Mexico: Three Oil Workers Killed by Gas Leak
On 9th October 2007, Petoleos Mexicanos (Pemex) announced that three of its workers had died in an accident whilst cleaning the Potrero del Llano-Naranjos oil and gas pipeline in Veracruz. The pipeline was out of commission because of a leak, and it had been undergoing physical inspection. The men were suffocated when a pocket of gas escaped from the pipe.
The accident was reported to the Public Ministry agency, which will investigate the cause.
France: Rivers Polluted by Banned Chemical
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were once in wide use for cooling and insulating electrical transformers and capacitors, but by the 1970s it had become generally realised that this class of organic compound is highly toxic, giving rise to growth, fertility and cancer problems in humans, wild mammals and birds. They are also very persistent in the environment and give rise to long-term pollution.
The use of PCBs in France was banned in 1987, but it has been found that rivers in eastern and northern France are still contaminated with these toxic agents. In 2007 the Government had to ban fishing from much of the River Rhône, which runs through the south-eastern corner of the country, because it had been found to be contaminated with dangerous levels of PCBs.
A more recent government report said that other rivers, including the Seine, were in an even worse condition because of industrial dumping in the past. At present it is not economically or technically feasible to decontaminate major waterways, because river bed dredging simply releases the PCBs trapped in the silt. Other solutions, including bacterial digestion, are being studied, although partial oxidation of PCBs gives rise to even more toxic substances, such as dibenzodioxins and dibenzofurans.
International: World Bank Carbon Fund to Protect Forests
The World Bank in Washington announced on 11th October 2007 the setting up of a new US $300 million fund that would pay developing countries to protect and replant tropical forests, which store huge amounts of carbon. The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) would be part of the UN climate change negotiations in Bali in December 2007 to shape a global agreement for when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. The new facility would provide financial incentives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation.
Deforestation has been calculated to contribute 20% of total greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, more than all the land vehicles and aircraft in the world combined. It has been argued that protecting tropical forests from cutting and burning would be the quickest and most direct way to mitigate some of the impact of global climate change.
The facility has already attracted interest from more than a dozen developing countries, including Indonesia, Brazil and several in the Congo River basin. The World Bank expects to pilot the scheme in three to five countries. By creating economic value for tropical forests, the FCPF proposes to help developing countries such as Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guyana, Surinam and others to generate new revenue for poverty alleviation whilst maintaining natural benefits in the form of fresh water, food and medicines that the forests provide to local populations.
The scheme is regarded as a test bed to identify practical responses and mechanisms for encouraging governments to reduce deforestation. Participating countries will have to demonstrate physically that they have reduced the rate of deforestation.
Carbon funds were created under the Kyoto Protocol as a way to reduce carbon emissions by encouraging governments and the private sector to offset their climate footprint by purchasing carbon credits. The World Bank has also created a Carbon Partnership Facility that will purchase carbon credits from a pool of emission reduction programmes instead of the current system of one project at a time. The facility is expected to be used in power sector development, energy efficiency, gas flaring, transport, and urban development.
Europe: EU Continues with Disputed China Light Bulb Duties
Energy-saving (or low energy) light bulbs use around 20% of the electricity of conventional incandescent bulbs to generate the same amount of light, and last up to 15 times longer. The major manufacturer of such low energy bulbs is China, with smaller exports from Pakistan, Vietnam and the Philippines. Some years ago the European Union imposed a duty of 66.1% on producers in China in order to protect its home market lighting manufacturers. The duty has now become very controversial, as it contradicts declared policy on combating global climate change by controlling carbon emissions.
On 15th October 2007, it was announced that the EU in Luxembourg had approved a one-year extension of its anti-dumping duties on imports of Chinese energy-saving light bulbs, despite protests from environmentalists, leading companies and several EU governments.
Both the Dutch electronics group Philips, which imports large quantities of the bulbs, and the Swedish retailer Ikea, which supplies around a fifth of EU demand, opposed the duty extension. However, the German company Osram, which is part of the Siemens group and imports less from China than Philips, sought to have the duties extended for a further five years.
The European Commission compromise of a one-year extension faces a court challenge from the Italian lighting company Targetti, which is also seeking reimbursement for duties paid since 2001. It was suggested that Osram might still attempt to keep the duties in place for longer than one year by asking for an official review during 2008. A review, if granted, is likely to take more than a year to carry out.
Europe: Pollution Reduces Average Lifespan
In early October 2007, the European Environment Agency (EEA) presented a 400-page report on greenhouse gas emissions at a ministerial conference held in Belgrade, Serbia. The report states that poor air and water quality, and environmental changes attributed to global warming, have cut the average European life expectancy by nearly a year. The number of premature deaths caused by air pollution runs into the hundreds of thousands. The estimated annual loss of life is significantly greater than that due to car accidents. The current average life expectancy in western and central Europe is 70 for men and 74 for women, but pollution has reduced those numbers by a year, and also presents risks to the development of children.
The pollution situation is similarly bleak across eastern Europe, with contaminants arising mostly from vehicle gas emissions and the expansion of industry in the ex-Soviet nations. The report also notes that more than 100 million people in the region still do not have access to safe drinking water.
The emission of greenhouse gases is increasing in Europe, with additional global- scale damage from overfishing and the loss of crops due to climate change factors.
The EEA states that emissions must be reduced by up to 50% by 2050 to limit rises in the Earth's ocean/atmosphere temperature; this is the target proposed by the EU as necessary to avert future major climate changes.
The relevant EEA documents can be accessed at:
http://www.eea.europa.eu/pan-european/fourth-assessment.
USA: Chemical Spill at Plant with Low Standards
A rooftop tank of hydrochloric acid at the Reilly Plating Co. plant in Melvindale, Detroit, began to leak on 16th October 2007, releasing 500 gallons of acid. The authorities evacuated around 3,000 residents from the area, including three schools. No injuries were reported, but state and federal regulators told the press that the company has a history of environmental violations.
The plant, which provides metal finishing services to the automotive and other industries, was operating without a legally required air quality permit and was known to have allowed more than the permitted amounts of some chemicals to escape into the air. The company also has a history of water quality violations dating to at least 2004 that continued into this year, according to the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. The US Environmental Protection Agency fined the company $9,415 in May 2001 for a record-keeping violation.
Uganda: Government Abandons Plan to Destroy Rainforest
In the RRC International Newsletter Summer edition 2007 (item headed: Uganda: Short-Term Economic Gain Rated Higher than Conservation of Vital Resources) we reported on a controversial government plan to allow the destruction of part of the protected Mabira Forest in order to convert the land to sugar cane production for the European biofuels market. On 17th October 2007, the government environment minister in Kampala announced that the proposal had been scrapped following a public outcry. As it stands, the forest acts as a sink for millions of tonnes of carbon.
Earlier in 2007, the government withdrew a licence to Kenyan palm oil company Bidco, which was bulldozing a protected rainforest on an island in Lake Victoria.
Europe: EU Action on Chemical Plant Safety
On 17th October 2007, the European Commission Executive in Brussels said it had stepped up legal action against 12 nations for breaching EU law on hazardous chemical plant safety and the preparation of emergency plans to deal with major accidents, as laid down in what has become known as the Seveso II Directive.
The offending countries are Austria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. The statement said the Commission was sending the countries named final written warnings, the last step before court prosecution and the possible imposition of heavy fines.
The EU position is that although the risk of industrial accidents in modern societies cannot be eliminated, we can strive to minimise the risks of such accidents happening and to mitigate their consequences. Thus it is vital that legislation designed to deal with such eventualities is properly implemented.
Europe: EU Action on Air Pollution
On 17th October 2007, the European Commission Executive initiated legal action against five member states for allowing air pollution levels to exceed EU limits, which are designed to protect the health of citizens. The Commission said that it had started legal procedures against the UK, France, Italy, Spain and Slovenia for permitting excess levels of atmospheric sulphur dioxide (SO,2), a pollutant that can cause respiratory difficulties and affect cardiovascular health.
In addition, the Commission has requested 23 national governments to submit information on how they will reduce excess levels of the dangerous polluting air particles known as PM10s to EU-approved standards. The Commission statement said that 70% of towns and cities with a population of 250,000 or more in the EU had reported exceeding limits on PM10 particles, which are blamed for causing asthma, heart problems and lung cancer.
The EU Environment Commission said that member states must align themselves with EU standards so that citizens are properly protected.
Europe: EU Action on Electronic Waste
On 17th October 2007, the European Commission Executive initiated legal action against Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for not properly implementing the EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, which deals with the recycling and disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment. It covers equipment on sale from July 2006.
The Commission also noted that Belgium, Denmark, Lithuania, Malta, Finland and Sweden had all failed to transpose into their national legislation the EU law banning the use of some heavy metals and other hazardous materials in electronic equipment. They have been sent warning letters and may later face legal action from Brussels.
WEEE rules require manufacturers to accept used refrigerators, computers, mobile phones and other appliances from consumers and to recycle them. The aim is to reduce the amount of such waste that ends up in landfill, where it can release hazardous substances into the environment.
In other environmental areas, the Commission started legal action against Bulgaria for inadequate waste management infrastructure in Sofia; Malta is alleged to unlawfully permit the hunting of certain species of birds during the crucial spring migration and breeding period; and the UK is charged with not complying with an EU court decision concerning waste water treatment in seven towns and might face fines if it does not bring its waste water treatment up to EU standards. The Commission started legal action against a handful of countries, including Belgium and Portugal, for not submitting plans which outline energy efficiency measures.
International: No Solution for Cement Manufacture Emissions
Cement is a basic constructional material with no obvious substitutes. Present global production of cement amounts to over two billion tonnes per annum. The manufacture of one tonne of cement releases 900 kg of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. In fact, cement production releases twice as much carbon dioxide as the sum total of the world's airline industry, and accounts for 5% of total artificial emissions. In consequence, cement manufacturers have attempted to maintain a low profile in order to avoid restrictive legislation.
A recent cement producers’ conference was organised in Brussels by the Cement Sustainability Initiative to discuss how they plan to cope with expected rapid future growth and pollution caps under emissions trading schemes. Options for reducing the environmental impact of their activities are in fact very limited. Steps can be taken to clean up manufacturing processes by changing cement oven minerals and recycling some emissions through waste treatment, but significant CO2 reductions seem unlikely.
International: Unexpected Growth in Atmospheric CO2
The results of a research study carried out by the Global Carbon Project, the University of East Anglia (UK) and the British Antarctic Survey were published on 22nd October 2007 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and describe an unexpected rise in the rate at which carbon dioxide is being added to the atmosphere. The reference is J. G. Canadell, et al, “Contributions to accelerating atmospheric CO2 growth from economic activity, carbon intensity, and efficiency of natural sinks”, PNAS, October 2007.
The joint study found that CO2 levels in the atmosphere have risen 35% faster than expected since 2000 (at 1.93 parts per million per year, compared to 1.58 ppm in the 1980s and 1.49 ppm for the 1990s). The cause is attributed to the inefficient use of fossil fuels, which contributed to an increase of 17%, whilst the other 18% came from a decline in the efficiency of natural land and ocean sinks to soak up CO2 from the atmosphere.
Natural sinks absorb about half of all CO2 emissions from human activity, but the study suggests that the efficiency of the sinks has fallen as a result of the intensification of wind patterns over the oceans and droughts or degradation on land. The efficiency of natural sinks has been declining for 50 years, but the rate seems to be accelerating.
The Southern Ocean winds have increased in response to greenhouse gases and ozone depletion. The increase in winds has led to the release of natural CO2 stored in the deep ocean, which is preventing further absorption of the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere. A similar effect has been reported in the North Atlantic.
The study states that global CO2 emissions were up to 9.9 billion tonnes of carbon in 2006, which is 35% above emissions in 1990 (the reference base rate year used in the Kyoto Protocol).
The report concludes that the decline in global sink efficiency suggests that stabilisation of atmospheric CO2 is even more difficult to achieve than previously thought.
Europe: EU Pesticides Control Legislation Under Way
On 23rd October 2007, the European Parliament began its voting process on a new package of measures to control the use of pesticides. The aim of the measures proposed by the European Commission (EC) is to safeguard health and food quality by reducing the quantity of pesticides used by farmers, gardeners, park-keepers and foresters. The proposals were opposed by the agricultural and chemical industry lobbies.
There will be heavy restrictions on using pesticides near schools, playgrounds, parks, recreation grounds and hospitals, and there will be a general ban on aerial crop spraying. Buffer zones will be set up to separate the usage or storage of pesticides from rivers, lakes and waterways. Conditions of use will involve an obligation to warn any neighbours who could be exposed to spray drift before a product is used and who have asked to be informed.
The use of "active substances of very high concern" will have to be cut by at least half by 2013. The use of less harmful alternatives would be encouraged, and some products in use today would eventually be banned. A list of active substances or key ingredients of pesticides will be drawn up at EU level and new pesticides would then be authorised at national level based upon it.
The EC expects the proposals will result in the banning of 5% to 6% of pesticides currently in use in the EU, where 230,000 tonnes are used every year, equal to a quarter of the world total, even though the EU has only 4% of all arable land.
International: Global Oil Output in Decline
The Peak Oil Theory of M. Hubbert King has been around since 1956 and has been continually confounded by developing events. Whilst it is true that oil production per capita peaked in 1979, there has always been a problem with the opacity of the figures used to quantify proven oil reserves.
However, the German organisation Energy Watch Group has claimed in a recent report on global oil supply, presented at the Foreign Press Association in London, that global oil output peaked in 2006 and forecasts a future decline of 7% per year. Energy Watch said that oil production will decline by around 50% by as early as 2030, leading to economic and social upheaval as the energy supply gap cannot be adequately closed by growing contributions from other fossil, nuclear or alternative energy sources within the timeframe.
The International Energy Agency, which advises 26 industrialised countries, said in a July report that world demand would rise faster than expected to 2012, while supply lagged, leading to a supply crunch.
USA: Conoco Found Guilty of Concealing Oil Spill in Alaska
Polar Tankers Inc., a shipping company owned by ConocoPhillips, pleaded guilty in the US District Court in Anchorage to concealing an ocean oil spill in January 2004 off the Alaskan coast. On 24th October 2007, Conoco was ordered to pay US $2.5 million in penalties, consisting of a fine of US $500,000 and a US $2 million community-service payment to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
The company was charged with spilling oil sludge from the 895-foot tanker “Polar Discovery” and attempting to conceal the incident by failing to make a log entry and turning into the wind to remove sludge marks from the vessel’s side. The company was also placed on three years’ probation and ordered to comply with an environmental-compliance programme.
Mexico: Workers Killed in Offshore Collision
During a heavy storm in the Gulf of Mexico on the night of 23rd October 2007, the Pemex 200-foot MC jackup drilling platform Usumacinta collided with the adjacent Kab 101 platform, setting off crude oil and gas leaks. The 81 workers onboard were forced to abandon the rigs 32 kilometres offshore after their emergency breathing apparatus air supplies became exhausted. Pemex reported that 58 people were rescued from life rafts by navy helicopters and boats, but others were still missing at sea. Two workers were recovered alive at sea three days later, but at least 18 are known to have died during the incident. The company said it would take several days to bring the leaks under control. This accident brought fatalities among Pemex workers to around 25 in October alone.
The bad weather forced the Mexican authorities to close the main oil exporting ports in the Gulf of Mexico, including Dos Bocas and Cayo Arcas, which supply much of the crude oil exported to the USA.
International: Bleak Warning on Global Development
The United Nations Environment Programme fourth report, GEO-4, Global Environment Outlook: environment for development, was published on 25th October 2007. GEO-4 is the most comprehensive UN report on the environment, prepared by nearly 400 experts and reviewed by more than 1,000 others across the world. It is the latest in a series of UNEP reports and provides an overview assessment of the current state of the global atmosphere, land, water and biodiversity. It describes changes that have taken place since 1987 and identifies unresolved priorities for action, including climate change, the rate of extinction of species, and the challenge of feeding a growing population. GEO-4 states that the world’s finite resources are being depleted at a wholly unsustainable rate, despite urgent warnings sounded by UNEP two decades ago.
The report applauds the international community for reducing by 95% the production of ozone-layer-damaging chemicals over the past 20 years; for creating a greenhouse gas emission reduction treaty, along with innovative carbon trading and carbon offset markets; increasing protected land areas to cover roughly 12% of the Earth; and devising numerous instruments covering issues from biodiversity and desertification to the trade in hazardous wastes and living modified organisms.
There remain persistent and intractable problems, such as the rapid rise of oxygen 'dead zones' in the oceans, and the resurgence of new and old diseases linked in part with environmental degradation. The threats from global climate change are now so urgent that large cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 are essential to human survival.
GEO-4 warns that we are living far beyond our means, as the human population is now so large that the amount of resources needed to sustain it exceeds what is available. The human environmental demand is 21.9 hectares per person, while the average biological capacity of the Earth is only 15.7 ha/person. The report maintains that there are no separate crises, since environment, development and energy are all one, driven by growing human numbers, the rising consumption of the rich and the desperation of the poor.
GEO-4 criticises the lack of urgency and inadequate response to the issue of climate change, a global priority demanding political will and leadership. While several major polluting countries refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, among those that did industrial lobbying successfully undermined political will such that nothing was achieved.
Among the critical resources assessed are the following:
- Escalating demand for freshwater which cannot be met, because 70% of the available supply is already used for irrigation.
- Consumption of fish more than tripled from 1961 to 2001, whilst catches have stagnated or declined since the 1980s. Fishing capacity is around 250% more than is necessary to catch the oceans’ sustainable production.
- Biodiversity is declining faster than at any time in human history. Human activity is creating a mass extinction event.
The report discusses the potential impacts of climate change on all seven of the world’s regions: degradation and desertification in Africa; degradation, water quality and pollution in Asia and the Pacific; unsustainable production and consumption, high energy use and poor urban air quality in Europe; biodiversity loss and coastal damage in Latin America and the Caribbean, and deforestation in the Amazon; overconsumption of all resources in North America; degradation and water resources in West Asia; pollution and environmental change in the polar regions.
GEO-4 explores how current trends may unfold by 2050 in four scenarios, pointing out that for some of the persistent problems the damage may already be irreversible.
The report also warns that tackling the underlying causes of environmental pressures often affects the vested interests of powerful groups able to influence policy decisions. The only way to address these harder problems requires moving the environment from the periphery to the core of decision-making: environment for development, not development to the detriment of environment. The systematic destruction of the Earth's natural and nature-based resources has reached a point where the economic viability of economies is being challenged.
China: More than 50 Factory Workers Killed in One Day
On 21st October 2007, a fire broke out in an unlicensed shoe factory near the city of Putian in Fujian province, in which 37 workers died. The fire was quickly extinguished and 58 survivors escaped with injuries. State safety compliance officials launched an investigation into the cause of the fire, and the police detained the factory owner and its manager.
Fujian has one of the greatest densities of clothing and garment factories in China, and the workers are often countryside migrants producing cheap goods under poorly regulated conditions.
On the same day some 16 workers died in an explosion at a fireworks factory, which demolished several adjacent houses in Chongqing municipality. Fifteen survivors were injured and one person was reported missing.
USA: National Surveillance of Workplace Injuries Questioned
In October 2007, the US Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) published a report which purported to demonstrate a decline in the incidence rate of workplace illness and injuries for the fourth consecutive year in the USA. It states that around 4.1 million injuries and illnesses occurred in 2006, which translates to a rate of 4.4 cases per 100 full-time employees, slightly less than the 4.6 rate reported last year.
However, it has been claimed that the figures are misleading because they are based on data recorded in the Log of Injuries and Illnesses required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Those figures are supplied only by employers, a procedure which, according to a study by L. S. Friedman of the University of Chicago, has created an artifact arising from changes to the record-keeping rules and regulations, rather than an improvement in workplace safety. The research was published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, concluding that 83% of the decline in the injury and illness rates can be attributed to the change in the OSHA record-keeping rules.
Other academic observers, e.g. K. D. Rosenman, et al, 2006, J Occup Environ Med , Ap; 48(4):357-65, have also identified problems with the US system of tracking and assessing work-related injury and illness trends, noting that large discrepancies are found with data from other sources, such as worker compensation records that do not tally with BLS data.
Spain: Government Gives Higher Priority to Health and Safety
In October 2007, the Spanish authorities announced proposals to reduce workplace accidents in the country, which at present are 25% above the EU average. Figures for 2006 reveal around one million reported accidents with 1,000 fatalities. The worst performing sector was construction, with an accident rate twice the EU average. Construction represents a large segment of the economy, employing 2.6 million workers, mostly on a contract basis. The Government has introduced changes to contract law under which 30% of the employees of subcontractors must be on permanent contracts by 2010; only one level of subcontracting will be allowed for labour-intensive work; and a register must be kept at all building sites, listing the companies operating there.
The Government also plans to focus on health and safety issues in small enterprises, which have a high statistical accident rate. Technical support will be provided to businesses with less than ten workers, and companies with good safety records will have their social security contribution payments to the State reduced. Those with poor safety records would be monitored, and the investigation of and prosecution for safety compliance breaches would be pursued more aggressively.
A programme has been created to increase safety awareness in all sectors of the economy, amounting to more than 100 measures designed to develop a culture of risk prevention in Spanish society.
Russia: Radiation Leak at Urals Mayak Plant
On 29th October 2007, the Russian authorities announced that safety breaches had caused a radiation leak at the notorious Mayak nuclear reprocessing plant in the Ural mountains. Local Emergencies Ministry officials said a faulty tap allowed radiation to leak from a tank holding liquid radioactive waste onto 1.5 km of a road at the plant. No-one was injured and radioactivity levels in the plant and outside were described as normal and no danger to humans. The contamination had since been cleared. The local prosecutor stated that following an investigation it was found that a serious violation of safety rules at the plant had allowed the leak to take place.
The Mayak plant was first constructed under Joseph Stalin in a race to develop a Russian atomic bomb. It is on record as the scene of a series of serious accidents in 1949, 1957 and 1967, news of which the Soviet Government attempted to suppress. Today the top secret plant makes tritium and radioisotopes but no plutonium, although nuclear weapons and nuclear waste are reprocessed there. It lies between the towns of Kasli and Kyshtym, around 2,000 km east of Moscow. The area is barred to foreigners because of its sensitive work with nuclear weapons.
The plant is known to be contaminated with high levels of radioactivity from past accidents, and local residents are still suffering from an incident on 29th September 1957, when the failure of the cooling system for a tank storing tens of thousands of tonnes of dissolved nuclear waste resulted in a non-nuclear explosion having a force estimated at about 75 tonnes of TNT (310 gigajoules), which released some 20 MCi (740 petabecquerels) of radioactivity. Hundreds of people were exposed to radiation. It was considered to be the worst nuclear disaster in the former Soviet Union until the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, which exposed the failings of Soviet nuclear management on a global scale.
Nigeria: Government Pressure to End Gas Flaring
On 29th October 2007, the head of the Department of Petroleum Resources, the body which regulates Nigerian oil, announced that gas flaring in the country would be penalised after 2008, but any penalties imposed on oil producers would target only the operators and not their partners. The statement means that Western multinationals could face fines or other penalties for flaring, while the Nigerian state oil company, which owns majority stakes in the joint ventures operated by the foreign firms and receives more of the profits, would be exempt.
The justification for gas flaring, a major source of atmospheric carbon dioxide pollution, has been that there is insufficient infrastructure in place to make commercial use of it.
At present an estimated annual volume of 23 billion cubic metres of gas, around a third of Nigerian gas production, is flared. Nigeria is second only to Russia in terms of wastefulness. The Western multinationals do not expect to meet Nigerian demands to end flaring for a variety of reasons, but the prospect of financial penalties or other restrictions may stimulate them to action.
Nigeria can only start taking part in carbon emissions trading once it has eliminated flaring.
Europe: Carbon Trading Scheme Developments
On 30th October 2007, the European Union announced that the third phase of its first European carbon emissions trading scheme will run from 2013 to 2020. The European Commission is revising the system to include gases and sectors not currently included. The goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20% by 2020 compared to 1990 levels.
The EU admitted that it had issued too many emissions permits in the first stage of the trading scheme between 2005 and 2007, causing considerable damage to its credibility as a vehicle against climate change. Even so, most EU member states failed to meet their binding greenhouse gas emissions targets under the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. The worst offenders were Spain, Portugal and Italy.
The major power-generating companies within the EU passed on to electricity consumers the cost of emissions permits, which they received free, earning themselves €20 billion (US $28.74 billion) in windfall profits annually. This practice has attracted mounting criticism.
The second phase of the scheme runs from 2008 to 2012, with revised emissions quotas for member states equivalent to a 10% reduction. National governments had tabled requests for 2.3 billion tonnes, 12% more than the final quota set at 2.1 billion. The EU scheme is meant to create a shortage of permits for industry equivalent to about 250 million tonnes of CO2 emissions during the five-year period. Thus the price of power will continue to increase for all consumers. Seven member states around the Baltic and in central Europe announced they would appeal against the Commission.
The EU has already decided to add airlines and shipping to the trading system. The Commission was also considering adding methane emissions from coal mines.
International: Middle East Nuclear Power Race
The year 2007 saw the Shiite Iranian nuclear agenda spur the Governments of 13 majority Sunni Muslim states in the Middle East to declare their desire to acquire nuclear energy technology. The Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), a group consisting of Saudi Arabia and the five Arab states that border the Persian Gulf, reversed its longstanding opposition to nuclear power in 2006.
In October 2007, Egypt changed its former policy and joined such countries as Libya, Jordan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia in announcing nuclear ambitions. Egypt does have a 22-megawatt research reactor north of Cairo, built by an Argentine company and completed in 1997. A plan to develop a nuclear power plant in the 1980s was abandoned after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. In essence, economic factors lie at the root for many aspirants. Egyptian oil reserves are depleted and electricity demand is increasing at 7% per year; and Jordan has no natural energy resources. In other cases, the interest is to contain increasing Iranian influence.
Although nuclear power has some arguments in its favour, it must also be pointed out that when State subsidies are removed, nuclear plants are not economically viable, which is why private banks do not finance nuclear plants without loan guarantees.
The USA is tolerant of the nuclear ambitions of its friends in the region that wish to pursue peaceful nuclear energy, although the Nonproliferation Policy Education Centre in Washington has expressed dismay at the approach of the Bush administration. The crux of the matter is whether these countries propose to pursue their own nuclear fuel cycle, which makes no economic sense and would indicate an intention to develop weapons; or decide to buy nuclear fuel from abroad, thus proving peaceful intent and saving a great deal of money on infrastructure.
The GCC countries have already submitted draft proposals to the International Atomic Energy Agency on nuclear power generation in the region and the first atomic power station may be ready by 2025. The first stage of the GCC electricity grid is due for completion by 2010.
International: Boreal Forest Carbon Sinks in Decline
Two research studies published at the end of October 2007, one by T. Gower in the journal Nature and the other by Christine Wiedinmyer in Carbon Balance and Management, find that the great forests of the boreal northern hemisphere, which extend from China and Siberia to Canada and Alaska, are in danger of becoming a gigantic source of carbon dioxide rather than being a major terrestrial sink that helps to offset man-made emissions of the greenhouse gas. The northern forests are seen as a key element in the overall equations to mitigate the effect of man-made CO2 emissions.
An effect of climate change already apparent is the increasing risk of fires (ignited by lightning strike) in the forests of the north; and in the temperate woodland zone the forests are beginning to lose their ability to be an overall absorber of carbon dioxide. The danger is that there may soon come a point where the amount of CO2 released from burning vegetation in the northern forests and the drying out of the soil will exceed the amount absorbed during the annual growth of trees elsewhere. The soil is the major carbon source and plants are the major sink, and the interplay of the two over the life of a stand of trees determines whether the boreal forest is a sink or a source of carbon.
In some years, forest fires in the USA (such as those in California) result in more carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere over the space of a couple of months than the entire annual emissions coming from cars and energy production of a typical US state (estimates based on satellite imaging data).
Over a 60-year period it was found that the intensity and frequency of forest fires in one million square kilometres of Canadian wilderness had increased significantly, largely as a result of drier conditions caused by global warming and climate change. Fires had a greater impact on overall carbon emissions from boreal forests than other factors such as rainfall, yet climate change is the driver because heatwaves and drier undergrowth trigger the fires.
USA: BP to Pay Record Criminal Fines
The US Environmental Protection Agency announced at the end of October 2007 that BP Products North America Inc. had agreed to pay a total criminal fine of more than US $60 million for violations of federal environmental regulations in Texas and Alaska. In addition to the penalty, the company will spend approximately $400 million on safety upgrades and improvements to prevent future chemical releases and spills. It was the largest criminal fine ever assessed against a corporation for violations of the US Clean Air Act and the first criminal prosecution under an amending requirement to that Act that refineries and chemical plants take steps to prevent accidental releases. The requirement was passed in 1990 following the disastrous explosion at the Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, India.
BP will pay a $50 million penalty for the explosion in 2005 at its Texas City refinery, in which 15 people died and more than 170 others were injured. BP will also pay a $12 million fine for spilling 200,000 gallons of crude oil onto the Alaskan tundra and onto a frozen lake in March 2006, resulting in the largest ever spill on the North Slope.
The company also pleaded guilty to a felony violation of the Clean Air Act and will serve three years of monitored probation for the Texas City incident. BP is required to complete a facility-wide study of its safety valves and renovate its flare system to prevent excess emissions, at an estimated cost of $265 million.
In regard to the Alaska spill, BP pleaded guilty to one misdemeanour of the Clean Water Act and will serve three years’ probation, pay $4 million to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to support research and activities on the North Slope, and pay $4 million in restitution to the State of Alaska. BP is required to replace 16 miles of pipeline at an estimated cost of $150 million.
USA: Nuclear Plant Sabotage Foiled
The Palo Verde nuclear power plant, located about 75 kilometres west of Phoenix, Arizona, is the largest in the United States, with three reactors giving a combined electrical production capacity of about 3,900 megawatts, enough to serve two million homes in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.
On 2nd November 2007, two of the reactors were shut down, one for refuelling and the other being prepared to go on grid. The third reactor was in full operation. The entire plant was locked down and sealed when security guards found a pipe bomb in a worker's pickup truck as he tried to enter the facility. The man was reported to be an engineer with access to sensitive areas of the plant. He was detained by police and questioned by the FBI, but his motivation was unknown.
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission was said to be monitoring the response of the operator but did not see any threat of danger to the public.
Palo Verde has been operating for more than two decades and belongs to a consortium, with a unit of Pinnacle West Capital Corp., Salt River Project, Southern California Edison Co. and El Paso Electric Co. as majority owners. The closest homes are less than a mile from the reactors, and have been built in the past few years.
International: Global CO2 Emissions Increase
Greenhouse gas emissions by the developed nations rose close to an all-time high in 2005, led by the USA and Russia. According to data released in November 2007 by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat in Bonn, total carbon dioxide emissions by 40 leading industrial nations edged up to 18.2 billion tonnes in 2005 from 18.1 billion in 2004, which is just 2.8% below the record of 18.7 billion in 1990. The 2005 rise confirmed an upward trend in recent years despite efforts to reduce emissions by many governments.
Emissions by the United States, the world’s worst polluter, rose to 7.24 billion tonnes in 2005 from 7.19 billion in 2004. Emissions from China are now a close match to those of America. In eight years’ time, India is predicted to become the third largest polluter.
Revived economic growth in the former Eastern bloc nations was a main spur to the overall rise in emissions, with Russian CO2 rising to 2.l3 billion tonnes in 2005 from 2.09 billion in 2004. Russian output was still far below the 3.00 billion tonnes emitted in 1990 before the collapse of the Soviet Union forced the closure of inefficient industries across the former communist bloc.
Among other major emitters, greenhouse gases fell in the European Union and Canada in 2005 from 2004, but were fractionally higher in Japan.
Of the countries covered by the UN data, Latvia had the largest decrease in emissions (59%) from 1990 to 2005, while those of Turkey surged by 74%.
Overall emissions from the energy sector rose by 0.5% from 1990 to 2005, with transport responsible for the largest increment.
At the same time, the International Energy Agency (IEA) published its World Energy Outlook 2007 report, which warns that the global demand for energy is set to grow inexorably through to 2030 if governments do not change their policies, threatening energy security and accelerating climatic deterioration. The IEA predicts that energy needs in 2030 could be more than 50% above current levels, with fossil fuels still dominant.
Rapid economic growth in China and India would be the main drivers behind the increase. Chinese CO2 emissions could rise by 57%, from 27 giga-tonnes in 2005 to 42 giga-tonnes in 2030, by which time China would be importing as much oil as is presently consumed by all 27 European Union member states combined. The IEA point out that the legitimate aspiration for economic development in those countries must be accommodated and supported by the rest of the world, or the redrawn world energy map could create severe strains.
The IEA state that exceptionally quick and vigorous policy action by all countries, and unprecedented technological advances entailing substantial costs, would be required to stabilise CO2 levels in the atmosphere at about 450 parts per million. But they conclude that it is a lack of international political will, not technological innovation, which prevents the reduction of emissions while securing energy supplies to power homes and businesses.
Yemen: 12 Die in Oil Company Clash
On 6th November 2007, at least 12 people were killed in clashes between members of the Al-Harif tribe and a Yemeni army security unit protecting the operations of an unidentified Ukrainian oil company in the Usailan district of Shabwa province, 480 km east of the capital city, San’aa. The deaths included six civilians and six soldiers.
Such fighting is not unusual in outlying areas of Yemen, but this incident seems to have arisen from a violent employment recruitment dispute. The oil company denied jobs to local tribesmen, who responded by preventing further work, setting fire to a military vehicle and holding six soldiers hostage for some hours.
The abduction of foreign workers in Yemen has been widespread for around ten years, the motivation being demands for better State services or the release of prisoners. In September 2007, two foreign oil engineers and their local driver were kidnapped by a Yemeni tribe in the southern province of Abyan in a dispute over a work contract. On 4th November 2007, tribesmen blew up a crude oil export pipeline to back up tribal demands.
Congo: Investigation into Dumping of Radioactive Ore
The Congolese Provincial Mines Ministry in Kinshasha announced on 7th November 2007 that an inquiry had been launched into the suspected dumping of 18 tonnes of highly radioactive mineral ore into a river in south-east Katanga province. The minerals, which included 17 tonnes of copper cobalt ore with a radioactivity level of 50 times the safe limit, were originally seized in the mining town of Likasi en route for export. Congo is barred from exporting uranium ore. The ore is believed to have been extracted from the Kolwezi area, where several foreign mining companies operate, including Katanga Mining, Nikanor, and Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold. The ore was destined for a Chinese company called Magma.
For safety reasons the authorities had ordered the ore to be disposed of in a nearby abandoned uranium mine, but it did not reach the mine. Instead it was dumped around 6 km from Likasi on the bridge and banks of the Mura river, where mineral residue tests revealed levels of radioactivity as high as 10 milliRoentgens per hour, some 33 times the Congolese tolerable limit.
The Democratic Republic of Congo Environment Ministry was forced to take action in regard to a potentially serious risk for the local population. Downstream from the contamination site lies a pumping station, operated by the national copper and cobalt mining company Gecamines, which distributes drinking water to Likasi, with a population of 300,000.
A quarantine zone was set up around the contaminated site, from which 12 tonnes of minerals were removed. Later the restrictions were lifted when tests carried out by the national water company Regideso found that radiation levels were normal.
Seven people were taken into custody over the incident, but some of the missing minerals had disappeared and could not be traced.
USA: A Sleeping Monster Stirs
Beneath the Yellowstone National Park, famous for its geysers and geothermal activity, lies a hot spot in the mantle of the Earth, a deep-seated plume of molten magma 80 kilometres down representing an active caldera or supervolcano.
Activity inside the structure is monitored closely because it is known from geological evidence that 640,000 years ago, when Yellowstone last erupted, it ejected around 250 cubic kilometres of material that blanketed most of the western half of what is now the USA in ash up to 20 metres thick, and left a crater covering 2,400 square kilometres.
A paper published in the 9th November 2007 issue of the journal Science by a team from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, and the US Geological Survey, reports that the Yellowstone Valley is now rising more than three times faster than usual. Using satellite-based interferometric synthetic aperture radar measurements and an array of Global Positioning System stations around the caldera, they have tracked the rate of uplift increasing from around 2 cms per year, the average from 1923 until 2004, to 7 cms per year over the past three years. This is equivalent to a source volume increase of 0.1 cubic kilometres per year. At the same time, earthquake activity in the area has fallen by 50% to fewer than 1,000 tremors a year.
The link between the processes that drive the Yellowstone caldera is not yet understood, but the American seismologists seem to be optimists and do not think an eruption is imminent. They suggest magma recharge as the main mechanism for the accelerated uplift, although they do not rule out pressurisation of magmatic fluids (the precursor to an eruption).
International: Atmospheric Pollution by Shipping
Recent research into the release by shipping of minute airborne particles from the combustion of fuel oil has indicated that this form of pollution is responsible for at least 60,000 deaths per year, and unless action is taken to address the problem by switching to cleaner fuels, the death toll will continue to climb. Every year ships release an estimated 1.2 million to 1.6 million metric tonnes of ultra-fine airborne soot particles less than 10 micrometres in diameter. They include carbon particulates, sulphites, nitrogen oxides and benzene compounds. It has been predicted that premature deaths due to ultra-fine particles emitted by ships will increase by 40% globally by 2012 if no action is taken.
A study by Aaron Cohen, published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A, 2007, Vol. 68, p. 1301, suggested that particles smaller than 2.5 micrometres, the category released by shipping, are responsible for 0.8 million deaths worldwide each year, or 1.2% of all premature deaths.
Another study by James Corbett, et al, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 2007, Vol. 287, p. 1132, also deals with determination of the portion of premature deaths that can be linked to soot emissions from the shipping industry. The researchers fed two independent inventories of emissions produced by the global shipping industry into computerised climate models to predict where the emissions are carried by winds. Using population data from the World Health Organisation, they overlaid the location and concentration of the shipping emissions and population density. By relating concentrations of microparticles to the incidence of premature deaths, they derived an estimate of the total number of deaths that can be attributed to shipping emissions. Their best estimate was 60,000 deaths worldwide each year, concentrated in densely populated regions close to the major shipping lanes, mostly in Europe, Asia and the eastern USA.
The Corbett team ran a simulation to predict what might happen in 2012 based upon current estimates of the growth in trade and found a 40% rise in premature deaths, related to shipping fuel quality. The results were published in Environmental Science & Technology, and suggest that the PM10 particles would be responsible for more than 60% of the total deaths linked to shipping emissions. Emissions of all of these particles could be limited by using more refined fuels than diesel.
Shipping emissions produce other effects as well. Research on ship emission plumes by Mathias Schreier, et al, published in Geophysical Research Letters, found that sulphur particles cause local atmospheric cooling by generating condensation trails in the sky, similar to the condensation trails left by aircraft.
The shipping sector is to be included in the EU carbon emissions trading scheme by 2012, as the European Commission has concluded that efforts to cut emissions globally through the International Maritime Organisation are not bearing fruit quickly enough.
Russia: Black Sea Oil Spill Disaster
On 11th November 2007, the Russian tanker “Volganeft-139” split in two under the impact of eight-metre-high waves during a fierce storm, spilling at least 2,000 tonnes (560,000 gallons, representing half her cargo) of fuel oil into the straits between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. She was travelling from the port of Azov in the Russian region of Rostov to Kerch in Ukraine. Two other Russian freighters nearby in the Strait of Kerch, which lies between Russia and Ukraine, sank in the same storm, losing between them potentially hazardous cargoes amounting to around 7,000 tonnes of sulphur. Another eight ships ran aground. Thirty-five crew members from the stricken vessels were rescued, but another 20 were missing. It was the worst mass shipwreck in modern Russian history.
Russian troops and emergency workers attempted to clean the spill from the shore under harsh weather conditions. Some 30,000 sea birds were killed by the oil in the following few days. The regional authorities described the incident as an ecological catastrophe. The heavy fuel oil was expected to sink to the seafloor and could take years to clean up. The location of the spill in a relatively narrow body of water and close to the shoreline has the potential to be particularly harmful.
Russian prosecutors announced that they were investigating whether the ships' captains ignored warnings of the approaching storm. The “Volganeft-139” was an old vessel designed to transport oil on rivers and was not built to withstand a severe storm. There is no legal requirement in Russia for the double-hulled tankers introduced elsewhere after the “Exxon Valdez”spill in 1989, and tanker traffic laws are less than stringent.
Another Russian freighter carrying metal, the “Vesti 24”, was reported to have sunk near the port of Sevastopol on the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula.
An image of the storm was captured by the NASA Aqua satellite and posted online at:
NASA Newsroom Sea of Azov storm.
Ten days later, sulphur was found to be leaking from the holed hulls of the freighters “Nakhichevan” and “Kovel” into waters already polluted by oil, killing fish and dolphins as well as sea birds. Severe storms continued in the region, where an early estimate of the cost of the damage by the Russian resources ministry stood at US $267 million. It is likely that the Russian authorities will in future limit the shipment of oil products by river, currently five million tonnes per year.
Romania: Gold Mine Project on the Rocks
A conflict between economic development and environmental destruction has been taking place around the town of Rosia Montana in the Apuseni Mountains for some years. Gold has been mined in the Carpathians for 2,000 years, but now the Rosia Montana Gold Corporation is owned by the Canadian company Gabriel Resources, registered in Barbados and listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The area is polluted and despoiled by historic mining activity, its rivers running red with cadmium, zinc and iron flushed out of old tailings. A new project to recover the remaining low grade gold ore will involve the demolition of an entire village to make way for a tailings pond where cyanide-contaminated waste from the mine will be stored. The company insist that the controversial use of cyanide is necessary to extract gold from low-density, widely distributed ore. Because the richest ore has long since been extracted, the company will have to process 13 million tonnes of rock a year to justify its operations, creating considerable changes to the landscape.
The scale of the proposed development, requiring the acquisition of around 1.7 million hectares of land and the physical displacement of nearly 1,000 households, caused the Romanian Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development to block planning permission in 2006 after the submission of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The Canadian owners responded by suing the Romanian state. They claim that a new modern mine designed to EU standards would remediate past damage and provide more than US $2 billion in economic benefits. Gabriel Resources allege that the Ministry is endeavouring to interpret and enforce the provisions of a law which is not applicable to the EIA review process.
In December 2007, a Bill was put before the Romanian Parliament banning the use of cyanide in gold and silver mining, a move that would effectively terminate the Canadian project. The Bill’s supporters argue that the use of cyanide is hazardous and could lead to a repeat of the environmental disaster which took place in 2000 when a Romanian mine polluted cross-border rivers. The Gabriel project would also destroy the archaeological remains of ancient Roman gold mines.
The situation is still unresolved.
Spain: Early Society Committed Ecological Suicide
The Bronze Age Argaric people of south-eastern Iberia are one of the earliest known urban societies in Western Europe. They lived in what is now a notoriously arid area around 4,300 years ago. Recent research findings, based on pollen grains preserved in sediment cores drilled from an ancient peat deposit located in the Sierra de Baza mountains of eastern Andalucia, have suggested that this early civilisation underwent a cultural collapse by exhausting the resources of its water-stressed region. The work was outlined in November 2007 at a conference on Climate and Humans held in Murcia, Spain, prior to appearing in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews.
The compiled pollen sequence shows how vegetation changed over thousands of years and provided evidence of how human settlement and climate affected ecosystems. About 3,600 years ago the Argaric culture vanished suddenly from the archaeological record due to a dramatic change in the ecological structure of the area.
Before the appearance of the Argaric civilisation, the slopes of the Sierra de Baza were covered with a diverse forest dominated by deciduous oaks and other broad-leaved trees. The tree cover was cleared rapidly by setting fires to make way for mining activities and grazing. Presumably the human population increased in numbers, but there came a sharp point after the disappearance of the forest ecosystem when it was replaced by ubiquitous fire-prone Mediterranean scrub, attributed to the degradation of soils and vegetation and the lowering of lake levels.
This would have led to the collapse of the agriculture and pastoralism that formed the foundation of the Argaric economy. The research indicates that the speed of the ecological transformation was very abrupt, taking place in little more than a decade under progressively arid climatic conditions.
UAE: Workers Killed in Dubai Bridge Accident
A ramp bridge under construction on Al Sufouh Road in Dubai Marina was the scene of an accident when a crane load tipped a reinforcement cage over onto workers, killing seven of them and injuring another 24. Other workers on the bridge at the time escaped unscathed. The incident took place on 8th November 2007 as the crane was moving a 12-metre-long steel bar, which fouled the cage and knocked it onto workers in the shaft.
While the crane was being manoeuvred, the safety officer and the foreman should have evacuated the labourers beneath to a safe distance, but apparently that did not happen. Three employees of the Wade Adams Contracting Company, including the crane operator, an engineer and the crane usher, were reported to have been detained by the Dubai Police in connection with the accident, which is being investigated by a committee consisting of the Dubai Police, the Dubai Public Prosecution and the Roads and Transport Authority.
USA: Forensic Investigation into Solvent Vapour Explosion
In mid-November 2007, the US Chemical Safety Board announced the results of its laboratory testing of chemicals involved in a devastating explosion, which took place on 22nd November 2006 at the CAI/Arnel printing ink manufacturing company factory in Danvers, Massachusetts. The explosion occurred at night, when the facility was empty of personnel and there was no road or pedestrian traffic in the neighbourhood.
A mixing tank containing highly flammable heptane and alcohol solvents overheated, releasing vapour that filled the building and then ignited. Investigators found that the building ventilation system was routinely turned off at night to reduce noise in the community, thus allowing flammable vapour to accumulate. The blast destroyed or damaged 100 homes and businesses in the surrounding area, and only the timing of the incident prevented serious loss of life.
The CSB analyses and testing revealed that the exact solvent blend was significantly more volatile than its individual components, due to the formation of an azeotropic mixture (that is, a mixture of liquid compounds whose boiling point does not change as vapour is generated and removed by the boiling; the boiling point of such a mixture may be lower than those of its components). The solvent mixing tank could easily have overheated due to a single steam valve being inadvertently left open or by leaking. Calculations confirmed that overheating the tank in this way would cause the building to fill with a large quantity of explosive solvent vapour.
The investigation found that the CAI/Arnel facility did not follow state and federal fire safety regulations when they turned the ventilation system off. The facility also lacked safety interlocks to prevent accidental overheating of the mixing tank, although national fire codes do not currently require such interlocks. The CAI/Arnel site was originally licensed in 1944 under Massachusetts state law for just 250 gallons of 'lacquer' to a company no longer trading. Over the intervening years the amount of chemicals permitted by the licence was gradually increased to some 11,500 gallons of flammable and combustible substances.
Current state law does not require any safety review or public impact review when a licensee obtains increases in the registered quantity. The CSB is currently reviewing the state licensing and land-use rules and oversight of facilities that handle flammable substances to determine if amending recommendations are appropriate.
International: OPEC on Climate Change
After an OPEC meeting held in Saudi Arabia in mid-November 2007, the organisation issued a communiqué in which it stated that it shares the concerns of the international community that climate change is a long-term challenge and is willing to help develop ways to cut emissions, such as carbon capture and storage. The creation of a special fund to focus on finding technological solutions to climate change was announced by Saudi Arabia, with a pledge to commit US $300 million for research. Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates each pledged US $150 million to the initiative.
International: IPCC Summary Report Highlights
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), meeting in Valencia, Spain, agreed a summary guide for policymakers on the rising risks of climate change and the need for quick action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions:
- The warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level.
- Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is due to the observed increase in greenhouse gas concentrations from human activities.
- Total global annual greenhouse gas emissions from human activities have risen by 70% since 1970, and CO2 concentrations now far exceed the natural range over the last 650,000 years.
- Average global temperatures are likely to rise by between 1.1C and 6.4C (2.0 F and 11.5 F) and sea levels by between 18 cms and 59 cms this century.
- Africa, the Arctic, small islands and the great Asian deltas are likely to be especially affected by climate change. Sea level rise will continue for centuries because of the momentum of thermal expansion, even if greenhouse gas levels are stabilised.
- Warming could lead to impacts that are abrupt or irreversible. About one third of species will be at increasing risk of extinction if future temperature rises exceed 1.5C to 2.5C.
The reasons for concern are listed as:
- Risks to unique and threatened systems, such as polar or high mountain ecosystems, coral reefs and small islands.
- Risks of extreme weather events, such as floods, droughts and heatwaves.
- The impacts will be most severe on the poor and the elderly; and on countries near the equator, mostly in Africa and Asia, where there is a greater risk of desertification or floods.
- Any benefits of warming would be at lower temperatures than previously forecast by the IPCC and damage from larger temperature rises would be greater.
- There are large-scale risks, such as rising sea levels over centuries; the rise in sea levels contributed by melting ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland could be larger than projected by ice sheet models.
Solutions and costs:
- Governments have available a wide range of tools, including higher taxes on emissions, emissions regulations, tradeable permits and research. An effective carbon price could help CO2 reductions.
- Emissions of greenhouse gases would have to peak by 2015 to limit global temperature rises to 2.0C to 2.4C over pre-industrial times, the strictest goal assessed. The costs of fighting warming will range from less than 0.12% of global gross domestic product (GDP) per year for the most stringent scenarios until 2030, to less than 0.06% for a less demanding goal. In the most costly case, it means a loss of GDP by 2030 of less than 3%.
The new synthesis report is written in more urgent and pressing language than earlier documents, referring to dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system and warning of the increased risk of more severe climate change impacts if emission reductions are delayed by political objections.
The IPCC stress that some of the changes they had previously projected to occur around 2020 or 2030 are happening now, such as the Arctic ice melt and changes in the geographical spread of living species, including disease agents. There are indications that projected increases in droughts are also happening earlier than expected.
This summary guide marks the end of a six-year review of the scientific evidence on climate change. The IPCC scientists received the Nobel Peace Prize during the UN Climate Change Conference held in Bali in December 2007, for resisting pressure from governments to weaken the report.
Ukraine: 88 Workers Die in Coal Mine Explosion
On 18th November 2007, the Emergency Situations Ministry announced that an underground methane gas explosion and fire at the Zasyadka coal mine in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine had killed 88 miners and left 12 missing. The explosion took place at a depth of more than 1,000 metres when 457 miners were at work. Some 360 miners were rescued, of whom 28 were hospitalised by methane inhalation. On the previous day a miner was killed by falling rocks in another coal mine in the Donetsk area.
The Zasyadka mine is one of the largest in Ukraine and produces up to 10,000 tonnes of coal per day, but it has a poor safety record. In September 2006, a gas leak killed 13 miners; in 1999 an explosion claimed 50 lives; and 55 miners died in a blast in 2001.
Saudi Arabia: 28 Die in Gas Pipeline Fire
At least 28 people were killed on 17th November 2007 when fire broke out on a section of the Haradh-Uthmania gas pipeline around 30 km from the Hawiya gas plant south of Dhahran. At the time of the incident maintenance work was taking place for new tie-ins, and the cause of the fire was a gas leak. The Oil Ministry announced that 12 people were missing after the blaze. Five employees of Saudi Aramco were among the dead, most of whom were Asian workers.
The Hawiya plant is one of the leading gas processing facilities in Saudi Arabia and produces 1.4 billion cubic feet (39.6 million cubic metres) of gas a day. Aramco is undertaking projects to boost output at a natural gas liquids recovery plant in Hawiya to provide petrochemical feedstock to the cities of Jubail and Yanbu.
Cyprus: Growing Water Crisis
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted that the Northern Mediterranean region would face increasing desertification under the impact of global climate change. Since 1972, rainfall on the island of Cyprus has fallen by 20% but the run-off inflow to reservoirs has declined by 40%, because of rising average temperatures and consequent increase in evaporation.
Cyprus had a predominantly agricultural economy when it became independent in 1960, but the contribution of agriculture has since fallen dramatically to 2.8% of gross domestic product. Over the past 100 years, average temperatures in Cyprus have risen by almost one degree Celsius (1.8F) and annual rainfall has fallen by 80 mm. Apart from a shortage of irrigation water, there is an accompanying decline in soil productivity. Overabstraction of freshwater has also led to seawater incursions into aquifers.
The island water development authorities are attempting to cope with an unprecedented crisis, as the main alternative to the problem is energy-intensive desalination of seawater. The drought has continued into a fourth year, and reservoirs are in total little more than 9% full.
Cyprus has two desalination plants, both running at full capacity but unable to cope with demand. There are proposals to tap deep meteoric reservoirs and introduce further cuts to agricultural production. A new desalination plant will come on stream in July 2008. Current desalination capacity can supply only 45% of demand.
Without radical change to water management and farming practices the situation is unlikely to improve.
International: Historic Links between War and Global Climate Change
A recent paper by Peter Brecke, et al, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reference DOI:10.1073/pnas.0707304104, describes a clear link between war and changing global temperatures as identified in historical data for the past 500 years. The results are significant in view of predictions that current and future climate change may result in widespread global unrest and conflict arising from desertification, ecological degradation and a scarcity of essential resources.
The researchers’ model was based on the hypothesis that deviations in temperature can hamper crop production, leading to increasing food prices, a greater risk of famine and starvation, and increased social tension culminating in violent conflict. They compared global historical records on food prices, population levels and conflicts with data for long-term temperature records as far back as 1400 AD, a period that encompasses the Maunder Minimum or ‘Little Ice Age’.
The study revealed evidence of a broad pattern of climate change leading to conflict, a pattern found in both European and Chinese history. Cooling temperatures were the cause of falling crop yields which exacerbated human conflict. Converse warming periods briefly relieved social tensions, but they resumed when temperatures dropped again.
The researchers conclude that although the world is now warming, the associated environmental stresses will still lead to long-term food shortages by disrupting global water cycles, the hydrological cycle being the most important feedback loop in the Earth's climate system. Technological solutions unavailable in the past will aid in coping with such changes, but if a wide range of environmental impacts occur at the same time, as predicted by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, they may prove inadequate for the task. If the combined effect of climate change is to impede our ability to address food shortages then it may lead to warfare.
Canada: Oil Sands Plant Fire in Alberta
The Royal Dutch Shell Scotford oil sands upgrading plant near Edmonton, Alberta, caught fire on 19th November 2007 and was taken offline after fire crews extinguished the blaze. No injuries were reported and non-essential workers and contractors were evacuated. The fire was ignited after a release of light hydrocarbons and hydrogen sulphide from the residue hydroconversion unit at the plant, which has a capacity of 155,000 barrels per day (bpd). No hydrogen sulphide gas was detected in the air around the plant after the fire.
The plant converts heavy tar-like crude from the Muskeg River oil sands into refinery-ready light oil. It is located adjacent to the 98,000 bpd Scotford refinery. Shell has a 60% interest in the upgrader, the other partners being Chevron Corp. and Marathon Oil Corp. with 20% each.
USA: The Fire-Safe Cigarette
Since October 2007 there has been a legal requirement in the state of Maryland that all cigarettes sold in the city of Baltimore must meet enhanced fire safety standards. Apparently such fire-safe cigarettes self-extinguish when they are not being smoked, brought about by means of rings of less-porous paper inserted around the cigarette every few centimetres. When the smouldering tobacco reaches one of these ‘speed bumps’ it goes out.
More than 20 American states have passed laws requiring fire-safe cigarettes on grounds of public safety, and five states have already enacted them. The cigarette manufacturers are reported to be unhappy because consumers are unaware that such things exist and do not understand why their cigarettes keep going out.
International: Flame-Retardant Chemical Becomes a Global Contaminant
The flame-retardant chlorinated substance Dechlorane Plus (DP) is listed by the US Environmental Protection Agency as a high production volume chemical. It is manufactured by OxyChem and has been in use for more than 40 years in a wide variety of products, including electrical wire coatings and computer connectors. Its structure is similar to that of banned organochlorine pesticides such as heptachlor, chlordane and mirex, but its large molecular size was thought to hinder its availability to participate in biological systems. However, little toxicity data is available for it.
New research suggests that Dechlorane Plus has become ubiquitous in the global environment and may break down into more bioaccumulative compounds. It has been detected in the atmosphere of Europe and Asia, as well as North America, and its degradation products have been found in tree bark in the USA, Korea and China (the latter suggesting that the compound may also be manufactured in Asia). The compound is present at low levels in European trees, but not in northern Canada.
An article by Xinghua Qiu and Ronald A. Hites, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology , reference DOI:10.1021/es072039a, Dechlorane Plus and Other Flame Retardants in Tree Bark from the Northeastern United States, describes research on tree bark in the Great Lakes region. Another article in the same journal, reference DOI: 10.1021/es0710104, reports on the atmospheric spread of DP and on its environmental breakdown.
A second group of Canadian researchers, led by Ed Sverko of the National Laboratory for Environmental Testing at Environment Canada, looked at concentrations of DP in Great Lakes sediments. They documented the concentrations of DP isomers in sediments from Lake Ontario, where waste water is discharged by the OxyChem Niagara Falls plant, the sole manufacturing source, and found that levels were up to 60 times higher than those in nearby Lake Erie sediments. They noted that isomer-specific microbial degradation might be taking place. Previous research Env Sci & Tech, 2007, 41, 2249–2254) had demonstrated bioaccumulation of DP isomers through the food chain in Great Lakes fish, especially in those at the top of the food web.
Occidental Petroleum Corporation, the parent company of OxyChem, stated that they continue to believe that DP is a safe and effective product.
China: Underground Coal Fire Extinguished after 50 Years
The Terak coalfield in Urumqi, located in the Xinjiang region of north-west China, caught fire more than 50 years ago and burned underground and unchecked. On 21st November 2007, the Chinese state media reported that the fire had finally been extinguished after consuming more than 12.43 million tonnes of coal. Terak is the second largest coalfield in the region and the size of the remaining unburnt reserves is estimated at 651 million tonnes.
The coal seams of Xinjiang lie at very shallow depth and are easily ignited by natural agencies, such as lightning strike, wild fires or self-combustion by oxidative decomposition of iron pyrite. Once alight, the seams may smoulder unhindered for decades or even centuries.
The team that extinguished the resource-wasting and polluting blaze drilled into the burning coal bed and then poured in water and slurry to lower the temperature. After the temperature dropped, the surface was covered to starve the fire of oxygen.
International: Nuclear Industry in Decline
An audit study commissioned by the European parliamentary group, The Greens, was published in Brussels in late November 2007, reference Mycle Schneider and Antony Froggatt, The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2007 . The report attempts to provide elements of key information for analysis and informed decision-making on perspectives of the global nuclear industry. The authors conclude that many ageing reactors are due to close before 2030, and 338 new ones would have to be built just to replace them. The nuclear power industry is growing too slowly to meet this target and may even be shrinking.
They point out that as of 1st November 2007 there were 439 nuclear reactors operating in the world, that is five fewer than five years ago. There are 32 units listed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as being under construction, mostly in Asia and eastern Europe, which is around 20 less than in the late 1990s. In 1989, a total of 177 nuclear reactors had been operating in what are now the 27 EU Member States, but the number shrank to 146 units as of 1st November 2007.
In 1992, the Worldwatch Institute in Washington, WISE-Paris and Greenpeace International published the first World Nuclear Industry Status Report, reviewed and updated in 2004. It showed that the combined installed nuclear capacity of the 436 units operating in the world in the year 2000 was less than 352,000 megawatts. Today the 439 worldwide operating reactors total 371,000 megawatts, with nuclear power plants providing 16% of total electricity, 6% of commercial primary energy and 2.5% of final energy in the world.
The tendency is downwards and there is no prospect of nuclear power experiencing major growth. With planning and construction lead times of ten years or more, it is practically impossible to maintain or even increase the number of operating nuclear power plants over the next 20 years unless operating lifetimes are substantially increased beyond 40 years on average, but there is no valid basis for such an assumption. Lack of a trained workforce (confirmed independently by the Nuclear Energy Agency of the OECD group), massive loss of competence, severe manufacturing bottlenecks (only one facility in the world, Japan Steel Works, can cast large forgings for reactor pressure vessels), lack of confidence of international finance institutions, and strong competition from highly dynamic natural gas and renewable energy systems, combine to exacerbate the aging problems of the industry.
International: Greenhouse Gas Emissions at Record High
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the UN weather agency based in Geneva, published its latest Greenhouse Gas Bulletin on 23rd November 2007. It reports that in 2006, globally-averaged concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached their highest levels ever recorded at 381.2 parts per million (ppm), an increase of 0.53% from 379.2 ppm in 2005. Concentrations of N2O also reached record highs in 2006, up 0.25% from 319.2 parts per billion (ppb) to 320.1 ppb, while methane remained almost unchanged at 1,782 ppb.
The WMO find that CO2 is contributing more to global warming than previously. The gas contributed 87% to the warming effect over the last decade, but in the last five years alone its contribution was 91%, showing that it is gaining in importance as a greenhouse gas. This upward trend is expected to continue.
The information is based on observations from the WMO Global Carbon Dioxide and Methane Monitoring Network, a comprehensive climate network based on data readings from 44 countries, and recognised by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Apart from water vapour, CO2, methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) are the three most prevalent greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere.
The 36% rise in CO2 since the late 1700s has largely been generated by emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels. Around one third of N2O discharged into the air is a result of human activities, such as fuel combustion, biomass burning, fertiliser use and some industrial processes. Methane emissions arise from fossil fuel exploitation, rice agriculture, biomass burning, landfill gas and ruminant farm animals, in total accounting for around 60% of atmospheric CH4. Natural processes, including those produced by wetlands and termites, are responsible for the remaining 40% of CH4.
International: Climate Change and Disaster Incidence
Readers of this newsletter might be forgiven for thinking there is nothing but disaster in the world to report, but it is in the nature of the subject to learn from the mistakes, misfortunes and findings of others. On 25th November 2007, the international organisation Oxfam published a report on the increasing frequency of climatic disasters attributable to rising greenhouse gas emissions, claiming that the incidence of natural disasters has increased fourfold over the last 20 years, from an average of 120 a year in the early 1980s to as many as 500 today. The increase in these extreme climatic events is in line with climate models developed by the international scientific community.
The number of people affected by all disasters has risen from an average of 174 million a year between 1985 and 1994 to 254 million a year between 1995 and 2004. In 2007, the Asian floods alone affected 248 million people. There has been a six-fold increase in floods since 1980. The number of floods and wind-storms rose from 60 in 1980 to 240 in 2007. The number of geothermal events, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, has remained static in accordance with historical records.
Oxfam argue that 2007 was not a freak year, as it follows a pattern of more frequent, erratic, unpredictable and extreme weather events. They suggest that action is needed now to prepare for more disasters or humanitarian assistance will be overwhelmed. The report also indicates a trend for an increase in small to medium-sized disasters, with the death toll from such events more than doubling in two decades.
Some countries, such as Vietnam, are particularly prone to weather-related disasters in the form of flooding and landslides. Vietnam is the country likely to be hardest hit by rising sea levels, according to World Bank research. The incidence of drought is also increasing. There is an association between rising temperatures and plagues of locusts.
Oxfam called on world governments to agree a mandate to negotiate a global deal on new approaches to humanitarian action to provide assistance to developing countries coping with the impacts of climate change (disaster risk reduction or DRR); and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with rich countries moving first and fastest since they are most responsible for climate change.
International: Manhattan Manhole Covers
The Shakti Industries foundry in Haora, West Bengal State, produces sewer manhole covers for the American utility Con Edison and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, as well as for public authorities in New Orleans and Syracuse. Con Edison buys around 2,750 manhole covers a year manufactured in India because they are up to 60% cheaper than those made in the United States. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection buys them because state law requires the city to buy the lowest-priced products available that meet its specifications. Other municipalities and utility companies buy their manhole covers through middlemen who contract with foreign foundries.
An investigation in November 2007 by The New York Times found that the reasons for the low cost of the product were very low wages and an almost complete disregard for worker safety in the Indian foundries. Instead of wearing protective equipment, the foundry workers were barefoot, shirtless and relied on bare hands and ladles rather than machinery to manoeuvre molten metal at 1,400C. Conditions in the foundries resembled historical depictions from the European Middle Ages.
India has a Factory Safety Act passed in 1948 which addresses cleanliness, ventilation, waste treatment, overtime pay and fresh drinking water; but the only protective equipment specified for foundry use is safety goggles. Accidents and injuries are seldom reported and are not regarded as being of serious concern by employers.
International: Structural Monitoring in High-Rise Buildings
Innovative research by Robert Nigbor and colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA, has suggested that lift elevators are a suitable excitation source for non-destructive structural health monitoring in tall buildings. At present, ambient vibration signals produced by moving elevators are considered a nuisance in structural testing procedures. But by placing motion detectors on each floor of a steel-framed building (in effect, a seismic array) and measuring the vibration response of the elevator counterweights as the lift car runs up and down whilst in use, the researchers have found they can determine the presence of any structural weaknesses in the building. The elevator vibrations excite the low frequency fundamental vibration modes of a building, which are the most revealing when assessing for potential or actual structural damage.
However, it has been found that elevator vibration patterns are subject to change after overhaul and maintenance, which makes comparison of historic and recent measurements more difficult. The cost of installing detectors in a building can be up to US $100,000, but relative to the cost of building itself and the value of the information received it is quite modest.
The team has published several papers on the topic of elevators as an excitation source, the most recent being in the Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring held at Stanford University in California.
International: Anti-Smoking Drug Linked to Violent Behaviour
The anti-smoking drug Chantix is manufactured by Pfizer Inc. and has been available on the US market for around 18 months. It is a prescription medicine in which the active ingredient is varenicline, a tartrate salt which partially blocks nicotine receptors. It was recommended for use in the UK in May 2007 by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. In November 2007, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that the substance would be subject to an investigation after reports linked its use to symptoms of extreme behaviour.
The investigation was prompted following an unstated number of incidents in which users of Chantix have displayed violent or suicidal impulses, the latest fatal example of which was reported in the Texas news media on 1st December 2007. It has been claimed that nicotine withdrawal symptoms may exacerbate any underlying psychiatric illness in a user, but the FDA also notes that the same side effects have been reported by Chantix users who have not stopped smoking, and by users with no record of psychiatric illness.
USA: Conoco Pipeline Proposal in Alaska
On 30th November 2007, ConocoPhillips Inc., the third-largest US oil and gas company, submitted a proposal to the Governor of Alaska to build a natural gas pipeline from Alaska to the lower 48 US states, at an estimated cost of around US $30 billion. The pipeline would transport about four billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from the North Slope region, which contains 35 trillion cubic feet of known natural gas and is believed to hold far more in undiscovered reserves.
The proposed pipeline has a decades-long history of fiscal, rather than environmental, argument between the state and the natural gas producers. This latest bid was submitted under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, a state law which calls for competitive proposals from energy companies. The three major producers participating are ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP Plc.
Earlier the same week, ConocoPhillips cancelled a planned US $300 million clean fuels project on the Alaskan North Slope following new oil tax legislation raising oil production taxes and limiting deductions that can be taken for operating costs at older fields.
Uganda: Outbreak of Ebola Virus Variant
In August 2007, an outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever began in the western Ugandan region of Bundibugyo. Genetic analysis of samples taken from some of the victims showed it to be a previously unknown variant of the virus, making it the fifth strain to appear.
On 3rd December 2007, the authorities in Kampala announced that the number of people infected by the new strain had risen to 58, raising fears that the death toll of 18 would also increase. The latest casualties included medical staff who were treating infected victims in Bundibugyo Hospital. Attempts were being made to contain further spread of the virus.
Uganda was last hit by an epidemic of Ebola in 2000, when 425 people contracted it and just over half died, including a doctor treating victims. An outbreak in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo in 2007 infected up to 264 people, killing 187.
Bulgaria: Contentious Nuclear Power Site Revived
Bulgaria has six obsolete, Russian-designed VVER-440 V230 reactors at Kozloduy, of which four have been deemed unsafe and shut down. In the 1980s, it was proposed to construct a new plant between Belene and Svishtov in Pleven Province, northern Bulgaria, near the Danube River. The plant was to contain four VVER-1000/V 320 reactors designed by Atomenegroproekt Kiev from the USSR and Energoproekt Sofia. The scheme was rejected by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Soviet experts because the site lies near an active fault and is prone to earthquakes. In 1977, an earthquake killed 120 people in a village 15 kilometres away. However, the Bulgarian National Electricity Company denies that the region is prone to serious seismic disturbance.
Between 1988 and 1990, part of the construction work on Reactor 1 was completed, but the project was abandoned in 1990 due to the democratic changes in Bulgaria. Following re-evaluation, the project was restarted in 2002, now based on third-generation VVER-1000/V-446B reactors, but has suffered a series of alleged financial irregularities.
The new Russian-designed nuclear power plant will be the first in the European Union. Critics of the scheme have stated that in addition to earthquake risk, electricity cost will be exceptionally high, the reactor design is untested and Bulgaria has a poor safety culture.
A European Commission panel has issued a favourable report on the proposed nuclear plant, which will help Bulgaria win construction loans.
China: 70 Miners Die in Mine Blast
At least 70 miners were killed and another 26 remained trapped after an underground explosion at the Rui Zhiyuan coal mine near Linfen City in Shanxi Province. Around 15 miners were rescued following the explosion on 6th December 2007. A rescue team of 32 people became trapped as well after entering the mine.
The state news agency reported that the high number of casualties was the result of mine managers launching their own rescue operation instead of summoning the relevant authorities.
Since the output of Chinese coal mines always increases to meet winter demand, more such accidents were expected until the Spring.
International: Passenger Jet Flies on Cooking Oil
In a series of experimental tests an unmodified Czechoslovakian jet, a 1968 L-29 acquired from the Ukrainian military, burning nothing but cooking oil as aviation fuel, flew for 37 minutes at an altitude of up to 5,180 metres. The tests were carried out by two American companies, Biodiesel Solutions Inc. and Green Flight International, using fresh canola oil refined into biodiesel. The L-29 jet is one of few aircraft capable of burning biodiesel, due to a built-in fuel warming system.
The flights were preceded by extensive fuel tests on the ground using different blends of biodiesel and normal Jet A kerosene, progressing to 100% biodiesel as confidence increased. The jet engines reached 98% power on 100% biodiesel.
The experimenters suggested that a blend of biodiesel and kerosene would offer an environmental benefit in terms of reduced emissions of carbon dioxide, since a 20% biodiesel blend was found to reduce carbon emissions by 50%.
The Green Flight team is currently evaluating the exact emissions of biodiesel combustion, as well as observing its effect on seals and rings in the jet engines. The experimental plane was grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration until the results of such safety tests are established.
Uganda: Government Plan to Recreate Lost Forest Cover
The Ugandan Government has been under pressure from environmental organisations over its plans to allow the destruction of virgin rainforests for conversion to biofuel production. In May 2007, the Government was obliged to cancel two of its proposals to turn over rainforest reserves to sugar and palm oil planters after violent protests in which at least three people were killed.
More recently, the Ugandan Environment Ministry claimed that some 55,000 hectares of rainforest cover disappears every year because of poverty and population pressure.
To counter rampant deforestation, which causes rivers to dry up, triggers soil erosion and threatens wildlife, the Government in Kampala announced on 6th December 2007 that it now proposes a massive tree planting exercise to establish a recognised carbon sink that would enable it to earn credits on mechanisms set up to help countries meet their CO2 emissions targets.
Uganda will plant millions of trees in the next four years at a cost of US $253 million in an attempt to increase its forest cover from 22% to 30% of its land area. The National Forest Authority said that its aim is to plant trees in forest reserves and to encourage those who own private land, including local and international timber companies, to plant. Much of the initial funding would come from donors.
The Ugandan terrain can in fact regenerate forests quickly, owing to a combination of a wet climate (at least, for the time being) and fertile soils that are replenished at episodes by volcanic ash.
USA: Rare Neurological Disease Hits Factory Workers
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) is investigating a cluster of 11 cases of a previously unknown neurological illness in factory workers at Quality Pork Processors Inc. (QPP) in Austin, Minnesota. QPP staff and physicians in the Austin and Rochester area recognised a pattern of cases of neurological illness that seemed to have only the same workplace employment in common. The first cases developed symptoms in December 2006 and more appeared over the following months to July 2007. The MDH was contacted in November 2007 and began a review of clinical data, obtaining diagnostic samples, interviewing workers for potential exposures and inspecting the plant. An additional case was hospitalised in early December 2007.
A specific cause has not yet been identified, although the disease was classed as an outbreak of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP), a type of disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks the protective coating around the peripheral nerves. It is extremely rare but since December 2006 it has affected 10% of QPP employees who worked in an area of the plant where either swine heads or organs are processed. There have been no fatalities and the victims were reported to be in various stages of rehabilitation. CIDP is a chronic disorder, which means it is persistent and lasting. The most notable outbreak of a related disease, called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), occurred in 1976 when 500 out of 40 million people who had been vaccinated against swine influenza developed GBS. Twenty-five of those individuals died.
The State epidemiologists said that there was no evidence to suggest the general public or food supply was at risk. Many organisations have taken note of the outbreak and a joint investigation was in progress involving public health authorities, environmental health specialists, medicine, veterinary medicine, agriculture, and the swine industry itself to determine the cause. QPP has implemented additional precautionary measures at the plant in conjunction with advice from the MDH. MDH investigators were working with the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and alerting colleagues in the rest of the country to determine if cases were being seen in workers in other pork-processing plants around the United States.
Kenya: Locust Swarms Return
In 2004, devastating swarms of locusts swept across northern and western Africa, leaving nearly three quarters of the population of Mauritania in need of food aid. NASA satellite data has been used for some years to identify areas where vegetation growth conditions are ideal for desert locusts. According to Locust Watch, a branch of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, swarms have been reported in many areas in the Horn of Africa, but for the first time since 1961 large concentrations of them have moved into Kenya, where damage to maize and wheat crops has already been caused. The swarms contain between 40 and 80 million locusts per square kilometre.
The Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture announced in December 2007 that the locusts were laying their eggs in remote areas in the north-east of the country, and it was spraying affected areas from the ground and from aircraft in the districts of Mandera, Neboi, Fikow, Burabor and Bella. The locust swarms originated in Yemen and flew into the Ethiopian Ogaden region, where they laid eggs in October 2007. A few swarms continued south towards Somalia and north-eastern Kenya.
There were also reports that some locusts had crossed the Red Sea from Sudan to Saudi Arabia and were on the coast between Jeddah and Yenbo, and near Medinah.
The adult insects can eat their own weight in food every day and a single large swarm can consume as much food as would feed several thousand people. They can migrate more than 130 kilometres in a day. Swarming is related to climatic and weather factors, and an increased incidence was predicted by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as an effect of global climate change.
South Korea: Oil Spill Disaster
On 8th December 2007, the South Korean Ministry of Maritime Affairs reported that the Hong-Kong-registered very large, single-hulled crude tanker “Hebei Spirit” had been struck whilst at anchor by an industrial barge owned by Samsung Heavy Industries. The barge was carrying a crane and had broken free from its towing lines. The tanker was holed and spilled around 10,500 tonnes of crude oil into the sea. The damaged tanker was soon sealed but a fleet of more than 100 ships, including coast- guard, navy and fishing vessels, and six helicopters were unable to contain the spread of a 17-kilometre oil slick. A boom and chemical dispersants were in use.
Nearly 9,000 people were involved in the initial clean-up operation but were unable to prevent the oil from contaminating more than 40 km of beaches in the Taean district, 150 km south-west of the capital Seoul, threatening wildlife and valuable sea farms. The polluted region includes a national maritime park and areas of wetland important for migrating birds. The Minister for Home Affairs declared Taean a “special disaster area” and released an initial fund of six billion won (US $6.5 million) to deal with the emergency.
On 23rd December 2007, the Taean coastguard sought arrest warrants on the three captains responsible for the tanker and the two tugboats towing the barge; also the person responsible for the sea-bound crane. They face charges of failing to heed warnings not to take the crane out in rough waters and not responding properly to emergency calls.
This was the largest spill experienced by South Korea, twice as great as an incident in 1995 when some 5,000 tonnes of oil washed onto the southern coast.
A radar image of the oil slick was captured by the European Space Agency Envisat satellite and posted online by NASA.
On 7th January 2008, the Maritime Ministry announced that South Korea will ban single-hulled tankers from travelling in its waters in 2010, earlier than the International Maritime Organisation target that calls for a ban from 2015. At present, 43% of the crude imported into South Korea is carried by single-hulled tankers over 25 years old. European countries have also been accelerating efforts to phase out single-hulled tankers, and EU member states are to ban vessels more than 15 years old from loading heavy fuel oil within 360 kilometres of their coastlines.
By mid-January 2008, the west coast beaches had been cleaned by more than one million volunteers, but the fishing industry and tourism had collapsed. Damage to the seabed, which wiped out an oyster fishery, is expected to last for many years.
Sierra Leone: Government Creates New Forest Park
In December 2007, the President of Sierra Leone launched a scheme to save part of the endangered Gola rainforest, which lies near the border with Liberia. The local population will be paid an annual compensation for the loss of the royalties they currently receive from logging companies. An area of 75,000 hectares will be declared Sierra Leone’s second national park. The forest is a high biodiversity habitat, with some 50 species of mammals, including leopards, chimpanzees and forest buffalos; and 274 species of birds, of which 14 are close to extinction.
Following the end of ten years of civil war in 2002, Sierra Leone is anxious to raise living standards, but without official protection the Gola Forest would have been destroyed within ten years. Aid agencies, the European Commission and France are setting up a US $12 million trust fund to pay for the park's running costs and to make annual payments to some 100,000 people.
The Government intends to protect the rainforest, boost tourism and preserve an atmospheric carbon sink.
Lebanon: Lack of Resources Leads to Waste Disposal Chaos
A large solid waste dump was originally created on the Sidon seafront after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, in order to dispose of debris from bombed buildings. Since then it has grown steadily into a major hazard that threatens public health, marine life and the livelihood of fishermen.
The site is used as an unprotected open waste tip and is now 20 metres high. Bulldozers mix domestic and untreated industrial waste indiscriminately, and it is infested with flies, rats, mosquitoes and stray dogs. An adjacent treatment plant, designed to process waste into fertiliser, gas, and liquefied gas and to generate electricity is two years behind schedule and still not functional.
The dump site lies near schools, hospitals and apartment blocks, and it has partially collapsed into the Mediterranean at least twice, prompting complaints from Cyprus, Syria and Turkey after coastal currents swept rubbish on to their beaches.
Most of the sewage from Sidon is pumped untreated into the sea, along with chemical effluent from small industrial centres located along the coastline. Symptoms of ill- health have been reported in people living nearby, in the form of chronic bronchitis and allergic asthma.
A funding grant of $5 million was made available to the city three years ago to rehabilitate the situation, but the money has yet to be spent. Fragmentation of governmental control in Lebanon has prevented creation of an effective management framework to deal with waste treatment, resulting in the overloading of existing dumps.
International: Red Sea Dam Generates Hot Air
A paper by Roelof Dirk Schuiling, et al, published in the International Journal of Global Environmental Issues, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 341-361, reference DOI: 10.1504/IJGENVI.2007.016114, proposes and considers the economics of building a gigantic dam across the southern entrance of the Red Sea between Yemen in the north and either Eritrea or Djibouti in the south (the Bab-al-Mandab Strait) to create the world's largest hydropower generation plant.
The authors think such a macro-engineering project would generate around 50 gigawatts of renewable energy (without releasing CO2) to service an impoverished region. The output would be twice as great as the Three Gorges Dam in China, at an estimated construction cost of between 100 and 200 billion euros.
Their model involves isolating part of the Red Sea with a wall more than 150 metres high, one kilometre thick and 100 km long. Heat from the sun would lower the water level inside the dam through evaporation. Allowing seawater to flow back into the isolated basin through turbines would generate electricity.
Although the scale of the proposal is technically feasible, the ecological damage that the project could cause would be immense. Regional ecosystems are so complex that draining the Red Sea could have unknown effects on global weather patterns and ocean currents. The environmental effects would be global and irreversible, as the Red Sea would be transformed into a brine pool, reducing its surface area by 33% after 50 years and by 66% after nearly 300 years. It would also cause a global sea level rise of 12 cm to 30 cm by preventing ocean water from flowing into the Red Sea.
The suggestion (abstract at Power from closing the Red Sea) has generated some scepticism in hydroengineering circles.
USA: Pinning Hope on Solar Power
Total public and private spending on energy research in the United States and elsewhere has declined since the 1970s (source: Energy Policy, 35, 746-755; 2007), but recently there has been a surge of interest in existing and emerging technologies.
On a global scale, solar power is the only widely available renewable energy source that can make a significant contribution to current markets on a scale equivalent to substitute for hydrocarbons. The economics of biofuels and nuclear power are highly questionable, and in the USA solar power is currently attracting the largest proportion of venture capital investment (source: Nature, 445, 586-588; 2007).
Although the United States lags behind European countries such as Denmark and Germany in implementing the use of renewable energy sources, its venture capital investment in clean technologies is now more than double that of Europe. In 2007, California attracted $726.2 million of venture funding, Massachusetts $292.6 million and Texas $149.4 million. Almost $1 billion of US investment went overseas, with $200 million in Brazilian Renewable Energy (ethanol production) and $118 million in the Chinese Yingli Green Energy Holding Company, manufacturing photovoltaic solar systems.
Such companies as Google and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers have announced their intention to fund global climate solutions, with an eye on returns from the US energy market, currently worth around $6 trillion and the preserve of established power generation utilities.
The problem is that venture capitalists do not fund the basic research that produces emerging technologies, so the innovation stream is likely to dry up within a few years unless there is a significant expansion of public spending on basic energy research (source: Nature, 450, 768-769; 2007).
Norway: North Sea Oil Spill
StatoilHydro reported that on 12th December 2007, around 25,000 barrels of crude oil spilled into the Norwegian sector of the North Sea at the Statfjord oilfield. The spill occurred in rough seas while oil was being loaded from a storage buoy at the Statfjord A platform to the Teekay Corp. tanker “Navion Britannica”, but the leakage was quickly contained. The 10 km by 5 km slick was expected to drift towards the south-west coast of Norway. The weather was so harsh that four skimming vessels sent to the site could not scoop up the oil until two days later, by which time the oil was reported to be dissolving.
This was the second largest spill in Norwegian oil history, compared to the 75,000-barrel spill from the Bravo platform blowout in 1977.
The Statfjord field lies about 200 km offshore, west of the port of Bergen near the UK boundary line in the North Sea, and currently produces about 100,000 barrels per day. Another 200,000 bpd goes through it, including oil from the Snorre field.
The Statfjord spill has drawn attention to the risks of opening up new areas of Norwegian waters for oil and gas exploration, especially in the Arctic where freezing waters and harsh conditions make any spill harder to disperse naturally or to clean up. Norway is considering opening up wide swathes of its Arctic waters for oil activity after 2009 to sustain its oil production boom as output from mature North Sea fields declines.
China: National Grid in Conflict with Cleaner Coal Burning
China and the USA are the two most polluting countries on the planet. Coal-fired plants provide over 80% of Chinese power and a high priority is being given to coal- burning plant efficiency as a key issue in controlling emissions to the atmosphere. China’s national energy needs are already beyond its resources. China became a net oil importer in the 1990s and a net coal importer in the first half of 2007, even though it is the world's largest producer of coal.
The government in Beijing is running an aggressive campaign to shut smaller inefficient plants and forcing generating companies to build new stations on their sites. The target is to take offline 10 GW a year, which is more than total power consumption in Hong Kong. In 2006, nearly half of Chinese power generators were units of 600 megawatts or larger, with only 14% below 300 MW.
The Chinese have concentrated on developing high temperature combustion plant, burning coal at around 600C and running at between 46% and 60% efficiency, converting water into steam without boiling and thus saving energy and carbon emissions. Desulphurisation equipment manufactured in China costs around 35% of imported equivalents.
China now occupies the pole position in construction of cleaner burning plant, with several dozen ultra-supercritical plants at the drawing-board stage. There are also proposals for two giant 1.3 GW installations.
The main problem the Chinese face is with their distribution grid, which at present has no obligation to accept cleaner energy at night when demand is lower. This forces high technology generators to run at half capacity, and the low load rate undermines the profitability of the new plant. Legislation changes to support cleaner generators ar