news20091230jt2

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

[COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY NEWS]
Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2009
ECHNOLOGY
Data web will get denser in 2010s
By JESSICA MINTZ

SEATTLE (AP) Ten years ago, we would have been blown away by a cell phone with far more computing power and memory than the average PC had in 1999, along with a built-in camera and programs to manage every aspect of our lives. Ten years from now, the iPhone and its ilk will be antiques.

Over the next decade, the evolution of computing and the Internet will produce faster and increasingly more intelligent devices. More of our possessions will contain sensors and computers that log our activities, building digital dossiers that augment our memories, help us make decisions and tame information-overload.

Such ideas may sound futuristic and excessive today. And technological predictions are notoriously off-base. Short-term forecasts tend to assume too much change and long-term forecasts underestimate the possibility of sudden, major shifts.

Even so, this vision of interconnected devices that produce and filter massive amounts of data in the 2010s is a logical progression of the Web, computers and gadgetry that emerged in the 2000s. Moore's Law, the principle that computing power doubles every two years without increasing in cost, still rules.

Recall the personal computer, circa 2000. It likely had a "clock speed" — a measure of how fast it could do things — just one-sixth of many computers today.

Apple's 1999 iMac came with 64 megabytes of RAM, memory that helps computers switch among programs. Today's iMac has 60 times as much. The vintage iMac had a 10-gigabyte hard drive for storing digital photos and other files. Now iPods have more space than that, and iMac drives start at 500 gigabytes.

Remember dial-up? In 2000, fewer than 10 percent of U.S. households had broadband Internet, according to Forrester Research. In 2008, 61 percent of homes had it.

As computers and Internet connections got faster, we used them more. In October 2002, the average American spent about 52 hours a month on a home computer, according to Nielsen Co. This October, the figure was nearly 68 hours a month.

We filled ever-more-spacious hard drives with music and photographs, as households with digital cameras jumped from 10 percent in 2000 to 68 percent last year, and those with an MP3 player climbed from fewer than 2 percent in 2000 to 41 percent in 2008, according to Forrester.

We increased the ways we could stay connected: More of us got cell phones, camera phones, smart phones and the iPhone. We bought more laptops and came to expect Internet connections almost everywhere.

Personal home pages were replaced by blogs that could be set up in seconds, which gave anyone with a computer and Web access the potential to reach a bigger audience than many newspapers. First-generation social networks, little more than online address books, gave way to sites such as Facebook and Twitter, where we add our words, photos, links and video posts to a collective stream of consciousness.

Online, we also tripped over the line between private and public. We shared intimate details with our network of online "friends," and sometimes it was simply too much information, especially when our boss was reading.

All these changes unfolded because of an explosion in computing power and connectivity that will only accelerate in the next decade.

As we move through our lives, we'll leave more and more digital detritus. Some of it will resemble what we share online today. Some will be emitted quietly by devices, just as mobile phones can signal their location.

We'll also have access to more data about the world around us, dwarfing the real-time stock quotes, government statistics, scientific databases and other information stores available today.

In the next decade as conjured by Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey, all that information will be available instantaneously, anywhere. He imagines spotting an acquaintance at a conference and having at his fingertips links to the person's most recent research, plus a reminder of her husband's name.

Software will remember everything McQuivey buys, reads online and watches on television. A "smart filter" will use his past choices to suggest the next book or show, or even what he should eat for dinner. It's a more powerful version of the way Amazon.com and Netflix make book or movie recommendations.

He also thinks we'll all use this technology just to keep up with everyone else. He likens the situation to calculators in math class: At first teachers banned them but now they're required. Leaving yours at home on test day would be a big disadvantage.

Craig Mundie, Microsoft Corp.'s chief research and strategy officer, believes we are near an era in which computers respond to speech, gestures and handwriting.

In Mundie's vision, "digital assistant" programs will help us solve specific problems. Imagine you're moving to a new city and need to find a house. "Relocation assistant" software would listen as you brainstorm out loud about whether you want to drive to work or take the bus, about school preferences and the market value of your current house. As you converse with it, the program scouts real-estate listings and plots the best on a map.

Our smaller devices will also benefit from speedy connections to "the cloud" — powerful networks of computers that perform services remotely. In a decade, Manny Vara, chief evangelist for Intel Labs, imagines he'll tap the power of the cloud on trips to foreign countries, speaking into his phone and seeing a translation on his screen within seconds.

In another scenario, Vara imagines we will each wear a tiny camera. It could snap a photo of the cutie next to you in the bar and send it up into the cloud for analysis. If it matches your friend's nasty ex, a voice could whisper into your earpiece that it's time to move on. Your portable devices don't have to be powerful enough to run facial-recognition software; they just need a connection to the cloud.

Such ideas aren't brand new, but budding technology might finally make them happen. In the 1990s, Mark Weiser, then chief technology officer at Xerox's Silicon Valley research center, wrote about "calm technology" that will exist in the periphery and come forward to claim our full attention when needed. We won't "go on the Internet." Rather, it will become built-in, ubiquitous and unremarkable, much as electricity is today.

"Every physical object will have a digital cloud around it," says Marina Gorbis, executive director at the Institute for the Future.

That raises new challenges for our privacy. And it opens the door to a new leader in the technology industry.

The 2000s saw Google become one of the world's most powerful companies because it helped us get a grip on the sprawling content of the Web. What we will need next, however, is a company that doesn't just organize data. Google, or the next Google, will have to synthesize all that information and help us understand what it all means.


[Green Business]
LOS ANGELES
Tue Dec 29, 2009 9:04pm EST
California's renewable pipeline hits nearly 70 GW
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Renewable energy projects proposed in California total nearly 70 gigawatts, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Tuesday, a large pipeline that could help the state meet its renewable energy goals.

California has a mandate to obtain a third of its electricity by 2020 from clean power, spurring utilities and the clean power industry to develop new projects.

The 244 proposed projects in the state include solar, wind, geothermal, biomass and hydro technologies. In order to be built, renewable energy projects must win regulatory approval.

About 50 projects in California hope to break ground by the end of 2010 in order to receive federal stimulus funds.

Toward that goal, Schwarzenegger signed in October an agreement with the U.S. Department of the Interior to speed up the permitting process for projects seeking stimulus funds.

California uses about 8,000 MW of clean power a year. The state needs an additional 15,000 to 25,000 MW to reach its target.

A mid-sized coal-fired power plant generates about 500 MW of electricity.

(Reporting by Laura Isensee)

news20091230jt3

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

[COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY NEWS]
Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2009
TECHNOLOGY
Cold War encryption is unrealistic in today's trenches
By BRUCE SCHNEIER
Special to The Japan Times

Sometimes mediocre encryption is better than strong encryption, and sometimes no encryption is better still.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Iraqi, and possibly Afghan, militants are using commercial software to eavesdrop on U.S. Predators, other unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and even piloted planes. The systems weren't "hacked" — the insurgents can't control them — but because the downlink is unencrypted, they can watch the same video stream as ground coalition troops.

The naive reaction is to ridicule the military. Encryption is so easy that HDTVs do it — just a software routine and you're done — and the Pentagon has known about this flaw since Bosnia in the 1990s. But encrypting the data is the easiest part; key management is the hard part. Each UAV needs to share a key with the ground station. These keys have to be produced, guarded, transported, used and then destroyed. And the equipment, both the Predators and the ground terminals, needs to be classified and controlled, and all the users need security clearance.

The command and control channel is, and always has been, encrypted — because that's both more important and easier to manage. UAVs are flown by airmen sitting at desks on U.S. military bases, where key management is simpler. But the video feed is different. It needs to be available to all sorts of people, of varying nationalities and security clearances, on a variety of field terminals, in a variety of geographical areas, in all sorts of conditions — with everything constantly changing. Key management in this environment would be a nightmare.

Further, how valuable is this video downlink to the enemy? The main fear seems to be that the militants watch the video, notice their compound being surveilled and flee before the missiles hit. Or they may notice a bunch of Marines in a recognizable area and attack them. This might make a great movie scene, but it's unrealistic. Without context, and just by peeking at random video streams, the risk caused by eavesdropping is low.

Contrast this with the additional risks if you encrypt: A soldier in the field doesn't have access to the real-time video because of a key-management failure; a UAV can't be quickly deployed to a new area because the keys aren't in place; we can't share the video information with our allies because we can't give them the keys; most soldiers can't use this technology because they don't have the right clearances. Given this risk analysis, not encrypting the video is almost certainly the right decision.

There is another option, though. During the Cold War, the National Security Agency's primary adversary was Soviet intelligence, and it developed its crypto solutions accordingly. Even though that level of security made no sense in Bosnia, and doesn't in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is what the NSA had to offer. If you encrypt, they said, you must do it "right."

The problem is, the world has changed. Today's insurgent adversaries don't have KGB-level intelligence-gathering or cryptanalytic capabilities. At the same time, computer and network data gathering has become much cheaper and easier, so they have technical capabilities the Soviets could only dream of. Defending against these sorts of adversaries doesn't require military-grade encryption only where it counts; it requires commercial-grade encryption everywhere possible.

This sort of solution would require the NSA to develop a whole new level of lightweight commercial-grade security systems for military applications — not just office-data "Sensitive but Unclassified" or "For Official Use Only" classifications. It would require the NSA to allow keys to be handed to uncleared UAV operators, and perhaps read over insecure phone lines and stored in people's back pockets. It would require the sort of ad hoc key-management systems you find in Internet protocols, or in DRM systems. It wouldn't be anywhere near perfect, but it would be more commensurate with the actual threats.

And it would help defend against a completely different threat facing the Pentagon: The PR threat. Regardless of whether the people responsible made the right security decision when they rushed the Predator into production, or when they convinced themselves that local adversaries wouldn't know how to exploit it, or when they forgot to update their Bosnia-era threat analysis to account for advances in technology, the story is now being played out in the press. The Pentagon is getting beaten up because it's not protecting against the threat — because it's easy to make a sound bite where the threat sounds really dire. And now it has to defend against the perceived threat to the troops, regardless of whether the defense actually protects the troops or not. Reminds me of the TSA, actually.

So the military is now committed to encrypting the video . . . eventually. The next generation Predators, called Reapers (Who names this stuff? Second-grade boys?) will have the same weakness. Maybe we'll have encrypted video by 2010, or 2014, but I don't think that's even remotely possible unless the NSA relaxes its key-management and classification requirements and embraces a lightweight, less secure encryption solution for these sorts of situations. The real failure here is the failure of the Cold War security model to deal with today's threats.

Bruce Schneier is a security technologist. His latest book is "Schneier on Security." Read about him at www.schneier.com


[COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY NEWS]
Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2009
IGADGET
CJK recruits Android for new Camangi Webstation tablet
By PETER CROOKES

Going tablet: Android is Google's shot at hitting Microsoft where it hurts — mobile devices. Windows might still dominate PC operating systems, but it has never duplicated this overwhelming presence on the small screens of mobile phones, PDAs and the like. So far, Android has shaken things up by becoming the brains of an emerging group of cell phones. But, electronics maker CJK is using the Google creation to power its new Web tablet, the Camangi Webstation. Marketed as a diverse device capable of fulfilling a user's mobile Internet needs, the Webstation sports a 7-inch touch screen with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. The screen size is adequate for portability, but not so small you'll need to squint to read.

The processing power is not so promising, running on a 624MHz Marvell CPU. However, while it only has 128 megabytes of standard DDR onboard memory it augments this with 256 megabytes of flash memory, which is dedicated to the operating system. Running the operating system off flash memory may make up for the lack of processing power, which in itself falls well short of the modest abilities of marginally larger netbooks. The very tiny onboard memory can be boosted by using MicroSD cards, and the company does have the decency to throw an 8-gigabyte card into the package.

In keeping with its Internet aspirations it comes with built-in browser and e-mail setup and connects via Wi-Fi, both b and g varieties. It can also tap into 3G networks by using a dongle, not included. The device would have been better set up if it came with built-in 3G ability, although it does have a GPS module.

The all-important battery life is a respectable four to five hours with Internet and media usage. Its media abilities are good. The audio playback formats are 3GP, MP3, MP4, OGG, MID and WAV; a more limited 3GP and MP4 for videos; JPG, GIF, PNG and BMP formats usable for photo viewing and the e-book viewer can handle EPUB and straight text. The EPUB format is becoming something of a standard among the eBabel of e-books so its inclusion is a major plus for readers. The size is compact, measuring 200 × 120 × 14.5 mm and a weight of 390 grams. The rounded edges help to lend it a pleasant style. Although it is initially only available in pearl white, but jet black and light pink options are planned.

The Webstation is an intriguing prospect, filling the void between a mobile phone and a netbook and addressing the deficiencies of the former's cramped screen and the latter's limited portability. The lack of a physical screen is probably not such a burden to the mobile-phone texting generation. The price tag is also reasonable at \39,800 and the company is planning a market for applications, a la Apple's booming iPhone setup. It never is solely good news though, and the Camangi tablet suffers from one chronic drawback. While it is available this month for advanced orders, only consumers in the continental United States can get in line for the made-in-Japan product. It is not clear just when local buyers can get their hands on the gadget, so patience and keeping a keen eye on the company's Web site, the only place to order it as yet, are definitely necessary. www.camangi-webstation.com/jp/index.html

news20091230gdn1

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Energy]
Bright future for lighting technology with glowing
OLED wallpaperOLEDs may soon replace lightbulbs in homes and offices with panels of energy-efficient light built into walls
Alok Jha, green technology correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 December 2009 Article history

Wallpaper that can glow with light and bendable flat-panel screens are a step closer thanks to research into organic LEDs (OLEDs), which are widely hailed as the next generation of environmentally friendly lighting technology.

OLEDs use very little power to produce light, even compared with modern energy-saving bulbs. The chemicals they are made from can be painted on to thin, flexible surfaces, allowing them potentially to be used to replace traditional lightbulbs in homes and offices with panels of energy-efficient light built into walls, windows or even furniture. Other uses include flexible display screens, whose very low power consumption would mean they could operate without mains power, for example as roadside traffic warning signs powered by small solar panels.

Lomox Limited, a two-year-old company based in north Wales, awarded more than £450,000 today by the government-backed Carbon Trust to accelerate the development of its OLED technology.

Around a sixth of all the UK's electricity is used for lighting and Lomox claims its OLEDs are 2.5 times more efficient than standard energy-saving lightbulbs. The Carbon Trust said that, if all modern lights were replaced by OLEDs, annual carbon emissions around the world could fall by 2.5m tonnes by 2020 and almost 7.4mT by 2050. Replacing old, incandescent bulbs with OLEDs would generate even greater CO2 savings.

OLEDs have shown much promise in laboratories but must get over two major hurdles to become widespread consumer items: they are expensive to make and they tend to have relatively short lifetimes. "What our technology does, with the seven patents we have, is fix those problems," said Ken Lacey, chief executive of Lomox. He said his company's OLEDs have the potential to last as long as modern fluorescent lights and, for the display sector, as long as LCD panels. Lomox also claims its light matches natural light more closely than other energy-saving bulbs.

The company will focus its efforts on getting the first of its OLEDs to market by 2012, mainly for outdoor lighting. "The early part of the grant is to do the testing and take this out to that marketplace," said Lacey.

Mark Williamson, director of innovations at the Carbon Trust, said: "Lighting is a major producer of carbon emissions. This technology has the potential to produce ultra-efficient lighting for a wide range of applications, tapping into a huge global market. We're now on the look-out for other technologies that can save carbon and be a commercial success."

The grant for Lomox is one of 164 projects supported by the Carbon Trust for small companies working on a range of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies such as fuel cells, combined heat and power, bioenergy, solar power, low-carbon building technologies, marine energy devices and more efficient industrial processes.


[Business > Ethical business]
Ethical sales triple over decade, says Co-operative Bank
> UK ethical market expands from £13.5bn to £36bn
> Fairtrade products enjoy significant growth since 1999
Rebecca Smithers
The Guardian, Wednesday 30 December 2009 Article history

Consumer spending on "ethical" products from Fairtrade food to eco-friendly travel has almost tripled in the past decade, a survey reveals today.

The Co-operative Bank's annual ethical consumerism report, which measures ethical spending, shows that overall the ethical market in Britain has expanded from £13.5bn in 1999 to £36bn a decade later.

The rate of increase in household spending on ethical products outstripped the growth in overall consumer spending, which increased by 58% over the decade.

But overall, the total market for goods that were environmentally friendly, sustainable or supported poor communities remained a small percentage of the £891bn spent by households last year.

Some sectors enjoyed huge growth, including Fairtrade goods, which pay a premium to farmers and producers in poor countries to help them work their way out of poverty, according to the survey.

The Fairtrade market, which now covers products from developing countries ranging from chocolate and coffee to cotton, was worth £22m in 1999. Last year sales of Fairtrade products had grown to £635m and the Co-operative is predicting it could break the £1bn barrier in 2010. The Co-operative was the first major supermarket to support the concept of Fairtrade 15 years ago.

The survey also reveals that spending on "green" products for the home, from energy-efficient boilers to rechargeable batteries, has increased fivefold in the past decade, up from £1.4bn in 1999 to £7bn.

Average household spending on measures tackling climate change has also increased over the decade, from £23 a home to £251, but spending on renewables and eco-travel has remained relatively low. At the same time, the mature financial services market has seen ethical banking and investments triple over the course of the decade.

Neville Richardson, chief executive of the Co-operative Financial Services, said: "Although the report shows that the idea of ethical purchasing is now well established amongst many consumers, there is still a long way to go if we are all going to adopt the low-carbon lifestyle needed to avoid cataclysmic climate change. The growth in energy-efficient products such as boilers, white goods and more recently light bulbs, has been underpinned by government intervention."

He said that in order for Britain to reduce its carbon emissions by 30% by 2020 "there will need to be a step-change in take-up of low-carbon technologies and this will need a new contract between business, government and the consumer".

The report showed that average household spending on ethical food and drink had increased from £81 to £244 over the decade, spending on cosmetics had risen from £7 to £20, and clothing had increased from £21 to £49. Overall, average family spending on ethical goods and services increased from £241 to £735 since 1999, and now one in two UK adults say they have made a purchase primarily on ethical grounds in the past year.


[Environment > 10:10 climate change campaign]
Making the cut for 10:10: Adnams brewery
With 2010 just days away, those pledging to cut their carbon emissions by 10% in 2010 are getting set for action
Felicity Carus
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 December 2009 12.51 GMT Article history

It takes 8 pints of water on average to make one pint of beer. That's just one reason why brewing is an carbon-intensive process. But the mid-sized Suffolk brewery Adnams is trying to make its own operations less energy guzzling in the next year. Along with nearly 2,000 other businesses and over 50,000 individuals it has joined the 10:10 climate change campaign, which involves people and organisations pledging to cut their carbon emissions by 10% in 2010.

Adnams has already made headway. The water footprint of its beer is now down to 3.2 pints and it has made efforts to cut its carbon emissions, with innovations such as a warehouse that stores beer at an optimum temperature of about 11C without the need for heating or refrigeration and energy efficient equipment that recycles 90% of the heat used in the beer-making process. Adnams has reduced the energy used to produce each barrel of beer from 51.4kWh in 2007 to 46.3kWh in 2008. Total carbon emissions for the business in 2008 were 4,000 tonnes.

The company expects increases in energy prices and "polluter-pays" policies, which is driving it to "green" the business and its products – such as its carbon-neutral East Green beer.

It is planning an "industrial ecology" project which will use waste products from the brewing process, such as spent grain, to produce methane that could in turn produce electricity. From next year the brewer will also work with MBA students at the University of East Anglia, who will help monitor its emissions so that the company can report carbon emissions alongside its financial results.

"We are proud of our carbon reduction effort throughout the past few years at Adnams," says the managing director, Andy Wood. "But we are certainly not resting on our laurels."

Key target area for reductions in 2010

Adnams says it has some work to do in its hotels and Cellar & Kitchen stores. The next big challenge will then be to improve the energy efficiency of its pubs.

Area of most concern

Water is a key area. It takes 3.2 pints of water to make every pint of Adnams beer – this is better than the industry average of 8, but the company plans to reduce it further.

news20091230gdn2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[News > Politics > Conservatives]
John Gummer to quit as MP to focus on international climate change campaign
Former Tory cabinet minister announces he is to step down at the election in order to play a leading role in a pan-European campaign to tackle global warming
Will Woodward and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 December 2009 10.31 GMT Article history

John Gummer, a former Conservative cabinet minister and one of the party's most staunch environmentalists, has announced he is to quit the Commons to join a new international campaign to combat climate change.

He said the collapse of the Copenhagen talks had forced him to rethink his longstanding plans to contest his Suffolk Coastal seat, which he has represented, with boundary changes, since the 1979 election which brought Margaret Thatcher into power. He was also MP for Lewisham West from 1970-74.

Gummer is to play a leading role in as-yet-unrevealed pan-European campaign on climate change, which will be launched next month.

"I had every intention of staying on," he told the Guardian today, but said he had his mind changed by "the collapse of the Copenhagen talks and then the pressures from other people that we have got to do something about it".

The departure of Gummer, who co-chaired the party's "quality of life" policy group with Tory candidate Zac Goldsmith, weakens the "green" presence on the Tory benches. He said he had discussed his departure with David Cameron before Christmas. "I am quite sure the future of these [green issues] are in safe hands with him. He is totally committed, but not everybody internationally is."

Gummer's departure will make Kenneth Clarke, assuming he retains his safe Tory seat at the next election, the sole surviving Commons representative of the "Cambridge mafia", a group of high-octane Conservative brains from that university which made it to the cabinet. Michael Howard is standing down and Lords Brittan, Lamont and Fowler have already left.

Gummer was party chairman under Thatcher, agriculture secretary under her and John Major, and then environment secretary for four years from 1993. He is possibly most famous, or infamous, for trying to feed his daughter Cordelia a beefburger to convince the public it was safe from mad cow disease.

His son Benedict Gummer is now Conservative candidate for neighbouring Ipswich, held by Labour's Chris Mole with a 5,332 majority but a swing seat vulnerable to a Tory challenge.

In a statement Gummer said: "Since the very disappointing results of the Copenhagen negotiations, I have been forced to rethink my plans for the future. In discussion with colleagues in the rest of Europe and the United States, as well as with international NGOs, I have realised that I cannot commit myself to the work that they believe has to be done and continue to serve my constituents as I would want.

"The things that I am urged to take on will demand a good deal of absence from home, which is simply incompatible either with the inevitably heavy legislative programme of a new parliament or with attendance at the many constituency functions upon which I have always laid great stress.

"During the 35 years that I have had the privilege of being a member of parliament, I have always put my constituency work first and I am not prepared to skimp on it now. It is therefore with very great sadness that I have decided it is simply not possible to contest the next election and still promise the kind of service that my constituents have rightly grown to expect."

More than 120 MPs have said they will step down at the next general election and many more are expected to go before the general election campaign starts. Many departures are directly or indirectly due to the outcry over MPs' expenses. Gummer attracted some criticism for claiming £9,000 in gardening expenses, including £100 a year to remove moles from his country estate.

Gummer said: "Climate change is not only a crisis without historic parallel, it is an urgent political threat. We will never win this battle if we diminish people's lives or preach at them. The threat must not be used as an excuse for unnecessary state direction and control.

"Instead, it is all of us, as citizens, entrepreneurs, and consumers, who will make change happen. Politicians and campaigners have to enable that change: they must unleash the power of the free market; they must harness the skills and innovation that drive it; and they must create the opportunities for competition to deliver new answers to this entirely new challenge.

"Those of us who have any chance to influence the course of events, even in a small way, have simply to make that our first priority, however difficult the choice."


[News > World news > Australia]
Western Australia wildfires destroy 40 homesTwo major blazes scorch more than 13,000 hectares of forest and farmland
Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 December 2009 12.50 GMT Article history

Wildfires possibly sparked by fallen power lines have roared across part of Western Australia, destroying almost 40 homes and sending hundreds of people fleeing for their lives. At least three people were injured, officials in the state said.

Two major blazes broke out yesterday in a farming district north of Perth, forcing the evacuation of the township of Toodyay and threatening a second town, Badgingarra, further north.

The two fires scorched more than 13,000 hectares (33,000 acres) of forest and farmland before cooler conditions helped hundreds of firefighters contain them.

The state's premier, Colin Barnett, released emergency funds by declaring the fires a natural disaster. He praised those who fought to bring them under control.

"There is no doubt they saved lives last night," Barnett said after visiting burned-out homes in Toodyay. "If you saw the destruction, houses were totally destroyed and people were got to safety by the emergency services."

The state's fire authority said at least 37 houses were destroyed.

Two firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation and a third was treated for a heat-related illness. Farmers reported dead livestock. The extent of the damage was still being assessed, said Allen Gale, a spokesman for the emergency services.

Police said fallen power lines were likely to have sparked the Toodyay blaze, since there were no other possible causes in the area.

The managing director of electricity supplier Western Power, Doug Aberle, told national broadcaster the ABC that an independent investigator would head to the scene on Saturday. "If it's determined that it's caused by our negligence we will be paying compensation as appropriately determined, as we always do," he said, expressing his sympathy to the victims.

Wildfires are common across Australian during the summer months but rarely claim so many homes.

In February Australia experienced its worst fire disaster on record when hundreds of blazes raced across the south-east of Victoria state, killing 173 people and destroying more than 2,000 homes in a single day.

news20091230bbc1

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

[Science & Environment]
Page last updated at 13:40 GMT, Wednesday, 30 December 2009
Nasa picks three in space contest
The three finalists focus on the Moon, Venus, or an asteroid
The US space agency Nasa has selected three projects as finalists for its next celestial mission.

The projects aim to either probe the atmosphere and surface of Venus, return an asteroid fragment to Earth, or send back rocks from the Moon's south pole.

The proposals are part of the New Frontiers programme, designed to carry out frequent, low-cost missions.

Nasa has provided funding for a fuller analysis of the projects, with a winner to be selected in mid-2011.

The cost of the winning project must not exceed $650m (£410m) and must be ready to launch by the end of 2018.

These limits are in keeping with the New Frontiers programme's principles of funding focused, short-term, and comparatively cheap space science missions.

The Surface and Atmosphere Geochemical Explorer, or Sage, would gather information about Venus' atmosphere during the descent of a lander, which would then scratch at the planet's surface to determine its chemical and mineral composition in detail.
The Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer, or Osiris-Rex, would initially orbit an asteroid, landing on it to collect about 60g of material that would be returned to Earth.
The Lunar South Pole-Aitken Basin Sample Return Mission would land near the Moon's southern pole, returning about a kilogram of material that scientists believe has risen from the moon's interior to the surface.
Each team has been given $3.3m (£2.1m) to further flesh out the details of their proposals over the coming year.

"These are projects that inspire and excite young scientists, engineers and the public," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for Nasa's Science Mission Directorate.

"These three proposals provide the best science value among eight submitted to Nasa this year."

The proposal that is eventually chosen will form the third mission in the New Frontiers programme.

The first, New Horizons, was launched in 2006 and is bound for a Pluto fly-by in 2015. The second, dubbed Juno, will be the first craft to orbit Jupiter from pole to pole after it launches in August 2011.


[Europe]
Page last updated at 13:33 GMT, Wednesday, 30 December 2009
France to rethink carbon tax plan
President Sarkozy says the French must cut their energy consumption
A new carbon tax that was supposed to go into effect in France at New Year has been struck down, delivering a blow to President Nicolas Sarkozy.

France's Constitutional Council, a legal compliance watchdog, said there were too many exemptions for polluters in the tax plan.

The body said 93% of industrial emissions, other than fuel use, would be exempt from the tax.

The tax was set at 17 euros (£15) per tonne of emitted carbon dioxide (CO2).

Prime Minister Francois Fillon has said the government will now work on a new law taking account of the legal ruling.

The tax was aimed at encouraging consumers to use less oil, gas and coal. It would have meant a rise in the price of fuel for cars, domestic heating and factories.

But it did not apply to the heavy industries and power firms included in the EU's emissions trading scheme.

Most electricity in France - excluded from the carbon tax - is nuclear-generated.

According to France's Le Monde newspaper, the tax would have generated about 4.3bn euros (£3.8bn) of revenue annually.

Commenting on the ruling, French government spokesman Luc Chatel said "France has shown that it is a leader in the fight against climate change and it will remain at the forefront by presenting new legislation on 20 January".

The Constitutional Council said the "large number of exemptions from the carbon tax runs counter to the goal of fighting climate change and violates the equality enjoyed by all in terms of public charges".

It said more than 1,000 of France's biggest polluters would have been able to avoid the tax.


[Health]
Page last updated at 00:01 GMT, Tuesday, 29 December 2009
Music therapy 'may help cut tinnitus noise levels'
{Tinnitus causes ringing, buzzing, roaring, hissing or whistling}
Individually designed music therapy may help reduce the noise levels experienced by people who suffer from tinnitus, say German researchers.

They altered participants' favourite music to remove notes which matched the frequency of the ringing in their ears.

After a year of listening to the modified music, individuals reported a drop in the loudness of their tinnitus.

The researchers said the "inexpensive" treatment could be used alongside other techniques to relieve the condition.


It could significantly complement widely-used and rather indirect psychological treatment strategies

Dr Christo Pantev
Westphalian Wilhelms University
It is thought that around 1-3% of the population have chronic ringing in their ears which is significant enough to reduce their overall quality of life.

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers said although the cause of tinnitus remains unknown, it has been shown that the part of the brain that processes sounds is frequently disrupted in people with the condition.

The theory behind the new technique is that removing the spectrum of noise associated with tinnitus from the music reduces activity in the brain relating to that frequency, alleviating the condition.

Therapy

The 39 patients who took part in the study all had chronic tinnitus for an average of five years but had no other hearing problems.

They were split into three groups and were offered either the modified music therapy, a dummy version of music therapy or usual treatment.

Participants listened to the music for an average of 12 hours a week and by the end of the study, those who had been given the tailored music reported a significant drop in the level of the ringing they heard compared with those listening to the dummy version.

Study leader Dr Christo Pantev, from Westphalian Wilhelms University in Munster, said the approach specifically targeted the part of the brain responsible for tinnitus.

"The notched music approach can be considered as enjoyable, low cost, and presumably causal treatment that is capable of specifically reducing tinnitus loudness.

"It could significantly complement widely-used and rather indirect psychological treatment strategies."

Dr Ralph Holmes, director of biomedical research at deaf and hard of hearing charity, RNID, said he would look in detail at the findings.

"While we find it encouraging there is new investment in treatment for tinnitus, we know there is no proven 'cure'.

"This seems to be similar to tinnitus retraining therapy which is one of the most common ways of managing the condition."

news20091230bbc2

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

[Science & Environment]
Page last updated at 16:41 GMT, Monday, 28 December 2009
By Mark Kinver
Science and environment reporter, BBC News
'Back to nature' cuts flood risks
{The annual cost of flooding is rising in the US, the study says}
Reconnecting flood-plains to rivers will help reduce the risk of future flooding, suggest US scientists.

A study by US researchers said allowing these areas to be submerged during storms would reduce the risk of flood damage in nearby urban areas.

Pressure to build new homes has led to many flood-prone areas being developed.

Writing in Science, they said the risks of flooding were likely to increase in the future as a result of climate change and shifts in land use.

"We are advocating very large-scale shifts in land use," said co-author Jeffrey Opperman, a member of The Nature Conservancy's Global Freshwater Team.

"There is simply no way economically or politically that this could be accomplished by turning large areas of flood-plains into parks," he told the Science podcast.

"What we are proposing in this paper is a way that this strategy can be compatible, and even supportive, with vibrant agricultural economies and private land ownership."

{{Control infrastructure prevents high flows from entering floodplains, thus diminishing both natural flood storage capacity and the processes that sustain healthy riverside forests}
Jeffrey Opperman,
The Nature Conservancy}

For example, the authors explained, the flood season and growing season in California did not occur at the same time.

This meant that allowing the land to be submerged by floodwater would not result in a permanent loss of farmland or crops being destroyed.

In their paper, they said that man-made flood management systems, such as levees, also had an ecological impact.

"Control infrastructure prevents high flows from entering flood-plains, thus diminishing both natural flood storage capacity and the processes that sustain healthy riverside forests and wetlands," they observed.

"As a result, flood-plains are among the planet's most threatened ecosystems."
'Ecosystem services'

The reconnection programmes would deliver three benefits, they added:

> Reduce the risk of flooding

> Increase in flood-plain goods and services

> Greater resilience to potential climate change impacts

In other parts of the world, Dr Opperman said that there was a range of agricultural strategies for private landowners that would be compatible with allowing areas to be flooded.

"There are emerging markets for ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration and nutrient sequestration," he explained.

"These are services that flood-plains do provide, so with various climate policies there will be a price for carbon."

The researchers cited the Yolo By-pass, in California, US, in their paper as a successful demonstration of the idea they were advocating.

The scheme absorbed 80% of floodwater during heavy storms, they said, protecting the nearby city of Sacramento.

"During a March 1986 flood, the by-pass conveyed [about] 12.5bn cubic metres of water, more than three times the total flood-control storage volume in all Sacramento basin reservoirs.

"Without the by-pass flood-plain, California would need to build massive additional flood-control infrastructure," they observed.

The Yolo by-pass was created back in the 1930s, when a 24,000 hectare flood-plain was reconnected to the Sacramento River.

The scheme was introduced when it became apparent that a "levees only" approach would not offer the required flood protection.

"It's connected in an engineered way, which mean that when the river reaches a certain volume it flows over a weir and enters the flood-plain," Dr Opperman explained.

He added that the scheme also had numerous additional ecological benefits: "In recent decades, people began to notice that this area was a phenomenal habitat for birds.

"In the past 10 years, people recognised that native fish were moving from the river on to the flood-plain, and deriving all of the benefits that fish get from natural flood-plains.

"It was an excellent place for fish to spawn, and for juvenile fish to be reared."

news20091230reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
LONDON
Tue Dec 29, 2009 8:13am EST
EU carbon slips 0.5 percent on German power
LONDON (Reuters) - European carbon futures fell slightly on Tuesday on the back of lower German power, despite a sharp rise in crude oil prices, traders said.

EU Allowances for Dec-10 delivery lost 6 cents or 0.5 percent at 12.68 euros a tonne on light volume of just over 250 lots traded by 0922 GMT.

"The market's down a bit on German power, but we're seeing what can be best described as 'nothing'," said one trader.

German Calendar 2010 baseload power fell by 55 cents or 1.2 percent at 43.95 euros per megawatt hour.

Spot European power prices eased on Monday in thin trading on the back of lower consumption during the Christmas holidays and milder temperatures, traders said, adding supply was ample.

U.S. crude oil futures held steady below $79 on Tuesday, after hitting a five-week high a day earlier, as the firm dollar offset colder U.S. weather and expectations of a further drawdown in crude inventories.

Oil is up nearly $10 or some 13 percent since December 14.

Dec-10 CERs traded down 5 cents or 0.5 percent at 11.17 euros a tonne on light volume of 37 lots.

The EUA-CER spread edged up to around 1.55 euros.

With just two and a half trading days left in 2009, benchmark EUAs are down 3.22 euros or 20 percent for the year.

The front month Phase 2 (2008-12) contracts hit a 2009 high of 16 euros on May 12, a far cry from the record high of 29.69 euros on July 2, 2008. The futures are up some 58 percent since bottoming out at a record low of 8.05 euros on February 12, 2009.

The European Climate Exchange will close at midday on Thursday for New Year's Eve and remain closed on Friday. (Reporting by Michael Szabo; editing by James Jukwey)


[Green Business]
MADRID
Tue Dec 29, 2009 8:18am EST
Iberian spot power hits year-low on wind, demand
MADRID (Reuters) - Iberian spot power prices sank to their lowest levels since 2007 on Tuesday due to a combination of low, festive-season demand and hefty supplies of wind and hydropower, traders said.

The Omel exchange fixed the benchmark day-ahead spot price at its lowest level since the rate published for May 28, 2007, when it was 18.67 euros per megawatt-hour for Spain.

On an hourly basis, spot prices for Spain hit zero in the early hours of Monday and Tuesday for the first time since January 1, 2003.

"Demand today is like it is on a Sunday, there's lots of wind and we haven't seen this much hydro for a couple of years, so those three factors have come together," a dealer said.

Spain's wind parks, the world's third-most productive, were meeting 28.1 percent of all demand at midday, while hydroelectricity accounted for 13.7 percent of the generating mix after recent heavy rainfall.

Traders expected spot prices to remain weak even after demand picks up with people returning to work in the New year, because additional supplies of cheap nuclear power are expected.

The Asco I plants is due to finish maintenance in January and the Almaraz I plant is awaiting approval for expanding its output of thermal power.

Together, both plants produce 2,000 megawatts, or about 7 percent of average demand for power.

Spain's six other nuclear plants were generating a total of 5,343 MW, equivalent to 16.3 percent of demand, according to data from the CSN nuclear regulator and national grid operator REE.

Forwards were little changed in light volume, with dealers reporting little trading in calendar-year 2010 -- the benchmark for most of 2009 -- because trading in the contract is about to expire.

Cal-2011 traded up 0.09 to 43.90 euros/MWh on the Omip exchange, which accounts for about 30 percent of trade.

Spanish power stations were meanwhile emitting 4,918 tonnes per hour of carbon dioxide, an unusually low amount for a weekday.

(Reporting by Martin Roberts)


[Green Business]
MADRID
Tue Dec 29, 2009 8:20am EST
Rain in Spain boosts hydro, irrigation reserves
MADRID (Reuters) - Heavy rain has raised Spain's capacity to generate hydroelectricity and irrigate crops, official data showed on Tuesday in the heavily gas and grain-dependent country.

Rainfall over the past 10 days has caused severe flooding in many parts of Spain and on Tuesday the Met Office issued weather alerts for more than half the country.

Hydropower reservoirs held enough water to generate 9,425 gigawatt-hours, a jump of 685 GWh since last week, the Ministry for the Environment and Rural Affairs said in its latest weekly bulletin.

Data from national grid operator REE total demand over the past year in Spain was 251,600 GWh, so reserves would be enough to provide electricity for 13.7 days, if no other power sources were available.

In recent weeks hydroelectricity's share of the generation mix has recovered after months of near-drought and on Tuesday it helped drive down wholesale power prices to year-lows.

Greater availability of hydroelectricity makes Spain less dependent on generators fueled by gas, more than 99 percent of which it has to import.

Demand for gas fell by 9.3 percent in the year to November from the same period in 2008, according to gas grid operator Enagas.

Spain is also the world's third-largest importer of liquefied natural gas, via six regasification plants.

ABOVE-AVERAGE RAIN

Rainfall logged by the Ministry was more than three times the historical average for the week to December 27, at 50.7 millimeters.

Reservoirs set aside for consumption, including irrigation, meanwhile leapt to 45.5 percent of capacity from 37.7 percent a week ago.

Irrigation is needed to grow maize and cut into Spain's hefty structural grain shortfall, which requires annual imports of at least 10 million tonnes from countries ranging from Argentina to Ukraine.

Farmers say weather conditions are currently ideal for planting cereals, but estimate they will sow about 5 percent less land this winter and spring due to low farm-gate prices.

Rice, cotton and alfalfa -- which is used in animal feed -- also need irrigation.

(Reporting by Martin Roberts; editing by James Jukwey)


[Green Business]
LOS ANGELES
Tue Dec 29, 2009 8:24am EST
SunPower's president of systems unit leaving
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The president of SunPower Corp's systems unit will depart the U.S. solar power company on January 10 after an extended leave of absence, the company said on Monday.

The departure of Daniel Shugar follows a leave of absence that the executive took in March for nine to 12 months.

Shugar informed SunPower last week of "his decision to not return as an employee of SunPower or its affiliates," SunPower said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.

Shugar joined SunPower as head of its systems unit in 2007 when SunPower acquired PowerLight Corp, where the executive had worked since 1996.

The systems unit develops, engineers and manufactures large-scale solar power systems.

The solar power sector is looking for a stronger year in 2010 after a difficult 2009 with falling panel prices and tight credit for new renewable energy projects. The San Jose, California-based SunPower is also probing millions of dollars of accounting mistakes.

Shares of SunPower closed down 0.2 percent at $24.26 on Nasdaq on Monday.

(Reporting by Laura Isensee; Editing by Richard Chang)


[Green Business]
SEOUL
Wed Dec 30, 2009 6:34am EST
South Korea to launch emissions scheme in January
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea will launch a pilot carbon emissions trading scheme from January after the environment ministry received applications from 641 public and private organizations, the ministry said on Wednesday.

A ministry official said trading mainly among local municipalities will be done online next year, and from 2011 at Korea Exchange, the country's bourse.

The ministry has not yet decided its price for emissions per ton, she said.

A statement released from the ministry on Tuesday said the scheme will provide a base for the country's voluntary 2020 emissions reduction target. South Korea has pledged to cut emissions by 30 percent from its forecast under a "business as usual" scenario.

"The scheme is designed to meet the country's mid-term emission reduction target and connect with international carbon markets," the statement said.

South Korea, one of the world's fastest growing polluters, said in August it hopes to become Asia's trading hub for carbon emission certificates and related products under its plan for a new carbon exchange from 2011.

(Reporting by Cho Mee-young; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

news20091230reut2

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Nerijus Adomaitis
PURNUSKES, Lithuania
Tue Dec 29, 2009 10:19am EST
Dark days at the centre of Europe
PURNUSKES, Lithuania (Reuters) - Surrounded by forest, a white granite pillar topped by a ring of golden stars near the village of Purnuskes marks "the geographical center of Europe." Things are looking bleak.

The Baltic state of Lithuania -- sandwiched between Latvia and the Russian exclave Kalingrad -- faces an economic contraction of 18 percent for 2009.

To that the government has said it will add a 30 percent increase in household power prices in 2010, as it fulfils a condition of European Union membership and shuts Ignalina, the Chernobyl-style nuclear power plant that provides 70 percent of Lithuania's power.

EU officials in Brussels pressed for the closure at the start of the century, when the bloc was embarking on its eastern enlargement. Their goal was to lower the risk of a repeat of the Chernobyl nuclear explosion of 1986.

Neither recession nor energy security were factors when the sculpture was symbolically unveiled on May 1, 2004 as Lithuania, once occupied by the Soviet Union, joined the EU. It is described by the country's tourism website as marking "the poignant return of Lithuania to the family of European nations."

But from December 31 -- when temperatures can drop to minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit) and rivers freeze -- the closure will make Lithuania more dependent on an increasingly irregular supply of power from its former occupier.

"It's the worst crisis ever," said Jan Glushachenkov, a 44-year old former excavator driver who lives next to the sculpture above a compass mosaic.

Speaking to Reuters in the still hush around the column near the village 26 km (16 miles) northeast of Vilnius, Glushachenkov said he has already been out of work for almost a year.

He pointed out the more pressing risks Brussels now faces in closing the reactor with the country's 3.5 million people locked in recession: "People will have to emigrate or to go to steal."

Population losses due to net emigration since 1990 already amounted to about 10 percent, according to a 2008 report from the OECD.

EDGY RELATIONS

For those who stay, things will be tough. Glushachenkov's neighbor Ludwik Trypucki, an 86-year-old farmer, said the shutdown will lift his monthly power bill to about 18 percent of his 800 Lithuanian litas ($333.5) pension. He already pays 120 litas per month.

"I understand they had to close it if it was unsafe to operate, but they had to agree in advance to get cheaper electricity. Now it's unclear where that will come from," he said.

Lithuania plans to import electricity from Estonia, Russia and Ukraine, via neighboring Belarus. A small amount will be imported via cable from Finland and Latvia.

The increasing energy dependence on Russia, which will also supply gas for a fossil fuel-powered electricity plant, comes as relations between the countries remain edgy.

Lithuania objected to Russia building a gas pipeline to Germany under the Baltic Sea and attempted to block the start of EU-Russia talks on a strategic partnership.

Some in the Baltic region fear a planned pipeline under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, Nord Stream, could offer Moscow a direct energy lever with Europe, enabling it to cut off countries' gas to wield diplomatic pressure.

Russia has in the past been a reliable gas supplier to Lithuania, although it has cut oil supplies to a Lithuanian refiner, Mazeikiu Nafta, now owned by Polish oil group PKN Orlen.

INFLATION

Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius is hopeful countries in the region will be happy to sell Lithuania electricity surpluses the downturn has created in their countries, and pointed to long-term power contracts Lithuania has signed.

"Lithuania will become more dependent on imports of energy resources after Ignalina's closure. That will reduce our energy security, but we feel assured about the next year," he told Reuters.

The EU has allocated so far about 820 million euros ($1.17 billion) in aid to decommission the plant, deal with the nuclear waste and upgrade a fossil fuel plant, but the central bank points to the shutdown's broader impact.

"A 30 percent hike in electricity prices will slash gross domestic product by one percentage point and will increase inflation by almost one percentage point," said Raimondas Kuodis, the central bank's chief economist.

"It does not look a lot in the context of the global crisis, but for Lithuania's economy it's a painful hit."

Besides jobs lost at the reactor in the town of Visaginas in Lithuania's easternmost corner, businesses straining to maintain working capital will be squeezed.

Arturas Zaremba, head of major cement producer Akmenes Cementas, said his power prices would more than double to 15 Lithuanian cents per kilowatt-hour from 6, raising costs for the company with revenues of 125 million litas by 6-7 million litas.

"The electricity price increase will be a serious shock not only for our company, but for the whole economy," he said.

In Visaginas, unemployment at about 9 percent -- less than the national average of 11.7 percent -- is forecast to reach about 11.5 percent in 2010.

"I have been working at the plant for 27 years, my whole life was connected to it," said Andrei Grigoriev, walking past a memorial stone from 1975 marking where the town was begun.

"Of course, it is painful to see it being shut, and that it was a politically motivated decision," he said.

Lithuania's opposition made a last unsuccessful attempt in December to force the government to restart negotiations with Brussels with a view to extending Ignalina's lifespan, a project supported by former Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas.

"The European Commission does not fully apprehend the situation of the Baltic states, and think that electricity imports from Russia is not a problem," he said. "They don't share the same historical experience."

BETTER OPPORTUNITY IN AFRICA

In an office hooked up by closed-circuit TV to a direct view of the gleaming, cavernous interior of the reactor hall, Viktor Shevaldin, Ignalina's veteran head, says he is resigned to the closure of the plant's remaining reactor at 11 p.m. on New Year's Eve.

Full decommissioning at an estimated cost of 8.6 billion litas will take about 25 years.

"We face a different future, but we have come to terms with it already," said the grey haired 60-year-old.

But let him talk more, and his tone changes. The chance of a major accident is one per one million years of reactor work, he said: "It's like being hit by a meteorite while walking on the street."

Back at Purnuskes, Algirdas Kauspedas, an architect who became a celebrity rock musician with a band he formed in the last days of the Soviet Union, is pragmatic.

"Market perspectives are bleak here. It's better to look for possibilities in Africa," he said.

(Editing by Sara Ledwith)


[Green Business]
LOS ANGELES
Tue Dec 29, 2009 9:04pm EST
California's renewable pipeline hits nearly 70 GW
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Renewable energy projects proposed in California total nearly 70 gigawatts, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Tuesday, a large pipeline that could help the state meet its renewable energy goals.

California has a mandate to obtain a third of its electricity by 2020 from clean power, spurring utilities and the clean power industry to develop new projects.

The 244 proposed projects in the state include solar, wind, geothermal, biomass and hydro technologies. In order to be built, renewable energy projects must win regulatory approval.

About 50 projects in California hope to break ground by the end of 2010 in order to receive federal stimulus funds.

Toward that goal, Schwarzenegger signed in October an agreement with the U.S. Department of the Interior to speed up the permitting process for projects seeking stimulus funds.

California uses about 8,000 MW of clean power a year. The state needs an additional 15,000 to 25,000 MW to reach its target.

A mid-sized coal-fired power plant generates about 500 MW of electricity.

(Reporting by Laura Isensee)

news20091230reut3

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Sudip Kar-Gupta
PARIS
Tue Dec 29, 2009 8:37am EST
France's Theolia in debt deal, plans capital hike
PARIS (Reuters) - French wind farm operator Theolia, which cut back on growth plans last year due to the credit crisis, struck a debt restructuring deal and announced a capital increase to help finance future projects.

Theolia, whose shares fell more than 12 percent following the announcement, was forced last year to scale down its ambitions and cut costs to focus on preserving cash as a result of the economic downturn, which made financing for new power projects harder to come by.

However, the company said on Tuesday that there were signs that conditions within its market sector were improving.

"We now see early signs of a recovery in the wider wind sector as credit markets begin to improve, providing the industry with a more benign environment for 2010," Theolia Chief Executive Marc van't Noordende said in a statement.

Theolia, which reported a first-half net loss of 14 million euros in August, said on Tuesday it had agreed with the majority of its creditors to extend the maturity on its convertible bonds.

It added it was planning to launch a capital increase for a maximum of around 100 million euros ($144.1 million) early next year either through a rights issue priced at 1 euro per share or through the issue of warrants.

"I am confident that the financial restructuring will now provide the key element to assure the company's future growth," van't Noordende added.

"The company has not yet got itself completely out of trouble but it can hope to carry on operating in more normal business conditions," French brokerage Raymond James said in a research note. It kept a "sell" rating on Theolia shares.

SHARES FALL ON RIGHTS ISSUE IMPACT

The expected dilutive impact of the capital increase caused Theolia's shares to plunge. The stock was down 12.7 percent at 2.83 euros in mid-morning trade, giving Theolia a market capitalization of around 113 million euros.

After two hours of trading, the volume on Theolia shares represented 5 times the stock's 90-day average daily volume.

"The stock has recently been hammered because of the company's debt problems, so this is good news, although the diluting effect from the cap hike is what's dragging down the shares. It's a knee-jerk reaction," said a Paris-based trader.

Raymond James also said the capital increase risked being "extremely dilutive" for shareholders.

Theolia shares, which slumped 85 percent last year, have fallen around 7 percent so far this year.

(Additional reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)


[Green Business]
NEW YORK
Tue Dec 29, 2009 3:02pm EST
Michigan issues air permit for new CMS coal plant
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Consumers Energy's proposed 830-megawatt coal-fired power plant at the Karn/Weadock complex in Michigan has moved a step closer to construction after the state issued an air permit for the project, the company said Tuesday.

Consumers, a unit of Jackson, Michigan-based CMS Energy Corp, said it would retire up to seven older coal-fired units -- five when the new plant enters service and another two depending on the needs of its 1.8 million Michigan customers.

The company has not identified the older coal plants to be retired but planned to do so when it files for a certificate of necessity with the Michigan Public Service Commission in 2010, a spokesman told Reuters.

The new plant is expected to cost more than $2 billion and enter service in 2017.

It's a tough time to build new coal plants, in part due to uncertainty over whether the federal government will cap carbon dioxide emissions from coal and other fossil-fired power plants in an effort to stop global warming.

But Consumers, which has the oldest coal-fired fleet in the nation with an average age of 50 years, said the new plant, the retirement of the old plants and its plans to invest billions in renewable power, efficiency and demand side management would significantly reduce overall emissions, including carbon.

Consumers said production of the currently regulated emissions would be down as much as 91 percent for sulfur dioxide, 83 percent for nitrogen oxides and 81 percent for mercury.

Consumers said it would design the new plant to utilize carbon capture and storage technology once it becomes commercially and economically viable.

The new project would create 1,800 construction jobs, about 2,500 indirect jobs and more than 100 permanent jobs after it is operating, providing an estimated $1.2 billion boost to Michigan's economy, the company said.

"This permit moves our project a step closer to creating badly needed jobs and boosting the state's economy," John Russell, Consumers president and chief operating officer, said in the release.

The 2,101 MW coal, oil and natural gas-fired Karn/Weadock complex is located near Bay City about 115 miles north-northwest of Detroit. It uses about 3 million tons of coal a year, according to the company website.

Coal dominates generation in Michigan, according to federal data, supplying nearly three-fifths of the state's power. But Michigan has mandated that 10 percent of electricity come from renewable sources by 2015.

Consumers plans to invest more than $1.2 billion to build 450 MW of wind generating capacity, among other things.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; editing by Jim Marshall)


[Green Business]
BEIJING
Tue Dec 29, 2009 11:00am EST
China speeds up resettlement in water mega-scheme
BEIJING (Reuters) - China will use stimulus spending to speed up shifting 330,000 people slated to be displaced for a vast water transfer project, accelerating work on the troubled scheme, an official newspaper said on Tuesday.

Green Business | China

The displaced residents, mostly poor farmers in central China's Henan and Hubei provinces, are being moved for the South-North Water Transfer Project, which will draw water from southern rivers for the country's dry north.

The construction of two long canals in central and eastern China has been troubled by chronic pollution, troubles relocating displaced residents and engineering hitches.

But now Zhang Jiyao, the official in charge of the project, has "urged local authorities to complete all migrant displacement by the end of 2011," the China Daily reported, citing an official meeting on Monday. The earlier deadline was 2014.

Half the residents will be relocated by the end of 2010, when 48 billion yuan ($7.03 billion) will be spent on the project, boosted by funding from China's blitz of stimulus spending to counter the financial crisis, said Zhang.

Big dams and hydro projects have been a lightning rod for discontent in China. Around the Three Gorges Dam, the nation's other mighty hydro project, clashes dogged the move of 1.4 million residents.

The South-North Project is the latest of these ambitious efforts, and the push to speed up resettlement could stir more complaints from farmers, especially near the Danjiangkou Dam that will feed the main central route.

Most of the people displaced by its rising waters will be sent to less fertile farmland. Resettlement there began earlier this year.

"Nobody really wants to move," said Ma Feng, a villager from Machuan Village near the dam, who was moved earlier this year to a new home hundreds of kilometers away.

"We were forced to accept it in the end, because the officials and police made us," she told Reuters by telephone. "But if they move all the dam residents, that will be much more difficult."

The central route will wind along 1,421 km (883 miles) of canals and tunnels from Danjiangkou to Beijing, as well as the nearby port city of Tianjin and surrounding areas. The separate eastern route cuts through coastal provinces up to Tianjin.

The planned completion for the first stage of the central route was pushed back to 2014 after it became clear that earlier deadlines of 2010 and 2008 could not be met.

A proposed western route, which would tap rivers on the Tibetan highlands to feed northwest areas, is still being examined by experts.

($1=6.829 Yuan)

(Editing by Dean Yates)

news20091230reut4

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
BANGALORE
Tue Dec 29, 2009 3:07pm EST
FuelCell Energy soars on hopes of govt incentives
BANGALORE (Reuters) - FuelCell Energy Inc shares rose 20 percent Tuesday on what one analyst termed as bullish bets by investors on a push for government incentives by the fuel-cell industry.

The surge came after The Washington Times quoted a FuelCell Energy executive as saying his company was working with Congress for "special attention in upcoming bills."

Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov said if the fuel-cell industry could get the Waxman-Markey climate change bill amended to provide more support for the sector, it would bode well for FuelCell Energy, which makes fuel-cell power plants for electric power generation.

The Waxman-Markey bill, which has been passed by the House of Representatives but not by the Senate, mandates a 5 percent increase in energy efficiency by 2020.

Shares of FuelCell Energy were up 16 percent at $3.67 in afternoon trade after touching a high of $3.79. The shares were among the top percentage gainers on Nasdaq.

More than 5 million shares had changed hands, six times the stock's 10-day moving average.

(Reporting by Krishna N. Das in Bangalore; Editing by Ratul Ray Chaudhuri)


[Green Business]
Tue Dec 29, 2009 11:38am EST
Boralex adds 47 MW wind power capacity in France
(Reuters) - Canadian power producer Boralex Inc said it had, along with its European partner Cube Infrastructure Fund, acquired three wind farms in France to add 47 MW of capacity for about C$115 million.

The acquisition increases the company's installed wind power capacity in Europe to 170 MW, Boralex said in a statement.

The company said a 30 MW wind site in Plateau de Ronchois in the Picardie and Normandie regions and a 10 MW wind site at Grand Camp in the Center region, which are under construction will account for close to 78 percent of the total investment.

Boralex said the equity contribution came from the capital injected by Cube.

On December 14, Boralex entered into a partnership with Cube to accelerate development in the renewable energy segment in Europe, particularly in wind and solar power.

The partnership would make it possible to support the development of an additional 110 MW of wind power, without Boralex being required for any supplementary funds, the company had said then.

The third wind farm, a 7 MW Bel Air site in Brittany, which had been in operation since December 2006, is financed by a French bank, Boralex said.

Boralex shares were up 5 Canadian cents at C$9.18 Tuesday morning on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Koustav Samanta in Bangalore; Editing by Unnikrishnan Nair)


[Green Business]
Amena Bakr - Analysis
DUBAI
Tue Dec 29, 2009 12:11pm EST
UAE to sell nuclear power
DUBAI (Reuters) - A $40 billion deal by the United Arab Emirates to acquire nuclear reactors puts it ahead in a drive to meet fast growing power needs among its Gulf neighbors, while also allowing it to export more of its oil.

The prospect of starting electricity exports within the next decade is a key element behind the UAE's award to a South Korean consortium on Sunday of the deal to build and operate four reactors in the third largest oil exporter.

"As part of the UAE's strategy the nuclear power plants will not only supply power domestically, but they are also planning to export electricity to countries close by in the region," said Vincent Nkong-Njock, nuclear power engineer at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The consortium, led by state-owned utility Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO), aims to complete the UAE's four 1,400 megawatt reactors by 2020. Power generation will begin after 2017.

The U.S. and the UAE have a nuclear cooperation pact and U.S.-based firm Westinghouse Electric, a unit of Japan's Toshiba Corp, was part of the winning consortium.

It also includes Hyundai Engineering and Construction, Samsung C&T Corp and Doosan Heavy Industries.

Economic growth has strained the infrastructure of the world's largest oil exporters in the Gulf region, and left them struggling to supply enough power.

All six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman, have shown interest in nuclear power to meet soaring domestic demand for electricity and free more oil and gas for export.

Kuwait held talks with France's Areva this year, while France and Saudi Arabia have said they were close to finalizing a civilian nuclear energy cooperation agreement.

French power giant EDF signed a memorandum with Qatar in early 2008 for cooperation on a civilian nuclear power program although Qatar's enthusiasm subsequently waned.

One problem is that decades of stagnant growth have limited the world's nuclear energy industry's capacity to meet resurgent demand for expertise and equipment.

The UAE expects electricity demand to reach 40,000 MW in 2020 from around 15,000 MW last year due to a petrodollar-fueled economic boom.

MORE PLANTS SEEN BEYOND 2020

South Korea said it hopes to build more plants in the UAE beyond 2020 to meet future demand.

"With the nuclear project on its way now and other reactors expected to come, the UAE will be able to both meet domestic demand and have excess to export both electricity and oil," said Nkong-Njock, an acting consultant on the UAE's nuclear project.

In July, a number of Gulf Arab states signed a power trading agreement to link up their grids, but cross-border trade on the $1.4 billion grid project will initially be limited as only Qatar has spare power to sell.

In terms of oil exports, analysts believe that in 10 years' time the UAE could significantly increase volumes, once the reactors are working and it no longer has to burn oil for power.

"Oil demand is on the rise and will continue to rise even more in the future and if prices remain at $75 (a barrel) or above, I expect that UAE would massively increase exports, only if the nuclear reactors are operational," said Christian Koch, director of international studies at the Gulf Research Center.

This will be the first time for South Korea to build a nuclear power plant in a foreign country, which is seen as a challenge as geological and climate conditions vary in the UAE, said IAEA's Nkong-Njock.

"But I think despite all these differences and challenges on the way, the Koreans have the technology to overcome all of this."

So far 10 possible locations have been chosen for reactors, according to the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC).

The UAE has pledged to import all the fuel needed for the reactors, rather than attempting to enrich uranium, the fuel for nuclear power plants -- to allay fears about enrichment facilities being used to make weapons-grade material.

Iran has long been at odds with the West over its declared plans to use enriched uranium to generate electricity, a programme the United States and European allies fear is a cover to develop the ability to produce atomic bombs.

(Reporting by Amena Bakr; Editing by Anthony Barker)


[Green Business]
John McCrank
TORONTO
Tue Dec 29, 2009 5:22pm EST
Quebec adopts California's auto emission standards
TORONTO (Reuters) - Quebec will become the first province in Canada to adopt California's strict auto emissions standards, the province's environment ministry said on Tuesday.

The new rules will come into effect on January 14 and will impose increasingly stringent limits on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from cars and light trucks made between 2010 and 2016 that are sold in the province.

Emissions from vehicles will be cut by about 35 percent over the four years, from 187 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer for passenger vehicles to 127 grams per kilometer by 2016, Charles Larochelle, assistant deputy environment minister in Quebec, said in an interview.

"In Quebec, 40 percent of our GHG emissions are from our transportation sector, so it's quite an important sector if we want to get some reductions in our greenhouse gases," he said.

Quebec first announced its plan to adopt the California emission standards two years ago, but was waiting for legal wrangling between the state of California and automakers to be resolved before it officially got on board.

Fourteen other U.S. states have also adopted the California plan, including Vermont, Maine, and New York state, all of which border Quebec.

The United States is looking at a national strategy to reduce carbon emissions, and the Canadian government has said it will probably tie itself to the U.S. plan.

(Reporting by John McCrank; editing by Peter Galloway)

news20091230reut5

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Crispian Balmer
PARIS
Wed Dec 30, 2009 7:29am EST
French government rushes to revive carbon tax
PARIS (Reuters) - French ministers scrambled on Wednesday to rescue a carbon tax aimed at cutting energy consumption, which was annulled by the Constitutional Court just 48 hours before it was due to come into force.

France's highest court stunned President Nicolas Sarkozy's government late on Tuesday by ruling against the tax, saying there were too many loopholes benefiting major industrial polluters.

The new tax was expected to raise 1.5 billion euros ($2.15 billion) next year and the court's decision will put added pressure on the budget deficit, already forecast to come in at a high 8.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2010.

Ministers promised to present a revised text on January 20 but it could take weeks more to get the law back through parliament and badly needed cash flowing into state coffers.

"The government is going to persevere. It is a tough fight, but a worthwhile one," government spokesman Luc Chatel told LCI television. "France has to remain in the forefront of the battle to protect the environment," he added.

The carbon tax was promoted by Sarkozy as a cornerstone of his fiscal and environmental policy. It was set to come into effect on January 1, by imposing a levy on oil, gas and coal use amounting to 17 euros per ton of carbon dioxide emissions.

However, many of France's biggest industrial polluters, as well as truckers, farmers and fishing fleets, were offered generous discounts, or exempted altogether.

The government argued that many of these sectors already faced European Union curbs and should not be placed at a disadvantage to their international competitors.

The Constitutional Court objected that 93 percent of industrial carbon dioxide emissions would be exempt, saying the measure would do nothing to combat global warming and went against the spirit of fostering equality amongst tax payers.

The opposition Socialist party had long complained that the tax would unfairly penalize low earners and crowed victory.

"This is a good decision and shows once again that Sarkozy's way of doing things does not work," Socialist parliamentary party leader Jean-Marc Ayrault told France Info radio.

"They announce a reform, listen to no one and produce a poor job. It's a real mess ... now they will have to start from scratch and oversee a fiscal reform that is more ecological and does more to protect the environment."

The junior minister for trade and consumption, Herve Novelli, said the revised tax would offer fewer loopholes.

"It was perhaps shocking that the sectors given exemptions were those that polluted the most ... We will therefore need to remedy that," he told Europe 1 radio.

(Additional reporting by Laure Bretton; editing by Robin Pomeroy)


[Green Business]
Kitiphong Thaichareon
BANGKOK
Tue Dec 29, 2009 11:18am EST
Thailand sets health rules to tackle industrial row
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand on Tuesday approved regulations on health and environment assessments for industrial projects, a step toward allowing suspended operations to go ahead at the world's eighth-biggest petrochemical hub.

A court has suspended 65 new plants at Map Ta Phut, Thailand's biggest industrial estate, for their owners' failure to carry out health impact assessments (HIA). The government was blamed because it had not set up a body to oversee the HIAs.

The ruling stoked concern about legal uncertainty and government competence in a country once seen as a safe haven for investment but now mired in five years of political strife.

"The cabinet has approved the draft regulations ... about guidelines to comply with environment and health impact assessments," a deputy government spokesman told reporters.

The government's move at least clarifies what companies need to do to get health impact clearance, but an independent commission to carry out the assessments has still not been set up and some companies fear this could be the main sticking point.

A panel chaired by former premier Anand Panyarachun has agreed to form that body but there are concerns about delays if parties in the dispute challenge who sits on the commission.

Analysts say the credibility of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's embattled pro-business government and its economic revival efforts could be hurt if it fails to resolve the dispute quickly.

DELAYS COSTLY

The central bank says the suspensions could cut GDP growth by up to 0.5 percentage point next year, while an industry ministry estimate last week said a protracted legal standoff could cost as much as $18 billion.

According to the new regulations, companies building plants are now required to hold public hearings into the environmental and health impact. Local people were not previously consulted.

The court injunction followed complaints from local people and environmentalists that state agencies and ministers had failed to issue proper operating licenses at the 6.5 sq km (4,086 acre) estate in eastern Thailand. A local lobby group says some 2,000 cancer deaths were caused by pollution from the estate.

On December 2, a court allowed 11 of 76 suspended projects at Map Ta Phut to proceed, but the other 65 projects worth an estimated $8 billion remained frozen.

Last week the court allowed a venture partly owned by Siam Cement, Thailand's top industrial conglomerate, to resume operations because its license had been granted prior to the promulgation of the 2007 constitution.

Companies at the estate include top energy firm PTT, PTT Chemical and utility Glow Energy. Among the foreign companies are a Thai unit of Germany's Bayer and Australia's BlueScope Steel Ltd.

The government agreed last week to back court appeals on 19 projects it deems safe enough to resume operations, while state-controlled PTT will seek the go-ahead for its nine suspended projects, given that they, too, received operating licenses before the 2007 constitution.

(For a Q+A on the Map Ta Phut dispute:)

(Writing by Khettiya Jittapong; Editing by Martin Petty)


[Green Business]
PARIS
Tue Dec 29, 2009 4:27pm EST
Franch constitutional body rules against carbon tax
PARIS (Reuters) - France's planned carbon tax cannot be applied because it includes too many exemptions, a French government body ensuring laws are constitutional ruled on Tuesday, in an embarrassing setback for the government.

The tax on carbon-emitting products, meant to encourage consumers to save energy and use less fossil fuels, is one of President Nicolas Sarkozy's most loudly defended initiatives and was meant to come into effect on January 1, 2010.

"The exemptions included in the carbon tax run counter to the aim of fighting climate change and create inequalities with respect to public charges," the Constitutional Council said in a statement.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon said in a separate statement the cabinet would in January examine a new law taking into account the ruling.

Sarkozy has thrown his weight behind the levy, saying it would support the battle against climate change, but the plan had to be watered down extensively to appease critics.

In its ruling, the council said the law exempted some of the worst industrial polluters such as refineries and included relief for farmers and fishermen, among numerous other exemptions.

"93 percent of carbon dioxide emissions of industrial origin, other than fuel, will be totally exempt from the carbon tax," the government body said in the ruling.

The tax has caused public upheaval in France, with critics within the ruling party saying the tax would hurt poor families and people in rural areas with little public transport.

The opposition Greens broadly agreed with the principle but said the tax should be higher, while the Socialists said it would deal a further blow to consumers already struggling to cope with the economic downturn.

As a result, the system that was eventually adopted would have differentiated between urban and rural dwellers, and applied to oil, gas and coal but not to electricity.

The levy, initially set at 17 euros ($25) per tonne of carbon dioxide emissions, would have translated into a rise in the price of fuel for cars, domestic heating and factories.

(Reporting by Gerard Bon and Sophie Hardach)

news20091229jt1

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

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009
High court hits Aug. 30 vote disparity
Poll 'unconstitutional' but stands
OSAKA (Kyodo) The Aug. 30 general election that brought the Democratic Party of Japan to power was "unconstitutional" because the disparity in the value of a vote reached as high as 2.30, the Osaka High Court declared Monday.

While rejecting a demand by an Osaka voter that the election returns in the Osaka No. 9 district be nullified, presiding Judge Kitaru Narita said, "The House of Representatives election, in which the disparity in vote value exceeded 2, is against the spirit of the Constitution."

It is the first judgment of unconstitutionality since the combination of single-seat districts and proportional representation voting was introduced for Lower House elections in 1996.

In the August race, a vote in the Kochi No. 3 district, which has the fewest eligible voters in the nation, was worth 2.30 times as much as a vote in the Chiba No. 4 district, which has the most registered voters, according to government data.

The vote value disparity between the Kochi No. 3 district and the Osaka No. 9 district was 2.05.

"It is not acceptable constitutionally for the legislative body to leave the current situation, in which the disparity exceeds 2, as it is," Narita said.

But the judge added that the election itself is valid because "it would go against the public interest if its outcome is nullified."

It was the first ruling out of eight similar suits filed by voters. During the Osaka High Court litigation, the plaintiff argued that the election failed to provide equal voting rights to the electorate.


[LIFE IN JAPAN]
Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009
HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Reconciliatory value of a visit to Nanjing
By BRIAN A. VICTORIA
Yellow Springs, Ohio

Dear Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama,

You have repeatedly emphasized the need for the creation of an East Asian community. You wrote in the New York Times in August: "The East Asian region, which is showing increasing vitality, must be recognized as Japan's basic sphere of being. So we must continue to build frameworks for stable economic cooperation and security across the region."

While I could not agree more with your sentiments, all of us who are acquainted with Japan's modern history are well aware of this country's troubled past with its Asian neighbors, most especially China and Korea. You, of course, are well aware of this legacy, for you wrote: "Due to historical and cultural conflicts as well as conflicting national security interests, we must recognize that there are numerous difficult political issues." However, you then added: "The more these problems are discussed bilaterally, the greater the risk that emotions become inflamed and nationalism intensified."

Although intractable problems like territorial disputes may best be settled in a multinational framework, I suggest that some events in a nation's history are so traumatic that they need to be addressed directly by the parties involved.

In Japan's case, for example, the atomic bombings of two predominantly civilian-populated cities remain, 60 years later, seared in the nation's memory. Those events were behind the widespread hope that U.S. President Barack Obama would visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki during his recent visit to Japan.

In China's case there is one incident that, more than any other, symbolizes its unhappy relationship with Japan in the 20th century: That which the world knows as the December 1937 Rape of Nanjing.

Needless to say, the exact nature and scale of what occurred at Nanjing remains a matter of acrimonious debate, especially in Japan. Yet, when one reads the words of Commanding Gen.Iwane Matsui, spoken shortly before his execution as a war criminal, there can be no doubt that something horrific occurred. "I am deeply ashamed of the Nanjing Incident," Iwane said. "I told (my staff) that the enhancement of Imperial prestige we had accomplished had been debased in a single stroke by the riotous conduct of the troops."

No doubt some in Japan would claim there is no need to further address the past, pointing to the numerous statements of war apology made by Japan's various postwar leaders, most especially that of former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama on Aug. 15, 1995. Yet, only two years later, on Aug. 28, 1997, Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto acknowledged: "We must continue our persistent efforts so that China and the other nations of Asia have no reason to doubt us."

It is in this spirit that I ask you to consider making a personal trip to Nanjing to pay your respects, on behalf of the Japanese people, to those many Chinese who were so brutally and needlessly killed. The power of your physical presence will make a far more powerful statement than mere words can ever convey. Should there be any doubt, one only has to recall the impact made by then German Chancellor Willy Brandt when, during a 1970 visit to Poland, he silently knelt in front of the memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943.

Finally, should you wonder why I, an American, make this proposal, the reason is that as a convert to the Soto Zen school of Buddhism, my spiritual life has been deeply enriched by a tradition that was born and nurtured in both China and Japan. Hence, acknowledging the debt of gratitude I owe both peoples, I cannot but wish for their mutual happiness and welfare. Questions of economic benefit notwithstanding, this cannot be accomplished in the absence of a heartfelt reconciliation between these two great peoples.

Commenting on the ruling, Takemitsu Kadono, the Osaka Prefecture election board chief, said: "It is a very tough decision. We will decide what to do through discussions with the central government."

Ruling on the general election of September 2005, in which the disparity reached as high as 2.17, the grand bench of the Supreme Court determined it was constitutional. But of the 15 justices, six offered a dissenting opinion.

On Monday's high court ruling, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said an unconstitutional state of affairs is not desirable and it is necessary to eliminate it as soon as possible, although he did not elaborate.

Tokuji Izumi, a former Supreme Court justice, said, "Voters in overpopulated areas like Osaka exercise only one-half the voting right compared with those in sparsely populated districts, and it is obvious such a situation is against the Constitution.

"The Diet needs to revise the zoning of the single-seat electoral districts by the next general election," he said.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009
Tokyo homeless shelter opens
Holiday substitute for '08 Hibiya Park tent city
By MARIKO KATO
Staff writer

A holiday-season shelter set up by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government opened Monday in Shibuya Ward to take in hundreds of laid-off workers.

Funded by the central government, the shelter is a substitute for the tent village set up last year by antipoverty groups in Hibiya Park.

The shelter at the National Olympics Memorial Youth Center will be open through Jan. 4. The complex is the renovated athletes' village for the 1964 Summer Games.

"It is a more difficult situation than last year and the problem has become long-term," Naoto Kan, deputy prime minister and state strategy minister, said while viewing the complex in the afternoon.

Labor and welfare minister Akira Nagatsuma and Mizuho Fukushima, another Cabinet member and leader of the Social Democratic Party, also visited the shelter.

At this time last year, daily reports from the Hibiya Park tent village dominated the holiday news, and about 500 workers received free food, shelter and consultations from nongovernmental organizations and other volunteers.

This year, the government decided to take the initiative and will provide similar support, opening up 500 rooms at the shelter.

"We have already received 350 applications and it looks like it may reach 500," a staff member said.

The complex is open to homeless people who have signed up at government-run Hello Work job centers to look for employment, or registered beforehand by telephone. By early afternoon, more than 100 people had settled in.

The shelter reflects the government's concern that employment conditions have not improved since last year.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose for the first time in four months to 5.2 percent in November. In the same month, the ratio of job offers to job seekers was a seasonally adjusted 0.45, roughly half the figure at the same time last year.

"There was a man in his 60s who was too ill to work, and had been living in a capsule hotel until yesterday, and three young people who had been living in a park," Nagatsuma said after he spoke to some of the job seekers inside the complex.

Makoto Yuasa, an antipoverty activist and leader of last year's tent village, also visited the shelter as an adviser to the Cabinet and applauded the government's actions.

news20091229jt2

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

[LIFE IN JAPAN]
Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009
Piecemeal temp jobs at agencies face ban
Kyodo News

An advisory panel to the labor minister issued a report Monday recommending that staffing agencies be prohibited from registering workers on individual contracts for specific jobs that pay only when work is available.

The report, which also proposes banning the practice of sending workers for short-term manufacturing jobs, comes in line with a government plan to submit a bill to the Diet to improve the working conditions of temporary staff by tightening the law regulating their dispatch.

About 2.02 million people worked as temp staff as of June 2008, and some 440,000 of them would likely be subject to the proposed regulations, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.

The move, aimed at stabilizing employment, signifies a policy shift to tighten control on the temporary worker system, which has experienced gradual deregulation in staffing services since the law took effect in 1986.

The subcommittee's report recommends prohibiting the dispatch of temp workers on a registration basis, except for 26 types of jobs that require professional skills and expertise, including secretarial work and translation, and jobs involving the dispatch of elderly workers.

It also seeks a ban on dispatching temporary workers for manufacturing jobs, except in cases where staffing agencies conclude long-term job contracts with workers.

For clarification, the regulations will be put into practice on a date set by ordinance within three years after the revised law is promulgated.

Among registration-basis temp jobs, those that match the needs of workers and face few problems, including clerical jobs, will be prohibited after five years at the latest.

Conditions of so-called registered temp workers — those who register with staffing companies and get an employment contract only for the duration of a job — are particularly poor, critics say.


[LIFE IN JAPAN]
Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009
THE ZEIT GIST
Stray observations on booming pet culture
There are more pets than children in Japan, but troubling attitudes about treatment of animals are also widespread
By IAN PRIESTLEY

Pets are big business these days. Cat and dog cafes, animal accessory shops, dog hotels and even aesthetic salons for animals are easy to find. On weekends, in the large park near my house, I see people walking what appear to be entrants in a pedigree dog competition: dachshunds in mini-sweaters promenade alongside beribboned King Charles spaniels. Many a pet's lifestyle would be the envy of most salarymen.

However, the park — like many others in Japan — is also home to a legion of animals who live a life far removed from those of the coddled pets. After they have gone home with their owners, dozens of stray cats remain.

The number of animals abandoned every year in Japan is high. An investigation conducted by the Environment Ministry estimated that each year around 350,000 animals are put down at government-managed control centers. Some owners see dumping unwanted pets in a park as a better alternative to taking them to a control center — it is certainly less troublesome, given that no money needs to be paid, nor reasons given.

Recently in the local park I came across one cat that was covered in sores, scratching to get at the fleas that seemed to have eaten away half of an ear. A young boy approached the animal but his mother quickly pulled him away. "Kitanai (dirty)," she warned.

The cat was clearly in distress, and I decided to see if there was something I could do. A Web search and a phone call later, I was talking to the ARK (Animal Refuge Kansai) representative in Tokyo, Briar Simpson.

ARK takes in abandoned animals and tries to find them new homes, but it also focuses on activism for proper treatment of animals. On this front, the organization believes widespread change is needed in Japan, all the way from government through to animal breeders, sellers and pet owners.

ARK's Tokyo branch, which started up in the spring of 2005, responded swiftly to my call. They contacted the park keeper and arranged a meeting to discuss the welfare of the strays. Also in attendance at the meeting was an elderly woman who was introduced as the park's "unofficial cat minder." She agreed to buy medicine for the cat (using donated money), and promised to keep a close eye on "Shiro-chan" — it turned out that the woman calls many of the strays by name.

Her position is a tricky one, but increasingly common. Feeding cats in parks is generally discouraged, as the authorities don't want to make the dumping of pets seem like a viable option. The sheer number of strays in some parks, though, has led to volunteers being allowed to at least ensure that cats are fed and neutered.

After Shiro-chan's case was settled, Simpson spoke with me about the challenges ARK faces in its work. As she sees it, many problems come down to a lack of education.

"Last week, we had a woman in Yokohama who called to say that there were two stray cats who had just had kittens that had come into her garden," she said. "In this case, we'll spay the mother cats and put them back, and the (volunteer) will feed them . . . The kittens, we will re-home."

But the cats were lucky that the caller had not followed the advice offered by an acquaintance: "Put them in a plastic bag and put them in the rubbish," she was counselled.

Much of ARK's work focuses on enlightening people, especially children, about the responsibilities of animal care. Staff members go to schools and give talks about what animals require to remain healthy and stress-free.

"It's what people are used to," Simpson says. "I went to a pet expo recently, and there were animals there in cages that did not look healthy to me and were not displaying natural animal behavior. They were either asleep because they were so tired, or just stressed. But if that was all you had seen from a young age, these kind of pet shops, you may not be able to see that there's something wrong."

ARK was founded by a British woman, Elizabeth Oliver, in Kansai in 1990. The Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995 was a major challenge for the group early on, with around 600 animals rescued in the wake of the disaster, but it also jump-started the scale of their operations. The group's volunteer and staff numbers continued to grow in the years following and it became a certified nonprofit organization in 1999.

Although ARK relies heavily on the desire and dedication of its Japanese volunteers and staff, I wondered whether its operations might seem a little "colonial" — Westerners teaching Japanese about animal rights.

"It's no longer a question of culture," in Simpson's view. "I don't really like to use the word 'rights,' " she says. "It's just a question of humane treatment of animals. It's a feature of a good society. I wouldn't want to live in a society that didn't have that idea . . . I think a country with the second-largest economy in the world can do better than it does."

Japanese photojournalist Shigemichi Oishi's work has done a lot to raise awareness and encourage institutional change. Photographs he took at a government-run animal control center, first published in Days magazine, include disturbing shots of dogs and cats prior to and after their visit to the so-called "dream box," where they are gassed with carbon dioxide.

Animals that end up in the control centers are either picked up from the street or taken there by owners who no longer want to look after them. From then, animals have approximately a week for someone to adopt them before they are killed.

"Now that the number of pets (in Japan) has surpassed the number of children, perhaps we should question the overheated state of pet culture," Oishi argues in the essay that accompanies his photographs.

Criticism of the number of animals being killed is growing, and the government is feeling the pressure. The Environment Ministry has set a goal of reducing the number of animals killed in control centers by half.

In June 2006, the government announced changes to the Animal Protection Act, tightening regulations on breeders and pet shop owners and increasing penalties for violations. They now must meet certain criteria for the treatment of animals before they can be registered to operate. The maximum fine for failing to provide animals with food and water has been increased from ¥300,000 to ¥500,000. The penalty for killing an animal can be as stiff as a fine of ¥1 million or one year in prison.

By and large, though, laws are still fairly lax. Breeders, owners and sellers are legally required to provide animals with only the basic requirements for survival: food, water and a cage big enough "to make regular movement such as getting up, lying down or flapping their wings in a normal position" possible.

Some breeders and sellers treat animals as nothing more than a commodity. Sales campaigns and special offers on certain pets are common, and breeders often aggressively tap trends and fads, as Oishi noted in his research.

"When I began my investigation, there were many golden retrievers and Labrador retrievers (in pet shops). At one time, there were many Siberian huskies. After the popularity boom of a certain breed has faded, the same phenomenon (large-scale abandonment) has always followed."

CONTINUED ON newsjt3

news20091229jt3

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

[LIFE IN JAPAN]
Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009
THE ZEIT GIST
Stray observations on booming pet culture
There are more pets than children in Japan, but troubling attitudes about treatment of animals are also widespread
By IAN PRIESTLEY

CONTINUED FROM newsjt2

ARK has been involved in a number of cases against breeders. In 2007, the organization investigated a breeder in Saga Prefecture, who kept Shiba dogs in cages covered in feces, stacked on top of each other, with dead animals caged together with the living. ARK contacted the governor of Saga and the police, and collected a petition. Media coverage amped up the pressure until the local government finally prosecuted.

Pet owners also have important responsibilities to live up to, of course, and local governments are working to make them do so. It is getting harder to simply dump a pet at a control center, wave goodbye and not have to think about the consequences. Employees at some centers now try and persuade owners not to abandon their animals, and make them fully aware of what will happen if they do.

In particular, the city of Kumamoto has taken a hard line, in some cases requiring owners to watch the animal being killed as a condition of abandonment. This does seem to be having an effect. The number of animals killed at the Kumamoto control center was 78 in 2007, down from 946 a decade earlier.

Once accepted by control centers, however, animals face almost certain death due to people's lack of willingness to adopt. Around 98 percent of cats brought in are killed.

Cuteness is a major criterion for pet choice (hence the over-representation of puppies and kittens in pet shop windows), and on this front animals in shelters tend to score low — many are disabled, blind, old or bear clear evidence of the kind of life they have led. The cuteness factor, or loss of it over time, also has a lot to do with animals being abandoned in the first place.

A too-common example is a call recently received by an ARK shelter in Tokyo, from a woman who had two miniature dachshunds that she simply didn't want anymore. In this case ARK asked for a ¥30,000 surrender fee, which will go to the animals' upkeep, guaranteeing their safety and care. Simpson describes her as "someone who made a poor choice . . . If she had thought more, she may not have got them in the first place." Simpson wishes pet buyers would "smarten up."

The scene in my local park, where the cat population seems to be flourishing, suggests there remain many people with some learning to do.

Shiro-chan has disappeared, but the patch she once lurked in is now frequented by a younger tortoise-shell. Its fur was suspiciously well-kept the first time I saw it — recently abandoned, it seemed. The last time, its fur had lost its sheen, and it was scratching the sores that were beginning to develop around its ears.

news20091229lat1

[Today's Newspaper] from [Los Angeles Times]

[Environment]
COLUMN ONE
There's a lot at our disposal
Society's garbage doesn't just disappear. At the Puente Hills Landfill, a third of Los Angeles County's trash adds to a huge mountain of muck every year.
By Mike Anton
December 29, 2009

There's an unexpected beauty to this pile of junk as a troupe of heavy equipment performs its daily dance. Dump trucks cough up their contents and glide away. Bulldozers swoop in from behind, and piles of lumber, cardboard, plastic and half-eaten food roll off their blades like sets of ocean waves.

The noise at the Puente Hills Landfill, one of the nation's largest garbage heaps, is unrelenting. The air is slightly sweet with decay. The ground pulses like an earthquake.

Big Mike wades into the mess.

Mike Speiser is 6 feet 2, 400 pounds and sports a shaved head that resembles a dinosaur egg, with devil's horns dangling from each earlobe. Big Mike's job is to compact the garbage. He is a craftsman, among the best in his trade, and his tool is a 60-ton bulldozer with steel-spiked wheels that looks as intimidating as he does and purees everything it touches.

"It's kind of like laying concrete. You've got to work it to get the proper grade," said Speiser, 45, a genial man who has been squeezing himself into the cab of this machine for nearly 20 years. "For some people, it's like they're born to do it. To have the blade at just the right angle. . . . Piles of trash don't have wheels on it, you know?"

This graveyard of our wants and needs sits hidden in plain sight along a truck-choked stretch of the 60 Freeway in the San Gabriel Valley. Here, the verdant Puente Hills, the result of eons of seismic uplift and erosion, have been reshaped by half a century of consumption and waste. Nearly 4 million tons of junk and muck, one-third of Los Angeles County's trash, is added to this man-made mountain each year.

Beginning before dawn, a parade of trucks bounces up a sinuous roller coaster of a road that's constantly burping from the digestion below. They deposit their loads on the day's "cell" -- an acre that will rise 20 feet in the next few hours before it's entombed beneath a layer of dirt.

Rest in pieces.

We've become programmed to separate our trash into the properly colored bins. But once the garbage man hauls our detritus away, most people don't give much thought to its next stop. We come home from work and -- abracadabra!abracadabra! -- the bins are empty and ready to be filled again.

The week after Christmas is a good time to consider where the stuff goes. These are the days when our bingeing and purging of consumer goods reaches a crescendo and workers at the Puente Hills Landfill are as busy as Santa's elves were last week. Mounds of wrapping paper and packaging. The remnants of holiday hams and untouched fruitcakes. More than 380,000 Christmas trees.

"People drive right by it and fly over it all the time without giving it much thought. It's only when you get on the ground that you fully appreciate the enormity and scope of the place," said Matthew Coolidge, director of the Center for Land Use Interpretation, a Culver City-based think tank that combines art with conventional research.

"Seen up close, there's a sense of awe, a percussive awakening to the scale of the waste material that most people think just magically goes away," he said.

The center sponsored a tour of Puente Hills last year as part of an exhibit titled "Post Consumed: The Landscape of Waste in Los Angeles." Tickets sold out in minutes.

Participants rode in a white luxury motor coach and got an introduction to solid waste engineering, as well as a lesson in the philosophy and behavioral psychology of garbage.

"We wanted people to reconnect with their things . . . and follow their trajectory to the landfill," Coolidge said. "The world is composed of two equal forces, construction and destruction. That's the full cycle of life. For everything that is created, there's an end."

After lunch, the motor coach lumbered over a ridgeline and finished the tour in Rose Hills Memorial Park & Mortuary.

The cherished and the forgotten buried side by side for eternity.

In the way that layers of sedimentary rock in the Grand Canyon tell the Earth's story, a core sample of the Puente Hills Landfill, 500 feet deep in places, would reveal a post-World War II cultural history of Los Angeles.

Shards of Thighmasters and unused bread makers stacked upon scraps of Members Only jackets and pink Princess telephones. A stratum of compressed eight-track tapes, disco records and avocado-colored dishware. A layer of tie-dyed shirts and shattered black-and-white console televisions resting upon a foundation of steel beer cans, remains of Swanson TV dinners and ashtrays the size of dinner plates.

"Underneath our feet, there's a snapshot of our society at any given point," said Bob Asgian, chief engineer for the landfill, which is run by the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County. "We get everything that you can imagine dumped here -- and some you can't."

Police occasionally visit Puente Hills in search of missing people. Bodies have been found rolled up in a carpet. A skull was discovered in a carry-on flight bag.

Even the most prosaic of garbage has a back story. When Bill Rathje was a young archaeology professor, he hit upon the idea that the best way for students to learn the science was by sifting through trash.

In 1973, the Harvard-trained archaeologist started the Garbage Project, an endeavor that sought to place a 15-year-old steak excavated from an Illinois landfill in the same company as corn cobs unearthed in a Mayan midden.

"Everyone thought I was nuts," he said.

Rathje is known today as "The Indiana Jones of Solid Waste," a scientist and author who helped popularize the field of "garbology." His love affair with litter has led him to landfills around the world and to some conclusions about human nature.

We waste a lot of food; 10% of fresh garbage by weight is edible food, with little variation between rich and poor folks, Rathje says. People understate the amount of alcohol they drink by as much as 40%. People also lie about what they eat. Unhealthy food is under-reported; food that's good for you is over-reported.

Though many believe that fast-food packaging, polystyrene foam and disposable diapers make up the majority of the garbage in landfills, the fact is they do not, Rathje found. Puente Hills, like most modern landfills, receives roughly equal amounts of household garbage, construction debris and industrial and commercial waste.

"Archaeologists are always looking for tombs and riches, but 98% of what they study in the field is old garbage," said Rathje, 64, who has taught at the University of Arizona and Stanford. "The best time capsule in the world is a landfill."

A century ago, what is now the Puente Hills Landfill was part of a sprawling dairy operation run by Frank Pellissier, who arrived from France in 1888 and followed in the footsteps of his brother Germain, one of early Los Angeles' biggest land barons.

In the 1950s, this part of the San Gabriel Valley turned from agriculture to industry as well as a place to accommodate the region's burgeoning garbage. The Valley of the Dumps, some called it. The Puente Hills facility was acquired by the sanitation districts in 1970.

Just don't call it a dump.

"That would be both rude and incorrect," Asgian said.

Garbage isn't simply dumpeddumped here. Dirt is excavated from hillsides that are then sealed with liners and barriers. The trash is graded with precision using laser-equipped surveying devices to mimic the surrounding terrain. Green waste is recycled and used as cover. Recycled asphalt is used to build roads. Trees grown from seed at the facility's nursery are planted on finished slopes and nurtured by sprinklers shooting treated wastewater. Methane from below is collected in 30 miles of pipe and converted to electricity on-site. The battle against sea gulls is won through superior air power -- tiny screeching rockets and, on occasion, a remote-controlled airplane.

Like any large construction site, the landfill is a dangerous place. The unguarded have been buried alive under tons of trash, the unlucky crushed to death by trucks that toppled over.

"This thing isn't easy to stop. There's lots of blind spots. You don't want to tag somebody with it," said Steve Utley, who drops dirt onto finished cells using a 50-foot-long vehicle that pivots near its midsection and weighs some 250,000 pounds. "But I can control it. I can make this thing talk. How many people get to go to work on toys? It's like a big Tonka toy to me."

It's also a good-paying blue-collar job. Many of the landfill's heavy-equipment operators are veterans who earn $6,700 a month, and more than a few sons have followed in their fathers' smelly footsteps.

"Once you get in, you don't walk away because this is a killer job," said Utley, 52, who has worked here half his life. "We've got good benefits, good retirement, deferred comp, longevity -- which is like a bonus they give you the longer you stay."

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