Category: Archive

Drought linked to military and civil conflict

admin /6 July, 2007

Marc Levy at Columbia University in New York said that databases on civil wars and water availability show that when rainfall was significantly below normal, the risk of a low-level conflict escalating to a full-scale civil war approximately doubles in the following year, reported New Scientist (2/6/2007, p.12).

Nepal example: Parts of Nepal that witnessed fighting during the 2002 Maoist insurgency, for example, had suffered worse droughts in preceding years than regions that were conflict-free. Although Levy is not sure why the link should exist in this case, studies of other conflicts suggest explanations.

Drought causes conflict: Drought can cause food shortages, generating anger against governments, for example. "Semi-retired" armed groups may return to conflict in these situations. Levy wanted to see if a model based on the link between rainfall and climate can help aid agencies. For each of the 70 or so locations on the ICG’s (International Crisis Group’s) watch list, he will use rainfall measurements and forecasts to calculate the impact the weather is having on conflict risk. That analysis is likely to flag up the Ivory Coast among others, he said. A 2003 peace accord ended years of violence in the country, but many armed groups have not surrendered their weapons. Ongoing drought in the north might soon destabilise the country and trigger a return to violence.

New focus: Including rainfall would be a fairly basic addition to the analyses that the group performs, but it could be the start of a major change in thinking. If the rainfall data helps, information on floods and severe storms could be added, for example. "We’re starting to see a real focus on this," said Dan Esty of Yale University. "Suddenly people are making the link."

New Scientist, 2/6/2007, p.12

Source: Erisk Net  

The perils of palm oil

admin /6 July, 2007

Once, our margarine was made from whale oil. That was always controversial. In the 1930s, Norway blockaded British "blubber-boiling" ships owned by the giant food company Unilever. It demanded that they cut the cull, to save the whale.

In the 1950s, the Greek shipping mogul Aristotle Onassis was employing Hitler’s old whaling captains to run the world’s largest whaling fleet. And, far from being bashful about the business, he boasted to guests on his yacht that the bar stools were covered in white skin from whale scrotums. All this so the blubber could be spread on our sandwiches.

Thank heaven that is over. Most whaling is now banned, and our taste in margarine has moved on. We prefer vegetable oils like palm oil.

But now some of those vegetable oils are in trouble, blamed for rainforest destruction.

I eat palm oil several times every day without knowing it. So do you. Palm oil is in an estimated one third of all the products we pick up off the supermarket shelves. Margarine or biscuits, chocolate or crisps, ice cream or pastry, instant soup or noodles or coffee whitener… Usually, they contain palm oil.

And we don‘t just eat it. Palm oil is in our soap, detergents, toothpaste and shampoo. Britain alone consumes over a million tonnes of palm oil a year. That works out at about 20 kilograms – or 40 tubs – for each of us.

Most of the world’s palm oil comes from two countries: Malaysia and Indonesia. Mostly it grows on old rainforest land. Remember when the forests of Borneo burned back in 1998? Three-quarters of the fires had been lit by people clearing land for palm oil.

Now, not content with filling our kitchens and bathrooms, the purveyors of palm oil want to top up our fuel tanks. Palm oil makes good biodiesel. To meet soaring demand, Indonesia intends to extend its plantations from 6 to 9 million hectares. Most of the increase will be from converting a chunk of rainforest in central Borneo the size of Wales into the world’s largest palm oil plantation.

Green fuel? You have got to be kidding.

WSPA campaigns for Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare

admin /5 July, 2007

WSPA’s history-making Animals Matter campaign for a Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare by the United Nations is progressing faster than organisers anticipated. In the 4/7/07 newsletter to WSPA subscribers: `In a major milestone for the Declaration, the WSPA last month secured the support of Chief Veterinary Officers from 169 countries. Showing amazing unity and commitment, Continue Reading →

Longline fishing reintroduced in California

admin /5 July, 2007

The US federal government is proposing to allow longline fishing for swordfish in the waters off California and Oregon.

Longline fishing, in which a single vessel can lay out more than 60 miles of line and 1,000 hooks at a time, is one of the most destructive fishing practices ever invented. In addition to depleting the oceans of the targeted swordfish and tuna, longlines hook, entangle, and kill tens of thousands of seabirds, sea turtles, marine mammals and sharks. The critically endangered Pacific leatherback sea turtle has been reduced from more than 100,000 nesting females to fewer than 3,000 over the past 25 years, mostly because of longlining.

In 2004, following a successful lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity , swordfish longlining was banned in the waters off the West Coast. Now, under pressure from the fishing industry, the National Marine Fisheries Service is proposing to allow an experimental longline fishery in these waters.

Scotish housing company goes off grid

admin /5 July, 2007

Largest housing company in Scotland goes off grid: offers zero-emissions homes: prefabricated with insulation, need no heating, even during UK winter

Companies from the UK and abroad were already building homes compliant with the 2016 code, some with cost increases of only 2 per cent more than similar traditionally built homes, according to Beyond Zero Emissions (17/5/2007).

                                                                                                                New ‘Energain’ tech: Stuart Milne ran the largest housing company in Scotland, and was offering for sale a zero-emissions home available off-plan. He released a house autonomously warmed and cooled with the assistance of a substance called Energain. Installed on the interior walls and ceilings of the home, coated panels absorb and release heat depending on the temperature, reducing any need for energy-intensive air-conditioning or heating. “These are homes that need no heating whatsoever, even through extreme UK winters," Matthew Wright, of beyond Zero Emissions, said.

Constant, comfortable temps: "Using intelligent and natural design, homes are prefabricated with insulation, economically creating a more comfortable and livable environment. The increase in cost is marginal, which is comprehensively offset through massive savings in energy bills." A home constructed by the company Osborne had virtually no energy consumption requirements. The house contained a mechanical heat-recovery system which removed moist, stale air from rooms and passed it over cool, fresh air from outside to regulate constant comfortable air temperatures.

Pressure on Aus Govt: "With the addition of solar panels and wind turbines, homes in the near future will be entirely self-sufficient, generating electricity on-site," said Wright. "Australians now need to put pressure on our Federal Government to adopt these simple conservative measures in line with what one of the leading economies in the world is doing. As a country, and as a planet, we need to become zero emissions across all sectors as soon as possible."

CSIRO warns of blackouts: The latest report (commissioned by the Victorian Government) from the CSIRO warned of blackouts by 2030 caused by increased use of air-conditioning and climate-related infrastructure failure. If all houses by 2016 were built to zero-emission standards, not requiring air-conditioning, then this will lessen the effects of more severe weather that was forecast from human-forced global warming.

Shell shirks contamination responsibility

admin /5 July, 2007

Shell must take responsibility, Sylvia Hale, Member of the NSW Legislative Council, NSW said, for hydrocarbon contamination at Coramba, a small village about 25 kilometres west of Coffs Harbour, which had ruined the water supply for the whole town. Hale said "The New South Wales Government should take immediate steps to call Shell to account. The clean-up program should include a fair acquisition program for residents wishing to sell their properties and leave the area".

Former Shell service station: Due to the spillage of 3,000 litres of petrol in 2002 from an underground tank at the former Shell service station in Coramba, the groundwater and river were contaminated, so much so that the water intake from the Orara River, which supplied the town’s water, was closed off after Coramba resident Peter Attwill reported a strong odour of petrol in 2002.

Whistleblower cops the lot: Hale said "For a start, when a citizen reports pollution, as Peter Attwill did, you would expect the government agency, in this case the Environment Protection Authority, to investigate and remediate, or ensure that the polluter who caused the pollution is liable to pay for the investigation and remediation. Not so.

Victim burdened with proof: In this case, instead of the Government seeking money from the polluter—Shell and the operator of the service station on Gale Street—the Environmental Protection Authority, utilising an innocent victim scheme, asked Mr Attwill to virtually take over the investigation and remediation process. Just why the Government placed this burden on his shoulders is still unclear to me and to residents of Coramba.

Why does the victim pay? Hale said "Mr Attwill has done his best, but the Environmental Trust simply did not give him enough money for the various consultants he hired to do a thorough job of investigating the extent of the hydrocarbon plume. To date, the western side of the hill behind the service station has not been tested. It is inexplicable to me why a series of test bores in a radial pattern around the service station were not sunk to determine the exact extent of the plume. The residents of Coramba are involved in a committee with the Department of Environment and Climate Change [DECC] and the Coffs Harbour City Council, but they have shouldered so much of the burden already".

What of the polluter? "The situation in Coramba is unacceptable. Shell must take responsibility. The partial clean-up that has taken place so far is completely inadequate, but local families are stuck in Coramba because it is extremely difficult to sell a house in a town so severely affected by hydrocarbon contamination.

Shell faces loss of reputation: Hale said "Shell’s response has been completely inadequate. Residents should not bear the costs of cleaning up a major leak from a Shell petrol station. Shell makes billions of dollars a year from distributing petrol. It has a responsibility to make good any damage it causes to communities arising from the distribution of its petrol products. Shell’s record of corporate responsibility is not good".

Shell is not new to spillages: This is the company that poisoned the land of the Ogoni people in Nigeria. Members will recall that the Nigerian Government hanged nine environmental activists in 1995 for speaking out against exploitation by Royal Dutch/Shell. Members will also recall that Shell was intending to dump the Brent Spar oil rig platform in the North Sea until Greenpeace activists intervened and occupied it. Shell was forced to break up the rig and take it back to land by ferry. Shell is not new to spillages. Some 150 tons of thick Venezuelan crude leaked from a Shell pipeline into the River Mersey in the United Kingdom. The incident was made worse because Shell, against the warnings of local police and councillors, flushed the pipeline with lighter crude and water to stop oil from solidifying and blocking the pipe.