news20091223jt1

[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[EDUCATION AND BILINGUAL]
Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2009
BILINGUAL
Yappa! Abbreviated Japanese ain't all that bad
By DEAS RICHARDSON IV
Special to The Japan Times

"Ain't" ain't a word. My high school English teachers pounded that into my head. And they were right — "ain't" is not proper English. On the other hand, it is used colloquially by people all over the English-speaking world. Language is not just limited to those words found in reference books and textbooks. Whether formally recognized or not, utterances people use every day are language. So if you're working to improve your overall Japanese level, you might consider learning just a bit of what, strictly speaking, ain't proper Japanese.

The Japanese language is brilliant at accommodating abbreviation. You can almost always make words or phrases shorter. And it will undoubtedly raise your perceived, if not actual, fluency. Doing so will also help you break free of grammatical constructs that at times make you sound like a fuddy-duddy.

Here are some examples I've collected through my experiences as a homestay participant, then as a student of the Japanese language, and now as I live and work here in Japan. You probably hear some of these constructions multiple times a day if you live in Japan. (If you don't recognize them, you will start to once you're aware of them.)

The abbreviations that are easiest to pick up are exceedingly common casual forms of speech, such as the change of "dewa arimasen" (ではありません, "is not") to "jya nai" (じゃない). My textbooks covered such standard abbreviations. But if you interact with young people, you might hear shortened forms of slang, too. For instance, do you ever say "yahari" (やはり, "as I thought")? Why not swap it out for "yappa" (やっぱ) in a casual conversation? Or, you might try "azassu" (あざっす, "thanks") instead of the full "arigatō gozaimasu" (ありがとうございます, "thank you"), if you feel that sort of speech is appropriate for the situation.

Greetings are often similarly clipped. For example, "ohayō gozaimasu" (おはようございます, "good morning") becomes the excitedly sneezelike, percussive "~zzaimasu" (~っざいます, "mornin' "). I've even heard baseball team members swipe their hats off their heads, bow and let out a resounding "chiwa" (ちわっ, "hi") instead of the full "konnichiwa" (こんにちは, "hello").

The liberal use, or abuse, of the small tsu (っ as opposed to つ) appears in many other examples, too. When some young men speak, the copula, desu (です), equivalent in meaning to "it is," is shortened by dropping the de and replacing it with a small tsu. Customarily, it's represented in katakana at that point, since it's not really a legitimate word anymore but more of a sound, ssu (ッス). A small tsu is also used in place of i (い) on i-adjectives, accentuating the abruptness of the clipped word — like adding an exclamation point. Slang isn't a purely modern contrivance, either; for example, older nu (ぬ)-form adjectives regularly get trimmed to a blunt ん.

If you're in an area where a dialect is spoken, I highly recommend learning how to use the local tongue effectively. My host family in Tokyo was shocked when I let loose on one visit with such abbreviations as "jyakken" (じゃっけん, "therefore") and "ā, hōssuka" (あぁ、ほうっすか; "Oh, is that so?"). They told me that I no longer qualified as living in the countryside (inaka, 田舎) — I ranked as living in, and having been learning the lingo of, the ド田舎 (do-inaka), the deep countryside — or "the sticks."

While surprised by my local flavor, the people I interact with daily are far more comfortable talking to me. Dialect-specific abbreviations are useful! In areas where Kansai dialect is spoken, the shortened form of "chigau" (違う, "wrong, different"), "chau" (ちゃう), is common. In Koichi Prefecture's Tosa dialect, the shortened form of "shitteiru" (知っている, "(I) know") — "shicchū" (知っちゅう) — is much used.

Learn the tricks in your own area as well as those for standard Japanese, but take care to listen to how natives use casual speech and do your best to mimic; the only thing worse than using hypercorrect language all the time is using slang incorrectly — like wannabe-hip parents. For example, forgetting to account for regional norms when choosing between aho (アホ) and baka (バカ) as a friendly insult could be awkward.

Remember, while "ain't" ain't a word to some, it sure is to all those people who use it. The same is true for Japanese. Know your proper Japanese, but don't be afraid to learn words that aren't in the textbooks. You'll be matching "ya'lls" and "youse guys" in no time.

Deas Richardson IV writes the blog www.rockinginhakata.com and works as a prefectural adviser and assistant language teacher in Ehime Prefecture, Shikoku.

Abbreviate for oomph:

• 寒い, 寒っ！(samui, samu)
• 暑い, 暑っ！(atsui, atsu)
• 暗い, 暗っ！ (kurai, kura)
• 怖い, 怖っ！(kowai, kowa)
• 知らぬ, 知らん (shiranu, shiran)
• 行かぬ, 行かん(ikanu, ikan)
• 分からぬ, 分からん (wakaranu, wakaran)


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2009
Hatoyama's broken vow points to Ozawa pulling the strings
By JUN HONGO
Staff writer

The Democratic Party of Japan-led administration revealed its true colors with its decision to renege on an election pledge and effectively keep the current gas tax, analysts said Tuesday, charging that DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa is calling the shots.

"Policymaking should basically be entrusted to the government," Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, the DPJ president, told reporters Tuesday when asked if Ozawa played any role in his controversial decision.

"But obviously, we need to listen to the voice of the DPJ" as the opinion of the public, he added.

Hatoyama on Monday essentially called off a key political pledge by the DPJ, saying the provisional current gas tax rate will be terminated but replaced by a new tax.

When campaigning for the August general election, the DPJ promised to end surcharges on road-related taxes that amount to about \2.5 trillion in revenue every year. But Ozawa put the kibosh on this vow when he called on the government less than a week ago to continue the levy, and Hatoyama heeded him.

Requests by the DPJ should be taken as "the public's voice," Hatoyama said, adding that trimming the gas tax will counter climate change efforts as well as tighten already limited government income revenue.

Reporters bombarded government officials with questions Tuesday wanting to know if Ozawa is effectively calling the shots.

"This conclusion falls within what I had in mind," Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan stressed, hinting that continuing the gas tax was an option for the administration even before Ozawa made the request.

"Handling of the provisional tax rate had been discussed among Cabinet members, and we had some options," Kan said. "We incorporated the request from the DPJ, but overall it was within what we considered."

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano also said Hatoyama led the government in making the call, denying Ozawa wields undue power.

"Deputy Prime Minister Kan played the key role," Hirano said. "And the prime minister himself made the final decision."

Hirano acknowledged that Hatoyama's decision counters a pledge made in the DPJ's campaign manifesto, but not because of some shady influence.

"The biggest reason was that tax revenues dropped to a point we did not imagine," Hirano said. "We had to think of the lives of the public and our economic policies."

But analysts said the double power structure of the government and ruling DPJ has become obvious: Ozawa is in charge.

"Hatoyama is clearly just the head clerk of the administration," said Minoru Morita, a political critic at Morita Research Institute Co.

Hatoyama rejected Ozawa's proposal to institute an income cap on the child-care allowance, but that was just a ploy to make it appear some control remains in Hatoyama's hands, according to Morita.

"The DPJ proposed an income cap for households with an annual income of more than ¥20 million — which is about 1 percent of the population. (The income cap) was never a serious issue to begin with," Morita said.

The prime minister appears unable to make decisions without Ozawa's support, the noted critic said, expressing concern that this double power structure will ultimately allow both sides to run the government irresponsibly.

But Morita said that effectively continuing the gas tax should be taken seriously regardless of how the decision was reached, since it breaks one of the key political pledges the DPJ relied on to achieve its landslide victory in the general election.

"Dropping a political pledge made during the general election can have serious consequences. It will likely have an effect on the DPJ's campaign for July's Upper House election," Morita said.

news20091223jt2

[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2009
Cabinet to hike tax burden ¥980 billion
More backpedaling on campaign promises
By TAKAHIRO FUKADA
Staff writer

The Cabinet led by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama adopted on Tuesday a set of tax reforms for fiscal 2010 that would increase the burden on taxpayers by a total of around ¥980 billion a year.

The plan has the government maintaining the current gasoline tax rate, abolishing deductions for families with young dependents and raising the tobacco tax.

The tobacco tax hike — ¥3.5 per cigarette — is expected to raise the retail price of a pack of cigarettes by ¥100. The government estimates this will bring in an additional ¥120 billion a year.

The reform plan contrasts with the Democratic Party of Japan's election pledges to reduce the burden on households to spur economic growth, which could further hurt the popularity of the DPJ-led government.

Meanwhile the government will start providing a total of more than \2 trillion in allowances for households with young children.

Hatoyama praised his tax panel's efforts to compile policy recommendations that included some tax hikes.

The panel would have had a much easier time if its debates had only been on cutting taxes, Hatoyama said.

"But not only tax cuts but also some tax hikes have been compiled" in the panel's recommendations, Hatoyama said at the panel meeting after receiving the plan.

"The conclusion has been hammered out in the belief that this nation and people's livelihood as a result will get better" with some tax hikes, Hatoyama said.

The administration decided to effectively maintain the gasoline tax at its current rate, even though the provisional surcharge will disappear.

Although the DPJ had promised in last summer's general election to abolish the gasoline surcharge from next fiscal year to cut the tax burden by ¥2.5 trillion annually, the government will now maintain the gasoline tax rate given recent stable prices of oil, the need to address global warming, and the government's sharply falling tax revenues.

With the new child care allowances and tuition-free high school system to be introduced, the Cabinet decided to abolish income tax deductions for families with children up to the age of 15 and to cut special tax breaks for families with children aged between 16 and 18.

The government meanwhile decided to maintain deductions for families with dependents aged between 23 and 69.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2009
Paper on secret nuke pact kept by Sato family
Kyodo News

A document on a secret Japan-U.S. pact signed by Prime Minister Eisaku Sato and President Richard Nixon in 1969 allowing the United States to introduce nuclear weapons into Okinawa in the event of an emergency has been kept by the Sato family, a close relative disclosed Tuesday.

If the document is genuine, it would put an end to debate over the existence of the secret pact, which has long been denied by the Foreign Ministry.

It would also influence the ongoing probe by a third-party panel set up by the Foreign Ministry to look into nuclear deals between the two countries.

According to Shinji Sato, the former prime minister's son and a former transport minister, the document records the minutes of a secret conversation between Sato and Nixon during a meeting in November 1969, when the two countries were negotiating the return of Okinawa to Japan.

Shinji Sato said the document indicates that during this meeting, the two sides agreed that with prior consultation the U.S. could bring nuclear weapons into Okinawa in the event of a crisis in Japan or elsewhere in East Asia.

According to him, both parties also agreed to classify this document and keep it only in the White House and the prime minister's office.

He said the document was originally found in 1987, when Hiroko Sato, the wife of Eisaku Sato, died and the family was organizing belongings at their home in Daizawa in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo. The family has kept the document since then, Shinji Sato said.

The existence of the document was noted in a book by a scholar of international politics but had not been publicly confirmed.

Eisaku Sato won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974 for his three-point nonnuclear principles — not possessing, producing or allowing nuclear weapons to enter Japan.

But the document proves he violated the stated defense policy of Japan, according to his son. A number of statements of former diplomats have strongly indicated the pact did exist, despite the Foreign Ministry's official denials.

news20091223gdn1

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Copenhagen Climate change conference 2009]
Jailed Copenhagen protesters face Christmas behind bars
Remaining 16 demonstrators in detention running out of days for Christmas release, despite freeing of high-profile activists
Bibi van der Zee
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 December 2009 17.18 GMT Article history

Sixteen demonstrators arrested during the Copenhagen summit face spending Christmas in detention, despite three high-profile activists unexpectedly walking free in recent days.

Stine Gry and Britain Nyboe, who were due to remain in prison until tomorrow, were released today, and Tadzio Mueller was released on the 19 December, raising hopes for the remaining 16. However there has been no indication that the remaining 16 would follow before Christmas.

The freed three, all spokespeople for the Climate Justice Action group, still face charges of violence against police and disrupting the peace. They were arrested during and in the run-up to the Reclaim Power demonstration on 16 December, as activists attempted to get inside the UN talks at the Bella Centre to hold their own alternative summit.

Christine Larsen of Climate Justice Action said: "We're really happy that Tannie [Britain] and Stine have been released, but they still face charges and we are very concerned by the fact that having tried to engage with the police, holding meetings with them and writing an open letter to them about our intentions, they have chosen to arrest the very people who openly criticised the failure of the COP15 process [the climate conference] while expressing our intention to take non-violent direct action. We are also thinking of the climate prisoners who remain in jail."

Another spokesperson for the network of climate activists in Copenhagen was strongly critical of Danish policing tactics. "The Danish government's appallingly disproportionate reaction, the political policing used to jail some 1,800 activists for nothing at all, targeting of media spokespeople, using tear gas, pepper spray, mass cages, baton charges and mass preemptive arrests sets a precedent dangerous not only for Denmark, but for the future of the world," the spokesperson said.

A total of 16 activists remain in prison for their actions during the climate conference, including four Greenpeace activists who disrupted a state banquet with banners reading "Politicians talk, Leaders act". Activist groups, including Greenpeace, have submitted petitions for the release of the prisoners, and have also taken part in demonstrations of solidarity around the world.

Jamie Woolley of Greenpeace said: "While the political leaders who are the perpetrators of real crime in Copenhagen have now fled the country on private jets, the Danish authorities decided to detain, without trial, four peaceful protesters over Christmas.

"The four activists – Juantxo, Joris, Nora, and Christian – were willing to risk jail time to do something about climate change and look forward to presenting their arguments in court. But keeping them apart from their families and loved ones over Christmas and New Year is both inhumane and out of all proportion to what they did."

The Danish police were unavailable for comment.

news20091223gdn2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Copenhagen Climate change conference 2009]
How do I know China wrecked the Copenhagen deal? I was in the room
As recriminations fly post-Copenhagen, one writer offers a fly-on-the-wall account of how talks failed
Mark Lynas
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 December 2009 19.54 GMT Article history

Copenhagen was a disaster. That much is agreed. But the truth about what actually happened is in danger of being lost amid the spin and inevitable mutual recriminations. The truth is this: China wrecked the talks, intentionally humiliated Barack Obama, and insisted on an awful "deal" so western leaders would walk away carrying the blame. How do I know this? Because I was in the room and saw it happen.

China's strategy was simple: block the open negotiations for two weeks, and then ensure that the closed-door deal made it look as if the west had failed the world's poor once again. And sure enough, the aid agencies, civil society movements and environmental groups all took the bait. The failure was "the inevitable result of rich countries refusing adequately and fairly to shoulder their overwhelming responsibility", said Christian Aid. "Rich countries have bullied developing nations," fumed Friends of the Earth International.

All very predictable, but the complete opposite of the truth. Even George Monbiot, writing in yesterday's Guardian, made the mistake of singly blaming Obama. But I saw Obama fighting desperately to salvage a deal, and the Chinese delegate saying "no", over and over again. Monbiot even approvingly quoted the Sudanese delegate Lumumba Di-Aping, who denounced the Copenhagen accord as "a suicide pact, an incineration pact, in order to maintain the economic dominance of a few countries".

Sudan behaves at the talks as a puppet of China; one of a number of countries that relieves the Chinese delegation of having to fight its battles in open sessions. It was a perfect stitch-up. China gutted the deal behind the scenes, and then left its proxies to savage it in public.

Here's what actually went on late last Friday night, as heads of state from two dozen countries met behind closed doors. Obama was at the table for several hours, sitting between Gordon Brown and the Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zenawi. The Danish prime minister chaired, and on his right sat Ban Ki-moon, secretary-general of the UN. Probably only about 50 or 60 people, including the heads of state, were in the room. I was attached to one of the delegations, whose head of state was also present for most of the time.

What I saw was profoundly shocking. The Chinese premier, Wen Jinbao, did not deign to attend the meetings personally, instead sending a second-tier official in the country's foreign ministry to sit opposite Obama himself. The diplomatic snub was obvious and brutal, as was the practical implication: several times during the session, the world's most powerful heads of state were forced to wait around as the Chinese delegate went off to make telephone calls to his "superiors".

Shifting the blame

To those who would blame Obama and rich countries in general, know this: it was China's representative who insisted that industrialised country targets, previously agreed as an 80% cut by 2050, be taken out of the deal. "Why can't we even mention our own targets?" demanded a furious Angela Merkel. Australia's prime minister, Kevin Rudd, was annoyed enough to bang his microphone. Brazil's representative too pointed out the illogicality of China's position. Why should rich countries not announce even this unilateral cut? The Chinese delegate said no, and I watched, aghast, as Merkel threw up her hands in despair and conceded the point. Now we know why – because China bet, correctly, that Obama would get the blame for the Copenhagen accord's lack of ambition.

China, backed at times by India, then proceeded to take out all the numbers that mattered. A 2020 peaking year in global emissions, essential to restrain temperatures to 2C, was removed and replaced by woolly language suggesting that emissions should peak "as soon as possible". The long-term target, of global 50% cuts by 2050, was also excised. No one else, perhaps with the exceptions of India and Saudi Arabia, wanted this to happen. I am certain that had the Chinese not been in the room, we would have left Copenhagen with a deal that had environmentalists popping champagne corks popping in every corner of the world.

Strong position

So how did China manage to pull off this coup? First, it was in an extremely strong negotiating position. China didn't need a deal. As one developing country foreign minister said to me: "The Athenians had nothing to offer to the Spartans." On the other hand, western leaders in particular – but also presidents Lula of Brazil, Zuma of South Africa, Calderón of Mexico and many others – were desperate for a positive outcome. Obama needed a strong deal perhaps more than anyone. The US had confirmed the offer of $100bn to developing countries for adaptation, put serious cuts on the table for the first time (17% below 2005 levels by 2020), and was obviously prepared to up its offer.

Above all, Obama needed to be able to demonstrate to the Senate that he could deliver China in any global climate regulation framework, so conservative senators could not argue that US carbon cuts would further advantage Chinese industry. With midterm elections looming, Obama and his staff also knew that Copenhagen would be probably their only opportunity to go to climate change talks with a strong mandate. This further strengthened China's negotiating hand, as did the complete lack of civil society political pressure on either China or India. Campaign groups never blame developing countries for failure; this is an iron rule that is never broken. The Indians, in particular, have become past masters at co-opting the language of equity ("equal rights to the atmosphere") in the service of planetary suicide – and leftish campaigners and commentators are hoist with their own petard.

With the deal gutted, the heads of state session concluded with a final battle as the Chinese delegate insisted on removing the 1.5C target so beloved of the small island states and low-lying nations who have most to lose from rising seas. President Nasheed of the Maldives, supported by Brown, fought valiantly to save this crucial number. "How can you ask my country to go extinct?" demanded Nasheed. The Chinese delegate feigned great offence – and the number stayed, but surrounded by language which makes it all but meaningless. The deed was done.

China's game

All this raises the question: what is China's game? Why did China, in the words of a UK-based analyst who also spent hours in heads of state meetings, "not only reject targets for itself, but also refuse to allow any other country to take on binding targets?" The analyst, who has attended climate conferences for more than 15 years, concludes that China wants to weaken the climate regulation regime now "in order to avoid the risk that it might be called on to be more ambitious in a few years' time".

This does not mean China is not serious about global warming. It is strong in both the wind and solar industries. But China's growth, and growing global political and economic dominance, is based largely on cheap coal. China knows it is becoming an uncontested superpower; indeed its newfound muscular confidence was on striking display in Copenhagen. Its coal-based economy doubles every decade, and its power increases commensurately. Its leadership will not alter this magic formula unless they absolutely have to.

Copenhagen was much worse than just another bad deal, because it illustrated a profound shift in global geopolitics. This is fast becoming China's century, yet its leadership has displayed that multilateral environmental governance is not only not a priority, but is viewed as a hindrance to the new superpower's freedom of action. I left Copenhagen more despondent than I have felt in a long time. After all the hope and all the hype, the mobilisation of thousands, a wave of optimism crashed against the rock of global power politics, fell back, and drained away.

news20091223nn1

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 23 December 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.1159
News
The sex wars of ducks
An evolutionary battle against unwanted fertilization.
Matt Kaplan

{The twisted sex life of Muscovy ducks is the result of an evolutionary battle between males and females.}

Scientists have elucidated the mechanism by which female ducks thwart forced copulations.

Unwanted sex is an unpleasant fact of life for many female ducks. After carefully selecting a mate, developing a relationship and breeding, a female must face groups of males that did not find mates and want nothing more than a quick fling.

Now a team led by Patricia Brennan, an evolutionary biologist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, has described the morphology of the duck penis and found how the physiology and behaviour of female ducks can help to prevent unwanted sperm from being deposited far inside the oviduct.

Birds of both sexes have a single reproductive and excretory opening — the cloaca. Usually, sperm is transferred from male to female in a brief 'cloacal kiss'. Waterfowl, however, are different. They, like ostriches, have penises. In ducks, these appear through the cloaca very quickly and can be longer than 40 centimetres. Making things more complicated, the male and female genitalia spiral in corkscrew fashion rather than being straight.

Fowl play

"I have long had a fantasy about working out where these enormous penises actually went inside the female and mentioned to [Brennan] years ago that it was too bad we didn't have a perspex female for males to mount," says Tim Birkhead, an avian biologist at the University of Sheffield, UK.

{{“I have long had a fantasy about working out where these enormous penises actually went inside the female.”}
Tim Birkhead
University of Sheffield}

Brennan tried the next best thing. Working with a commercial breeder of Muscovy ducks (Cairina moschata), Brennan observed more than 50 male ducks that were conditioned to ejaculate when shown a stimulating female. The males were presented with clear containers of different shapes after being exposed to attractive females and as their penises everted (the duck equivalent of an erection) into the containers, the team used high-speed video to capture details of how the penises worked, and to determine how the shape of the container affected eversion.

The containers varied in shape from being straight to being anticlockwise corkscrews that followed the shape of the Muscovy duck's penis, or clockwise corkscrews or bent at 135° to better mimic the shape of the vagina. "We wanted to know whether the shape that we were seeing in females was an adaptation that was helping them to respond to unwanted sex," says Brennan.

Out for a duck

The team reports in Proceedings of the Royal Society B¹ that eversion of the Moscovy duck penis, to a length of up to 20 centimetres, took a grand total of about 0.3 seconds in air and 0.5–0.8 seconds in the female-mimicking glass tubes. Ejaculation happened at the moment of maximum eversion.

When penises everted into the clockwise-corkscrew shape mimicking the female vagina, they could not get nearly so far down the tube as they could in the anticlockwise-corkscrew and straight containers. In all cases, the males released semen, but their inability to get as far in the clockwise-corkscrew container and the acute-angled container suggested that in such environments males would have a lower chance of reproductive success.

{{Everted male ducks can have penises longer than 40 centimetres.}
Patricia Brennan}

The work backs up earlier research² in which Brennan and her colleagues hypothesized that the sexual organs of ducks have evolved as a result of sexual conflict to prevent the sperm from unwanted males from fertilizing eggs and to help females maintain control of reproduction even as they endure unwanted sexual encounters.

Indeed, in the latest work, the team observed that sexually receptive females contract and relax their cloacal muscles in a way that could help the male achieve full penetration. But during forced copulations, the females struggle violently, which would reduce the likelihood of fertilization.

"The female presumably relaxes her vagina to allow access. This is telling us a lot about forced copulation. Clearly there is an evolutionary battle of the sexes taking place," says Birkhead.

With additional reporting by Chris Simms.

References
1. Brennan, P. L. R. , Clark, C. J. & Prum, R. O. Proc. R. Soc. B advance online publication doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.2139 (2009).
2. Brennan, P. L. R. et al. PLoS ONE 2, e418 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000418 (2007).

news20091223nn2

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 22 December 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.1136
News
Wildlife trade threatens southeast Asia's rare species
Nations need to improve monitoring of effects on populations.
Anjali Nayar

{{Massive numbers of seahorses are exported from Southeast Asia, both legally and illegally.}
Chris R. Shepherd, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia}

The international wildlife trade is a major driver of biodiversity loss in southeast Asia, according to a Dutch conservation biologist working in Britain.

His paper, to be published online this week in Biodiversity and Conservation¹, reports that more than 35 million rare seahorses, butterflies, reptiles, mammals, fish and birds were exported legally from southeast Asian countries between 1998 and 2007. Some 30 million of these animals were caught in the wild, with the remainder coming from breeding programmes.

Southeast Asia is a hub of the international wildlife trade, and globalization and the increased buying power of many countries in the region is increasing the demand for rare species — as pets and for medicines and food.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), created to regulate the trade in protected species, went into force in 1975. Under the treaty, currently signed by 175 countries, including all of southeast Asia, certain rare species can be exported legally only if the authorities can show that their trade is not adversely affecting animal populations in what is known as a non-detriment finding.

But many developing countries lack the capacity to make non-detriment findings, says Vincent Nijman of Oxford Brookes University, UK, the author of the paper. The new numbers suggest that the non-detriment findings are too lenient, he says, and the legal trade is a risk to threatened species. "The only thing we know about many of these species is that they are being harvested in the millions," Nijman says. "We let this trade happen — supposedly regulated by CITES. But we must be honest, we have no idea if it is sustainable."

Species count

In all, Nijman calculated that of the 35 million animals exported between 1998 and 2007, 16 million were seahorses and more than 17 million were reptiles. With the exception of birds, exports for all groups of animals increased or remained stable; the bird trade in southeast Asia declined dramatically in response to outbreaks of avian influenza. According to CITES, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and China are the biggest exporters of wild-caught animals, and Japan and the European Union are the most significant importers, through the pet trade.

{{The trade in animal parts for Chinese traditional medicine is booming, despite bans.}
Chris R. Shepherd, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia}

Nijman obtained his data from more than 53,000 records of imports, exports and re-exports of CITES-listed species as reported by southeast Asian countries on the World Conservation Monitoring Center CITES website.

He suggests that small tariffs on official exports could help to raise money for the biological and ecosystem research needed to make non-detriment findings, as well as the enforcement of the CITES treaty.

Navjot Sodhi, a conservation biologist from the National University of Singapore, says that the study presents some of the most comprehensive numbers of the official international exports to date on the six animal groups protected under CITES. But as a monitor of the region's trade, "there are inherently lots of holes in the study because it is based on voluntary reporting", he says. "The real trade is a few orders of magnitude more than what is reported."

Illegal trade

Chris Shepherd, acting regional director of the southeast Asian regional office of TRAFFIC, an organization that monitors the wildlife trade, says that the region has a thriving domestic market for wild meat as well as a black market that is "absolutely enormous" for some species.

Shepherd points to the trade in pangolin, the scaly anteater, which is still booming to provide meat, parts and scales for tonics and traditional medicines in China despite being banned. In the past few years, thousands of pangolins have been confiscated in southeast Asia. Shepherd says that over the past decade he has watched the illegal trade practically wipe out pangolins in Vietnam, Cambodia and Lao PDR, as well as in southern China. Now the trade has moved to Malaysian Sumatra and Borneo, but "it is only temporary until [the animals] are all gone", he says.

"I can barely give one example of a species that is being sustainably traded in the region," says Shepherd. "There is no check and balance in place to make sure these species won't be wiped out."

Part of the problem is that the penalties for the illegal trade are minuscule compared with the profits that can be made, says Shepherd. And enforcement must be ramped up quickly, because the stakes are rising. "The more endangered that species become, the higher the price," says Shepherd. "And when the value is really high, organized crime steps in."

References
1. Nijman, V. Biodivers. Conserv. advance online publication doi:10.1007/s10531-009-9758-4 (2009).

news20091223nn3

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 22 December 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/462966a News
World looks ahead post-Copenhagen
A weak international climate agreement leaves room for science to shape the next round of negotiations.
Jeff Tollefson

COPENHAGEN

{{The Copenhagen accord was blasted by environmental activists and leaders of developing nations.}
A. Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty}

Two lines of evidence nearly brought down the last-minute climate agreement brokered last week in Copenhagen by US President Barack Obama: studies indicating that the impacts of global warming could be more severe than previously thought, and that rich countries could do more to counter the problem without breaking the bank.

Now, negotiators are seeing whether they can strengthen a deal nearly universally acknowledged as weak — or whether even the mounting scientific evidence on the most dire effects of climate change will be enough to forge a more meaningful deal.

The Copenhagen accord, drawn up as a multilateral political agreement between the United States, China, India, Brazil and South Africa, provides a non-binding framework for capturing national commitments that are already on record. Many environmentalists and a number of developing countries criticized it immediately, saying that current climate commitments would not meet the common goal of limiting the increase in global average temperatures to 1.5–2 °C. Indeed, an analysis by the US modelling consortium Climate Interactive estimated that the commitments would result in a temperature rise of 3.9 °C by the year 2100.

For its part, the European Union elected in Copenhagen not to increase to 30% its conditional offer of a 20% cut in 1990 emissions levels by 2020. The overall goal remains to hammer out a treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change while incorporating climate commitments from developing countries and the United States, which has not ratified the Kyoto agreement.

Negotiations will continue over the coming year, and many observers hope for a stronger deal when the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meet in Mexico in late November 2010.

Obama's announcement on the last day of the Copenhagen talks fractured the G77 group of developing countries. Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping, Sudan's fiery chief negotiator and chairman of the G77, claimed that the deal would do nothing less than "destroy" Africa. He was joined by countries including Tuvalu, Bolivia and Venezuela during an all-night debate that included the occasional tirade against capitalism but also focused on how poor nations would be affected disproportionately by climate change , and how rich countries should be paying more.

For instance, scientists at the Copenhagen meeting had enlisted the star power of Al Gore in releasing a pair of reports on the accelerated loss of glaciers and ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica; melting ice sheets in particular, they concluded, could increase sea level by at least 1 metre by 2100.

Easy targets

Still, an economic analysis by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenberg, Austria, found that the pre-Copenhagen commitments by industrialized countries would reduce 2020 emissions by 11–22%. Taking into account cost savings due to efficiency and other factors, the cost of achieving that goal would be just 0.15% of gross domestic product, the analysis revealed. Markus Amann, who heads the IIASA's greenhouse-gas initiative, fears that such easy targets will translate into low carbon prices and end up delaying the innovation needed to make deep cuts in decades to come.

{{Delegates worked through the night to reach an agreement.}
I. Kalnins/Reuters}

Yet most developing countries ultimately defended the Copenhagen accord — with reservations — because without it there would have been nothing to show for the largest environmental conference in history. "This is not what we have been seeking, but it is a beginning," said Mohamed Nasheed, president of the Maldives, which is a member of the Alliance of Small Island States that has been pushing for a commitment to limit warming to 1.5 °C. "I beg all nations to please back this document and do not let these talks collapse."

"The most important thing to get done at this moment is to get moving," adds John Holdren, Obama's chief science adviser. "Let's not argue for the next five years what the perfect goal is. Let's get going in the right direction."

For the first time under the new framework, both developing and developed countries — including the United States, which is gearing up for a legislative battle over climate in the Senate this spring — will be bound under a single agreement. Rich countries would be required to meet their promised reductions; developing countries would be required to audit and report the activities they undertake to reduce emissions, as well as open their books to international verification for any projects funded with international aid.

In exchange, the agreement offers financing, valued at US$30 billion by 2012, to help developing countries prepare for a warmer world and to push forward with sustainable development goals. Developed countries committed to spending upwards of $100 billion annually by 2020, although the agreement offers no details as to where that money will come from. The World Bank has estimated that developing countries will need about that amount, but developing countries and many scientists say that number could be far too low.

Martin Parry of Imperial College London, a former co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) working group on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability, has developed a way to portray 'unavoided impacts' in which mitigation fails and there isn't enough money to help people cope with the consequences. Assuming that all countries fulfil their pledges, the agreement in Copenhagen still leaves a gap of 1.5 °C, he says. In other words, funding for adaptation could cover impacts associated with about 1.5 °C of warming, but temperatures are likely to rise by at least 3 °C.

"Even the toughest and most robust measures will not achieve 2 °C," Parry says. "We should hope for 2 °C but realistically expect 3–3.5 °C, and then plan for 4 °C."

The Copenhagen accord includes a goal of limiting temperature rise to 2 °C, but one target that was notably dropped was that for reducing global greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050. Small-island states successfully pushed for language requiring consideration of a target of 1.5 °C during the first review of implementation and commitments in 2015, one year after the IPCC is scheduled to finalize its fifth assessment report. Climate modelling for the next IPCC assessment is under way, and the panel will accept nominations and then appoint lead authors for the various chapters this spring.

Sitting in his office overlooking the main hall of the Bella Center in Copenhagen last week, IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri said that he was encouraged by the fact that so many world leaders chose to attend, even if a commitment to act falls short.

"There's a certain inertia that will resist it. There are mindsets that will resist it. There are vested interests that will resist it — let's not minimize their effectiveness," Pachauri says. "This is something that politically one had to anticipate."

news20091223reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Leonora Walet and Sui-Lee Wee - Analysis
HONG KONG
Tue Dec 22, 2009 1:43pm EST
State funding fuels China's global push in wind, sun
HONG KONG (Reuters) - When A-Power Energy Generation Systems secured a deal to supply turbines for a U.S. wind farm project in October, the little-known Chinese firm had an ace up its sleeve to help it clinch the deal.

A-Power was armed with $1.5 billion in financing from state-run Chinese banks to fund the 600 megawatt project in Texas.

While global peers have limited access to cheap state loans, Chinese renewable energy firms are getting a boost from Beijing as they win clean technology projects around the world [ID:nHKG361180]. Much of that is via low-interest loans from big state banks for their clients to finance their purchases.

This support is giving China's renewable energy firms an edge over Asian rivals such as India's Suzlon Energy, Japan Wind Development and Australia's Infigen Energy, as well as heavyweights like German polysilicon firm Wacker Chemie and Danish wind energy firm Vestas Wind.

"I don't think A-Power could have done this deal without access to cheap financing," said Jacob Kirkregaard, a research fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington D.C, who recently published a paper on wind energy.

"China is clearly the big kid on the block, no doubt about that," he said, referring to the state support for renewable energy. "That's not something many Asian countries can emulate."

Shares of A-Power, which only entered the wind business in 2008, hit a 15-month high last Friday after it said it will supply wind turbines for the Texas project.

Such deals are unfolding as China aggressively develops its renewable energy sector and as its companies play catch-up with bigger, global peers including German solar cell producer Q-Cells AG and Spanish wind farm operator Iberdrola, which have built up solid track records, also with help from more than a decade of government subsidies.

LOAN BOOST

Most of China's alternative energy makers, including solar firms Yingli Energy Holdings and Suntech Power Holdings, and wind gear maker China High Speed Transmission, already have access to low-interest financing from state-run banks to fund their growth as well as client purchases.

Interest rates on loans for wind power generator China Longyuan Power Group, for example, are 10 percent below the prevailing benchmark rate set by the Peoples' Bank of China (PBOC), said Morgan Stanley in a report.

"Chinese banks are motivated by the mandate from the government to develop renewable energy as a national priority," said Zhao Feng at Denmark-based BTM Consult ApS, a consultancy that specializes in renewable energy.

"In Europe, the banks, when they offer loans, tend to assess the project and look at it more closely from a risk perspective."

Such state-backed financing is a common policy tool for governments globally trying to support industries they want to develop. China also provides similar strong support for its energy firms for overseas acquisitions, and its telecoms equipment makers as they try to expand abroad.

Beijing's support comes as Chinese players attempt to create new markets as the cost of developing renewable energy falls and competition intensifies for projects at home.

China's $300 billion sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corp (CIC), is also helping to bolster the industry.

In the last several months, the fund has pumped about $1.1 billion into the sector, buying stakes in solar firm GCL-Poly Energy, the world's No.3 polysilicon company by capacity, and China Longyuan, the world's fifth-largest wind power company.

But analysts say access to cheap money will only get China's alternate energy firms so far.

"Essentially, you need to get the product right," said Felix Lam, analyst with CCB International. "Cheap loans can't guarantee a project's success, you've got to have the technology.

"It's the technology that will give you that advantage long-term."


[Green Business]
WASHINGTON
Tue Dec 22, 2009 6:32pm EST
U.S. cracks down on lung-harming ship emissions
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. environmental regulators on Tuesday finalized engine and fuel standards for U.S. flagged ships to cut emissions that cause lung diseases and save more than $100 billion in health costs.

By 2030 the strategy should cut annual emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOX) from large oil tankers, cargo ships and cruise vessels by about 1.2 million tons and particulate matter emissions, or soot, by about 143,000 tons, the Environmental Protection Agency said.

When fully implemented, the effort will reduce NOX emissions from ships by 80 percent, and particulate emissions by 85 percent, compared to current emissions.

The EPA estimates that in 2030, the standards will prevent between 12,000 and 31,000 premature deaths and 1.4 million work days lost.

Annual health benefits in 2030 should be worth between $110 billion and $270 billion, compared to compliance costs of only about $3.1 billion, the EPA said.

"Stronger standards will help make large ships cleaner and more efficient, and protect millions of Americans from harmful diesel emissions," EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a release.

An environmentalist agreed. "Frankly, it is hard to find a better deal in the public health world," Rich Kassel, the director of clean fuels and vehicles at the Natural Resources Defense Council said in a blog on Tuesday.

The EPA is also working with international organizations to control emissions from non-U.S. flagged ships.

The International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency, is set to vote in March next year on the adoption of the joint U.S.-Canada buffer zone, which would result in stringent standards for large foreign-flagged and domestic ships operating within the designated area.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by David Gregorio)


[Green Business > Environment > COP15]
PARIS
Tue Dec 22, 2009 3:04pm EST
Sarkozy wants global carbon talks in Paris: groups
PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to hold international talks in Paris next year to seek agreement on carbon emission cuts following the Copenhagen climate conference, environmental groups said on Tuesday.

Sarkozy met representatives from several environmental campaign groups to discuss last week's Copenhagen meeting, which ended with a bare minimum agreement that fell far short of the ambitions France and many other countries had set.

In a statement, the presidential office said only that Sarkozy had "evoked the conditions of the mobilization that France intended to bring in the coming months" during a lunch with NGOs.

Arnaud Gossement, spokesman for the France Nature Environnement group, said after the meeting that Sarkozy had announced plans to invite the countries which are home to the world's four major forest basins to Paris at the end of January.

He also intended to invite the 28 countries that signed the final Copenhagen accord to a meeting in April or May.

The aim of the meeting would be "to implement the 50 percent objective by 2050," Gossement said, referring to the European Union's ambition of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to 50 percent of their 1990 level by the middle of the century.

But he added that Sarkozy believed that not all of the 28 countries would attend the meeting. "He doesn't see China or Saudi Arabia joining the meeting," Gossement said.

A Chinese official said earlier this week that Beijing will treat talks on a binding global climate change pact in 2010 as a struggle over the "right to develop," signaling more tough deal-making will follow the Copenhagen summit.

(Writing by James Mackenzie; Additional reporting by Yann Le Guernigou; editing by David Stamp)

news20091223reut2

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
LONDON
Tue Dec 22, 2009 1:04pm EST
EU carbon prices close 2 percent higher
LONDON (Reuters) - Prices for European carbon emissions futures on Tuesday clawed back a little of Monday's 9 percent falls, as bearish sentiment waned over a watered-down deal at the U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen. EU Allowances for December 2010 delivery closed 2.01 percent higher at 12.70 euros ($18.17) a tonne, with volume at 4,378 lots.

Prices should recover to around 13 euros by the end of the week, Societe Generale/orbeo analyst Emmanuel Fages said in a research note.

On Monday, traders sold EUAs as confidence in the market was battered by the bare-minimum climate deal that emerged from Copenhagen. Prices fell 8 percent in opening trade, and had fallen another 1 percent by the close.

German Calendar 2010 baseload power was up 1.47 percent at 44.75 euros per megawatt hour.

On Tuesday, certified emissions reductions closed 1.37 percent higher at 11.13 euros a tonne.

Oil trading firm Gunvor International executed its first trade in the European carbon market on Tuesday, the company told Reuters.

"We did our first EUA, ECX-cleared trade with broker ICAP in the market this morning," said Michael Uzzan, emissions trader at Gunvor.

U.S. lawmakers face an uphill battle enacting a climate bill in 2010 that includes a cap-and-trade market in greenhouse gases, after this month's U.N. meeting in Copenhagen.

U.S. climate legislation remains likely as lawmakers feel pressure to help the country lead in production of low-carbon energy sources such as wind, solar and nuclear power.

But the Copenhagen Accord did not include emissions targets, making it difficult for lawmakers to argue that the United States should have a cap while China, the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases, and other big polluters are not legally required to act on climate.

(Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Keiron Henderson)


[Green Business]
Tom Doggett
WASHINGTON
Tue Dec 22, 2009 1:07pm EST
U.S. October highway travel off 0.5 pct from year ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. highway travel fell in October by 0.5 percent from a year earlier, the first decline in five months, the U.S. Transportation Department said on Tuesday.

That drop mirrors preliminary Energy Department data which shows motor fuel consumption fell 0.1 percent in October from a year ago.

The decline of 1.4 billion miles driven by consumers in October, after four straight months of increases, reflected an economy that is still sputtering.

"I think the economy, while recovering, still has some struggles ahead" and that has resulted in tepid gasoline demand, said Phil Flynn, analyst at PFGBest Research, .

Flynn said the drop in gasoline consumption has kept fuel prices low, which in turn should help "jump start" demand.

Many Americans changed their driving habits in response to

last year's record fuel prices, using public transportation and buying more fuel-efficient vehicles.

"Consumers are more cognizant of wasting fuel," Flynn said.

Cumulative travel through October of this year was up a slight 0.2 percent, or 4.8 billion vehicle miles, from the same period in 2008, according to the Transportation Department.

During October, highway travel declined in the Northeast by 1.2 percent, in the Midwest by 1.3 percent and in the south central Gulf states by 1.2 percent. Highway travel increased in the West by 0.3 percent and in the south Atlantic states by 0.4 percent.

The Transportation Department tracks motorists through more than 4,000 automatic traffic recorders operated by state highway agencies.

(Reporting by Tom Doggett; Editing by David Gregorio)


[Green Business > Environment > COP15]
James Grubel
CANBERRA
Tue Dec 22, 2009 1:09pm EST
Australia backs carbon plan, early poll chances cool
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia promised to press on with its carbon trade plan on Tuesday despite the U.N. climate summit's failure to set emissions targets, but the Copenhagen outcome has cooled chances an early election on climate policy.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the government would consider targets by other countries before finalizing domestic targets to curb carbon emissions, blamed for gobal warming.

"We have our target range, we will consider what is put forward by the rest of the world under this agreement, and we will do no more and no less," Wong told Australian radio.

Australia is the world's biggest coal exporter and the developed world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gas per person, and has promised a broad target to curb carbon emissions by between 5 and 25 percent of 2000 levels by 2020.

The accord from the U.N climate summit of 193 countries in Copenhagen included no new emissions targets, but agreed that deep cuts were needed to keep the rise in global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius.

The result is also likely to make it harder for U.S. President Barack Obama to win Congressional support for a cap and trade carbon scheme in the United States.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd wants carbon trading to start in Australia in July 2011, obliging 1,000 of the biggest companies to buy permits for their carbon emissions and providing a market-based incentive to clean up pollution.

But laws to set up the carbon trade scheme have twice been rejected in parliament's upper house, where the opposition has the largest voting bloc, giving Rudd the option of calling an early election on his key climate policy to resolve the deadlock.

Rudd plans to re-introduce the carbon trade laws to parliament in February, but the opposition Liberal Party has hardened its stand after electing new leader Tony Abbott, who won the job with the backing of climate skeptics.

Abbott has been buoyed by the outcome at Copenhagen, saying the lack of firm emissions targets was a rebuff for Rudd and proved Australia should wait to see what other countries do.

EARLY ELECTION COOLS

Analyst Rick Kuhn said the results in Copenhagen would now make Rudd cautious about an early election, with the government more likely to wait for a regular poll due in late 2010.

"Climate change is now clearly not the issue to go to an early election on. I think for the time being, it is off the agenda," Kuhn, from the Australian National University, told Reuters.

Opinion polls continue to show Rudd holds a strong lead and would easily win a fresh election with an increased majority, although analysts expect Abbott's election as opposition leader will see a shift back toward the opposition.

Betting agency Centrebet on Tuesday said Abbott's honeymoon period may already be over, with the odds of the government winning the next election narrowing over the past two weeks to $1.19 for a $1 bet from $1.23.

Kuhn said Abbott, a blunt speaking social conservative who once studied to become a Catholic priest, would win back votes from traditional Liberal Party supporters, but was unlikely to secure enough support to win an election.

"He can play all sorts of right-wing issues, but unless he has some traction on the economic issues, I don't think he is going to get that far," he said.

news20091223reut3

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
WASHINGTON
Tue Dec 22, 2009 3:02pm EST
U.S. senators to take up biodiesel credit next year
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. senators pledged on Tuesday to take up legislation early next year to extend the biodiesel tax credit as it looks likely action will not be taken on it this year.

An industry group complained that if a bill was passed by Congress early next year to extend the credit, it would not be enough to stop plants from closing after the credit expires on December 31.

Senators Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and the panel's top Republican, Charles Grassley of Iowa, said they would take up legislation to extend the $1-per-gallon tax credit and an array of other tax breaks as soon as possible after Congress convenes next year.

The credit extension has been delayed by the healthcare debate and because it has been linked with other tax incentives.

The renewable fuels industry was angry that legislation has not yet passed in the Senate. A so-called extenders bill passed in the House of Representatives earlier this month that would keep the credit going to the end of 2010. But industry had wanted five-year extensions to be passed before the end of the year.

"Very frustrating," said Monte Shaw, director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. "Congress has really dropped the ball on this."

He said he appreciated that Baucus and Grassley hope to move on it early next year. But he said biodiesel plants are already losing contracts to make the fuel because of the credit not yet being renewed and oil refiners are afraid they will not get the credit for blending the fuel.

Plants will shut after December 31 and thousands of people could lose their jobs until the credit is renewed, Shaw said.

The White House has said the extension of the tax credit for biodiesel would provide "clean energy companies with the certainty they need to make critical investments in the nation's energy future."

Soybean oil is a primary feedstock for making biodiesel. Eleven percent of this year's soybean crop will be used for biodiesel, according to a Department of Agriculture estimate.

The American Soybean Association has said failure to renew the incentive could reduce prices paid to farmers for their soybeans by 25 cents or more per bushel.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Christian Wiessner)


[Green Business]
Yereth Rosen
ANCHORAGE, Alaska
Tue Dec 22, 2009 3:27pm EST
BP discovers leak at Alaska oil pipe, no output hit
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - BP has discovered a leak in an oil pipeline from one well at the giant Prudhoe Bay field, the third pipeline leak reported by the oil major over the past month on Alaska's North Slope.

BP said there was no "appreciable" impact to production from the event, which spilled a mixture of oil, produced water and natural gas at Prudhoe Bay, the largest U.S. oil field.

"This was, by every indication, an extremely short-term event. The line broke, the safety valve immediately shut the well off, it was over," said BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc spokesman Steve Rinehart.

The amount of liquid spilled was unknown, state and BP officials said, adding it came from a 6-inch-diameter pipeline that carries product from a single well. The leak was discovered on Monday.

Rinehart said the spilled material appeared to have been limited to the area right by the well, landing on top of snow on the gravel pad.

A ruptured line at the Lisburne field spilled about 46,000 gallons of liquids, a mixture of oil and produced water, according to state officials. That rupture, discovered on November 29, is believed to have been caused by pressure that built up when contents of the line froze into long ice plugs. That event remains under investigation, officials have said.

Another spill, discovered December 2, was from a pipeline inside a manifold building at a different Prudhoe Bay drill site. That spill released an estimated 7,170 gallons of produced water, according to state environmental officials.

BP is on probation following an Alaska pipeline spill in 2006, the largest ever recorded on the North Slope. A term of three years probation was imposed in late 2007 as part of the sentence for criminal environmental violations related to the 212,252-gallon spill at Prudhoe Bay. BP also paid $20 million in fines and restitution.

(Editing by Christian Wiessner)


[Green Business > Environment]
PARIS
Tue Dec 22, 2009 5:03pm EST
French body says Monsanto maize needs more study
PARIS (Reuters) - More research is needed into Monsanto's genetically modified maize MON 810, the only biotech crop commercially grown in Europe, to assess its environmental impact, a French advisory body said.

The opinion given by biotech committee HCB, published on Tuesday, was requested by the French government, which last year banned cultivation of MON 810 citing environmental concerns.

In a debate about whether to renew the license for the maize type, France and other European Union states have criticized as insufficient a favorable opinion in June from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

HCB called for further studies to evaluate potential drawbacks in MON 810, such as damage to non-targeted insects or the development of resistance to the crop among targeted pests.

"The only way to highlight ... a significant increase or decrease in populations of non-targeted invertebrates is to implement monitoring over several years," the HCB said.

The committee also said more work was needed to establish the benefits of the maize type versus other growing techniques, especially in areas not significantly affected by the pests MON 810 was designed to resist.

The views of the committee would be presented by France in European discussions on MON 810, which are due to lead to a conclusion by EU technical representatives in February, an official at the French environment ministry said.

But HCB's paper also showed how divisive the issue is within France. A vote by a subcommittee made up of farm unions, environmental associations, scientific and parliamentary bodies, on the overall value of MON 810 showed a narrow majority of 14 to 11 saying the maize had more disadvantages than benefits.

In a separate opinion also released on Tuesday, French food safety body AFSSA reiterated that, like EFSA, it considered MON 810 to be as safe as conventional maize for human and animal health, although it also called for further research.

(Reporting by Gus Trompiz, editing by Anthony Barker)


[Green Business > Environment]
SYDNEY
Tue Dec 22, 2009 11:48pm EST
Pacific warming continues: Australia weather bureau
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Pacific Ocean temperatures remained at levels typical of a drought-bringing El Nino weather pattern, Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said on Wednesday.

The bureau said in its latest fortnightly report that central Pacific Ocean surface temperatures are now at their warmest level since the El Nino of 1997-98, exceeding temperatures observed in both the 2002-03 and 2006-07 events.

"Similarly, cloudiness and rainfall near the equator remains enhanced, while eastern Australian rainfall remains low; all typical of a mature El Nino event," the bureau said.

An El Nino, which means "little boy" in Spanish, is driven by an abnormal warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean, and can create havoc in weather patterns across the Asia-Pacific region.

The last severe El Nino in 1998 killed more than 2,000 people and caused billions of dollars in damages to crops, infrastructure and mines in Australia and Asia.

The weather bureau said earlier this week that Australia could face a dry start for its summer crops as the El Nino pattern affects rainfall, raising the possibility of lower harvests of sorghum, sugar and cotton.

(Reporting by Jonathan Standing; Editing by Michael Perry)