Environment News 8 May 2007

Plight of households exposed to noise will be raised as urgent
Source : Bangkok Post
The plight of 382 households exposed to harmful levels of aircraft noise from Suvarnabhumi airport will be raised as an urgent issue at the Airports of Thailand (AoT) board meeting tomorrow. Suvarnabhumi airport director Serirat Prasutanond said a new survey found that a total of 382 households living in communities near the western runway were exposed to excessive noise levels of more than 70 decibels. He said that airport environmental staff would determine whether the people in those households had moved into the communities before or after the areas were declared part of an airport zone back in 2001.On assistance measures for those suffering from excessive noise pollution, AoT is required to buy their properties so they can move elsewhere, Mr Serirat said.
But the compensation will be based on negotiations and the amount set aside by the state. Deputy Transport Minister Sansern Wongcha-um said Aot must quickly hold talks with affected households so assistance measures could be provided. Acting AoT managing director Kalaya Pakakong held an urgent meeting to discuss the matter. The deputy minister admitted that the process to help the residents was slow. He added that AoT must work quickly as the residents were reportedly planning to stage a mass rally on May 12

08/05/2007 : Floods and drought: Lloyd's assesses climate change
Source : Reuters
Lloyd's of London, the world's oldest insurer, offered a gloomy forecast of floods, droughts and disastrous storms over the next 50 years in a recently published report on impending climate changes.
"These things are fact, not hypothesis," said Wendy Baker, the president of Lloyd's America in an interview on Monday. "You don't have to be a believer in global warming to recognize the climate is changing. The industry has to get ready for the changes that are coming." In a report on catastrophe trends Lloyd's is disseminating to the insurance industry, a bevy of British climate experts, including Sir David King, chief scientist to the British government, warn of increased flooding in coastal areas and a rapid rise in sea level as ice caps melt in Greenland and Antarctica.
Northern European coastal levels could rise more than a meter (3 feet) in a few decades, particularly if the Gulf Stream currents change, the report says. Floods, which now account for about half of all deaths from natural disasters, could multiply and become more destructive, with annual flood damages in England and Wales reaching 10 times today's level, according to some studies. At the same time, drought patterns that are already forming in some parts of the world are going to get worse, particularly in southern Africa.
Even the lush Amazon may dry up, and with less vegetation, more carbon dioxide will leak into the atmosphere, making the global warming problem even worse, the Lloyd's study says. Baker said Lloyd's has formed a partnership with American International Group, the world's biggest insurer, Harvard University's Center for Health and the Global Environment and the Insurance Information Institute, a research group. The four will hold a forum in the fall of 2007 to look at the severity and consequences of future natural catastrophes.
"The property casualty industry had an easy year in 2006, when there were no U.S. hurricanes," Baker said. "But the next one may make Katrina look inexpensive." In August, 2005 Hurricane Katrina slammed into the U.S. Gulf Coast, costing the industry more than $38 billion and making it the most destructive storm in terms of property losses ever. But hurricane modelers say a storm like Katrina hitting the Miami area of Florida or New York could cost as much as $100 billion. Lloyd's was founded in 1688 and its 66 syndicates trade in London. But the United States is its biggest market with nearly 40 percent of its business.

08/05/2007 : Tags follow 'Nemo' fish to home
Source : www.bbcnews.com
The remarkable homing instincts of some coral reef fish have been revealed. A team tagged two species of reef fish larvae to see where the juveniles were going after spending weeks and even months maturing in open sea. It found most of the orange clownfish - made famous by the Finding Nemo movie - and vagabond butterflyfish returned to the reef where they had first hatched.
Writing in the journal Science, the team said the discovery could have implications for marine protection. "Marine fish lay very small eggs, and when they do, they are released into the water column," explained co-author Professor Geoff Jones from James Cook University in Queensland, Australia. "They develop into a really tiny little larvae that we think drift around in the water currents, sometimes for months. "The missing link in our understanding of coral reef fish has always been: where do the larvae go?"
Help from Mum
But until now, finding this out has been extremely tricky - attaching tags to miniscule larvae is not an easy task. So the international team of researchers tackled the problem by getting the mother to help. They did this by collecting female coral reef fish from a small 0.3 sq km reef in Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea, and injecting them with a rare, stable barium isotope. The females pass this isotope to their developing offspring where it accumulates in their bones, giving the baby fish unique chemical signatures.
A few weeks later, the team returned to the reef and collected young fish to test them to see if they carried the "tag". "We found that 60% - well over half - were coming back to the small island reserve, which was an unexpected result," Professor Jones told the BBC.


Navigational feat
The scientists are uncertain how the vividly coloured orange clownfish and vagabond butterflyfish perform this feat but hope to find out with further research. "Perhaps they are somehow remaining in sensory contact with their home island and are able to maintain their position and not end up drifting too far away," said Professor Jones. "Or maybe they are getting carried away, but they have a homing mechanism to swim back to their home reef."
Although the study was carried out on two species, Professor Jones believes the finding may apply to other coral reef fish too, and if this is the case, it could have consequences for marine conservation. It shows that small no-take marine reserves are a good way to protect over-fished species, he said, because there should be enough juveniles returning to the area to sustain numbers over time.

08/05/2007 : Law Experts Say Courts Can Stop Japan Whale Cull
Source : www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/
Law experts on Monday urged anti-whaling nations to end years of fruitless diplomatic pressure on Japan to stop scientific culling and use international courts to halt Tokyo. As the International Whaling Commission annual conference got underway in Alaska, a group of law experts commissioned by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) urged Australia and other like-minded countries to get tougher with Japan.
"Japan's whaling programme is illegal and will remain so until a government takes steps to challenge this unlawful activity," law professor and group chairman Don Rothwell said. The IWC's 72 members are bitterly divided over a 25-year-old global moratorium on whaling which Japan and other nations such as Norway oppose. Japan has long resisted pressure to stop scientific whaling and this year plans to hunt 935 minke and for the first time 50 humpbacks. Humpbacks were hunted nearly to extinction until protected by the IWC in 1966.
Tokyo has been accused of doling out US$750 million in aid to small Caribbean and Pacific countries to gather support in the IWC for overturning the 1986 ban on all whaling. Japan last year succeeded in gaining a majority of IWC votes, but not the 75 percent needed to resume commercial whaling. Michael McIntyre, IFAW's Asia Pacific Director, said conservationists wanted an anti-whaling nation such as Australia or New Zealand to take legal action against Japan. Belgium was also sympathetic, he told Reuters.
Rothwell, an international law specialist at the Australian National University, said he was confident Japan's fast-expanding whaling programme could be stopped through the International Tribunal for the Law or even the International Court of Justice. "There are a range of legal options that would be available," he told Australian radio, citing a report prepared by law experts from the United States, France, Australia and Mexico.
Japan this year invited IWC members to Tokyo to talk about an end to the moratorium. Around 26 anti-whaling countries, including New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Argentina boycotted the meeting. Japan says whaling is a cherished cultural tradition and began scientific research whaling in 1987. The meat, which under commission rules must be sold for consumption, ends up in supermarkets and restaurants, but the appetite for what is now a delicacy is fading.

08/05/2007 : Italy Must Stop Coal Power Conversions - Green Group
Source : www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/
Italian utilities should stop converting oil-fired power stations to coal and opt for gas and renewable energy sources instead, the head of Italian green group Legambiente said. According to industry data, Italy gets about 12 percent of its energy by burning coal and the country's biggest utility Enel has long been aiming to have half of its power produced at coal-fired plants by 2010. "We are against coal conversion for one reason -- out of all fossil fuels, coal contributes most to climate change, emits the most carbon dioxide," Legambiente President Roberto Della Seta told Reuters.
Italy's emissions of the greenhouse gases that are widely blamed for global warming have risen 12 percent since 1990, rather than heading towards the 6.5 percent reduction that it has pledged to reach by 2012 under the Kyoto Protocol. Della Seta said conversion of power stations to coal would move Italy farther away from the Kyoto Protocol targets. Enel says the so-called "clean coal" technology it uses in conversion allows it to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other gases and particles to well below required levels.
CHEAP COAL
Coal is also cheap and helps to diversify Italy's energy supplies, which are some 90 percent reliant on oil and gas imports. Della Seta said the new technology may help reduce emissions of other gases, but not CO2. "Enel cannot change a law of physics which says that CO2 emissions per every kilo of burned coal are greater than per kilo of oil and much greater than per kilo of gas."
Della Seta said Legambiente, which is one of Italy's main green groups, supported activists who went on a hunger strike in March protesting against Enel's plan to convert to coal a 2,600 megawatt oil-fired power station at Civitavecchia near Rome. Italy's Environment Ministry last month called for a revision of a permit given to Enel's Civitavecchia project, after the hunger strike raised concerns about the health situation in the nearby district. Enel has said the Civitavecchia station respects environmental and health standards.
Della Seta said in the interview last week that Legambiente opposed another Enel plan, to convert a similar power station, Porto Tolle in northern Italy. "We think Italy should not increase the percentage of coal in its fuel mix, but instead, it should move in other directions: gas, renewable source, energy efficiency," he said. Renewables account for about 17 percent of Italy's energy mix, and most of that is hydroelectric power. Wind and solar power make up a small fraction of the total, way behind such countries as Germany and Spain.




08/05/2007 : Sarkozy's climate promise a tough challenge
Source : http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
In his first foreign-policy declaration, president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy has named climate change France's "first battle," but analysts warn that the combat is long-term and complex. Sarkozy nailed his green colours to the mast on Sunday in a victory speech after emphatically winning France's top job against Socialist rival Segolene Royal.
In a bold move for a newcomer to the world's top political table, Sarkozy notably accused the United States of hampering efforts to tackle climate change. While telling "our American friends" that France would stand by its side whenever it was needed, Sarkozy also said: "Friendship is accepting that one's friends can think differently. "A great nation like the United States has the duty to not create obstacles in the struggle against global warming. Quite the contrary, it should take the lead in this battle. "What is at stake is the fate of all humanity," warned Sarkozy. "France will make this battle its first battle."
Sarkozy's strident appeal came exactly a month before the Group of Eight summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, where the United States -- the world's big greenhouse-gas polluter -- will find itself uncomfortably in the spotlight. It will come under intensifying pressure to return to a global deal on cutting greenhouse-gas emissions. At present, the only treaty for reducing this pollution is the UN's Kyoto Protocol. The treaty runs out at the end of 2012, and talks are underway on how its successor should deliver deeper cuts.
But the process is almost crippled by the absence of the United States, which by itself accounts for a quarter of global emissions. President George W. Bush abandoned Kyoto in 2001, saying the treaty was too costly for the US economy and unfair, as big developing countries such as China and India are not legally obliged to cut pollution. Even though Bush has lately acknowledged climate change to be a serious problem, he still bitterly opposes Kyoto's binding cap on emissions, pushing instead a mix of voluntary restraints, energy efficiency and alternative energy sources.
"It's important that Nicolas Sarkozy has joined (British Prime Minister) Tony Blair and (German Chancellor) Angela Merkel in calling on the Americans to step up efforts in the climate negotiations," said Yannick Jadot, a climate specialist with Greenpeace. "But is even more important from our viewpoint is to spell out that the United States should rejoin the post-2012 negotiation process and see how it will catch up on emissions cuts that should have been made for the period leading up to 2012."
Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, a lawmaker with Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Majority (UMP) party and specialist on environmental questions, said the United States bore a heavy share of responsibility for global warming. "They are very sensitive about anything that touches, even remotely, on loss of sovereignty and they consider the emergence of environmental governance as a sovereignty issue," she said. "When it comes to the federal government, there is a gulf between the proposals that are being made (by Washington) and what should be expected of a country like the United States."
Serge Orru of the green group WWF said coaxing the United States back into the game was only one part of a wider challenge. China, India, Brazil and other fast-developing, large-population nations also have to be encouraged into reining in their pollution, he said. China, the most populous nation, is the second biggest polluter and is set to take the top spot in the next couple of years.
The most effective way is for France, and Europe, to meet its promises under the present Kyoto round, press ahead with its pledge to deepen emissions cuts by 2020, boost renewables' share in the energy mix and encourage the transfer of clean technology, said Orru. "It's fine to tick off our American friends, but France and Europe have to be exemplary," said Orru. "We have to show the emerging countries that it is possible to develop their economies differently."

08/05/2007 : Strong undersea quake shakes Greek island of Zakynthos
Source : http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
A strong undersea quake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale shook the Greek Ionian Sea island of Zakynthos on Monday but there were no reports of casualties or major damage.
The quake hit at 4:34 am (0134 GMT) with the epicentre south of the island, some 240 kilometres (150 miles) west of Athens, the Athens Observatory's Geodynamic Institute said. "It was an isolated tremor, there was no particular seismic activity either before or after," institute seismologist Maria Ziazia told AFP. The Ionian Sea is one of the most seismically-active areas in Greece, which is itself the European country most at risk from earthquakes, suffering about half of all the quakes registered on the continent.
The island of Zakynthos was at the centre of significant quake activity this time last year, with 10 tremors between 5.0 and 5.8 Richter recorded between March and May, the semi-state Athens News Agency (ANA) said.

08/05/2007 : Outbreak kills 250,000 fish at hatchery
Source : http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap
About 250,000 rainbow trout died in a sudden disease outbreak at a southwestern Idaho fish hatchery, a loss of about 8 percent of Idaho's annual output of catchable-sized trout.
It was the second such outbreak of ichthyophthirius multifilis in as many years at the state Department of Fish and Game hatchery in Nampa. Officials say it likely resulted when stress from overcrowding weakened the fish, making them more susceptible to the parasite. The outbreak happened in January, but became public this week because the state agency is trying to manage remaining stocks of 6- to 8-inch fish at its five other hatcheries to make certain lakes and streams still get enough fish to satisfy anglers.
Tom Frew, who manages the Nampa site, said careful manipulation of stocks at other facilities should make up for the losses. He said scientists are assessing just what went wrong. One possible change to avoid future outbreaks, he said, might be to reduce the number of fish raised at the Nampa hatchery and increase it elsewhere. "The parasite multiplies very rapidly," said Frew, who estimated the cost of the die-off at $40,000, including fish food and labor. "By the time we see symptoms, the disease has a pretty strong hold on the animal."
In all, the state produces about 3 million catchable-sized trout every year, among some 26 million total fish produced. The parasites, commonly referred to as "ich," are visible as white spots on a fish's gills and skin. As their attack intensifies, fish "flash," or turn on their sides as they try to scrape off the bugs. The fish become lethargic and eventually die. In the end, the parasites become so numerous on an infected fish's gills that it simply smothers.
In addition to the outbreaks in Nampa, a sudden thunderstorm last year washed debris-laden runoff into Idaho's Sawtooth hatchery near Stanley, weakening chinook salmon and making them more susceptible to the parasite, Frew said. "Normally, they're capable of sloughing off the parasite," Frew said. "Anytime fish are in captivity, in the aquarium industry, or where the fish are in a closed system" there's a danger of an outbreak. Nampa's hatchery has 10 raceways, all fed by artesian wells. The disease was found in all the raceways.
Due to the hatchery's design, it's not possible to empty the raceways of water to sterilize them, leaving the parasite present year after year. Though hatchery officials haven't changed their fish-raising regimen in a dozen years, Frew said, the disease appears to have gained a more lethal toehold in 2006 and 2007. "For some reason, the last couple of years, we've had some problems with ich at the Nampa hatchery," Frew said. "There's not really a lot we could do, without a complete rebuild of the Nampa hatchery."