Send a cow, tree or bee to someone who needs one...

If you would like to buy a present that really transforms someone's life this Christmas, Earth-Info.Net would like to recommend a visit to the Send A Cow website.

This charity was set up in 1988 when UK farmers sent greatly needed cows to Uganda at the end of a long and brutal civil war...

Now all cows are locally sourced and it is possible for you to help communities very directly by sponsoring the purchase of a cow, goats, pigs, poultry, bees or fruit-tree saplings.

New gift ideas also include paying for an orphan to receive 3 weeks of basic training or a farmer to receive supplementary training, providing the tools and materials to dig a fish pond or providing seeds for fodder crops.

If you don't have much money it is also possible to contribute a smaller amount towards a share in one of these sources of food, independence + income or at the other end of the scale... to go the whole hog and provide a whole farm yard!

As part of the deal recipient farmers have to give the first female offspring of their gift to another impoverished family and preference is generally given to helping women (who are often amongst the poorest in society), the disabled or those suffering from AIDS or orphaned by it.

For those of you in the US, Send A Cow's partner organisation in the US is called Heifer International.

As a means of enabling individuals + families to help themselves and one another Earth-Info.Net struggles to think of a better cause to support...

Restarting Earth-Info.Net...

Dear Reader,

I am sorry it has been a while since I updated this site!

I have now submitted my PhD, and will try to chip away at my backlog of stories over the next few weeks.

Best wishes

Matt

Tony Blair warns of climate change threat

Below is the text to a speech Prime Minister Tony Blair gave today at a meeting hosted by the Prince of Wales' Business and the Environment Programme on the threat posed by climate change.

Although the speech lacked funding commitments, the Prime Minister pledged that the UK will use its presidency of the G8 (and EU), next year, to make tackling climate change an international priority, push for agreement on the science, develop the processes needed to encourage innovation and help emerging economies to adapt.

Stephen Tindale, Director of Greenpeace welcomed the speech, but warned that in order to be taken seriously the UK needed to perform better at home, and to move from leading the world on diplomacy, to leading it in delivery.

It was an important (and long) speech, and judgement has to be reserved, but it is well worth a read...

Read the Prime Minister's speech in full:

The 10th anniversary of His Royal Highness' Business and the Environment Programme marks what is now recognised as the premier international forum for exploring sustainable development in the context of business.

Over the coming months we will take forward the wider sustainable development and environment agenda. Margaret Beckett is working on a comprehensive DEFRA 5 year programme to be released this year and a new sustainable development strategy for early next year. This will deal with, amongst other matters, issues of waste, recycling, sustainable agriculture, all aspects of biodiversity; and fishing, and will set out policies in each key area. For example, on the marine environment, I believe there are strong arguments for a new approach to managing our seas, including a new Marine Bill.

But tonight I want to concentrate on what I believe to be the world's greatest environmental challenge: climate change.

Our effect on the environment, and in particular on climate change, is large and growing

To summarise my argument at the outset:

From the start of the industrial revolution more than 200 years ago, developed nations have achieved ever greater prosperity and higher living standards. But through this period our activities have come to affect our atmosphere, oceans, geology, chemistry and biodiversity.

What is now plain is that the emission of greenhouse gases, associated with industrialisation and strong economic growth from a world population that has increased sixfold in 200 years, is causing global warming at a rate that began as significant, has become alarming and is simply unsustainable in the long-term. And by long-term I do not mean centuries ahead. I mean within the lifetime of my children certainly; and possibly within my own. And by unsustainable, I do not mean a phenomenon causing problems of adjustment. I mean a challenge so far-reaching in its impact and irreversible in its destructive power, that it alters radically human existence.

The problem and let me state it frankly at the outset - is that the challenge is complicated politically by two factors. First, its likely effect will not be felt to its full extent until after the time for the political decisions that need to be taken, has passed. In other words, there is a mismatch in timing between the environmental and electoral impact. Secondly, no one nation alone can resolve it. It has no definable boundaries. Short of international action commonly agreed and commonly followed through, it is hard even for a large country to make a difference on its own.

But there is no doubt that the time to act is now. It is now that timely action can avert disaster. It is now that with foresight and will such action can be taken without disturbing the essence of our way of life, by adjusting behaviour not altering it entirely.

There is one further preliminary point. Just as science and technology has given us the evidence to measure the danger of climate change, so it can help us find safety from it. The potential for innovation, for scientific discovery and hence, of course for business investment and growth, is enormous. With the right framework for action, the very act of solving it can unleash a new and benign commercial force to take the action forward, providing jobs, technology spin-offs and new business opportunities as well as protecting the world we live in.

But the issue is urgent. If there is one message I would leave with you and with the British people today it is one of urgency.

Let me turn now to the evidence itself.

The scientific evidence of global warming and climate change: UK leadership in environmental science

Apart from a diminishing handful of sceptics, there is a virtual worldwide scientific consensus on the scope of the problem. As long ago as 1988 concerned scientists set up an unprecedented Intergovernmental Panel to ensure that advice to the world's decision-makers was sound and reliable.

Literally thousands of scientists are now engaged in this work. They have scrutinised the data and developed some of the world's most powerful computer models to describe and predict our climate.

UK excellence in science is well documented: we are second only to the US in our share of the world's most cited publications.

And amongst our particular strengths are the environmental sciences, lead by the world-renowned Hadley and Tyndall centres for climate change research.

And from Arnold Schwarzenegger's California to Ningxia Province in China, the problem is being recognised.

Let me summarise the evidence:

- The 10 warmest years on record have all been since 1990. Over the last century average global temperatures have risen by 0.6 degrees Celsius: the most drastic temperature rise for over 1,000 years in the northern hemisphere.

- Extreme events are becoming more frequent. Glaciers are melting. Sea ice and snow cover is declining. Animals and plants are responding to an earlier spring. Sea levels are rising and are forecast to rise another 88cm by 2100 threatening 100m people globally who currently live below this level.

- The number of people affected by floods worldwide has already risen from 7 million in the 1960s to 150 million today.

- In Europe alone, the severe floods in 2002 and had an estimated cost of $16 billion.

- This summer we have seen violent weather extremes in parts of the UK.


These environmental changes and severe weather events are already affecting the world insurance industry. Swiss Re, the world's second largest insurer, has estimated that the economic costs of global warming could double to $150 billion each year in the next 10 years, hitting insurers with $30-40 billion in claims.

By the middle of this century, temperatures could have risen enough to trigger irreversible melting of the Greenland ice-cap - eventually increasing sea levels by around seven metres.

There is good evidence that last year's European heat wave was influenced by global warming. It resulted in 26,000 premature deaths and cost $13.5 billion.

It is calculated that such a summer is a one in about 800 year event. On the latest modelling climate change means that as soon as the 2040s at least one year in two is likely to be even warmer than 2003.

That is the evidence. There is one overriding positive: through the science we are aware of the problem and, with the necessary political and collective will, have the ability to address it effectively.

The public, in my view, do understand this. The news of severe weather abroad is an almost weekly occurrence. A recent opinion survey by Greenpeace showed that 78% of people are concerned about climate change.

But people are confused about what they can do. It is individuals as well as Governments and corporations who can make a real difference. The environmental impacts from business are themselves driven by the choices we make each day.

To make serious headway towards smarter lifestyles, we need to start with clear and consistent policy and messages, championed both by government and by those outside government. Telling people what they can do that would make a difference.

UK Action

I said earlier it needed global leadership to tackle the issue. But we cannot aspire to such leadership unless we are seen to be following our own advice.

So, what is the UK Government doing? We have led the world in setting a bold plan and targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

We are on track to meet our Kyoto target. The latest estimates suggest that greenhouse gas emissions in 2003 were about 14% below 1990 levels. But we have to do more to achieve our commitment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20% by 2010.

Our targets are ambitious and we must continually review and refine how we can meet them. In 2000, we published our Climate Change Programme, which set out a comprehensive range of policies aimed at reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. Tomorrow, we'll be setting out the details of this review to see if it is achieving the necessary progress towards our short-term and long-term emissions targets, and if not, to see how we can do better.

In the longer term, The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution's seminal report on energy concluded that to make its contribution towards tackling climate change, the UK needed to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions by 60% by 2050. This implies a massive change in the way this country produces and uses energy. We are committed to this change.

There are immense business opportunities in sustainable growth and moving to a low carbon economy

The UK has already shown that it can have a strongly growing economy while addressing environmental issues. Between 1990 and 2002 the UK economy grew by 36%, while greenhouse gas emissions fell by around 15%.

But business itself must seize the opportunities: it is those hi-tech, entrepreneurial businesses with the foresight and capability to tap into the UK's excellent science base that will succeed. Tackling climate change will take leadership, dynamism and commitment - qualities that I know are abundantly represented in this room.

As part of next year's G8 process I want to advance work on promoting the development and uptake of cleaner energy technologies begun under the French Presidency in 2003 and continued by the US this year.

We need both to invest on a large scale in existing technologies and to stimulate innovation into new low carbon technologies for deployment in the longer term. There is huge scope for improving energy efficiency and promoting the uptake of existing low carbon technologies like PV, fuel cells and carbon sequestration.

This technology is coming out of the laboratory and becoming reality in new fuel cell cars, combined heat and power generators and in new low carbon fuels. The next generation of photovoltaics are unlikely to need the now familiar panels: smart windows could generate the power required for new buildings. And carbon sequestration: literally capturing carbon and storing it in the ground, also has real potential. BP are already involved in an Algerian project which aims to store 17 million tonnes of CO2.

What we need to do is build an international consensus on how we can speed up the introduction of these technologies

And there are already many great examples of companies here in the UK showing the way:

- Ceres Power based in Crawley and utilising technology developed at Imperial College have developed a new fuel cell that has unique properties and is a world leader, and

- just a few weeks ago Ocean Power Delivery transmitted the first offshore wave energy from the seas off Orkney to the UK grid.

And these are not isolated examples.

Understandably, climate change focuses minds on big, industrial, energy users. But retailers are also working with suppliers to reduce the impacts of goods and services that they sell. I want to see the day when consumers can expect that environmental responsibility is as fundamental to the products they buy as health and safety is now.

Government has to work with business to move forward, faster. For example, we will help business cut waste and improve resource efficiency and competitiveness through a programme of new measures funded through landfill tax receipts. We will follow up the report of the Sustainable Buildings Task Group to raise environmental standards in construction.

The Carbon Trust is helping business to address their energy use and encourage low-carbon innovation. In total, efficiency measures are expected to save almost 8 million tonnes of carbon from business by 2010, more than 10% of their emissions in 2000.

Our renewables obligation has provided a major stimulus for the development of renewable energy in the UK. It has been extended to achieve a 15.4% contribution from renewables to the UK's electricity needs by 2015, on a path to our aspiration of a 20% contribution by 2020. In the short term, wind energy - in future increasingly offshore - is expected to be the primary source of smart, renewable power.

Our position on nuclear energy has not changed. And as we made clear in our Energy White Paper last year, the government does "not rule out the possibility that at some point in the future new nuclear build might be necessary if we are to meet our carbon targets."

In short, we need to develop the new green industrial revolution that develops the new technologies that can confront and overcome the challenge of climate change; and that above all can show us not that we can avoid changing our behaviour but we can change it in a way that is environmentally sustainable.

Just as British know-how brought the railways and mass production to the world, so British scientists, innovators and business people can lead the world in ways to grow and develop sustainably.

I am confident business will seize this opportunity. Cutting waste and saving energy could save billions of pounds each year. With about 90% of production materials never part of the final product and 80% of products discarded after single use, the opportunities are clear.

Local, practical sustainability: new schools, new housing and re-invigorating 'Agenda 21'

But Government can give a lead in its own procurement policy.

New sustainable schools

There is a huge school building programme underway. All new schools and City Academies should be models for sustainable development: showing every child in the classroom and the playground how smart building and energy use can help tackle global warming.

The government is now developing a school specific method of environmental assessment that will apply to all new school buildings. Sustainable development will not just be a subject in the classroom: it will be in its bricks and mortar and the way the school uses and even generates its own power.

Our students won't just be told about sustainable development, they will see and work within it: a living, learning, place in which to explore what a sustainable lifestyle means.

Housing

The economic and social case for new housing is compelling. But we must also ensure that our approach is environmentally sustainable. This means action at both the national and local level. Heating, lighting and cooling buildings produces about half of total UK carbon emissions.

In 2002 we raised the minimum standard for the energy performance of new buildings by 25%. And next year we'll raise it by another 25%. The challenge now is to work with the building industry to encourage sustainability to be part of all new housing through a new flexible Code for Sustainable Buildings.

The new developments proposed in specific parts of the south east including the Thames Gateway represent a huge opportunity for us to show what can be achieved in terms of modern, smart, 21st century, sustainable living: not just in terms of reduced energy use, but also through better waste management, sustainable transport and availability of quality local parks and amenities.

Re-invigorating Agenda 21

Many local communities understand the links between the need to tackle national and global environmental challenges and everyday actions to improve our neighbourhoods and create better places to live.

In 1997, I encouraged all local authorities to work with their communities and produce Local Agenda 21 plans by 2000.

There was an overwhelming response: from County Durham to Wiltshire and from Redbridge to Cheshire, local people showed what could be done. Next year, as a key part of our new Sustainable Development Strategy, I want to reinvigorate community action on sustainable development.

Action in the EU

From this base, of domestic action we move out to action Europe-wide.

We believe, as I know many of you do, that trading is the most cost effective way to reduce emissions. The emissions trading scheme which we have advocated and pushed in Europe is of great importance to our goals, and to those of Europe. The establishment of a carbon trading market throughout the world's most important economic area next year will be an enormous achievement, and will change the way thousands of businesses think about their energy use. Cutting carbon emissions is the way the future will be, and we have repeatedly said that there are advantages to British industry from early action.

In Britain and throughout the world, the expected rapid growth in demand for transport, including aviation, means that we must develop far cleaner and more efficient aircraft and cars.

I am advised that by 2030, emissions from aircraft could represent a quarter of the UK's total contribution to global warning. A big step in the right direction would be to see aviation brought into the EU emissions trading scheme in the next phase of its development. During our EU Presidency we will argue strongly for this.

And the UK is taking a strong lead globally

From Europe, we need then to secure action world-wide. Here it is important to stress the scale of the implications for the developing world. It is far more than an environmental one, massive though that is. It needs little imagination to appreciate the security, stability and health problems that will arise in a world in which there is increasing pressure on water availability; where there is a major loss of arable land for many; and in which there are large-scale displacements of population due to flooding and other climate change effects.

It is the poorest countries in the world that will suffer most from severe weather events, longer and hotter droughts and rising oceans. Yet it is they who have contributed least to the problem. That is why the world's richest nations in the G8 have a responsibility to lead the way: for the strong nations to better help the weak.

Such issues can only be properly addressed through international agreements. Domestic action is important, but a problem that is global in cause and scope can only be fully addressed through international agreement. Recent history teaches us such agreements can achieve results.

The 1987 Montreal Protocol - addressing the challenge posed by the discovery of the hole in the ozone layer - has shown how quickly a global environmental problem can be reversed once targets are agreed.

However, our efforts to stabilise the climate will need, over time, to become far more ambitious than the Kyoto Protocol. Kyoto is only the first step but provides a solid foundation for the next stage of climate diplomacy. If Russia were to ratify that would bring it into effect.

We know there is disagreement with the US over this issue. In 1997 the US Senate voted 95-0 in favour of a resolution that stated it would refuse to ratify such a treaty. I doubt time has shifted the numbers very radically.

But the US remains a signatory to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the US National Academy of Sciences agree that there is a link between human activity, carbon emissions and atmospheric warming. Recently the US Energy Secretary and Commercial Secretary jointly issued a report again accepting the potential damage to the planet through global warming.

Climate change will be a top priority for our G8 Presidency next year

Recently, I announced that together with Africa, climate change would be our top priority for next year's G8. I do not under-estimate the difficulties. This remains an issue of high and fraught politics for many countries. But it is imperative we try.

I want today to highlight three key parts of my G8 strategy.

First, I want to secure an agreement as to the basic science on climate change and the threat it poses. Such an agreement would be new and provide the foundation for further action.

Second, agreement on a process to speed up the science, technology, and other measures necessary to meet the threat.

Third, while the eight G8 countries account for around 50% of global greenhouse gas emissions, it is vital that we also engage with other countries with growing energy needs - like China and India; both on how they can meet those needs sustainably and adapt to the adverse impacts we are already locked into.

Given the different positions of the G8 nations on this issue, such agreement will be a major advance; but I believe it is achievable.

The G8 Presidency is a wonderful opportunity to give a big push to international opinion and understanding, among businesses as well as Governments.

We have to recognise that the commitments reflected in the Kyoto protocol and current EU policy are insufficient, uncomfortable as that may be, and start urgently building a consensus based on the latest and best possible science.

Prior to the G8 meeting itself we propose first to host an international scientific meeting at the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter in February. More than just another scientific conference, this gathering will address the big questions on which we need to pool the answers available from the science:

- "What level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is self-evidently too much?" and
- "What options do we have to avoid such levels?"

This can help inform discussion at the G8.

Conclusion
The situation therefore can be summarised in this way:

1. If what the science tells us about climate change is correct, then unabated it will result in catastrophic consequences for our world.

2. The science, almost certainly, is correct.

3. Recent experience teaches us that it is possible to combine reducing emissions with economic growth.

4 Further investment in science and technology and in the businesses associated with it has the potential to transform the possibilities of such a healthy combination of sustainability and development.

5 To acquire global leadership, on this issue Britain must demonstrate it first at home.

6 The G8 next year, and the EU Presidency provide a great opportunity to push this debate to a new and better level that, after the discord over Kyoto, offers the prospect of agreement and action.

None of this is easy to do. But its logic is hard to fault. Even if there are those who still doubt the science in its entirety, surely the balance of risk for action or inaction has changed. If there were even a 50% chance that the scientific evidence I receive is right, the bias in favour of action would be clear. But of course it is far more than 50%.

And in this case, the science is backed up by intuition. It is not axiomatic that pollution causes damage. But it is likely. I am a strong supporter of proceeding through scientific analysis in such issues. But I also, as I think most people do, have a healthy instinct that if we upset the balance of nature, we are in all probability going to suffer a reaction. With world growth, and population as it is, this reaction must increase.

We have been warned. On most issues we ask children to listen to their parents. On climate change, it is parents who should listen to their children.

Now is the time to start.

Alternative Energy Blog launched

An excellent Alternative Energy Blog has been launched.

Recent posts include reports on the solar chimney being developed in Australia, the plans for tidal power in the New York's East River and a complaint by the UK government about the World Bank's failure to tackle the $235,000,000,000 of subsidies given to the global oil, gas + coal industries.

Harnessing Colorado's natural wind + solar power

Following the collection of 110,000 signatures a state-wide ballot will now go ahead in Colorado this November to decide whether the Colorado Renewable Energy Initiative should force the state's major utility companies (such as Xcel Energy, Aquila, Delta-Montrose and InterMountain) to obtain 10% of their energy from renewable sources such as wind, solar, biomass, geothermal + hydroelectric power by 2015.

Although Colorado has enough wind + sun to meet its power needs more than 10 times over, the state currently gets only 2% of its energy from renewable sources. Increasing this margin to 10% would have the same environmental impact as removing pollution from 600,000 cars each year (according to the EPA) + help to alleviate the risks posed by global climate change.

This ballot will be the first of its kind in the United States and its 10% renewables goal has the support of approximately 75% of registered voters. Farmers and ranchers are also keen to diversify their incomes by installing wind turbines and beginning to sell power into the grid.

The initiative specifies that at least 4% of the state's energy must be generated by solar electric generation technologies and that half of this amount must be derived from technologies located with the customer.

Customers who install solar electricity generators will be entitled to a $2 per watt rebate for installations up to a maximum size of 100 kilowatts. The impact of renewable energy resources on the retail rate will also be limited to 50 cents per month for residential customers and extra credit will be provided in order to encourage the construction of renewable facilities in Colorado.

To date, 16 other states have adopted renewable energy requirements. The maximum amount and source of the renewable energy varies by state, ranging from 1.1% of the total electricity generated in Arizona (mostly solar) to 30% in Maine (mostly hydroelectric).

If you would like to find out more about this initiative, opposition to it, or Exel Energy's bid to speed up the approval of a new coal power station (while two of its existing power plants are under notice of violation from the Environmental Protection Agency) you might like to visit the Environment Colorado webite or to sign a petition on the RenewableEnergyYES.com website which asks Xcel Energy to reconsider its opposition to the renewables initiative.

[Thanks to Lisa + Robin]

Monitoring environmental votes by MEPs

A new website called www.EU-votewatch.org has been set up by Friends of the Earth, WWF, Birdlife + Greenpeace in order to help voters see how Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are voting on environmental issues such as Agriculture, Air pollution, Chemicals, GM food, Liability, Nuclear power, Recycling, Renewables + Transport.

The European Union is responsible for around 90% of environmental laws in the UK, and very few people - if any! - are aware of how their representatives vote on these issues!

Using the www.EU-votewatch.org site it is possible to look at the voting records of individual politicians, countries (e.g. UK) or political blocks (e.g Greens) within the parliament, and to see how the percentage of environmentally friendly votes varies between countries.

Sadly, UK MEPs have the worst record in Europe for voting in favour of supporting the environment, with the majority of UK MEPs (51%) voting against environmental improvements in ten key votes.

At the other end of the scale, Danish MEPs came out on top with 84% of votes in favour of the environment, followed by the Swedes (81%) and the Austrians (77%)...

Five UK MEPs voted against every environment vote they took part in and 10 others voted against the environment 90% of the time. All were either Conservatives or members of the UK Independence Party.

Fifteen UK MEPs have a 100% record of voting green - (10 Liberal Democrats, 2 Green Party, 2 Plaid Cymru and 1 SDLP).

The England, Wales and Northern Ireland political parties' votes for environmental improvement were ranked as follows:

Greens, Plaid Cymru, SDLP - 100%
Liberal Democrats - 99%
Labour - 70%
DUP - 50%
Conservatives - 13%
UUP - 12%
UKIP - 0%

A recent report by the European Commission showed that the UK had one of the worst records for infringement actions for failing to properly implement EU laws. Recent research shows that over 30% of UK citizens are "very worried" about environmental issues. The environment is one of the few areas where the European Parliament has co-decision making powers with the Commission and Council of Ministers and is therefore one of the few areas where MEPs can make a significant difference.

Friends of the Earth's Campaigns Director Mike Childs said:

"European Union laws have been the driving force in cleaning up Britain's drinking water, rivers + beaches. Its waste laws are improving safety standards at waste disposal sites and improving recycling. The EU is an important influence at international negotiations on issues such as climate, trade and wildlife protection. If people want to see further environmental gains then they can use this new interactive website to see how their MEP has voted in the past and which parties are greener than others."

Earth-Info.Net feels that this monitoring should greatly improve transparency + accountability in the EU and help to make it harder for politicians to hide from the consequences of their short-term actions. It is also very good to see different NGOs working together in such a constructive way...

UK seeks to help defeat a murderous Ugandan cult

Later today, the UK's International Development Secretary, Hillary Benn, will be meeting Uganda's President Museveni to discuss what assistance the UK can provide with tackling a crazed + murderous cult, called the Lord's Resistance Army, that has been terrorizing northern Uganda, and forcing abducted children to become soliders, for the past 18 years.

You can listen to this piece from BBC Radio 4's Today Programme if you would like to learn more...

The latest Bretton Woods Project newsletter

The latest edition of the Bretton Woods Project newsletter has just been released.

This update offers plenty of high-quality retrospective analysis and the latest news on the controversial projects + policies of World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and is well worth a read.

Articles on offer include:

1. The World Bank and IMF at sixty...
2. Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers: a continuation of structural adjustment
3. Life under the IMF's magnifying glass
4. World Bank pushes Malawi agriculture privatisation
5. Iraq and Ethiopia treatment shows debt relief double standards
6. The World Bank's high-risk hypocrisy
7. Parliaments: the missing link in democratising national policy making
8. Parliamentarians increase demands on World Bank
9. IMF selection mess only a symptom
10. 60th anniversary spring meetings protest plans
11. IMF and poverty: strange bed fellows
12. Disengaging from the Fund: possible and worthwhile?
13. Challenges to World Bank report on MDG progress
14. Are you listening carefully?
15. Pakistani hunger strikers seek reparations for damaging project
16. Global warming speaks louder than words
17. Acres debarment: Litmus test for Bank on corruption
18. World Bank faces lobbies on human rights, climate change
19. Congolese groups unite to demand scrutiny of forest policies
20. BWP seeks new Coordinator
21. BWP welcomes Atieno Ndomo
22. At issue - World Bank, IMF: Helping peace or creating conditions for war?

Undercurrents News Network launched

Last night Earth-Info.Net attended the Oxford launch of the Undercurrents News Network, an alternative media group, which plans to help distribute videos highlighting the work of activists from around the world.

Undercurrents have been producing videos, featuring their own alternative news stories, for the past 10 years, and discovered that on average it takes 4 years for these stories to be covered by documentaries on the mainstream media.

Stories featured in the latest video include a demonstration outside a Premier Oil AGM, (protesting at the company's investment in Burma inspite of the ruling regime's appalling human rights record), a mass break-out from the Woomera detention centre in the South Australian desert (where asylum seekers were often detained for months, until UN pressure finally led to the site's closure in April 2003) and a student occupation of the President's office at Harvard University in protest at the university's policy of offering poverty pay to 1000 workers, despite the institutions's own immense wealth ($20 billion) and profits (approx. $150 million per annum).

Why Australia's soil + drinking water are going salty...

The latest edition of BBC Radio 4's Costing the Earth programme investigates the threat posed by dryland salinity to Australia's most productive farmlands + drinking water.

Dryland salinity is caused by a combination of ancient + modern events.

In prehistoric times, the tectonic plate that was to become Australia was located under the sea.

When this plate was eventually lifted above sea-level, salt deposits and evaporation, formed a salt crust that was, only very slowly, washed underground, by many millions of years of rain...

More recently, over the last 200 years, and especially the last 50 years, vast areas of Australia have been cleared for agriculture...

The consequent loss of big trees (which drank, and then sweated large quantities of water, into the air, through their leaves), and their replacement with less thirsty grasses, such as wheat or pasture (which do not), has resulted in water tables, across Australia, being pulled towards the surface, by the heat of the sun.

Unable to escape into the air, this water has started to pool around soil particles close to the surface and, once here, steadily pulled up salts from deep underground (a bit like wet tissue paper soaks up ink).

Gradually, the concentration of salts at the surface has increased and, in more and more places, produced lifeless salt pans... It is almost impossible for most plants to live, or for animals to find untainted water, on such hyper-salty soils. As a consequence, millions of acres of formerly productive land have been turned into lifeless desert.

Unfortunately, it is not just the country people and wildlife that suffer from the impacts of this problem...

Country streams, draining from salty land, eventually flow into rivers which then supply most of Australia's major cities with their drinking water...

Food production, which is already difficult in semi-arid areas, and generally expected to increase, has also become impossible in previously fertile areas, and even native plants, which evolved while areas were salt-free, are unable to survive.

The threat posed by salinity is immense, and this programme does a good job of looking at what the problems are and what can be done to tackle them...

Sellafield's nuclear waste storage is "unacceptable"

The European Union has told the UK government and British Nuclear Fuels that the situation regarding the UK's storage of military + civilian nuclear waste at Sellafield is "unacceptable" and must be addressed within 3 months if stiff penalties are to be avoided.

The Commission is demanding that a plan of action be prepared by June 1st and, that after this date, six monthly reports must be produced on the implementation of the plan.

Inspectors have been granted access to Sellafield since 1991, but are unhappy that some of the contents of storage "ponds" (used to keep waste cool and reduce the amount of radiation that workers are exposured to) cannot be identified or inspected properly, and the EU now wants effective action to be taken to change this, without any further delay or excuses...

In 2001, the Irish, who share the area of sea used by the British to dump Tc-99 waste - which cannot be safely stored and has a half life of 211,000 years - protested about practices at Sellafield under the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North East Atlantic and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

They almost certainly have a valid point as the respected Norwegian NGO, Bellona, says that scientists have measured an alarming increase in levels of radioactive techetium-99, in sea weed + shell-fish since 1994, when Sellafield dramatically increased its discharges of the compound to the Irish Sea. While, in 2002, the UK's own Royal Society delivered a damning indictment of successive governments and the nuclear industry, accusing them of neglecting the "serious and urgent" problem of disposal...

The Royal Society also estimated that it may cost £85 billion to deal with existing waste, and argued that today's problems are more serious than currently acknowledged + that the current waste management regime falls short of that which could be achieved through the use of currently available technologies!

A new law to protect the Great Barrier Reef

The Australian government is to ban fishing from one third of the Great Barrier Reef and to more strictly limit the movement of shipping near the reef.

Each year, the reef, which is Australia's number one tourist attraction, attracts 1,000,000 tourists and helps to inject A$4.3 billion into the national economy.

However, WWF Australia has recently warned that the reef is likely to be dead within the next 100 years, and will then take between 100 and 500 years to recover - depending on the action taken to tackle predicted climate change and reduce the impacts of human activities, which can harm the reef.

It is therefore very good news that the government has taken such prompt action, and demontrated a willingness to protect the environment, as well as the future of the local tourist industry.

When the new law comes into force, in July, the reef will become the world's largest protected reef system.

Commercial fishermen, who have resisted the ban, will also be offered assistance including: the buying-out of licences and assistance with training for alternative careers.

Valuing all human life v Looking the other way

At a memorial conference to the 800,000 people who died during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Kofi Annan, the head of the UN (and former head of UN peace-keeping) has expressed his bitter regret that he did not do more to rally international action, and stop the killing.

Sadly, Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire, the head of the peace-keeping force in Rwanda at the time, has said that he feels the attitudes which prevailed at the time remain... stating "I still believe that if an organisation decided to wipe out the 320 mountain gorillas there would be still more of a reaction by the international community to curtail or to stop that than there would be still today in attempting to protect thousands of human beings being slaughtered in the same country."

DevNetJobs.Org: an international development job service

Jessica Matthews of DevNetJobs.Org has been in touch to let me know about her organisation's (subscription) job service which lists 100s of job opportunities + consultancy assignments in the area of International Development.

In addition, DevNetJobs brings out a free, fortnightly jobs newsletter which may be subscribed to by sending a blank email to:

developmentjobs-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Environment Expo + World Wide Wattle

Today, an Environmental Expo will be taking place in the "wheatbelt" town of Dalwallinu in Western Australia.

This expo will showcase some of pioneering work that is being done in this biologically diverse region to protect endangered plants, drain cleared farmland suffering from waterlogging + dryland salinity and control introduced weeds + feral pests.

This event will also see the official launch of the World Wide Wattle website, an outstanding labour-of-love produced by, top Acacia taxonomist, Bruce Maslin.

There are over 950 species of Acacia in Australia and they have provided medicine, food, boomerangs + inspiration to people ever since the continent was first settled some 50,000 years ago...

More recently, one species (Acacia pycnantha) has been made Australia's floral emblem, and the plants' unmistakeable flowers and foliage have been used to form the basis for the nation's green and gold sporting colours, coat of arms + symbolic honours. There's even been an official National Wattle Day!

I'm just finishing a PhD on the pollination of these plants, and there are hopes that this work will feed into wider scientific efforts to sustainably revegetate Australia with native plants + provide farmers with alternative industries that are better suited to the country's unique + harsh conditions than the, catastrophically vulnerable, sheep + wheat industries...

It is therefore great to see so much positive work going on in Dalwallinu!

Taking responsibility for "toxic" ships

Greenpeace, Peter Mandleson MP + the GMB trade union are calling on the UK to stop sending "toxic" ships, containing asbestos or dangerous chemicals, to be scrapped in poor countries.

At present, it is common for poorly-paid workers, in countries such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, China + Turkey to be inadequately protected, and for the waste to be unsafely disposed of, while old ships are being dismantled.

As a result, Greenpeace is urging ship owners to start applying the so-called proximity principle, and to dispose of their waste locally, to the highest environment and labour standards.

As things stand, navies and shipping firms are able to sell their old ships into a network of traders, who then seek to maximise their profits... with the end result that hazardous ships often go to scrap-yards in countries with the lowest costs, weakest of laws + poorest standards.

You can visit Greenpeace's ship breaking site if you would like to find out more about this issue.

What can stop Africa's brain drain?

Africa is the most incredible + vibrant place Earth-Info.Net has ever visited, and doesn't conform to a vast swathe of negative Western stereotypes.

Despite this, it is undeniable that Africa has more than its fair share of problems. Some of which are eloquently summarised by contributors to a debate organised by the BBC's Africa Live! radio show, entitled:

"What can stop Africa's brain drain?"

Scotland's "Great Barrier Reef" given EU protection

Yesterday, EU Fisheries Ministers agreed to give permanent protection to Scotland's unique cold water coral reefs, the Darwin mounds by banning deepwater bottom trawling in the area.

This ban delivers a promise first made by Margaret Beckett, UK Secretary of State for the Environment made in October 2001, and has been welcomed by WWF-Scotland, who have spent the past 3 years highlighting the damage deep-water trawlers cause to the reef, as they dredge over huge areas of seabed.

Helen McLachlan, Marine Policy Officer for WWF Scotland said "We welcome the protection of this incredible piece of Scottish marine life - a beautiful deepwater habitat rich in wildlife such as sponges, starfish, and deepwater fish. This is our equivalent of the Great Barrier Reef and it was vital that it was protected before it was destroyed forever by deep water trawling".

"Up close the Darwin Mounds, off the Scottish coast, are as beautiful and rich in marine life as the Great Barrier Reef in Australian waters. Thankfully these ancient + fragile coral mounds that have taken thousands of years to grow, have been saved from further destruction with the banning of deep water trawling. We welcome this decision as the first real commitment by Member States to reduce the impacts that fisheries have on our marine environment."

Only discovered in 1998, the Darwin Mounds are a unique collection of cold-water coral mounds (Lophelia pertusa) at a depth of 1000 metres and about 185km northwest of Scotland. They are made up of hundreds of coral reefs up to 5m (16ft) high and 100m (328 ft) wide covering an area of approximately 100 sq km. The reefs support a wide diversity of marine life, such as sponges, starfish, sea urchins, crabs and deep-sea fish including the blue ling, round-nosed grenadier and the orange roughy.

There appear to be rather few photographs of this reef on the web, but the best pictures I could find were taken by Jan Helge Fossa, and accompany this old BBC story.

Protecting the environment + providing clean water

The 8th Special Session of the Governing Council of the UN Environment Porgramme will be taking place in Jeju, South Korea from the 29th-31st March, 2004.

This meeting is due to discuss the Environmental Dimension of Water, Sanitation and Human Settlements.

A full list of the event's notification + working documents as well as further information documents can be found if you follow these links...

Key papers include:

* Financing wastewater collection + treatment in relation to the Millennium Development Goals and World Summit on Sustainable Development targets on water and sanitation.

* Addressing environmental aspects of the water agenda: Activities of the United Nations system: Contribution of the Environmental Management Group to the 8th special session of the Governing Council/global Ministerial Environment Forum and the 12th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development

* Strengthening the scientific base of the United Nations Environment Programme

On a related note, SciDev.Net has recently hosted a good discussion of the relative importance of protecting the environment while addressing poverty alleviation...

The head of the UNDP, Mark Malloch-Brown, states that "The conservation of biodiversity should be seen as a ‘driver’ for poverty alleviation, not just as an end in itself".

While Reginald Victor, professor of biology at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman, asserts that "the conservation of biodiversity can only succeed when it is given priority over development."

This is one of those intractable debates, as both poverty alleviation + the environment are important + under-resourced...

Unfortunately, now that humans have the power to shape the destiny of all life on the planet, our ability to act wisely, and for the good of others, has never been more important...

In Earth-Info.Net's view humans will need to become much better at sharing wealth, knowledge + resources, for either people or the environment to have viable, long-term futures.

This will only be possible if leaders are prepared to take the difficult decisions today, that future generations require of them and the rest of society is prepared to do its bit to make this possible.

What is a Citizens Jury?

What is the best way to reflect public opinion?

An election, an opinion poll, a referendum...

Much depends on the question being asked + who is asking it, but one interesting, new approach is the citizens jury.

A citizens jury exposes a jury, made up of members of the public, to a range of factual evidence, and allows them to interrogate witnesses possessing a variety of different perspectives.

It then asks the jury to reach an informed opinion on the matter at hand, and to make recommendations for action... which can then be fed into a wider public debate.

In the case of a recent GM Jury, oversight was provided by four funders with different vested-interests (Unilever, Greenpeace, The Co-op + The Consumers Association) and input received from an Oversight Panel that included both conventional stakeholders + grassroots community group members.

The agenda for discussions, choice of extra witnesses, and scope of recommendations were partly set by the members of the jury - rather than simply dictated to them by a particular stakeholder. The jury hearings were also open to observers, a summary of proceedings was published on the web, and all jury hearings were recorded so that they could be made available on a publicly - accessible video archive.

Given the hyperbole that tends to surround the discussion of GM technology, the verdict seems very reasonable, worthy of thought + a positive contribution to the debate...

You can follow this link to read about GM Jury verdicts from other countries.

Even in open, representative democracies, Earth-Info.Net feels that the debate of many other complex issues, which do not determine the results of national elections, would benefit from the input of well-organised + representative citizen juries...

Butterflies acting like canaries?

In 2001, The Biodiversity Challenge Group, which comprised of Butterfly Conservation, Friends of the Earth, Plantlife, The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, The Wildlife Trusts and WWF-UK challenged the UK government to reverse the declines of all the UK's threatened species + habitats by implementing a 10-point plan...

The 10 key challenges were as follows:

1. Imagination - deliver a real increase in the extent of priority habitats, including heathland, downland and woodland, in a way that improves public access, human health and biodiversity.

2. Agriculture - shift agricultural payments from intensive production to support for sustainable rural development, including positive wildlife management.

3. Climate change - meet UK targets of cutting carbon emissions by 20 per cent by 2010.

4. Areas of wildlife importance - deliver the positive management of all protected conservation sites (ASSI/SSSIs and Natura 2000 sites), and the conservation of local wildlife sites, over the next five years.

5. Water - ensure the full transposition of the EU Water Framework Directive into UK law and policy, to provide a framework for government, its agencies and industry, to protect and enhance the biological diversity of wetland ecosystems.

6. Coastal - adopt a policy on sea level rise of no net loss of priority wildlife habitats. Use dynamic adjustment of the coast to achieve a net gain of these habitats.

7. Marine environment - introduce a bold package of policy and legislative measures to protect the marine environment.

8. Planning - revise all planning guidance to ensure that the planning system contributes to the maintenance and the positive enhancement of biodiversity.

9. Integration - ensure proper consideration of biodiversity through Strategic Environmental Assessment of all plans, policies and programmes.

10. Information - ensure effective monitoring of species and habitats in the UK, adequate research into biodiversity and the effective distribution of this information.

Today, new research has been published in the journal Science which states that overall, in the UK, 71% of butterfly species have declined over the last 20 years, compared to 54% of native birds over 20 years and 28% of plants over a forty-year period.

Sir David Attenborough, President of Butterfly Conservation, the charity that collated the new butterfly data, said:

"The results show the importance of Britain's long amateur tradition of natural history and underline the enormous value of records gathered diligently by volunteers over many decades. I have always thought that butterflies represented the canaries in the coalmine, giving us early indications of man's impact on the planet. Everyone knows about the decline of the House Sparrow, but British butterflies and other insects are facing an even greater crisis than birds. I am deeply concerned that we must increase our efforts to conserve biodiversity at this critical time and I hope the government demonstrates their own commitment through placing biodiversity at the heart of the new agency recommended in Lord Haskins' review of rural delivery."

See here to visit the UK Biodiversity Action Plan website or to listen to Lord May's thoughts on whether we are heading for a 6th global mass extinction...

Home sweet, Shipping container...

A British architect, Eric Reynolds, of Urban Space Management, has been experimenting with innovative ways of producing energy-efficient and cheap homes + offices, and has settled on converting old shipping containers.

These containers are usually used to transport goods, but can be converted into habitable space with suitable windows, doors, insulation + decoration. Then, by fitting containers together in a variety of ways, buildings of almost any size can be created...

In London, builders usually charge about £120 a square foot ($200) to build a conventional house, whereas high quality space can be built from converted containers for as little as £40 ($70).

As there are millions of old containers, and we currently have a severe shortage of low-cost housing in the UK, this solution appears to have massive potential. Especially, as containers can be transported, very easily, to almost anywhere in the world.

Follow this link to see some pictures of how containers are being used to provide artists with studio space and to help regenerate a run-down area of London.

Guardian Unlimited develops Life

Guardian Unlimited has started to compile it's environment + development stories in an online supplement called Life.

Within this supplement stories are arranged according to themes such as climate change, conservation, global fishing crisis, renewable energy, spreading deserts + water.

Some themes have many more reports than others, but this supplement is a welcome development. In particular, because it offers a simple way of monitoring how stories + issues develop over time.

Helping refugees to return home

The UN high commissioner for refugees, Ruud Lubbers, has said that rich countries should do more to allow refugees to return to their home countries once wars have finished, and stability restored.

He said that as many as 2,000,000 African refugees could now choose to go home and restart their lives, but that international community needs to be prepared to provide long-term funding + commitment in order to make this possible.

Women's Day and HIV/AIDS

Today is International Women's Day.

The World Health Organisation has decided to mark this occasion by discussing the need to combat gender inequality in the fight against HIV/AIDS

Biologically, economically, socially + culturally, women are more vulnerable to infection than men, due to factors such as financial dependence on men, physical + sexual abuse from partners, and the fact that it is acceptable for men to have multiple partners.

In sub-Saharan Africa, young women aged 15-24 are up to 2.5 times more likely to be infected than men belonging to the same age group. This, and similar statistics, led Dr Lee Jong-wook, WHO Director-General to say that "In too many places women have fewer legal rights than men, and less access to education, training and paid work" and that in future "Health interventions for HIV/AIDS should promote equitable access for women to information, treatment, care and support."

You can find out more about HIV/AIDS by visiting UNAIDS homepage or the 3 by 5 Initiative's site, which aims to help ensure that 3,000,000 people living with AIDS are being treated by 2005.

Oil: A blessing or a curse?

The BBC is hosting a vigourous debate as to whether the production of $30 billion worth of oil is a blessing or a curse for impoverished African countries.

One contributor suggests that "the paradox of plenty" results in oil revenues creating a buffer between the government and the population, which fosters corruption, and leads to a loss of transparency and accountability.

Others seem to prefer blaming global capitalism, the CIA, African leaders, wanton corruption, debt, and a world prepared to watch money be squandered on an epic scale... in return for oil.

US accused of "double standards" by Human Rights Watch

In a severely critical report, Human Rights Watch has said that "U.S. forces operating in Afghanistan have arbitrarily detained civilians, used excessive force during arrests of non-combatants, and mistreated detainees"...

The report concludes that "the US-administered system of arrest and detention in Afghanistan exists outside of the rule of law", that "The United States is setting a terrible example in Afghanistan on detention practices," and that "Civilians are being held in a legal black hole – with no tribunals, no legal counsel, no family visits and no basic legal protections."

Brad Adams, executive director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch also stated that although "The Taliban and other insurgent groups are illegally targeting civilians and humanitarian aid workers," "abuses by one party to a conflict do not justify violations by the other side. This is a fundamental principle of the laws of war."

Adams also said the United States is eroding international standards by not taking action as "Abusive governments across the world can now point to U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and say, If they can abuse human rights and get away with it, why can't we?"

Remembering Max Nicholson

Have you ever heard of a man called Max Nicholson?

My guess is that you haven't, but that you will have heard of SOME of the organisations he established, helped to found, or ran during his incredible career.

They include The World Wide Fund for Nature (1961), The International Institute for Environment and Development , The Nature Conservancy (1949), The British Trust for Ornithology (1933), The Edward Grey Institute and Oxford University's Exploration Club (1926).

Max also found time to allocate tonnage to ships during the seige of Britain in World War II, to organise the 1951 Festival of Britain, to be a trustee for Earthwatch Europe and President of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Wow! Who says you can't make a difference!

If you would like to know more, you can read his obiturary and Sir Crispin Tickell's memorial address here.

What's in a name?

Since 1753, humanity has scientifically named + described just over 1.5 million species using Carl Linnaeus' binomial system of classification.

Under this system each organism is given one Latin name to indicate the genus (e.g. Homo) , and one as a "shorthand" name for the species (e.g. sapiens).

Unfortunately, tens of millions of species remain to be named and many of the world's existing taxonomic experts are now retiring, dying or tiring without being replaced.

This creeping process is leaving vast swathes of biodiversity taxonomically orphaned... without anyone left alive, or active, who can name or otherwise help to understand them.

Sadly, our inability to accurately name species, and associate them with other forms of life, makes the study of ecology in many species-rich areas of the world extremely difficult, and can often mean that efforts to understand + conserve the environment are seriously handicapped...

In order to tackle this problem some German museums are beginning to experiment with allowing benefactors to sponsor the process of naming new species and then choose the name ascribed to the new species, for all eternity...

This idea sounds great in principle but, as the following article by an Australian taxonomist explains, this solution can be fraught with dangers, as it may encourage taxonomists to cut corners and trivialise the scientific importance of descriptive names.

On a lighter note, Earth-Info.Net was amused to learn how taxonomists have occasionally exchanged bitter insults with one another by naming parasitic, stunted or smelly organisms after their rivals!

There's obviously more than you might think in a name... and a good case for society improving the funding of this crucially important + fundamental science, which is slow to acquire, yet quick to loose.

Prince Charles urges people to stop eating endangered fish

At a gala dinner to raise funds for the Marine Stewardship Council, the UK's Prince Charles has urged people to only eat fish which are not in decline...

At present stocks of cod are down to only 10% of their 1970 levels and there is a distinct possibility that the, once bountiful, cod fishery will collapse - as the Canadian Grand Banks fishery already has - unless drastic changes are made to both the quantities of fish that are caught and the ways in which fisherman capture them.

Many Ethiopians rely on food aid

A report entitled Coping With Hunger And Poverty In Ethiopia has found that many Ethiopians rely on overseas food aid in order to survive and that food supplies are now less reliable than they were in 1984.

Negative consequences of relying on food aid also include "long-term dependency, laziness + reduced self-reliance" and the report suggests that, rather than continue to focus on crisis-managing famines, aid organisations should focus on "strategies for coping with hunger and the links between food insecurity + poverty."

Pentagon report on Abrupt Climate Change

You might like to read the US Pentagon's recent report entitled An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security, which concludes:

It is quite plausible that within a decade the evidence of an imminent abrupt climate shift may become clear and reliable. It is also possible that our models will better enable us to predict the consequences. In that event the United States will need to take urgent action to prevent and mitigate some of the most significant impacts. Diplomatic action will be needed to minimize the likelihood of conflict in the most impacted areas, especially in the Caribbean and Asia. However, large population movements in this scenario are inevitable. Learning how to manage those populations, border tensions that arise and the resulting refugees will be critical. New forms of security agreements dealing specifically with energy, food and water will also be needed. In short, while the US itself will be relatively better off and with more adaptive capacity, it will find itself in a world where Europe will be struggling internally, large number so refugees washing up on its shores and Asia in serious crisis over food and water. Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life.

The Bush administration's environmental record

In the US, the Natural Resources Defense Council has put together a detailed summary of the Bush administration's record when it comes to favouring short-term economic growth over long-term environmental health...

The attacks on hard-won environmental protection are wide-ranging + profound, and (to be frank!) difficult to believe...

I'll therefore let Bush's record on Air, Energy + Global Warming, Wildlands + Wildlife, Water + Oceans, Toxic Chemicals + Health, Nuclear Weapons + Waste and Other Issues speak for itself...

Read it and weep!