The environment in the news tuesday, 25 April 2006

Other Environment News

By MATTHEW L. WALD

25.4.2006
The nuclear industry has hired Christie Whitman, the former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace, the environmental organization, to lead a public relations campaign for new reactors.

Nuclear power is "environmentally friendly, affordable, clean, dependable and safe," Mrs. Whitman said at a news conference on Monday. She said that as the E.P.A. leader for two and a half years, ending in June 2003, and as governor of New Jersey for seven years, she had promoted various means to reduce the emission of gases that cause global warming and pollution.

But Mrs. Whitman said that "none of them will have as great a positive impact on our environment as will increasing our ability to generate electricity from nuclear power."

Mrs. Whitman headed the E.P.A. when it published rules for the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. After she left the office, the courts threw out the rules because they covered only the first 10,000 years of waste storage, while peak releases of radiation were expected after that time.

Organizers released a list of 58 companies and institutions and 10 people who they said were members of a new Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, which Mr. Moore said would engage in "grass-roots advocacy." A spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the trade association of reactor operators, acknowledged that it was providing all of the financing, but would not say what the budget was.

Mr. Moore said he favored efficiency and renewable energy, but added that solar cells, which produce electricity from sunlight, were "being given too much emphasis and taking too much money." A dollar spent on geothermal energy, he said, was "10 to 12 times more effective in reducing greenhouse emissions."

Mr. Moore is the director of a company that distributes geothermal systems in Canada. He is also a supporter of what he called "sustainable forestry" because, he said, building with wood avoided the use of materials whose manufacture releases greenhouse gases, like steel and concrete.

Mr. Moore, who left Greenpeace in 1986, favors many technologies that some environmentalists oppose, including the genetic engineering of crops, and has referred to his former colleagues as "environmental extremists" and "anti-human."

Mr. Moore said Greenpeace was wrong to oppose nuclear energy, which he called essential to reducing global warming gases. Coincidentally, Greenpeace released a report on Monday about 200 failures at American nuclear power plants, which it described as "near misses," since 1986. The report was to mark the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion in the former Soviet Union.

Mrs. Whitman also referred to Chernobyl, saying people "still think in terms of Bhopal and Chernobyl." A leak at a chemical plant in Bhopal, India, killed more than 2,500 people in December 1984. But nuclear power, she said, "can be safely and appropriately used to expand our mix."

Representatives of the United States Chamber of Commerce and the Teamsters also spoke in favor of new reactors.

_____________________________________________________________________________

25.4.2006

L'incidence plus élevée du cancer de la thyroïde en France ces dernières années n'aurait pas de lien avec l'accident de Tchernobyl, d'après un rapport de l'Institut de veille sanitaire.

Selon un rapport de l'Institut de veille sanitaire (Invs) publié lundi 24 avril, l'augmentation des cancers de la thyroïde en France ne serait pas imputable à la catastrophe de Tchernobyl. Des résultats de travaux récents "renforcent les conclusions" des premières études sur le cancer de la thyroïde rendues publiques en 2001 et 2003 et

La hausse de ce type de cancers pourrait s'expliquer par un diagnostic plus précoce de la maladie, toujours selon l'InVS. Chaque année, près de 4.000 nouveaux cas sont diagnostiqués en France.

_____________________________________________________________________________

24.4.2006

Representative Bob Inglis, a South Carolina Republican, says he ``pooh-poohed'' global warming until he trekked to the South Pole in January.

``Now, I think we should be concerned,'' says Inglis, who heads the U.S. House Science Research subcommittee. ``There are more and more Republicans willing to stop laughing at climate change who are ready to get serious about reclaiming their heritage as conservationists.''

U.S. companies including General Electric Co. and Duke Energy Corp. have come out in support of national limits on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse-gas emissions that scientists say contribute to global warming. They are now being joined by Republican lawmakers who have parted company with President George W. Bush on the issue.

``As the evidence of global warming becomes undeniable, momentum is building to take action to cut greenhouse gas emissions,'' former Vice President Al Gore said in an e-mail. ``A lot of elected officials who used to reflexively oppose action on global warming have begun to change their positions.''

In addition to Inglis, who says he saw evidence of heat- trapping gases in the atmosphere during his trip to Antarctica that confirmed his growing concern, the list of Republicans paying more attention to global warming includes Senators Pete Domenici of New Mexico, the chairman of the chamber's Energy Committee; Mike DeWine of Ohio; and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, as well as Representative Jim Leach of Iowa.

`Resistance Crumbling'

``Resistance to action on climate change is crumbling,'' says Reid Detchon, an Energy Department official under former President George H.W. Bush who is now head of energy and climate at the United Nations Foundation. ``The business community has a number of prominent leaders arguing for action, and the science on climate change becomes clearer and more inescapable by the day.''

Republicans also are under pressure from one of their core constituencies: fundamentalist Christians. In February, 86 evangelical leaders called on the government to curb greenhouse gases emitted by cars, power plants and other sources, saying they felt a moral duty to speak out because global warming is endangering the earth.

``A lot has changed in the last year, largely because of a grassroots movement of people who for varied and sundry reasons care about this cause,'' says the Reverend Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs at the National Association of Evangelicals, a Colorado Springs, Colorado-based group that represents 30 million Christians. ``There's no safe ground anymore for Republicans to ignore this issue or call it a hoax.''

Fresh Hope

The shift has given fresh hope to lawmakers such as Senators John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat, who are co-sponsors of legislation to limit carbon emissions. McCain is expected to push for another Senate vote on the measure this year and says he's prepared to make climate change a campaign issue if he runs for president in 2008.

McCain says he and his allies ``will make the Senate keep on voting and voting and voting'' and, in time, ``we will win.''

The measure has twice failed to pass the Senate and, along with other climate-change legislation, lacks support in the House of Representatives. Still, many companies say they think it's just a matter of time before Congress approves a carbon cap.

``Two years ago, we weren't talking about it; it's a dramatic change,'' John Krenicki, head of Atlanta-based GE Energy, a unit of Fairfield, Connecticut-based General Electric, said in an interview. He predicts that a greenhouse gas limit will be in place in less than five years.

Welcome Regulation

GE Energy, the world's biggest maker of power-plant equipment, and Charlotte, North Carolina-based Duke Energy, the largest U.S. utility owner, are among companies that told the Senate Energy Committee earlier this month they welcome carbon regulation.

The companies say they want certainty before making billions of dollars in investments in ``clean'' technologies. They also are wary of having to deal with a hodgepodge of state standards.

``It's a nightmare for any business,'' says Christine Todd Whitman, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during President George W. Bush's first term. ``We need one standard nationally.''

GE and other companies also face carbon restrictions in Europe, Japan, Canada and other countries participating in the Kyoto Protocol that restricts carbon emissions from cars, power plants and other sources. Bush rejected the accord in 2001 because of concern that it would make U.S. businesses less competitive.

Voluntary Approach

Instead, Bush has called on companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions voluntarily. His top adviser on climate change, White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairman James Connaughton, says the president also supports some mandatory policies that would reduce carbon emissions, including new fuel- economy standards and a requirement for more ethanol in gasoline.

Connaughton says activists merely are annoyed that Bush isn't talking nonstop about climate change. ``We don't need to say it three times in the same 15-minute speech,'' he said in an interview.

Inglis insists more is needed and is drafting legislation that would make Bush's greenhouse-gas limits mandatory.

Gore, who has campaigned about the need to act against climate change for decades, says Republican support is critical.

``It may fall to us as Democrats to push the political consensus across the tipping point and I hope we will, but we need to bring Republicans along with us,'' Gore said at an April 10 Democratic fundraiser in New York.

`We Beg to Differ'

Gore wants to persuade more Republicans and the general public about the dangers of climate change next month when Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures releases ``An Inconvenient Truth,'' a documentary about his campaign to get Americans to take global warming seriously.

Not all Republicans are convinced. Senator James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican who in 2003 called man-made global warming a ``hoax,'' still opposes mandatory emission limits and says they could result in lost jobs and higher energy prices. ``To those out there saying a federal carbon cap is inevitable, we beg to differ,'' says Bill Holbrook, a spokesman for Inhofe, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Nevertheless, Whitman says the time for legislative action may be right because ``being seen as against doing something on climate change isn't a place Republicans want to be.''

Last month, an ABC News-Time magazine-Stanford University poll showed 85 percent of Americans believe global warming probably is occurring, up from 80 percent in 1998.

`Seeing Is Believing'

The change is palpable in the Senate. Graham, who has said in the past that he was ``on the fence'' about climate-change legislation, became a stronger advocate for taking action after a trip to Alaska in August with McCain and Senators Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, a New York Democrat. They heard from Native Alaskans who are experiencing melting permafrost, coastal erosion and other effects of climate change.

``Seeing is believing,'' says Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop. Bishop says Graham believes global warming is a problem that must be addressed, while declining to say if Graham would support specific legislation such as the McCain-Lieberman measure.

``When you have the overwhelming evidence from eminent scientists on one side, and a few skeptics on the other, we are guided by the thoughts of the overwhelming, not the few,'' says Representative Sherwood Boehlert of New York, who heads the House Science Committee.

_____________________________________________________________________________
Reuters: Global warming behind record 2005 storms: experts

By Thom Akeman

25.4.2006

MONTEREY, California (Reuters) - The record Atlantic hurricane season last year can be attributed to global warming, several top experts, including a leading U.S. government storm researcher, said on Monday.

"The hurricanes we are seeing are indeed a direct result of climate change and it's no longer something we'll see in the future, it's happening now," said Greg Holland, a division director at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.

Holland told a packed hall at the American Meteorological Society's 27th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology that the wind and warmer water conditions that fuel storms that form in the Caribbean are "increasingly due to greenhouse gases. There seems to be no other conclusion you can logically draw."

His conclusion will be debated throughout the week-long conference, as other researchers present opposing papers that say changing wind and temperature conditions in the tropics are due to natural events, not the accumulation of carbon dioxide emissions clouding the Earth.

Many of the experts gathered in the coastal city of Monterey, California, are federal employees. The Bush administration contends global warming is an unproven theory.

While many of the conference's 500 scientists seem to agree that a warming trend in the tropics is causing more and stronger hurricanes than usual, not all agree that global warming is to blame.

Some, like William Gray, a veteran hurricane researcher at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, attributed the warming to natural cycles. Gray said he believes salinity buildups and movements with ocean currents cause warming and cooling cycles. He predicted the Caribbean water will continue to warm for another five to 10 years, then start cooling.

MORE WARMING TO COME

Whatever the cause, computer projections indicate the warming to date -- about one degree Fahrenheit (half a degree Celsius) in tropical water -- is "the tip of the iceberg" and the water will warm three to four times as much in the next century, said Thomas Knutson, explaining projections from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey.

Adam Lea, a postdoctoral student at Britain's University College London in Dorking, Surrey, presented research based on British, German, Russian and Canadian studies that concludes half of the increased hurricane activity in the tropics could be attributed to global warming.

Holland, director of the Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Division of the federal research center, said tropical storm anomalies in the 1940s and 1950s can be explained by natural variability.

But he said carbon dioxide started changing traceable patterns in the 1970s and by the early 1990s, the atmospheric results were affecting the storm numbers and intensities.

"What we're seeing right now in global climate temperature is a signature of climate change," said Holland, a native of Australia. "The large bulk of the scientific community say what we are seeing now is linked directly to greenhouse gases."

Hurricane Katrina, which tore onto the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts on August 29, was the deadliest Atlantic hurricane in 77 years and the costliest ever, with property damages estimated at $75 billion.

This year, the weather service's Tropical Prediction Center expects more hurricanes than usual, but not as many as last year's record 14.

CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. Virgin Islands — Warming sea temperatures have scientists worried that the Caribbean could see a repeat this year of the widespread coral death that swept the region in 2005.

About 40 percent of coral died around parts of the U.S. Virgin Islands last year, and the coral that survived likely isn't healthy enough to survive another hot summer, U.S. Geological Survey biologist Caroline Rogers told The Associated Press.

"It worries me. It's looking so similar" to last year, said Rogers, who has studied coral in the U.S. Virgin Islands for 22 years. "It's impossible to overstate how important this is."

Bleached by warmer waters and infested with disease, coral in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands was especially hard hit last year.

"You don't know how scary it looks down there," said Zandy Starr, who monitors coral and sea turtles in St. Croix's national parks. "All of us thought that by now, with all the cooler temperatures in January and February, we would have seen recovery, but they're still sick."

A building block for undersea life, the coral reefs are a sheltered habitat for fish, lobsters and other animals to feed and breed. They also deflect storm waves that might otherwise wash away the Caribbean's famed beaches.

"People just don't know that much about coral because it's underwater," Rogers said. "If 40 percent of the trees in one of our national parks died, people would take notice."

Glassy, calm seas have permitted coral-killing ultraviolet rays to penetrate more easily to the ocean floor, raising sea temperatures and making the fragile undersea life more susceptible to disease, Starr said.

A record 9 percent of elkhorn coral -- vital for reef building -- died last year and much more was damaged, Rogers said. Elkhorn is one of the faster-growing corals at some 8 inches (20 centimeters) a year, compared with less than an inch (just a centimeter or two) for other varieties.

Scientists haven't pinpointed what caused the coral to become sick or led to the warm seas.

"We don't really have the data. You need a record over decades," said Alberto Sabat, a biology professor at the University of Puerto Rico. "There's a lot of research that needs to happen."

The rising temperatures appeared to be "something new that the corals aren't used to," said Tyler Smith, a marine researcher at the University of the Virgin Islands.

"I've seen some very large colonies -- 100-year-old colonies -- in the Virgin Islands that have completely died," he said.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said waters were also warmer than usual in the South Pacific, mid-Atlantic and Indian oceans this month.

Millions of people visit the Caribbean each year to dive and snorkel over the region's coral reefs, part of a multibillion-dollar tourism industry.

_____________________________________________________________________________
Christian Science Monitor: Bold idea for energy woes: global cooperation

By Howard LaFranchi

24.4.2006

Some analysts envision an alliance of consumer countries to boost energy security and stabilize supplies.

WASHINGTON – Increasingly, world diplomacy is linked to energy.

Whether it's the proposed US nuclear agreement with India, tension over a natural-gas pipeline from Russia to Europe, or talks between President Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao about China's growing ties to oil-rich Iran, world leaders are factoring crucial energy needs into their strategic calculations.

Global energy strains have been particularly evident over oil, which topped a record $75 a barrel last Friday.

So is it time for an OPIC - an organization of petroleum-importing countries - as a way to build up cooperation among the world's booming and increasingly competitive energy consumers?

Such an idea may sound far-fetched. Indeed, any discussion among officials about greater energy cooperation is just in the beginning stages: NATO has held a conference on energy security, and Sen. Richard Lugar (R) of Indiana has recently proposed legislation calling for enhanced international partnerships. But among analysts, consensus is growing on the need to find new ways to boost international energy security and cooperation.

"Energy considerations underlie international politics today more than any other issue and are at the root of every country's international behavior," says Gal Luft, codirector of the Institute for Analysis of Global Security in Washington. "As more countries like China and India enter the club of energy-intensive societies, we should be developing forums for steering the competitive tendencies into more cooperative channels."

China's entry into the club of major energy consumers - last year it overtook Japan as the world's second-largest consumer of petroleum after the United States - demonstrates both the challenges of growing competition and the opportunities held out by greater cooperation.

China is engaged in a search for oil that has it setting deals with Iran, Sudan, Burma, and other energy sources the US considers unsavory - and, in some cases like Iran, as threats to international security. US officials worry that the priority of securing oil supplies from Iran is leading the Chinese to balk at US efforts to penalize Iran for moving ahead with what the US suspects is a nuclear-weapons program.

But China is also interested in building a stable and cooperative economic relationship with the US, its largest commercial partner. And it is that desire the US could tap into, some experts say, by working with China and other countries like it on enhancing energy cooperation and security.

China's interest in greater international economic cooperation and in a larger role in international economic and security frameworks was on display during Mr. Hu's visit last week, White House officials say. Perhaps the greatest long-term accomplishment of the Bush-Hu summit was the indication that Chinese leaders see their country as "a stakeholder in the international economic system," said Dennis Wilder, the National Security Council's acting senior director for East Asian affairs.

For some observers, such broad characterizations simply mean the White House was unable to extract any specific commitments from the Chinese: on accelerating appreciation of the yuan, for example, or going along with sanctions against Iran.

But other officials say the degree to which energy issues suffused the Bush-Hu discussions suggests a desire for potentially significant cooperation.

The two leaders approached energy as "a common challenge of the two countries," said Faryar Shirzad, deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs. Mr. Bush, he said, emphasized to Hu "the importance of diversifying away from oil," in particular to develop nuclear energy.

US companies are keen on entering the Chinese market to develop nuclear power plants, energy experts note.

After his US visit, Hu headed to Saudi Arabia. His itinerary also includes Nigeria and other African countries.

One hurdle in the road to developing cooperation among energy-consuming countries is the Bush administration's distaste for the kind of international bureaucracy that might be charged with overseeing such a project, some experts say. But others add that the bones of what might be a starting point already exist in the International Energy Agency (IEA), a branch of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that serves developed countries.

James Bartis, an expert in energy security at the RAND Corp. in Arlington, Va., says the IEA or something like it could serve as an "umbrella of oil consumers" that could begin to address fears about stable supplies and develop joint energy-investment strategies - and therefore become a force for stability in a world of tightening energy supplies.

"Right now most energy deals are bilateral, but energy is a global issue and bilateral agreements are not the solution to global problems," says Mr. Bartis.

By becoming members of the IEA, countries agree on building strategic petroleum reserves, and commit to coming to the rescue of any fellow member country that has its energy supply cut, by natural disaster or otherwise. The problem with the IEA as currently structured is that it serves developed countries - and thus excludes fast-growing energy consumers like China and India. "The producer countries have their OPEC," says Bartis. "If you want to enhance energy security, then creating a structure that takes in all the big consuming countries would be a natural place to start." He notes, for example, that vast amounts of energy are thought to be locked in regions that either overlap the boundaries of consumer nations or are in disputed territory, as in parts of the South China Sea. Building a forum for discussing and addressing such issues could both enhance international stability and lead to new energy development, he says.

Others point out that the contemplation of enhanced energy-security cooperation goes beyond a few experts. James Pinkerton, a fellow with the New America Foundation in Washington, notes the legislation outlined by Senator Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In addition to calling for international energy partnerships, his proposed Energy Diplomacy and Security Act also calls for a hemispheric energy cooperation forum.

Still, others remain realistic about the prospects for greater cooperation in a domain that has long been more typified by aggressive competition.

"As crucial as I think [greater international cooperation on energy] is, we also have to remember that this attention comes at a time when energy markets are extremely tight," says Mr. Luft of Global Security.

China hears the US emphasizing alternative energy sources and counseling an arm's-length approach to Iran and is a little suspicious, he adds. "China looks at the US - the consumer of 25 percent of the world's energy - and says, 'You don't have a right to lecture to us, where we have one-third the use and five times the population.' "

Luft adds that if there is to be greater international energy cooperation, it will indeed require US leadership - but that will mean "leading by example," he says. "And that means curbing our consumption and taking a deep look at our policies of consumption."

24.4.2006

MOSCOU, 24 avril - RIA Novosti. La Russie ne peut pas encore utiliser à plein les mécanismes du Protocole de Kyoto, a indiqué le ministre russe de l'Industrie et de l'Energie, Victor Khristenko, lors de sa rencontre lundi avec son homologue espagnol, José Montilla.

Cependant, la Russie ne viole pas ses engagements dans le cadre du Protocole, selon M. Khristenko.

La coopération énergétique a été le thème central de la rencontre, précise le service de presse du ministère russe de l'Industrie et de l'Energie.

La convention cadre des Nations unies sur les changements climatiques avait été ratifiée en 1992. les Etats signataires ont élaboré en 1997 le Protocole de Kyoto, contenant les engagements des parties portant sur les volumes de réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre. Grâce à sa ratification par la Russie, le document est entré en vigueur en février 2005.

Dans le cadre du Protocole de Kyoto, tous les pays industrialisés (excepté les Etats-Unis et l'Australie qui n'ont pas ratifié le document), ont pris des engagements quantitatifs précis en matière de réduction des émissions pour la période de 2008 à 2012.

___________________________________________________________________________

By Michael McCarthy

24 April 2006

It is not only in the icefields and glaciers of the Arctic, visited in a blaze of publicity last week by the Tory leader David Cameron, that the signs of global warming can be found.

Here comes a different-looking British countryside; clear evidence of climate change affecting the numbers and range of Britain's wild flowers has been found for the first time.

In some cases, the movement has been a positive one. Two of Britain's loveliest wild orchids have shown surprising increases over the past two decades, and leading botanists believe that the warming climate is responsible.

Both the bee orchid and the pyramidal orchid have virtually doubled in frequency since 1987, according to a new survey carried out by the Botanical Society of the British Isles (BSBI) in association with Plantlife, a wild-flower charity.

Until now, the effects of global warming on Britain's plant kingdom have only been detected in phenology - the timing of appearing, leafing and flowering. For example, oak trees are coming into leaf as many as 10 days earlier than they were 30 years ago, and spring flowers such as snowdrops are blooming as early as December.

But the new study - the BSBI Local Change Survey - clearly shows that some species are now increasing in numbers and frequency of occurrence in a way that is consistent with steadily rising temperatures.

The survey was carried out by BSBI volunteers who examined changes in the British flora since 1987 in 800 two-kilometre grid squares, or tetrads, across the country, and the increase in the two orchids was perhaps the most remarkable result.

Both are especially beautiful flowers. The pyramidal orchid looks something like a purplish-pink ice-cream cone, while the quite scarce bee orchid is one of the most spectacular of all Britain's wild plants: it has a flower spike whose blooms are astonishingly lifelike imitations of bumble bees. Wild bees see them and attempt what naturalists delicately refer to as pseudo-copulation; they get covered in pollen in the process, and the next time they attempt the business with another plant, they accidentally pollinate it.

The survey found impressive increases in both species. The bee orchid was found in 42 of the tetrads surveyed: there were 14 sites where it was still present from 1987, three where it had been lost, but 25 where it was new. Similarly, the pyramidal orchid was found in 43 tetrads: there were 17 continuous sites, three losses, and 23 new sites.

Both plants have doubled in numbers and the BSBI considers climate change is very probably the reason for the increase.

Over the period, Britain has definitely become a warmer place: the mean central England temperature for 1987 was 9.05C, while that for 2004 was 10.51C. Between 1900 and 1987, fewer than one year in six had a mean temperature above 10C, but nine of the 11 years between 1994 and 2004 exceeded this threshold.

The two orchids are well-placed to take advantage of such a significant shift in temperatures because they are mobile, with tiny seeds which are blown on the wind. It is thought that hotter summers, which may lead to grasses and other vegetation dying back, would offer more patches of earth where the seeds could become established.

Other plants with similarly mobile tiny seeds or spores, such as ferns, are also showing increases, the survey found. The hart's-tongue fern, for example, is showing a 25 per cent growth in population, moving from the warmer west of the country to the once-cooler east, and spreading out of sheltered gullies into woodlands.

More increases that may be consistent with a warming climate have been found in plants that specialise in growing on waste places, such as square-stalked willowherb and prickly lettuce.

"When we started this survey, most of us in the BSBI did not think we would see evidence of climate change happening yet, but we were struck by the results," said Michael Braithwaite, one of the organisers. "The trend in species such as the two orchids is strong. To find that they had, to all intents and purposes, doubled over 18 years was a great surprise."

Climate change is likely to produce losers as well as winners in Britain's native flora - flowers of the mountains and cooler places are expected to decline - but the survey did not pick up as much negative evidence.

However, there is one candidate for global warming victim, and this is once again an orchid: the lesser butterfly orchid.

This is a species of northern Europe, which tends to grow on the edges of heaths and moorlands. Over the survey period, a 50 per cent decline in it has been recorded, although the likelihood of this being due to global warming is less certain.

It is not only in the icefields and glaciers of the Arctic, visited in a blaze of publicity last week by the Tory leader David Cameron, that the signs of global warming can be found.

Here comes a different-looking British countryside; clear evidence of climate change affecting the numbers and range of Britain's wild flowers has been found for the first time.

In some cases, the movement has been a positive one. Two of Britain's loveliest wild orchids have shown surprising increases over the past two decades, and leading botanists believe that the warming climate is responsible.

Both the bee orchid and the pyramidal orchid have virtually doubled in frequency since 1987, according to a new survey carried out by the Botanical Society of the British Isles (BSBI) in association with Plantlife, a wild-flower charity.

Until now, the effects of global warming on Britain's plant kingdom have only been detected in phenology - the timing of appearing, leafing and flowering. For example, oak trees are coming into leaf as many as 10 days earlier than they were 30 years ago, and spring flowers such as snowdrops are blooming as early as December.

But the new study - the BSBI Local Change Survey - clearly shows that some species are now increasing in numbers and frequency of occurrence in a way that is consistent with steadily rising temperatures.

The survey was carried out by BSBI volunteers who examined changes in the British flora since 1987 in 800 two-kilometre grid squares, or tetrads, across the country, and the increase in the two orchids was perhaps the most remarkable result.

Both are especially beautiful flowers. The pyramidal orchid looks something like a purplish-pink ice-cream cone, while the quite scarce bee orchid is one of the most spectacular of all Britain's wild plants: it has a flower spike whose blooms are astonishingly lifelike imitations of bumble bees. Wild bees see them and attempt what naturalists delicately refer to as pseudo-copulation; they get covered in pollen in the process, and the next time they attempt the business with another plant, they accidentally pollinate it.

The survey found impressive increases in both species. The bee orchid was found in 42 of the tetrads surveyed: there were 14 sites where it was still present from 1987, three where it had been lost, but 25 where it was new. Similarly, the pyramidal orchid was found in 43 tetrads: there were 17 continuous sites, three losses, and 23 new sites.

Both plants have doubled in numbers and the BSBI considers climate change is very probably the reason for the increase.

Over the period, Britain has definitely become a warmer place: the mean central England temperature for 1987 was 9.05C, while that for 2004 was 10.51C. Between 1900 and 1987, fewer than one year in six had a mean temperature above 10C, but nine of the 11 years between 1994 and 2004 exceeded this threshold.

The two orchids are well-placed to take advantage of such a significant shift in temperatures because they are mobile, with tiny seeds which are blown on the wind. It is thought that hotter summers, which may lead to grasses and other vegetation dying back, would offer more patches of earth where the seeds could become established.

Other plants with similarly mobile tiny seeds or spores, such as ferns, are also showing increases, the survey found. The hart's-tongue fern, for example, is showing a 25 per cent growth in population, moving from the warmer west of the country to the once-cooler east, and spreading out of sheltered gullies into woodlands.

More increases that may be consistent with a warming climate have been found in plants that specialise in growing on waste places, such as square-stalked willowherb and prickly lettuce.

"When we started this survey, most of us in the BSBI did not think we would see evidence of climate change happening yet, but we were struck by the results," said Michael Braithwaite, one of the organisers. "The trend in species such as the two orchids is strong. To find that they had, to all intents and purposes, doubled over 18 years was a great surprise."

Climate change is likely to produce losers as well as winners in Britain's native flora - flowers of the mountains and cooler places are expected to decline - but the survey did not pick up as much negative evidence.

However, there is one candidate for global warming victim, and this is once again an orchid: the lesser butterfly orchid.

This is a species of northern Europe, which tends to grow on the edges of heaths and moorlands. Over the survey period, a 50 per cent decline in it has been recorded, although the likelihood of this being due to global warming is less certain.

_____________________________________________________________________________
BBC: Green mini-car to beat congestion By Jonathan Fildes

24.4.2006

A tiny, three-wheeled car that could help solve city congestion has been demonstrated at the University of Bath.

The prototype Clever (Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport) car is one metre wide and less polluting than normal vehicles.

It has a top speed of 100 km/h (60mph) and uses a novel tilting chassis to make it safe and manoeuvrable.

The traffic-busting two-seater is the result of a 40-month project by researchers in nine European countries.

The three-year, £1.5m EU-funded research project aimed to produce a totally different class of private motor vehicle specifically designed for the urban environment.

"The only solutions at the moment are motorbikes or cars" said Ben Drew, a research officer at the University of Bath, one of the institutions involved in the project.

"The idea is to try to marry the small size and efficiency of a motorcycle with the comfort and safety of a standard car," he said.

Micro-mini

The finished vehicle looks like the big brother of the ill-conceived Sinclair C5.

However, the Clever car may drive the field of alternative vehicles further forward than Sir Clive Sinclair's invention.

The prototype on show in Bath was just a metal skeleton, but the complete car has a roof that protects both the driver and the passenger sitting behind in the event of a crash.

The plastic panels, that sit on the aluminium frame, also protect the occupants from the elements.

At just over one metre wide it is even narrower than Daimler Chrysler's original Smart car.

The micro-mini is able to park efficiently and opens up the possibility of an increased number of lanes on jam-packed city streets.

However, more cars should not mean more fumes, because the Clever car uses compressed natural gas.

"It costs less to run, is quieter and is less polluting," said Dr Jos Darling, a senior lecturer in charge of the Clever project at Bath University.

It would also allow the car to get around London's congestion charge.

Crash test

The team from Bath also had to design a novel chassis that keeps the narrow vehicle from rolling over when it turns corners.

The hydraulic system is electronically controlled and automatically tilts the vehicle as it goes round a corner, in a similar way to a motorcyclist tilting a bike.

"The control system takes measurements from the driver, such as the steering angle and speed, and tilts the vehicle to the required angle to go round the corner," explained Mr Drew.

"It takes a little while to get used to, but once you do it feels bizarre to get back into a normal car."

The car on display in Bath is one of five built by the EU consortium.

Three were destroyed in crash testing and the other is in Germany with car manufacturer BMW, one of the organisations involved in Clever's development.

Although the vehicle is packed with innovations, it is unlikely to replace SUVs in the affections of urban dwellers just yet.

The prototype is purely a research project and is unlikely to come to market in its present form.

But the researchers hope that car companies may build on its ideas, and that the design may even pave the way for a new class of city vehicles somewhere between motorbikes and cars.

"You can imagine that they could re-jig the [London] congestion charge to just allow motorcycles and Clever vehicles, but not cars," said Mr Drew.

"The idea is to showcase the vehicle and start the process of laying down the groundwork for this third way."

MICRO-MINI VEHICLES

1940-1945: French-made Velocar

Early 50s: German-designed Kabinenroller

1957: Miniature BMW Isetta

1972: British Bond Bug

70s and 80s: French KVS car

Late 70s: Swedish Shopper Mopedbil

1982: Taiwan's US Cub Commuter

1985: Sir Clive Sinclair's C5

1998: Swatch Mercedes Smart car

2004: G Wiz electric car

___________________________________________________________________________

Environment News Service: Petrobras Abandons Plans for Oil Road in Ecuadorian Amazon Park

24.4.2006

The Brazilian national oil company Petrobras has relinquished plans to build a new access road into Yasuni National Park, located in the megadiverse Ecuadorian Amazon. The company has not given up on oil development within the park, but now says it will employ helicopters to access the site.

For nearly two years, Ecuadorian and international conservation, indigenous, and scientific groups have been fighting to stop the road into the park, which is a designated UNESCO Biosphere and is currently roadless. They fear a road would allow land development of all kinds to penetrate the pristine rainforest that shelters a rich diversity of species as well as indigenous peoples who prefer to avoid contact and retain traditional ways.

In a written statement last week from Petrobras to Save America’s Forests, a conservation group based in Washington, DC, the company explained that it will follow the advice of the Ecuadorian government not to build the road.

“The new operation will be based on helicopter transportation inside Yasuní National Park, therefore, it eliminates the access road inside the park,” explained the Petrobras statement. “It includes recommendations of both the Environment and Energy Ministries and the suggestions of other organizations of civil society, which had contributed to its improvement.”

“This is a huge step in the right direction,” said ecologist Dr. Matt Finer of Save America’s Forests. “The two most potentially damaging components of the project - the road and the processing facility - have been taken out of the park and Huaorani territory.” The Huaorani are an independent indigenous tribe of the Ecuadorian Amazon.

“Given the proliferation of oil concessions throughout the Amazon, hopefully this will set a critical precedent," said Finer. "No new oil access roads through primary rainforest.”

“We applaud the Ecuadorian government’s decision to insist on roadless oil development in Yasuni,” said Leda Huta of Finding Species, based in Takoma Park, Maryland. “Yasuni is one of the most important national parks in the world and this road would have opened up one of the most intact sections of the park."

This outcome seemed unlikely in May 2005, when Petrobras began constructing the road through primary forest in the northern buffer zone of the park. By June, the road had reached the northern boundary of Yasuni, and Petrobras requested permission from the Environment Ministry to continue road construction into the park.

But the turning point had come just a month earlier, in April, when the Ecuadorian Congress, responding to widespread street protests, ousted Lucio Gutierrez from the presidency. The Gutierrez administration had granted Petrobras the environmental license for the project in August 2004.

The incoming administration of Alfredo Palacio, and in particular the new Environment Minister Anita Alban, were more sympathetic to the concerns of conservationists and scientists that a new road into the intact northeast section of Yasuni would be devastating.

A report prepared by a group of 50 park scientists in November 2004 concluded that Yasuni was one of the most biodiverse rainforests on Earth, and that new oil access roads would pose the greatest threat to that biodiversity.

The report advocated roadless oil development, a position also supported by the Smithsonian Institution based in the United States as well as and Ecuadorian nongovernmental organizations.

On July 7, 2005, Alban wrote a letter to the Petrobras President and CEO José Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo denying the company authorization to enter the park and continue road construction.

Among the principal reasons cited for this refusal of authorization was the lack of environmental study for building the processing plant within the park, and the lack of consideration of access alternatives that would minimize impact.

The letter concluded that if the processing plant were built outside the park, as called for in the original environmental impact study, it would not be necessary to build an access road into the park.

South America’s most profitable company in 2004 with net profits of $6.6 billion, Petrobras responded to Alban's letter with a lawsuit on July 28, 2005. On August 25, Petrobras’ lawsuit was rejected in court, and now Petrobras has agreed to give up road construction within the park.

Still, Finer warns that several major problems still exist in connection with the oil development at Yasuni National Park.

Oil extraction is being allowed to continue within ancestral Huaorani territory despite the indigenous people's call for a 10 year moratorium on new oil activities on their lands.

The Huaorani demanded the moratorium last summer when 150 Huaorani marched through the streets of the capital, Quito, to protest widespread oil extraction in their territory. Huaorani leaders presented their plan for a moratorium to Congress and high-ranking officials in the Palacio administration.

“The Huaorani have made it clear they oppose new oil activities,” said Brian Keane of the indigenous rights group Land is Life, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “They complain of widespread illnesses due to contamination and fear for the survival of their brother clans living in voluntary isolation," Keane said.

"Allowing Petrobras to drill in Yasuni would be a gross violation of the rights of the Huaorani and Taromenane peoples. In fact, it would most likely be the end for the Taromenane," he said. The small group of Taromenane still live by choice as one of the world's most isolated tribes.

Conservationists are concerned that Ecuador is still permitting oil extraction to take place within a national park. Other Amazonian countries such as Brazil and Peru prohibit such activities within parks. Finer says Yasuni is the only national park in this incredibly biodiverse region, thus there is added urgency to fully protect it.

In addition, conservationists worry that the petroleum processing facility is planned for construction just two kilometers (1.24 miles) from the park boundary in a primary rainforest environment.

Nonetheless, says Finer, given the "extremely difficult task" of persuading an oil giant such as Petrobras to make costly adjustments to minimize environmental damage in an oil dependent country such as Ecuador, many people in the environmental community consider Petrobras' decision to stop the road a major victory, especially in view of the fact that the road is constructed right up to the boundary line of Yasuni National Park.

Huta of Finding Species says, “That’s snatching victory from the jaws of defeat."

Yasuni National Park encompasses a large stretch of the world’s most diverse tree community, has the highest documented insect diversity in the world, and has many diverse species of mammals, birds, amphibians, and plants.

Eight species of monkeys live in Yasuni along with the golden-mantle tamarin, the giant otter and two other otter species, endangered tapirs, deer and anteaters, peccaries and sloths, racoons, armadillos, and in the rivers, pink dolphins and dwarf dolphins.

Harpy eagles and king vultures soar above the canopy, while scarlet macaws as well as blue and yellow macaws feast on clay licks. Well known cats such as jaguars and ocelots inhabit the Yasuni rainforest, which they share with lesser known species such as the jaguarundi and the oncilla.

____________________________________________________________________________
Reuters: Norway Slams Whaling Critics, Says Stocks Robust

By Alister Doyle

24.4.2006

OSLO — Norway hit back on Sunday at 12 nations led by Britain for urging an end to whale hunts, saying a plan to raise catches to the highest in two decades in 2006 would not damage stocks of the giant mammals.

"The charges are baseless ... They have failed to do their homework," Norway's whaling commissioner Karsten Klepsvik told Reuters of the call for an end to whaling on Thursday by nations including France, Germany, Australia and Brazil.

British Fisheries Minister Ben Bradshaw said on behalf of the 12 that an increase in Norway's quota to 1,052 whales in 2006 "is premature and not based on the best scientific advice". Britain's embassy in Oslo handed in the formal protest.

Norway, which broke with a global moratorium on commercial whaling in 1993, has harpooned about 750 minke whales each year in recent years and the 2006 will be the highest since the 1980s. The whales are eaten as steaks in Norway.

Klepsvik said the quota was based on theoretical guidelines for whaling agreed in 1992 by a panel of scientists at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) -- including experts from nations which signed the protest.

"The quota is based on cautious estimates," said Klepsvik, a foreign ministry official who oversees Norway's whaling.

Norway says there are 107,000 minke whales in the north Atlantic. The 2006 catch, which includes a basic quota of 745 along with 307 that were not caught in 2004-05 quotas, represents about one percent of the stock.

He also slammed Bradshaw for saying in a statement that Oslo's government was "putting pressure on their scientists to justify the wide-scale destruction of this species".

"Casting doubt on the integrity of our scientists goes over the limit of political criticism," he said.

Lars Walloe, a professor at Oslo university who is chief scientific advisor to the government on marine mammals, also told Reuters: "It's frightening that they make such statements."

Both Walloe and Klepsvik said, however, that Norway was working on a new way of setting quotas. Parliament has said it wants catches back to higher historical levels, of about 1,800.

Oslo says that minke whales are plentiful, eat commercial fish stocks and do not need to be kept on endangered lists -- unlike species like the sperm whale or blue whale, the biggest creature ever to have lived on the planet.

Animal welfare groups say hunting whales with exploding harpoons is cruel and that all nations should stick to a 1986 IWC moratorium on hunts. Along with Norway, both Japan and Iceland catch whales.

Argentina, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain were the other countries to back the statement, issued soon after the start of the Norwegian whaling season on April 1.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Directory: cpi -> briefs
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news

Download 280.1 Kb.

Share with your friends: