The environment in the news friday, January 07 2011

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  AP: GOP bills would curb EPA on global warming battle
  
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  AFP: La Nina blamed for weather upset, but climate link unclear
  
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  The Independent (UK): Nature Studies by Michael McCarthy: Have we learned nothing since 'Silent Spring'?
  
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  Telegraph (UK): 'Great Garbage Patch': 20 ways to reduce your plastic consumption
  
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  EPA wants to issue Texas greenhouse gas permits
  
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  AP: Feds sue Pa. coal plant operators over pollution
  
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  AP: Oil findings boost chance of corp. criminal charge
  
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  AP: Four Loko, other drinks turned into ethanol in Va.
  
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  AFP: Bacteria ate Gulf oil spill methane in 4 months
  
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  Guardian (UK): BP cost-cutting blamed for 'avoidable' Deepwater Horizon oil spill
  
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  AFP: Greenpeace ranks 'greenest' electronics
  
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  The Independent (UK): Banksy poster design under the hammer
  
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  The Independent (UK): Mass bird and fish deaths stoke curiosity
  
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  The Independent (UK): Swedes investigate riddle of dead birds
  
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  Guardian (UK): WikiLeaks: Secret whaling deal plotted by US and Japan
  
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  BBC News (UK): Jet lag found to hinder malaria parasite
  

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  ROA
  
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  RONA
  

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  Environment News from the UN Daily News of January 7th 2011 (None)
  
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  Environment News from the S.G.’s Spokesman Daily Press Briefing of January 6^th 2011
  

NEPA and the Health Ministry say air pollution causes up to 3,000 deaths a year and spreads skin, respiratory and eye diseases, and even cancer. The UN World Health Organization (WHO) says air pollution causes about two million premature deaths worldwide every year.

“Anyone can observe that the air in Kabul is highly polluted,” said Chiranjibi Gautam, an expert with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

“Up to 75 percent of the air pollution is from transport,” Najibullah Yamin, NEPA’s deputy director, told IRIN.

The country imports tens of thousands of second-hand cars every year. They predominantly use low-grade fuel which pollutes the air, NEPA said.

To discourage the use of state-owned vehicles and reduce pollution, the government announced that Thursdays are to be public holidays until March 2011. Afghanistan normally only observes Friday as a day of rest.

Critics, however, say the extra holiday is benefiting no one, as officials tend to use government vehicles for private purposes on days off. “It’s a joke which in fact is damaging the economy more than helping to reduce air pollution because congestion on Thursdays is no better than on other days,” said Kabul resident Ahmad Temor.

The government has not banned the use of government or private vehicles on Thursdays and Fridays, but merely “requested” that people refrain from using their cars “unnecessarily”.

Kabul’s inadequate public transport system does not meet the needs of its estimated 4.5 million inhabitants, pushing more and more people to buy cars.

Valley aggravates smog

“Kabul is a valley where in winter there is thermal inversion and because of it very low dispersion of pollutants takes place, thus increasing pollution levels,” said UNEP’s Chiranjibi Gautam.

Other main causes of air pollution and environmental degradation are rapid population growth and a largely unregulated urbanization.

The lack of trees, parks and other green areas exacerbate the city’s air quality, experts say. In cold winter months air pollution increases due to the burning of fuel and firewood for heating, they add, though the use of generators has decreased over the past two years due to US-funded electricity imports from neighbouring Tajikistan.

Meanwhile, officials accuse what they call a “land mafia” of plundering public land and illegally building houses, with little or no heed to the environment.

“The land mafia has seized green areas and builds houses and commercial buildings in areas which are crucial for environmental protection purposes,” said NEPA’s Yamin.

A lack of public awareness on environmental issues is part of the problem, he adds. “The last thing on people’s minds here is the air quality and the environment.”
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UPI (US): U.N. soldiers on with climate deals
6^th January 2011
Though environmental critics might be frustrated by global climate talks, December negotiations in Mexico put efforts back on track, a U.N. climate chief said.

The agreement struck in Cancun, where representatives from 194 nations met to prepare a new climate protection treaty, calls for major emissions cuts, launches a multibillion-dollar fund to help poor nations adapt to climate change and finalizes a scheme to stop deforestation.

Achim Steiner, the executive director at the U.N. Environment Program, acknowledged, however, that there was a serious gap in what countries promised to do and what countries need to do in terms of cutting harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

That gap, he said, is equal to the combined emissions of the global fleet of cars, trucks and buses.

Nevertheless, he said, giving up on reaching a comprehensive climate agreement for the world community isn't an option despite past efforts.

"The latest round of climate negotiations, held last month in Cancun, Mexico, put the world's efforts on climate change back on track -- albeit at a pace and on a scale that will undoubtedly leave many onlookers frustrated," he said in a statement.

This and a number of other projects in East Africa, particularly in Uganda and Kenya, are expected to position Standard Bank Group (SBG) as a leader in the development and execution of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) initiatives in Africa, which accounts for only 3 percent of all CDM initiatives globally.

In terms of the Kyoto Protocol, such initiatives are registered for the allocation of carbon credits with the Clean Development Mechanism Executive Board of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

By trading these credits in a market worth $180-billion globally, industrialised countries are able to invest in projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries. This, in turn, enables industrialised nations to sponsor a net global reduction in carbon emissions at a lower overall economic cost for themselves.

Through its subsidiaries and branches in Africa, where it has been involved in the lives and businesses of citizens through traditional transactional banking, Standard Bank Group has been able to identify and develop projects that lend themselves to funding by means of carbon trading.

Fenella Auoane of Standard Bank Group's London-based carbon trading division said: "We have been working very hard during the past two years to bring the projects to fruition - and the Tanzania LED light initiative is the first of several that will get off the ground in 2011.”

ILLUMI Nation Tanzania, which owns the LED project, estimates that it will save households with an average annual income of only US$150 nearly a third of that income. The total national saving will be around $200-million.

Tanzania's greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by 800,000 tonnes, benefiting the planet as a whole and significantly reducing health problems in Tanzania resulting from burn injuries and the inhalation of kerosene gas.

In addition to leading the use of carbon credits on the continent, Standard Bank is also pioneering the UNFCCC's use of provisions for the "programmatic" Clean Development Mechanism.

In this approach, rather than approving each individual installation, the UN approves a programme of activities that is then audited for carbon credits. This new mechanism is particularly suited to Africa, given that many sustainable development project opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa comprise the mass application of "micro" technologies.

Aouane said: "We believe that it's possible to make a profound contribution to the physical and economic health and well-being of individual nations and the world at large by applying sophisticated financial instruments to the needs of grass roots populations.

"The fact that we are on the ground in Africa positions us ideally to combine local insight with our global capability in carbon trading in order to tailor answers and funding that very accurately meet the need for sustainable development on the continent."

The ILLUMI Nation project is only the second one in Tanzania since 2007 to be based on carbon trading. Standard Bank Group is also involved in a solar water heating project for low cost housing in South Africa.

Standard Bank Group, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the German government have launched the Africa Carbon Asset Development (ACAD) facility - a public private partnership between UNEP and African banks that aims to stimulate the growth of Africa's carbon market through investor outreach and seed capital.

ACAD's focus is on using carbon trading to provide wide-ranging economic, environmental and social benefits to Africa - including new revenue streams, access to energy, job creation and technology transfer - by deploying local, market specific solutions and partnerships.
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BBC News (UK): Guernsey Bat Group hopes the mammal will be protected
6^th January 2011
The United Nations Environment Programme declared 2011 the Year of the Bat.

Six species of the mammal have been observed in Guernsey, with caves on the south coast used as roosting sites.

The Guernsey Bat Group leader Pat Costen told BBC Guernsey they were harmless animals in need of protection.

A planned overhaul of the island's animal welfare laws in 2011 was, she said, an opportunity to help a much misunderstood creature.

Pat said: "They're here. They're not harming us. They just want to carry on with their lives, catching insects, because that's really all that they do."

"Some people might consider that a good thing to do," she argued. "Especially if you're bitten by midges, as many of us are in the summer."

The Guernsey Bat Group is a part of La Societe Guernesiaise, an organisation which seeks to study and preserve wildlife habitats as well as historic buildings and monuments.

The Group was consulted on the issues affecting the island's bat populations when animal welfare laws were redrafted prior to debate.

However, delays in the presentation of the new laws to the island's government have created doubts about their final content.

Pat told the BBC: "We were consulted about bats and incorporated in that was a protection of roosts which hopefully is still there [in the revised legislation to be debated by the States in 2011]."

A ceremony in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur on 1 January 2011 officially launched the United Nations Environment Programme's Year of the Bat, with the aim of protecting roosting sites around the world.

Days later, Ms Costen led BBC Guernsey's Oliver Farrimond to the Creux Mahie cave in the southern, coastal parish of Torteval.

It is a typical bat roosting site where two or three species can normally be found. The Group has previously detected the common pipstrelle and the grey long-eared bat.

In addition, the more unusual natterer's bat was once observed using a sophisticated bat detecting machine placed in the cave overnight.

Ms Costen estimated there was about 10 bats currently roosting there, though in previous years there may have been 10 times that many.

However, she was careful not to venture too far into the cave and risk disturbing the hibernating bats.

She said: "If we did wake them up it would deplete their resources so much... that they may not then get to the end of the winter."
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Métropole Haiti: Le PNUE et la Norvège lancent le projet Initiative pour la Côte Sud
6^th January 2011
Le Programme des Nations Unies pour l'environnement (PNUE) et plusieurs autres partenaires dont le gouvernement norvégien ont donné le coup d'envoi le mardi 5 janvier de l'important programme Initiative pour la Côte Sud (ICS). Outre le gouvernement norvégien plusieurs autres partenaires dont le gouvernement haïtien, des organisations non-gouvernementales locales et internationales et l'Institut de la Terre de l'Université Columbia sont impliqués dans le programme qui vise la remise en état et le développement durable d'une zone de terres fortement dégradées de 780 km².

10 communes, dont Port-Salut sont concernées par l'ICS qui prévoit le reboisement, la lutte contre l'érosion, la gestion de la pêche, la réhabilitation des mangroves, le développement du tourisme et l'appui à la création de petites entreprises locales. Le financement initial de 14 millions de dollars du programme est assuré par le gouvernement de la Norvège et l'ONG Catholic Relief Services.

Le directeur du PNUE, Achim Steiner, affirme que le rétablissement des services environnementaux dans cette région est une étape clé pour le rétablissement de secteur d'activités alliant développement réel, développement durable et transition vers une économie verte.

Présent lors du lancement du programme, le ministre norvégien de l'environnement et du développement international, Erik Solheim, a soutenu que le rôle de la Norvège et des partenaires internationaux est tout simplement de soutenir le gouvernement et le peuple haïtiens qui ont leur destin en main. Le PNUE estime que l'extrême pauvreté, l'insécurité alimentaire et la vulnérabilité aux catastrophes étant étroitement liés aux questions environnementales telles que la déforestation, l'érosion des sols et des terres, ou la dégradation du milieu marin.

Enviado por: ECOticias.com / Red / Agencias, 06/01/2011, 15:21 h | (34) veces leída

El sector minorista abarca todo tipo de comercios y su posición dentro de la cadena de abastecimiento es calificada como "privilegiada". Según la publicación "Tiendas Verdes y Grandes Ahorros" del PNUMA, este sector puede contribuir a facilitar el cambio hacia patrones de producción y consumo sostenibles en la sociedad por tener contacto permanente con el cliente final. Por ello resulta muy positivo que el pequeño comercio apueste cada vez más fuerte por la implementación de estrategias sostenibles.

La guía se centra en el concepto de sostenibilidad y lo desarrolla en base a cuatro pilares: el contexto socio-económico actual, punto en el que se analiza la huella ecológica provocada a nivel global por el consumo; las operaciones minoristas, en las cuales se evalúa el impacto ambiental; los proveedores, para los que se establece un programa que pueda transformar la cadena de abastecimiento minorista para que sea ambientalmente respetuosa; y, por último, los consumidores, a quienes el manual relaciona con las campañas de comunicación y publicidad efectiva sobre sostenibilidad.

En este documento se exponen además casos prácticos de éxito en todo el mundo, documentos técnicos y lecturas complementarias de apoyo para su puesta en práctica.


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Other Environment News
AP: GOP bills would curb EPA on global warming battle
6^th January 2011
House Republicans wasted no time Thursday in trying to block the Obama administration from acting to stem global warming. On their second day in power, GOP lawmakers introduced several bills that would hamstring the Environmental Protection Agency from moving forward with regulations to reduce heat-trapping pollution from factories and other sources that they say contributes to global warming.

The bills are part of an effort by House Republicans to reverse what they consider job-killing policies of the administration. The bills introduced by Rep. Ted Poe of Texas, Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia would stymie the EPA in different ways.

Poe's measure would prohibit the EPA from using any money to implement or enforce regulations to impose a limit on global warming gases. Blackburn's bill would change the Clean Air Act so the EPA could no longer use the law to control greenhouse gases.

A 2007 Supreme Court decision said the EPA had the authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other global warming gases under the statute.

Capito's measure would delay for two years any effort by the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act.

In a statement, Capito called the EPA's actions a power grab that would have devastating effects on the economy.

"Without congressional action to say otherwise, the EPA will continue to dismantle energy and manufacturing industries through regulation," she said.

Meanwhile, a top Democrat in the Senate on environmental issues, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, said Thursday she would use every tool to block the Republicans efforts and ensure that the EPA was allowed to follow the law.

A bill that would have placed a limit on heat-trapping gases died in the Senate last year, after it passed the then Democratic-led House. Boxer said there are no plans to pursue another one because there are not enough votes.
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AFP: La Nina blamed for weather upset, but climate link unclear
6^th January 2011
Experts pin the floods that have ravaged northeastern Australia on a weather phenomenon known as La Nina but are cautious whether the peril could be amplified by climate change.

La Nina, or "girl child," is the counterpart of El Nino, or "boy child," together comprising a pendular swing of extreme weather that affects the Pacific Rim but can be disruptive as far as the coast of southern Africa.

El Nino occurs when the trade winds that circulate surface water in the tropical Pacific start to weaken.

A mass of warm water builds in the western Pacific and eventually rides over to the eastern side of the ocean.

The outcome is a major shift in rainfall, bringing floods and mudslides to usually arid countries in western South America and drought in the western Pacific, as well as a change in nutrient-rich ocean currents that lure fish.

Eventually, El Nino peters out, sometimes when a cold phase -- La Nina -- starts to dominate.

At that point, the reverse happens: countries in the eastern Pacific face drier weather and those on the west, such as Australia's Queensland, get drenched.

"2010 began with El Nino conditions in the Pacific followed by a rapid transition into La Nina during (the southern hemisphere's) autumn," Australia's Bureau of Meteorology says on its website.

"(...) By July, La Nina conditions were well established and most areas of Australia experienced very much above average rainfall. The second half of the year (July to December) was the wettest on record for Australia."

In the 20th century, scientists identified 25 moderate or strong El Ninos and 17 episodes of La Nina. The toll to human life and property, in droughts and floods, has sometimes been huge.

The back-and-forth cycle -- formally known as the El Nino/La Nina-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO -- occurs every two to seven years.

Because sea temperature plays such an important role, some climate experts are keen to determine whether man-made global warming might make it more frequent or vicious.

Prudence, though, is the watchword. ENSO is a complex mechanism and reliable oceanographic data reaches back only a century or so, which is minute given that climate history spans billions of years.

"There is no consistent indication at this time of discernible changes in projected ENSO amplitude or frequency in the 21st century," the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) crisply announced in its Fourth Assessment Report in 2007.

In an interview with AFP, Baylor Fox-Kemper, an oceanographer at the University of Colorado, explained: "Many models indicate that there is a link between El Nino and climate change, but they don't agree as to what that change should be.

"Furthermore, El Nino is so noisy [a term meaning complex] that it takes many centuries of data to be sure that a change has occurred.

"Since we have only a limited amount of trusted real-world data, we are unable to validate which of these models is closest to the truth."

Others say that despite the unknowns, logic dictates that global warming is bound to have an impact on ENSO.

"With a warmer world, one would expect the atmosphere to hold more moisture, so that when it does rain, it is heavier," said New Zealand specialist Jim Salinger.

"So La Nina rainfall events are expected to be more intense... (although) at this stage, it is not known whether La Nina events will become more frequent."