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Other Environment News

NORWAY: August 22, 2007

NY ALESUND, Norway - Climate change is the biggest security challenge since the Cold War but people have not woken up to the risks nor to easy solutions such as saving energy at home, experts said on Tuesday.

"We're not yet collectively grasping the scale of what we need to do," British climate change ambassador John Ashton told a seminar of 40 scientists and officials from 13 nations in Ny Alesund, Norway, about 1,200 km (750 miles) from the North Pole.

He said global warming should be recast as a security issue, such as war or terrorism, to help mobilise support for tougher global action to cut emissions of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.

"The Cold War was the last big problem the world faced on so many fronts -- economic, political, industrial," he said.

Other experts at the talks, in an Arctic scientific research base, also said there was too much focus on costs of cutting emissions of greenhouse gases, rather than on risks of rising seas, droughts or floods projected by UN studies.

Global warming "should be looked at as a totally different type of challenge instead of asking 'what does it cost?'," said Joergen Randers, a leading Norwegian economist. Casting global warming as a security issue could make it easier to confront.

Most said that costs of fighting global warming were likely to be manageable. A report by the UN climate panel this year said that even the most stringent measures would mean a loss by 2030 of just three percent of global gross domestic product.

But the experts said it was hard to persuade millions of individuals to cut energy use or to get businesses to invest in new technologies to avert long-term damage from global warming.

SWEATER POLICE

Randers said that the cheapest way to cut greenhouse gas emissions in cooler climates would be to get everyone to turn down the temperature at home by a degree Celsius (2 Fahrenheit) and wear a sweater if needed to keep warm.

"This can be done with no loss of comfort," he said, adding jokingly that it might be have to be enforced by "sweater police". Another solution would be to charge higher prices for heating homes beyond about 18C (64F).

Researchers noted that people often act without weighing up long-term consequences -- many smoke cigarettes or eat too much without rationally reviewing risks of lung cancer or obesity.

In a similar way "most people don't see the benefit of switching to a more expensive bulb that will last longer," said Nebojsa Nakicenovic, of Vienna University of Technology.

Still, in some areas, behaviour is changing.

Labelling of electricity appliances in Europe on a scale of A to G according to their energy efficiency meant that shops no longer sell machines less efficient than a C, said Christoper Rapley, director of the British Antarctic Survey.

He said the most effective way to get people to cut electricity use at home was probably be to give them a large dial showing their current electricity use -- rising, for instance, when the cooker was turned on.

Story by Alister Doyle

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Mon Aug 20, 4:06 PM ET

SOCCORO, New Mexico (AP) -- A New Mexico Tech scientist believes he has

found a way to head off dangerous climate change. Oliver Wingenter said the

idea is simple — fertilize the ocean so that more plankton can grow.

Plankton growing in the ocean emits a gas known as dimethyl sulfide, or

DMS, that once in the atmosphere, helps spur cloud formation. That, in

turn, would cool the planet and offset some of the global warming caused by

human emitted greenhouse gases, he said.

World governments are looking for ways to cut emissions and head off the

worst damage such change might cause. Efforts are having limited success,

though, so some scientists have begun to advocate counter measures to

offset the warming.

Wingenter said his idea has been a tough sell, and it has been a struggle

to win funding to further pursue the research.

But as Earth inches toward a climate tipping point of runaway warming,

Wingenter said his technique could be used to buy time to make societal

changes necessary to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

"I'm just hoping that this is something that will give us a little more

time," he said.

He and a pair of colleagues published the information last month in the

scientific journal, "Atmospheric Environment."

Wingenter said he came up with idea while spending seven weeks at sea in

early 2002, collecting atmospheric data as part of a major climate change

research experiment.

At the time, DMS and cloud formation were the furthest thing from the

scientists' minds. They were trying to see if fertilizing plankton in the

planet's southern oceans could slow down global warming in an entirely

different way — by coaxing the ocean plankton to gobble greenhouse gases

out of the atmosphere.

Greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide coming out of the tailpipes of

cars and exhaust stacks of factories, are changing Earth's climate, most

scientists agree.

But the potential for using plankton to scrub greenhouse gases out of the

atmosphere remains uncertain.

In pursuing his idea, Wingenter is entering a scientific political

minefield known as geo-engineering.

The most widely discussed geo-engineering proposal involves a fleet of jets

spewing aerosols that would deflect the sun's rays, cooling the planet in

the process.

Other suggestions include launching giant mirrors into space to block some

of the sun's light.

One risk, said Ken Caldeira, an expert in the field at the Carnegie

Institution in California, is that geo-engineering might be used as an

excuse to avoid cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

But by far the less risky course is to minimize greenhouse gas emissions in

the first place, he said.

Caldeira said that, in principle, Wingenter's idea looks like it might

work. But he suggested a cautious approach, with more research to

understand the effect fertilization might have on both ocean and climate.

"It might be relatively benign," he said. "It might not. We just don't

know."

By Brian Parkin

Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel is planning to review Germany's program to tackle climate change after the government's proposals alarmed consumer and industrial power users and prompted Cabinet dissent.

Germany's target of slashing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2020 may cost consumers and industry 70 billion euros ($94.5 billion), according to an analysis by the Economy Ministry that does not take into account potential savings. Scrutinizing the 30 proposals to achieve that goal will top the agenda at a special meeting of the Cabinet in Meseberg, outside Berlin, on Aug. 23, Merkel's spokesman Thomas Steg said yesterday.

The steps, drawn up by Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel and including measures such as the replacement of windows and heating systems, ``certainly aren't the final word,'' Economy Ministry spokeswoman Charlotte Lauer said in an interview from Berlin today. Merkel has agreed to ``weigh the pros and cons of each step very carefully,'' Lauer said.

Gabriel, a Social Democrat, has said the energy-saving steps will be self-financing, though that assumption is not shared by Economy Minister Michael Glos, a member of the Christian Social Union. Glos, seeking to avoid denting economic growth, wants to water down Gabriel's proposals. Disagreement between the two may dominate debate at Meseberg.

The proposals to be discussed, contained in a 49-page Environment Ministry document, focus on energy conservation. Merkel on July 3 announced a plan to force utilities to boost productivity by 3 percent each year from 2010, saying productivity and energy-saving are ``complementary.''

Windows, Heating

Further proposals to replace windows and heating that are up to 30 years old would cost home and commercial owners 28 billion euros annually over the next 4 years, the BSI real estate federation says on its Web site. The federation represents 360 real-estate management companies that control 480,000 homes.

Most of the measures proposed by Gabriel are non- controversial, according to Tobias Duenow, an Environment Ministry spokesman. These include improving the accuracy of power meters; basing car tax on CO2 emissions rather than engine capacity; and phasing out older night-storage heaters.

The Cabinet sticking points, Duenow said, include raising tax on fleet cars and speeding up the building of so-called heat-power co-generation plants that produce heat that can warm buildings as a by-product. Glos also opposes a plan to extend exemptions on ecological tax only to companies that adopt strict energy-saving programs, he said.

``The whole financial aspect still has to be aired,'' Duenow said.

Merkel will hold a press conference on the Cabinet deliberations on Aug. 23 at 6.15 p.m. Berlin time.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Parkin in Berlin at bparkin@bloomberg.net

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The Guardian:China prays for Olympic wind as car bans fail to shift Beijing smog

Jonathan Watts in Beijing

Tuesday August 21, 2007

Prayers for strong winds look set to become a major component of Beijing's Olympic preparations after a traffic-reduction trial failed to shift the smog that hangs over the city.

More than a million cars were taken off the roads for the four-day test period, but there was no improvement in the air quality, according to city officials.

Yesterday the skies above Beijing were the same dirty grey shade as when the test started on Friday.

As of Sunday the air quality ranking had not budged from level two on China's five-tier scale, in which level one represents clear unpolluted skies.

Nonetheless, the city's Olympic organisers declared the test, which ends today, a success.

Because there was no wind, they argued, pollution would have grown thicker without the special restrictions.

"Level two is a good enough standard for athletic competition," said Yu Xianoxuan, environmental director of the Beijing Olympic Organising Committee. "If we had not had the traffic controls we could not have maintained this level because the temperature and humidity were very high. So we can see the restrictions worked."

Whether this will reassure the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is another matter. Earlier this month the IOC president, Jacques Rogge, warned that events might be postponed if pollution levels threatened the performance of athletes. To minimise that risk and the damage to the city's international reputation, Beijing plans to ban more than a third of the city's 3m cars for the two-week period of the games.

During the four-day trial cars with odd- and even-numbered plates were supposed to stay off the roads on alternate days. Violaters were liable to fines of 100 yuan (£6.60).

Although the measures did not make much of an impact on the environment, the traffic that usually jams the city was noticeably better in many areas.

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By Roger Harrabin

The controversial suggestion from Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), has angered environmental groups.

They say climate change will not be solved unless rich and poor nations both cut emissions together.

But Mr de Boer said the challenge was so great that action was needed now.

The UN's binding global climate agreement, the Kyoto Protocol, currently requires industrialised nations to reduce the majority of emissions themselves.

But Mr de Boer said this was illogical, adding that the scale of the problem facing the world meant that countries should be allowed to invest in emission cuts wherever in the world it was cheapest.

"We have been reducing emissions and making energy use more efficient in industrialised countries for a long time," he told BBC News.

"But in developing nations, less has been done to reduce emissions and less has been done to address energy efficiency," Mr de Boer observed.

"So it actually becomes economically quite attractive for a company, for example in the UK, that has a target to achieve this goal by reducing emissions in China."

He said rich nations should be able to buy their way out of 100% of their responsibilities - though he doubted that any country would want to do so.

Green groups said the proposal was against the spirit of the UN, which agreed that wealthy countries - who were responsible for climate change - should do most to cure it.

Mike Childs from Friends of the Earth said: "This proposal simply won't deliver the cuts we need in time. The scientists are telling us that we need to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) by 50-80% by 2050.

"Unless rich countries start to wean themselves off fossil fuels right away this won't happen."

Doug Parr of Greenpeace was equally critical of Mr de Boer's suggestion.

"The current trading system is not delivering emissions reductions as it is," he said. "Expanding it like this to give rich countries a completely free hand will simply not work."

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By Garry Duffy

BBC News, Sao Paulo

Brazil's government has promised to investigate allegations that its policy of settling landless communities in the Amazon is encouraging deforestation.

Greenpeace has claimed that some of these areas are being exploited by logging companies, after what it says was an eight-month investigation.

Brazil's environment ministry says deforestation in those areas is falling but it will investigate the claims.

The government says land distribution to the poor is an important objective.

But Greenpeace says the implementation of the policy is encouraging uncontrolled logging and deforestation in some parts of the Amazon.

'Gross exploitation'

Greenpeace claims the government's land reform agency, Incra, is setting aside areas for land settlement that are of great value to the timber industry, instead of placing people on land that has already been cleared.

Greenpeace says links are then encouraged between the logging companies and unregulated groups representing the settlers, which only facilitates what it calls "gross exploitation" of the newly formed settlement.

The investigation focused on an area in the state of Para, where more than 30,000 families were said to have been settled in 2006 alone.

The allegation comes at a time when the government is celebrating news that deforestation in the Amazon in the 12 months to July 2006 fell by 25%.

Environment Minister Marina da Silva has promised the claims will be fully investigated, but the government says satellite images show deforestation in settlement areas has been falling, not rising.

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Christian Science Monitor: Editorial: UN Law of the Sea Treaty key to protecting Arctic

The prospect of Arctic ice melting in about 36 years has brought the prospector out of countries that covet its gas, oil, and new sea lanes. It's a pity then that the US, with a thousand miles of Arctic coastline, may not have a good seat at the table to decide this frontier's future.

In recent weeks, Russia, Canada, Denmark, and the US have all launched various types of Arctic ventures to mark some claim on this frosty region that's twice the size of France. But the US is the only Arctic-bordering nation not party to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. That treaty is the legal venue that can help resolve competing claims beyond each nation's offshore economic zone, based on still-unresolved findings of continental shelves.

For the US to be a legitimate player in this race for the Arctic, the Senate must take the long-delayed step of ratifying the 1982 ocean treaty. Happily, hearings on whether to do so start in September.

But any talks between Arctic countries should include ways to protect rather than exploit this liquefying ocean, as experience has shown.

In the mid-20th century, the contest to exploit the Antarctic led to a treaty calling for the southern polar region to be used "in the interests of all mankind." That was in contrast to the 1884-85 Berlin Conference that tried to resolve claims on Africa between imperialist Britain, France, and Germany – only to see a damaging "scramble for Africa." And in Southeast Asia today, oil riches under the Spratly Sea remain a source of high tension between China, Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, and other bordering nations.

Would-be Arctic exploiters must recognize an irony in the fact that global warming, caused in part by burning fossil fuels, is helping to open up a race to tap the Arctic's fossil fuels. For humanity's sake, this valuable but polluting resource should be left for the day when other oil wells start to run dry.

By one very rough estimate, the Arctic holds a quarter of the planet's undiscovered petroleum. One practical reason to keep it underground is that technology to drill and transport it in such frigid, watery conditions remains underdeveloped. An Arctic oil spill would not be pretty or short term.

Canada and the US need to set an example for other claimants. The two long time allies can start moves toward protecting the Arctic by resolving their own dispute over the long-sought Northwest Passage. Soon, ships may be able to pass through these now-frozen waters, cutting 2,500 miles off the normal transit from Europe to Asia. Canada claims them as their own. The US and many nations see them as international waters. (US naval subs have long plied the area.)

Meanwhile, Russia, which this month placed a rust-free flag on an underwater ridge near the North Pole to stake a critical claim, needs to end such belligerent antics if it wants to be taken seriously in coming talks on Arctic rights. Such a nationalist move may play well at home before an election, but it's not 21st-century diplomacy.

The Law of the Sea Treaty was designed to resolve claims over ocean territory and mineral resources. So far, it has worked fairly well. The US should join, and in doing so, work to give the Arctic a special status, one that preserves its unique environment.

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Aug 21, 2007 04:30 AM

BEIJING–Traffic flowed more smoothly but the sun was still shrouded by smog yesterday, the fourth and final day of Beijing's Olympic pollution prevention test.

To see if the city's poor air quality could be improved at least temporarily during next August's Games, the Chinese capital has taken up to 1.3 million cars off the roads by banning plates ending in odd and even numbers on alternate days.

State media proclaimed the exercise a success, with the Xinhua news agency claiming that the city had four "blue-sky days." But the skies – and some athletes – suggested a mixed verdict.

Seoul used similar traffic control measures when it hosted the Olympics in 1988, and Athens battled its pollution problem with the same tactics for more than a decade before it held the Games in 2004.

Pollution remains the main concern for organizers of the Beijing Games. Olympics chief Jacques Rogge said two weeks ago that some endurance events might have to be postponed if air quality was not up to scratch.

One such event is the 174-kilometre cycling road race. Some of the world's top cyclists were in Beijing over the weekend for a test event.

Despite taking more than a third of Beijing's cars off the roads and a racecourse that took in the less polluted climes around the Great Wall, there were clearly respiratory issues for some competitors.

"I have a sore throat and lungs, but unless we get everyone to stop driving for a month I guess there is not a lot we can do about it," Tour de France runner-up Cadel Evans told Australia's Sunday Telegraph after the road race.

This spring, when the Canadian women's soccer team was training in Beijing, several players with mild cases of asthma were puffing on inhalers they hadn't needed in years. Not everyone's lungs became constricted, but by the fourth day every throat – even the training staff's – was irritated and clogged by mucus trying to defend the lungs from black particulate matter.

Official air quality reports over the four days of car restrictions this week gave Grade 2 ratings on the national scale of 1 to 5, with the major pollutant cited as large particulate matter. Grade 1 denotes "excellent" air quality and Grade 2 "fairly good."

Beijing's Environmental Protection monitoring centre said the still, humid weather over the weekend had been unfavourable for "emission diffusion."

"If there had been no restrictions, the air quality would have worsened within one or two days, but today it remained Grade 2," monitoring centre vice-director Zhao Yue said Sunday. "In this way, the restriction showed an obvious effect on the air quality."

Some athletes and coaches, however, are concerned that China's pollution ratings do not take into account smaller particulate matter and ozone, both can have an adverse impact on the human body.

Beijing spent more than $16.77 billion from 1998 to 2006 on environmental improvement – shutting down or moving the worst industrial polluters, taking old vehicles off the roads and extending the city's rail and subway network.

Bicycles have been more evident during the test and Xinhua news agency reported yesterday that a Beijing company would make 50,000 bikes available to rent at 230 outlets before the Olympics.

• 
  China Daily : Environmental concerns
  
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  People’s Daily Online : Emission cuts miss green goal
  
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  People’s Daily Online : China reports mixed picture on control of major pollutants
  
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  The Nation : Floodings hit Phang Nga and Surat Thani
  
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  Central Chronicle : Watch Tower: Green temples
  
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  Borneo Bulletin : Brunei has strong forest management policy: Asean report
  
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  ABS-CBN : SE Asia grapples with nuclear power safety, costs
  
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  Terra Daily : ASEAN urged to muster political will to deal with forest fire haze
  
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  Channel NewsAsia : Regional Haze Dialogue works on new strategies to fight climate change
  
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  ABC : Eco-millionaires see boom times ahead
  
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  Today’s THV : Study Seen As Conservation Wake-Up Call
  
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  The Age : Australia turns up the heat on climate change
  
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  Reuters : Erupting Indonesian Volcano Threatens More Villages