February 2006 News Archive
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Earth's cloud forests threatened
By Alex Kirby BBC News Online environment correspondent
Pressures are mounting on one of the Earth's rarest and most distinctive types of forest, scientists have found.
The alert comes from the UK-based World Conservation Monitoring Centre, now a part of the UN Environment Programme.
It says the threats to the world's cloud forests, which shelter thousands of rare species and provide water for millions of people, are increasing.
The centre says the extent of the cloud forests is about one-fifth smaller than scientists had previously believed.
Near the summits
The forests are found in tropical mountains, and at some point virtually every day they are enveloped in cloud.
They sometimes grow as low as 500m (1,650 feet) in coastal regions, but are typically found at 2-3,000m (6,550-9,850 feet).
Unep-WCMC has produced its report, Cloud Forest Agenda, with IUCN-The World Conservation Union and Unesco. It is being launched at a meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which runs from 9 to 20 February.
The authors relied on satellite data to establish that cloud forests cover just under 400,000 sq km (98,840,000 acres) worldwide, less than 2.5% of the Earth's tropical rain forests.
Mark Collins of Unep-WCMC said of the report: "A key finding is that cloud forests are rarer than thought, with the true area 20% less than the previous estimate of half a million square kilometres."
The researchers found about 60% of cloud forests are in Asia, not in Latin America as had been thought. About 25% of the share is there, with the remaining 15% in Africa.
The report says: "The ability of cloud forests to strip and retain moisture from cloud and fogs is key to abundant, clean and predictable water supplies in many areas, especially during dry seasons.
"The cloud forests of La Tigra National Park in Honduras provide over 40% of the water for the 850,000 people living in the capital, Tegucigalpa.
Genetic treasury
Apart from their utility, cloud forests are home to many species found nowehere else on Earth, including the mountain gorilla of Africa, the spectacled bear, and the resplendent quetzal, Guatemala's national symbol.
The report says wild relatives of key food crops often grow in the forests, making them important gene pools.
Threats include farming, poaching, fires, logging, road-building and the introduction of alien species. But the authors think climate change could be the biggest danger.
Philip Bubb of Unep-WCMC, one of the authors, said: "A unique feature of these forests is that they can capture moisture through condensation from the clouds.
"If temperatures rise one degree in the lowland this equates to two degrees in the mountains and can result in the clouds lifting and the cloud forest drying out."
Antediluvian memories
Mr Bubb told BBC News Online: "Often the forests are growing at the top of the mountains, and have nowhere to retreat to from the rising temperature. And the increasing heat make the clouds rise anyway.
"My chief memory of the forests is of their stunning beauty. They're like something out of The Lord of the Rings, great tall trees covered in ferns and orchids. The birdsong echoes through the cool moist air, and they feel very ancient places."
Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/3465695.stm
Published: 2004/02/09 10:12:43 GMT
Toxins Banned from CA Trash
The state of California has banned household batteries, radios, cell phones, microwaves and several other toxic items from the trash effective Feb. 9.
Computers, printers, telephones, VCRs, and answering machines have also been added to the list of items found to contain unacceptable levels of heavy metals like lead, cadmium, chromium and mercury, according to Mike Sweeney, manager of Mendocino Solid Waste Authority.
Television sets and monitors were banned in 2003.
"By keeping them out of the trash, release of these toxins into the environment will be reduced," he said.
Free recycling for all these items will be available at Mendocino County disposal sites.
Fluorescent lights, including high-intensity discharge lamps are accepted by the HazMobile, as are thermostats and thermometers with mercury. The hazardous waste program has always recycled household batteries and fluorescent lights, Sweeney said. The difference is, people weren't required to recycle those things before, and now they will be, he said.
Asked if he thought people would obey the new law or simply go on tossing things like household batteries in the trash, Sweeney said: "I think people in Mendocino County are very conscientious. We get very good public participation."
Besides, he said, if a trash collector finds forbidden hazardous materials in someone's garbage, he or she will give it back to the person who generated it. If hazardous materials are taken to the transfer station, the attendant won't allow people to throw them in the trash, he said.
What goes where?
Free drop off at transfer stations
Up to five gallons of motor oil, per person, per day (not mixed with any other fluids), car batteries and household batteries, televisions, monitors and other electronic items can be dropped off free of charge at transfer stations.
Accepted at HazMobile
HazMobile will also accept household batteries, as well as the following items: Mercury, fluorescent and high-intensity lights, antifreeze, paint, gasoline and diesel, solvents, pesticides, herbicides, poisons, pool chemicals, drugs, acids, bases, aerosol cans with toxic contents, and compressed gas cylinders. (HazMobile will accept up to 15 gallons free, per day, to households. Businesses will be charged a fee.)
Prohibited items
Some items are prohibited at both the recycling center and the HazMobile.
For information regarding disposal of medical waste call Medical Waste Disposal at 263-7524; for information regarding syringes and needles call the Public Health Department at 472-2600; for radioactive waste and/or explosives call Environmental Health at 463-4466.
The HazMobile household hazardous waste program is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Tuesday in Ukiah and at different locations throughout the county on a rotating schedule. The HazMobile is located at 298 Plant Road, behind the animal shelter.
The Ukiah Transfer Station is located at 3151 Taylor Drive. The Willits Transfer Station is located at 350 Franklin Street.
For more information call 468-9704, or visit www.MendoRecycle.org
~ Kirsten
Kirsten Tortuga Michel www.kirstenmichel.com
U.S. Execs to Discuss Cuban Oil Reserves
By JULIE WATSON, Associated Press Writer
U.S. corporations have watched the activity less than 60 miles south of Florida's coastline with their hands tied. U.S. oil exploration in Cuban waters â along with most U.S. trade â is prohibited under a 45-year-old U.S. embargo designed to undermine Fidel Castro's communist government.
"Right on our own border, there is going to be substantial activity in what is probably the last unexplored deposits in the world," said Kirby Jones, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade Association.
This week, American energy executives meet their Cuban counterparts in the first private-sector oil summit between the two countries. Cubans hope to inform the businessmen of their country's oil potential while undermining the embargo, which has often frustrated American corporations.
The three-day meeting, which starts Thursday, is sponsored by the U.S.-Cuba Trade Association, along with Valero Energy Corp., the United States' biggest oil refiner, as well as the Louisiana Department of Economic Development and the Texas Port of Corpus Christi, among others.
Representatives from major U.S. oil companies are also expected to attend, Jones said.
Cuba's delegation is to be led by Fidel Rivero Prieto, president of the state oil company, CubaPetroleo. Officials from the Cuban Ministry of Basic Industries and Cuba's ministries of foreign trade, foreign investment and foreign relations will also be present, Jones said.
Aided by Canada's Sherritt International Corp., Cuba has steadily increased output of low-quality heavy crude and now produces 75,000 barrels daily, about half of what it needs. It imports the rest, much of it on favorable terms from political ally Venezuela.
It also has turned to other foreign companies to explore further. In 2004, the Spanish petrochemicals company Repsol-YPF SA announced it had found petroleum reservoirs off Cuba's coast. The first well was not considered commercially viable, but the company recently announced it will conduct a second exploration.
This time, however, Repsol will join up with China's largest offshore oil producer, CNOOC Ltd.; Norway's industrial company Norsk Hydro ASA, and India's state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp., ONGC.
The group will explore seven deep-water blocks estimated to contain more than 4 billion barrels in oil and gas reserves. Earlier explorations, however, turned up only modest discoveries.
The petroleum reservoirs have fueled the Cuban government's hopes of increased self-sufficiency amid tightened U.S. sanctions.
Since 2004, Cuba has pumped $1.7 billion into its energy sector with help from Canada, Europe and Latin America, Rivero Prieto said in a letter to the summit's organizers.
He said Cuba would welcome U.S. companies, adding, "Unfortunately that is not possible now."
"But we can begin the process to get to know each other, exchange contact information. ... In this way, both of us will be prepared to discuss real business opportunities as soon as that becomes possible," he said.
Mike Olivier, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Economic Development, agreed.
"Nobody wants to be left out, and the potential business in this new market for Louisiana companies is significant," Olivier said. "This meeting will allow companies from our state to meet Cuban counterparts and get in on the ground floor."
Jones said he would like to see the U.S. government relax its sanctions for the energy sector as it did for food and agricultural products under a 2000 law allowing sales to Cuba on a cash basis.
Cuban officials say they have contracted to buy $1.5 billion in American food since Castro's government began taking advantage of the change in 2001.
Cuba was almost wholly dependent on oil imports and imported most of its supply on extremely favorable terms from the former Soviet Union. It stepped up its own exploration after the collapse of the Soviet bloc.
New Bolivian Leader Cuts Salary in Half
Fri Jan 27, 12:12 PM ET
LA PAZ, Bolivia - New President Evo Morales cut his salary by more than half and ordered that no Cabinet minister collect a higher wage than his own, with the savings earmarked for hiring more public school teachers. ADVERTISEMENT
In one of the first decrees of his five-day-old administration, the leftist former street activist said his monthly salary would be 15,000 bolivianos, or the equivalent of about $1,700.
"I ask for (the ministers') understanding and efforts to try meet this demand, not for Evo but for the people," Morales said after a Thursday meeting with his Cabinet.
"We need 6,000 new teachers and there is only money for 2,200."
Morales had promised to cut the salary of the president and members of his party in half during the election campaign. His predecessor earned 34,900 bolivianos, or $3,900, a month.
Morales was inaugurated as Bolivia's first Indian president on Sunday following his landslide election win in December.
Amazon Pipeline Plan Stirs Debate
By MICHAEL ASTOR, Associated Press Writer
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Environmentalists were caught off guard when South American leaders announced plans to build a massive natural gas pipeline through the Amazon rain forest. ADVERTISEMENT
Proponents say the $20 billion project, still in early planning stages, will help satisfy the growing regional demand for gas and help make South America less dependent on outside sources.
But environmentalists say it could damage part of the Amazon â the world's largest wilderness â by polluting waterways, destroying trees and creating roads that could draw ranchers and loggers.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says the pipeline is a central part of his efforts to reduce dependence on the United States and its pressure for free market policies known as the Washington Consensus.
It's "the beginning of the South American consensus," Chavez has said. "This pipeline is vital for us."
At a meeting in Brazil's capital earlier this month, the presidents of Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil promised to come up with the first set of preliminary studies for the 5,000-mile pipeline, stretching from Venezuela to Argentina.
Preliminary plans were promised for a March 10 meeting of the three leaders in Argentina.
Roberto Smeraldi of the Friends of the Earth-Brazil said the short timetable seemed unworkable.
"A government like Brazil's can't do similar studies for projects covering (310 miles) after 10 years of discussion, and now they are going to manage in-depth studies for a (5,000-mile) project in six months?" he said.
Smeraldi said he believed the pipeline theoretically could be built with minimal impact to the environment, but the cost would be prohibitive.
Chavez has said he wants the continent's state-owned oil companies to build and oversee the pipeline.
He said Venezuela and Bolivia "have gas for 200 years" and can supply fuel to Brazil and Argentina, where there is increasing demand for power generation, cooking gas and cars.
The Venezuelan leader estimated the pipeline would cost $20 billion to $25 billion, but Smeraldi said strict adherence to Brazil's tough environmental laws would double the cost.
Brazil's Environment Ministry referred Associated Press calls for comment to the country's environmental protection agency, which would oversee licensing of the project. However, press officer Sandra Sato declined to comment, saying "We can't take a position until there is a request for licensing."
Glenn Switkes of the International Rivers Network said if the pipeline were ever built, it would inevitably foul the environment.
"There are a lot of issues involved: direct construction, the question of drainage, all the roads that need to be built," Switkes said.
Roads are particularly devastating to the Amazon rain forest. They allow ranchers, loggers and miners to flood into areas that previously were inaccessible.
Environmentalists estimate that each road cut into the rain forest causes destruction of the forest for 30 miles on each side of the road within a few years.
"They always say they're going to fly in the pipes and not build roads, but they never do that," Switkes said. "Then they say that the pipeline will go around important ecological areas, but they never do that either because it gets too expensive."
Brazil's rain forest is as big as Western Europe and is thought to contain at least 30 percent of all plant and animal species on the planet. Experts say as much as 20 percent of its 1.6 million square miles has already been destroyed by development, logging and farming.
Analysts also questioned the economic wisdom of the plan, especially after Brazil's government-run oil company announced it would invest $18 billion to develop the country's natural gas fields.
"Both Brazil and Argentina have gas fields large enough to cover their own domestic demands. I don't see why they would like to undertake this hugely costly project, with money they don't have, not to mention environment costs," said Norman Gall, executive director of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economy.
The plan also seems to conflict with other projects proposed for the region.
"If the government goes ahead with this pipeline, it will have no money for any other type of investment," Smeraldi said.
