Canada's greenhouse gas emissions fell for the first time in more than a decade in 2008, amid a global economic slump, the government said Thursday in a report to the United Nations. Skip related content
Canada's annual submission to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) showed CO2 emission fell 2.1 percent to 734 megatonnes, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said.
He attributed the drop to the "slow-down in economic growth at the end of 2008," as well as greater "clean energy" power generation.
"Improvements in our emissions levels strengthen the government's commitment to continue tackling climate change and reduce Canada's greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020," he said, acknowledging "there is still work to be done."
The target is the equivalent to a three percent decrease from a 1990 benchmark required by the Kyoto Protocol, which Canada ratified but then refused to implement.
Illegal fishing and climate change are decimating shrimp and lobster populations in Central America, threatening a two-billion-dollar industry and 136,000 jobs, regional experts said Thursday. Skip related content
"Pollution and warmer waters are impacting our species," especially shrimp and lobster, said Central American Organization of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sectors (OSPESCA) regional director Mario Gonzalez.
"The Pacific shrimp population, Panama excluded, has fallen dramatically" because of overexploitation and decreasing rainfall in Central America over the past decade, "which depletes the nutrients they feed on," the expert said.
The lobster population is also in jeopardy of disappearing altogether, he added.
Illegal fishing is also taking its toll, Gonzalez said.
"Of the total amount delivered to fish processing plants, approximately 20 to 30 percent is illegal or undersized," said the OSPESCA official.
Underreported catches compound the problem, Gonzalez said.
"You can say that in Central America 50 percent of our (fishing) production goes undeclared or not reported, not only by private fishermen but also by large fisheries," the expert said.
The dire situation has been brought to the attention of regional governments.
"There's a regional policy (on fishing), but it's just included in documents which have to be turned into action in order to better manage our fish stocks," OSPESCA interim president Diana Arauz told AFP.
As a first step, officials said, Central American Integration System members -- El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama -- have recently banned lobster fishing from March 1 to June 30 in hopes the species can make a comeback.
Lobster and shrimp fishing in Central America employs some 136,000 people and brings in 1.985 billion dollars a year -- 4.1 percent of the regional gross domestic product, OSPESCA and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said in a report.
Bill Gates 2/14/2010
LONG BEACH, Calif. - Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates on Friday strayed from his philanthropic focus on fighting poverty and disease to address another threat to the world’s poor—climate change.
“Energy and climate are extremely important to these people,” Gates on Friday told a TED Conference audience packed with influential figures, including the founders of Google and climate champion Al Gore. “The climate getting worse means many years that crops won’t grow from too much rain or not enough, leading to starvation and certainly unrest.”
He broke down variables in a carbon-dioxide-culprit formula, homing in on a conclusion that the answer to the problem of climate change is a source of energy that produces no carbon.
“The formula is a very straightforward one,” Gates said. “More carbon dioxide equals temperature increase equals negative effects like collapsed ecosystems. We have to get to zero.”
To dramatize his point, Gates pulled out a large jar of fireflies in playful flashback to when he unleashed mosquitoes on a TED audience a year earlier while discussing battling malaria. “They won’t bite,” Gates joked of the fireflies. “As a matter of fact, they might not even leave this jar.”
Gates said he is backing development of TerraPower reactors that could be fueled by nuclear waste from disposal facilities or generated by today’s power plants.
Gates touted TerraPower as more reliable than wind or solar, cleaner than burning coal or natural gas, and safer than current nuclear plants.
“With the right materials approach it could work,” Gates said. “Because you burn 99 percent of the waste, it is kind of like a candle.” Nuclear waste fed into a TerraPower reactor would potentially burn for decades before being exhausted.
“Today we are always refueling the reactor so lots of controls and lots of things that can go wrong,” Gates said. “That is not good. With this, you have a piece of fuel, think of it like a log, that burns for 60 years and it is done.”
Researching and testing TerraPower will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, with the building of a test reactor likely to cost in the billions.
Once the technology is proven, market forces will drive down costs, Gates predicted.
Work on TerraPower has been done in France and Japan, and there has been interest in India, Russia, China, and the United States, according to the famed philanthropist.
Gates said that if he were allowed a single wish in the coming 50 years, it would be a global “zero carbon” culture.
“We need energy miracles. The microprocessor and internet are miracles. This is a case where we have to drive and get the miracle in a short timeline.”
Gates dismissed climate-change skeptics, saying TerraPower would render arguments moot because the energy produced would be cheaper than pollution-spewing methods used today. “The skeptics will accept it because it is cheaper,” Gates said. “They might wish it did put out CO2, but they will take it.”
The biggest causes of deforestation in tropical countries are population growth in cities and agricultural exports, a finding that should shape decisions on preventing forest loss, experts said Sunday. Skip related content
Under December's Copenhagen Accord, rich countries are pledging some 10 billion dollars over the next three years to help poor countries tackle climate change.
A big but so far unspecified chunk of the cash will go on programmes to prevent loss of tropical forests, which is a major source of greenhouse gases.
Beyond 2012, tens of billions of dollars per year could be primed if a planned UN pact on curbing climate change comes to fruition.
But environmental scientists publishing in the journal Nature Geoscience on Sunday cautioned against a rush to favour schemes that are unlikely to work.
A common theory is that pressure on forests can be eased by reducing the population in rural areas, or discouraging rural people from clearing land for fuel or food for their own use.
The study, led by Ruth DeFries of New York's Columbia University, looked at satellite data for forest loss in 41 countries from 2000 to 2005 and matched this against a host of other factors.
Two much bigger causes accelerated forest loss, they found.
One was the demographic growth of the host country's cities.
Urbanisation raises consumption levels and boosts demands for agricultural products. City dwellers eat more processed food and meat, which in turn encourages large-scale farming that leads to forest clearance.
The other factor is agricultural exports, which also amplified demands for farmland.
"The strong trend in movement of people to cities in the tropics is, counter-intuitively, likely to be associated with greater pressures for clearing tropical forests," says the study.
"We therefore suggest that policies to reduce deforestation among local, rural populations will not address the main cause of deforestation in the future."
Poor tropical countries thus face a dilemma if they want to feed their swelling cities, export food to gain wealth and preserve their forest treasure.
One solution, says DeFries, is boost food yields in lands that have already been cleared.
Cameroon police seize 700 parrots at airport 2/4/2010
Police in Cameroon seized nearly 700 parrots at an airport as they were about to be smuggled out of the country, a source close to the case said on Wednesday. Skip related content
Officers found the birds in 14 crates at the airport in the southern city of Douala, Cameroon's main economic centre, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Many of the parrots were dead, but the survivors were handed over to the Ministry of Wildlife and will be taken to a zoological park in Limbe, in the southwest of the country.
"The crates of parrots were about to be loaded onto a flight run by an Ethiopian airline company," the source said, without giving details of the birds' final destination.
Police were unable to arrest the smugglers, who may have been tipped off by "accomplices at the airport" ahead of Sunday's swoop, the source said.
Last month a cargo of 300 parrots was seized at the same airport.
Cameroon has frozen the export of parrots while a census of their population is carried out, according to the source.
Nations accounting for most of the world's greenhouse gas emissions have restated their promises to fight climate change, meeting a Sunday deadline in a low-key endorsement of December's "Copenhagen Accord." Skip related content
Experts say their promised curbs on greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 are too small so far to meet the accord's key goal of limiting global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.
The U.N. Climate Change Secretariat plans to publish a list of submissions on Monday. That may put pressure on all capitals to keep their promises.
Countries accounting for at least two-thirds of emissions -- led by China, the United States and the European Union -- have all written in. Smaller emitters, from the Philippines to Mali, have also sent promises or asked to be associated with the deal.
The Secretariat says the January 31 deadline is flexible.
"Most of the industrialized countries' (promises) are in the 'inadequate' category," said Niklas Hoehne, director of energy and climate policy at climate consultancy Ecofys, which assesses how far national commitments will help limit climate change.
"The U.S. is not enough, the European Union is not enough. For the major developed countries it's still far behind what is expected, except for Japan and Norway," he said.
Some developing nations, such as Brazil or Mexico, were making relatively greater efforts, he said.
FLOODS, DROUGHTS AND WILDFIRES
The accord's goal of limiting warming to below 2 C -- meant to help limit floods, droughts, wildfires and rising seas -- is twinned with promises of $28 billion in aid for developing nations from 2010-12, rising to $100 billion a year from 2020.
Ecofys reckons that the promised curbs will set the world toward a 3.5 degrees Celsius rise in temperatures, not 2.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP said that on current projections the world would exceed an estimated "carbon emissions budget" for the first half of this century by 2034, 16 years ahead of schedule.
The European Union plans to cut emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and 30 percent if others make deep cuts. The United States plans a cut of 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, or 4 percent below 1990 levels.
"Carbon prices look set to remain relatively low until economic growth picks up or until a more ambitious target is adopted," Richard Gledhill, a climate expert at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said of the EU goal.
"This will continue to delay major capital investment in low carbon technology," he said in a statement.
The Copenhagen Accord, reached after a summit on December 18 in Denmark, was not adopted as a U.N. plan for shifting from fossil fuels after opposition by a handful of developing nations such as Venezuela and Sudan.
One possible complication is that some countries, including China and India, have written to the United Nations giving 2020 targets but without explicitly backing the Copenhagen Accord. The U.N. has asked all to take sides by January 31.
An Indian document sent to the U.N. Secretariat does not mention the accord, for instance, but says it is giving details of plans to 2020 "in view of the current debate under way in the international climate negotiations."
(Editing by Andrew Roche)
Ginger dino shows colours of the Cretaceous 1/27/2010
Scientists on Wednesday said they had identified true colours of a dinosaur for the first time, a feat that also explained what role feathers played in the evolution of birds. Skip related content
Using electron microscopes, they identified minute, pigment-carrying cell structures in the fossilised bristles of a small dino that lived in the Early Cretaceous era, some 125 million years ago.
From this, they deduct that the mohawk-quiffed carnivore was probably russet in colour and boasted a stripey orange-and-white tail.
The breakthrough scanning technique may not be able to reveal the tint of other dinosaur species that had reptilian scales, say the British and Chinese team.
But it yields the first scientifically-backed evidence of a dinosaur's colour, which eases dependence on "artist's impressions" of these enigmatic beasts.
"When I teach my students about dinosaurs, I always say we can learn about feeding, locomotion, reproduction, egg-laying and all that sort of thing," said lead palaeontologist Mike Benton of Bristol University, western England.
"The two things we don't know and never will know, are about the noises they could make and the colours they were. Well, we've now discovered evidence that can tell us for sure some aspects of colour in dinosaurs."
The study, published in the British science journal Nature, looked at spectacular fossils recovered in former lake sediments in Liaoning province, northeastern China.
Since the 1990s, this area has been a treasure trove of dinosaur remains, especially small theropods -- two-footed carnivores -- that are believed to have been the forerunners of birds.
The scientists looked at a specimen of Sinosauropteryx, a bristle-covered theropod about the size of a labrador dog, and an early bird called Confuciusornis.
Their quest was the imprint of melanosomes, which are tough, pigment-carrying components found in the cells of feathers and mammal hair.
With the help of electronic microscopes that scrutinised the bristles to a millionth of a metre, Benton's team found the telltale outlines of two kinds of melanosomes, one sausage-shaped, the other spherical.
Called eumelanosomes and phaeomelanosomes, they carry pigments that give black and grey, and shades of brown ranging from light beige to ginger.
Confuciusornis had patches of white, black and orange-brown colouring, the paper surmises. Areas where there were no melanosomes on the fossils were presumed to be white.
Benton described this portrayal as a "minimum palette," as feathers have other hues that are not preserved in melanosomes. The chance of determining the colour of dinosaur skin, which does not preserve melanosomes, is "slight," he added.
Palaeontologists have battled over whether theropods could have been the template for birds, of which the first acknowledged specimen, Archaeopteryx, lived around 150 million years ago.
Some argued theropod bristles were primitive feathers, which developed into full plumage, with specialised types, over millions of years. Others retorted the bristles were simply pieces of skin or other preserved tissues.
"These bristles really are feathers," said Benton. "If there were bits of skin or connective tissue or something else, they would not contain melanosomes, full stop."
Another big debating point has been this: why did dinosaurs grow feathers? Were they for flight, for keeping warm or for display, to court or scare off predators?
"We now know that feathers came before wings, so feathers did not originate as flight structures," said Benton.
"We therefore suggest that feathers first arose as agents for colour display and only later in their evolutionary history did they come useful for flight and insulation."
The eight scientists which carried out the research included Xing Xu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, arguably the most famous fossil hunter alive today.
Bulgaria's 'green' energy boom sparks fears 1/26/2010
Bulgaria is undergoing a boom in the renewable energy sector that experts warn could see an influx of dodgy investment and actually end up doing more harm than good for the environment. Skip related content
And the government -- the main driver behind the boom -- is taking note.
This month it imposed a half-year moratorium on new "green" energy projects in a bid to sift out those with serious financing and prevent a vital Black Sea bird migration route from being built over with wind farms.
"Too many tickets have been sold for this show," Economy and Energy Minister Traicho Traykov told an investors' forum earlier this month.
"We need to get the sector in order," he said.
The number of "green" energy projects in Bulgaria has exploded from almost nil just a few years ago to a proposed 12,000 megawatts (MW) from wind farms, solar energy parks and small hydropower stations, a government expert said.
That figure is equal to Bulgaria's current installed capacity and would be impossible to handle by the grid.
Experts agree that many of the planned projects will never actually come to fruition due to a lack of funding.
The current boom originates in a European Union-wide agreement under which Bulgaria has said 16 percent of electricity consumption will come from renewable energy sources by 2020 compared with under eight percent now.
The government has ordered the national electricity company and private utilities to connect all green-power capacity to the grid as soon as it is up and running and buy power generated in this way at fixed preferential prices.
With such attractive incentives in place, investors -- many still smarting from the burst bubble in Bulgaria's construction sector -- appear to see the renewable energy sector as a sure-fire return on their money.
Operators have already connected some 350 MW from wind turbines and solar batteries and signed preliminary contracts to connect a further 1,451 MW.
This will practically fill the whole capacity of the network, said Georgy Mikov, executive director of national electricity company NEK.
Moreover, NEK estimates show that about 2,000 MW of green sources would be sufficient for Bulgaria to meet its 16-percent green-power target by 2020.
But the renewable energy producers themselves say no less than 5,000-6,000 MW would be necessary.
The moratorium will give the government time to win approval for a national plan for the development of renewables by 2020, said energy minister Traykov.
The government is particularly keen to reduce harm to the Black Sea Via Pontica bird migration route, a prime spot for the construction of wind parks.
It also seeks to curb wind farm construction in protected nature zones and solar energy park installations on fertile farmland.
The European Commission last year launched an infringement procedure against Bulgaria for allowing wind turbines on the Via Pontica route.
The authorities also want to be able to select the more serious projects with secure financial backing from the mass of applications. One way would be to impose expiry deadlines on construction permits, experts suggested.
If operators know which areas are designated for green-power development, they will be better able to upgrade the grid in that area and connect the new capacities, officials said.
Environmental organisations are supporting the curbs, with Bulgarian group For The Nature and WWF Bulgaria saying in a statement: "We fully support the development of renewable energy but not at the expense of protected territory."
Anti-garbage campaigners plan mass Internet-led clean up 1/25/2010
Anti-garbage campaigners plan mass Internet-led clean up
Fed up with seeing the environment strewn with garbage, activists from around the globe aim to muster a million volunteers this year for a mass clean-up piloted via the Internet, organisers said Monday. Skip related content
The "Let's Do It" operation is the brainchild of campaigners in Estonia, a small Baltic state which is a hub for nature-lovers and one of the world's most Internet-wired nations.
After a successful operation at home in 2008, when volunteers removed thousands of illegal rubbish dumps, the Estonians have shared their lessons with foreign campaigners at a conference that ended Monday.
"Since the campaign day in Estonia in May 2008 we have been contacted by people from dozens of states, from Japan to Brazil, setting up voluntary teams to organise similar campaigns in their homelands," Toomas Trapido, a lawmaker and a mastermind of the movement, told AFP.
Rainer Nolvak, an IT entrepreneur, board member of the Estonian Nature Fund, and fellow-mastermind told AFP that activists from Portugal to India plan events aiming to draw a total of a million people.
Like the Estonians, campaigners elsewhere will use special software and mobile phones to map and photograph illegal garbage dumps.
Having located the sites, they will call for clean-up volunteers.
Estonia's landmark one-day operation in 2008 mustered 50,000 people in the nation of 1.3 million. They collected 10,000 tonnes of rubbish.
"We had no idea that so many people would turn out and that the campaign would spread around the globe," Trapido said.
The Estonians set up a website, www.letsdoitworld.org, with tips for others.
A voluntary clean-up took place Saturday in part of the Indian capital Delhi, a pilot for a larger operation planned across the city in September.
In Europe, a clean-up is due in Portugal in March.
"We hope to gather up to 150,000 volunteers to follow Estonia's example," Portuguese IT professor and campaigner Francisco Moura told AFP in Tallinn.
Nara Petrovic, head of a campaign in Slovenia, said she aimed to gather 200,000 people there in April.
Q&A: Climate change 1/24/2010
Q&A: Climate change
What is climate change and why should we be concerned about it? David Adam explains
Sea levels will rise if the gigantic ice sheets in Greenland and west Antarctica start to break up. Photograph: PA
What is climate change?
The Earth's climate has always varied, so the term climate change is now generally used to describe the changes caused by human activity - specifically, greenhouse emissions such as carbon dioxide and methane, which build up in the atmosphere and trap heat.
Measurements at the Earth's surface show that average temperatures have risen by some 0.4C since the 1970s. Scientists are confident this change can be blamed on human emissions because the increase is too big to be explained by natural causes.
Although natural factors such as changes in the sun and large volcanic eruptions are known to have warmed and cooled the planet in the past, these effects are not powerful enough to explain the rapid warming seen recently. Only an increased greenhouse effect caused by higher amounts of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere can explain it.
What is the main greenhouse gas?
Water vapour in the atmosphere produces the strongest greenhouse effect, but it has been in balance for millions of years. Human emissions, though relatively small, tip that balance.
Carbon dioxide is the chief greenhouse gas produced by human activity. It is produced when we burn fossil fuels: oil, gas and coal. The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is measured in parts per million (ppm).
Before the industrial revolution, the carbon dioxide level was about 280ppm. It is now 386ppm and rising by 2-3ppm each year. When other greenhouse gases such as methane are included, the total level in the atmosphere, known as the carbon dioxide equivalent, is closer to 440ppm.
What future temperature rise is expected?
Scientists say continued emissions will cause the planet to heat up further. To work out how much, they use computer models based on the programs used to predict the weather.
These models are not perfect, and struggle to simulate some features of the climate system such as clouds. To get around this, the scientists run many different versions and pool the results. The computer models predict that if emissions continue to rise at the present rate, average temperatures will most likely increase by 4C by 2100.
There are uncertainties, though - for example, the planet's oceans, forests and soils could release their massive stocks of carbon as the world warms, leading to much greater temperature rises than human emissions alone would cause.
Why are warmer temperatures bad?
Most plants and animals have evolved to live in a fairly narrow ecological niche. Some will move to find their desired conditions, others will be able to adapt. Those that cannot move or adapt will perish. Some animals, such as the polar bear, have nowhere to move to.
A warmer climate will affect agriculture and water availability. Increased temperatures are also expected to limit rainfall in some regions and bring more extreme weather events such as storms to others.
Sea levels will rise - gradually at first as the extra warmth works its way into the oceans and makes them expand; more quickly if the gigantic ice sheets in Greenland and west Antarctica start to break up.
How can we tackle global warming?
Scientists say the only realistic way at present is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. How to do that - and where - is a political hot potato.
Because it takes time for the heat to build up in the atmosphere, and because carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for a long time, there is a lag in the system, which means the effect of any changes will not be felt for decades. Put bluntly, we are headed for about another 0.5C of warming whatever we do.
The world's only existing treaty to limit emissions, the Kyoto protocol, has had limited success, and expires in 2012. Politicians are working to develop a replacement that would include countries excluded from Kyoto, such as China, and those that refused to join, such as the US.
From December 7, environment ministers and officials will meet in Copenhagen to thrash out a successor to Kyoto. The two week event is being seen by many environmentalists as a crucial diplomatic opportunity to create an international agreement on meaningful cuts in emissions that will prevent the worst consequences of climate change.
Can renewable energy help?
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said that we already have most of the technology we need to bring down emissions significantly. These include renewable energy sources such as windmills, geothermal and solar panels, as well as more efficient cars and power stations.
What about carbon trading?
Carbon trading is a market mechanism to achieve cuts in emissions. Countries or groups of countries (such as the EU) first agree a cap or maximum emissions level. Individual companies are then either given or must purchase carbon credits - the right to emit a certain amount of CO2. If they exceed their allowance they must purchase permits from another company that has company that has fallen short of its cap. If the cost of buying carbon credits is high enough it incentivises companies to invest in measures to reduce their emissions.
To date, the EU's emissions trading scheme has been heavily criticised for failing to reduce emissions. In the first phase, the number of permits issued was too high, sending the carbon price crashing and so removing any incentive for companies to spend money reducing their emissions. The environmentalist James Lovelock has branded Europe's carbon trading scheme a "scam".
A more drastic approach is so-called geo-engineering. These are major technological fixes such as seeding clouds to bounce some of the sun's radiation back into space or stimulating the growth of algae in the oceans to soak up CO2. These are much more speculative, but Barack Obama's scientific adviser, John Holdren, has said that he is open to even these drastic measures.
The Environment Agency is using the kit to create underground "maps" to locate illegally buried waste, instead of having to dig up the ground to have a look.
Sensors are planted in the soil and electric currents are passed through them.
Because some materials are more resistant to electric currents than others, researchers are able to pinpoint areas underground where waste has been illegally buried.
Investigators have already used the kit to confirm the presence of an illegal dump in the New Forest National Park.
Mr Kenneth Lovett was convicted of the offence and fined £3,550.
He was ordered to remove it at a cost estimated at £500,000.
The technology is the latest to be used in the fight against eco-crime.
The Environment Agency's crime team already uses hand-writing analysis and ultra-violet forensics to track and trace hazardous waste.
In the past two years this has helped the agency close 1,500 illegal waste sites.
But they estimate there are still around 800 illegal dumps in operation, and developing new technologies such as this is key to shutting them down.
Dr Paul Leinster, EA chief executive, said: "By dumping waste illegally, waste criminals avoid landfill charges and undercut legitimate waste businesses.
"But more importantly they put the environment and human health at risk."
The remarkable feat was achieved by physicists working at the universities of Bristol, Glasgow and Southampton.
The light was controlled using holograms specially designed with "knot theory" - a branch of abstract mathematics inspired by twists in shoelaces and rope.
The breakthrough paves the way for a new level of precision in laser technology, with applications ranging from traffic speed guns to height measurement.
Dr Mark Dennis from the University of Bristol said: "In a light beam, the flow of light through space is similar to water flowing in a river.
"Although it often flows in a straight line - out of a torch, laser pointer, etc - light can also flow in whirls and eddies, forming lines in space called 'optical vortices'.
"Along these lines, or optical vortices, the intensity of the light is zero (black).
"The light all around us is filled with these dark lines, even though we can't see them."
The team were able to create knots in optical vortices, using the sophisticated holograms to direct the flow of light, said Dr Dennis, lead author on the paper published in Nature Physics.
This research demonstrates a physical application for a branch of mathematics previously considered completely abstract.
Why coastal oil spills can pollute for decades: study 1/17/2010
Why coastal oil spills can pollute for decades: study
Oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker spill that devastated Alaska's Prince William Sound still lies trapped beneath its beaches, continuing to pollute once pristine shores, scientists reported Sunday. Skip related content
As climate change opens the Arctic region to oil exploration and shipping, the findings could prove crucial in devising effective methods for cleaning up future spills, the researchers said.
Up to now, experts puzzled over why remnants of the 11 million gallons of crude that fouled some 1,300 kilometers (750 miles) of Alaskan coastline have persisted for so long.
At first it seemed that nature, with some help from technology, would soon wash away one of the worst environmental disasters in history.
The spill decimated the region's wildlife as well as the state's fishing industry.
But within a decade it became apparent that the rate at which the oil was disappearing had dramatically slowed, from 70 percent per year to about four percent.
Today, it is estimated that some 20,000 gallons remain.
Michael Boufadel and Hailong Li of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania wanted to find out why this oil was not been broken down through biodegradation and weathering, as had been widely predicted.
Collecting field data and running computer simulations, they found the key lay in the fact that affected beaches consisted of two layers, each with different properties.
The geographically variable impact of rising and falling water tables also played a critical role.
Oil was temporarily stored in the porous upper layer, slowing the rate at which it was subject to weathering, according to the study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
An environment lacking the kind of nutrients needed by oil-eating micro-organisms to thrive further protected the fossil fuel.
The second layer, while composed largely of the same materials, was far less porous: on average, water moved through the top layer 1,000 times faster.
When the water level from declining tides fell below the interface between the two layers, oil seeped from the upper to the lower stratum, especially where there was little or no freshwater discharge to compensate.
"Once the oil entered the lower layer, it became entrapped by capillary forces and persisted," the authors said.
Because of the even lower oxygen content in the sub-stratum, the crude was not degraded and has remained suspended.
The study also said that oil tends to linger on gravel beaches more than on sandy ones, pointing to evidence from previous spills: the Arrow in Nova Scotia, Canada (1970), the Metula in the Strait of Magellan, Chile (1974), and the Amoco Cadiz along the French coast of Brittany (1978).
"As global warming is melting the ice cover and exposing the Arctic to oil exploration and shipping through sea routes such as the Northwest Passage, the risk of oil spills on gravel beaches in high-latitude regions will be increased," it said.
Shipping map helps combat invasive species at sea 1/13/2010
Invasive species that hitch a ride on cargo ships pose a rising threat to marine biodiversity, with the potential to inflict costs in the billions of dollars. Skip related content
But a new map of shipping networks should provide watchdogs with a useful tool against these stowaways, scientists in Germany said on Wednesday.
Microbes, larvae, snails and other species are notorious for riding in ballast tanks or on ships' hulls to a new home.
But until now there have been scant means of identifying ships or even shipping patterns to help pinpoint the source of the risk.
Sleuths trying to track these intruders have generally used a so-called "gravity model" of ship movements. It assumes that journeys are likelier between nearby ports than between ports that are far apart.
The truth, though, is rather more complex, say marine biologists led by Bernd Blasius of the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg.
They used data from automatic transmitters, installed aboard large ships from 2001 to give port authorities the time of arrival and departure, to build a network of how the world's 16,363 large cargo vessels plied their trade in 2007.
What emerged were small clusters of ports, sometimes based in a regional transport web, and journey lengths and port stays that differed crucially according to the type of ship -- bulk dry carrier, container or oil tanker.
Container ships, they found, sail along largely predictable, repetitive routes among a small, dense linked cluster of ports, gathered in 12 regional "communities" around the world.
For instance, a container ship may shuttle frequently around Europe, visiting Rotterdam, Hamburg and Antwerp, and around Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Santos in South America.
These vessels travel fast (at between 20 and 25 knots) and spend less than two days in a port on average.
In contrast, bulk dry carriers are more unpredictable, changing their routes at short notice according to the fluctuating supply and demand of the goods they carry. In the course of a year, they do few repeat trips on the same route.
Oil tankers, too, also follow short-term market trends, but their destinations are limited, moving between ports with crude terminals and refineries.
Both tankers and carries are slow movers, travelling at between 13 and 17 knots, and have a longer turnaround, spending around five or six days in port.
Importantly, both bulk dry carriers and oil tankers often sail empty after offloading their goods, and take on large quantities of ballast water for trim, which is then discharged when they are laden once more.
But frequency of trips, as seen in container ships especially, is also a factor.
The more aliens that are offloaded in a new habitat, the better their chance of beating the odds of "ecological roulette," says the study.
"With 90 percent of world trade carried by sea, the global network of merchant ships provides one of the most important modes of transportation" of intrusive species, says the study.
The paper, published on Wednesday by Britain's Journal of the Royal Society Interface, quotes a 2005 estimate that bioinvasion inflicts a financial loss 120 billion dollars a year.
Among the most notorious examples is a North American jellyfish, Mnemiopsis leidyi, that has so devastated native plankton stocks in the Black Sea that it has helped destroy several commercial fisheries.
The European zebra mussel, introduced into the Great Lakes in the mid-1980s, has infested 40 percent of internal waterways in the United States. In southern Australia, the Asian kelp, Undaria pinnatifida, is invading new areas rapidly, displacing the native seabed communities
Germany sticking to ambitious CO2 target: adviser 1/11/2010
Germany will stick to a more ambitious goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2020 even though the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen fell short of expectations, a government adviser said on Monday. Skip related content
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, head of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said it was unclear if the European Union as a whole would pursue a 30 percent target when it submits its plan to the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat by January 31.
Germany had hoped that its offer to raise its 2020 target from 30 to 40 percent, combined with an EU offer to raise its goal from 20 to 30 percent if other nations pledged substantial cuts, would spur a deal on worldwide reductions in Copenhagen.
The Copenhagen accord set a goal of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial times. But it failed to say how this would be achieved.
"Germany has a firm target that the government has even spelled out in its coalition agreement to cut its emissions by 40 percent," Schellnhuber told a news conference. "That's unconditional. Germany will continue to be a driving force."
Germany is the world's sixth largest emitter. Some industry groups have urged Berlin to drop ambitious emissions targets, saying they could jeopardise jobs. Germany has created hundreds of thousands of green tech jobs in the last decade.
Schellnhuber said it was hard to tell how the EU would react to the bare-minimum Copenhagen result in which delegates "noted" an accord struck by the United States, China and emerging powers that fell far short of the conference's original goals.
"But if others hesitate, Germany will have the chance to make its economy more fit for the future," said the adviser to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the EU on climate change.
Schellnhuber, whose PIK institute calculated the Copenhagen accord will lead to a 3.5-degree rise in global temperatures, said he was optimistic the process would move forward in 2010.
An interim conference in June in Bonn could make progress and create momentum for a U.N. agreement in Mexico in November.
"The game isn't over yet," Schellnhuber said. "The dice haven't fallen yet. We still have the chance in the multilateral system to reach a worthwhile agreement."
At another climate meeting in Berlin on Monday, Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the U.N. Environment Program, said the failure to reach a deal in Copenhagen would cost economies around the world billions of dollars.
"Copenhagen was a setback. There was no deal. But maybe we can use the shock from that to overcome the hurdles in front of us," he said.
(Reporting by Erik Kirschbaum; editing by Paul Taylor)
World veterinary agency to probe meat-climate link 1/11/2010
World veterinary agency to probe meat-climate link
The world's top authority in farm animal health announced on Thursday it would launch a study into the role of meat in climate change. Skip related content
The report, carried out by independent experts, is expected to be published "by the summer," Bernard Vallat, head of the World Organisation for Animal Health, known by its French acronym of OIE, said in Paris.
It is the first time in its nearly 85-year history that the 175-nation OIE is to carry out an environmental investigation.
The agency swaps information about diseases in farm animals and issues recommendations in veterinary scares such as H5N1 avian flu.
The probe coincides with mounting interest in the role of meat-eating in stoking climate change.
Farm animals are significant sources of greenhouse gases, either directly through methane emissions from digestion or indirectly, such as clearing forests for pasture and inputs used in raising cattle.
Vallat, who is the OIE's director general, said there had been a "very strong request" from member-states for the report.
The investigation's scope will be limited, and it will not seek to rival or replicate the work of the UN's global-warming scientists, the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), he said.
By some estimates, there will be a 50-percent surge in demand for animal protein by 2020 in order to feed the world's burgeoning population and demands from emerging economies, he said.
"Whatever happens, we are going to have to produce more animals to feed the planet," he told a press conference.
Celebrity vegans such as Paul McCartney are urging consumers to boycott meat as a personal contribution to fighting climate change.
A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of beef causes more greenhouse-gas and other pollution than driving for three hours while leaving all the lights on back home, according to a 2007 study led by Akifumi Ogino of the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Tsukuba, Japan.
Beleaguered U.S. climate bill seeks Obama lift 1/10/2010
President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech to Congress could indicate how badly he wants a global warming bill, which opponents say will cost U.S. jobs and raise prices -- a scary prospect for politicians trying to ride out a horrible economy in an election year. Skip related content
Obama, who played a dramatic role in negotiating a nonbinding international climate change accord last month in Copenhagen, now faces a tough economic and environmental balancing act to win the climate change legislation in 2010.
Administration officials insist it can be done despite the political difficulties in an election year. "President Obama and this administration ... expect that a comprehensive energy bill, which includes a climate portion, to be passed this year," Energy Secretary Steven Chu told reporters Wednesday.
For that to happen, Obama must put a "job-creation focus" on the bill to build a U.S. economy that would run more on alternative energy than dirty-burning coal and oil, said Daniel Weiss of the Center for American Progress. "The more specifics the better" in the State of the Union speech, Weiss added.
On Friday, Obama announced new tax credits to encourage investments in clean energy development that he said would help combat climate change and create jobs.
"This initiative is good for middle-class families. It is good for our security. It is good for our planet," Obama said.
A House-passed bill is floundering in the Senate, where Obama has to convince 60 of 100 members to back a bill.
In one area -- government incentives for expanding nuclear power -- Senate sources said progress has been made in closed-door talks in search of a "sweet spot" for a compromise on the legislation that they hope to pass in coming months.
Even so, Senate backers and environmentalists off Capitol Hill say they are uncertain of climate change victory in 2010.
Difficult negotiations are expected between senators who want to require industries to cut their carbon emissions and those who see a climate bill as a vehicle for also helping domestic producers of nuclear power and oil and natural gas.
And, many Republicans are working hard to cast doubt on claims the climate change bill will create jobs.
Within the next few weeks, Senator Lisa Murkowski could force a Senate vote to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating carbon emissions as a fallback if more comprehensive climate legislation is not enacted.
"This is a vote about the economy, not about the climate -- whether these regulations will harm the economy," said a Senate Republican aide.
If Murkowski, whose state of Alaska is a major oil and gas producer, manages to get a strong vote, even if less than needed to pass her measure, some undecided Republicans and Democrats could have second thoughts about voting later this year on a more comprehensive climate bill.
SENATORS SEEKING COMPROMISE
Despite all the hurdles, a bipartisan group of senators is forging ahead on a bill to cut carbon emissions by utilities, refineries and factories over the next four decades by 17 percent from 2005 levels.
Senator John Kerry, who is leading the effort, expects to be recovered from surgery and back in Washington when the Senate reconvenes on January 20, to huddle with independent Senator Joe Lieberman and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, according to a spokeswoman. The two are key to winning support from moderates and conservatives.
One Senate staffer said 17 pro-nuclear senators have had input into what could become a major provision of the bill aimed at luring Republican votes. "That part (nuclear power) ironically is in fairly good shape at this point."
While nuclear power plants do not emit the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, the industry has been weighed down by prohibitively high construction costs and controversy over nuclear waste storage.
Expanding domestic oil and gas drilling is another important goal for Republicans and that component of a climate bill is "still 100 percent in flux," said the Senate source.
While producing more oil and gas here will do nothing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it would reduce dependence on foreign oil and potentially lure Republican votes.
On the sidelines of the U.N. climate meeting in Copenhagen, Kerry left open the possibility that the core of the climate bill could be scrapped. That is the "cap and trade" system for reducing carbon emissions through ever-dwindling pollution permits that could be traded on a new exchange.
A carbon tax and a "cap" without the "trade" component are among possibilities. But for now, Kerry, Lieberman and Graham are sticking with cap and trade, aiming to quell nervousness over the scheme by including tougher market controls.
An old man gently touches the trunk of the huge quiver tree with a worried look on his wrinkled face, as he points at several dead branches lying on Namibia's rugged terrain. Skip related content
"When I was a boy, my grandfather made my first quiver from a branch of this old tree about seventy years ago, but I fear the tree is dying -- too many dead branches. Things changed over the past few years, and these trees just die," he tells AFP.
Aaron Kairabeb works on a farm 200 kilometres (125 miles) southeast of Namibia's capital Windhoek, where tourists go on scenic hikes and also view a cluster of the giant aloe trees that can live for more than 300 years.
They grow in arid regions of Namibia and South Africa and are well adapted to their environment through water-storing succulent leaves and shallow root systems. The Bushman or San people used to make quivers for their bows from the trees' dead branches.
But over the past few years Kairabeb, who grew up in the area, noticed that large quiver trees -- protected in Namibia and by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) -- were drying out and toppling over.
Scientists found this is most likely caused by drought, with weather data showing that average temperatures have increased over past decades across the tree's range.
The quiver tree is now red-listed in a report released by the Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) during last month's climate summit in Copenhagen.
The report red-listed 10 animal and plant species, including the beluga whale, emperor penguin and the quiver tree as being threatened by climate change.
"The quiver tree is noted for its drought tolerance and longevity, but it may be operating at the edge of its physiological tolerance," said report co-author Wendy Foden of IUCN. Die-offs have been reported since 2001 in Namibia and South Africa.
Namibia's delegation to the climate summit returned disappointed at the non-binding accord to curb global temperature rises.
"Copenhagen was disappointing and world leaders failed monumentally to reach a binding agreement," Prime Minister Nahas Angula told reporters on his return from Denmark.
During the summit Angula lobbied for Namibia?s recovery plan after two devastating floods hit northern regions in 2008 and 2009, while other areas suffered severe drought.
"Namibia requires 1.7 billion Namibian dollars (220 million US dollars, 153 million euros) for damages and losses suffered in these floods and another 3.8 billion Namibian dollars for longer term needs such as constructing more disaster resilient housing and infrastructure."
Government in early 2010 plans a conference with donors to raise the funds.
A government report in 2008 found that temperatures have risen 1.2 degrees C (about two degrees F) in Namibia over the last century, making it the driest country south of the Sahara. And the increases are expected to keep rising.
Climate change could also hurt the economy, particularly farming and fishing, said environment and tourism minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.
"Climate change may reduce Namibia's fishing industry landings by up to 50 percent.
"Crop and cereal production that currently contribute together 1.5 percent of GDP will decrease by 10 percent to 20 percent," Nandi-Ndaitwah said.
"Traditional (subsistence) agriculture that contributes 1.5 percent of gross domestic product could decline by 40 percent to 80 percent," the minister added.
The former German colony has a population of some two million, with about 70 percent in rural areas dependent on subsistence agriculture.
Space-age powerboat 'sliced in two' by Japan whalers 1/6/2010
Space-age powerboat 'sliced in two' by Japan whalers
A space-age powerboat sent to harass Japanese whalers was rammed and sliced in two in its very first clash on Wednesday, activists said, dramatically escalating hostilities in icy Antarctic seas. Skip related content
The futuristic Ady Gil trimaran, which holds the round-the-world record and was enlisted by militant activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society for this whaling season, received "catastrophic damage" and was sinking, they said.
All six crew, who earlier hurled stink bombs at the whalers to disrupt their annual hunt, were rescued unharmed by Sea Shepherd's Bob Barker ship. Activists described the attack as unprovoked and said it was captured on film.
"The Shonan Maru No. 2 suddenly started up and deliberately rammed the Ady Gil ripping eight feet (2.4 metres) of the bow of the vessel completely off," a Sea Shepherd statement said.
"The Ady Gil is believed to be sinking and chances of salvage are very grim," it added.
The whalers accused the Ady Gil's five New Zealand and one Dutch crew of trying to tangle the Nisshin Maru's rudder and propeller with rope, and aiming a "green laser device" at its sailors, as well as launching stink bombs.
"The Sea Shepherd extremism is becoming more violent... Their actions are nothing but felonious behaviour," Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research said in a statement.
Paul Watson, captain of Sea Shepherd's Steve Irwin ship and a spokesman for the group, said the annual pursuit had now turned into a "real whale war".
"The Japanese whalers have now escalated this conflict very violently," he said.
"If they think that our remaining two ships will retreat from the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in the face of their extremism, they will be mistaken.
"We have a real whale war on our hands now and we have no intention of retreating."
Australia said it had no plans to send a vessel to monitor the escalating situation some 1,300 nautical miles south of the Tasmanian capital Hobart as it urged both sides to show restraint.
"It's critical for safety at sea to be the highest priority and for absolute and utmost restraint to be exercised by all parties in this very remote and inhospitable region," Environment Minister Peter Garrett said.
The wave-piercing, carbon-and-kevlar Ady Gil, bankrolled by a Hollywood businessman, was one of the world's most celebrated vessels. In 2008, under its former name Earthrace, it smashed the world circumnavigation record by two weeks.
"This is a substantial loss for our organisation," said Watson. "The Ady Gil, the former Earthrace, represents a loss of almost two million dollars.
"However the loss of a single whale is of more importance to us and we will not lose the Ady Gil in vain. This blow simply strengthens our resolve, it does not weaken our spirit."
Watson also accused the Japanese of using surveillance flights to pinpoint the anti-whaling vessels and send pursuing ships, setting back their campaign by weeks.
The activists, who set off from Australia a month ago, finally caught up with the whalers before dawn near Antarctica's Commonwealth Bay.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is a small but militant environmentalist group which specialises in "direct action" to halt marine environmental destruction.
Its activists have harassed the Japanese fleet over the past six hunting seasons, including ramming a whaling vessel, and claim to have saved the lives of hundreds of whales.
"When people call us pirates I don't really have a problem with that -- we're pirates of compassion in pursuit of pirates of profit," Watson told AFP in 2007.
An international moratorium on commercial whaling was imposed in 1986 but Japan kills hundreds each year using a loophole that allows "lethal research" on the animals.
Hunters kill 20 wolves in first Swedish hunt in 45 years 1/3/2010
Hunters kill 20 wolves in first Swedish hunt in 45 years
Hunters shot dead 20 wolves in Sweden on Saturday on the first day of the country's first authorised wolf hunt in 45 years, according to a toll issued by Swiss media. Skip related content
The Swedish environment authority had issued permits for 27 of the animals to be killed between January 2 and February 15 in five central and southwestern regions: 10 percent of the Sweden's entire wolf population.
Parliament decided in October to limit the wolf population to a maximum of 210 and 20 packs for the next five years.
The wolf population has grown steadily from near zero in the 1970s and poses a problem for farmers, who lose livestock in attacks. They are also increasingly seen in urban areas including suburbs of Stockholm.
Sheep farmer Kenneth Holmstrom told the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter that he had lost 32 sheep in 2005 in just two wolf attacks.
"The wolf has the right to exist in the forests and in the fields but it must be better controlled," he said.
"It does not have a natural enemy and it multiplies quickly."
Swedish conservation groups have objected the hunt violates European Union legislation on species and habitats.
There were about 150 wolves in Sweden in 2005. The number rose to between 182 and 217 last winter and more cubs produced since then, according to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.
Pope urges lifestyle changes to save environment 1/1/2010
Pope Benedict used his traditional New Year address on Friday to call on people to change their lifestyles to save the planet, saying environmental responsibility was essential for global peace. Skip related content
Recalling that world leaders had gathered in Copenhagen last month for the U.N. climate conference, the pope said action at a personal and community level was just as important to safeguard the environment.
"Nevertheless, in this moment, I would like to underline the importance of the choices of individuals, families and local administrations in preserving the environment," the Pope told the thousands of faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square.
"An objective shared by all, an indispensable condition for peace, is that of overseeing the earth's natural resources with justice and wisdom."
The pope, who had a scare last week when a woman with a history of mental problems knocked him down during Christmas Eve mass, also said "ecological responsibility" should be taught as part of the education syllabus.
The pope and his predecessor John Paul have put the Vatican firmly on an environmentalist footing. Last month, in a message sent to heads of state and international organisations, the pope called on rich nations to acknowledge responsibility for the environmental crisis and shed consumerism.
(Writing by Deepa Babington, editing by Tim Pearce)
Time running out for orangutans: conservationists 12/28/2009
The world has less than 20 years left to save the orangutan, according to conservationists who predict the charismatic red ape will become extinct if no action is taken to protect its jungle habitat. Skip related content
There are thought to be 50-60,000 orangutans still living in the wild in Malaysia and Indonesia, but deforestation and the expansion of palm oil plantations have taken a heavy toll.
"The orangutans' habitat is fragmented and isolated by plantations, they can't migrate, they can't find mates to produce babies," said Tsubouchi Toshinori from the Borneo Conservation Trust (BCT).
Environmentalists are calling for the creation of wildlife "corridors" in Malaysia to link the scraps of jungle where orangutans have become trapped by decades of encroachment by loggers and oil palm firms.
Tsubouchi said that although studies have predicted orangutans will disappear within 50 years if their habitat continues to vanish, action needs to be taken within the next two decades to stall that process.
"We have to establish the corridors in 10 or 20 years, otherwise we won't be able to do anything later," he said.
Some 80 percent of the world's orangutans live in Borneo, which is split between Malaysia and Indonesia, and the rest are found in Indonesia's Sumatra province.
"What we have left today is maybe only 10 percent of what we used to have before," said Marc Ancrenaz from the environmental group Hutan which focuses on conserving the 11,000 orangutans in Malaysia's Sabah state in Borneo.
An aerial survey carried out by Hutan and wildlife authorities in Sabah last year revealed some 1,000 orangutan treetop "nests" located in 100 small patches of forest completely surrounded by palm oil plantations.
"If we are not able to establish connectivity in the next 10 or 20 years, there is a risk that this population will reach a stage which will make it impossible for us to enable them to survive," Ancrenaz warned.
But he said that if immediate action is taken, there is still a good chance of ensuring the long-term survival of the primate as there is still enough genetic diversity for it to thrive.
"Unlike the rhinoceros whose numbers are so few, we still have a decent size population for the orangutan. If they are going to become extinct, it will not be in the next 10 years," he said.
There are only about 250 Sumatran Rhinoceros left in Malaysia and Indonesia, making it the most highly endangered rhino species in the world.
Experts say that wildlife corridors would enable orangutans to move across the fragmented landscape and alongside rivers to seek food and mates.
The corridors could be used by other endangered species such as the pygmy elephant and rhinoceros, but progress on the initiative has been slow.
The Malaysian palm oil industry, often criticised for its poor environmental performance, pledged to fund the corridors at an October conference but nothing has yet been done.
Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) chief executive Yusof Basiron said he was waiting for environmentalists to advise how much land would be needed, and denied that lack of action was threatening the species' future.
"Last time they said the orangutans will go extinct in 2012, now they say in 15 or 20 years -- why keep on shifting the goal posts?" he asked AFP.
Some in the industry have accused Western lobby groups of trying to smear palm oil -- used extensively for biofuel and processed food like margarine -- to boost rival products from developed countries.
Malaysia is the world's second-largest exporter of palm oil after Indonesia, and the industry is the country's third largest export earner, raking in 65.2 billion ringgit (19 billion dollars) last year.
Eric Meijaard, who studies orangutans in Indonesia, said the situation was even worse there and that deforestation was responsible for the loss of up to 3,000 orangutans a year in Borneo.
"If we are losing them at the rate that we are losing now, they are going to be pretty much gone in 15 to 20 years," said the ecologist from the Indonesia-based People and Nature Consulting International.
"In Indonesia, the whole process of conversion is still very rampant and the land use changes very fast -- what is still a natural forest concession today may be a plantation tomorrow."
Ancrenaz said he is "not convinced" that the the battle to save Asia's only great ape is a lost cause.
"There are still ways to rectify the issues and to find solutions, but we have to act very fast, we can't afford to wait too long."
Brazil sets aside vast tracts for new indigenous reserves 12/28/2009
Brazil sets aside vast tracts for new indigenous reserves
Brazil on Tuesday declared new indigenous reserves in vast tracts of Amazon rainforest totaling an area equivalent to half the size of Portugal. Skip related content
The zones, amounting to 50,000 square kilometers (19,300 square miles), will enjoy protected status for the 7,000 indigenous Brazilians living in them, according to the decree signed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
"We will never be able to do enough for the indigenous people. The debt is historic and we can never reimburse through money, we can only make concrete gestures," Lula said.
The biggest of the reserves, Trombetas Mapuera, comprises 40,000 square kilometers of forest -- practically the same size as the Netherlands or Switzerland. It is home to some tribes which have never had contact with the outside world.
Another reserve, Arroio-Kora, goes to the Guarani-kaiowa and Nandeva Indians in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, where violent conflicts over land also claimed by farmers are frequent.
The government has two motives in establishing the zones: giving back land to traditional populations, and preserving the Amazon rainforest. Lula's administration has pledged to cut deforestation by 80 percent over the next decade.
There are now 663 indigenous reserves in Brazil totaling more than one million square kilometers -- equivalent to two times the size of Spain.
The National Foundation of the Indians, or Funai, a government agency, calculates that there are around one million Indians in Brazil out of the total national population of 195 million.
China denies 'hijacking' climate summit 12/22/2009
China has hit back at accusations by the Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband that it "hijacked" climate negotiations in Copenhagen. Skip related content
Beijing says the claims are an attempt to sow discord among poor countries.
The talks in the Danish capital ended on Saturday with a broad, non-binding accord that fell well short of hopes for a robust global agreement on curbing greenhouse gases.
Mr Miliband has been quoted as accusing China, Sudan, Bolivia and other left-wing Latin American nations of "hijacking" efforts to reach deeper agreement.
Miliband said China vetoed a widely supported proposal at the Copenhagen talks to aim to cut emissions by 50 percent by 2050.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu did not attack Miliband by name, but Beijing's anger was clear: "The statements from certain British politicians are plainly a political scheme."
She went on: "Their objective is to shirk responsibilities that should be assumed towards developing countries, and to provoke discord among developing countries. This scheme will come to nothing."
World leaders hammered over climate accord 12/20/2009
World leaders on Sunday insisted that the climate deal clinched in desperation at the UN summit was the best that can be done as they returned home to a lashing from critics. Skip related content
Newspapers widely called the summit accord a failure and experts such as the head of a Nobel Peace prize-winning climate panel said "urgent" action was now needed.
US President Barack Obama acknowledged that all of the world's polluters would quickly have to do more, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the critics would only hold up the battle against rising temperatures that threaten devastating floods, storms and drought.
Obama returned to the White House and said "extremely difficult and complex negotiations" had been needed in Copenhagen.
"This breakthrough lays the foundation for international action in the years to come."
But even the US leader said "we will have to build on the momentum" and get the US Congress to pass mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
Merkel, who will host a new international meeting in Germany in 2010, hit back at the critics. Related article: Merkel defends climate compromise
"It is a first step toward a new world climate order, nothing more but also nothing less," she told Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
"Those who are only putting Copenhagen down are helping those who want to blockade rather than move forward."
Germany will host a follow-up meeting of environment ministers in Bonn in June, ahead of another summit in Mexico City next December. "We now need to build on Copenhagen," she said.
The Danish chair of the UN climate summit, Connie Hedegaard, said Sunday she thought it would be difficult to gather together so many world leaders again for a new conference, though the effort must be made.
"I think it will be very difficult," she told AFP, but added that the world still needed to set binding objectives on reducing carbon emissions, "if not I'm afraid that too much time will pass before the world does what is necessary" to stop global warming.
The Copenhagen Accord, only passed by a procedural motion after two weeks of tense negotiations, has been widely condemned as a backdoor deal that excluded the poor and doomed the world to disastrous climate change.
The agreement was assembled by the leaders of the United States, China, India, Brazil, South Africa and major European nations, after it became clear the 194 nation summit was in danger of failure.
Related article: Asian leaders voice hope in climate dealChina, the world's top polluter, has given the warmest welcome to a summit that experts say it has benefitted from by making the fewest concessions.
"With the efforts of all parties, the summit yielded significant and positive results," Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said in a statement.
At the same time China's foreign ministry spokesman on Sunday hit out at critics of the closed nature of the accord, saying Beijing had always maintained close contact and coordination with all countries during the summit.
"China is a developing nation, we... firmly maintain the development rights of developing countries, and firmly maintain the unity and coordination of emerging nations," Qin Gang said in a statement on the ministry's website.
The summit set a commitment to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), but did not spell out the important global emissions targets for 2020 or 2050 that are the key to holding down temperatures.
Related article: Top UN scientist urges binding pact The summit promised 100 billion dollars for poor nations that risk bearing the brunt of the global warming fallout, but has not given a fixed payout plan.
So far, the United States has promised to contribute 3.6 billion dollars in climate funds for the 2010-2012 period, with Japan contributing a total of 11 billion dollars over the same period, and the European Union 10.6 billion dollars.
Even UN chief General Ban Ki-moons admitted the agreement had failed to win global consensus and would disappoint many who demanded stronger action against climate change.
"Many will say that it lacks ambition," Ban told the end of the summit. "Nonetheless, you have achieved much."
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said: "Developing countries, certainly Africa, are very concerned and very suspicious of the developed countries on whether they are really genuine in making these offers."
"In the next few weeks and months we will have to work very hard to see that, before the end of 2010 if not earlier, we get a binding agreement that really moves action in the direction we need," he told the Indian NDTV television channel.
"We really have to move on rather quickly to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases. There is growing evidence of the impacts of climate change and if we delay action these impacts are going to become much worse, far more serious," he warned.
The Wall Street Journal called the Copenhagen deal "a pre-emptive dead letter because countries like China, Brazil and India said they were unwilling to accept anything that depressed their economic growth."
Leaders fear climate summit is heading for failure 12/17/2009
Leaders fear climate summit is heading for failure
World powers expressed mounting concern on Thursday that the UN climate summit was heading for failure and an agreement may have to wait until next year. Skip related content
The United States sought concessions from emerging economic giants on emissions, while the European Union expressed "concern" at the lack of progress ahead of a gathering of more than 120 world leaders on Friday.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who announced that Washington would contribute to a 100-billion-dollar fund to held poor nations cope with climate change, said it was "time to take an historic step we can all be proud of." Related article: US pledges $100 billion to poorer nations
Speaking ahead of the arrival of President Barack Obama, she accused developing nations -- without naming them -- of backsliding on pledges to open their emissions controls to scrutiny.
China and India say they are willing to take voluntary measures to slow forecast surges in emissions. But they are reluctant to accept tight international scrutiny and insist that rich nations should bear the brunt of the substantial reduction targets. Related article: Chinese PM Copenhagen visit
"There have been occasions in this past year when all the major economies have committed to transparency," Clinton told a press conference.
"Now that we are trying to define what transparency means and how we would both implement it and observe it, there's a backing away from transparency -- and that to us is something that undermines the whole effort that we're engaged in," she said.
"If there is not even a commitment to pursue transparency, that's kind of a deal breaker for us."
Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, the conference chairman, declared the meeting was "now at a critical juncture and we have now agreed on how to proceed."
"Now we rely on the willingness of all parties to take that extra step that would enable us to make the deal that is expected of us," he said.
The European Union called for urgent efforts to save the Copenhagen summit.
"The European Union is concerned by the lack of progress in the negotiations. We encourage all parties to urgently go to the outer limits of their flexibility so that talks can move forward," the EU Commission and the Swedish EU presidency said in a joint statement.
"The European Union has put concrete proposals on the table and maintains its conditional offer to do more, if others, especially the major emitters, improve their offers as well," the statement added.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said in a speech to conference: "I fear a triumph of form over substance. I fear a triumph of inaction over action."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the events in Copenhagen were "not good" and the summit would be a failure if nations did not agree to cap global warming at two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial levels.
"At this hour, I don't know if that will be successful," she said in Berlin. Related article: Quotes of the day at UN talks
Tuvalu, a Pacific archipelago which is one of the countries most at risk from rising sea levels, said it would only agree to a 1.5 C rise but complained that it had been kept out of key talks.
"We will leave this meeting with a bitter taste in our mouth. The true victims of climate change have not been heard here," Prime Minister Apisai Ielemia told AFP.
A deeply gloomy senior delegate told AFP: "It won't be feasible to get a complete agreement unless it's just one page. We need several more months."
Scientists say the cost of failure on limiting the rise in temperatures will be catastrophic with hundreds of millions of people already facing worsening drought, flood, storms and rising seas.
The United States was widely condemned for foot dragging on climate change under President George W. Bush, and Obama is hoping that his presence will be evidence of a transformation of policy.
In a sign of goodwill, Clinton announced the US would contribute towards a fund worth 100 billion dollars a year by 2020 to help poor countries cope with climate change.
Japan on Wednesday promised to stump up 1.75 trillion yen (19.5 billion dollars) to developing nations if a comprehensive deal is reached at Copenhagen.
The United States and Japan were also among a group of six nations that said they would set up a fund to fight the loss of forests, a leading source of the rising temperatures.
U.S. cities spur bike use for climate, health 12/16/2009
Christina Tierno started riding her bicycle into central Philadelphia during November's city transit strike, and she hasn't looked back. Skip related content
Even when the strike ended and buses started running after a week, Tierno kept riding her bike, inspired by the discovery she could save time, money and, in her own small way, the planet, by using pedal power to get to work or school.
Tierno, 25, a University of Pennsylvania graduate student, says the three-mile (4.8-km) commute from her West Philadelphia home saves at least $15 a week in bus fares, cuts about 10 minutes off her trip, and makes her feel stronger and fitter.
She is one of a growing number of Philadelphia residents riding their bikes for transport -- as opposed to recreation -- in response to efforts by city government and local campaigners to make Philadelphia a more bike-friendly city.
According to the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, bike use in the city has more than doubled since 2005, a trend it attributes to higher gasoline prices, growing concern over climate change, creation of bike lanes, and what it calls a "growing urban bicycle culture."
Throughout the nation, the number of people bicycling to work has increased 43 percent since 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, as more cities encourage residents to recognize the benefits of using their bikes for transportation.
Among U.S. cities, Portland, Oregon showed the biggest gain, tripling its proportion of bike commuters between 2000 and 2008 to a nation-leading 6 percent. Seattle, Minneapolis and Sacramento also had relatively high rates.
Philadelphia's rate rose to 1.6 this year from 1.2 percent in 2006.
But the U.S. bike-commuting rate of 0.55 percent pales in comparison with European cities such as Amsterdam, where 28 percent of all personal journeys are done by bike, and Denmark where the national figure is 20 percent, according to the International Bicycle Fund.
Elizabeth Kiker, vice president of the League of American Bicyclists, said America's low rate of bike use is largely due to an "entrenched car culture." But she argued that Europe had its own love affair with the automobile in the 1970s and has since posted big gains in urban cycle use.
Kiker attributed growing U.S. bike use to rising gasoline prices, an increasing public desire to aid the fight against climate change, and a recognition that regular bike riding can help counteract America's obesity epidemic.
"Biking is a great way to include your daily workout in your routine, and it's a lot cheaper than a gym membership," she said.
In Philadelphia, whose government has declared that it wants it to create the "greenest city in America," campaigners are working to overcome widespread public concern about the safety of cycle commuting.
The city's bicycle coalition holds workshops that advise would-be riders on issues such as street hazards, lane positioning, helmet-wearing, and the fact that a bike is a legal vehicle
Philadelphia recently created an east-west bike corridor by establishing bike lanes on two central streets, an experiment that is expected to become permanent due to its heavy use.
"If you build it, they will come," said Breen Goodwin, the coalition's education director.
Tierno says it required some courage at first to commute amid the traffic, particularly since she comes from suburban Connecticut where bike lanes are unknown and the automobile reigns supreme.
But now she enjoys the challenge and has learned to assert her rights as a road user. "I have not had many problems with drivers," she says. "I just occupy a lane as if I was a vehicle."
Gordon Brown is flying out early determined to get the talks back on course and achieve a meaningful deal to reduce carbon emissions.
On Monday the conference was suspended for several hours when African nations and others staged a walkout.
It followed claims that richer countries were seeking to dodge their obligations to cut carbon emissions.
The Prince of Wales is also heading to the conference, where he will give a keynote speech to delegates.
He will say that mankind must accept its responsibilities and take action to ensure the future of the planet.
Mr Brown's aides said he plans to spend much of Wednesday in private meetings with poorer, developing countries who are disproportionately affected by climate change.
Mr Brown has a string of engagements pencilled in with leaders of the major economies, as well as UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.
Ahead of his trip, he warned that the world was only "half way" to an agreement on climate change at the talks.
Mr Brown said: "We can't wait until the last minute to do this deal. That is why I will go to Copenhagen to work with other leaders who will also arrive to push negotiations forward."
He added: "We have learned from the G20 that we have to work together. Global problems require global solutions."
A total of 192 countries have sent delegates to the two-week conference, which ends on Friday.
:: In Australia, Greenpeace protesters scaled the Sydney Opera House to urge world leaders to come to an agreement on climate change.
'Acidifying oceans' threaten food supply, UK warns 12/14/2009
'Acidifying oceans' threaten food supply, UK warns
By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News website, Copenhagen
Acidification of the oceans affects marine life
Acidification of the oceans is a major threat to marine life and humanity's food supply, Hilary Benn is to warn as the UN climate summit resumes.
The UK environment secretary will say that acidification provides a "powerful incentive" to cut carbon emissions.
Ocean chemistry is changing because water absorbs extra CO2 from the air.
Some believe this impact of rising CO2 levels could be as significant as climatic change, though it is rarely discussed at the UN climate convention.
The UN summit in Copenhagen, which started a week ago, is scheduled to conclude on Friday, when more than 100 world leaders will attend in an effort to agree a new global treaty on climate change.
'Really important'
OCEAN ACIDIFICATION
Up to 50% of the CO2 released by burning fossil fuels over the past 200 years has been absorbed by the world's oceans
This has lowered the pH value of seawater - the measure of acidity and alkalinity - by 0.1
The vast majority of liquids lie between pH 0 (very acidic) and pH 14 (very alkaline); 7 is neutral
Seawater is mildly alkaline with a "natural" pH of about 8.2
The IPCC forecasts that ocean pH will fall by "between 0.14 and 0.35 units over the 21st Century, adding to the present fall of 0.1 units since pre-industrial times"
The science has come to prominence only within the last five or six years, and most of the details were not available when the convention was signed in 1992.
"We know that the increasing concentration of CO2 [in the air] is making the oceans more acidic," Mr Benn told BBC News.
"It affects marine life, it affects coral, and that in turn could affect the amount of fish in the sea - and a billion people in the world depend on fish for their principal source of protein.
"It doesn't get as much attention as the other problems; it is really important."
In September, the UN-backed study into The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (Teeb) concluded that the widely-endorsed target of trying to stabilise atmospheric concentrations of CO2 or their equivalent to around 450 parts per million (ppm) would prove lethal to much of the world's coral.
1.
Up to one half of the carbon dioxide (CO2) released by burning fossil fuels over the past 200 years has been absorbed by the world's oceans
2.
Absorbed CO2 in seawater (H2O) forms carbonic acid (H2CO3), lowering the water's pH level and making it more acidic
3.
This raises the hydrogen ion concentration in the water, and limits organisms' access to carbonate ions, which are needed to form hard parts
Mr Benn will be speaking during the summit's "oceans day" at a meeting organised by Stanford University and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, both based in California.
"Unlike global warming, which can manifest itself in nuanced, complex ways, the science of ocean acidification is unambiguous," said Andrew Dickson, a Scripps professor of marine chemistry.
"The chemical reactions that take place as increasing amounts of carbon dioxide are introduced to seawater have been established for nearly a century."
The oceans and atmosphere are constantly exchanging CO2.
Concentrations in the atmosphere are now about 30% higher than in pre-industrial times; a proportion of this is absorbed by seawater, which results in rising concentrations of carbonic acid.
As a result, the pH of seawater has fallen by about 0.1, and a further change of 0.3-0.4 is expected by the end of the century.
Benn warns of ocean acidification
This is likely to affect the capacity of organisms including molluscs, coral and plankton to form "hard parts" of calcium carbonate.
A 2007 study showed that rates of coral growth on the Great Barrier Reef had fallen by 14% since 1990.
Mr Benn will say that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) should investigate ocean acidification during its next major assessment of the Earth's climate, scheduled for release in 2013.
The UK's Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband has warned that the international talks in Copenhagen are not on track to deliver the ambitious agreement some are pushing for.
With world leaders arriving at the talks in Copenhagen later in the week, the pressure is on negotiators to come up with a political agreement that heads of state and government can sign up to.
Mr Miliband said not enough progress was being made in efforts to secure a deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions and provide funding to poor countries for development and adaptation to climate change.
Three new planets have been found orbiting a nearby star that is almost identical to the Sun. Skip related content
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Three new planets discovered
The planets, forming a mini-solar system, circle the star 61 Virginis which is just 27.8 light years away and can be seen with the naked eye.
They have masses ranging from 5.3 to 24.9 times that of the Earth.
Astronomers hope to discover even smaller potentially habitable worlds within a few years.
The same international team also found a fourth planet orbiting another Sun-like star 84 light years away called 23 Librae.
61 Virginis lies in the constellation of Virgo, visible from both hemispheres. It has 0.96 of the Sun's mass and is only slightly less bright.
The star's family of planets was discovered by British, Australian and US astronomers using the Anglo-Australian Telescope in New South Wales, Australia, and the Keck telescope in Hawaii.
The new worlds were identified by measuring the "wobble" effect of their gravity tugging on their parent star, a standard planet-finding technique.
Professor Chris Tunney, one of the astronomers from the University of New South Wales, said: "These planets are particularly exciting. Neptune in our Solar System has a mass 17 times that of the Earth. It looks like there may be many Sun-like stars nearby with planets of that mass or less. They point the way to even smaller planets that could be rocky and suitable for life."
The findings on 61 Virginis are to appear in The Astrophysical Journal. The fourth planet is a Jupiter-sized "gas giant" orbiting 23 Librae in the constellation of Libra. Another planet was found orbiting this star in 2006. It takes 14 Earth-years to circle its star, only slightly more than Jupiter's 12-year orbit.
Today, confronted with the biggest budget deficit in our peacetime history, the Chancellor faced a choice. Would he take the tough spending decisions before the General Election, or would he completely duck them?
We were promised a Pre Budget Report and instead what we got was a Pre Election Report. Watch my reaction to Darling's speech in the video above.
Plans to send thousands of space tourists into orbit have taken a giant leap forward, with Sir Richard Branson unveiling the world's first commercial passenger shuttle. Skip related content
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Branson unveils his 'spaceliner'
The British billionaire teamed up with renowned aviation designer Burt Rutan to build the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo, which could be venturing beyond Earth's atmosphere as early 2011.
Sir Richard and his family - including his 92-year-old father - will be on the first flight, the entrepreneur said.
Others booked for a trip to the stars include physicist Stephen Hawking and environmental scientist James Lovelock.
The vessel is based on Rutan's prototype SpaceShipOne. In 2004, the stubby white rocket won the 10 million dollar (£6 million) Ansari X prize after becoming the first privately manned craft to reach space.
Its successor is twice as large and has more windows to enable greater views of Earth as seen from its furthest reaches.
To date the only people who have enjoyed such a view have been the few hundred government-sponsored astronauts and a handful of super-rich star-gazers willing to part with a small fortune for a seat on board a Russian rocket destined for space.
SpaceShipTwo has enough space for six passengers and two pilots.
It is believed that some 300 clients have already paid the 200,000 dollar (£121,500) ticket or put down a deposit for a seat.
Speaking from the Mojave Desert in California, where the vessel has been developed, Sir Richard said: "I have been dreaming about it ever since the Moon landing - that one day I would get the chance to go into space. Nasa, I suppose, didn't think that you or me would like to go into space
The Clinton Foundation 12/7/2009
Ray,
As you make your holiday shopping list this season, I hope you'll consider giving a gift that will make a meaningful and powerful difference not only in the lives of your family and friends, but also people around the world.
When you make a donation to my Foundation in someone's name, you'll be empowering children to take control of their health in 2010. You'll be ensuring people in the most isolated regions on earth have access to health care. And you'll be giving our planet a chance at avoiding the serious consequences of climate change.
You can be sure that your donation in your loved one's name will be used to make the greatest impact possible.
Thanks to supporters like you, 2 million people are already receiving lifesaving HIV/AIDS treatments at reduced prices. More than 3 million children across the U.S. are able to lead healthier lives. Forty of the world's largest cities are reducing their greenhouse gases as part of our successful effort to fight climate change. And thousands of small-holder farmers in Malawi and Rwanda are improving their harvests and their incomes.
Your friends and family will appreciate knowing that your gift to them brings hope to those who need it most.
Thank you for your support. May you and yours be blessed with a joyous holiday season and a happy New Year.
Sincerely,
Bill Clinton
P.S. Forward this email and encourage others to give the gifts that keep giving.
The Clinton Foundation seeks to address some of the world's more pressing challenges -- such as HIV/AIDS, global climate change, and extreme poverty -- through collaborative and systematic effort.
William J. Clinton Foundation • 55 West 125th St. • New York, NY 10027
Gordon Brown insists that Britain's goal to avert catastrophic climate change is "achievable" at next week's UN-sponsored conference in Copenhagen. Skip related content
Speaking three days ahead of the opening of the crucial two-week gathering, the Prime Minister says world is already half-way to reaching the changes needed to limit average global warming to 2C.
He claims action taken unilaterally by countries around the globe is already projected to take five billion tonnes of greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere by 2020.
The task at Copenhagen is to close the "five billion tonne gap" between this figure and the 10 billion tonnes which climate change expert Lord Stern believes is necessary.
Mr Brown made his comments as he answered questions from young people at a pre-Copenhagen event hosted by the Department for Energy and Climate Change in London.
Mr Brown cited the influential 2006 report by Lord Stern on the economics of climate change, which argued that to reach the 2050 target, the world would have to cut emissions to 35 billion tonnes by 2030 and around 44 billion tonnes by 2020.
Destroyed US town a model of eco-living as it rebuilds 12/6/2009
Destroyed US town a model of eco-living as it rebuilds
With all eyes on US efforts to combat climate change at next week's UN summit in Copenhagen, one Kansas town is going green in a big way -- and setting an example for American communities. Skip related content
On the evening of May 4, 2007, a category-five tornado swept through the rural midwestern town of Greensburg, killing nine people and obliterating 95 percent of the urban landscape, including the school, the hospital and more than 900 houses.
But this community of 1,400 is rebuilding stronger than ever, in a remarkable comeback billed by Greensburg GreenTown -- a grassroots organization involving town residents, local officials and business owners -- as a "model for sustainable building and green living."
In the wake of disaster, local leaders vowed to rebuild their town as the first in the United States to have all municipal projects constructed to the highest environmental and efficiency design standards.
The efforts have attracted green experts and enthusiasts from around the world because of the Greensburg's environmentally sustainable principles through renewable energy.
Whereas previously the town's only pull was having the world's largest hand-dug well, it now hopes to put itself on the map for eco-living.
A water conservation system turns rain into drinking water, wind turbines on the edge of town provide eco-friendly enery throughout the community, and the street lamps light up roads with LED lights. gEven the larger building projects are aiming for an almost 100-percent green record. Greensburg's eco-friendly, under-construction hospital, for example, has a heating and cooling system based on geothermal energy.
In May 2008, then-president George W. Bush saluted Greensburg with a glowing review of the town's efforts, saying he wanted to celebrate the community's "journey from tragedy to triumph."
Bush spoke to students graduating from the high school here, saying the town "is back and its best days are ahead," and pledging to continue federal aid for the community.
The December 7-18 UN summit in Denmark's capital Copenhagen will be a landmark move for US environmental efforts, with President Barack Obama scheduled to attend amid growing calls for a comprehensive, international treaty to confront the climate crisis.
Washington announced last month that, relative to a 2005 benchmark, it would reduce carbon emissions by 17 percent by 2020, 30 percent by 2025, 42 percent by 2030 and ultimately 83 percent by 2050.
The US numbers have been criticized, however, as falling well below the contribution needed.
According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to reach a two-degree Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) warming target, a cut of 25 to 40 percent is needed by industrialized countries by 2020 compared to the 1990 benchmark.
The US target for 2020 would be the equivalent of only a four-percent cut against this benchmark, the IPCC says.
Climate change protests ahead of Copenhagen summit 12/5/2009
Climate change protests ahead of Copenhagen summit
Climate protests ahead of summit
Demonstrations have been under way around the UK to urge action on climate change ahead of the Copenhagen summit.
Organisers Stop Climate Chaos want world leaders to reach a tough new deal on cutting emissions.
In London, police say about 20,000 people have been taking part, while about 7,000 turned out in Glasgow. A protest also took place in Belfast.
Gordon Brown said the protesters were "propelling" leaders to reach the "first world climate change agreement".
The prime minister, who met some of the demonstrators in Downing Street, said it was "essential" that a deal was reached in Copenhagen.
Leaders had to be "ambitious" and show that the world could work together, he added.
Meanwhile, up to 150 protesters from a different action group - Camp for Climate Action - have started setting up camp in Trafalgar Square, central London.
'The Wave'
Campaigners want Western nations to commit to an 80% cut in carbon emissions by 2050.
In London, a series of climate change events known collectively as The Wave have been taking place.
They began with an ecumenical service at Westminster Central Hall, which involved both the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and Archbishop Vincent Nichols, head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.
Religious leaders said they were taking part in The Wave because they "recognise unequivocally that there is a moral imperative to tackle the causes of global warming".
For poor people, climate change is not something in the future
Up to 3,000 Church members from around the UK were expected to attend the service and the main protest afterwards.
At about 1200 GMT, they joined environmental campaigners, aid agencies, trade unions and organisations including the Women's Institute for a rally close to the US embassy in Grosvenor Square, before beginning their march to the Houses of Parliament.
Later, members of the Camp for Climate Action say they are planning to camp at an as-yet secret location somewhere in the capital.
In Glasgow, demonstrators marched from Bellahouston Park in the south of the city to Kelvingrove Park for a rally.
Strathclyde Police said about 7,000 had turned out, which is believed to be Scotland's largest ever protest in support of action on climate change.
Ashok Sinha, from the Stop Climate Chaos coalition, said: "We will call on Gordon Brown to make Copenhagen count by committing rich countries to reduce their emissions by at least 40% in the next 10 years, finally putting the right sort of money on the table to help poor countries, and urgently start the process of decarbonising our energy supply.
AT THE SCENE
By Jack Izzard, BBC News
If volume or excitement are any measure of success, the demo in London is off to a good start.
A sea of people, some dressed head-to-toe in blue, are forming The Wave on the streets of Westminster.
But behind the blue face-paint and carnival atmosphere, the organisers from Stop Climate Chaos say their message is deadly serious.
They want to put pressure on the government ahead of next week's Copenhagen summit.
The coalition is made up of more than 100 groups from the Women's Institute to trade unions.
All are determined that the summit should avoid a fudge and take concrete steps to limit global warming.
"With bold leadership at home, Mr Brown can help inspire a fair, effective and binding international deal at Copenhagen."
Downing Street has said the prime minister is "unequivocal" about the scientific case for action against climate change.
He will join Barack Obama in Copenhagen next week, after the US President announced that he had changed his plans and would now attend the end of the conference.
Ahead of the summit, Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband took part in "the first ever ministerial mass phone call" on Saturday, after inviting questions from members of action group 38 Degrees via his website, Ed's Pledge.
He told the BBC: "We're going to go all out, the whole of the British government, over the next two weeks to make sure we get the most ambitious agreement we can."
Any agreement made at Copenhagen must become a legally-binding treaty "within months", he added.
160 years
The day of action comes as a row - dubbed "Climategate" - about the reliability of data from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit continues to wage.
The Catholic and Anglican churches came together to demand action
Last month, hundreds of emails from the unit were leaked onto the internet, prompting claims that scientists manipulated data on global warming to strengthen the argument that it is man-made.
Now the Met Office has written to 188 countries for permission to publish material, dating back 160 years from more than 1,000 weather stations around the world, which it says proves climate change is caused by humans.
Its database is a main source of analysis for the UN's climate change science body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which joins talks next week at the long-awaited Copenhagen summit.
John Mitchell, head of climate science at the Met Office, told the BBC the evidence for man-made global warming was overwhelming - and the planned release of data would show that.
"So this is not an issue of whether we are confident or not in the figures for the trend in global warming, it's more about being open and transparent," he said.
The Met Office said it had already planned to publish the material long before "Climategate" and denied reports that government ministers had tried to block the publication.
Mr Miliband told the BBC he would be "very surprised" if there had been any wrongdoing on the part of the scientists involved in "Climategate".
Ed Miliband called for an 'ambitious deal' whilst attending a climiate change rally in London
"We're in a moment when the world is about to make some big political decisions," he said.
"And there will be people who don't want the world to make those big decisions and they are trying to use this in part to say somehow this is all in doubt and perhaps we should put the whole thing off.
"Well, I just think they're wrong about that."
Barbara Stocking, chief executive of Oxfam, said world leaders must do more to help those in developing countries cope with the effects of global warming.
"For poor people, climate change is not something in the future. Climate change is hitting them now," she told the BBC.
Group condemns bulldozing of UNESCO tribal reserve 12/2/2009
Group condemns bulldozing of UNESCO tribal reserve
A group of Brazilian ranchers is bulldozing a UNESCO reserve inhabited by an indigenous Indian tribe with no prior contact with the outside world, an native rights group said Monday. Skip related content
Survival International said the UNESCO bioreserve in Paraguay's Chaco region is home to the only uncontacted indigenous tribe in South America outside of the Amazon -- the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode.
"The Totobiegosode's land is being destroyed as we speak," said Stephen Corry, director of Survival International.
"Given that their land falls within a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, we hope that UNESCO can play a part in stopping this destruction and pressing for the recognition of their land rights."
The group says a Paraguayan government representative and two relatives of the tribe attempted to enter the region, but were barred by employees of the ranchers' company, Yaguarete Pore S.A.
Survival International said the reserve was intended to protect both the Indian group but also species including the jaguar, "an irony given that a Spanish language translation of that word, yaguarete, is the name of the company bulldozing the reserve."
Satellite photos show that thousands of hectares of the reserve have been destroyed, even though the company has had its license to operate there withdrawn by the Paraguayan government, Survival International said.
UNESCO biospheres are designated under the United Nation's agency's "Man and Biosphere Program," and are intended to promote conservation and sustainable development.
There are over 500 designated sites in over 100 countries, according to UNESCO. The Chaco region in Paraguay was designated in 2005.
Panorama. can Tesco save the world 11/30/2009
Just watched Panorama.
"Can Tesco save the World?"
I suggest you watch this on BBCi player.
Sir Paul McCartney urges meat-free day to cut CO2 11/29/2009
Sir Paul McCartney urges meat-free day to cut CO2
Sir Paul McCartney urged world leaders to alter their food policies
Cutting out meat consumption on one day a week can have a major impact on reducing CO2 emissions, Sir Paul McCartney has said.
In an interview with Parliament Magazine he appealed for "people power" to make the difference in the fight against global warming.
He says halving UK meat consumption would do more to reduce emissions than halving the use of private transport.
Sir Paul will take his "Meat-free Monday" campaign to Brussels this week.
The estimated effect of the reduction in meat consumption, by Compassion in World Farming, is central to Sir Paul's campaign which began last June and will continue on Thursday at a European Parliament conference.
The event is also being attended by UN climate change chief Dr Rajendra Pachauri.
Writing in the Brussels-based Parliament Magazine, Sir Paul said: "Whilst we press politicians to pass global laws to reduce carbon emissions, we should not forget our individual capacity to act in ways that will help to fight climate change - such as limiting the eating of meat.
"Having one designated meat-free day a week is a meaningful change that everyone can make."
He described having a meat-free day each week as "the little thing that can make a big difference" and urged governments to back individual action with "the right policies".
From farm to fork, the more meat we produce and eat, the bigger that carbon footprint will get
Sir Paul McCartney
"People power can always win out over government inaction. By making a simple change in the way you eat, you are taking part in a world-changing campaign where what's good for you is also good for the planet," said Sir Paul.
The former Beatle said he would appeal to world leaders, who will be converging on Copenhagen for climate change talks in a few days, to remember that sustainable food policy is an essential weapon in the fight against global warming.
Global livestock production currently comprised about 18% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions and could double by 2050, according to Sir Paul.
"From farm to fork, the more meat we produce and eat, the bigger that carbon footprint will get. We simply cannot go on consuming like this," he said.
To support his view, he pointed to a joint report by Friends of the Earth and Compassion in World Farming.
It claims that if the industrialised world halved meat consumption it would be possible to feed the world in 2050 without large agricultural expansion, intensive crop and animal farming, or any further deforestation.
Obama to attend start of U.N. climate meeting 11/25/2009
U.S. President Barack Obama will go to Copenhagen for a U.N. climate change meeting on December 9, hoping to add momentum to an international process despite slow progress on a domestic bill to cut carbon emissions. Skip related content
Obama planned to make a visit at the beginning of the climate negotiations in Denmark, an administration official told Reuters on Wednesday, before picking up the Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in neighbouring Oslo.
Obama did not plan to return for the end of the December 7-18 meeting, when roughly 65 other heads of state and government are expected to attend, the official said.
Obama has made climate change a top priority of his administration, but a bill to cut U.S. emissions is bogged down in the U.S. Senate. The U.S. House of Representatives has passed its version of climate change legislation.
Most nations have given up hopes of agreeing to a binding legal treaty text in Copenhagen, partly because of uncertainty about what the United States will be able to offer.
Environmentalists had hoped Obama would be present for the leaders meeting at the end of the talks to give legitimacy to a "politically binding" agreement that host Denmark still hopes to achieve.
In such an agreement, developed nations would set goals for cutting emissions by 2020, developing nations would agree to slow the rise of their emissions, and the rich would come up with new aid and clean technology to help the poor cope with climate change.
(Editing by Will Dunham)
Guyana - a test case for UN deforestation scheme 11/25/2009
Global Witness hosts meeting with President Jagdeo to explore ambitious plan to stop deforestation
Less than a month before the world's leaders meet to strike a new deal on climate change, campaign group, Global Witness, is hosting a public meeting with the President of Guyana, whose country stands to gain if an agreement is reached in Copenhagen on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD).
The meeting, taking place today in London, will explore the opportunities and risks of REDD, and provide a forum for NGOs, leading academics, government representatives and the press to question the President of Guyana, as well as the leader of indigenous people's groups, on an ambitious plan to stop deforestation and embark on a ‘low carbon development' path.
"Guyana is at the forefront of the REDD negotiations and likely to be the first country to sign an agreement with the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility. It's a test case for REDD," said Dr. Rosalind Reeve, Forest Campaign Manager at Global Witness. "Given the challenges in Guyana, good governance, transparency and strong oversight must be the watchwords of any deal, This meeting gives us a chance to find out if Guyana's plan will really work."
President Bharret Jagdeo will open the meeting by presenting Guyana's plan for REDD. Other speakers include indigenous people's representative Yvonne Pearson, Chair of the National Toshao's Council, as well as Global Witness and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). The presentations will be followed by an open Question and Answer session in which all guests will have the opportunity to participate.
Guyana lies at the heart of the Guiana Shield, one of the world's last four intact rainforests. Forests make up over 85% of the country's land area. It also has one of the highest levels of biodiversity of any country in the world, with approximately 8,000 plant species, half of which are endemic.
In June 2009 Guyana's Office of the President published a draft Low Carbon Development Strategy. The plan shows the tension that exists between protecting rainforests and pursuing economic development. Guyana also recently signed an agreement with Norway worth up to US$250 million over the next five years. Norway will provide financial support to Guyana in proportion to the country's success in limiting emissions.
Some of the areas Global Witness wants to explore at the meeting include:
Guyana's deal with Norway could set a precedent for some 40 other REDD countries. Is it a good or a bad model for avoiding or reducing deforestation?
Who owns the carbon? How will indigenous peoples' rights and other social and environmental safeguards be respected? Have their voices been heard in the development of the President's low carbon development strategy?
What are the risks of a global carbon finance system, and how effective are the control measures likely to be? The logging sector in many developing countries has a track record of illegality, poor transparency and enriching the elite. How will carbon be different?
"If developing countries want to benefit from REDD, they need to build confidence in the frameworks and oversight they put in place, and demonstrate that safeguards are being met," said Dr. Reeve.
/ Ends
Contacts: DavidYoung, Team Leader, Forest Sector Transparency, on 07854 047826 or Amy Barry, Head of Communications, on 07980 664397
The Conservatives said on Tuesday they will seek advice from some of the world's biggest companies on how to cut emissions from government departments by a tenth in a year if they win an election due by next June. Skip related content
The Conservatives, leading Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour in the polls, said it will work with Tesco, the world's third biggest retailer, telecoms company BT and B&Q, owned by Kingfisher, Europe's biggest home improvement retailer.
Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said government buildings should be much more energy efficient and public departments should use more electric vehicles.
The finance ministry will put pressure on ministers and senior state employees to find other ways to cut energy consumption in their departments. Those that fail will lose part of their funding, Osborne added.
Their success, or lack of it, will be published in real time on the Internet, he said. Senior party members representing each policy area will unveil their plans to target climate change in speeches this week.
"We are deadly serious about achieving this 10 percent reduction," Osborne told students at Imperial College London, a science-based university founded in 1907. "We have set ourselves a very challenging target of doing it within 12 months, knowing full well that people can hold us to account."
With countries meeting for U.N. climate talks in Denmark next month, both the Labour Party and Conservatives have been keen to promote their environmental credentials.
Osborne said Britain's finance ministry had traditionally been "at best indifferent, at worst obstructive" towards environmental policy.
"That attitude is going to change if the government changes," he added. "I want a Conservative Treasury (finance ministry) to be in the lead of developing the low carbon economy and financing the green recovery."
Under his proposals, Osborne said the government will save some 300 million pounds a year.
The government would begin talks on establishing a new investment bank that would consolidate all existing government funding of new environmental projects, Osborne added.
The public would be able to invest in tax-free savings accounts that fund "green" initiatives and the Conservatives would set a 10-year minimum tax on burying household waste.
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband dismissed the Conservative pledges as "greenwash" and said the plans were not backed by promises of new money.
"The truth is that the Tories have opposed Labour's extra public investment, including the 400 million pounds allocated at the time of the budget for new green industries," Miliband said in a statement. "So why should anyone believe a piece of greenwash from George Osborne?"
Britain was the first country to set legally-binding targets to cut emissions. It aims for a reduction of 34 percent by 2020 and at least 80 percent by 2050, compared to 1990 levels.
Antarctic ice loss vaster, faster than thought: study 11/22/2009
Antarctic ice loss vaster, faster than thought: study
The East Antarctic icesheet, once seen as largely unaffected by global warming, has lost billions of tonnes of ice since 2006 and could boost sea levels in the future, according to a new study. Skip related content
Published Sunday in Nature Geoscience, the same study shows that the smaller but less stable West Antarctic icesheet is also shedding significant mass.
Scientists worry that rising global temperatures could trigger a rapid disintegration of West Antarctica, which holds enough frozen water to push up the global ocean watermark by about five metres (16 feet).
In 2007 the UN Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) predicted sea levels would rise 18 to 59 centimetres (7.2 to 23.2 inches) by 2100, but this estimate did not factor in the potential impact of crumbling icesheets in Greenland and Antarctica.
Today many of the same scientist say that even if heat-trapping CO2 emissions are curtailed, the ocean watermark is more likely to go up by nearly a metre, enough to render several small island nations unlivable and damage fertile deltas home to hundreds of millions.
More than 190 nations gather in Copenhagen next month to hammer out a global climate deal to curb greenhouse gases and help poor countries cope with its consequences.
University of Texas professor Jianli Chen and colleagues analysed nearly seven years of data on ocean-icesheet interaction in Antarctica.
Covering the period up January 2009, the data was collected by the twin GRACE satellites, which detect mass flows in the ocean and polar regions by measuring changes in Earth's gravity field.
Consistent with earlier findings based on different methods, they found that West Antarctica dumped, on average, about 132 billion tonnes of ice into the sea each year, give or take 26 billion tonnes.
They also found for the first time that East Antarctica -- on the Eastern Hemisphere side of the continent -- is likewise losing mass, mostly in coastal regions, at a rate of about 57 billion tonnes annually.
The margin or error, they cautioned, is almost as large as the estimate, meaning ice loss could be a little as a few billion tonnes or more than 100.
Up to now, scientists had thought that East Antarctica was in "balance," meaning that it accumulated as much mass and it gave off, perhaps a bit more.
"Acceleration of ice loss in recent years over the entire continent is thus indicated," the authors conclude. "Antarctica may soon be contributing significantly more to global sea level rise."
Another study published last week in the journal Nature reported an upwardly-revised figure for Antarctic temperatures during prior "interglacials", warm periods such as our own that have occurred roughly every 100,000 years.
During the last interglacial which peaked some 128,000 years ago, called the Eemian Period, temperatures in the region were probably six degree Celsius (10.8 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than today, which is about 3 C (5.4 C) above previous estimates, the study said.
The findings suggest that the region may be more sensitive than scientists thought to greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere that were roughly equivalent to present day levels.
During the Eemian, sea levels were five-to-seven metres higher than today.
Greenpeace rallies to stop deforestation in Indonesia 11/22/2009
Greenpeace rallies to stop deforestation in Indonesia
Hundreds of Greenpeace activists rallied Saturday in support of a commitment by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by deforestation. Skip related content
About 200 people rallied in the capital displaying banners that said "Enough, stop destroying our forests" and "Stop talking, start acting".
"We urge SBY to keep his promise in reducing emissions, especially from deforestation," Greenpeace Southeast Asia forest campaigner Yuyun Indradi said, referring the president by his initials.
"He promised to reduce emissions of up to 41 percent," Indradi said.
Yudhoyono said at the G20 summit in the US city of Pittsburgh in September that Indonesia had decided on a national climate change action plan that would reduce its emissions by 26 percent by 2020.
Yudhoyono added that Indonesia could reduce emissions by as much as 41 percent with international assistance.
"We also want to support the act from our fellow activists in Riau province... to stop the destruction of peatlands in the area," Indradi said.
Riau, on Sumatra island, is where most of the deforestation is taking place in Indonesia.
Rampant deforestation, which makes ways for palm oil and acacia plantation areas, makes Indonesia the world's third-largest greenhouse gas emitters, according to some estimates.
Water mission returns first data 11/21/2009
Water mission returns first data
By Jonathan Amos Science reporter, BBC News
Smos builds up its map data in strips as it sweeps around the Earth
Europe's latest Earth observation satellite has returned its first data.
Smos was launched earlier this month on a quest to help scientists understand better how water is cycled around the Earth.
The spacecraft will make the first global maps of the amount of moisture held in soils and of the quantity of salts dissolved in the oceans.
The data will have wide uses but should improve weather forecasts and warnings of extreme events, such as floods.
"Smos is performing like a dream," said Dr Yann Kerr, a lead investigator on the mission from the Centre for the Study of the Biosphere from Space (Cesbio), Toulouse, France.
"Everything went as clockwork and exactly as expected or better up to now. We did not expect to have images so soon," he told BBC News.
The European Space Agency's (Esa) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (Smos) satellite was launched on 2 November.
The mission will run for three years in the first instance
After its initial check-out in orbit, its sole instrument - an interferometric radiometer called Miras - was sent live on Tuesday this week.
The first publicly released image on this page has not been properly calibrated by researchers but they say it proves the instrument is in good shape.
Miras is some eight metres across; it has the look of helicopter rotor blades.
It measures changes in the wetness of the land and in the salinity of seawater by observing variations in the natural microwave emission coming up off the surface of the planet.
It does this through 69 antennas positioned on a central structure and along the lengths of its three arms.
Generally speaking, the "colder" (blue) the "temperature brightness" of the microwave signal, the saltier the water and the wetter the soil; but a lot of processing will be needed before any real values can be attached to the measurements coming down from Smos.
"Moreover, there seem to be radio frequency interferences (RFIs) over China, western Russia and parts of Europe (the reddish stripes)," explained Dr Kerr.
"We will have to tune the reconstruction algorithm before we can reduce or address these."
Scientists were well aware before launch that RFIs might be a problem. Smos is operating in the so-called L-band (21cm) which is supposed to be protected, but pre-flight testing established known interference hotspots, such as airports.
The 315m-euro ($465m; £280m) Smos programme, although led by Esa, has with significant input from French and Spanish interests. The satellite is expected to operate for at least three years.
The amount of water retained in soils varies between about 5% and 50%
This will cover most conditions from 'bone dry' to 'mud bath'
Smos sees the entire range with an accuracy of 4% at the 50km scale
Natural salinity in water covers the range from near zero to 30%
Drinking water might be one extreme; salt lakes would be the other extreme
Smos is seeking sea waters which are typically in the 3-3.5% range
This needs high accuracy (0.01-0.02%). Maps are at the 200km scale
Scotland ended a 27-year losing streak against Australia 11/21/2009
27 years is a long time to wait for a win. Well done Scotland
Scotland ended a 27-year losing streak against Australia as an awesome defensive performance set up victory over the Wallabies at Murrayfield.
Australia dominated territory and possession but it was 3-3 at the break as Scotland fly-half Phil Godman cancelled out a Matt Giteau penalty.
A Godman penalty and Chris Paterson drop-goal saw Scotland edge ahead.
And although Ryan Cross went over for an injury-time try, Giteau's missed conversion handed the Scots victory.
The last time Scotland lowered the Wallabies' colours was way back in 1982 when they won 12-7 in Brisbane, but since that win the Australians have grown into a major force on the world stage, something that cannot be said about the Scots.
In recent times they have struggled to make an impression in the Six Nations, let alone at a global level, but after several years in the wilderness the appointment of Andy Robinson as coach has paid immediate dividends.
The former England boss may have opened his account with a win over Fiji last weekend but victory over the Wallabies, who were on a 16-game winning streak against them, looked highly unlikely.
No-one had told the Scottish players that they were not supposed to win, though, and they put their bodies on the line to clinch one of the biggest upsets of recent times.
The visitors' cause was not helped by the normally accurate Giteau missing three kickable penalties, in addition to the crucial late conversion, as he struggled to come to terms with the swirling wind in Edinburgh, but he did manage to get the scoreboard ticking over with a fifth-minute effort.
The Wallabies came desperately close to scoring the first try of the game soon after, but some heroic defence from the hosts saw powerful Australia number eight Wycliff Palu stopped inches short.
The visitors came even closer to a try when Giteau sprung Stephen Moore through a hole in the heart of the Scottish defence but more superb defence, this time from Rory Lamont and Chris Cusiter, prevented the hooker from getting the ball down.
Scotland suffered a blow as Cusiter was forced off with a head injury, and it looked as though it was only a matter of time before the Wallabies opened their try account, but as the game went past the 20-minute mark Scotland finally began to secure some possession.
A couple of powerful mauls from the forwards gave them some belief, and when the Australian pack infringed to halt a rumble from the Scottish eight, Godman punished the visitors with a well-struck penalty.
Lamont celebrates 'unbelievable' win
The Australians soon regained control of both territory and possession but more ferocious Scottish defence meant they could not cross the hosts' line, and a missed penalty and drop-goal from Giteau meant the two sides were locked together at 3-3 at the interval.
Australia continued to enjoy the upper hand but the Scots refused to yield and missed penalties from both Giteau and Godman ensured the game was still deadlocked approaching the final quarter.
Scotland were having some joy when they kept the ball at close quarters and they managed to edge ahead on a rare foray into enemy territory when Dean Mumm was caught on the wrong side of a ruck and Godman landed the difficult penalty.
Australia continued to enjoy the lion's share of the ball and it continued to look inevitable they would find a winning score.
But Scotland defended with a ferocity that would have warmed the cockles of ex-flanker Robinson's heart and Australia failed to keep their nerve when it mattered.
With 15 minutes to go Quade Cooper had a two-on-one overlap after the Aussies had sucked in the remaining defence but his miss-pass to Drew Mitchell was wastefully forward.
And when Scotland went up the other end and extended their lead to six points through Paterson's sweetly struck drop-goal even the most pessimistic of their fans started to believe victory could be theirs.
However, there was still time for Australia to launch a series of late attacks and they hammered away at the Scottish line with increasing desperation
As the clock ticked over into injury time a last assault from the Wallabies saw them come within inches of scoring several times before Giteau sent the ball wide for replacement centre Cross to power over.
That left the fly-half with a tricky conversion to spare the Wallabies' blushes but not for the first time the ball drifted to the left of the posts as the delirious Murrayfield crowd threatened to lift the roof off the stadium.
Scotland: R Lamont; S Lamont, Grove, Morrison, Danielli; Godman, Cusiter; Jacobsen, Ford, Low, Hines, Kellock, Strokosch, Barclay, Beattie.
Replacements: De Luca for Morrison (40), Paterson for Danielli (63), R. Lawson for Cusiter (21), Hall for Ford (77), Traynor for Low (57), White for Strokosch (48), Vernon for Beattie (63).
Replacements: O'Connor for Cooper (74), Burgess for Genia (63), Kepu for Robinson (17), Polota-Nau for Moore (46), Mumm for Chisholm (50), Brown for Palu (66).
Not Used: Turner.
Att: 44,762
Ref: R Poite (FRFU).
Model Helena Christensen examines climate change in Peru 11/19/2009
Model Helena Christensen examines climate change in Peru
Supermodel-turned-photographer Helena Christensen urged politicians and world leaders to commit to real changes at the upcoming Copenhagen climate talks, as she launched a photo exhibition in London documenting climate change in Peru. Skip related content
Christensen, who is half-Danish, half-Peruvian, travelled to her mother's native country to capture the effects of climate change on the indigenous people, in a joint project with Oxfam.
The resulting images, a selection of colour and black-and-white images shot using film, digital and Polaroid cameras, went on display in London's Proud Gallery on Thursday.
Christen, 40, said she jumped at the chance to take part. "To be able to do something for the country that my mother is from was a very important reason as to why I went along," she told AFP.
"And Oxfam reaches so many people I figured it was definitely a way to bring awareness about what was going on prior to the climate conference in Copenhagen.
World leaders will gather in Copenhagen from December 7-18 for talks to prepare the way for a new climate deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
Hopes have been dashed in recent weeks that the talks would lead to a binding agreement on cutting emissions and helping developing countries deal with the effects of climate change.
Christensen stressed that the real responsibilities lie with those in power.
"As the people, we can only do so much. Politicians and world leaders are the ones who have the power to actually make drastic changes.
"I really hope that for once the politicians will come up with some rules, some new ways of stopping the enormous amount of carbon dioxide that is being pumped into this world."
In Peru, Christensen witnessed first-hand the effects retreating glaciers have on local farmers.
As the glaciers melt and the rivers dry up, Christensen said there was not enough water to sustain the indigenous farmers and alpaca herders she visited.
"Whole communities are losing their main source of income," Christensen said, adding that villagers were being forced to leave the mountains and move into cities.
"These cultures will disappear," she said. "And it's really sad, because it's such a special part of South America."
Oxfam estimates that in the past 30 years, 22 percent of the surface of Peru's glaciers has been lost.
One of the original supermodels in the nineties, Christensen, 40, has successfully reinvented herself as a photographer since putting a hold on her career before the cameras.
Contrary to popular belief, the mother-of-one explains she was actually a photographer before she went into modelling.
"I started doing photography when I was a teenager and in my early twenties I went to Paris to begin my modelling career.
"I thought it was a way to combine both -- if I got to travel a lot with my modelling career, I would get to take photos as well. For me it was the perfect way of doing two things that I really enjoyed.
"Then, I guess modelling took over for quite a while."
She said she got serious about photography when she had her son, who is now ten years old.
"Suddenly I found myself working more as a photographer and now I think I'm doing probably 30 percent of one and 30 percent of the other and for the rest I do completely different things. So it's a perfect combination."
With years of experience in front of the camera posing for some of the world's best fashion photographers, Christensen admits she picked up tips along the way.
"I hope I absorbed everything I could from them. I was so lucky to work with some of the greats. It was almost like being in photography school all those years."
The photo exhibition Meltdown will be on display in London from November 19-29.
Billionaire's Eco Message In A Boat Bottle 11/18/2009
David de Rothschild, a banking heir frequently listed among the world's most eligible bachelors, will lead a small team of scientists and adventurers on a mission from San Francisco to Sydney.
They will travel on the custom-built 60ft vessel Plastiki, made in part from more than 12,000 plastic bottles.
Mr de Rothschild told Sky News Online he hopes the four-month trip will make people reconsider their use of the material.
"Every bit of plastic that has ever been produced is somewhere on our planet, out there in our atmosphere, in our oceans, or on land," he said.
"There are dumb uses that we should ban and then for other types of plastic we need to be smarter with how we make them and dispose of them.
"The innovation is there but not the appetite because it is not in the interests of certain companies."
Plastiki will showcase Mr de Rothschild's own solutions to the plastic problem.
The vessel will be formed in part by a recently discovered form of self-reinforcing PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) which he thinks has the potential to replace fibreglass.
Unlike the reclaimed plastic PET bottles which make up the sides of the boat, it can be melted down and reused to make almost anything.
It is not the only innovation on the boat.
The glue is made from cashew nuts and sugar while solar panels and wind turbines have been custom designed for energy.
Extra power will be provided by pedalling stationary bikes attached to the back of the boat which Mr de Rothschild joked would also help to keep him toned.
The team will travel to the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch", an area of ocean where there is six times more pollution than plankton.
Much of the world's plastic waste is carried by currents to this and four similar patches across the world.
"Looking out across the ocean it all looks very similar to everywhere else, but most of the waste is beneath the surface," Mr de Rothschild explained.
"It might look fine, but the reality is that it is not."
The crew of six will share limited space on board Plastiki and will spend up to four months at sea.
Mr de Rothschild is confident the team will get on well during the challenge, but does have concerns of his own.
"I've been known to be sea sick," he admitted.
"I think it's something I'll be able to get over quickly. I hope so. But I've heard fresh ginger is good for it, so I'll be taking plenty of that!"
Fans will be able to keep a close eye on its travels.
As well as website updates, a public "mission control" at London's National Geographic Store on Regent Street will allow them to interact with the crew via webcams.
Plastiki is currently undergoing tests to ensure it is seaworthy. If all goes well, the team plans to launch early next year.
Met Warning As UK Braces For Bad Weather 11/18/2009
The Met Office put out warnings for downpours and gusts of wind of up to 60mph for Wales, the North West of England and Northern Ireland for the next three days.
The outlook is similar for Saturday, when the warnings of bad weather extend down to South West England.
Sky News Weather presenter Lucy Verasamy said it will be a rough few days before the weekend.
"The north and west will be worse affected," she said. "Some places will see several inches of rainfall, bringing a risk of flooding. There'll also be strong to gale force winds at times.
"Come Friday, there'll be a respite, it'll become drier and calmer come the end of the week, before more windy wet weather moves into the west on Saturday."
More than 40mm of rain is expected to fall initially, with further downpours falling on already saturated ground over the next 48 hours, a Met Office spokeswoman said.
"It's going to be a bit miserable with all that rain around and very cloudy. The wind won't necessarily be as strong as it was last weekend, but it's still gale force when it's gusting up to 60mph," she said.
Through Thursday night and Friday the rain will move south eastwards over the rest of the UK, getting lighter as it goes, but there will be more downpours on Saturday.
And the unsettled pattern will continue into next week.
Last weekend saw stormy weather with winds of 70mph on Saturday and gusts reaching a top speed of 100mph in outlying areas, as well as driving rain.
The Environment Agency has warned homeowners to be alert to the risk of flooding.
The Agency has already issued one severe flood warning, for the River Irwell in Lancashire.
In preparation for more rain, Environment Agency workers were carrying out routine inspections of waterways, clearing drains of debris and checking flood defences.
World leaders back delay to final climate deal 11/15/2009
U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders on Sunday supported delaying a legally binding climate pact until 2010 or even later, but European negotiators said the move did not imply weaker action. Skip related content
Some argued that legal technicalities might otherwise distract the talks in Copenhagen and it was better to focus on the core issue of cutting climate-warming emissions.
"Given the time factor and the situation of individual countries we must, in the coming weeks, focus on what is possible and not let ourselves be distracted by what is not possible," Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told the leaders.
"The Copenhagen Agreement should finally mandate continued legal negotiations and set a deadline for their conclusion," said the Copenhagen talks host, who flew into Singapore to lay out his proposal over breakfast at an Asia-Pacific summit.
Rasmussen said the December 7-18 talks should still agree key elements such as cuts in greenhouse gases for industrialised nations and funds to help developing nations. Copenhagen would also set a deadline for writing them into a legal text.
"We are not aiming to let anyone off the hook," Rasmussen said after the meeting, which was attended by leaders of the United States, China, Japan, Russia, Mexico, Australia and Indonesia.
WAITING FOR UNITED STATES
French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said it was clear the main obstacle was the United States' slow progress in defining its own potential emissions cuts.
"The problem is the United States, there's no doubt about that," Borloo, who has coordinated France's Copenhagen negotiating effort, told Reuters in an interview.
"It's the world's number one power, the biggest emitter (of greenhouse gases), the biggest per capita emitter and it's saying 'I'd like to but I can't'. That's the issue," he said.
Danish and Swedish officials said they wanted all developed countries including the United States to promise numbers for cuts in emissions in Copenhagen. The U.S. Senate has not yet agreed carbon-capping legislation.
"There was an assessment by the leaders that it was unrealistic to expect a full, internationally legally binding agreement to be negotiated between now and when Copenhagen starts in 22 days," said U.S. negotiator Michael Froman.
"We believe it is better to have something good than to have nothing at all," said Chilean Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez. The next major U.N. climate meeting is in Bonn in mid-2010.
"Copenhagen can and must deliver clarity on emission reductions and the finance to kickstart action. I have seen nothing to change my view on that," said Yvo de Boer, the U.N.'s top climate change official. Ministers from 40 nations will meet in Copenhagen on Monday and Tuesday for preparatory talks.
Copenhagen was seen as the last chance for countries to agree on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, aiming to fight a rise in temperatures that many scientists predict will bring rising sea levels and more floods and droughts.
The aim of the summit is to set ambitious targets for cutting greenhouse gases in industrialised nations, but also to raise funds to help poor countries slow their own emissions growth and tackle the worst impacts on crops and water supplies.
But negotiations have been bogged down, with developing nations accusing the rich world of failing to set themselves deep enough 2020 goals for curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
FINANCING FIRST
It was not clear if China, now the world's biggest carbon emitter, had backed the two-stage proposal in Singapore.
Chinese President Hu Jintao instead focussed his remarks at the breakfast meeting on the need to establish a funding mechanism for rich nations to provide financial support to developing countries to fight climate change.
Britain's Energy and Climate Secretary Ed Miliband told the BBC the issue was tough but he was "quite optimistic."
"It is about saving the world ... If we can get a very clear set of commitments from the world's leaders in Copenhagen on how they're going to cut their emissions -- not just Europe, not just the United States but India and China and other countries -- then that will be a very major step forward," he said.
Despite the talk in Singapore of urgent action on climate change, a statement issued after the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit dropped an earlier draft's reference to halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Environmental lobby group WWF was disappointed.
"At APEC, there was far too much talk about delay," spokesperson Diane McFadzien said in a statement.
"In Copenhagen, governments need to create a legally binding framework with an amended Kyoto Protocol and a new Copenhagen Protocol. Legally binding is the only thing that will do if we want to see real action to save the planet."
(Additional reporting by David Fogarty, Oleg Shchedrov, Yoo Choonsik and Lucy Hornby, Stefano Ambrogi in London, Emmanuel Jarry and James Mckenzie in Paris, Alister Doyle in Oslo and Pete Harrison in Brussels; Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Jon Hemming)
Deforestation threatens Indonesia's Papua region 11/12/2009
Logging and agribusiness is threatening environmental destruction in Indonesia's Papua region, one of the world's last vast wildernesses, local leaders said on Thursday. Skip related content
The governors of the two provinces in the region on the western end of New Guinea island told an international environmental conference a strategy was needed to avoid the mistakes that have decimated other Indonesian regions.
"Pressure and threats to biodiversity in Papua are increasing. Papua is becoming a target for massive agro and forestry industry investment," West Papua Governor Abraham Atururi said at the conference, jointly organised with environmental groups WWF and Conservation International.
Atururi said his government had received an increasing number of requests for development and feared environmental destruction from illegal logging aimed at clearing land for plantations.
"Papua should not repeat the failure to manage forests and biodiversity that has happened in Kalimantan (Borneo) and Sumatra," he said, referring to massive development on those islands that has seen tropical forests dwindle.
The governor of Papua province, which sits on the eastern end of the region, Barnabas Suebu, said preserving the tropical forest-blanketed region was key to helping absorb the gases that cause climate change.
"The capacity of Papua's 42 million hectares (104 million acres) of forests to process CO2 is equivalent to the carbon footprint of nearly all the population of Europe," Suebu said.
Indonesia, which spreads across over 17,000 islands, has been a key advocate for plans being floated ahead of global climate talks in Copenhagen in December that would see developing countries paid to conserve forests and peatlands.
Deforestation, largely on Borneo and Sumatra, has seen the country become the world's third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
Copenhagen 'unlikely' to solve global warming 11/10/2009
The head of the Environment Agency is set to claim that the Copenhagen summit is unlikely to produce a "signed and sealed" climate change solution, because leading countries are not ready to commit. Skip related content
Lord Smith is calling for a reality check on the UN gathering, saying a treaty with "clear targets and measurable rapid reductions in emissions" is doubtful this year.
In his keynote address at the Environment Agency's annual conference in central London, he will say that Copenhagen "won't solve all the issues - some of the most significant emissions countries aren't yet ready to conclude a deal, not least the US, where the Senate won't have made its decisions until the New Year."
Earlier this week, Gordon Brown said that he was working hard to ensure a global deal on tackling carbon emissions at next month's environmental negotiations.
But Lord Smith says the summit must not be the last word in achieving a climate change solution but a "crucial start" for doing so.
He will add: "What we have to aim for, though, is a number of clear 'in principle' decisions, agreed by the participating nations, with a commitment to agree actions arising from those principles in the course of the following nine months."
Where countries stand on Copenhagen 11/8/2009
Where countries stand on Copenhagen
There are just over four weeks to go before the Copenhagen conference intended to agree a new international framework for controlling greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The final round of preparatory talks in Barcelona has revealed deep divisions between some of the key participants. Use this table to study their positions.
China "Developed countries should support developed countries in tackling climate change." President Hu Jintao, 22/9/09
Wants rich countries to reduce emissions to 40% below 1990 level by 2020
Says they should pay 1% of their GDP per year to help other countries adapt
Promises to emit "notably" less CO2 per unit of GDP by 2020
Wants West to provide low-carbon technology
May be ready to name a date when China's emissions will peak
The world's biggest GHG producer (20.7% of global emissions, 8,106mt of CO2 equivalent)
Emissions per head: 30th in the world (6t of CO2 equivalent)
GDP (2008): $4.3tn
Amount of GHG emitted per $1m of GDP: 1,152t
Kyoto: Signed as a developing country so not obliged to cut emissions
How serious a threat is global warming to you and your family?
Very/Somewhat serious
Not very/Not at all serious
United States "We understand the gravity of the climate threat. We are determined to act. And we will meet our responsibility to future generations." Barack Obama, US president, 22/9/09
Resisting demands to pledge quantified emissions cuts
Against Kyoto-style treaty imposing international legal obligations
Insists China, India, South Africa and Brazil must commit to slow growth of emissions
Climate bill - which would bring cuts of 4% from 1990 levels by 2020 - is bogged down in Senate
The world's second-biggest GHG producer (15.5% of global emissions, 6,087mt of CO2 equivalent)
Emissions per head: Fifth in the world (20t of CO2 equivalent)
GDP (2008): $14.2tn
Amount of GHG emitted per $1m of GDP: 441t
Kyoto: Signed, but never ratified
How serious a threat is global warming to you and your family?
Very/Somewhat serious
Not very/Not at all serious
EU "We are going to over-achieve our Kyoto targets." Stavros Dimas, EU environment commissioner, 27/10/09
The EU is a grouping of 27 European states
Aspires to play "leading role" at Copenhagen
Will cut emissions by 20% from 1990 levels by 2020, or 30% if other big emitters take tough action
Wants rich nations to make 80-95% cut by 2050
Wants poorer nations to slow emissions growth
Says they face costs of $150bn per year by 2020, of which EU will pay $7bn-22bn from public finances
The world's third-biggest GHG producer (11.8% of global emissions, 4,641mt CO2 equivalent)
Emissions per head: 17th in the world (9t of CO2 equivalent)
GDP (2008): $18.3tn
Amount of GHG emitted per $1m of GDP: 315t
Kyoto: Signed - has to get average emissions for 2008-2012 8% below 1990 level
How serious a threat is global warming to you and your family?
Very/Somewhat serious
Not very/Not at all serious
(Results represent the median of 23 out of the 27 EU states polled by Gallup)
India "Internationally legally binding [greenhouse gas] reduction targets are for developed countries and developed countries alone." Jairam Ramesh, India's environment minister, 21/10/09
Agrees to limit growth of GHG emissions but will not commit to binding targets
Says rich countries are to blame for climate change and points to big gap in per capita emissions
Wants deep cuts in rich country emissions, firm funding pledges and technology transfer
Keen on preserving Kyoto-style legal obligations for developing countries
The world's sixth-biggest GHG producer (5% of global emissions, 1,963mt of CO2 equivalent)
Emissions per head: 66th in the world (2t of CO2 equivalent)
GDP (2008): $1.2tn
Amount of GHG emitted per $1m of GDP: 655t
Kyoto: Signed as a developing country, so not obliged to cut emissions
How serious a threat is global warming to you and your family?
Very/Somewhat serious
Not very/Not at all serious
Japan "We think developing countries are also required to make an effort to reduce greenhouse gases." Yukio Hatoyama Japan's prime minister, 7/9/09
Will cut emissions to 25% below 1990 levels by 2020, if other countries show similar ambition
This amounts to a cut of 30% in 10 years, and is opposed by industry
"Hatoyama initiative" will increase financial and technical assistance to developing countries
Backs proposals in which each country would set its own commitments
The world's seventh-biggest GHG producer (3.3% of global emissions, 1,293mt of CO2 equivalent)
Emissions per head: 15th in the world (10t of CO2 equivalent)
GDP (2008): $4.9tn
Amount of GHG emitted per $1m of GDP: 301t
Kyoto: Signed - has to get average emissions for 2008-2012 6% below 1990 level
How serious a threat is global warming to you and your family?
Very/Somewhat serious
Not very/Not at all serious
African union "We are prepared to walk out of any negotiations that threaten to be another rape of the continent." Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, 3/9/09
The African Union is a grouping of 52 African states
Like China, wants rich countries legally bound to cut emissions to 40% below 1990 level by 2020
Describes 20 to 30% cuts as "unacceptable"
Wants rich countries to pay 0.5% of GDP to help developing countries tackle climate change
Wants $67bn per year for adaptation in Africa
Threatening to walk out if demands are not met
The AU accounts for 8.1% of global emissions (3,164mt of CO2 equivalent)
Emissions per head: 4t of CO2 equivalent
GDP (2008): $34bn
Amount of GHG emitted per $1m of GDP: 1,361t
Kyoto: African nations signed as developing countries so are not obliged to cut emissions
How serious a threat is global warming to you and your family?
Sample state, Kenya:
Very/Somewhat serious
Not very/Not at all serious
Gulf states "We are among the most economically vulnerable countries." Mohammad S. Al Sabban, Saudi Arabia's lead negotiator 8/10/09
Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE
Opec and Saudi Arabia seeking financial aid for oil-producers if new agreement requires cuts of fossil fuels
Keen on a deal that would advance use of carbon capture and storage
In 2007 Opec members pledged $750m to fund climate change research
Qatar and Abu Dhabi investing heavily in clean energy technology
Gulf states account for 2.3% of global emissions (894mt of CO2 equivalent)
Emissions per head: 25t of CO2 equivalent
GDP (2008): $468bn
Amount of GHG emitted per $1m of GDP: 875t
Kyoto: Gulf States signed as developing countries so are not obliged to cut emissions
How serious a threat is global warming to you and your family?
Sample state, Saudi Arabia:
Very/Somewhat serious
Not very/Not at all serious
Small islands "The days of little money in the face of big problems are over." Dessima Williams, head of the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis), 9/10/09
Aosis is a bloc of 42 island and coastal states mostly in the Pacific and Caribbean
Regard rising sea level as threat to their existence
Seek to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees above preindustrial levels
Want concentration of CO2 in atmosphere lowered from 380 to 350 parts per million
Want global emissions to peak by 2015 and fall 85% below 1990 level by 2050
Want at least 1% of rich country GDP spent on "climate-inflicted damage"
The small island states account for 0.6% of global GHG emissions (246mt of CO2 equivalent)
Emissions per head: 4t of CO2 equivalent
GDP (2008): $46bn
Amount of GHG emitted per $1m of GDP: 551t
Kyoto: Aosis members signed as developing countries so are not obliged to cut emissions
How serious a threat is global warming to you and your family?
Sample state, Dominican Republic:
Very/Somewhat serious
Not very/Not at all serious
SOURCES: Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the World Bank. Gallup poll data taken in 2008. Between 528 and 2,493 people interviewed in each country, either by phone or face-to-face (the question was put to people who said they knew something about climate change). The margin of error ranges from +/-3.5 to +/-5.3%.
The West Atlas platform burst into flames on Sunday while a fifth attempt was being made to plug a leak using heavy mud.
The Australian government has launched an inquiry into how the rig caught fire, ten weeks after it started leaking oil into the Timor Sea.
No-one was injured, and all workers have been evacuated, but huge flames are shooting into the air.
Officials from PTT Exploration and Production say they cannot extinguish it while it's been fed by leaking gas.
The oil leak began on August 21, with up to 400 barrels of oil a day spewing into the sea, 150 miles from the northwest Australian coast.
Only the fact that it is so far offshore has prevented pollution showing up on beaches, but environmental experts say it's having a devastating impact on marine and wildlife.
"There are many unanswered questions, including how the fire started," said PTTEP Chief Financial Officer Jose Martins.
Paul Gamblin, from the pressure group WWF, said: "The fire itself could cause considerable environmental damage.
"Ultimately the rig itself could collapse into the ocean."
Australia's Resources Minister Martin Ferguson announced a full and independent inquiry into the cause of the incident. He said the government is "deeply concerned".
Opposition spokesman Greg Hunt said a national emergency taskforce should be established.
"We've had ten weeks of drift and complacency. Now we have a genuine national environmental emergency," he said.
'People Will Go Veggie To Save The Planet' 11/1/2009
Nicholas Stern said: "I think that once people understand the great risks that climate change poses, they will naturally want to choose products and services that cause little or no emissions of greenhouse gases, which means 'low-carbon consumption'.
"This will apply across the board, including electricity, heating, transport and food.
"A diet that relies heavily on meat production results in higher emissions than a typical vegetarian diet. Different individuals will make different choices."
The former World Bank chief economist was responding to an interview he gave The Times which was published under the headline: 'Climate chief - give up meat to save the planet'.
"The headline and opening paragraphs of the front page story in The Times today give undue prominence to comments I made to them yesterday about the greenhouse gases that are emitted by different types of food production," Lord Stern said.
The debate about climate change should not be "dumbed down" into a single slogan, he added.
Cows and pigs emit methane, which is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.
It has been estimated that livestock accounts for a fifth of global warming.
However, Jonathan Scurlock of the National Farmers' Union said a vegetarian diet was not a "worldwide solution".
"Farmers in this country are interested in evidence-based policymaking. We don't have a methane-free cow or pig available to us," he said.
Su Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Vegetarian Society, disagreed.
"Meat uses up a lot of resources and a vegetarian diet consumes a lot less land and water," she said.
"One of the best things you can do about climate change is reduce the amount of meat in your diet."
Gore 'certain' Obama will attend climate talks 11/1/2009
Al Gore is confident that US President Barack Obama will attend key UN climate change talks in Copenhagen, the former US vice president and Nobel peace laureate said in a German magazine interview. Skip related content
"I see the calendar, I see the unfolding of events, and I feel certain he will go," Gore, who won the Nobel for his crusade against global warming, told the Monday edition of Der Spiegel.
Gore also expressed optimism that the US Congress would agree on the outline of climate legislation before the December 7-18 conference, which is aimed at finding a new global pact on cutting harmful greenhouse gas emissions.
Gore said he did not believe Congress would pass a bill by December but that an agreement could be reached by then to put Washington in a stronger position at the talks.
"Therefore, I think there is a very real prospect that the legislation will pass, and that as a result, Obama will have the ability to go to Copenhagen with a more substantive position," Gore said.
A bill in the lower US House of Representatives calls for cutting US greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and by 83 percent by 2050.
But the Senate is considering a slightly more ambitious bill that foresees a 20-percent cut by 2020.
The White House said on October 2 that Obama would consider attending the climate talks in Copenhagen if the meeting is elevated to the level of heads of state.
Hong Kong's ghostly seas warn of looming tragedy 10/29/2009
Hong Kong's ghostly seas warn of looming tragedy
Lawrence Bartlett
The live fish facing death in the glass tanks in Hong Kong's famous seafood restaurants tell a strange and haunting tale of a looming global tragedy.
At the heart of their story is the bizarre fact that there are more fine fish swimming in the tiny tanks than there are in the surrounding sea.
Having overfished and polluted its own waters to the point where they are home mainly to great ghosts of the past, Hong Kong now imports up to 90 percent of its seafood.
The problem with that, scientists say, is that Hong Kong is a microcosm of a marine disaster in which wild fish are being eaten out of existence worldwide. Related Article: Scientific Study
"It is a sign of what is happening in most of the fisheries in the world," says Guillermo Moreno, head of global environment group WWF's marine programme in Hong Kong. "It's a scary panorama."
In scenes replayed throughout Hong Kong's archipelago, the seafood for the restaurants in Yung Shue Wan arrives in the dull light of a hazy dawn, while most of the village is still asleep.
Through the rough streets, wiry men in singlets trundle trolleys laden with sloshing buckets full of struggling fish nearing the end of their lives far from their usual habitat on distant, colourful coral reefs.
They are tipped into crowded tanks outside restaurants lining the harbour to await the pointing finger of a diner which will flag the last leg of their long journey, to the kitchen.
At weekends, the open air restaurant tables under spinning fans host large family gatherings where cheerful children tuck in to food that researchers say could disappear in their lifetimes.
"Unless the current situation improves, stocks of all species currently fished for food are predicted to collapse by 2048," the WWF reports, quoting a controversial scientific survey.
Restaurateur Ben Chan Kin-Keung acknowledges that Hong Kong's waters no longer provide what his seafood-loving customers want, but says that is not a problem -- at the moment.
"It's very fast and convenient to import seafood around the globe either by plane or ship," he says.
But he knows the feast cannot last and says it is already becoming difficult to find fish in the quantities he requires.
"It's like people just want to eat the fish when they are not (even) born. I'm afraid that I may have to change my job in 10 years time."
Offshore from the restaurants, a lone trawler dredges the jade sea -- but bleak records show it is unlikely to bring up table-worthy fish.
"The average size of fish now caught in these bottom trawls is about 10 grammes" -- about one third of an ounce or the weight of a small coin -- Professor Yvonne Sadovy of Hong Kong University told AFP.
"To put this into some kind of context, Hong Kong was a famous fishing centre in the past and we had incredibly productive and species-rich ground fisheries."
WWF says that "Hong Kong waters were incredibly rich just decades ago with manta rays, hammerhead sharks, giant grouper and croakers taller than a man. In less than a lifetime Hong Kong has lost them all."
Sadovy, a marine scientist who has made a special study of Hong Kong's seas, says there are several reasons the local fisheries are in such a bad state.
High demand for seafood in the crowded city and a lack of regulation fuelled overfishing which combined with pollution and loss of habitat to push fish populations "well beyond their capacity to regenerate themselves," she said.
The scale of the pollution can be gauged a short boat ride away from the harbour-side diners enjoying their seafood, where a few pale-pink backs can be seen breaking the surface of the grey-green sea of the Pearl River Delta.
These are Hong Kong's famed pink dolphins, but the most surprising thing about the beautiful creatures is not their colour -- it's the fact that they are alive at all.
Flush the toilet in any of the high-rise apartments or offices housing Hong Kong's population of seven million people and it will likely go almost directly into the "Fragrant Harbour" -- Hong Kong's name in Cantonese.
Add to that the chemical effluent oozing down the Pearl River from thousands of frantically busy factories in mainland China and you have a "horrendous cocktail," says Sadovy.
A keen diver, Sadovy says she has seen fish deformed by the pollutants in Hong Kong's waters, and points out that many of them -- such as the heavy metals -- will poison the seas for years to come.
Eco-tourism group Hong Kong Dolphinwatch says that 450,000 cubic metres of raw, semi-processed sewage is dumped into the harbour every day -- enough to fill 200 Olympic-size swimming pools.
The water quality is "disgusting," says guide Janet Walker as the Dolphinwatch boat carries a group of Japanese and Western tourists away from a jagged skyline of tower blocks and into the delta.
There, the traditional curves of sampans threading their way past gigantic cargo ships, high-speed ferries and lumbering barges offer a glimpse of a richer -- and cleaner -- fishing past.
"I certainly wouldn't eat anything from this water. There's not much fish left here but what there is will be seriously contaminated -- mercury levels are very high, cadmium, various other heavy metals...," Walker told AFP.
First-born dolphin offspring tend to have a high mortality rate because they receive about a decade's-worth of accumulated toxins through their mother's milk, she said.
The poisons settle in fatty tissues as the mothers grow to sexual maturity and the first-born get the full dose, while later offspring from the same female will have much higher survival rates.
But WWF's Moreno points out that pollution of the oceans is a worldwide menace: "Catch a bluefin tuna out in the middle of the ocean and it will contain mercury," he says.
So overfishing must take most of the blame for the pitiful state of Hong Kong's fisheries -- just as it does for the collapse of cod fisheries in Europe and Canada and the threat to popular species globally.
"You see these fabulous big fish, colourful fish, plenty of them, in the seafood restaurants," said Sadovy.
"But most of those fish, in fact almost all of the fish you see in those tanks come from overseas."
They come from around the world -- the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia's coral reefs.
"In the end we could view Hong Kong as a very good example of the direction we cannot risk taking if we want to be sure to have wild seafood available to us in the future," Sadovy said.
Having told their tale, the fish in the tanks in the Hong Kong restaurants pose a question for ecologically aware diners: Is it no longer acceptable to eat fish?
Moreno and Sadovy, both passionate about their subject, say they don't eat shrimp because of the destructive methods used to catch it in the wild and shrimp farming's devastation of environmentally important mangroves on Southeast Asian shores.
But they do eat fish -- provided they are species that are caught or farmed in a sustainable way.
WWF's websites provide regional guides to dining with a clear conscience that can be downloaded and taken to the restaurant.
The Hong Kong government admitted in response to questions from AFP that its waters have been overfished and are badly polluted by sewage, and says it is working on plans to correct both problems.
UK 'worst EU state pension system' 10/29/2009 UK 'worst EU state pension system'
Millions of Britons are being condemned to poverty in old age by the worst state pension in the EU, a study shows. The basic state pension of £87.30 a week is equivalent to just 17 per cent of the average wage, it found. This figure rises to 30 per cent once pension payments related to earnings are taken into account.
But this is still only half the EU average of 60 per cent, the financial firm Aon Consulting said. Its study concluded: "The inadequacy of the state system is beyond question."
Charities including Help the Aged warn the problem has been made worse because the state pension has failed to keep pace with increases in the cost of essentials such as heating, water, and council tax.
A recent study found a quarter of pensioners are having to cut back on basics to survive. Until recently many British workers could rely on private pensions such as final salary schemes.
However, many of the most generous schemes have been replaced by deals requiring higher monthly payments in return for a smaller pension.
In addition, the study said a "spate" of banking scandals and crises had damaged confidence in the private pension system.
As a result, Britons are not investing in private pensions on the scale needed to make up for the state system's failings.
The average age of retirement in Britain - 62.6 - is also above the EU average of 61. Some 57 per cent of Britons aged between 55 and 64 are in paid employment.
Aon found the value of Britain's state pension for a single person is 30.8 per cent of the average wage. This figure is 32.5 per cent in Ireland, 39.9 per cent in Germany and 51.2 per cent in France.
The most generous state pension is offered by Greece, where the figure is 95.7 per cent.
Aon said Britain's ageing population is reliant on young immigrants to boost the number of workers, generating taxes to fund pensions.
But it stressed this was not a long term solution to the pensions crisis.
The firm's chief actuary, Donald Duval, said: "Migrant workers have helped boost the pension pot in the UK to mitigate against its demographic problems but this is not a sustainable measure. It is a smokescreen hiding deeper issues facing the pension system.
"More needs to be done to restore confidence in private schemes so as to drive an increased level of contributions. People cannot afford to rely on the state pension, which remains the lowest in Europe.
"The 2005 Turner Report on the future of pensions concluded that the ageing population left the UK with four choices: lower pensions, higher retirement ages, higher member contributions or higher taxes.
"Assuming that the first is unacceptable, some combination of the latter three needs to be encouraged."
A spokesman for Help the Aged said: "Pensioners are resorting to strategies such as buying cut-price food that is nearly out of date.
"Increasingly the poorest pensioners are turning to friends and family to help them out.
"Debt agencies are also reporting an increase in the number of older people who have borrowed money they can't repay.
"Simple things like going out for a meal or inviting people to your home become impossible. Holidays are completely out of the question, while people have to cut back on hobbies and social events."
The Government plans to restore a link between rises in earnings and rises in the basic pension by 2012.
However, this will be part of a package that will also raise the retirement age from 65 in 2024 to 68 by 2050.
The Government should ignore some of the money pensioners receive from private schemes to encourage more Britons to save towards their retirement, a report suggests.
The Pensions Policy Institute said many are afraid to invest in private schemes because they would lose means-tested state benefits.
The research charity suggested the Government should therefore disregard the first £12 a week someone receives from a private pension when calculating their state benefits.
This would allow someone to have a pension fund worth £6,000 before it affected their means-tested benefits.
State Pension as a proportion of Average Wage Source Aon
COUNTRY
% OF AV EARNINGS
Greece
95.7
Luxemburg
88.3
Netherlands
81.9
Spain
81.2
Denmark
79.8
Italy
67.9
Sweden
62.1
EU AVERAGE
60%
France
51.2
Germany
39.9
Estonia
32.9
Ireland
32.5
UK
30.8
Deaths of 77 orphans prompts inquiry in Sudan 10/27/2009
Deaths of 77 orphans prompts inquiry in Sudan
Andrew Heavens
The deaths of 77 children at Sudan's main orphanage has sparked an investigation, officials said on Tuesday, in a case that has lifted the lid on the plight of abandoned infants in Africa's largest state.
"We have seen the official figures and they are horrifying. I welcome the decision that there will be an investigation into the current situation at Mygoma," Nils Kastberg, UNICEF's Sudan representative, told Reuters, referring to the state-owned orphanage where the deaths occurred.
The manager of the charity operating in the Khartoum orphanage defended his record, telling Reuters he had saved thousands of children and adding that deaths were inevitable given the condition of babies when they arrived.
"The numbers were high... But last month we received 46 premature babies. Many of them were suffering from septicaemia. What am I going to do?" Mohamed Muhedin Elgemiabby, head of Ana Assudan, the charity contracted to care for the children in Mygoma, said.
"Most are delivered early. They were born in unhygienic areas. They are found in water canals, in sewers ... They need incubators but it is very difficult to find incubators."
The United Nations estimates hundreds of babies are abandoned in Khartoum every year by women in the predominantly Muslim country unable to bear the stigma of having a child outside marriage. Half of the infants die before getting help.
Most of those found on the streets of the capital are taken to Mygoma where authorities try to find new homes with families.
Khartoum state's ministry of social welfare on Tuesday told Reuters 77 children had died in the orphanage in September, the highest number recorded in four years.
"There is a committee which is there to give us details about everything, starting with the food," said Mona Mustapha Khogalai, the head of the ministry's social welfare department.
She said the death toll might be explained by higher than usual admissions of infants and their weakened condition.
"I think these may be some of the causes. Maybe there are other causes. I am waiting for the committee to give me their report," she said.
UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency, welcomed the investigation.
"It is bad enough that so many babies die every month in the streets of Khartoum," Kastberg told journalists.
"Those that survive are taken to an orphanage where too many of them subsequently die."
Elgemiabby said 77 deaths represented roughly 26 percent of the babies in the orphanage at the time. He said average death rates were from 12 to 20 percent.
"But the rates when the government was running Mygoma on its own from 1961 were horrible, horrible," he said. A UNICEF report based on research carried out in 2003 put Mygoma's mortality rate at 80 percent.
Ana Assudan (http://www.anaassudan.org/) said it took on a contract to work in the orphanage in 2007.
Khogalai said it was difficult to give an average for deaths at Mygoma as figures varied wildly from month to month.
She said that a set of mortality figures published by Khartoum newspaper Ajras al-Huriya showing between 15 and 41 deaths a month since January looked accurate.
(Editing by Michael Roddy)
Greenpeace wins Romania nuclear plant case 10/26/2009
Greenpeace wins Romania nuclear plant case
Environmental group Greenpeace won a court case in Romania on Monday that could force the authorities there to make public a list of potential locations for the construction of a nuclear power plant.
The economy ministry must "communicate the requested information to the claimant," a ruling published on the Bucharest court's website said.
The ministry is to pay penalties if it does not obey the ruling but can appeal against the court's decision.
Greenpeace had applied to the court after asking the ministry in vain for a list of the 100 locations under review for the construction of Romania's second nuclear plant, which is expected to start after 2020.
"The ministry's refusal to make public the list of potential sites.... is a serious violation of the Constitution", Greenpeace said in a press release.
It stressed the need for transparency "considering the major impact on the environment" of this project.
The economy ministry declined to comment after the ruling.
Romania intends to build a second plant on top of its existing one in Cernavoda in the southeast in order to ensure energy independence.
In September, Pompiliu Budulan, the manager of the Nuclearelectrica company, said the site will be chosen in early 2010.
Three locations are currently under review, Alexandru Sandulescu, director of energy policy at the economy ministry told AFP then.
"The name of the location will not be made public immediately after the decision has been taken in order to prevent property speculation and protests" from environmental activists, he added.
Elimination of food waste could lift 1bn out of hunger 10/25/2009
Elimination of food waste could lift 1bn out of hunger, say campaignersExcessive consumption in rich countries 'takes food out of mouths of poor' by inflating food prices on global market
Tuesday 8 September 2009 17.25 BST Article history
Surplus tomatoes are dumped on farmland in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. Photograph: Sally A. Morgan/Ecoscene/Corbis
Eliminating the millions of tonnes of food thrown away annually in the US and UK could lift more than a billion people out of hunger worldwide, experts claim.
Government officials, food experts and representatives of the retail trade brought together by the Food Ethics Council argue that excessive consumption of food in rich countries inflates food prices in the developing world. Buying food, which is then often wasted, reduces overall supply and pushes up the price of food, making grain less affordable for poor and undernourished people in other parts of the world. Food waste also costs UK consumers £10.2bn a year and when production, transportation and storage are factored in, it is responsible for 5% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions.
Tristram Stuart, author of a new book on food waste and a contributor to a special food waste issue of the Food Ethics Council's magazine, said: "There are nearly a billion malnourished people in the world, but all of them could be lifted out of hunger with less than a quarter of the food wasted in Europe and North America. In a globalised food system, where we are all buying food in the same international market place, that means we're taking food out of the mouths of the poor."
Stuart calculated that the hunger of 1.5bn people could be alleviated by eradicating the food wasted by British consumers and American retailers, food services and householders, including the arable crops such as wheat, maize and soy to produce the wasted meat and dairy products. He added that the production of wasted food also squanders resources, and said that the irrigation water used by farmers to grow wasted food would be enough for the equivalent domestic water needs of 9bn people.
Food waste costs every household in the UK between £250 and £400 a year, figures that are likely to be updated this autumn when the government's waste agency WRAP publishes new statistics. Producing and distributing the 6.7m tonnes of edible food that goes uneaten and into waste in the UK also accounts for 18m tonnes of CO2.
But Tom MacMillan, executive director of the Food Ethics Council, warned that reducing food waste alone would not be enough to alleviate hunger, because efficiency gains in natural resources are routinely cancelled out by growth in consumption. "Food waste is harmful and unfair, and it is essential to stop food going into landfill. But the irony is that consumption growth and persistent inequalities look set to undo the good that cutting food waste does in reducing our overall use of natural resources and improving food security," he said.
MacMillan explained that the land and resources freed up by cutting food waste would likely be put to producing and consuming other things, such as growing more resource-intensive and expensive foods, bio-energy or textile crops. "Now is the moment all parties should be searching out ways to define prosperity that get away from runaway consumption. Until they succeed, chucking out less food won't make our lifestyles more sustainable," he said.
In addition to cutting down on waste, experts suggested food waste that does end up in bins could be dealt with in more environmentally friendly ways.
Paul Bettison, chair of the Local Government Association environment board, wrote: "Many councils are now giving residents a separate bin for their food waste. Leftovers are being turned into fertiliser, or gas to generate electricity. In some areas, in-vessel composting and anaerobic digestion are playing a key role in cutting council spending on landfill tax and reducing methane emissions."
But there are obstacles to generating energy and producing compost from food waste, he warned. "Lack of infrastructure is holding back the drive to make getting rid of food waste cheaper and greener. Councils do not want to collect leftovers without somewhere to send them, but nobody wants to build the places to send food waste until it is being collected."
Writing in the magazine, the retail industry defended sell-by and use-by dates, which were criticised as confusing by environment secretary Hilary Benn in June. Andrew Opie, director of food and consumer policy at the British Retail Consortium, wrote: "Certainly, some customers aren't clear about what the different dates mean but getting rid of them won't reduce food waste. Customer education will."
Last month, the government also criticised supermarket "bogof" offers (buy one get one free) that encourage shoppers to buy food they don't need and which ends up unused in bins, adding to the UK's food waste mountain.
The renewed push for action on food waste comes comes as a National Zero Waste Week by online campaigners and bloggers gets under way, encouraging individuals to go one day without putting anything in their bins.
Food waste tips from the web
• Don't fall for "three for two" deals on fresh food unless you'll definitely use them - Susan Smillie, Guardian food blogger
• Plan weekly meals and stick to shopping lists - Susan Smillie
• Keep your fridge at 1-5 degrees to make chilled food last for longer - lovefoodhatewaste.com
• Remove bad apples! One bad apple can spoil the barrel, so separate fruit which is ripening faster than the others - Womens' Institute
• Just chuck your leftover veggies into a stockpot to make a delicious stock for soups - Thomasina Miers, MasterChef winner and food writer
• Use your eyes and nose as a guide and ignore the sell-by date - Guardian user "hrhpod" on the Word of Mouth blog
• Watch your portion sizes and make sure plates are being completely cleared at mealtimes - Annette Richards on lovefoodhatewaste.com
• Make sure vegetables are stored correctly, with root vegetables kept in cool dark locations rather than refrigerators - "leuan" on Word of Mouth
• Leave most vegetables and fruit in the fridge until a day or two before you're going to use them: you could extend their life by a fortnight - lovefoodhatewaste.com
• Make DIY frozen ready meals by freezing excess food, such as mashed potato, into portions - Sarah Beeny
Share your tips for avoiding food waste on our Green Living Blog and you could win a £60 composter
The light bulb that lasts 25 years: 10/24/2009
The light bulb that lasts 25 years: It's environmentally friendly and as bright as the old ones... but it will cost you £30
By David Derbyshire Last updated at 2:23 AM on 24th October 2009
Bright idea: The Pharox light bulb lasts 25 years or longer if used for four hours a day
It could be the breakthrough that finally has consumers warming to the energy-saving light bulb.
A version that brightens up instantly, costs just 88p a year to run and lasts up to 25 years has gone on sale in Britain for the first time.
The only catch is that the new LED bulb will cost £30.
Manufacturers claim the Pharox is the first low-energy bulb to give off the same light quality and brightness as a conventional 60-watt traditional bulb.
They say that, despite its initial cost, each bulb will pay for itself in just three years.
After that, each one used could shave around £9 a year off a typical household electricity bill.
Unlike most of the current energy-saving bulbs, which are compact fluorescent, the Pharox can be used with dimmer switches, reaches full brightness the moment it is turned on and contains no toxic mercury.
It also looks similar to a traditional bulb, works well in freezing conditions outside and stays cool when switched on, making it ideal for children's bedside lights.
The bulb's launch comes ahead of a European ban on conventional 60-watt incandescent bulbs, due to be introduced in 2011.
James Shortridge, owner of the Ryness lighting chain, said: 'The original bulb was a 1901 design, while the compact fluorescent is a design from the 1980s that has never been perfected.
'Many people just don't like the compact fluorescents and they don't like the old bulbs being banned before a good replacement is available. But we are finally starting to get decent low energy bulbs that have the same light quality as the old variety.
'My main problem as a retailer, however, is that it lasts for more than 25 years.'
LED bulbs that produce as much light as 100-watt ones are due to go on sale at the end of next year.
Britain's targets for green energy are being held up by countryside residents anxious to protect their "chocolate box" views, John Prescott said.
The former Deputy Prime Minister has called for local councils to be put under an "obligation" to find a place where a wind farm could be built in their area.
He was speaking at the annual conference of the British Wind Energy Association, the trade body for the wind and marine renewable energy industry.
The conference, taking place in Liverpool, was told the number of approvals for wind farm planning applications had fallen to a record low of 25%.
Mr Prescott said councils are failing to meet their responsibilities to tackle climate change. He said: "Basically people who have moved out into the countryside and built nice houses, good luck to them, but they are the ones who don't want any change.
"People who have moved out of our towns and have a nice chocolate box view, they have bought that and I understand it, but at the end of the day you have got to strike a balance of what is in the national interest and, frankly, they are the ones who will suffer first because these are also areas in danger of massive floods caused by climate chance.
Mr Prescott called on local councillors "meet their obligations" and recognise that wind farms are part of Government policy.
He added: "What is happening now is that many councillors are saying if we don't take the decision the Government, in the end, will come along and overrule us. Well that is very expensive in time and frankly it is not them facing up to their obligations.
The anti-wind farm National Alliance of Wind Farm Action Groups (Nawag) said Mr Prescott's speech was a "puerile attack on 'Nimbyism'" and said in a statement: "Those of us campaigning against inappropriately sited onshore wind turbine proposals believe that the current gold-rush to wind represents a scandalous scam against the British taxpayer.
"Nawag believes there should be a much more balanced renewable energy policy with a significant increase in Government and private industry investment in renewable sources other than wind including solar, wave and tidal power."
Are you free on December 1? 10/21/2009
Are you free on December 1?
Check your calendar, because you and a guest could spend the day with President Bill Clinton!
A core value of our work at the Clinton Foundation is the power of individuals to solve the problems of our day. With every single dollar you donate, you're making a measurable impact as we tackle childhood obesity and promote economic opportunity in the United States, reduce greenhouse gases in our world's largest cities, and fight HIV/AIDS internationally.
In honor of your commitment, President Clinton is inviting you to New York City for World AIDS Day. We'll take care of airfare and hotel accommodations for you and a guest. All you need to do is take advantage of this unique opportunity before the October 31 deadline.
Supporters like you are the reason we've been able to accomplish so much:
We're reaching more than 3.2 million kids and 5,400 schools in all 50 states in our efforts to curb childhood obesity.
Commitments made through the Clinton Global Initiative have given millions of people access to safe drinking water, health care, education, and other vital opportunities.
We're supporting HIV/AIDS treatment for 220,000 children, in partnership with UNITAID.
Backed by your commitment, we'll be able to accomplish so much more, and I know President Clinton is looking forward to thanking you in person.
Don't miss this exciting opportunity to help solve some of today's most pressing challenges -- and spend the day with President Clinton in New York.
Bruce R. Lindsey Chief Executive Officer William J. Clinton Foundation
Climate change could cause more problems than two world wars, Brown warns 10/21/2009
Climate change could cause more problems than two world wars, Brown warns
Climate change could cause an economic crisis worse than the Great Depression and two world wars combined, Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, has warned.
By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent Published: 7:00AM BST 20 Oct 2009
Climate change could cause an economic crisis that would be worse than the Great Depression and the two World Wars combined, Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, has warned.Photo: REUTERS
Speaking at an international summit on climate change in London, Mr Brown said that world leaders must agree a deal to stop global warming.
He said failure to tackle the problem would not only result in hundreds of thousands of deaths every year due to floods and droughts, but a greater economic crisis than the recent recession.
"The threat is not only humanitarian and ecological, it is also an economic one... Failure to avoid the worst effects of climate change could lead to global GDP being up to 20 per cent lower than it otherwise would be – an economic cost greater than the losses caused by two World Wars and the Great Depression. Let us be in no doubt then that this is a profound moment for our world – a time of momentous choice."
The UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December will bring together 190 countries to agree a new deal on tackling global warming.
However at the moment talks are at deadlock because rich countries like the US will not sign up to strict targets to cut carbon emissions, while developing nations like China refuse to take action until the super powers take the lead.
In a last-ditch attempt to get the different countries to agree, ministers and officials from 17 countries met in London yesterday for the Major Economies Forum.
Mr Brown, who is attending the talks in Copenhagen himself to ensure a deal is met, said other world leaders – including President Obama – should follow his lead.
"Over the remaining seven weeks to Copenhagen, and in the two weeks of the conference itself, I will work tirelessly with my fellow leaders to negotiate a deal. I have said I will go to Copenhagen to conclude it – and I am encouraging them to make the same commitment."
Mr Brown said rich nations need to commit to cut greenhouse gas emissions by between 25 to 40 per cent by 2020. At the same time, fast-emerging economies such as China and India, which are among the biggest polluters in the 21st century, must set out concrete proposals to limit the damage caused by their own rapid development.
He said rich countries, including Britain, must also contribute to an annual fund of £60 billion to help poor countries adapt to climate change and switch to a low carbon economy.
43 Million Are Caught In Fake Anti-Virus Net 10/19/2009
Up to 43 million people could have given their bank details to cyber criminals after being duped by fake anti-virus software online, a web security firm has found.
Figures published by Symantec suggest 93% of the people scammed downloaded the rogue programs by choice after being tricked into believing it was legitimate.
The company estimate that some cyber criminals are earning more than £850,000 a year from the ruse.
Web users fall prey to the scam when they click on links, pop-ups or flashing adverts warning them their computer is infected.
The fake program then appears to run a virus check which tells the user their PC is infected and asks them to pay for it to be cleaned up.
But downloading the software can give criminals access to bank details and computer files.
Symantec found 250 rogue programs were downloaded 43 million times in the 12 months to July 2009.
Its analysts believe a small number of people run networks of more than 1,000 distributors - whose earnings are linked to the number of machines they infect.
The distributors, most of whom are in the United States, may not even realise they are acting illegally.
"It is a challenge to fight this," Orla Cox, Symantec's security operations manager told Sky News Online.
"The software may be developed in one country and then distributed in another so it is hard to track them down as it is a tangled web."
As most users lose between £20-£60 it can be hard to get the attention of law enforcement agencies.
"There are very few things the consumer can do. If you go to the site and try to get your money back, you will find that it has rebranded and it's gone," Ms Cox said.
Ben Camm-Jones from Web User magazine told Sky News Online there are ways to spot a fake site.
"You should be protected from this type of malware if you keep your browser and anti-virus software up to date," he said.
"If messages telling you that your PC has an infection pop up when you visit a website, simply close your browser down and use your existing anti-virus software to scan your PC.
"And if you think a warning message on your PC is suspect, carefully check spelling and grammar - there could be a tell-tale mistake."
Children spared 'naked' scanner 10/18/2009
Children spared 'naked' scanner
Children will be not be subjected to a X-ray body scanner which produces "naked" images of flight passengers, airport officials have said.
Children spared 'naked' scanner
Bosses at Manchester Airport had a rethink on allowing under-18s to undergo the check after child protection experts warned that their security workers risked breaking the law by creating indecent images of juveniles.
The scanner being trialled at the airport's Terminal 2 shows up a clear outline of passengers' private parts and also displays breast enlargements, piercings and false limbs.
Concerned travellers can opt out of the virtual strip search but the airport planned to let children take part if their parents gave consent.
Civil rights group Action on Rights for Children (Arch) contacted them this week though to point out the legal issue of security workers creating and examining indecent images of children.
A Manchester Airport spokeswoman said: "We certainly aren't going to break any laws in the process of trying to improve the experience of security at Manchester Airport with a voluntary trial.
"Experts in child protection have told us that this is a grey area. On this basis, if these experts tell us that there might be a problem then we'll work with them to establish a definitive position.
"In the meantime no under 18s will participate in the trial when adult passengers start being invited to take part in a couple of weeks."
Arch national director Terri Dowty said: "It's not right to put the machine operators in the position where they are being asked to break the law. This is not about whether we think the scanner is a good idea or a bad idea. It's just not lawful and falls under the terms of strict liability. Under present legislation the taking of images of children in this way cannot be done."
The 12-month trial of the RapiScan machine which enables staff to spot any hidden explosives or weapons is due to begin early next month. Electromagnetic waves are beamed on to passengers while they stand in a booth and a virtual three-dimensional "naked" image is created from the reflected energy.
economies of climate 'catastrophe' 10/18/2009
British PM to warn world economies of climate 'catastrophe'
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was to warn representatives of the world's biggest carbon polluters Monday of a climate catastrophe if they do not strike a deal at the Copenhagen summit. Skip related content
Brown was due to address the Major Economies Forum meeting in London with a message that they must find a way to "break the impasse" on getting a far-reaching agreement at the United Nations climate conference in December.
The 17 powers that make up the MEF, along with developing nations and UN representatives, are trying to iron out some of their differences before the crunch summit in Denmark.
"In every era there are only one or two moments when nations come together and reach agreements that make history -- because they change the course of history," Brown was to say, according to extracts from his speech released by his Downing Street office.
"If we do not reach a deal at this time, let us be in no doubt: once the damage from unchecked emissions growth is done, no retrospective global agreement, in some future period, can undo that choice. By then it will be irretrievably too late."
The MEF was launched by US President Barack Obama earlier this year on the back of an initiative by his predecessor, George W. Bush, to speed up the search for common ground among the most polluting world economies.
It then intends to hand this consensus for approval by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the sprawling 192-nation global arena.
The December 7-18 UN climate summit in the Danish capital will see nations attempt to hammer out a new global climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
Brown was to say he thought a deal at Copenhagen is possible, but negotiators are not moving fast enough.
Instead, "leaders must engage directly to break the impasse. We cannot compromise with the Earth," he was to say.
"We can not compromise with the catastrophe of unchecked climate change; so we must compromise with one another.
"We cannot afford to fail... This is the moment. Now is the time. For the planet there is no Plan B."
The MEF comprises Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Britain, and United States.
The MEF countries represent about 90 percent of global emissions.
The London talks are focusing on emissions cuts, the protection of forests and climate finance -- Brown has said 100 billion dollars a year is needed to help developing countries tackle climate change.
India said last month it was ready to set itself non-binding targets for cutting carbon emissions, while China said it would curb the growth of its emissions by a "notable margin" by 2020, although it did not specify further.
The US special envoy for climate change, Todd Stern, told British television on Saturday that developing economies must boost their efforts, warning it was "certainly possible" that no deal would be agreed in Copenhagen.
"What we need to have happen is for China and India and Brazil and South Africa and others to be willing to take what they're doing, boost it up some, and then be willing to put it into an international agreement," he said.
But climate campaigners Friends of the Earth said it was up to the rich countries in the MEF to "face up to their legal and moral responsibility by agreeing to cut their emissions first and fastest".
Gag lifted on 'toxic waste' report 10/17/2009
Gag lifted on 'toxic waste' report
A newspaper has hailed a "climbdown" after lawyers for oil traders Trafigura abandoned attempts to keep secret a scientific report.
Gag lifted on 'toxic waste' report
Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, said it had taken a five-week legal battle to "force" information about the alleged dumping of toxic waste in Ivory Coast into the open.
The Guardian said it had received a letter from lawyers for London-based Trafigura saying it was "released forthwith" from any reporting restrictions.
Mr Rusbridger said: "It has taken a five-week legal battle - involving journalists, lawyers, bloggers and parliament itself - to force this information into the open. Never again should a newspaper be threatened with contempt of court for reporting Parliament. And judges should think again about the use of 'super-injunctions' which are themselves secret."
Earlier, Speaker John Bercow defended Parliament's right to decide for itself what MPs discuss as controversy over the court order rumbled on.
Mr Bercow received a letter from solicitors Carter-Ruck, acting for Trafigura, stating that it understood the injunction to be "sub judice" under the terms of House of Commons rules designed to avoid prejudicing court proceedings.
Carter-Ruck said the final decision was subject to the Speaker's discretion, but there were concerns among MPs that the letter might inhibit an expected debate on the controversial injunction in the Commons next week. The law firm said the letter was not intended as a warning that the injunction should not be discussed in the Commons.
In a letter to Carter-Ruck released by his office on Friday, Mr Bercow replied: "This is a matter for the House and the discretion of the Chair."
The gagging order also banned disclosure of the existence of the injunction until it was revealed by an MP acting under parliamentary privilege this week. The press were initially blocked from reporting the parliamentary question tabled by Labour's Paul Farrelly, even though it was printed on the Commons order paper and published on Parliament's internet website.
The injunction was amended on Tuesday to permit reporting of parliamentary discussions on the issue, following a campaign bringing together MPs, the Guardian and micro-bloggers on the Twitter website.
Take my Global IQ Test, then challenge your friends 10/16/2009
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Arctic ice cap to disappear in 20-30 years: study 10/14/2009
Arctic ice cap to disappear in 20-30 years: study
The Arctic ice cap will disappear completely in summer months within 20 to 30 years, a polar research team said as they presented findings from an expedition led by adventurer Pen Hadow.
It is likely to be largely ice-free during the warmer months within a decade, the experts added.
Veteran polar explorer Hadow and two other Britons went out on the Arctic ice cap for 73 days during the northern spring, taking more than 6,000 measurements and observations of the sea ice.
The raw data they collected from March to May has been analysed, producing some stark predictions about the state of the ice cap.
"The summer ice cover will completely vanish in 20 to 30 years but in less than that it will have considerably retreated," said Professor Peter Wadhams, head of the polar ocean physics group at Britain's prestigious Cambridge University.
"In about 10 years, the Arctic ice will be considered as open sea."
Starting off from northern Canada, Hadow, Martin Hartley and Ann Daniels skied over the ice cap to measure the thickness of the remaining ice, assessing its density and the depth of overlying snow, as well as taking weather and sea temperature readings.
Across their 450-kilometre (290 mile) route, the average thickness of the ice floes was 1.8 metres (six feet), while it was 4.8 metres when incorporating the compressed ridges of ice.
"An average thickness of 1.8 metres is typical of first year ice, which is more vulnerable in the summer. And the multi-year ice is shrinking back more rapidly," said Wadhams.
"It's a concrete example of global change in action.
"With a larger part of the region now in first year ice, it is clearly more vulnerable. The area is now more likely to become open water each summer, bringing forward the potential date when the summer sea ice will be completely gone."
Doctor Martin Sommerkorn, senior climate change adviser for the World Wide Fund for Nature's international Arctic programme, said the survey painted a sombre picture of the ice meltdown, which was happening "faster than we thought".
"Remove the Arctic ice cap and we are left with a very different and much warmer world," he said.
Loss of sea ice cover will "set in motion powerful climate feedbacks which will have an impact far beyond the Arctic itself," he added.
"This could lead to flooding affecting one quarter of the world's population, substantial increases in greenhouse gas emission from massive carbon pools and extreme global weather changes."
"Today's findings provide yet another urgent call for action to world leaders ahead of the United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen in December to rapidly and effectively curb global greenhouse gas emissions."
Law change needed to cover climate exiles -lawyers 10/14/2009
Law change needed to cover climate exiles -lawyers
International law is unfit to deal with the millions of people expected to flee their home countries to escape droughts and floods intensified by climate change, a group of lawyers said on Thursday.
Under existing laws, host countries must protect and care for cross-border refugees, who are defined as those forced to migrate because of violence or political, racial or religious persecution.
There are no such provisions for so-called climate refugees. Yet by 2050, between 200 million and 1 billion people could be forced to leave their homes because of global warming, said the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development, which advises vulnerable countries and communities.
"International refugee law ... was not designed for those who are left homeless by environmental pressures," said the group's director Joy Hyvarinen.
"The international legal framework needs to be adjusted to help climate exiles and deal with statelessness and compensation," she said in a statement.
FIRST CLIMATE REFUGEES
Climate change will hit small island states the hardest, the foundation said, adding rising seas might submerge Kiribati and the Marshall Islands or climate changes in other ways might make them uninhabitable.
Kiribati's government has asked larger nations, including New Zealand and Australia, to open their doors to its citizens who might become, along with people in the Maldives and other Pacific islands, climate refugees.
Some in the Pacific say communities are already moving within nations because of climate change. Often-cited examples are the Carteret islands of Papua New Guinea, Tegua island in Vanuatu or Moala in Fiji.
But experts say there is no overall tracking of people moving or of the causes for their migration. Some leave outlying islands drawn by jobs in bigger centres.
What most experts agree on is that rising temperatures will leave an additional 200 million to 600 million people hungry by 2080 and cause critical water shortages in China and Australia, as well as in parts of Europe and the United States, according to a 2007 global climate report.
Coastal flooding will also hit another 7 million homes, the study by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted.
Moreover, last month a U.N. report said global warming was increasing the frequency and intensity of storms and otherwise altering weather patterns, so natural disasters were now "an extremely significant driver of forced displacement globally."
(Reporting by Olesya Dmitracova; Editing by Matthew Jones)
British energy sector must invest massively: watchdog 10/12/2009
British energy sector must invest massively: watchdog
Friday, October 9 04:59 pm
Britain must invest between 95 billion and 200 billion pounds in power plants and other infrastructure over the next decade to secure energy supplies and meet climate change targets, watchdogs said on Friday.
Energy regulator Ofgem said that the vast amounts, equivalent to investment of between 103 and 217 billion euros or 152 and 320 billion dollars, would push domestic energy bills up sharply.
"The need for this investment arises at a time of volatile world energy prices and Britain?s increasing dependence on gas imports," the watchdog body said in a report.
"Ofgem identifies the need for investment of up to 200 billion pounds in power plant and other infrastructure over the next ten years to secure both energy supplies and climate change targets.
Ofgem said the downside of such high investment would be a surge in domestic energy bills of between 14 and 25 percent by 2020 compared with current levels. The worst case scenario could see bills shoot up 60 percent by 2016 before falling back.
A Department of Energy and Climate Change spokesman said Ofgem was "prudent" to examine a range of hypothetical scenarios, "however unlikely they are."
He added in a statement: "What's clear... is that there's no low-cost high-carbon future.
"It's critical we maximise the effect of our planning reforms, clean energy rewards and efficiency measures to shift us away from fossil fuels and into a low-carbon mix."
There is growing interest around the world for new nuclear power plants, sparked by a desire by governments to reduce their dependence on oil, gas and coal.
Meanwhile, environmentalists welcomed a decision to postpone construction of a coal-fired power station in Britain, saying it was a victory for their opposition to new "clean coal" technology.
German energy giant E.ON blamed the global recession for its decision to delay investment plans for the plant at Kingsnorth in Kent, southeast England, by up to three years.
But green campaigners viewed the decision as a complete cancellation of the project, which has become the focus for protests and concerns over climate change and carbon dioxide emissions
Africa will demand billions of dollars in compensation from rich polluting nations 10/12/2009
Africa wants polluters to pay for climate change
Christopheayre
Africa will demand billions of dollars in compensation from rich polluting nations at a UN climate summit for the harm caused by global warming on the continent, African officials said Sunday. Skip related content
Related photos / videos
With just two months to go before the UN summit in Copenhagen, officials met at a special forum in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou where they underscored the need for compensation for the natural disasters caused by climate change.
"For the first time Africa will have a common position," African Union commission chairman Jean Ping told the seventh World Forum on Sustainable Development.
"We have decided to speak with one voice" and "will demand reparation and damages" at the December summit, Ping said.
Experts say sub-Saharan Africa is one of the regions most affected by global warming.
The World Bank estimates that the developing world will suffer about 80 percent of the damage of climate change despite accounting for only around one third of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
"Policy-makers have to agree to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and adhere to the principle that the polluter pays," Ping said.
In a final declaration, the six African heads of state attending the forum said they supported calls for industrialised nations to cut their carbon emissions by "at least 40 percent" by 2020 compared to 1990 levels.
The declaration also calls for "relaxing the procedures and softening of conditions for African countries to access the resources of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)."
Under the CDM, rich countries that have ratified Kyoto can gain carbon credits from projects that reduce or avert greenhouse gas emissions in poor countries.
The Ouagadougou forum, which wrapped up Sunday, was attended by the presidents of Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Congo, Mali and Togo.
On Friday Burkina Faso's Environment Minister Salifou Sawadogo said the continent needed 65 billion dollars (44 billion euros) to deal with the effects of climate change.
Ping said African policy-makers hope industrialised countries will pledge "new international funds to support poor countries."
He gave the example of the US state of Texas which "with 30 million inhabitants creates as much greenhouse gases as the billion Africans taken together".
Africa is also hoping to become a player on the carbon emissions market which allows polluting countries to offset their emissions with green projects such as re-forestation and conservation in other countries.
Ping said there was a lot of potential for Africa there as currently of the 1,600 such offset projects around the world only 30 are based in Africa, with 15 in South Africa, the continent's economic powerhouse.
Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore stressed that Africa had many hurdles to overcome "linked to the absence of efficient mechanisms for financing and transfer" and called for special Africa-wide financial talks from 2010 onwards on the subject.
Greenpeace environmental campaigners on Sunday stormed the roof of the Houses of Parliament 10/11/2009
Greenpeace environmental campaigners on Sunday stormed the roof of the Houses of Parliament to protest about climate change, and said they were planning to stay there overnight until MPs return to session.
At least 40 activists occupied the roof of the famous Palace of Westminster in central London, unfurling several yellow banners reading: "Change the politics, save the climate".
The demonstrators were planning to stay on the roof through the night and wait for the morning, when MPs are due to return from their summer break, and urge them to sign up to a 12-point manifesto.
"We've got to raise the temperature of the debate because we are really running out of time. We are at a minute to midnight and there is so little time left but so much to do," said Greenpeace executive director John Sauven.
"Parliament is opening and there is an election looming so this is a golden opportunity for the political parties to really think about the future and what future generations will face."
He said politicians should be "building a low carbon economy, creating green jobs and helping to save the world from climate change".
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said officers were on the scene talking to activists, though no arrests have been made.
Speaking from the roof, Greenpeace employee Brikesh Singh, 29, from Bangalore in southern India, said the protesters had energy bars and warm clothing to get them through the night.
"This building is considered as the mother of all parliaments and the UK is one of the leading developed countries," he said.
"We want them (MPs) to get the message loud and clear that if you want a planet-saving deal in Copenhagen we need to change the climate policy."
The UN's climate change summit, which is to take place in Copenhagen from December 7-18, will see the international community try to hammer out a new global climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.
It is not the first breach of security at the palace.
In March 2004, Greenpeace demonstrators scaled Big Ben on the first anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
Two months later, fathers' rights campaigners threw condoms full of purple flour in the lower House of Commons, hitting then-prime minister Tony Blair.
Four months on, five protesters got into the chamber to protest during a hunting ban debate.
And protesters got onto the roof in February 2008 to demonstrate against a planned third runway at Heathrow airport.
Train drivers are using new technology 10/10/2009
Train drivers are using new technology that allows them to recycle energy which is either sold to the National Grid, or passed to other trains.
High speed means high energy. An accelerating train can consume electricity at a rate of 2,500kW - that's the equivalent of switching on more than a thousand kettles.
So drivers are learning to put something back. More trains are having equipment fitted so that when they slow down, the motor becomes a generator and produces electricity instead of using it.
This is relatively simple with trains that run using overhead power lines. The electricity here is AC, and the generated power can simply be sold back to the National Grid. Companies have been doing this for some time.
AC/DC
But it's taken a lot longer to tackle the problem of how to do it with trains that use a third rail to supply their electricity.
Many of these trains are used by commuters in the south of England. These use DC electricity at lower voltages which can't be returned to the grid.
Traditional railwayman were taught completely differently - to brake really hard
Train driver Kevin Ambrose
Many Southern and Southeastern trains now generate electricity with their braking and instead of returning it to the grid, they put it back into the third rail network - for other trains in the area to pick up and use.
Elsewhere, London Midland has just installed a simulator at their base in Birmingham so drivers can learn how to drive with maximum energy efficiency.
A display shows the optimum energy use and generation, and drivers can see their performance next to it.
Essentially it involves accelerating and braking as gently as possible - but within the confines of the timetable.
I'm told the optimum eco-driving between Birmingham and Wolverhampton adds around a minute to the journey - and if trains are already late then there's less emphasis on driving in the most efficient way possible.
Free power
London Midland train driver, Kevin Ambrose, who's been taught the technique, took us for a ride in his cab.
He told me: "I come from lorry driving - if you drive a lorry smoothly your load won't fall over - so people from that sort of environment grasp it."
But Mr Ambrose says others might not be so quick on the uptake: "Your traditional railwayman that's been on for 30-odd years, they were taught completely differently - to brake really hard to start with - and some of them tend to be set in their ways so some of them are going to take time to retrain."
Train companies can save around 15% of their energy use in this way - which is like one in seven trains being powered for free.
For poor people, climate change is not something in the future 
