news20100830gdn

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[guardian.co.uk > Environment > Biofuels]

Friends of the Earth urges end to 'land grab' for biofuels
Charity predicts more food shortages in Africa because of EU target to produce 10% of all transport fuels from biofuels by 2020

Katie Allen
The Guardian, Monday 30 August 2010
Article history

{Friends of the Earth says that biofuel crops, including sugar cane, 'are competing directly with food crops for fertile land'. Photograph: Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters}

European Union countries must drop their biofuels targets or else risk plunging more Africans into hunger and raising carbon emissions, according to Friends of the Earth (FoE).

In a campaign launching today, the charity accuses European companies of land-grabbing throughout Africa to grow biofuel crops that directly compete with food crops. Biofuel companies counter that they consult with local governments, bring investment and jobs, and often produce fuels for the local market.

FoE has added its voice to an NGO lobby that claims local communities are not properly consulted and that forests are being cleared in a pattern that echoes decades of exploitation of other natural resources in Africa.

In its report "Africa: Up for Grabs", the group says that the key to halting the land-grab is for EU countries to drop a goal to produce 10% of all transport fuels from biofuels by 2020.

"The amount of land being taken in Africa to meet Europe's increasing demand for biofuels is underestimated and out of control," Kirtana Chandrasekaran, food campaigner for FoE in the UK, said. "Especially in Africa, as long as there's massive demand for biofuels from the European market, it will be hard to control. If we implement the biofuels targets it will only get worse. This is just a small taste of what's to come."

A number of European companies have planted biofuel crops such as jatropha, sugar cane and palm oil in Africa and elsewhere to tap into rising demand. But the trend has coincided with soaring food prices and ignited a debate over the dangers of using agricultural land for fuel.

Producers argue they typically farm land not destined, or suitable for, food crops. But campaigners reject those claims, with FoE saying that biofuel crops, including non-edible ones such as jatropha, "are competing directly with food crops for fertile land".

ActionAid claimed this year that European biofuel targets could result in up to 100 million more hungry people, increased food prices and landlessness.

Natural disasters including floods in Pakistan and a heatwave in Russia have wiped out crops in recent weeks and intensified fears of widespread food shortages.

The United Nations has singled out biofuel demand as a factor in what it estimates will be as much as a 40% jump in food prices over the coming decade.

Estimates of how much land in Africa is being farmed by foreign companies and governments, either for food or fuel crops, vary significantly. The FoE report focuses on 11 African countries in what it sees as a rush by foreign companies to farm there. In Tanzania, for example, it says that about 40 foreign-owned companies, including some from the UK, have invested in agrofuel developments. It argues that such activities are actually raising carbon emissions in many cases because virgin forests are being cut down.

Lip service

The report concludes: "While foreign companies pay lip service to the need for 'sustainable development', agrofuel production and demand for land is resulting in the loss of pasture and forests, destroying natural habitat and probably causing an increase in greenhouse gas emissions."

Sun Biofuels, a British company farming land in Mozambique and Tanzania and named in the report, criticised the charity's research as "emotional and anecdotal" and said that its time would be better spent looking into ways to develop equitable farming models in Africa.

Sun's chief executive, Richard Morgan, said his company's leasing of land in Tanzania had taken three years, during which 11 communities, comprising about 11,000 people, were consulted.

"I find it insulting from Friends of the Earth. Somehow it's indirect criticism of Mozambiquan and Tanzanian governments that they would allow this dispossession to take place," he said.

Morgan conceded that such a protracted process could raise expectations among local people of jobs and investment that could not be met, and said that it was often those negative testimonies that were collected by newspapers and NGOs. But he insisted that Sun was creating jobs where possible and that much of the biofuel production was destined for domestic markets in Africa rather than Europe.

"There's an opportunity here to get investment into local communities in an ethical way," he said.

In many cases, biofuel production was replacing or reducing illegal tree felling, Morgan added. "Tanzania has a large landless community felling forest land. If you give employment to those people as an alternative, there is a chance you can intervene commercially there in a good way."

Biofuel crops were being grown on land that was not intended for food production, he said: "Often we are growing trees on land already cut down for charcoal or in some cases tobacco. We haven't displaced anyone."

But FoE argues that "most of the foreign companies are developing agrofuels to sell on the international market". Its campaigners in Africa are demanding that African states should immediately suspend further land acquisitions and investments in agrofuels. Instead, they want to see fundamental changes in consumption habits in developed countries – be it making more use of public transport or adopting different diets.

Chandrasekaran said: "Biofuels is just a small part of what is happening. What needs to change are consumption patterns in the west. That means [eating less] meat and dairy, given more than a third of the world's agricultural land goes to feeding meat and dairy production. It also means [reducing] consumption of fuel."


[guardian.co.uk > Business > Airline industry]

Few air travellers offset carbon emissions, study finds
Only 7% of air passengers are funding green energy projects and offsetting the carbon emissions of their flights, a Civil Aviation Authority survey at Stansted airport has found

Tim Webb
guardian.co.uk, Monday 30 August 2010 14.36 BST
Article history

{Most holidaymakers know about carbon offsetting – but few are using the schemes, the CAA found. Photograph: Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters}

Only 7% of flyers are funding green energy projects to offset the carbon emitted on their flights, according to a survey.

A study of passengers at Stansted airport revealed that 93% of those questioned did not offset their flights. Ignorance cannot be blamed: 56% of those questioned by the Civil Aviation Authority knew what the practice meant.

Asked if they had taken fewer flights over the previous year on environmental grounds, only 9% of those asked said yes. Most of this 9% took one or two fewer flights. When asked if their choice of airline had been affected by how environmentally friendly they were, only 3% replied in the affirmative.

In total 318 travellers were surveyed in September last year, the most recently available figures. British Airways and easyJet, which both allow passengers to offset their flights directly on their websites, said that the number who chose to do so this year was "static" compared to last year, without giving more details.

Carbon offsetting was first practised by individuals on a meaningful scale about five years ago in response to mounting concern over global warming. It fostered a new industry which set up green energy projects, mostly in the developing world, which consumers could fund to offset their emissions.

Initially, regulation of the new industry was lax and some projects were not properly audited to make sure that the claimed carbon emission savings were actually taking place.

Even though the carbon offsetting industry is now more professional, some environmentalists believe the principle is misguided.

Friends of the Earth said: "Carbon offsetting is a con – it encourages businesses and individuals to carry on polluting when we urgently need to reduce our carbon emissions. It allows people to develop the mindset that it's OK to carry on polluting if green schemes in far-off locations make up for it.

"The greenest thing holidaymakers can do is choose a location that is closer to home, that can be reached by coach or by train. The travel industry must do more to promote nearby towns, coasts and countryside, and the government must ensure rail is a fast, convenient and affordable alternative to flying."

news20100830gb

[News] from [greenbiz.com]

[GreenBiz.com > News > Climate, Energy & Climate, More...]

TVA Outlines Plans for Idling Coal-Fired Units

By ClimateBiz Staff
Published August 30, 2010
Tags: Climate, Energy & Climate, More... Climate, Energy & Climate, Energy & Utilities

KNOXVILLE, TN — The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) plans to begin idling nine coal-fired power generation units in the next fiscal year as it moves toward cleaner sources of energy.

These nine units represent about 1,000 megawatts of capacity for the TVA, which is owned by the federal government. It joins a growing list of power generators slowly phasing out coal-fired units in order to reduce a range of air emissions contributing to air pollution and climate change.

Since last summer, Xcel, Progress Energy Carolinas, and the Intermountain Power Agency have opted to shut down existing coal-fired units or abandon plans for additional coal-fired capacity due to a variety of regulatory and environmental concerns.

There are also legal implications for existing coal-fired power plants. A 2004 case involving the TVA, for example, made headlines last week over the right to sue power plant operators to force a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2004, a handful of state governments and land trusts sued TVA and other utilities to make them reduce their carbon footprints. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court sided with the plaintiffs. The Obama Administration urged the Supreme Court last week to return the case to the 2nd Circuit Court because the EPA was moving forward with implementing regulations to curb greenhouse gas emissions, which angered environmental groups.

The TVA will idle the coal-fired units between 2011 and 2015, while at the same time increasing electricity generation from cleaner sources, such as natural gas and nuclear. The TVA, however, has had issues with nuclear generation this year because the Tennessee River has been too warm to properly cool the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Alabama.

According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, the TVA lost nearly $50 million in lost power generation because the river was too hot to cool the reactors of its largest nuclear plant.

news20100829nn

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[nature.com > Nature News]

Published online 29 August 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.436
News

Hackers blind quantum cryptographers
Lasers crack commercial encryption systems, leaving no trace.

Zeeya Merali

{A way to intercept photons of light to create a security leak has been discovered.
Punchstock}

Quantum hackers have performed the first 'invisible' attack on two commercial quantum cryptographic systems. By using lasers on the systems — which use quantum states of light to encrypt information for transmission — they have fully cracked their encryption keys, yet left no trace of the hack.

Quantum cryptography is often touted as being perfectly secure. It is based on the principle that you cannot make measurements of a quantum system without disturbing it. So, in theory, it is impossible for an eavesdropper to intercept a quantum encryption key without disrupting it in a noticeable way, triggering alarm bells.

Vadim Makarov at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim and his colleagues have now cracked it. "Our hack gave 100% knowledge of the key, with zero disturbance to the system," he says.

In standard quantum cryptographic techniques, the sender — called 'Alice' for convenience — generates a secret key by encoding classical bit values of 0 and 1 using two different quantum states of photons, or particles of light. The receiver, 'Bob', reads off these bit values using a detector that measures the quantum state of incoming photons. In theory, an eavesdropper, 'Eve', will disturb the properties of these photons before they reach Bob, so that if Alice and Bob compare parts of their key, they will notice a mismatch.

In Makarov and colleagues' hack, Eve gets round this constraint by 'blinding' Bob's detector — shining a continuous, 1-milliwatt laser at it. While Bob's detector is thus disabled, Eve can then intercept Alice's signal. The research is published online in Nature Phototonics today¹.

Breaking the rules

The cunning part is that while blinded, Bob's detector cannot function as a 'quantum detector' that distinguishes between different quantum states of incoming light. However, it does still work as a 'classical detector' — recording a bit value of 1 if it is hit by an additional bright light pulse, regardless of the quantum properties of that pulse.

That means that every time Eve intercepts a bit value of 1 from Alice, she can send a bright pulse to Bob, so that he also receives the correct signal, and is entirely unaware that his detector has been sabotaged. There is no mismatch between Eve and Bob's readings because Eve sends Bob a classical signal, not a quantum one. As quantum cryptographic rules no longer apply, no alarm bells are triggered, says Makarov.

"We have exploited a purely technological loophole that turns a quantum cryptographic system into a classical system, without anyone noticing," says Makarov.

Makarov and his team have demonstrated that the hack works on two commercially available systems: one sold by ID Quantique (IDQ), based in Geneva, Switzerland, and one by MagiQ Technologies, based in Boston, Massachusetts. "Once I had the systems in the lab, it took only about two months to develop a working hack," says Makarov.

This is the latest in a line of quantum hacks. Earlier this year, a group led by Hoi-Kwong Lo at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada, also showed that an IDQ commercial system could be fully hacked. However, in that case, the eavesdropper did introduce some noticeable errors in the quantum key².

Grégoire Ribordy, chief executive of IDQ, says that the hack of Makarov and his group is "far more practical to implement and goes further than anything that has gone before".

Both IDQ and MagiQ welcome the hack for exposing potential vulnerabilities in their systems. Makorov informed both companies of the details of the hack before publishing, so that patches could made, avoiding any possible security risk.

"We provide open systems for researchers to play with and we are glad they are doing it," says Anton Zavriyev, director of research and development at MagiQ.

Ribordy and Zavriyev stress that the open versions of their systems that are sold to university researchers are not the same as those sold for security purposes, which contain extra layers of protection. For instance, the fully commercial versions of IDQ's system also use classical cryptographic techniques as a safety net, says Ribordy.

Makarov agrees that the hack should not make people lose confidence in quantum cryptography. "Our work will ultimately make these systems stronger," he says. "If you want state-of-the-art security, quantum cryptography is still the best place to go."

References
1. Lydersen, L. et al. Nature Photonics advance online publication doi:10.1038/NPHOTON.2010.214 (2010).
2. Xu, F., Qi, B. & Lo, H.-K. Preprint at http://arxiv.org/abs/1005.2376v1 (2010).

news20100829gdn

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[guardian.co.uk > Environment > Oil]

Deepwater Horizon fears resurface as rigs probe for oil under Arctic ice
ExxonMobil and Shell compete to drill in wilderness despite Greenpeace's fears a broken well could gush for years

Robin McKie, Science editor
The Observer, Sunday 29 August 2010
Article history

{An arctic wolf tries to escape from a fragment of melting ice floe. Greenpeace fear the region is gravely threatened by oil companies. Photograph: Jim Brandenburg/Getty Images/Minden Pictures RM}

In a few days' time, officials at the Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum in Greenland will reveal the winners of a new round of licences to drill for oil and gas in its waters. The announcement promises to be explosive.

Among those waiting are most of the world's leading oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Shell and Norway's StatOil. Watching with equal attention will be the planet's leading green groups, who they have pledged to block every effort to drill in the Arctic.

"The Arctic is the last pristine refuge in the northern hemisphere and it is simply not acceptable for oil companies to come here to drill and risk triggering a disaster that would dwarf the Deepwater Horizon spill," said Ben Ayliffe, senior energy campaigner at Greenpeace. Its ship, the Esperanza, is currently trying to disrupt drilling in the Davis Strait off the Greenland mainland. "We are going to make a real fight of this,"he said.

Last week the future of drilling in the Arctic hit the headlines when it emerged that BP, in the wake of the disastrous oil spill off America's Gulf Coast, would not be bidding for contracts in the region. But the other oil giants will. And it is not hard to understand why.

Last year, the US Geological Survey estimated that there were more than 90bn barrels of oil beneath the Arctic seabed – an estimated 13% of the world's undiscovered reserves – with the waters around Greenland, as well as the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, pinpointed as the most promising zones.

Only a handful of test wells have been sunk so far, and no oil has yet been discovered. Oil companies are confident of success, however, while environmentalists are grimly resigned to the idea of wells being sunk. Greenland, Beaufort and Chukchi are all likely to become sites of future drilling – and of major battles with ecologists.

The irony of this battle is not lost on environmentalists. At present, increased fossil fuel emissions are raising global temperatures and melting ice caps, a process that is making it much easier to drill for fossil fuels, as ice sheets break apart and expose shallower waters in the far north.

The divisive nature of these issues is highlighted in sparsely populated Greenland, the world's largest island. Most of its citizens currently view the prospect of major oil revenues as mouth-watering. At present, Greenland's 57,000 inhabitants rely on fishing and a £400m annual handout from the Danish government to maintain their livelihoods. Oil money could replace the latter and give the country independence from its Danish overlords. Hence the swift reaction last week to accusations that drilling in "iceberg alley" – as the Davis Strait is known – was environmentally hazardous. The country was well prepared, claimed Kuupik Kleist, Greenland's premier. "Of course, we are influenced by what happened in the Gulf of Mexico," he said. "We know that we are talking a huge responsibilty on our shoulders." Most islanders support this view.

But such assurances do little to comfort campaign groups such as Greenpeace. "These waters, like all Arctic waters, are incredibly dangerous," said Ayliffe last week. "They have to have ships on standby to push away icebergs or fire water cannons to deflect them. And then you only have a short window in summer to drill before the ice moves back in."

Greenpeace has targeted Scottish oil company Cairn Energy as its most dangerous foe. Cairn – which is run by former rugby international Bill Gammell, a friend of George Bush and Tony Blair – recently raised several billion pounds from the sale of its stake in its Indian oilfields in Rajasthan and has selected Greenland to be the site of all future exploration efforts. Last week, it announced the discovery of gas reserves there, though it admitted it has yet to find oil. Greenpeace has pledged to block its operations there.

Should there be a blowout of a well in this pristine wilderness, it says, it would be considerably more difficult to drill a relief well than it was in the Gulf of Mexico after a catastrophic explosion crippled BP's Deepwater Horizon rig earlier this year. Oil could be left gushing from a broken well for years, it is claimed.

Such fears have fuelled environmentalists' determination to try to block all drilling efforts in the high latitudes as new licensing rounds are lined up in Greenland for 2011 and 2012.

Other countries, such as the US, Canada and Norway, have imposed tougher new regulations on deep-water drilling. How long they are kept in operation, as Greenland opens up its waters, remains to be seen. At the same, Russia – which already has vast oil and gas drilling operations at Sakhalin – is known to be eyeing the Chukchi Sea, farther north, beyond the Bering Straits that divide Alaska and Asia. All are thought to possess rich oilfields that will become more and more important as the rest of the world's reservoirs dry up over the next two decades.

The pressure on the far north is becoming relentless.

Additional research by Cate Attwood

news20100828gdn

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[guardian.co.uk > News> World news > Pakistan flood]

Saved from Pakistan's endless sea
A month after floods devastated the country, small boats still rescue those strong, and lucky, enough to have survived the waters

Gethin Chamberlain in Shahdadkot
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 28 August 2010 16.28 BST
Article history

{A mother and son, Najeba and Zaheed, from the village of Bago Daro, await a boat sent to rescue them in Sind, Pakistan. They took refuge in the burial ground, the only piece of high ground in the area, five days earlier. Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain}

At first it looks like just another tiny island of ruined and abandoned buildings, poking out of the vast, unnatural inland sea that stretches away into the distance on all sides.

But as the boat edges closer, gliding over the tops of bushes and brushing over raised banks that were once roads, it is clear that this one is different. There are people here, pouring out of their rough shelters, streaming down to the water's edge, shielding their eyes from the sun, squinting to get a better glimpse of salvation.

It is clear, too, that there are far too many to fit on the two small boats that have been sent to rescue them. They will hold 20 people each, but there are maybe 100 or more standing among the graves in the burial ground – the only piece of land high enough in the village of Bago Daro to remain above the floodwaters of the Indus.

People push and shove to get to the boats, wading through the water, men lifting children onto the wooden benches, women with babies clambering over the sides. A few men elbow their way through the mass of bodies and hold their ground: those women and children not strong enough to compete are left behind.

It is all over in minutes, the boatmen pulling on the cords to start the outboard motors, the boats pushing backwards and away. Those not strong or lucky enough to grab a place stand and watch in despair. In the water, a little boy stands bewildered. He does not cry, or wave, or show any emotion. He just stands there, staring blankly, receding into the distance. And then he is gone, obscured by the top of a tree, and the boats are once again out on the open water, heading for the city of Shahdadkot and what amounts, in the flood-ravaged province of Sind, to safety.

Most of the villagers have never been on a boat before. They sit quietly for a while, then start to talk.

It was five days ago that the water arrived, five days that they have been trapped by the rising waters. They had been asleep in their houses, says Nawabi Khatoon, when they realised. They had heard no warnings, she says, cradling the youngest of her four children, one-year-old Zenat. No-one told them their homes, miles from the river, were in the slightest danger.

They have been drinking the flood waters, she says, because there was nothing else. They had no food, no medicines. Her husband is missing, along with their animals. She has no idea if they are alive or dead.

They grabbed what they could, says Shabeer Ahmad, and waded through the rising water to the highest ground they could find: the graveyard. One person drowned, he says; others are very ill. The very sick were not among those who managed to fight their way onto today's rescue mission.

A month into the unfolding disaster, hundreds of thousands of people are still being forced to abandon their homes, fleeing before a fresh surge of water swelling the already overflowing Indus as it rushes towards the sea. High tides have slowed the rate at which the Indus can empty into the Arabian Sea. Hundreds of thousands of people were still being evacuated this week from areas of Sind, including around Shahdadkot and Hyderabad. An estimated 3.6 million people are homeless in Sind alone.


That morning, the boat pushed off two hours late at 9.45 from the levee on the outskirts of the city. First the boatmen were late, then there was no fuel, then there was a crush of men wanting to be ferried back to their villages to retrieve possessions.

Behind the levee, towards the city, the land was mostly dry. In front, there was only water and the tops of trees poking out as far as the horizon. There should be no water here, but a breach in a canal has inundated the vast plain, wiping out villages, livestock and crops, everything that stood in its way.

Local agency NGO's Development Society, a partner of the UK's Action Aid, has rescued about 650 people so far over the last week, Ghaffar Pandrani told me as we sat in the rear of the boat. "They don't have support from our government or anyone. We are only a small group; we can't help them all," he said.

The journey to Bago Daro covered 35km and took the best part of three hours. There was no shade in the boats and the water quickly ran out. The bottom of the boat quickly filled with water and had to be bailed out every few minutes.

The sheer scale of the flood became clear as we headed further away from Shahdadkot. A few broken buildings poked above the surface, but the only signs of life were the water birds and four dogs trapped on a broken levee. They ran backwards and forwards, barking frantically as the boat passed.


By the time the boat returns to Shahdadkot, it is 3.30pm. Yasin Brohi watches it pull up to the levee. The 45-year-old was rescued two days ago with his wife from a scrap of higher ground. It took less than half an hour for his house to disappear. "All we have left is our lives," he says.

A cloud of flies has settled on two-year-old Ambreen Magsi and her brother and sisters. They sit or lie listlessly in the heat of a schoolyard in the abandoned city, where once more than 100,000 people lived.

Shahdadkot's streets are virtually empty, the shops shuttered, a few dogs trotting down the dusty lanes. Ninety per cent of the population has gone, fleeing ahead of the advancing waters.

Ambreen's mother, Nawabzadi, flicks at the flies, which rise up and settle again on her one-year-old sister, Samreen, lying asleep on the concrete. They were at home a week ago when they spotted the water rushing towards their village, Haibat Magsi. Within a couple of hours, it was surrounded. Muzir Ahmed Magsi packed his family onto a tractor and they fled.

"It was so fast rising: it took only a couple of hours," says the 35-year-old, shaking his head in disbelief. "I saw the water in the fields and we got on the tractor and went as fast as it would go." When they looked back, the water was closing over their home.

Everything they ever had has gone, not that it was much to start with. "We are waiting for God to help us because there is no support from the government," Muzir says.

They were farmers. Now they sleep in the schoolyard and wonder what will become of them. They will have to find work as labourers, he says, and try to slowly start again. All gone, he says, and looks away.

An old man and his wife appear in the distance along the levee. Mushtaq Jamali leans heavily on a stick; Islam Hatoum has a few possessions tied in a cloth. Behind them, a digger is pushing more earth up against the bulwark that is all that stands between the city and disaster. Slowly, they make their way towards the point where the boats are tied up. They are confused, hot, disconsolate. They have left their animals behind on a piece of dry ground and tottered along the railway line, and then on to the levee. They want someone to help; they cannot understand why no help has come.

The UN estimates that 800,000 people remain trapped in areas accessible only by air. A fifth of the country is under water. As many as 5 million people have no shelter at all. Sind alone has 1,800 makeshift relief camps, housing about 700,000 people. Disease remains a significant threat and the numbers needing food aid are rising daily. To complicate matters further, the Taliban threatened last week to target what it called the "unacceptable horde" of foreigners involved in the relief efforts.

President Zardari has said recovery will take at least three years. Those in Sind cannot see that far ahead. The planting season is nearly upon them, but there is nowhere to plant. Without crops, there will be no food.

Though the death toll has remained markedly low for such a disaster, at an estimated 1,600, more than 1.2m homes have been damaged or destroyed, and many families have lost everything they owned. For many farmers, the loss of their animals is the cruellest blow: they can rebuild their homes, but their animals represented their real wealth.

UK public donations to the Disasters Emergency Committee have now topped £40m. Still the UN says that the disaster remains underfunded.

Action Aid, which is helping to evacuate those stranded around Shahdadkot, is one of 13 aid agencies that make up the Disasters Emergency Committee. Donations can be made at www.dec.org.uk or by telephone on 0370 60 60 900

news20100827gdn1

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[guardian.co.uk > Environment > Activism]

High UK legal costs deter challenges to environmental damage, UN warns
Government is obliged to financially assist citizens in legal challenges but court procedures are 'prohibitively expensive'

> Comment: Planning challenges and the right of appeal
> Join Piece by piece, the Guardian's campaign to help protect the UK's natural world

Adam Vaughan
guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 August 2010 12.34 BST
Article history

{Pesticides campaigner Georgina Downs celebrates outside the UK's high court after her legal victory, which was then overturned. She welcomed the UN's ruling. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA}

The government is making it too expensive for campaigners to take environmental planning battles through UK courts, a UN tribunal has warned.

The judgment, hailed as hugely important by environmental law experts, could open the door to new rules covering legal costs and encourage more individuals and community groups to take their cases to the courts.

Under the Aarhus convention, which came into force in 2001 and was ratified by the UK in 2005, the government is obliged to give rights and financial help for citizens to mount legal challenges to cases of environmental damage – such as fighting the building of a new road, housing development or a local incinerator. The convention does not cover the legal defence of environmental protesters who commit vandalism or criminal damage to highlight their cause.

But in draft findings published on Wednesday, the convention's compliance committee said the UK was failing to ensure court procedures were not "prohibitively expensive". The committee called on the UK to introduce legislation and practical measures to overcome the financial barriers to environmental justice. Such access to justice is one of the three key pillars of the convention, which also gives the public rights to access environmental information.

James Thornton, CEO of the environment law NGO Client Earth, which brought the case to the compliance committee last year with the Marine Conservation Society, said: "These findings are game-changing for anyone fighting for their environmental rights. At the moment, the government and industries can ride roughshod over their environmental responsibilities, confident that the legal system's failings will make challenges impossible."

He continued: "If the government's word is to mean anything on the international stage, it must move effectively and decisively to remedy the gross unfairness of the UK legal system. For the first time citizens will be able to scrutinise and challenge environmental decisions from a fair position."

The UK courts are an expensive place to fight environmental cases, particularly compared with some of the other 43 European and central Asian countries that have ratified the Aarhus convention. A single day hearing in the UK can cost £100,000, said Client Earth. What's more, the combination of high legal costs of lawyers; loser pays principle; and risk of paying damages to commercial companies in the UK often deters many green campaigners from taking their cases to court in the first place.

The Environmental Law Foundation, which advises individuals and groups on environmental cases, has said nearly a third of its clients cited cost as a barrier to bringing a case to a successful conclusion. A 2007 report commissioned by the European Commission ranked the UK in the bottom five of European countries for affordable legal costs and legal aid, and warned the UK it was making it "prohibitively expensive" to mount environmental court challenges. In March this year, European environment commissioner Janez Potocnik issued Britain a "final warning" over the issue.

Georgina Downs, a British pesticides campaigner who has taken her case to the European Court of Human Rights after UK courts first ruled in her favour and then overturned decision, said: "This is a very important ruling that again highlights the current failings of the UK system for obtaining access to justice for those bringing critical health and environmental challenges that are clearly in the public interest."

She added: "The reason why costs in legal challenges are so high is often because of the amount that legal representatives, particularly barristers, are allowed to charge. For example, some QCs now charge up to £800 an hour for their services, which is outrageous." Downs said costs also deter many cases from ever reaching courts, unless individuals find a barrister to represent them pro bono or – as in her case – work at a reduced rate, with the individual or group doing some of the legal work themselves.

Polly Higgins, a lawyer who is campaigning for the destruction of ecosystems to be recognised as a crime against peace, said: "This recommendation now opens the door to the UK implementing similar rules of procedure for environmental cases as were implemented by the Philippines Supreme Court in April 2010 to protect those who wish to turn to the courts to protect their territory from damage and destruction without fear of escalating costs." The Philippines rules protect eco whistleblowers and allow citizens to file environmental cases where they defer payment of fees until after judgment.

A spokesperson for Defra and the Ministry of Justice said the government was considering the findings. "The UK government fully supports the principles set out in the Aarhus convention, including those relating to access to justice in environmental matters. We are carefully considering the committee's recently published draft findings along with our comments for submission to the committee," he said.

news20100827gdn2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[guardian.co.uk > News > World news > Chile]

How to keep the trapped Chilean miners alive
The challenge of the rescue operation is ensuring that the 33 men remain healthy, sane and busy

Jonathan Franklin in Copiapo, Chile
guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 August 2010 21.06 BST
Article history

{One of the 33 miners who have been trapped 700 meters underground since 5 August in Copiapo, northern Chile. Photograph: Codelco handout/EPA}

As 33 miners enter their third week trapped 688 metres underground, the logistics of keeping them alive has been reduced to a single dimension: 12cm.

"That's the size of the tube by which we can supply them," said the Chilean health minister, Jaime Mañalich. "Everything we develop must be this size or smaller." He described a laboratory of inventors behind the scenes designing everything from collapsible cots to miniature sandwiches for lunch.

A tiny video camera lowered to the depths of the mine on Thursday showed the stark contrast between the men's cavernous living quarters — a two kilometer long stretch of mine tunnels, filled with vehicles and cave like crevices – and the nearly impossible task of providing them with anything more than the most basic sustenance.

The logistics of designing and sending supplies down a hole not much wider than a lemon has challenged engineers from Chile and from around the world as well as Nasa scientists and submarine commanders. The challenge of the rescue operation now is how to keep 33 trapped men healthy, sane and busy while a 40-tonne Australian-built drilling rig slowly rips open an escape tunnel.

Medical literature has revealed little about managing such a crisis, Mañalich said. "The closest comparison is the submarine programme in which the submarines deliberately lay dormant at the bottom of the sea. That's why we have Captain Ramon Navarro, head of the Chilean submarine school, here."

"The submarine has the water outside, the miners have a 700-metre high column of rock, yet the sense of confinement is the same," said Navarro, looking out of place in the Atacama Desert with his stiff uniform and regulation cap. As he spoke, Navarro did little to hide pride for his fellow Chileans. "If I am ever in a similar situation, I'd hope to have the resilience, the desire and the strength of spirit these miners have."

The miners do not appear to be in immediate danger: they began eating solid food on yesterday and are receiving water and handwritten messages from their families. Sets of dominos and other board games were sent down in an effort to stave off monotony and an evangelical priest arrived with a cache of tiny bibles. Special fluorescent tubes are being designed which will then be set on timers to create a sense of day and night in an attempt to keep the men on a normal schedule.

Mañalich said his team was preparing for medical emergencies. "How do you treat appendicitis without surgery? Our staff is scouring the old medical texts to find ways these kind of conditions can be treated without intervention, only using painkillers and other remedies."

One miner, Johny Berrios, has been designated doctor, and given the task of taking urine and blood samples which will be carefully placed in the tiny tubes and shot up to ground level where a makeshift laboratory has been built to analyse and monitor the health of each man. Miners with skin ailments or lesions will be asked to parade before the video camera, allowing a team of doctors to first diagnose the problem and then design a solution that fits inside a "dove", a carrying pod that passes through the hole.

The living conditions of the miners presents so many logistical and mental health issues that the support staff at this remote mine now includes 300 people, including engineers, psychologists, nutritionists, lab technicians and a detachment of Chilean carabineros. In total, there are roughly 10 professionals fully at work for each trapped miner.

After a week of consultation with Nasa, a team of astronaut specialists will be brought to the mine to monitor the miners. Mañalich appeared relieved by the swell of outside help and cited Nasa's expertise as key to maintaining the miners' physical and mental health intact for the ensuing 90 days. "Nasa told us that we need to give them four litres a day of water, given the extreme heat and humidity."

"I would have to compare this to being trapped behind enemy lines or participating in a space mission," said Rodrigo Figueroa, one of Chile's leading psychiatrists who was brought in by the government. "Really I have studied the medical literature and there are no similar situations like this, they simply don't exist."

news20100827nn1

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[nature.com > Nature News]

Published online 27 August 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.437
News

Cold empties Bolivian rivers of fish
Antarctic cold snap kills millions of aquatic animals in the Amazon.

Anna Petherick

{The San Julián fish farm in the Santa Cruz department of Bolivia lost 15 tonnes of pacú fish in the extreme cold.
Never Tejerina}

With high Andean peaks and a humid tropical forest, Bolivia is a country of ecological extremes. But during the Southern Hemisphere's recent winter, unusually low temperatures in part of the country's tropical region hit freshwater species hard, killing an estimated 6 million fish and thousands of alligators, turtles and river dolphins.

Scientists who have visited the affected rivers say the event is the biggest ecological disaster Bolivia has known, and, as an example of a sudden climatic change wreaking havoc on wildlife, it is unprecedented in recorded history.

"There's just a huge number of dead fish," says Michel Jégu, a researcher from the Institute for Developmental Research in Marseilles, France, who is currently working at the Noel Kempff Mercado Natural History Museum in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. "In the rivers near Santa Cruz there's about 1,000 dead fish for every 100 metres of river."

With such extreme climatic events potentially becoming more common due to climate change, scientists are hurrying to coordinate research into the impact, and how quickly the ecosystem is likely to recover.

The extraordinary quantity of decomposing fish flesh has polluted the waters of the Grande, Pirai and Ichilo rivers to the extent that local authorities have had to provide alternative sources of drinking water for towns along the rivers' banks. Many fishermen have lost their main source of income, having been banned from removing any more fish from populations that will probably struggle to recover.

The blame lies, at least indirectly, with a mass of Antarctic air that settled over the Southern Cone of South America for most of July. The prolonged cold snap has also been linked to the deaths of at least 550 penguins along the coasts of Brazil and thousands of cattle in Paraguay and Brazil, as well as hundreds of people in the region.

Water temperatures in Bolivian rivers that normally register about 15 ˚C during the day fell to as low as 4 ˚C.

Hugo Mamani, head of forecasting at Senamhi, Bolivia's national weather centre, confirms that the air temperature in the city of Santa Cruz fell to 4 ˚C this July, a low beaten only by a record of 2.5 ˚C in 1955.

Dearth of surveys

But exactly how the cold temperatures caused such devastation remains a mystery. So far, there have been no rigorous surveys of the ecological damage, only anecdotal observations.

Fons Smolders, a fisheries scientist at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, is one expert who has visited the area and is keen for the phenomenon to receive proper study because such freak climatic events may become more common in the future.

{Bolivia has a wealth of freshwater species, including the Arrau turtle
(Podocnemis expansa).
ANDREW ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images}

Often, when cold weather causes fish deaths in lakes, the mortalities are directly due to hypoxia, when oxygen levels are too low to supply the animals' cells and tissues. This is because the colder surface temperatures can reduce mixing in the water column.

Because the deaths occurred mainly in rivers, Smolders suspects that they are linked to infection. "Some of the fish that I saw had white spots that may indicate disease. The cold probably made them very susceptible to all kinds of infections," he explains.

"When fish die, it's usually not a single stressor, but multiple stressors interacting," agrees Steven Cooke, an aquatic ecologist at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, who last year wrote a review of cold shock in fish¹. "So, if cold shock or cooler temperatures are being implicated in mortality, there's probably something else going on as well."

Most of the research in the field of cold shock in fish has been carried out on rivers in temperate climates, rather than tropical ones. For example, fish in temperate rivers often die when a power station pumping warm water into a river suddenly shuts down.

Jégu has another hypothesis. He thinks that the burning of farmland around Santa Cruz, a regular part of the farming cycle locally, has occurred at particularly high levels this year. That might have been a contributing factor in the fish deaths, possibly because the smoke added to river pollution.

"We hope to secure financing for these studies to find out why the fish are dying," he says. With luck, and money, these will start in October.

References
1. Donaldson, M. R. et al. J. Fish Biol. 73, 1491-1530 (2008).

news20100827nn2

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[nature.com > Nature News]

Published online 27 August 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.438
News: Q&A

Where conflict meets conservation
Animals as hidden victims of war are the focus of a groundbreaking initiative.

Rhiannon Smith

{The Marjan Centre's academic director Michael Rainsborough and colleagues are exploring the impact of war and conflict on biodiversity.}

From Agent Orange to deliberate oil spills, conflict carries massive environmental costs. But apart from high-profile cases such as Rwanda's mountain gorillas, the impact of war on animals and biodiversity remains a largely unexplored and underfunded area, despite the United Nations naming 2010 the 'International Year of Biodiversity'. Now, with the launch of the first specialist centre to investigate the issue, all that could change.

Concerned about the lack of academic research in the field of conflict in relation to biodiversity, academics from the Department of War Studies at King's College London established the Marjan Centre for the Study of Conflict & Conservation on 2 July. The fledgling centre is developing fast, with the former director-general of the World Society for the Protection of Animals, Peter Davies, elected chair of the management committee last week.

Nature spoke to Michael Rainsborough, the centre's academic director, about the importance of this research and his hopes for the future.

Why did you set up the centre?

I had an intuitive interest in this area, and we were concerned that the study of the impact of war was very human-centric, quite understandably, because humans are both the cause and victims of war. But up until this point, no attention whatsoever — at least in the academic sense — has been given to what the impact of war, conflict and political instability is on animals and the environment.

Also, I think popular opinion is moving in relation to how we understand the role and place of animals in society. You can see that in the growth of animal-welfare charities and concerns for the wider environment.

What exactly are the implications of war and conflict for wildlife?

In examples of state breakdown or civil war, in addition to the organized poaching gangs, you may have semi-starving people who hunt down animals for bushmeat either for their own survival or to sell on. So conflict exacerbates pressures on animal species.

If you think about the difficulties many African states face with respect to weak civil institutions and conflicts over resources, part of the resource base to be exploited is likely to be animal populations. Needless to say, this has gone on for a long time, but we can be more conscious of it, and we can see it all leads, ultimately, to the threat of species' disappearance.

We are also beginning to see that certain countries are becoming increasingly conscious that if they don't defend their sensitive animal populations from poaching and exploitation, they are going to damage tourism.

This raises an issue that we're quite interested in: when does it ever become right to have military intervention to defend a sensitive animal population? You're finding that governments are increasingly deploying their own armed forces to protect animals against poaching gangs.

In Botswana, 10% of the army is actually committed to animal protection, because it had a severe problem with elephant poaching.

And there are still large areas of Mozambique that are heavily mined because of the civil war, so you have whole areas that are relatively untouched by humans and large animals. But the impact of that has been incredible growth in flora — apparently it's some of the most amazing you'll find anywhere.

You can see that the potential for investigation is limitless.

This is a vast area. How will you approach the research?

This is our biggest challenge because the centre's scope is enormous. Our research can straddle hard scientific investigation and social-science investigation, and it all connects with very complex sociological factors.

I have started by looking at some of the more general factors, such as the increasing militarization of wildlife protection. But we are trying to create a framework to generate wider interest that will attract PhD and master's students, and guest speakers to come and purvey their own research ideas.

One of the things we would like to do is to interface with the animal-wildlife charities that do have 'on the ground' experience of what the issues are, because it often falls to wildlife charities, such as the WWF, to actually take on the burden of protecting animal species.

Why is it important to have academic research if animal charities and conservation groups already have this experience?

We can contribute in a valid way to raising public awareness and understanding of the complexities of the issues, in the hope that this will have positive policy outcomes. Because if you start putting up serious, impartial research, policy-makers will listen to you, in a way that perhaps they will tend not to listen to animal charities — not because they think that they don't do good work, but because they think that charities have an agenda.
How are you feeling about the future development of the Marjan Centre?

I'm optimistic, but daunted, because it's attracted a lot of interest, even in its infancy. We've got Peter Davies involved, and he's done a lot to spur the interest.

We're not a big organization at the moment, but we hope to kick off a systematic academic investigation that will look at the impact both of current instabilities and of the impact of war and conflict on animal populations in the past.

news20100827bg1

[News] from [businessgreen.com]

[BusinessGreen.com > News > Investment]

US offers international help with shale gas extraction
Dirty gas better than dirty coal, US energy officials argue

Danny Bradbury, BusinessGreen, 27 Aug 2010

The US has offered to help developing countries use shale gas as a cleaner alternative to coal.

Making the offer at a conference earlier this week involving 20 countries, US officials pointed to national security and climate change mitigation as key drivers.

Shale gas is derived from underground shale deposits that are broken up using a process known as hydraulic fracturing. Liquid is injected into faults in the shale, extending them and opening them up, which in turn frees up gas to be lifted to the surface.

The hydraulic fracturing process involved with shale gas extraction comes with its own severe environmental implications and it costs more to recover than conventional gas or coal. But, proponents argue, even accounting for the environmental penalty of extraction, burning shale gas is less carbon intensive than burning coal – which is the only viable alternative for many countries.

Analyst reports suggest that shale gas could provide up to half of America’s gas supply by 2020. And a study by Rice University indicates that US and Canadian shale gas could could help European countries reduce their dependence on Russian gas supplies.

State-owned Russian gas export company Gazprom cut off supplies to the Ukraine in early 2009 over payment disputes. It took similar steps with Belarus this June.

Reports suggest that developing countries are already moving to capitalise on their own shale deposits and others overseas. China opened a centre to research shale gas earlier this month, based on data suggesting that it may have up to 30 trillion cubic metres of the resource at its disposal.

Indian state-run oil company Oil India also announced that it would partner with several banks and other Indian oil companies to acquire shale gas deposits in the US or Australia during this fiscal year.


[BusinessGreen.com > News > Renewables]

Anaerobic digestion offers farmers food for thought
Farmgen starts work on £30m anaerobic digestion project as Heathrow signs deal to turn food waste into fertiliser

Jessica Shankleman, BusinessGreen, 27 Aug 2010

The UK's emerging anaerobic digestion (AD) industry was thrust into the limelight this week after two major new projects that promise to demonstrate the viability of the waste-to-energy technology were unveiled.

First up, energy firm Farmgen broke ground on the first in a wave of anaerobic digestion plants, designed to provide farmers with an additional revenue stream from "energy farming".

The £2.5m project at Carr Farm in Warton, Preston will be the first AD plant built under Farmgen's proposed £30m UK-wide investment programme. Local crops will be used to create biogas that will generate 1MW of electricity, which will then be exported to the national grid.

Farmgen said that it also plans to build a second £2.5m plant in Silloth, Cumbria later this year and is preparing planning applications for sites in Lancashire and Staffordshire.

The coalition government has earmarked the accelerated roll out of AD plants as a key part of its renewable energy strategy and last month launched a consultation designed to assess how new policies could help increase support for the emerging sector.

Under the existing feed-in tariff scheme, farmers or businesses installing AD systems generating up to 500 kilowatt hours (kWh) a year are eligible for payments of 11.5p per kWh, while those installing larger systems producing 500kWh to 5MW receive 9p per kWh.

Industry insiders have warned that the rates are not currently high enough to drive the widespread roll out of AD plants and have been calling on the government to increase in the incentive.

In related news, airport operator BAA announced yesterday that it has signed a deal with food management firm Vertal that will see travellers food and drink waste turned into fertiliser for use on local farms.

The company said that food waste from Heathrow's daily 180,000 passengers will be collected separately and sent to Vertal’s recycling facility in South London where it will be composted within 72 hours.

It added that it hoped the initiative would save carbon emissions equivalent to around half a million air miles.

Vertal founder and managing director Leon Mekitarian said he hoped the deal would encourage other firms with large amounts of food waste to invest in composting technology to reduce their carbon footprint.

"Our accelerated composting technology is significantly more carbon positive than any other process," he said. "And as the market matures and new legislation comes on stream, that's becoming a very important business factor."


[BusinessGreen.com > News > Technology]

Exclusive: Microsoft opens up about Windows 7 energy savings
Online modelling tool to help businesses work out how much energy they can save with new operating system

James Murray, BusinessGreen, 27 Aug 2010

Microsoft has revealed that it is working on a major project with Reading University designed to highlight the energy savings that companies can realise by switching to its latest Windows 7 operating system.

According to the company, Windows 7 operates using about 30 per cent less energy that its previous operating system Windows XP – savings that when multiplied globally are likely to lead to significant cuts in carbon emissions.

"IT accounts for somewhere between three and five per cent of global carbon emissions and when you consider that there are a billion Windows PCs around the world, we have the ability to deliver substantial carbon savings," said Darren Strange, head of environmental sustainability at the company. "We are currently working on modelling the savings that Windows 7 can deliver with a team at Reading University."

Strange said the research would not only allow the company to calculate potential cuts in global carbon emissions, but would also provide the foundations for a new online tool that will provide companies with the ability to work out how much energy they can save by upgrading to Windows 7.

"An organisation will be able to say how many PCs or laptops they have in their estate and then work out how much energy and carbon they could save," he explained.

Strange predicted that the new service would help highlight the extent to which effective use of technology can help firms cut their energy use. "When you say to people that technology can help them save energy, they tend to agree but will then often fail to take action," he observed. "But when you go in and can say 'this can save you £200,000 a year and save you this much carbon', then people tend to react."

In addition to the modelling tool, Microsoft has just completed a pilot project with two mid-sized firms where the company undertook a carbon and energy efficiency audit of their IT estates and provided recommendations on how to cut their energy bills.

Strange said that once the modelling tool is in place, the company is likely to work with consultancy partners to also offer onsite energy and carbon audits for customers.

The work to highlight the energy savings offered by Windows 7 is part of a wider energy efficiency push from Microsoft that has also seen the company use the prospect of reduced carbon emissions and energy bills to promote its cloud services, whereby Microsoft hosts applications for businesses in its own datacentres.

"The cloud has huge potential to improve energy efficiency," said Strange. " Businesses can move applications into our state-of-the-art datacentres, the latest of which are 50 per cent more efficient than facilities built just three years ago."

news20100827bg2

[News] from [businessgreen.com]

[BusinessGreen.com > News > Climate Change]

Rich nations accused of rehashing old funding to help the poor
Developed nations appear surprisingly close to hitting finance target to help poorer countries fight climate change

BusinessGreen.com staff, BusinessGreen, 27 Aug 2010

Rich nations’ commitment to help poor countries fight climate change has been called into question once again, after reports show some countries may be rehashing old funding and presenting it as new.

Developed nations have already pledged $29.8bn of new and additional funding for poorer countries as agreed in the Copenhagen Accord in December last year, according to analysis from Reuters.

The calculations mean rich countries have "all but met" the $30bn target of "fast start" finance, originally agreed to run from 2010 to 2012.

But as there are no rules determining exactly what qualifies as “new and additional” funding, many countries appear to be renaming old aid pledges to make them count towards the $30bn goal, said the newswire.

For example, Japan has promised $15bn, much of which originates from its 2008 Cool Earth Partnership, promising $10bn to developing nations by 2013. The US and European Union were also accused of re-pledging money which had been commited before the Copenhagen summit.

“I'm afraid the pledges of Copenhagen will not be realised," Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research director Hans Joachim Schellnhuber told Reuters. "It would be a little political miracle if it happened. I'm fairly pessimistic."

Many of the developed nations are struggling to meet the targets while trying to pay back their own debts, while some have accused poorer nations of unrealistically “demanding staggering sums”.

Earlier this month, Dessima Williams, a Grenadian diplomat who represents the group of island states, confirmed that poorer nations were likely to push for an increase in the $100bn (£62.8bn) a year of climate-related funding, also agreed in the Accord.


[BusinessGreen.com > News > Climare Change]

Americans underestimate personal power consumption and overestimate saving potential
Light bulb responses to survey not very bright

Andrew Charlesworth, BusinessGreen, 27 Aug 2010

Many Americans believe the best effort they can make towards energy conservation is to use low-power light bulbs and recycle glass bottles, according to a study recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The same citizens also severely underestimate the amount of energy they could save by switching to currently available alternative technologies.

Governments and environmental groups should do more to educate citizens as to the more effective contributions they can make to reduce their energy consumption, conclude the researchers.

Researchers at Columbia University recruited over 500 volunteers via web marketplace Craigslist and asked them to estimate the energy consumption of nine household devices, such as a washing machine, TV and air conditioner. They were also asked to estimate the energy savings they could make through adopting various behaviours, from using lower-wattage light bulbs and recycling glass to line-drying rather than tumble-drying clothes and driving a more fuel-efficient car.

The largest group, nearly 20 percent, cited turning off lights as the best approach to saving energy. Very few cited buying decisions that experts say would cut US energy consumption dramatically, such as more efficient cars (cited by only 2.8 percent), more efficient appliances (cited by 3.2 percent) or insulating homes (cited by 2.1 percent).

Previous studies have concluded that households could reduce energy consumption some 30 percent by making such choices without waiting for new technologies, making big economic sacrifices or dramatically reducing their standard of living.

“When people think of themselves, they may tend to think of what they can do that is cheap and easy at the moment,” said Shahzeen Attari, lead author of the report and a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University’s Earth Institute.

The survey shows that governments and environmental groups have failed to communicate more sophisticated messages about energy conservation and gone for easy green initiatives, such as recycling and focussing on lighting, concludes Attari.

More worryingly, it shows that US citizens view green behaviour as small curtailments of current behaviour – doing less of the same things – rather than adopting new ways of doing things.

“But switching to efficient technologies generally allows you to maintain your behaviour and save a great deal more energy,” said Attari.

On average, the respondents to the survey underestimated their own energy use and overestimated the savings they could make by a factor of 2.8.

This shows a lack of understanding about the relative consumption of familiar household devices, for example, that a 3kW drier uses 30 times more energy than a 100W light bulb.

More environmentally aware respondents, and those with a better understanding of basic maths, were more accurate in their estimates, the survey found.


[BusinessGreen.com > News > Legislation]

DECC publishes licensing plans for undersea carbon storage
Response to industry consultation lays out regime similar to offshore oil and gas exploration

Andrew Charlesworth, BusinessGreen, 27 Aug 2010

The Department of energy and Climate Change (DECC) has published details of how it will license the storage of carbon dioxide under the sea bed in a response to industry comments on its recent proposal for carbon storage schemes.

Licensing of carbon storage activities will be in conjunction with The Crown Estate and follow largely the pattern set for offshore oil and gas exploration. Only licensed entities will be issued with a permit to operate storage facilities.

“Carbon capture and storage is essential for mitigating climate change while maintaining energy security, said energy minister Charles Hendry in a statement. “There is enough potential under the North Sea to store more than 100 years-worth of carbon dioxide emissions from the UK’s power fleet and we need to make the most of that.”

A licence would cover exploration and appraisal, operation and post-closure and would convey an exclusive but time-limited right to apply for the storage permit required by the EC Directive on carbon storage (2009/31/EC) which came into force on 25 June 2009.

DECC envisages that its licences will refer to an essentially two dimensional plan, authorising the relevant activities within that area and its downward projection, in the same way as the established petroleum licences. But the storage permit when issued will contain three-dimensional definitions of the storage site and the storage complex.

The initial agreement for lease issued by The Crown Estate will relate to the same area as the licence, and the subsequent lease will incorporate the same definition of the site as that in the permit.

Non-intrusive exploration can be conducted under a general non-site specific licence issued by DECC, which applies throughout the UK offshore area, and allows non-intrusive investigation as well as drilling to a depth of 350m. But once a developer has identified a specific site to explore in greater detail, a carbon storage licence will be required. At this stage it will also be necessary to obtain property access rights from TCE to enable intrusive exploration, and to enable test injection where necessary.

DECC is keen that the regulatory regime for storage does not slow the development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and will lay the regulations before Parliament as soon as possible.

news20100827bg3

[News] from [businessgreen.com]

[BusinessGreen.com > News > Incentives]

Environment Agency looks for green pioneers
Competition in eight categories looks to promote and reward inspiring environmental action

Andrew Charlesworth, BusinessGreen, 27 Aug 2010

The Environment Agency is calling for entries for its inaugural Environmental Pioneer Awards.

The awards, which will be judged by a panel led by energy and climate change secretary Chris Huhne, will recognise companies, government bodies, local authorities, charities and other organisations that lead the way on environmental performance.

The awards are split into eight categories:

> Best private sector organisation and best public sector organisation: one business and one public sector organisation that consistently achieves outstanding results on carbon emissions, energy use, waste and environmental impact, encouraging staff and customers to take similar steps

> Technology and innovation award: a pioneering product or innovation that will significantly reduce waste, pollution, energy use or carbon emissions

> Cleaner water award: an organisation that has achieved outstanding results in preventing pollution or improving water quality in rivers, seas or lakes

> Waste reduction award: an organisation that has achieved outstanding results on resource efficiency, recycling, reuse, energy reduction or water efficiency

> Biodiversity programme: a biodiversity project delivered in the last 10 years that has achieved significant and measurable benefits for biodiversity adaptation to climate change, such as the creation of a new habitat or re-introduction of a species into more suitable areas

> Energy performance and CO2 emissions reduction: outstanding leadership through significant energy and emissions savings from business operations, which could include energy use in buildings, transport or equipment

> Environment Agency staff award for environmental achievement: outstanding achievements of an organisation or individual on environmental issues.

The closing date is 8 October and short listing will take place on 18 October. The winners will be announced by Huhne at the Environment Agency’s conference on 24 November in London.

“I hope that we are overwhelmed by the number of entries we receive." said Environment Agency chief executive Dr Paul Leinster. “I am confident that the entrants will clearly demonstrate that reducing environmental impacts makes good business sense.”


[BusinessGreen.com > News > Renewables]

Brazil gives go-ahead to massive Amazonian hydro project
Long-disputed tributary dam signed off by president who previously opposed the scheme

Andrew Charlesworth, BusinessGreen, 27 Aug 2010

Brazil’s government has green-lighted the construction of what will be the world’s largest hydroelectric dam across a tributary of the Amazon.

Proposals to dam the Xingu river have a long and chequered history and at one point were even abandoned in the 1990s.

Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has spoken out against the proposed dam on several occasions. But on signing the construction contract with Norte Energia, the consortium that will build the dam, he admitted he hadn’t looked in detail at the scheme before and hailed it as “a victory for Brazil’s energy sector”.

Environmental groups are angry at da Silva’s volte-face, claiming the dam will destroy natural habitat and render 50,000 indigenous people homeless.

The dam will be 6km long and flood 500 sq km of land upstream.

The president now says the dam is necessary for development and to create jobs.

news20100827gb

[News] from [greenbiz.com]

[GreenBiz.com > News > Design & Innovation, Materials]

NEC Makes Cashew-Based Bioplastic for Electronics

By GreenerDesign Staff
Published August 27, 2010
Tags: Design & Innovation, Materials

TOKYO, Japan — Electronics company NEC has developed a bioplastic made with an extract from cashew nut shells and plant cellulose that is twice as strong as another bioplastic typically made from corn starch.

NEC says its using only non-edible plant resources to make its bioplastic, which is 70 percent plant material. That portion is mainly cellulose that is modified with cardanol, an oil-like material taken from cashew shells and a byproduct from cashew processing.

The company says its material is twice as strong, more than twice as heat resistant and molds in half the time as bioplastic made from polylactic acid resin, which is typically derived from corn starch or sugarcane. NEC's bioplastic is also three times more water resistant and almost one and half times more heat resistant than bioplastic made from cellulose acetate.

NEC plans to continue research on the bioplastic and work towards mass production of the material, expecting to make it available for use in electronics by mid-2014.


[GreenBiz.com > News > Energy Efficiency, Government, More...]

German Army Enlists Johnson Controls to Boost Energy Efficiency

By GreenerBuildings Staff
Published August 27, 2010
Tags: Energy Efficiency, Government, More... Energy Efficiency, Government, Renewable Energy, Resource Efficiency, Retrofits, Sustainable Sites

DIEZ, Germany — As the U.S. military musters efforts to lighten its environmental bootprint, the German Army also is striving to march down a green path and has enlisted Johnson Controls Inc. to retrofit the Oranienstein base in Diez.

The 9-acre facility that houses the medical command center for the German Army occupies a historic site whose distinguishing features include a 17th castle, Schloss Oranienstein (pictured left) and a museum.

Johnson Controls announced yesterday that it had signed a 10-year energy performance contract with the German Army and has already begun the retrofit at Oranienstein, where energy costs are currently about 475,000 a year (almost $606,000 in U.S. dollars).

The project, which is scheduled for completion before the end of the year, is expected to deliver annual energy cost savings of 49 percent and an annual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 55 percent.

The 1.3 million-euro project (about $1.7 million USD), whose costs will be covered by the savings realized during the 10 years of the performance contract, emphasizes renewable energy, lighting upgrades and stepping up the building control system on the site.

The project calls for:

> Replacing an 850kW oil boiler by a woodchip boiler.
> Installing two mini-gas fired combined heat and power plants (CHP).
> Constructing a gas pipeline for the CHP.
> Changing the warm water supply in several buildings.
> Installing a central water-softening plant.
> Replacing lighting.
> Installing meters and modernizing controls and the monitoring station at the site.

Johnson Controls also has an efficiency retrofit underway at the Germany Army base in Aulenbach, where performance targets following the project are a hefty 69 percent reduction in annual energy costs and a 76 percent reduction in GHG emissions.

Johnson Controls' projects with the U.S. military include a $34.1 million energy efficiency and conservation project at the naval base in Guam, an energy savings performance contract with the army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, and an energy savings performance plan at Fort Bliss in Texas

news20100826gdn1

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[guardian.co.uk > Environment > Carbon emissions]

Australian Capital Territory to pass tough carbon cutting laws
ACT's climate change and greenhouse gas reduction bill aims to cut carbon emissions by 40% by 2020 from 1990 levels

Reuters
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 August 2010 10.49 BST
Article history

{A single cloud hovers farmland south of Canberra in 2006. The Australian Capital Territory is to pass carbon cutting laws to reduce global warming. Photograph: David Gray/Reuters}

The government of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) said today it will enact tough carbon cutting laws, a step that comes after a national election that punished the ruling Labor party over lack of action on climate change.

The ACT, which includes the capital Canberra also ruled by Labor, said its climate change and greenhouse gas reduction bill would set a target of cutting carbon emissions by 40% by 2020 from 1990 levels.

The cut would rise to 80% by 2050, with the aim of the territory of nearly 400,000 people becoming carbon neutral by 2060.

Last week's national election left neither Labor nor the rival Liberal/National coalition with the 76 seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament needed to claim victory.

Both parties are wooing four independents and the Greens to try to form a minority government.

"Governments have a responsibility to act on this issue," said Simon Corbell, the ACT's minister for the environment climate change and water.

Corbell said the aim was to cut planet-warming carbon emissions by boosting renewable energy and increasing energy efficiency in homes and businesses.

The bill establishes an independent climate change council and encourages the private sector to undertake voluntary agreements with the government.

Australia's Green party saw its national vote double to 12% in last weekend's election, reflecting widespread anger over Labor's perceived failure to honour its 2007 election pledge to take tough action on climate change.

Labor and the Liberals both back a 5% cut in emissions by 2020 on 2000 levels and Labor aimed to achieve this largely through an emissions trading scheme, with a higher target if the world agrees to a tougher climate pact.

However, fierce opposition and two rejections of the laws by a hostile Senate led Labor to shelve the legislation in April, a step that angered many voters but bolstered the popularity of the Greens because of their stronger climate policies.


[guardian.co.uk > Environment > Wildlife]

Tiny Mediterranean snail 'hitchhiked' to UK in Victorian times
Nationwide hunt for snail which travelled from Europe on stonework in 19th century but remained hidden from naturalists

Press Association
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 August 2010 07.00 BST
Article history

{Matthew Oates, nature conservation adviser at the National Trust, explains the discovery of the Papillifera bidens in the gardens of Cliveden House in Buckinghamshire and Brownsea Island, Dorset}

A nationwide hunt was launched today for a tiny Mediterranean snail which has turned up in the UK after stowing away on stonework imported as Victorian "bling" more than a hundred years ago.

The snail, which has no English name, hitched a ride from Europe on statues, rocks and brickwork in the 19th century – but remained hidden from naturalists until recently.

It was discovered at the National Trust's Cliveden estate in Buckinghamshire by volunteers cleaning statues in the gardens in 2008.

The snail, Papillifera bidens, was thought to have arrived on a balustrade from the Villa Borghese in Rome in 1896, and with suitably snail-paced progress seems to have taken more than a hundred years to reach stonework 60 yards away.

It has been found on other stonework around the estate.

The snail has also turned up at the Trust's Brownsea Island, Dorset, on rock which came from Greece in the 1880s, and the Trust is now keen to find out where else it has managed to colonise in the UK.

The snail, which has a pinky-grey spindle-shaped shell about 1cm long, is common in the Mediterranean where it is often found on old buildings.

Experts at the National Trust believe that the Victorian and Edwardian fashion for importing stone from the Mediterranean could mean the snail and other species may be found elsewhere in the UK – even as far north as Scotland.

Matthew Oates, National Trust nature conservation adviser, said: "The Victorians and Edwardians loved importing statues, rock and brickwork from the Mediterranean.

"The shipping over of this 'bling' in large quantities suggests we could find new species, such as this lovely little snail, in surprising places."

In the wake of the two discoveries of the snail on National Trust land, the only recorded occurrences in the UK, the organisation is carrying out an audit of its properties and asking the public to help establish the true extent of the snail's distribution.

The National Trust for Scotland and English Heritage are also joining in the hunt.

The two sites where the snail has been found are now vying to give the creature an English name – either the Cliveden snail or the Brownsea snail.

Despite the UK's cooler climes, the populations in both sites have managed to move a number of yards from their original stonework over a century and remain healthy.

And with many items from stately home gardens ending up in reclamation yards as they were sold off to raise money or as gardens fashions changed, Mr Oates said it was possible the snail could by now be fairly widespread in the UK.

"It has an amazing track record of hitchhiking. Its Mediterranean range has been expanding quite considerably, probably since Roman times and it may well be an inveterate hitchhiker on imported stone and statues of limestone and marble.

"Given that the UK has always had the best naturalists in the world, it's remarkable that these two colonies have taken so long to come to light, even though they're in our own backyard.

"Who knows where else this small but beautifully-shaped snail could be found lurking?"


[guardian.co.uk > News > World news > Thailand]

Customs officers in Thailand find tiger cub hidden in bag of cuddly toys
Discovery made after X-ray reveals animal's beating heart and other organs inside woman's luggage at Bangkok airport

Jonathan Watts, Asia environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 August 2010 23.31 BST
Article history

{Out of the bag: the rescued tiger cub. Photograph: Traffic}

Customs officers at Bangkok airport in Thailand have discovered a drugged tiger cub in a check-in bag filled with stuffed animal toys.

An X-ray revealed the animal's beating heart and other functioning organs inside the oversized luggage of a 31-year-old Thai woman who was due to board a plane to Iran.

Experts were called to inspect what was at first believed to be a sedated cat, but was later identified as an endangered tiger cub. In a botched attempt to conceal the animal, all the other cuddly toys in the bag were artificial stuffed tigers.

DNA checks are under way to determine if the cub was caught in the wild or captive-bred, and its origin. Traffic, the anti-smuggling organisation that has been working with the Thai authorities to stop the wildlife trade, applauded the work of the customs officials, but warned that the case showed the need for constant monitoring and tougher sentencing.

"If people are trying to smuggle live tigers in their check-in luggage, they obviously think wildlife smuggling is something easy to get away with and do not fear reprimand," said Chris R Shepherd, Traffic south-east Asia's deputy regional director. "Only sustained pressure on wildlife traffickers and serious penalties can change that."

The cub is being cared for at the rescue centre of the department of national parks, wildlife and plant conservation.

The woman, whose name has not been released, is being interrogated by police about the cub's final destination.

news20100826gdn2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[guardian.co.uk > Environment > Fishing]

Shetland trawlermen illegally caught £15m worth of herring and mackerel
Six skippers face unlimited fines and multi-million pound confiscation orders after admitting breaching fishing quotas

Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 August 2010 17.45 BST
Article history

Six trawlermen from Shetland face unlimited fines and multi-million pound confiscation orders for illegally landing £15m worth of herring and mackerel to cheat strict quotas designed to conserve fish stocks.

The six skippers from Lerwick admitted today that they made false declarations about the true size of their catch after nearly 200 voyages between January 2002 and March 2005, deliberately breaching their own annual fishing quotas.

Their conviction followed a long-running investigation by police and the Scottish fisheries protection agency which also led to guilty pleas from a Lerwick-based fish wholesalers Shetland Catch Ltd for supplying false reports about the size of the landings.

The case is one of the largest-ever involving so-called "black landings", the illegal practice once widespread in Scottish ports where skippers deliberately caught and landed fish which breached quotas, in defiance of European conservation measures.

The practice has largely died out, but Scott Pattison, director of operations with Scotland's prosecution authority, the Crown Office, said there were other similar investigations under way.

"This is not a victimless crime. The consequences of overfishing on this scale are far-reaching and the impact on fish stocks and the marine environment is potentially devastating," he said. "The legislation is to protect the marine environment for the good of all and to safeguard the fishing industry."

The six men were caught after the fisheries agency suspected widespread and significant quota breaches. Detailed "forensic accounting" uncovered significant discrepancies between the declared income for Shetland Catch and its actual income.

Detective superintendent Gordon Gibson of Grampian Police, who led the investigation, said: "As can be seen from the pleas tendered today, this was criminality at an extremely high level."

The Scottish mackerel fishery, the largest of its kind for the British fishing industry, is now accredited for its conservation practices by the Marine Stewardship Council.

However, British ministers and industry leaders are currently in a furious dispute with Iceland and the Faroes for dramatically increasing their self-declared mackerel quotas. Last week, one Faroese boat was blockaded at the quayside by angry local skippers in Peterhead.

Precise details were released after the hearing at the high court in Glasgow about the scale of the illegal landings by all six men, who had shared three trawlers.

Robert John Polson, 47, made 46 "black" landings worth £3,682,000, and David Kay Hutchison, 64, made 49 landings worth £3,698,433, from the vessel Charisma; Thomas Sutherland Eunson, 55, made 18 illegal landings worth £1,457,243, and Allen Magnus Anderson, 44, made four undeclared landings valued at £442,168 from the trawler Serene; while John Arthur Irvine, 66, made 56 landings worth £3,658,981 and Allister Irvine, 61, made 25 landings worth £1,828,981 from the Zephyr.

European and British fisheries legislation requires skippers to make full declarations of their catch sizes, including the species of fish caught, within 48 hours of landing their catch in port, at the time to within 80% accuracy.

All six men are due to be sentenced in November, when they face unlimited fines. The Crown Office added that it was also pursuing a confiscation order under proceeds of crime legislation of up to £15m against all the accused. As a result of their conviction, they have also had their quotas of mackerel and herring drastically reduced between 2007 and 2012.