fear that the proposed federal law may foster the rampant trade in illegal fossil specimens. Zhou Zhonghe, director of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, and other researchers have proposed several changes. These would include giving the land and resources ministry authority over vertebrate fossil collections, and setting up a national panel of palaeontologists to regulate the collections on a nationwide level. "I think many of our suggestions will be adopted," Zhou says.

The law isn't expected to be finalized until early next year. The process is being watched closely by researchers worldwide who collaborate with Chinese palaeontologists. "I am in complete support of the Chinese government and academic institutions trying to clarify the laws to protect their tremendous fossil heritage," says palaeontologist Mark Norell of the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Palaeontologist Gao Keqin, of Peking University, remains deeply concerned. He says that recent versions of the draft law would not prevent provincial officials from blocking research by demanding large sums from scientists.

"The current situation is problematic because local jurisdictions with rightful interests but only a vague understanding of the scientific value of fossils can unilaterally stop legitimate scientific exploration," says James Clark, a palaeontologist at George Washington University in Washington DC.

Many provinces built palaeontological museums in the hope of tapping the tourist trade, but fossil smugglers often use them as a front to buy and sell specimens. "Fossils require an institution with staff educated in curation and preservation," says Clark. "But few places in China have these facilities."

"I hope the new law will let us protect the fossil heritage," says Zhou.


[naturenews]
Published online 25 August 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/4601067a
News
US plans for science outreach to Muslim world
White House to send scientists as envoys.
Alexandra Witze

The administration of US President Barack Obama is ramping up plans to develop scientific and technological partnerships with Muslim-majority countries.

The move follows a June speech by Obama at Cairo University in Egypt, when he promised to appoint regional science envoys, launch a fund to support technological development and open centres of scientific excellence in Africa, the Middle East and southeast Asia. So far, the science-envoy plan is closest to getting off the ground, say White House officials, who see it as part of a broader drive to improve relations with the Islamic world.

{“This is a key part of the partnerships with Muslim-majority communities.”}

"Polling consistently shows that science and technology is an area where the United States is widely respected for its leadership," says a top administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "This is a key part of the comprehensive partnerships we are pursuing with Muslim-majority communities." The effort is being led by the National Security Council and the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The White House plans for leading US scientists to visit a Muslim-majority region for several weeks, to canvass local researchers, community leaders and others for ideas that would shape scientific initiatives.

Various US embassies have already identified themes of interest, officials say. Lebanon, for instance, has expressed an interest in technology development focused on the environment, and Bangladesh wants to initiate mentoring programmes for young scientific professionals. The first science envoy is expected to be announced "shortly", according to the administration official.

"They [the administration] clearly have the door open for ideas, and we have ideas," says John Boright, director of international affairs at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC, an independent advisory group.

Boright was part of a delegation that visited Syria this spring to discuss science and technology exchanges. Syrian researchers told it that their greatest need was for more training for nurses and medical technicians. Setting up a training centre along those lines might be "low-hanging fruit" for the White House to pluck off, Boright says.

In the longer term, the White House will need to work within or around science initiatives that are already underway, such as the Masdar eco-city in the United Arab Emirates and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, due to open next month in Saudi Arabia.

news20090825bn

[One-Minute World News] from [BBC NEWS]

[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 23:01 GMT, Tuesday, 25 August 2009 00:01 UK
'Extinction threat' to flying fox
Scientists are urging the government of Malaysia to ban the hunting of the world's largest fruit bat.
By Judith Burns
Science and environment reporter, BBC News

Researchers say the large flying fox will be wiped out on the Malaysian peninsula if the current unsustainable level of hunting continues.

Writing in the Journal of Applied Ecology they say around 22,000 of the animals are legally hunted each year and more killed illegally.

They say the species could be extinct there by as early as 2015.

Flying foxes can have a wingspan of up to 1.5m and are crucial for the rainforest ecosystems in this part of Asia.

Lead author, Dr Jonathan Epstein of Wildlife Trust, told BBC News: "They eat fruit and nectar and in doing so they drop seeds around and pollinate trees. So they are critical to the propagation of rainforest plants."

The most optimistic estimates put the population of flying foxes in peninsular Malaysia at 500,000.

Shooting at dusk

The animals are hunted for food, medicine and sport. Shooting takes place at dusk as the bats set out to forage overnight.

The researchers say their population models suggest that if current hunting rates continue it will take between six and 81 years for the species to be hunted to extinction.

The research team carried out abundance surveys and collected government data on hunting licences.

The scientists used a computer model to predict the fate of the species according to varying rates of kill and a range of current population estimates.

This was the first time satellite telemetry has been used to track bats in Asia. The method is often used to track birds but is more rarely used to study mammals.

The researchers trapped individual bats and fastened collars round their necks before releasing them.

Each collar sent a satellite signal which allowed the scientists to track the animal by computer.

The team found that individual animals travelled up to 60km a night in search of food.

Protected in Thailand

Flying foxes, or Pteropus vampyrus, are protected in neighbouring Thailand but hunting is allowed in Malaysia and parts of Indonesia.

Dr Epstein said: "We think this shows there is a need for co-ordinated protection management along the countries where these bats live. It's clear now that they are not just Malaysian bats but they share time between Sumatra, Thailand and Malaysia."

The Malaysian government wildlife departments were partners in the study and are looking at reviewing the hunting laws in the light of the results.

Dr Epstein and his colleagues have recommended at least a temporary ban on hunting to allow the population to recover and to give time for a more comprehensive assessment of the threats to their survival in peninsular Malaysia.


[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 13:39 GMT, Tuesday, 25 August 2009 14:39 UK
S Korean launch 'partial success'
South Korea has launched its first space rocket, though a scientific satellite it was carrying failed to enter into its proper orbit.

South Korean officials described the launch as a "partial success".

Millions of South Koreans watched the launch, but it is being viewed with suspicion by North Korea.

The North was recently subjected to UN sanctions for its own rocket launch, which was widely regarded as a cover for a long-range missile test.

There was no immediate reaction from North Korea to Tuesday's launch.

{All aspects of the launch were normal, but the satellite exceeded its planned orbit
Ahn Byong-man
Science Minister}

South Korea's two-stage Naro rocket lifted off on Tuesday from an island off the south coast.

The satellite was placed into orbit but was not following its intended course, according to Science and Education Minster Ahn Byong-man.

"All aspects of the launch were normal, but the satellite exceeded its planned orbit," he was quoted as saying.

The satellite had reached an altitude of 360km (225 miles), rather than separating at the intended 302km, he said.

South Korean and Russian scientists were investigating the problem, he added.

Experts at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute were cited by local media as saying they were trying to track the satellite.

A statement from the science ministry called the launch a "partial success", while South Korean President Lee Myung-bak called it a "half-success".

The rocket - 33m (108 ft) long and weighing some 140 tonnes - was the country's half-a-billion dollar bid to join the exclusive club of spacefaring nations.

Its Russian liquid-fuelled first-stage was said to have 1,700 kilonewtons of thrust at launch.

The second stage, burning a solid fuel, was produced by South Korean engineers.

Generating 80kN of thrust, it was intended to carry the Earth observation satellite into its final orbit.

South Korea initially planned to launch the rocket in late July, but delayed it several times due to technical problems.

South Korea has previously sent satellites into space using launch vehicles and rockets from other countries.

Seoul has rejected any comparison with Pyongyang's rocket launch and says its rocket is part of a peaceful civilian space programme.

But some security analysts have suggested a commercial space programme could still alter the long-term strategic balance in the region, as all rocket technology has potential military uses.

No North Korean satellite has been detected in space, although Pyongyang insists its rocket launch worked and the device is now orbiting the earth transmitting revolutionary melodies.


[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 12:50 GMT, Tuesday, 25 August 2009 13:50 UK
Malaysia to review caning woman
Ms Kartika requested that her caning take place in public
A Malaysian court has reportedly ordered a review of the caning sentence given to a woman caught drinking beer.

The main judge at Pahang's Islamic court put the caning on hold pending the review, saying the sentence was "too extreme", the Star newspaper said.

If the sentence is enforced, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno will be the first woman to be caned in the country.

Analysts say the government fears that the punishment could damage Malaysia's reputation abroad.

Malaysia has a two-track legal system; majority Malays are subject to Islamic laws, while the large Chinese and Indian minorities are not.

'Cruel image'

Kartika Sari Dewa Shukarno, a 32-year-old mother of two, was arrested for drinking beer in a beachfront hotel in December 2007.

She was initially told she would receive six strokes of a rattan cane this week.

This was subsequently delayed until after Ramadan, and now it looks set to be postponed indefinitely.

According to an article in the Malaysia Star newspaper, and similar comments by women's minister Shahrizat Jalil, the chief judge of Pahang state appeals court has ordered the sentence to be deferred pending the review.

Analysts say the government is eager to ensure that the caning sentence is not carried out.

Shahrizat Jalil called the verdict excessive, and said it projected a "cruel image" of Malaysia.

"The overriding view was that the sentence meted out was too harsh and is not commensurate with the offence," she told reporters.

Prime Minister Najib Razak has urged Kartika to appeal.

But instead of doing this, Kartika has asked that her punishment is carried out in public, triggering a debate over the use of Islamic laws in the moderate Muslim country.