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[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[guardian.co.uk > Environment > Oil spills]

Outrage at UN decision to exonerate Shell for oil pollution in Niger delta
> Oil giant blamed for 10% of 9m barrels leaked in 40 years
> Report claims rest of leaking oil caused by saboteurs

John Vidal, environment editor
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 22 August 2010 18.36 BST
Article history

{Oil pipelines in Okrika, near Port Harcourt. The UNEP denies it has been influenced by Shell, which paid for its $10m, three-year study. Photograph: Ed Kashi}

A three-year investigation by the United Nations will almost entirely exonerate Royal Dutch Shell for 40 years of oil pollution in the Niger delta, causing outrage among communities who have long campaigned to force the multinational to clean up its spills and pay compensation.

The $10m (£6.5m) investigation by the UN environment programme (UNEP), paid for by Shell, will say that only 10% of oil pollution in Ogoniland has been caused by equipment failures and company negligence, and concludes that the rest has come from local people illegally stealing oil and sabotaging company pipelines.

The shock disclosure was made by Mike Cowing, the head of a UN team of 100 people who have been studying environmental damage in the region.

Cowing said that the 300 known oil spills in the Ogoniland region of the delta caused massive damage, but added that 90% of the spills had been caused by "bunkering" gangs trying to steal oil.

His comments, in a briefing in Geneva last week, have caused deep offence among the families of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the eight other Ogoni leaders who were hanged by the Nigerian government in 1995 after a peaceful uprising against Shell's pollution.

With 606 oil fields, the Niger delta supplies 8.2% of the crude oil imported by the US. Life expectancy in its rural communities, half of which have no access to clean water, has fallen to little more than 40 over the past two generations.

Communities accept that bunkering has become rife in some areas of Ogoniland, but say this is a recent development and most of the historical pollution has been caused by Shell operations.

Last year, Amnesty calculated that the equivalent of at least 9m barrels of oil has been spilled in the delta over the past half a century, nearly twice as much as the 5m barrels unleashed in the Gulf of Mexico by the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Tonight the investigation was accused of bias by Nigerians and environmental groups who said the study – paid for by Shell and commissioned by the Nigerian government, who both have massive oil interests in the region – was unbalanced.

Ben Ikari, an Ogoni activist, said: "Nobody from Ogoniland would be surprised, because the federal government of Nigeria and Shell are the same cabal that killed Ken Saro-Wiwa and others."

Ben Amunwa of London-based oil watchdog group Platform said: "The UNEP study relies on bogus figures from Shell and incomplete government records. Many Ogoni suspect that the report's focus on sabotage and bunkering will be used to justify military repression notorious in the Niger delta, where non-violent activists, including Ken Saro-Wiwa, were executed."

Cowing defended the UN report. In a series of emails seen by the Guardian, he said: "UNEP is not responsible for allocating responsibility for the number of spills being found in Ogoniland. Rather, we are focusing on the science. The figures referred to are those of the ministry of the environment and the department of petroleum resources.

"This is a Nigerian issue, not a UNEP issue. However, I would add that from our extensive field work throughout Ogoniland we have witnessed, on a daily basis, very large scale bunkering operations.

"It's very controversial. We cannot say whether a particular spill is from one cause or another. Our observation is that there is a serious [bunkering ] problem. I am being seen to be siding with the oil companies, but I am not.

"We were provided with the official spill site list. This is given by the oil companies themselves but is endorsed by the [government] agencies. We are not on the side of the oil companies."

He denied the UN was being influenced by Shell or the government. "We believe that it is correct that Shell [Nigeria] fund the study, as this is in compliance with the internationally accepted norm of the 'polluter pays'. No party … will be able to influence the science."

The full report, due to be published by December, is expected to warn of an environmental catastrophe.

"This is not directly comparable to the spills that occurred in the Gulf [of Mexico]," said Cowing. "But we have a serious and profound problem."

Tonight, environmental groups expressed shock at the report. Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends the Earth International and director of Environmental Rights Action, Nigeria's leading environment group, said: "It is incredible that the UN says that 90% is caused by communities. The UNEP assessment is being paid for by Shell. Their conclusions may be tailored to satisfy their client. We monitor spills regularly and our observation is the direct opposite of what UNEP is planning to report."

A June 2009 report by Amnesty International called the damage in the delta a "human rights tragedy", and blamed the government and oil firms, mainly Shell, for years of pollution. It recognised that oil bunkering had caused spills, but said "the scale of this problem is not clear".

The UN report saw more than 1,000 soil and water tests and other investigations carried out, and hundreds of communities consulted. The data generated is the first step towards a massive clean-up.

Oil production in the delta started during the 1950s, but was suspended in the 90s due to unrest. The oil fields in Ogoniland have since remained dormant.

> This article was amended on 23 August 2010. The Niger delta supplies 8.2%, not 40%, of the crude oil imported by the US. This has been corrected.


[guardian.co.uk > News > UK news > Weather]

Heavy rain brings floods and road chaos to southern England
Up to 4cm of rain falls in just a few hours overnight – more than half the normal monthly total – as gale force winds also strike

Haroon Siddique and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Monday 23 August 2010 09.39 BST
Article history

{Heavy rainfall has brought flooding and transport problems to parts of southern England. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA}

Heavy rain has brought localised flooding and transport disruption to southern England, with forecasters warning of further heavy rainfall to come.

Up to 4cm (1.5in) of rain – more than half the normal monthly total – fell on parts of the south in just a few hours overnight, and there were also gale force winds in places.

The average August rainfall in southern England is between 6cm and 7cm.

Thorney Island, in Hampshire, saw the worst of the stormy weather, with nearly 4cm of rain, half of which fell between midnight and 1am, and force eight winds (40mph) battering the area.

The Highways Agency warned drivers to take extra care when using roads across much of England.

The A249 in Kent was among the roads affected, with flooding forcing the northbound carriageway to be closed between the junctions with the M2 and the A250.

Early today, the Met Office issued a flash severe weather warning for Lincolnshire, Humberside and the East Riding of Yorkshire. The office said it expected accumulations of 15mm of rain before 9am.

Forecasters also said there was a moderate risk of severe weather affecting parts of Northern Ireland and western Scotland, with the potential for 30mm of rainfall in many areas and isolated falls of 50mm possible.

The Environment Agency put a flood watch in place for rivers in east Somerset, and another 11 in place for the Thames region.

Claire Austin, a forecaster with MeteoGroup, said the band of heavy rain would clear this morning, but that the day would remain showery, with the heaviest downpours across Scotland.

She said conditions would improve tomorrow but "nasty" weather would return on Wednesday afternoon or evening, affecting most of the UK.

news20100823gdn2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[guardian.co.uk > Environment > Peak oil]

Peak oil alarm revealed by secret official talks
Behind government dismissals of 'alarmist' fears there is growing concern over critical future energy supplies

Terry Macalister and Lionel Badal
The Observer, Sunday 22 August 2010
Article history

{Forecasts that crude oil production will reach 150m barrels a day by 2030 have been described as 'unrealistic'. Photograph: Tatan Syuflana/AP}

Speculation that government ministers are far more concerned about a future supply crunch than they have admitted has been fuelled by the revelation that they are canvassing views from industry and the scientific community about "peak oil".

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is also refusing to hand over policy documents about "peak oil" – the point at which oil production reaches its maximum and then declines – under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act, despite releasing others in which it admits "secrecy around the topic is probably not good".

Experts say they have received a letter from David Mackay, chief scientific adviser to the DECC, asking for information and advice on peak oil amid a growing campaign from industrialists such as Sir Richard Branson for the government to put contingency plans in place to deal with any future crisis.

A spokeswoman for the department insisted the request from Mackay was "routine" and said there was no change of policy other than to keep the issue under review. The peak oil argument was effectively dismissed as alarmist by former energy minister Malcolm Wicks in a report to government last summer, while oil companies such as BP, which have major influence in Whitehall, take a similar line.

But documents obtained under the FoI Act seen by the Observer show that a "peak oil workshop" brought together staff from the DECC, the Bank of England and Ministry of Defence among others to discuss the issue.

A ministry note of that summit warned that "[Government] public lines on peak oil are 'not quite right'. They need to take account of climate change and put more emphasis on reducing demand and also the fact that peak oil may increase volatility in the market."

Those comments were written 12 months ago, but a letter in response to the FoI request written by DECC officials and dated 31 July 2010 says it can only release some information on what is currently under policy discussion because they are "ongoing" and "high profile" in nature.

The letter adds: "We recognise the public interest arguments in favour of disclosing this information. In particular we recognise that greater transparency makes government more open and accountable and could help provide an insight into peak oil.

"However any public interest in the disclosure of such information must be balanced with the need to ensure that ministers and advisers can discuss policy in a manner which allows for frank exchanges of views and opinions about important and sensitive issues."

Yet the note of the workshop distributed last year talks about secrecy around the topic being "probably not good", although it also suggests officials stick to the line that the "International Energy Agency is an authoritative source in this field" and stresses how the IEA believes there is sufficient reserves to meet demand till 2030 as long as investment in new reserves is maintained.

But the Paris-based organisation has come under increasing scrutiny from a growing group of critics who believe the IEA's optimism is misplaced. Last year the Guardian revealed that the IEA was also riven with dissent over the issue with senior staff members privately telling newspaper they thought the official numbers on future global oil supply were over-optimistic.

The IEA predicted in the 2009 World Energy Outlook published last November that oil demand would grow from 85m barrels a day today to 88m in 2015 and reach 105m in 2030. The organisation presumes the challenge of meeting that demand can equally be met by a mixture of higher Opec production and considerably more output from unconventional sources.

But an internal IEA source said: "Many inside the organisation believe that maintaining oil supplies at even 90m to 95m barrels a day would be impossible, but there are fears that panic could spread on the financial markets if the figures were brought down further. And the Americans fear the end of oil supremacy because it would threaten their power over access to oil resources."

The IEA has denied the claims of internal dissent and sticks by its figures. But Kjell Aleklett, a professor of physics at Uppsala University in Sweden and author of a report The Peak of the Oil Age, claims crude production is more likely to be 75m barrels a day by 2030 than the "unrealistic" 105m projected by the IEA.


[guardian.co.uk > Environment > Biofuels]

Whisky: nectar of the gods, and now superfuel of the Ford Fiesta
Britain's finest export could soon be powering our cars
> Scottish scientists develop whisky biofuel

Euan Ferguson
The Observer, Sunday 22 August 2010
Article history

{The by-products from whisky production are now a fuel source Photograph: Katherine Rose for the Observer}

Is there no bad news about whisky? Yes, admitted, it can lead you to odd places – specifically to a culvert off the M62 at dawn (twice, since you ask), wondering why your trousers are smouldering and there's a tired rodent in your mouth – but, in absolute general, it's our finest export, earns billions, its production takes place in the most uncontainably picturesque vistas, carried out by that perfect mix of wise, bearded geek-trolls and happy red-faced giants.

And now it's going to power our cars.

Scientists at Edinburgh's Napier University have spent the last three years looking at the possibility of using whisky by-products as biofuel. The bad news is that they had to go through three years of enduring the obvious jokes about how hard their job was. Every Friday night. In every pub.

The great news is that it has worked. No modifications to car engines need take place. The scientists have successfully worked out a way of easily harvesting biobutanol (something like a grabzillion times more effective and environment-friendly than ethanol, the stuff Americans pour into their petrol to make their drivers even more smelly and angry) from the "throwaway" by-products of the whisky process – basically, the undrinkable stuff, unless you like Carlsberg Special.

This means that a tiny project, with a budget of only £260,000, has quite possibly changed Britain's fuel needs. All we need to do, therefore, is drink much more neat Laphroaig in order to drive further.

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[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[guardian.co.uk > Environment > Fishing]

Britain prepares for mackerel war with Iceland and Faroe Islands
Scottish fishermen and politicians call for EU action after two countries raise combined quota from 27,000 to 215,000 tonnes

Caroline Davies
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 22 August 2010 16.05 BST
Article history

{The future of mackerel as a healthy, sustainable fish is at stake after Iceland and the Faroe Islands unilaterally awarded themselves the lion's share of north Atlantic stocks. Photograph: H Taillard/Corbis}

It's summer, and off the coast of Britain anglers are enjoying a blue-grey abundance of mackerel. Barbecued, smoked, or baked in cider, this firm favourite provides a seasonal guilt-free treat, certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).

But in a dispute echoing the cod wars of the 1970s, Britain and the EU are on the brink of a mackerel war with Iceland and the Faroe Islands, who have ripped up agreed quotas, unilaterally awarding themselves the lion's share of north Atlantic stock.

UK fishermen are furious; the EU is condemnatory. Those in the industry, meanwhile, claim that the dispute puts at risk not only the future of Britain's pelagic fishing industry, but the future of mackerel itself as a healthy, sustainable fish.

Last week 50 fishermen blockaded Peterhead port in Aberdeenshire, physically preventing the Faroese vessel Jupiter from offloading 1,100 tonnes of the fish to a processing plant.

Now a prominent Scottish MEP is calling for sanctions against Iceland and the Faroes, an island group situated between Britain and Iceland and an autonomous province of Denmark.

Labelling them "modern-day Viking raiders" engaging in a free-for-all, Struan Stevenson, the senior vice-president on the European parliament's fisheries committee, says only the threat of sanctions can bring the two nations to heel.

"Negotiations are ongoing. But what will it take short of announcing we are going to institute a trade war?

"That is what I am actually suggesting now. We should use that as threat. We should follow the example of the fishermen in Peterhead. We should threaten to close all the EU ports to Faroese and Icelandic vessels, block all imports from these countries, and show them that we mean business," he said.

It should be a key issue in Iceland's EU accession talks, he said. "Here is a nation coming to the table to become a member of the EU. Yet, what have they given us? A volcanic ash cloud. Financial problems with their referendum and refusing to pay the debts they owe Britain. And now they are acting in this extraordinarily aggressive fashion over fish stocks.

"What they are doing is effectively illegal, unreported, unregulated fishing."

Part of the problem would seem to be climate change, with mackerel seeking colder waters. Seeing such abundance, cash-strapped Iceland has hiked an agreed quota of 2,000 tonnes up to 130,000 tonnes. The Faroes, which along with the EU and Norway is a signatory to the Coastal Waters Agreement, did likewise, arbitrarily increasing their 25,000-tonne quota to 85,000 tonnes.

If maintained, said WWF Scotland, the combined 2010 mackerel quota would result in the fish being exploited 35% above the scientific recommendation set by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, and spell a "death sentence" for precious fish stock.

Ian Gatt, the leader of the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen's Association, believes that puts the future of the industry, worth £135m last year, in serious jeopardy. If no agreement is reached, the Scottish quota could be halved, the market will weaken and thousands of jobs will be at risk.

Moreover, the MSC accreditation relied on by environmentally conscious consumers and awarded because of the way British, Norwegian and EU fisheries have sympathetically fished mackerel would be lost, along with consumer confidence. "Not only us, but everyone who has got the MSC certification is going to lose it – at one stroke," said Gatt.

Norway has taken immediate action, closing its ports to trawlers from both countries. But the EU, which has expressed its concern, has yet to decide on action, to the frustration of the fishing industry.

Iceland is a newcomer to serious mackerel fishing. Along with the Faroes, it built an expensive fleet to fish blue whiting, but stocks collapsed.

"So they are sitting there with these new, modern ships," said Ernie Simpson, 63, a retired skipper who owns the Fraserburgh-registered Christina S with his son, Allan. "Better and bigger boats than we have, some of them. And no blue whiting to catch. So now they are turning to mackerel."

He was at the Peterhead blockade because, he says, more than 90% of the Scottish pelagic fleet depends on mackerel. "The EU has sent lovely messages of support. But you can't live on sympathy."

Iceland believes it is justified. The Federation of Icelandic Fishing Vessel Owners said it "has every right to fish for mackerel within the Icelandic jurisdiction" and that "Iceland's mackerel fishery is therefore equally as legitimate as the EU's or Norway's".

The Faroese government has warned Scotland that its excellent relations and bilateral trade agreements are at risk following the failure of Scottish police to stop Tuesday's blockade.

Meanwhile the Scottish government has joined forces with the Norwegians in calling for the EU to apply more pressure on the two nations.

But Stevenson believes the intransigence of Iceland's fishermen will be hard to moderate, buoyed as they still are by the cod wars of the 50s and 70s when Icelandic trawlers cut the nets of British rivals, forcing the Royal Navy to intervene.

"They celebrate the fact they think they won the cod war, to the extent that the Icelandic gunboat that actually opened fire on a British navy vessel is now a celebrated restaurant in Reykjavik harbour. They are harking back to this great victory, thinking they can do it again," he said.

"But they have another think coming. Because it's not just Britain they are up against this time. It's the whole of the EU and their close neighbour in Norway."

Gatt hopes last week's protest will not have to be repeated, but warns Icelandic and Faroese boats to expect more of the same.

"For our guys, it really was rubbing salt in the wound for that boat to come down and say they wanted to land fish in Scotland. Over our dead bodies," he vowed. "They won't be getting the famed warm, Scottish welcome."

news20100823nn1

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[nature.com > Nature News]

Published online 22 August 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.422
News

Breast cancer protein is finally purified
Isolation of BRCA2 could help understanding of cancer risk and aid drug screening.

Alla Katsnelson

{The purified BRCA2 protein will help scientists unravel how mutations in the gene encoding it cause cancer.
CHASSENET / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY}

After a decade and a half of effort, biochemists have succeeded in isolating a pure extract of the tumour suppressor protein BRCA2 from human cells. The feat, achieved independently by three labs, expands what is known about how the protein keeps tumours in check. It also opens the door to studying how mutations in the BRCA2 sequence cause cancer and to search for compounds that could block this destructive process. The findings are published online today in Nature¹ and Nature Structural & Molecular Biology^2,3.

BRCA2 — breast cancer type 2 susceptibility protein — has a dubious claim to fame: some mutations in the gene coding for the protein lead to a dramatic increase in the chances that a person will develop breast, ovarian and other types of cancer.

The BRCA2 gene was discovered in 1994. In tandem with other tumour suppressor proteins, including the related protein BRCA1, BRCA2 repairs damage to DNA that can occur as cells divide. Without it, strands of DNA are prone to break, causing mistakes in how genes are read and turned into protein. Researchers have isolated pure fractions of proteins that interact with BRCA2, but until now have had no success in doing the same for BRCA2 itself, instead deriving clues about its function by studying similar proteins in worms or bacteria or fragments of the human version.

A major difficulty is the size of the protein — BRCA2 clocks in at 3,418 amino acids. "That is really huge," says Wolf-Dietrich Heyer, a biochemist at the University of California, Davis, and lead author on one of the papers2. "I'm not aware of any other proteins that size that have been purified to homogeneity."

On top of that, says Stephen Kowalczykowski, also a biochemist at the University of California, Davis, and lead author of another of the papers1, BRCA2 is extremely unstable on its own, and commonly exists in complexes with other proteins. "People have got it partially purified, but the question has always been contamination," he says. "You really need to get it squeaky clean, and that has been the major stumbling block."

The fixer

Kowalczykowski and his group added a maltose-binding protein tag to one end of the BRCA2 protein, which helps to increase its solubility and promote proper protein folding, hence stabilizing it. This allowed the researchers to then fish out BRCA2 in pure form from cultured human epithelial kidney cells. Ryan Jensen, a postdoc in Kowalczykowski's lab and the first author on the Nature paper¹, spent four years simply optimizing the purification process, Kowalczykowski says.

{“The significance is enormous.”}

Heyer and his team used a slightly different approach, expressing the protein in yeast². In a third study³, led by Stephen West, a geneticist at Cancer Research UK in London, researchers inserted the BRCA2 gene into cultured human epithelial cancer cells as part of a bacterial construct. Both teams added tags to their proteins to help purify them.

With the protein in hand, scientists can now "do all types of mechanistic experiments" that have so far eluded researchers, says Patrick Sung, a biochemist at Yale University in New Haven, who was not involved in the work. "The significance is enormous," he says, "not only in understanding how BRCA2 works, but also in providing a framework for working with other proteins known to interact with it."

The three studies examined the interaction of the full-length BRCA2 protein with other proteins, primarily one called RAD51, which repairs DNA by assembling around breaks in the strands, and forming filaments through which nucleotides (components of DNA) are pulled in to fix the DNA gaps. By studying the interaction between BRCA2 and RAD51, all three teams confirmed that BRCA2 helps RAD51 to initiate filament growth.

Biochemistry boon

For the most part, the studies confirmed ideas about BRCA2 function. "But we also uncovered some aspects of protein function that you couldn't have known unless you did the biochemistry," Kowalczykowski says.

For example, BRCA2 had been thought to assist in fixing one particular form of DNA damage, but by studying its interactions with DNA proteins, Kowalczykowski and his team concluded that it has a wider role. "The properties of BRCA2 place it as a being a general mediator of DNA break repair," he says.

"I don't think there were major surprises" in the groups' findings, says Sung. "The major accomplishment comes from the fact that people have been working on this for so long."

The ability to purify BRCA2 should allow structural biologists to solve the structure of the protein, which could provide more information about its function. "In principle the procedures are there for someone to do this," says Kowalczykowski, but so far, he says, the yields of the techniques used by the three groups are too small.

More immediately, says Sung, the work provides "a system to look at tumour-associated mutations" in BRCA2 — researchers can introduce mutations into the BRCA2 sequence, and then purify the resultant protein to understand the effects of the mutations on the protein's function.

Additionally, says Kowalczykowski, "having a protein and knowing how it behaves means you can use chemical biology screening tools" to look for chemical compounds, and eventually drugs, that can stop mutant versions from wreaking havoc in cells.

References
1. Jensen, R. B., Carreira, A. & Kowalczykowski, S. C. Nature advance online publication doi:10.1038/nature09399 (2010).
2. Liu, J., Doty, T., Gibson, B. & Heyer, W.-D. Nature Struct. Molec. Biol. advance online publication doi:10.1038/nsmb.1904 (2010).
3. Thorslund, T. et al. Nature Struct. Molec. Biol. advance online publication doi:10.1038/nsmb.1905 (2010).

news20100823nn2

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[nature.com > Nature News]

Published online 22 August 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.423
News

Solar System older than previously thought
Meteorite dating resets solar clock.

Adam Mann

{The origin of the Solar System may have been within a cloud of gas and dust like that of the Orion nebula.
NASA , ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team}

A meteorite found in the Sahara Desert has helped to pin down the age of the Solar System and shed light on how it may have formed.

The new estimate, which comes from measuring the ratios of lead isotopes inside the chondrite — an ancient stony meteorite — suggests that the Solar System is 4.568 billion years old. This is 0.3–1.9 million years older than some previous studies projected. The relatively small revision means that models of the gas and dust that gave rise to the Solar System should have around double the amount of a certain iron isotope, iron-60, than previously suggested.

This high quantity of iron can be traced back to the bellies of massive, short-lived stars, one of the only places in the universe where iron is produced. When these stars explode as supernovae at the end of their lives, they would have seeded the ancient Solar System.

"This suggests that one or more supernovae happened before the Sun's formation, explaining all these elements and their respective abundances," says Audrey Bouvier from the University of Arizona in Tempe, lead author of the study, published online in Nature Geoscience today¹.

The team's estimate helps to resolve differing results obtained by two dating techniques that astronomers use to assess the age of meteorites. The first, which is trustworthy but can only point at broad timescales, looks at the ratio between two isotopes of lead (Pb), lead-207 and lead-206. The second, which uses the ratio of aluminium to magnesium, can zoom in on much smaller timescales but has previously given an age 1 million years older than the Pb–Pb chronometer. Bouvier and her team have reconciled the two estimates by pushing back the lead-measured age of the Solar System to match the aluminium–magnesium measurements.

Geophysicist Andrew Davis of the University of Chicago, Illinois, is glad to see that the two timescales now agree. "However, more chondrites need to be measured to see if this holds up and we need to understand why previous meteorites gave younger Pb-Pb ages," he says.

Explosive past

Planetary scientist David Kring of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas, says the results are exciting because researchers are now able to probe the timescale of events before the Sun's birth with high precision. "We are beginning to paint a very compelling and dramatic picture of a fairly dynamic period in the Solar System's history," he says.

Six years ago, most astronomers studying star formation would probably have said that the Solar System was born in a molecular cloud in which low-mass, Sun-like stars form in relative isolation. Today, the iron abundances discovered in meteorites bolsters the case that our Solar System grew up surrounded by giant, heavy stars and was shaped by their activities.

Before the dawn of our Solar System, massive stars lived within a cloud of gas and dust like that seen in the Orion Nebula². These giants produced huge amounts of ultraviolet light, whose photons exert a pressure that pushed outward in a sphere, carving out a cavity from the nebular gas and dust. As this cavity expanded, its edge squeezed together the surrounding debris. Areas of debris with increased density had slightly greater mass, which attracted more particles to them because of an increased gravitational pull. This led to a snowball effect of accumulation and, eventually, enough mass collected in one place to collapse into a hot ball called a protostar.

Even as the massive star's light swept nearby debris away in the ever-expanding cavity, the protostar lived within its own bubble of gas and dust, creating an 'evaporating gaseous globule' or EGG. When the massive stars exploded as supernovae, they sent an element-rich rain to rapidly mix with the materials inside the EGG. After millions of years, our Solar System coalesced from the rocky grains and asteroids now saturated with supernovae iron.

Although astronomers have observed such developments in distant stellar nurseries, this new research brings to light information about the history of our own neighbourhood before the Solar System's birth. Previously, researchers have mainly relied on a chondrite named Allende, which provided the earlier estimates of the Solar System's age. Bouvier's research suggests that more samples would expand astronomer's understanding of early solar nebula processes.

"We need to recover new meteorites and, to the extent possible, go directly to asteroids in space," says Kring. "This research points to the fact that there are more materials out there to study, which means there are more secrets to uncover."

References
1. Bouvier, A. & Wadhwa, M. Nature Geosci. advance online publication doi: 10.1038/NGEO941 (2010).
2. Hester, J. J., Desch, S. J., Healy, K. R. & Leshin, L. A. Science 304, 1116-1117 (2004). | Article | PubMed

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[News] from [businessgreen.com]

[BusinessGreen.com > News > Politics]
Greens enjoy kingmaker role as Australia heads for hung parliament
Climate change policy likely to play key role in coalition negotiations as Greens and Independents are thrown into the spotlight

James Murray, BusinessGreen, 23 Aug 2010

Australia's climate change policy is resting on a knife edge after both leading parties failed to secure a working majority in Saturday's election, leaving the future make up of any government resting in the hands of a small band of Green and independent MPs.

With just a small number of seats yet to declare both the ruling Labor party and the opposition Liberals are expected to fall short of the 76 seats they need to form a working majority - resulting in the first hung parliament in the country since 1940.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott both flew to Canberra today to begin days, if not weeks, of negotiations as they attempt to stitch together a coalition government.

Gillard insisted Labor had the right to try and form a government first after securing the majority of the two party preferred votes under Australia's preferential voting system.

However, Abbott countered that a huge swing away from Labor meant it was " almost inconceivable that any Labor government emerging from this election could deliver competent and stable government".

Attention has now turned to a small handful of independent MPs - Bob Katter, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, who have formerly had ties to the Liberal Party – who have said they will stand "shoulder-to-shoulder" in talks with both main parties, and Green MP Adam Bandt, who is expected to support Labor.

A fourth independent MP who was previously a member of the Green Party, Andrew Wilkie, is expected to win the Tasmanian seat of Denison. It had been thought he could side with Labor, but in comments to news agency AAP he insisted he was no longer tied to the Green Party and would make an independent decision on which party to work with.

"I am genuinely independent," he said. "I am going to put it to the Labor Party and the [Liberal-led] coalition to convince me that you can deliver stable government for three years, competent government for three years and ethical government for three years."

Depending on the final vote tally, Labor and the Liberals are expected to need the backing of between two and four independents to secure a majority.

Climate change policy is set to play a key role in the political horse-trading with the Greens likely to try and drive a hard bargain in return for their support.

The Party has been emboldened after seeing its share of the vote hit record levels in what party leader, Bob Brown, described it as a "Greenslide". The Greens are now expecting to have between eight and 10 seats across the two houses of parliament by the time all votes are counted.

The Party refused to back the previous Labor government's controversial climate change bill on the grounds that it did not go far enough and it is now likely to demand a more ambitious set of proposals for curbing carbon emissions in return for its support.

However, at the same time the Liberal Party remains fiercely opposed to the previous government's proposals for a climate change bill that would put a price on carbon and if Abbot secures the right to form the next government Australia's climate change policy is likely to be put on ice for the next four years.


[BusinessGreen.com > News > Risk]

UK government held secret peak oil talks
Observer obtains documents showing that Whitehall privately accepts its response to the threat of peak oil has not been good enough

Danny Bradbury, BusinessGreen, 23 Aug 2010

The UK Government has been holding secret talks to assess the potential impact of peak oil, according to reports, suggesting that it is seriously concerned about the issue.

According to reports in the Observer newspaper, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), the Bank of England, and the Ministry of Defence participated in talks over the issue.

Documents, obtained by the newspaper under the Freedom of Information Act, revealed that the departments believe the Government's policy on peak oil is " not quite right" and needs to "take account of climate change and put more emphasis on reducing demand and also the fact that peak oil may increase volatility in the market".

DECC, which has been asking industry leaders for their views on peak oil, refused to release details about current policy discussions, in spite of having written privately that secrecy around the topic is "probably not good".

Peak oil, a phenomenon first posited by Shell geoscientist Marion King Hubbert, suggests that oil production will reach a maximum level, after which point it will go into decline. The concept has been controversial, with industry commentators varying wildly on the timing of the peak.

Airline magnate Richard Branson predicted an oil crunch within five years in February, while others, particularly the International Energy Agency, have predicted sustained production for several decades more. Some experts even believe oil production may have already peaked and oil prices have only been kept low over the past few years as a result of the global recession.

In February this year, the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security - a group of companies including Virgin, Scottish and Southern Energy and the StageCoach Group - released a report criticising the UK Government for not taking peak oil seriously.

The report called on the UK Government to prepare for peak oil, which it said could have economic, political and social impacts from as early as 2015.

The group is now preparing a follow up report, which is expected to be released in October and will assess how the BP oil spill in the Gulf and the resulting cuts in anticipated output from deepwater oil rigs will impact global production and potentially lead to oil supplies peaking even earlier.

In the US, the Joint Operating Environment within the Department of Defense, published a report on peak oil in February warning that peak oil could have an effect within a few years.

It warned that "a severe energy crunch is inevitable without a massive expansion of production and refining capacity", adding that "by 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 MBD[Millions of Barrels per Day]".


[BusinessGreen.com > News > Technology]

ULTRaMo seeks funding to jump-start green engine design
UK start-up details plans to develop an ultra-efficient internal combustion engine which could halve fuel consumption

Jessica Shankleman, BusinessGreen, 23 Aug 2010

A British clean tech start-up is seeking funding to roll out a highly efficient internal combustion engine, which it claims could halve fuel consumption compared to conventional engines.

ULTRaMo Engines says its new design could reach about 70 per cent overall efficiency, compared to 30 per cent efficiency for traditional engines, by capturing energy usually lost as heat through the engine's exhaust and radiator.

The company is closely guarding the precise details of its technology, but claims to have developed an approach that "re-addresses the thermodynamic cycle in internal combustion engines" in a way that delivers sizable improvements in thermal efficiency.

The Sussex-based firm is looking to secure up to £400,000 to fund the development of three prototype engines and begin commercialising the technology, explained project and finance manager Chrissi Wilkins.

The company was approved for a £100,000 R&D grant from the South West Regional Development Agency before the election, but the funding has been put on hold until after the spending review report in October.

Wilkins said the move had forced the company to delay work on its prototype engines. "It's an 18-month programme [to develop three prototypes] which we were hoping to start in September or October, but now we're looking at starting at the end of the year," she said.

Despite the obstacles thrown down by the government's austerity measures, the three-person ULTRaMo team is looking at a number of other funding options, including the Carbon Trust's Entrepreneurs Fast Track scheme and private equity funding through Angels Den. The company is also in talks with the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts about possible funding.

ULTRaMo expects the product to appeal to a wide range of motor markets, including transport and agriculture, although it plans to initially target the technology at the energy generator market.

Wilkins revealed the firm is in talks with a number of generator firms with a view to securing a licensing deal by the end of the first year of the research and development programme.

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[BusinessGreen.com > News > Transport]

China lays ground work for electric car charging grid
Chinese government poised to announce new standards for electric vehicle charging points as technology firms rush to take advantage of burgeoning market

Tom Young, BusinessGreen, 23 Aug 2010

China plans to issue new regulations in October governing its proposed charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.

According to reports in the Shanghai Securities News, the government plans to introduce three new standards covering technical requirements for charging points for electric vehicles.

Citing an unnamed source at the State Electricity Regulatory Commission, the news agency said that the regulator is also talking with power grid operators and crude oil producers about five other electric vehicle standards that it aims to establish this year.

The Chinese government has said it will invest more than 100 billion yuan ($US15bn) to support the roll out of electric cars. But to ensure compatibility technical guidelines are needed quickly if recharging points are to installed nationally.

Meanwhile, support for electric vehicles in China is continuing to grow at a rapid rate of knots.

Last week, China Petrochemical Corporation announced in a newsletter that it plans to add electric vehicle charging facilities to 41 of its service stations in Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province. Meanwhile, earlier this year China's State Grid Corporation said 75 electric vehicle charging stations are planned in 27 cities across China by the
end of the year.

In addition, 16 Chinese central state-owned auto firms including China FAW Group, Dongfeng Motor Corporation and Chang'an Automobile Group, last week announced the formation of the the Electric Vehicle Industry Alliance, with the aim of promoting the standardisation of electric car-related technologies.

Total investments in the new-energy vehicle industry by alliance members will reach 100 billion yuan ($US15bn) by 2012, the group said.

Alongside auto manufacturers companies working on the development of charging networks are rushing to take advantage of the market opportunity.

US firm ECOtality announced last year that it is working with Chinese firm Shenzhen Goch Investment to manufacture and install charging stations in China, while high profile electric car start up Better Place has signed a deal with China's largest independent automaker Chery to develop electric vehicles with swappable batteries.

China is expected to become the world's largest market for electric vehicle charging equipment, with nearly 48 per cent of annual global sales by 2015, according to a recent study from Pike Research. The analyst firm also predicted that global annual sales of electric vehicle charging equipment will reach $1.9bn by the same date.


[BusinessGreen.com > News > Incentives]

Small businesses demand government help to drive green gains
Federation of Small Businesses argues increased incentives are required if its members are to effectively cut carbon emissions

Jessica Shankleman, BusinessGreen, 23 Aug 2010

The government's upcoming Energy Security and Green Economy bill must include measures to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) cut carbon emissions, according to a new report from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).

The report, titled Making Sense of Going Green, examines how SMEs can better contribute to the government's low-carbon 2020 targets and recommends a range of measures, including expanding the government's current green loan scheme for small businesses and offering incentives for firms that improve the energy efficiency of their buildings.

"The potential of the UK's 4.8 million small businesses to contribute to the fight against climate change and drive green economic growth […] must be harnessed when the government publishes its forthcoming non-domestic Green Deal and Energy bill," the report states.

The study cites research from the Carbon Trust which shows that if all UK businesses and public sector organisations undertook effective energy efficiency measures, they could save £3.6bn a year while slashing carbon emissions by 29 million tonnes.

Specifically, the report calls on the government to introduce a loan scheme for businesses that would see banks, energy and construction firms pay the upfront costs of major building energy efficiency upgrades; encourage firms in the worst G-rated buildings to invest in obtaining an F-rating; and waive planned increases to business rates for firms that improve building energy efficiency.

The report was released as the Welsh Assembly last week launched a package of measures to help SMEs profit from renewable energy.

Welsh environment minister Jane Davidson pledged to help small and medium-sized renewable energy installation companies access interest-free loans to cover the cost of gaining professional accreditation under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS).

The move was welcomed by the Renewable Energy Association as a positive step to encourage more firms and households to install microgeneration technologies and take advantage of the new feed-in tariff.

Businesses and households can only access the feed-in tariff if they use renewable energy technologies and installers that have gained MCS certification. However, some firms have complained that the cost of gaining accreditation can be prohibitive for small businesses.

"In this new and rapidly growing market, it is important that customers are protected, as the investments are significant both in terms of cost and brain power," said REA chief executive Gaynor Hartnell. "It is for this reason that there is a need for certification, but it must not be a barrier for installers and manufacturers. This scheme will help alleviate that."


[BusinessGreen.com > News > Risk]

BP to remove broken blowout preventer ahead of final kill operation
Procedure not expected to be completed until after Labor Day weekend

BusinessGreen.com staff, BusinessGreen, 23 Aug 2010
BP is not expected to complete the "kill" operation on its ruptured Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico until after the 6 September Labor Day holiday after US officials ordered the company to fit a new blowout preventer to the well head.

The company had originally hoped to complete the so-called "bottom kill" procedure that will see mud and cement pumped through a relief well into the ruptured well later this month.

But a combination of bad weather and concerns that the operation could increase pressure in the well, leading to a fresh leak, have delayed work on the procedure.

Following a series of pressure tests last week, Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the official in charge of the US government response, told BP to submit a new plan to remove the failed blowout preventer at the head of the well and replace it with a second preventer.

Pressure tests showed that the switch was unlikely to lead to further leaks, although BP has been instructed to include proposals to contain any leak in the new plan.

Once a new blowout preventer is installed, BP will be free to complete the drilling of the relief well and begin the "bottom kill" operation – a process Allen said he expected to get under way some time after Labor Day.

The recovered blowout preventer will be handed to government officials who are undertaking an investigation to ascertain the cause of the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig, which killed 11 people and sparked the largest offshore oil spill in history.

The latest developments came as the Wall Street Journal reported that the US government knew that its ban on deepwater drilling in the wake of the BP spill would cost about 23,000 jobs and delay more than $10bn (£6.4bn) in investment.

The government is preparing to defend its second ban on deepwater drilling, which the White House maintains is required to give officials time to determine the cause of the BP leak and ensure current regulations governing deepwater drilling are adequate.

A previous ban was overturned by a judge who argued that the move was disproportionate and would result in sizable economic losses for the Gulf region.

The White House responded by imposing a second moratorium, but that move is once again being challenged in the courts by the oil industry which alleges that the latest ruling is fundamentally the same as the overturned ban.

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[BusinessGreen.com > News > Carbon Trading]

Revenue & Customs to restore VAT on carbon credits
Reverse VAT on carbon credits to come into force as an anti-fraud measure from November

James Murray, BusinessGreen, 23 Aug 2010

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has announced that it will reintroduce VAT charges on carbon credits from November after removing the levy last year in response to a multi-billion euro tax fraud.

British officials approved a zero VAT rating on trades of EU allowances (EUAs) in July last year after a pan-European investigation revealed that criminal gangs were using carbon credits to commit a widespread VAT fraud known as carousel fraud.

Nearly 30 arrests have now been made in at least 11 countries, including the UK, France and Germany, with the Europol police agency estimating the fraud cost treasuries across the EU around €5bn over an 18-month period.

Carousel fraud, which is also known as missing trader fraud, occurs when fraudsters set up a front company that collects VAT on the sale of a product before then disappearing with the money that is owed to the exchequer.

HMRC initially took emergency measures to combat the problem, removing VAT on carbon credits, when it emerged the carbon market was being targeted. But following an EU-wide agreement in March this year, officials have confirmed they now impose a new form of reverse VAT on carbon credits, which minimises the risk of fraud by making the company that purchases credits responsible for paying the VAT on any trade.

"The criminal practice of exploiting carbon credits to generate fraudulent VAT repayments was stopped last year when carbon credits were zero rated for VAT purposes," said a spokeswoman for HMRC. "This move was always intended as an interim measure until the legislation necessary to introduce a reverse charge could be put in place."

In a notice placed on HMRC's website late last week, officials confirmed the new reverse VAT regime would come into effect from November 1 and would cover EUAs, as well as UN-approved Certified Emission Reduction (CER) and Emissions Reduction Units (ERUs) carbon offset credits.

Reverse charge VAT is already in place in the UK for other products such as mobile phones and computer chips that have been subject to carousel fraud and experts predict the move is unlikely to have a major impact on the carbon market.

"Bona fide traders are well used to dealing with VAT, so they should be able to handle this change fairly easily," observed Trevor Sikorski, director of carbon markets research at Barclays Capital.


[BusinessGreen.com > News > Investment]

Dept of Energy earmarks additional $120m for weatherisation programme
Fresh funding allows domestic energy efficiency programme to provide onsite renewables as well

BusinessGreen.com staff, BusinessGreen, 23 Aug 2010

The US Department of Energy (DoE) last week extended its weatherisation programme, announcing that it has awarded almost $120m (£77m) in fresh funding to about 120 organisations across the country currently working on domestic energy efficiency projects.

The announcement came as energy secretary Steven Chu released new figures revealing that as of June the government's weatherisation programme had carried out energy efficiency improvements on more than 31,600 homes.

The weatherisation initiative, which was approved as part of the US economic stimulus package, attracted criticism last year for taking too long to get up and running. However, the Department of Energy said the scheme was now operating at its "optimal run rate", delivering makeovers to about 25,000 homes a month.

Figures from state authorities also suggest that the scheme supported more than 13,000 jobs in the second quarter of 2010.

"The weatherisation programme under the Recovery Act is successfully creating jobs in local communities, saving money for families, and reducing carbon pollution across the country," said Chu, adding that the latest round of funding for the programme would help provide even greater cost and energy savings for low-income families.

As part of the latest funding awards, nearly $90m will be issued to more than 100 of the best-performing weatherisation providers in 27 states, allowing them to expand their activities and complete makeovers for thousands of additional homes. The successful recipients include private firms as well as state agencies, charities and social enterprises.

The DoE said the organisations selected for additional funding had already spent 30 per cent of their initial tranche of stimulus funding and completed 30 per cent of their assigned home makeovers.

It added that the extra funding would allow organisations to install renewable energy technologies such as solar heating systems, heat pumps and small-scale wind turbines, as well as energy efficiency improvements such as insulation and green appliances.

The remaining $30m of new funding has been awarded to 16 projects working on the development of cutting-edge designs and technologies capable of improving the energy efficiency of low-income homes.

The DoE said the projects will include "new types of weatherisation partnerships, financial models that allow for greater private sector leveraging, workforce training and volunteer engagement, and the demonstration of new energy efficiency technologies such as in-home energy monitors".


[BusinessGreen.com > News > Renewables]

Statoil reaffirms renewables commitment
Energy giant insists it will continue to invest in renewables despite reports it is considering off-loading its wind energy projects

Jessica Shankleman, BusinessGreen, 23 Aug 2010

Statoil has today distanced itself from reports suggesting it could scale back investment in renewable energy, insisting the company currently has "no plans" to offload its high-profile alternative energy projects.

Over the weekend Norwegian newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad reported comments from the firm's chief executive Helge Lund suggesting that the company is reviewing its current investment in renewable energy projects, which includes plans for two UK offshore wind farms and the development of the Hywind floating wind turbine.

Lund said Statoil should use the next three to four years to consider if it is in a position to tackle the challenges facing the renewable energy sector, such as the relatively high cost of clean energy, or instead focus its attention entirely on oil and gas.

However, a Statoil spokesman told BusinessGreen.com earlier today that Lund's comments had been "misunderstood", insisting Statoil's review of renewables is part of a routine evaluation process which applies to all energy projects.

"We have no plans for pulling out of new energy," he added. "Our strategy lays firm... We have historically high levels of investment and engagement in new energy. As in any business, we consistently both analyse and evaluate the market, economics etc and we do that for renewable energy as we do for all energy projects."

He drew attention to Statoil's plans, revealed last week, to build the world's first floating wind farm, adding that potential sites include an area off the coast of Maine in the US, two in Scotland or one in Norway.

"We hope to make a decision next year about a possible demonstration site," he said.

He also confirmed that construction work at Statoil's 317MW Sheringham Shoal offshore wind farm remains on track, with the site off the North Norfolk coast expected to go live at the end of next year.

Statoil also forms part of the Forewind consortium, currently developing the massive 9GW to 13GW Dogger Bank offshore wind farm off the east coast of Yorkshire. The project is slated to start construction in 2015, with the first turbine expected to be connected to the grid in 2016.

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[BusinessGreen.com > News > Risk]

BP to remove broken blowout preventer ahead of final kill operation
Procedure not expected to be completed until after Labor Day weekend

BusinessGreen.com staff, BusinessGreen, 23 Aug 2010
BP is not expected to complete the "kill" operation on its ruptured Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico until after the 6 September Labor Day holiday after US officials ordered the company to fit a new blowout preventer to the well head.

The company had originally hoped to complete the so-called "bottom kill" procedure that will see mud and cement pumped through a relief well into the ruptured well later this month.

But a combination of bad weather and concerns that the operation could increase pressure in the well, leading to a fresh leak, have delayed work on the procedure.

Following a series of pressure tests last week, Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the official in charge of the US government response, told BP to submit a new plan to remove the failed blowout preventer at the head of the well and replace it with a second preventer.

Pressure tests showed that the switch was unlikely to lead to further leaks, although BP has been instructed to include proposals to contain any leak in the new plan.

Once a new blowout preventer is installed, BP will be free to complete the drilling of the relief well and begin the "bottom kill" operation – a process Allen said he expected to get under way some time after Labor Day.

The recovered blowout preventer will be handed to government officials who are undertaking an investigation to ascertain the cause of the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig, which killed 11 people and sparked the largest offshore oil spill in history.

The latest developments came as the Wall Street Journal reported that the US government knew that its ban on deepwater drilling in the wake of the BP spill would cost about 23,000 jobs and delay more than $10bn (£6.4bn) in investment.

The government is preparing to defend its second ban on deepwater drilling, which the White House maintains is required to give officials time to determine the cause of the BP leak and ensure current regulations governing deepwater drilling are adequate.

A previous ban was overturned by a judge who argued that the move was disproportionate and would result in sizable economic losses for the Gulf region.

The White House responded by imposing a second moratorium, but that move is once again being challenged in the courts by the oil industry which alleges that the latest ruling is fundamentally the same as the overturned ban.