news20100315gdn1

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Business > BP]
Money spent on tar sands projects could decarbonise western economies

> Production from tar sands will rise to 4m barrels a day by 2025
> Shareholders seek review of environmental impact of tar sands
Terry Macalister
guardian.co.uk, Monday 15 March 2010 Article history

The £250bn cost of developing Canada's controversial tar sands between now and 2025 could be used to decarbonise the western economy by funding ambitious solar power schemes in the Sahara or a European wide shift to electric vehicles, according to a new report released today.

The same amount of investment would also help the world to hit half of the Millenium Development Goals in the 50 least-developed countries, says the research from The Co-operative and conservation group, WWF, which is released to coincide with a new film, Dirty Oil, being premiered in 25 cinemas around the UK today. It is a hard-hitting documentary narrated by Canadian actor, Neve Campbell.

The moves are all part of a concerted effort to put shareholder and public pressure on BP and Shell which are at the forefront of extracting oil from the carbon-intensive tar sands of Alberta.

The Co-op claims its task has gained urgency by BP unveiling plans last week to speed up new tar sands projects through a tie-up with Devon Energy.

"The sums of money being invested in tar sands developments are enormous and difficult for the average person to grasp," says Paul Monaghan, head of social goals at the Co-op.

"This report (The Opportunity of the Tar Sands) puts things into perspective and demonstrates not only the scale of the problem, which could take us to the brink of runaway climate change, but also the opportunity being lost. It is literally a matter of life and death that these enormous oil titans are re-steered to much more sustainable paths," he adds.

The production of tar sands is estimated by critics to emit three times more greenhouse gases than conventional oil production. It is estimated that tar sands production will increase from its 1.3m barrels a day to at least 4m barrels by 2025.

A resolution has been put down by the Co-op and other shareholders to be taken at the BP annual general meeting next month alongside a similar one for Shell asking for a review of the economics and environmental impact of tar sands.

The Co-op and WWF say the combined cost of all tar sands – £250bn – could be used for clean power projects such as the Desertec scheme linking solar plants in North Africa to a "supergrid" which could produce 15% of Europe's electricity by 2050.


[News > Science > Animal research]
Animal rights activist using FOI laws to target universities

Luke Steele, spokesman for Stop Animal Experiments at Bradford is forcing institutions to reveal vivisection details
David Adam
The Guardian, Monday 15 March 2010 Article history

A convicted animal rights activist is using freedom of information laws to force universities to reveal details of their animal experiments, raising fears that scientists involved could suffer renewed intimidation.

The requests for information, which have been sent to every university in Britain, ask for details of facilities and laboratories licensed for such experiments, as well as breeding centres and a list of different animals used, by species.

The requests were sent by Luke Steele, an animal rights activist based in Yorkshire. He was last year convicted of conspiracy to interfere with a contractual relationship, so as to harm an animal research organisation, after being arrested near an isolated Lincolnshire farm that supplies rabbits for research.

Several universities have already replied to the FOI requests. Steele said the information gathered would be used to publicise research and target demonstrations, some of which are planned for next month.

"We're putting the FOIs in just to find out what is happening with vivisection at the universities. If they've got nothing to hide, then it's not a problem for them to put the information out there," he said.

Groups promoting next month's planned protests against university research, such as Stop Animal Experiments at Bradford, for which Steele acts as spokesman, encourage people to carry out "filming inside these laboratories". Steele said he did not want people to break the law, and that protestors could find imaginative ways to get inside. "Obviously we can't control what everybody does," he said. The requests from Steele have triggered concern among some university researchers. "The way these questions are phrased, I don't think this is an exercise in openness," said Syed Khawar Abbas, veterinary officer at the University of Leeds. "This information can be used for intimidation. In the wrong hands, this information can cause problems for our scientists."

An information officer at a different university, who did not want to be identified, said: "This has caused a great deal of concern among our staff who are worried about receiving threats or worse. Most scientists faced with FOI requests are happy to put stuff into the open and welcome the scrutiny, but in this case they are having to second guess the motives of people who might use this information."

Some of the information requested by Steele is already published, in summaries of Home Office licenses and academic papers. Other details, such as specific laboratory locations, can be refused under FOI exemptions.

One university scientist said: "The most likely motivation here is that they want to catch somebody out. If they can find some bad wording in minutes from a meeting, then they can use that to claim we are up to no good."

news20100315gdn2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Guardian Environment Network]
IPCC under fire in blogosphere for 'sealevelgate'
From RealClimate, part of the Guardian Environment Network
guardian.co.uk, Monday 15 March 2010 10.53 GMT Article history

Imagine this. In its latest report, the IPCC has predicted up to 3 meters of sea level rise by the end of this century. But "climate sceptics" websites were quick to reveal a few problems (or "tricks", as they called it).

First, although the temperature scenarios of IPCC project a maximum warming of 6.4 ºC (Table SPM3), the upper limit of sea level rise has been computed assuming a warming of 7.6 ºC. Second, the IPCC chose to compute sea level rise up to the year 2105 rather than 2100 – just to add that extra bit of alarmism. Worse, the IPCC report shows that over the past 40 years, sea level has in fact risen 50% less than predicted by its models – yet these same models are used uncorrected to predict the future! And finally, the future projections assume a massive ice sheet decay which is rather at odds with past ice sheet behaviour.

Some scientists within IPCC warned early that all this could lead to a credibility problem, but the IPCC decided to go ahead anyway.

Now, the blogosphere and their great media amplifiers are up in arms. Heads must roll!

Unthinkable? Indeed. I am convinced that IPCC would never have done this.

But here is what actually did happen.

In its latest report, the IPCC has predicted up to 59 cm of sea level rise by the end of this century. But realclimate soon revealed a few problems.

First, although the temperature scenarios of IPCC project a maximum warming of 6.4 ºC (Table SPM3), the upper limit of sea level rise has been computed for a warming of only 5.2 ºC – which reduced the estimate by about 15 cm. Second, the IPCC chose to compute sea level rise up to the year 2095 rather than 2100 – just to cut off another 5 cm. Worse, the IPCC report shows that over the past 40 years, sea level has in fact risen 50% more than predicted by its models – yet these same models are used uncorrected to predict the future! And finally, the future projections assume that the Antarctic ice sheet gains mass, thus lowering sea level, rather at odds with past ice sheet behaviour.**

Some scientists within IPCC warned early that all this could lead to a credibility problem, but the IPCC decided to go ahead anyway.

Nobody cared about this.

I mention this because there is a lesson in it. IPCC would never have published an implausibly high 3 meter upper limit like this, but it did not hesitate with the implausibly low 59 cm. That is because within the IPCC culture, being "alarmist" is bad and being "conservative" (i.e. underestimating the potential severity of things) is good.

Note that this culture is the opposite of "erring on the safe side" (assuming it is better to have overestimated the problem and made the transition to a low-carbon society a little earlier than needed, rather than to have underestimated it and sunk coastal cities and entire island nations). Just to avoid any misunderstandings here: I am squarely against exaggerating climate change to "err on the safe side". I am deeply convinced that scientists must avoid erring on any side, they must always give the most balanced assessment they are capable of (and that is why I have often spoken up against "alarmist" exaggeration of climate science, see e.g. here and here).

Why do I find this IPCC problem far worse than the Himalaya error? Because it is not a slip-up by a Working Group 2 author who failed to properly follow procedures and cited an unreliable source. Rather, this is the result of intensive deliberations by Working Group 1 climate experts. Unlike the Himalaya mistake, this is one of the central predictions of IPCC, prominently discussed in the Summary for Policy Makers. What went wrong in this case needs to be carefully looked at when considering future improvements to the IPCC process.

And let's see whether we learn another lesson here, this time about society and the media. Will this evidence for an underestimation of the climate problem by IPCC, presented by an IPCC lead author who studies sea level, be just as widely reported and discussed as, say, faulty claims by a blogger about "Amazongate"?

p.s. Recent sea level results. A number of broadly based assessments have appeared since the last IPCC report, which all conclude that global sea level rise by the year 2100 could exceed one meter: The assessment of the Dutch Delta Commission, the Synthesis Report of the Copenhagen Climate Congress, the Copenhagen Diagnosis report as well as the SCAR report on Antarctic Climate Change. This is also the conclusion of a number of recent peer-reviewed papers: Rahmstorf 2007, Horton et al. 2008, Pfeffer et al. 2008, Grinsted et al. 2009, Vermeer and Rahmstorf 2009, Jevrejeva et al. 2010 (in press with GRL). The notable exception – Siddall et al. 2009 – was withdrawn by its authors after we revealed numerical errors on Realclimate. This is a good example of self-correction in science (in stark contrast with the climate sceptics' practice of endlessly perpetuating false information). Rather bizarrely, Fox News managed to turn this into the headline "More Questions About Validity of Global Warming Theory".

** About the numbers stated above. Regarding the actual IPCC AR4 numbers, adjust the IPCC upper estimate of 59 cm by adding 15 cm to make it apply to 6.4 ºC warming (not just 5.2 ºC) and 5 cm to make it go up to 2100 (not just 2095). That gives you 79 cm. Add 50% to adjust for the underestimation of past sea level rise and you get 119 cm.

For the hypothetical case at the start of this post, just introduce similar errors in the other direction. Let's add 31 cm by going up to 7.6 ºC and the year 2105 (in fact that is "conservative" but it gives a nice round number, 150 cm). Now assume you have a model compared to which actual sea level is rising 50% slower (rather 50% faster): now you're at the 3 meters mentioned above. For details, see The IPCC sea level numbers.

news20100315nn1

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 14 March 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.119 News
Nano-antennas could help keep quantum secrets

Nanorod arrays can guide light along the path toward quantum communication.
By vZeeya Merali

{{Yagi-Uda antennae are now smaller than ever.}
Hitachi Kokusai Electric (Yagi Antenna Inc)}

Miniaturized television aerials made from gold nanorods could provide a way to control light on a chip — opening up the channels of quantum communication.

If quantum computing networks are ever to become a reality, physicists must find a way to direct and harness the light emitted in quantum experiments. "We must know where and when photons are emitted if we want to collect them efficiently and perform advanced tasks," says Jason Smith, an expert on quantum nanostructures at the University of Oxford, UK.

At the moment, quantum physicists use cumbersome apparatus to try to keep track of photons, for instance, building large vacuum cavities with mirrored walls to guide light. "It's funny that to control the small quantum world, you need huge pieces of equipment," says Holger Hofmann, at the Department of Quantum Matter at Hiroshima University in Japan.

Now, Hofmann and his colleagues have developed a way to control the direction of light on the nanoscale. Their technique is based on the workings of the 'Yagi-Uda' antenna commonly used to transmit and detect radio waves and often seen on rooftops as television aerials. Hofmann stumbled on the idea by accident, while teaching his electromagnetism class how antennas work. "The textbook didn't explain it well, and while trying to come up with my own picture, I realized that the same technique could work on the nanoscale."

Good as gold

A standard Yagi-Uda antenna is made up of a set of parallel metal rods that gradually decrease in length. An electrical signal is fed into the second longest rod, setting it vibrating and producing a driving electromagnetic wave that spreads out in all directions. This stimulates the neighbouring rods to oscillate and emit secondary waves. Both the length and spacing of adjacent rods are carefully set at fractions of the wavelength of the driving wave, so that the secondary waves interfere with the driving wave, amplifying it along the forward direction and reducing it along the sideways and backward directions.

{“It's funny that to control the small quantum world, you need huge pieces of equipment.”}

Hofmann and his colleagues realized that gold nanorods should produce the same effect on the nanoscale — but here, the length-to-width ratio of the rods, rather than their length and spacing, is important¹.

The team etched their mini gold antenna into a glass substrate and drove it directly with red laser light. The tricky part was to ensure that just one nanorod was driven by the incoming light, just as only one metal rod is in the Yugi-Uda antenna. To ensure this, the team tilted the chosen nanorod by 45º relative to its neighbours and stimulated it using laser light that was polarized at the same angle. They then monitored the direction of light transmitted out of the glass substrate.

The result was actually better than their theory predicted, says Hoffman, with roughly two-thirds of the input light being directed largely forwards². In their calculations the team had assumed that the nanorods would be fashioned into perfect ellipsoids; in practice, however, they were 'box-shaped' and this may inadvertently have improved their performance, Hofmann explains.

Fire at will

Next, the team hopes to integrate the nano-antenna into a silicon chip — a move welcomed by Smith. "It is a huge challenge to make light-control systems compact and efficient," he says.

The technique may allow material scientists to create efficient 'single-photon sources' by precisely controlling the light emitted from nanocrystals called 'quantum dots', says Smith. "You could imagine one day being able to press a button and produce a photon on demand."

Single-photon sources are vital in the field of quantum cryptography, in which quantum processes are used to encode secure information in photons before the data are transmitted. "To have reliability, you really have to know how many photons you are sending out and where," says Hofmann.

Making the light-control system smaller also enhances the rate of spontaneous photon emission from the source, due to quantum effects, adds Smith. "At the moment, you can produce a photon once every 10 or 100 nanoseconds, but such techniques could improve that to, say, one every nanosecond," he says. "That would be an important advance."

References
1. Hofmann, H. F., Kosako, T. & Kadoya, Y. New J. Phys. 9, 217 (2007). | Article | ChemPort |
2. Kosako, T., Kadoya, Y. & Hofmann, H. F. Nature Photonics advance online publication doi:10.1038/nphoton.2010.34 (2010).

news20100315nn2

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 14 March 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.122
News
Snake infrared detection unravelled

Scientists have discovered the receptors that allow snakes to find prey in the dark.
By Janet Fang

{{Protein ion channels allow snakes to 'see' in the dark.}
Biosphoto / Daniel Heuclin / Still Pictures}

Snakes can 'see' in the dark thanks to protein channels that are activated by heat from the bodies of their prey.

Vipers, pythons and boas have holes on their faces called pit organs, which contain a membrane that can detect infrared radiation from warm bodies up to one metre away. At night, the pit organs allow snakes to 'see' an image of their predator or prey — as an infrared camera does — giving them a unique extra sense.

A study by US researchers, published online in Nature, has now revealed how this works at a molecular level¹. Nerve cells in the pit organ contain an ion channel called TRPA1 — an infrared receptor that detects infrared radiation as heat, rather than as light, thus confirming theories of pit-organ function long held by behavioural ecologists. The receptors are also found inside the heads of mammals, where TRPA1 channels, also known as wasabi receptors, detect pungent irritants from mustard plants or other sources.

"Animal physiologists have done beautiful work on the anatomy of this sensory system. That's really essential information for people like us coming in to do the genetics," says molecular biologist David Julius at the University of California, San Francisco, who led the study. "What they didn't know was the molecular logic."

The pit organ contains nerve fibres known as trigeminal ganglia. The researchers reasoned that a good way to home in on the organ's molecular heat detectors would be to compare the trigeminal ganglia with the dorsal root ganglia. The latter supply the brain with sensory input from the neck down and would be less likely to produce proteins that only pit-organs need to detect heat. The team looked at the different RNAs produced by each type of nerve — an indication of which genes are active and producing proteins. They found only one, TRPA1, which was being expressed differently in the two types of ganglia, with the gene in the trigeminal ganglia producing 400 times more RNA than that in the dorsal root ganglia.
Great snakes

The pit organ is part of the snake's somatosensory system — which detects touch, temperature and pain — and does not receive signals from the eyes, confirming that snakes 'see' infrared by detecting heat, not photons of light. Infrared radiation heats up the pit membrane tissue, and TRPA1 channels open when a threshold temperature is reached, allowing ions to flow into the nerve cells and triggering an electrical signal.

The antenna membrane hangs in a hollow bony chamber, allowing for quick heat loss and maximizing the detected temperature differences between warm-blooded animals and everything else. According to the team's observations, rattlesnake TRPA1 is activated by temperatures higher than about 28 °C — roughly the temperature a snake would 'feel' from a mouse or a squirrel about a metre away.

Physiologists and cell biologists agree that although identifying the receptors is an important contribution, there's more to the pit-organ story.

"The authors used elegant molecular techniques to confirm an idea long substantiated by physiological and behavioural data," says herpetologist Aaron Krochmal from Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. "Although aspects of the findings contradict known behavioural and physiological work, the use of molecular genetic techniques is a new step in understanding how the facial pits work."

A previous study² published in 1956 showed that snakes can detect a human hand better in a refrigerated chamber than at room temperature, according to physiologist George Bakken from Indiana State University in Terre Haute. "The pit sensory system is clearly functional with sensory ending temperatures well below the reported 28 °C threshold," he says.

The study of how snakes detect infrared radiation has progressed slowly, says neuroscientist Michael Grace from the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne: "Perhaps in part because of a general human fear of snakes, and in part because of the real danger posed by pit vipers," he suggests. "The results presented here may be the single most dramatic development in the history of the study of snake infrared imaging."

References
1. Gracheva, E. O. et al. Nature advance online publication doi:10.1038/nature08943 (2010).
2. Bullock, T. H. & Diecke, F. P. J. Physiol. 134, 47-87 (1956).

news20100315bbc1

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

[Science & Environment > UK]
Page last updated at 10:59 GMT, Monday, 15 March 2010
UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband in China for talks

{Mr Miliband inaugurated the British pavilion at the Shanghai Expo}

The UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband has called on China to build an economy which is not only more efficient but also more stable and just.

Mr Miliband, who is in China to hold discussions with the country's political leaders, made the appeal in a speech to a think tank in Shanghai.

He said the two countries' relationship had difficulties but they wanted to be partners, not competitors.

He added: "Our future and China's future are linked together."

Mr Miliband also inaugurated the British pavilion at the Shanghai Expo.

Britain and China have disagreed over issues including climate change, Iran's nuclear programme and executed British citizen Akmal Shaikh.

Protectionism

In his speech, Mr Miliband highlighted the importance of workers' rights, property rights and free access to information.

The BBC's Chris Hogg in Shanghai said Mr Miliband was also trying to promote the idea that China's growing middle class offered an opportunity for British business, but acknowledged hurdles needed to be overcome.

{{Mature relationships don't depend on being in agreement all the time}
David Miliband}

West tries to unlock Chinese puzzle
He said Mr Miliband singled out the risk of protectionism as a barrier to greater prosperity for both countries.

During his visit, Mr Miliband will seek to persuade China to drop its opposition to a fourth round of sanctions against Iran over its uranium enrichment programme.

The US, France, the UK, Russia, China and Germany, otherwise known as the "P5 +1", are currently discussing the possibility of sanctions.

Iran insists its enrichment programme is for civilian use, but there are concerns it is trying to develop a nuclear bomb.

Late last year, relations were strained between China and Britain when China ignored personal appeals from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown not to execute 53-year-old Briton Akmal Shaikh for drug smuggling.
Mr Shaikh's family had claimed that he was mentally ill.

Political plot

{Mr Miliband will argue for a fourth round of sanctions against Iran}

There has also been a dispute over claims that China "hijacked" efforts to reach an agreement at the climate summit in Copenhagen.

Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband had accused China of vetoing two agreements on limiting emissions, but Beijing said the accusations were a political plot.

The foreign secretary said China recognised the UK as an important partner, but he acknowledged there were areas of dispute.

He added: "I think China wants to have a relationship where we are able to find areas of common ground, but it's also important that where there are disagreements we don't hide them and that's what it means to be in an effective modern partnership.

"Mature relationships don't depend on being in agreement all the time.

"They actually blossom and prosper when we recognise that there can be differences with dialogue."

Mr Miliband said he would also raise the issue of human rights with senior politicians over the next few days, with no questions being off the agenda.

He will meet his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao on Tuesday and deliver a talk at Beijing's Foreign Affairs University.


[Science & Environment > UK]
Page last updated at 09:55 GMT, Monday, 15 March 2010
Coal power station plan under way

The first stage of a planning process to build a coal-fired power station in Ayrshire is to get under way on Monday.

Ayrshire Power wants to build a power station with experimental carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology on a site at Hunterston near Largs.

If its proposal succeeds, the plant would be the first in the UK.

Environmentalists are campaigning against the plans, claiming it sends the wrong message about Scotland's energy future.

CCS technology would remove carbon dioxide produced by the coal-fired station. This would then be turned into liquid using chemicals and stored underground.

{{We would suggest Ayrshire Power should undertake a full and comprehensive local and national consultation}
Juliet Swann
Friends of the Earth Scotland}

Juliet Swann, head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: "Carbon capture and storage is potentially a way to reach a low-carbon future.

"However, the carbon benefits are not yet proven and in any case it should be demonstrated on existing plants first, not least so we can share the technology with the rest of the world and in doing so repay our debt to them for supplying us with so much of our dirty energy.

"We are also concerned that this application is being made at a time when the inclusion of Hunterston in the national planning framework is the subject of a legal challenge.

"We would suggest Ayrshire Power should undertake a full and comprehensive local and national consultation, given the implications of this development both on the local area and the national ambition to move to a clean energy future."

A spokesman for campaign group Communities Opposed to New Coal at Hunterston (Conch) said the plans were a "massive con".

The spokesman added: "Claims that it will be a clean power station are totally misleading. Even if carbon capture technology could be proven to work, only around 20% of the emissions are required to be 'captured' under government regulations.

"We are also angry at Ayrshire Power's failure to consult with local people on their plans."

Energy needs

The proposals, drawn up by energy company Ayrshire Power, owned by Peel Energy Ltd, are for a site between the existing Clydeport coal handling facility at the Hunterston Terminal, and the Hunterston B nuclear power plant.

The plans will be formally submitted to the Scottish Government's Energy Consents Unit on Monday.

It will then enter a "gate checking" phase while the government ensures all the information needed for a full assessment of the proposals is included, before being put forward for public consultation.

The company said it would "use highly efficient modern technology with strict emissions control", with 90% of carbon from the plant being captured, and reducing coal consumption by up to 25%.

If approved, the new facility could meet the energy needs of three million homes, Ayrshire power said.

It also claimed that the new power station would generate a "significant" number of jobs in the area, with up to 1,600 people being employed during construction and 160 permanent jobs when the power station is running.

news20100315bbc2

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

[Science & Environment > UK]
Page last updated at 17:07 GMT, Thursday, 11 March 2010
Brain scans 'can distinguish memories', say scientists

{Brain scans revealed which event a person was remembering}

Scientists say they have been able to tell which past event a person is recalling using a brain scan.

The University College London researchers showed people film clips and were able to predict which ones they were subsequently thinking about.

The research, published in Current Biology, provides insight into how memories are recorded.

The authors hope the findings will ultimately contribute to development of treatments for memory loss.

Previous research has shown brain scans can predict simpler thought processes such as distinguishing between colours, objects or places.

The UCL researchers say recalling memories of past events is a more complex process.

Everyday memories

The study builds on a previous discovery by the same team that they could tell where a person was standing in a virtual reality room using a brain scan.

"In our previous experiment, we were looking at basic memories, at someone's location in an environment," says Professor Maguire, from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL, who led the study.

"What is more interesting is to look at 'episodic' memories - the complex, everyday memories that include much more information on where we are, what we are doing and how we feel."

{{Now that we are developing a clearer picture of how our memories are stored, we hope to examine how they are affected by time, the ageing process and by brain injury}
Professor Eleanor Maguire, UCL}

The researchers asked 10 volunteers to watch three short film clips of people doing everyday activities such a posting a letter or throwing a coffee cup in a bin.

The volunteers were then asked to remember each of the films in turn while inside a specialist MRI scanner, which recorded brain activity that was then studied by a computer programme.

First time

The researchers found that in subsequent scanning sessions, the computer algorithm could predict which film the volunteers were thinking about from the pattern of their brain activity.

They said it was the first time that brain scans had been used to distinguish between memories of past events.

Experts praised the research. Richard Morris, professor of neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh, said: "These findings are a really valuable advance on traditional ways of analysing brain images. They look not just at the strength of the signal, but the actual pattern of activity across the brain.

"By doing this in memory areas, it is possible for the first time to distinguish one memory from another - even if both memories are equally strong."

{{The computer algorithm doesn't really 'read' memories - it merely distinguishes one from another.}
Professor Richard Morris, Glasgow University}

But he pointed out that the research does not mean it is possible to literally know what a person is remembering.

"The computer algorithm doesn't really 'read' memories - it merely distinguishes one from another."

He said the findings could lead to a whole range of interesting developments.

"All manner of next steps come to mind - such as distinguishing a true memory from a false one, or a recent memory from one long ago."

The scientists say their research contributes to an understanding of how memories are formed and recalled. They hope it will eventually help develop treatments for people with memory loss though ageing or brain injury.

Dr Susanne Sorensen, Alzheimer's Society's head of research said: "This research is interesting because it tells us more about how memories are stored and recalled in normal healthy people.

"It is not directly related to the study of the memory problems that are one of the symptoms of dementia, but the methods developed in this study may in the longer term help us investigate what goes wrong in brains that are developing the diseases which cause dementia."


[Science & Environment]
Page last updated at 11:20 GMT, Monday, 15 March 2010
Reindeer body clock switched off

{Reindeer have to survive the light polar summer and dark polar winter}

Reindeer have no internal body clock, according to scientists.

Researchers found that the animals are missing a "circadian clock" that influences processes including the sleep-wake cycle and metabolism.

This enables them to better cope with the extreme Arctic seasons of polar day, when the sun stays up all day, and polar night, when it does not rise.

The team from the universities of Manchester and Tromso report their study in Current Biology journal.

The body clock, or circadian clock, is the internal mechanism that drives hormone release on a rhythmic 24-hour cycle.

Light also influences these hormonal rhythms, but in most mammals, this "circuit" also involves the circadian clock, which can influence the release of hormones without the influence of light.

{{This could be the case for a range of animals living at the poles of the earth or in the depths of the ocean}
Professor Andrew Loudon, University of Manchester}

Anyone who has experienced jet lag is familiar with the effect of the body clock.

But the research team from research institutes in the UK and Norway found that, in Arctic reindeer, this circadian clock was absent.

Professor Andrew Loudon from The University of Manchester took part in the study.

He said that the reindeer may have "abandoned use of the daily clock that drives biological rhythms" in order to survive the extreme conditions in the Arctic.

He and his colleagues studied reindeer living in Northern Norway, 500 km north of the Arctic circle. Here there are 15 weeks of continuous daylight in summer and eight weeks during the winter where the Sun does not appear over the horizon.

They investigated levels of the hormone called melatonin - which is important in the sleep-wake cycle - in the reindeer's blood

They found that there was no natural internal rhythm of melatonin release into the blood - the hormone simply responded to the cycle of light and dark.

Professor Loudon said he believed that evolution had "come up with a means of switching off the cellular clockwork" and that the result was "a lack of internal daily timekeeping in these animals".

He commented: "Such daily clocks may be positively a hindrance in environments where there is no reliable light dark cycle for much of the year.

Organisms use their circadian clocks to correspond with their living environment; but if their environment has a very different cycle, it may be better to follow that rather than use the internal clock.

"This could be the case for a range of animals living at the poles of the Earth or in the depths of the ocean."

news20100315bbc3

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

[Science & Environment]
Page last updated at 13:47 GMT, Monday, 15 March 2010
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website
Tiger decline is 'sign of world's failure'

{There are now considerably more tigers in captivity than in the wild}

Governments need to crack down on illegal tiger trading if the big cats are to be saved, the UN has warned.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting in Doha, Qatar heard that tiger numbers are continuing to fall.

Organised crime rings are playing an increasing part in illegal trading of tiger parts, CITES says, as they are with bears, rhinos and elephants.

Interpol is working with CITES to track and curb the international trade.
Last year, World Bank chief Robert Zoellick said the global black market in wildlife products was worth about $10bn per year, making wildlife the third most valuable illicit commodity after drugs and weapons.

Global medicine

Despite attempts to protect tigers, numbers have approximately halved over the last decade, with fewer than 3,200 remaining in the wild.

The decline is seen across sub-species and in most range states. Many populations are small, and are threatened by deforestation as well as poaching.

"If we use tiger numbers as a performance indicator, then we must admit that we have failed miserably and that we are continuing to fail," said CITES secretary-general Willem Wijnstekers.

"Although the tiger has been prized throughout history, and is a symbol of incredible importance in many cultures and religions, it is now literally on the verge of extinction."

CITES enforcement officials said government agencies including police and customs needed to step up efforts to combat the illegal trade.

Although China and other East Asian countries are the principal consumers of tiger parts, exports travel much further afield.

Earlier this month, Operation Tram, co-ordinated by Interpol and including enforcement authorities in 18 countries, netted medicines containing wildlife products worth an estimated $10m.

Tigers, bears and rhinos were among the animals used in making the medicines.

Traditional cures

Conservationists also point to China's tiger farms as a threat to the wild animals.

Although China does not officially permit the sale of goods from these farms, in practice several investigations have revealed tiger parts are being sold.

Campaigners warn this perpetuates a market into which wild tiger parts can be sold, often commanding a higher value as products made from wild animals are perceived to be more "potent."

Just before the CITES meeting opened, the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies (WFCMS) called on traditional medicine practitioners to abandon the use of tiger parts.

"We will ask our members not to use endangered wildlife in traditional Chinese medicine, and reduce the misunderstanding and bias of the international community," said WFCMS deputy secretary Huang Jianyin.

"The traditional Chinese medicine industry should look for substitutes and research on economical and effective substitutes for tiger products."

A resolution before the fortnight-long CITES meeting calls for greater co-operation between regional enforcement authorities to cut down the tiger product trade, and to ensure that breeding operations are "consistent with the conservation of wild populations".

news20100315reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Susan Taylor
OTTAWA
Fri Mar 12, 2010 10:41am EST
Biodiesel maker BioX aims to grow after TSX debut

(Reuters) - It has been a bumpy ride for Canadian biodiesel producer BioX Corp, but some two years after the credit crisis stalled its IPO plans, the company has returned with a more modest listing.

BioX plans to use the C$46.7 million ($45.7 million) from its market debut last week to build a second production facility in Canada.

It's a big climb down from the four plants planned in 2007, before BioX's C$150 million listing was canceled when the commercial paper market collapsed.

"There's no question in my mind that we will be able to raise that kind of money, we just have to do it a little slower I'm afraid," Chief Executive Tim Haig said in an interview with Reuters.

"We had to hunker down for a couple of years and wait for the market to come back and learn more in the industry and push things along. So we're a far better company now."

Founded in 2000 with technology developed at the University of Toronto, BioX first began production at a Hamilton, Ontario, plant in 2007.

That followed nearly four years of fine-tuning, work fueled by about C$90 million raised in three rounds with investors such as Birch Hill Equity Partners, Dynex Capital and VentureLink.

Now, BioX says the time is right to expand its production capacity before a government mandate that will require 2 percent renewable content in all diesel fuel by 2012.

Canada currently produces about 130 million liters (34.3 million gallons) of biodiesel annually, but will need about 600 million liters (158.5 million gallons) to meet the government mandate. In the United States, it expects 1 billion gallons of biodiesel to be required annually by 2012, he said.

Haig, who launched BioX after working on wind farms in England for a decade, said his company's "feedstock agnostic" process can use anything from pure seed oils, to animal fat, to recovered vegetable oils such as restaurant waste grease.

The company claims its process is faster and more efficient than others, taking less than 90 minutes with a conversion yield of more than 99 percent.

"We have great technology and we need to get it out there," Haig said.

"The fact that we were able to raise money in a very difficult climate ... is a shot in the arm for our technology."

As investors better understand the impact of government policy on biodiesel demand, it will become easier to raise money, Haig said.

BioX's current facility produces about 67 million liters (17.69 million gallons) annually. The Oakville, Ontario-based company, which designs, owns and operates production facilities, is now scouting two Canadian provinces for its next plant.

Over the next decade, it plans to build 10 plants in North America and Europe, matching production capacity with government-mandated quotas.

Despite growing demand, the sector may face roadblocks. Canada ordered a study of the environmental impact of ethanol and biodiesel in January, citing evidence of harmful environmental effects.

Shares of BioX, which opened at C$2.02 on the Toronto Stock Exchange March 3, were down 10 Canadian cents in early trade on Friday at C$1.80 after the company issued first-quarter financial results.

BioX's net loss narrowed to C$1.07 million, or 5 Canadian cents a share, in the period ended December 31, from a loss of C$3.15 million, or 15 Canadian cents, in the same period last year.

Revenue dropped to C$11.5 million from C$12.5 million, reflecting a scheduled two-week plant shutdown for maintenance.

($1=$1.02 Canadian)

(Reporting by Susan Taylor; Editing by Frank McGurty)


[Green Business]
WASHINGTON
Fri Mar 12, 2010 12:25pm EST
U.S. East carbon prices inch up in quarterly auction

(Reuters) - Prices for permits allowing power plants to emit the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the U.S. East rose slightly in the latest quarterly auction, states in the regional market said on Friday.

The prices for the market's first control period, which runs until 2011, rose 2 cents to $2.07 a ton in an auction held earlier this week, said the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a group of 10 states that run a cap-and-trade system on emissions from power plants.

The slight gain came as a bit of relief to brokers, traders, and government officials trying to build the nascent U.S. carbon markets. They hope to create a system that rewards polluters with credits they can sell for making investments in clean energy, such as solar and wind power, or switching to cleaner fuels, such as natural gas instead of coal.

"With each successful auction, the RGGI states continue to show that cap-and-trade works and can jump-start a green economy with fewer emissions, lower electric bills and more jobs," said David Littell, chair of the RGGI board of directors.

RGGI prices for permits in the first period had fallen in the previous three auctions as the recession and low prices for clean-burning natural gas had depressed demand for the permits.

In the latest auction, allowances for the 2012 to 2014 control period sold for $1.86 a ton, clinging to a record low the permits got in the last auction held in September, RGGI said. Each permit allows the holder to emit one ton of carbon dioxide.

Not all of the permits sold in the later period, with 46,992 permits out of 2,137,992 available failing to find a buyer, the group said. Unsold permits may be sold in future auctions according to each state's rules.

All of the 40,612,408 allowances in the first period sold.

RGGI said the auction, the group's seventh, raised nearly $89 million for investments in clean energy and energy efficiency programs.

Environmentalists have worried that some states facing budget deficits may be trying to use the funds raised by RGGI for other purposes.

The regional market was formed at a time when there was no federal action on regulating the gases blamed for warming the planet. The formation of a national cap-and-trade market on emissions from power plants, vehicles, ships and planes is far from certain as it faces opposition from lawmakers in energy-rich states.

U.S. senators crafting compromise climate legislation have said they have not settled on a mechanism to create a price on carbon. But putting a cap-and-trade market only on power plants, which emit about 40 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, may be an option.

The states in the RGGI pact are: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; editing by Jim Marshall)


[Green Business]
Alison Leung and Fion Li
HONG KONG
Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:18am EDT
BYD LIFTS 2010 capex by 58 pct on expansion push

(Reuters) - Chinese car and battery maker BYD Co, backed by U.S. billionaire investor Warren Buffett, will lift capital expenditure by 58 percent this year, its chairman said, as it embarks on an aggressive expansion plan.

Enjoying speedy growth in China, which overtook the United States to become the world's largest car market last year, BYD is also looking at the overseas markets.

The fast-growing carmaker planned to establish sales headquarters in the United States, paving the way for exports of its E6 electric car to the U.S. market from the second half of 2010, Wang Chuanfu, chairman of BYD and China's richest man, told reporters on Monday.

BYD, which is about 10 percent owned by Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, may also build a manufacturing facility in the United States in the future, Wang said.

"If there is a market, we will not exclude the chance to set up a production plant in the United States."

Having expanded from a rechargeable battery maker into a major carmaker, BYD aimed to become a leading global manufacturer of traditional and new energy vehicles, he said.

A front runner among Chinese carmakers in clean energy vehicles, BYD was upbeat on development and growth for green vehicles and said it planned to sell about 1,000 dual model, F3DM cars in Shenzhen to individual customers this year.

Earlier this month, it agreed to team up with Daimler AG to develop electric cars for the Chinese market.

"Compared with our conventional cars, sales of green cars will remain small and will not make a profit contribution to the group this year," Wang said.

CAPEX INCREASE

Wang said capital expenditure in 2010 would be about 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion), as it sets up new manufacturing facilities to achieve its goal of doubling sales to 800,000 units this year.

In 2009, the company sold 450,000 vehicles, with capital expenditure at 6.3 billion yuan.

The firm's vehicle business is its strongest-performing segment, accounting for more than half of total 2009 revenue and surpassing its rechargeable battery and mobile handset components and assembly businesses.

BYD bought Hunan Midea Coach Manufacturing Co in Changsha last July to expand into the coach and electric bus sector.

The company said it was planning a third vehicle production base in Changsha, and a new plant in Xian, both with planned annual outputs of 400,000 units.

Its shares rose nearly 3 percent to an early high of HK$70.90 after it reported forecast-beating quarterly earnings of 1.46 billion yuan. The stock ended the morning at HK$69.45, up 0.8 percent, while the broader Hang Seng Index was down 0.9 percent.

BYD's shares have risen 1.5 percent so far this year, beating a near 4 percent decline on the broader market.

news20100315reut2

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Mon Mar 15, 2010 4:09am EDT
EU carbon up, traders want clarity on CER recycling

(Reuters) - European carbon emissions futures opened lower but quickly broke into positive territory on Monday, even though investors were still mulling news that Hungary recycled U.N.-backed credits, traders said.

EU Allowances for December delivery were up 8 cents or 0.62 percent at 12.98 euros ($17.89) a tonne at 3:38 a.m. EDT, with light volume at 162 lots. EUAs opened at 12.88 euros.

"There's been a little bounce this morning but the CER news has been bad for the market. It pushed the spreads as CERs weakened against EUAs," an emissions trader said.

On Friday, it emerged that Hungary had sold 2 million emissions permits which its companies had already counted toward their carbon targets, raising concerns of double-counting in a European Union scheme.

The news caused CER prices to drop. Traders said they were awaiting news of measures from the European Commission to stop this taking place.

"There needs to be a mechanism in place that makes sure the credits don't come back in to the market. The short-term benefits of doing this could have such a long-term impact; it's frustrating," the trader said.

Many investors will be watching U.S. industrial output figures at 9:15 a.m. EDT for signs of economic recovery, which could impact prices this afternoon.

A UK auction of 4.5 million EUAs this Thursday could also affect prices this week, traders said.

Each month a trading pattern has emerged where market participants have sold large volumes of EUAs ahead of the auction, driving prices lower, hoping to buy back and make more money in the expected subsequent rally.

Oil eased below $81 a barrel on Monday, extending the previous session's losses, as data showing a drop in U.S. consumer confidence fanned worries about flagging demand in the world's top energy user.

German Calendar 2010 baseload power was up 70 cents or 1.54 percent at 46.25 euros per megawatt hour.

Certified emissions reductions were up 9 cents at 11.39 euros a tonne. The EUA-CER spread was at 1.59 euros. (Reporting by Nina Chestney; editing by James Jukwey)


[Green Business]
Christoph Steitz - Analysis
FRANKFURT
Mon Mar 15, 2010 7:24am EDT
Sector leader SolarWorld faces mounting margin risk

(Reuters) - SolarWorld, Germany's top solar company, will see its margins drop this year as its premium price strategy comes under attack, hurting one of the last intact investment cases in the sector.

Despite looming cuts in solar incentives in Germany -- the world's biggest market for the sector's products -- and an industry crisis caused by overcapacity and a price slump, SolarWorld is still one of the few profitable players with a good strategic position.

It is the only company out of Germany's four big solar cell and module makers to have turned a profit last year, mainly due to the fact that it also manufactures other components and is thus able to offset pricing pressure to some extent.

So far, the company has relied on its strong brand name, which usually lets it charge a premium of up to 30 percent on its panels compared with Chinese peers.

But if it wants to remain competitive it needs to lower product prices, which will further hit margins unless production costs are reduced, analysts said.

"In the absence of a strategy shift away from its high-cost manufacturing model, we struggle to see a margin stabilization any time soon," UBS analyst Patrick Hummel wrote.

Imminent solar incentive cuts in the German market, where SolarWorld generates almost 70 percent of sales, are forcing domestic players to quickly enter markets abroad to offset a potential slump in demand.

SolarWorld may be able to keep its price premium in Germany -- where football star Lukas Podolski supports a massive ad campaign -- but exporting it will be difficult.

"If the strategy (of premiums) has been working in 2009, when pricing pressure from Chinese peers was quite severe already, why wouldn't it work it 2010?" asked Ben Lynch at Bryan, Garnier & Co, who is rated as the top SolarWorld analyst by Thomson Reuters database StarMine.

"But Germany will be a smaller market for SolarWorld this year and it cannot duplicate the premium strategy to other countries, so on average, its premium will fall."

Peter Wirtz, analyst at WestLB, expects the share of German sales to SolarWorld's turnover to fall to 60 percent in 2010.

SHAKY EBIT MARGIN

While Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S estimates suggest a 2010 EBIT margin of 11.5 percent, StarMine forecasts are for a 10.3 percent margin. This compared with a 2009 margin of 15 percent, second only to the 24.1 percent achieved by German peer SMA Solar, the world's largest maker of solar inverters.

SolarWorld's fourth-quarter results already showed low profitability with a 9-percent EBIT margin, although the October to December period was the year's strongest in terms of sales.

"While SolarWorld remains one of the relatively best positioned players in the industry, the global photovoltaic market environment ... remains tough," analysts at HSBC wrote, adding they see further price and margin pressure as well as downside potential to EBIT forecasts.

The Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S forecast for 2010 EBIT, now at 139.32 million euros ($191.5 million), looks too optimistic compared with the 123.9 million estimate in StarMine, which weights analyst forecasts according to their track records.

The 11.1 percent discount of the StarMine estimate -- also called "predicted surprise" -- suggests the direction of future earnings revisions and surprises.

StarMine research has shown that when the "SmartEstimate" diverges from the I/B/E/S consensus by 2 percent or more, the signal successfully predicts the direction of the actual surprise with a success rate of about 70 percent across regions, market caps, sectors and financial measures.

Margin pressure will also be exacerbated by SolarWorld's inability to cut production costs, analysts say.

Royal Bank of Scotland analysts, who do not expect it to be able to cut costs sufficiently, added: "We expect the company's retail premium to fall to 15 percent by year-end 2010."

(Editing by Sitaraman Shankar)


[Green Business]
TOKYO
Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:57am EDT
Japan firms to standardize electric car rechargers

(Reuters) - Top Japanese carmakers Toyota and Nissan helped set up a group to standardize fast-charge stations for electric cars on Monday in a bid to promote the spread of the zero-emission vehicles.

The group, led by Japan's biggest utility, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co, Mitsubishi Motors Corp and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd, will set a standard for Japan and later aim for an international standard.

Some 158 companies and government bodies are expected to join, including 20 non-Japanese firms such as PG&E Corp, Enel SpA, Endesa, and PSA Peugeot Citroen.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are seen as one solution to meeting stricter environmental regulations because they have no tailpipe emissions. But they face hurdles such as costly batteries and a limited driving distance compared with conventional cars, as well as the lack of infrastructure to recharge when away from home.

Forming a common "language" for fast-charging electric cars across various brands would save development costs for carmakers and ancillary industries, said the group, called CHAdeMO.

"We will compete when it comes to vehicle performance, but we should cooperate on areas such as infrastructure," said Nissan Chief Operating Officer Toshiyuki Shiga. Japan's No.3 automaker will begin selling its first electric car later this year.

Mitsubishi Motors and Fuji Heavy, the maker of Subaru-brand cars, are the world's only mass-volume automakers now producing battery-run electric cars, with sales so far limited to corporate and government fleets in Japan.

"There are 1,000 electric cars and 150 fast-charge stations in Japan already," TEPCO Executive Vice President Hiroyuki Ino told a news conference in Tokyo. "Our aim is to form a standard in Japan and make use of that in the world."

He said the group would lobby international bodies such as the Society of Automotive Engineers and the International Transport Forum to promote its technology.

(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Michael Watson)

news20100315reut3

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
MOSCOW
Sun Mar 14, 2010 1:30pm EDT
2,000 rally against toxic haze in Russian town

(Reuters) - Some 2,000 people protested against the release of what they said were toxic fumes in a small town on Russia's Pacific coast Sunday, one of a series of unusually large protests across the country in recent months.

Russians traditionally shy away from public protests and rallies not backed by local authorities often struggle to attract more than a few dozen people.

But 10,000 people took to the streets of the western city of Kaliningrad in January in one of a string of protests against rising household bills. More than 2,000 people protested the opening of a paper mill on the shore of Lake Baikal in February.

Around 2,000 people rallied in Slavyanka, a town of 15,000 people near the border with North Korea Sunday to protest against the release of toxic chemicals by a local oil storage firm, the Interfax and RIA news agencies reported.

Protesters said a blue-grey haze containing the carcinogenic compound benzopyrene regularly blows across the town from the oil facility.

(Writing by Conor Humphries; Editing by Jon Hemming)


[Green Business]
Michael Perry
SYDNEY
Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:23am EDT
Climate report shows Australia getting warmer

(Reuters) - Australia's top scientists on Monday released a "State of the Climate" report at a time of growing scepticism over climate change as a result of revelations of errors in some global scientific reports.

The scientists said their monitoring and research of the world's driest inhabited continent for 100 years "clearly demonstrate that climate change is real."

"We are seeing significant evidence of a changing climate. We are warming in every part of the country during every season and as each decade goes by, the records are being broken," said Megan Clark, head of Australia's state-backed Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).

The U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change acknowledged in January its 2007 report had exaggerated the pace of Himalayan glaciers melting, and last month said the report also had overstated how much of the Netherlands is below sea level.

The 2007 report is based on the work of thousands of scientists and is the main policy guide for governments looking to act on climate change. Skeptics have leapt on the errors, saying they undermine the science of climate change but the IPCC, which has announced a review, has defended its work.

The CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology report said international research showed it is extremely unlikely that global warming could be explained by natural causes alone.

"There is greater than 90 percent certainty that increases in greenhouse gas emissions have caused most of the global warming since the mid-20th century," said the report.

"Evidence of human influence has been detected in ocean warming, sea-level rise, continental-average temperatures, temperature extremes and wind patterns," said the report.

Australia, a major grains and meat producer, battled the worst drought in 100 years for most of the past decade, damaging its farm output, but in recent years the commodities sector has been recovering due to good rainfall.

The government estimated farm output for 2008/09 at A$42 billion ($38.4 billion) out of total Australian gross domestic product of A$1.2 trillion.

Studies show that rising seas, shifting rainfall patterns and greater extremes of droughts and floods could cost Australia's economy dearly. A government report last November said residential buildings worth up to A$63 billion could be inundated if seas rise by 1.1 meters (3.5 feet) this century.

HEATING UP

Since 1960, the mean temperature in Australia has increased by about 0.7 degrees Celsius, but some areas of the country had warmed by 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius in the past 50 years, the report said.

Australia's warmest decade on record is 2000 to 2009.

While total rainfall in Australia had been relatively stable, the geographic distribution changed significantly over the past 50 years, with rainfall decreasing in southwest and southeast Australia, the major population areas.

Sea levels around the island continent since 1993 have risen 7-10mm per year in the north and west and 1.5 to 3mm in the south and east, said the report.

From 1870 to 2007, the global average sea level rose by close to 200mm (8 inches), sea levels rose at an average of 1.7mm a year in the 20th century and about 3mm per year from 1993-2009, it said.

Sea surface temperatures around Australia have increased by about 0.4 degrees Celsius in the past 50 years.

The scientists said global carbon dioxide concentration in 2009 of 386 parts per million (ppm) was much higher than the natural range of 170 to 300 ppm that existed in the atmosphere for the past 800,000 years and possibly 20 million years.

The scientists said that based on their monitoring of the nation's climate for 100 years, Australian average temperatures are projected to rise by 0.6 to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2030.

(Editing by David Fogarty)

[Green Business]
David Fogarty, Climate Change Correspondent, Asia
SINGAPORE
Mon Mar 15, 2010 1:37am EDT
Deep-sea volcanoes play key climate role: scientists

(Reuters) - A vast network of under-sea volcanoes pumping out nutrient-rich water in the Southern Ocean plays a key role in soaking up large amounts of carbon dioxide, acting as a brake on climate change, scientists say.

A group of Australian and French scientists have shown for the first time that the volcanoes are a major source of iron that single-celled plants called phytoplankton need to bloom and in the process soak up CO2, the main greenhouse gas.

Oceans absorb about a quarter of mankind's CO2 from burning fossil fuels and deforestation, with the Southern Ocean between Australia and Antarctica among the largest ocean "carbon sinks."

Phytoplankton underpin the ocean's food chain. When they die or are eaten, they carry large amounts of carbon that they absorb to the bottom of the ocean, locking up the carbon for centuries.

There have been a number of studies showing iron is released from deep-sea volcanoes, said Andrew Bowie, a senior research scientist with the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Center in Hobart, Tasmania.

"But no study has considered that on a global level and considered its importance on Southern Ocean carbon storage," Bowie, one of the authors, told Reuters.

The volcanoes are dotted along deep ocean ridges that mark major plate boundaries of the earth's crust and the study is based in part on measurements of how much iron there is in the Southern Ocean at depths of up to four kilometres (nearly three miles).

The study is published in the latest issue of Nature Geoscience.

Iron is found in only small amounts across most of the Southern Ocean, curbing the growth of phytoplankton.

Scientists have known that large amounts of iron can come from wind-borne dust, for example from a big dust storm in Australia, or from iron-rich sediments from coastal waters, triggering phytoplankton blooms.

These sources are variable but could increase if some countries, such as Australia, become more arid.

CONSTANT

The latest study shows the amount of iron from deep-sea volcanoes is relatively constant over long timescales and is responsible for between 5 and 15 percent of the total Southern Ocean carbon storage, and in some regions up to 30 percent.

That means the nutrients from the volcanoes can act as a buffer when other sources, such as dust, vary.

The scientists found that much of the deep iron-rich water reached the surface closer to Antarctica, leading to blooms of phytoplankton there.

Bowie said it was still unclear how climate change will affect the total amount of iron that makes it to the surface of the Southern Ocean.

Some studies show that stronger westerly winds blowing on the ocean's surface near Antarctica will draw greater amounts of iron-rich water to the top, fuelling more phytoplankton growth and therefore more CO2 captured from the air.

But Bowie said other research has also pointed to the possibility of greater stratification of the ocean's different layers, cutting the amount of iron-rich water reaching the surface.

"Right now we don't have enough reliable knowledge to say which of these factors would be more important than the other," he said.

(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

news20100315reut4

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Michael Perry
SYDNEY
Mon Mar 15, 2010 1:12am EDT
Australian cities must transform for population growth

(Reuters) - Australia circa 2050, population 35 million, climate change induced rising sea levels have flooded the Gold Coast resort region, apartment blocks are now used to grow food and people commute in monorail pods above the sea.

In another city, Australians live on floating island pods with apartments both below and above sea level, the population has shifted from land to the sea because of the sky-rocketing value of disappearing arable land.

Climate change has also forced many Australians to move inland and create new cities in the outback, relying on solar power to exist in the inhospitable interior.

These are just a few urban scenarios by some of Australia's leading architects shortlisted for "Ideas for Australian Cities 2050+" to be staged at this year's Venice Architecture Biennale.

While these images may sound like science fiction, many architects and demographers say Australian cities must radically transform to cope with the pressures of population growth and climate change or face social unrest and urban decay.

"If we don't get this right ... all hell breaks loose, or our cities break down, there's not enough water, there's not enough power," said one of Australia's leading demographers Bernard Salt.

Australia survived the global financial crisis, due largely to China buying its resources, and while resource exports will continue to bolster its economy for decades, future prosperity may be threatened by a growing, aging population, according to an Australian government report released in February.

The report said Australia's population was set to rise by 60 percent to 35 million by 2050, mainly through migration, yet cities are already groaning under the present population.

"One of the major frontier issues for Australia over the next decade will be the future of our cities," said Heather Ridout, chief executive of the Australian Industry Group, which is calling for major infrastructure investment in cities.

Among the beneficiaries of such development would be property firms like Lend Lease, Stockland and Mirvac Group, building material groups Boral Ltd and CSR, Australia's top engineering contractor Leighton Holding Ltd, and the country's biggest private hospital operator, Ramsay Health.

But demographers warn that Australian cities need to not only expand infrastructure, but ensure future residents have equal access to city facilities.

Racial riots at Sydney's Cronulla beach in 2005 and a series of attacks against Indian students in the past year are signs of growing social tensions in Australian cities, say demographers.

"If we have a rising population, we need to make sure that we have appropriate infrastructure, so that we don't lose the social cohesion that we take for granted," said Larissa Brown from the Center for Sustainable Leadership. "We need affordable access to housing, to transport, to healthcare."

While Australia is double the size of Europe, three-quarters of the country is sparsely populated countryside or harsh outback, leaving the bulk of the population to inhabit a thin strip down the southeast coast. In fact, around 50 percent of the population live in the three largest cities -- Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane -- on a combined land area that is about the size of Brunei or Trinidad & Tobago.