projectpowerplant.com

AP

The dwindling march of the penguins is signaling that the world’s oceans are in trouble, scientists now say. Penguins may be the tuxedo-clad version of a canary in the coal mine, with generally ailing populations from a combination of global warming, ocean oil pollution, depleted fisheries, and tourism and development, according to a new scientific review paper.

A University of Washington biologist detailed specific problems around the world with remote penguin populations, linking their decline to the overall health of southern oceans.

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Scientists figure there are between 16 to 19 species of penguins. About a dozen are in some form of trouble, Boersma wrote. A few, such as the king penguin found in islands north of Antarctica, are improving in numbers, she said.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature lists three penguin species as endangered, seven as vulnerable, which means they are “facing a high risk of extinction in the wild,” and two more as “near threatened.” About 15 years ago only five to seven penguin species were considered vulnerable, experts said.

And the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has already listed one penguin species on its endangered list, is studying whether it needs to add 10 more.

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For the ice-loving Adelie penguins, global warming in the western Antarctica peninsula is a problem, making it harder for them to find food, said Phil Trathan, head of conservation biology at the British Antarctic Survey, a top penguin scientist who had no role in the new report.

For penguins that live on the Galapagos island, El Nino weather patterns are a problem because the warmer water makes penguins travel farther for food, at times abandoning their chicks, Boersma said. At the end of the 1998 record El Nino, female penguins were only 80 percent of their normal body weight. Scientists have tied climate change to stronger El Ninos.

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“What happens to penguins, a few years down the road can happen to a lot of other species and possibly humans,” said longtime penguin expert Susie Ellis, now executive director of the International Rhino Foundation.

AP Photo/OBED ZILWA

yahoo news

Singapore is known for its greenery but it may soon be recognised for its blue — as in blue water.

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Recently finished after about three years of construction, the 240-million Singapore dollar (176 million US) Marina Barrage will create a new source of precious water in a city-state with almost no natural resources of its own.

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Below the bridge are nine steel gates that act as a tidal barrier, the developers said. The gates are activated by giant black cylinders that look like cannons.

On one side of the bridge, sun glints off the rippling greenish sea filled with ships. On the other side, the still water is brownish against a backdrop of Singapore’s business district.

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PUB officials say rainwater will eventually flush out that sea water. Probably by early 2010, they say, the flushing will have created a freshwater lake for drinking and recreational use on the edge of the city’s commercial heart and a burgeoning tourist and entertainment district.

Yap said the type of fish in the water will change along with the water. “There will be a different biodiversity,” he said.

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The barrage itself is completed but final work continues on a visitors’ centre.

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During heavy rain, the barrage’s steel gates can be opened to release storm water into the sea at low tide, the PUB says.

At high tide, seven pumps inside a spacious and bright building at one end of the barrage will send the excess storm water into the sea, helping to ease the threat of flooding in older, low-lying parts of the city.

During a test of the flood gates, water pours into the sea, making it look like a wide stretch of frothy rapids.

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Water from Marina Reservoir and others in the city is one of four sources of Singapore’s water. Some is imported from Malaysia, some comes from a desalination plant, and the rest is known as NEWater. The NEWater starts as treated sewage, which is reclaimed and further purified. Most of it goes to industrial and commercial users, PUB says.

For Singapore, the Marina Barrage project marks the culmination of a cleanup effort that began about two decades ago when working barges still plied and polluted the main Singapore River.

Now, tiny fish dart about in city river water, which is visited at times by long-necked white birds.

But the water is certainly not blue. After heavy rain the rivers become a soupy olive-brown and filled with vegetation, discarded plastic drink bottles and other garbage.

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Clean-up crews in small boats patrol the water system but the PUB is counting on the public to play their part in keeping their aquatic playground and drinking fountain clean.

“We want them to understand that water should be something that you cherish,” Yap said.

Eventually, he said, they hope the water will be blue.

The Marina Barrage is seen under construction in Singapore, in April. Recently finished after about three years of construction, the 240-million Singapore dollar (176 million USD) Marina Barrage will create a new source of precious water in a city-state with almost no natural resources of its own.

(AFP/File/Roslan Rahman)

dailybreeze.com

It’s an everyday conundrum, a question we’re all asked once, twice, maybe several times a week:

“Paper or plastic?”

How about, “Neither, I’ve got my own”?

Turns out what was once the token accouterment of a Birkenstock-wearing few has become the latest fashion accessory.

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Cobb’s site, which has been around since 2003, sells more than 150 different kinds of reusable grocery bags, because studies have shown both paper and plastic take their toll on the environment.

Paper bags, for instance, often thought to be the “right” choice, actually require 40 percent more energy to manufacture than plastic bags, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; they also require 91 percent more energy to recycle, pound for pound.As for plastic bags, 500 billion to 1 trillion are consumed annually worldwide. Consequently, they rank as one of the 10 most common trash items along the American coast and pose serious health hazards to sea animals who accidentally ingest them, mistaking them for jellyfish.

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Last year, the city of San Francisco banned nonbiodegradable plastic bags from being distributed at all large supermarkets, as well as smaller chain stores (including Rite Aid and Longs). The stores can now only offer recyclable paper bags, reusable bags or compostable “bio-plastic” bags made of cornstarch or potato starch.

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“We don’t think bans are the right approach,” said Keith Christman, senior director of packaging for the Plastics Division of the American Chemistry Council, an organization representing plastic-bag manufacturers. “Bans will result in a switch to alternative materials; the likely switch is to paper. If you switch to paper, it doubles energy use, doubles greenhouse gas emissions and water use.”

Furthermore, he said, surveys have shown that 92 percent of Americans reuse their plastic bags as trash can liners, lunch bags and for pet waste pickup - which saves new bags from being made for those purposes.

But Cobb maintains that the problem isn’t using disposable bags; it’s wasting them.

“It doesn’t matter that it’s paper or plastic; it matters that you use it and you toss it,” Cobb said. “The problem is the mindless overconsumption of use-and-toss items.”

The fashion world is on his side. In the past couple of years, reusable shopping bags have earned a celebrity chic status.

British designer Anya Hindmarch’s “I’m Not A Plastic Bag” unbleached cotton bag, for instance, sold out on the day of its release last year, with some shoppers lining up as early as 4 a.m. to get their hands on the $15 tote.

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If you don’t mind shelling out $960, Hermes has its Silky Pop grocery bag made of hand-wrought silk. The bag collapses into a wallet-size calfskin pouch.

Other designer shopping bags include Castiglioni’s foldable nylon bag, which retails for $843, and Stella McCartney’s organic canvas shopper, $495.

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Trader Joe’s sells a variety of reusable bags for less than $3. Upping the incentive to reuse: Customers who use any reusable grocery bag at Trader Joe’s can enter the store’s monthly lottery to win $50 worth of free groceries.

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Some bags have double do-gooding incentives.

The West Los Angeles clothing boutique Intuition (www.shopintuiton.com) donates $35 from the sale of every $85-$100 Market bag to the International Rescue Committee.

And, proceeds from the natural burlap and canvas FEED (The Children of the World) bag, designed by presidential niece Lauren Bush, benefit the U.N.’s World Food Program.

“We tried to make it a dual purpose in helping the kids who are hungry and also using fewer plastic bags,” said Ellen Gustafson, Bush’s partner in FEED Projects. “If we sell 500,000 bags, we’ll be able to feed all the kids in Rwanda’s school feeding program in 2008.”

And really: You can’t get that with a disposable bag.

Variety of reusable market bags at Whole Foods Market in El Segundo. (Brad Graverson/Staff Photographer)

independent.co.uk

It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year.

The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer.

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If it happens, it raises the prospect of the Arctic nations being able to exploit the valuable oil and mineral deposits below these a bed which have until now been impossible to extract because of the thick sea ice above.

Seasoned polar scientists believe the chances of a totally ice-free North Pole this summer are greater than 50:50 because the normally thick ice formed over many years at the Pole has been blown away and replaced by huge swathes of thinner ice formed over a single year.

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Each summer the sea ice melts before reforming again during the long Arctic winter but the loss of sea ice last year was so extensive that much of the Arctic Ocean became open water, with the water-ice boundary coming just 700 miles away from the North Pole.

This meant that about 70 per cent of the sea ice present this spring was single-year ice formed over last winter. Scientists predict that at least 70 per cent of this single-year ice – and perhaps all of it – will melt completely this summer, Dr Serreze said.

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Ron Lindsay, a polar scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle, agreed that much now depends on what happens to the Arctic weather in terms of wind patterns and hours of sunshine. “There’s a good chance that it will all melt away at the North Pole, it’s certainly feasible, but it’s not guaranteed,” Dr Lindsay said.

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There are other indications that the Arctic sea ice is showing signs of breaking up. Scientists at the Nasa Goddard Space Flight Centre said that the North Water ‘polynya’ – an expanse of open water surrounded on all sides by ice – that normally forms near Alaska and Banks Island off the Canadian coast, is much larger than normal. Polynyas absorb heat from the sun and eat away at the edge of the sea ice.

Inuit natives living near Baffin Bay between Canada and Greenland are also reporting that the sea ice there is starting to break up much earlier than normal and that they have seen wide cracks appearing in the ice where it normally remains stable. Satellite measurements collected over nearly 30 years show a significant decline in the extent of the Arctic sea ice, which has become more rapid in recent years.

Independent Graphics

Kansas State University

Research by two Kansas State University scientists could help with the large-scale cultivation and manufacturing of oil-rich algae in oceans for biofuel.

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Algae are a diverse and simple group of organisms that live in or near water. Certain algal species are high in oil content that could be converted into such fuels as biodiesel, according to Pei and Yuan. Algae also have several environmentally-friendly advantages over corn or other plants used for biofuels, including not needing soil or fresh water to grow.

Pei and Yuan plan to identify attributes of algae and properties of materials that enable growth of certain algae species on solid carriers. Solid carriers float on the water surface for algae to attach to and grow on.

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Yuan, who has studied biodiesel for several years, said the major problem with making the fuel has been finding sustainable oil and fat sources.

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Pei said the project also will have an educational benefit, with K-State College of Engineering graduate and undergraduate students to be involved in the multidisciplinary research.

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reuters

Afghanistan’s snow leopards have barely survived three decades of war. But now the few remaining mountain leopards left in Afghanistan face another threat — foreigners involved in rebuilding the war-torn country.

Despite a complete hunting ban across Afghanistan since 2002, snow leopard furs regularly end up for sale on international military bases and at tourist bazaars in the capital. Foreigners have ready cash to buy the pelts as souvenirs and impoverished Afghans break poaching laws to supply them.

Tucked between souvenir stores on Chicken Street, Kabul’s main tourist trap, several shops sell fur coats and pelts taken from many of Afghanistan’s threatened and endangered animals.

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Snow leopards along with several other animals in Afghanistan are listed as endangered or threatened under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Anyone caught knowingly transporting a fur across an international border is liable to a large fine. In the United States, it could result in a $100,000 fine and one year jail term.

It is hard to know the exact numbers of snow leopards left in Afghanistan due to the creatures’ elusive nature and the lack of any case studies during the last three decades of conflict, said Dr. Peter Smallwood, Afghanistan country director for the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

But what is known is that the snow leopard is endangered.

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Destruction of infrastructure, movements of refugees, modern weaponry, extreme poverty and a lack of law enforcement together with drought and deforestation are just some of the factors that have devastated Afghanistan’s flora and fauna.

There are now only between 100 to 200 snow leopards estimated to be left in Afghanistan. In comparison, Bhutan has the same number but has three times less the area of habitat.

The estimated number of snow leopards in the wild worldwide is between 3,500 and 7000, according to the International Snow Leopard Trust (ISLT).

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When the U.S. embassy’s Miller first moved to Afghanistan he discovered a widespread practice of selling endangered animal parts to foreigners.

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In a bid to stop poaching of snow leopards, the U.S. embassy and the WCS targeted the buyers.

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Since August last year, Miller and the WCS have been educating military and civilian staff, in particular those in charge of mail services, on how to recognize endangered and threatened animal furs as well as conducting “raids” on U.S. military bases.

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Within two weeks of their first training session on a U.S. base just outside Kabul, the military had managed to “virtually eliminate” any trade of these products on the base, he said.

Local traders who offer their wares on military bases are issued with a warning if they are caught selling the furs and are barred from returning if caught again.

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But the threats to the snow leopard still remain.

“With numbers this low I wouldn’t want to say …if we just fix this problem the rest is fine. All of these problems need to be dealt with. Losing 10 animals could be as much as 10 percent of the population,” Smallwood said.

A female snow leopard with its cub is seen inside its enclosure at a zoological park in Darjeeling, about 80 km (50 miles) north from the northeastern Indian city of Siliguri June 21, 2007.

REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri

reuters

Rising temperatures have forced many plants to creep to higher elevations to survive, researchers reported on Thursday.

More than two-thirds of the plants studied along six West European mountain ranges climbed an average of 29 meters in altitude in each decade since 1905 to better conditions on higher ground, the researchers reported in the journal Science.

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Earlier this week, U.S. researchers warned warming temperatures could turn many of California’s native plants into “plant refugees” looking for more suitable habitats.

They concluded that a warming climate and rainfall changes would force many of the U.S. state’s native plants to range north or to higher elevations or possibly even go extinct in the next 100 years.

The French team’s findings suggest plants at high altitudes face the same or greater impacts from rising temperatures, Lenoir said in a telephone interview.

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Using database on plant species found at specific locations and elevations stretching back to 1905, the researchers showed many plants have steadily crept higher to conditions best suited for survival and growth.

Plants move higher by dispersing their seeds in the wind, which blows them to higher elevations and cooler temperatures similar to their former location, Lenoir said.

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They found that two-thirds of the plants responded to warming temperatures over that time by shifting to higher altitudes.

Plants at higher altitudes also appear most sensitive to warmer conditions because slight temperature changes at higher altitudes have a bigger impact, he added.

Rain clouds shroud a forest near the western Austrian city of Dornbirn, June 12, 2007. Rising temperatures have forced many plants to creep to higher elevations to survive, researchers reported on Thursday.

REUTERS/Miro Kuzmanovic

timesonline.co.uk

Five years after the hit film that endeared the clownfish to audiences the world over, Nemo is becoming increasingly difficult to find.

The lovable tropical species, immortalised in the smash Pixar movie Finding Nemo, is facing extinction in many parts of the world because of soaring demand from the pet trade, according to marine biologists.

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Dr Billy Sinclair, of the University of Cumbria, who has been studying clownfish populations for five years, says the species should now be listed as endangered.

Studies of clownfish on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef have revealed a dramatic population decline since the release of the movie in 2003. Shoals that used to number dozens of clownfish have dwindled to just a few specimens, leaving them with difficulty breeding, Dr Sinclair says.

Over-harvesting for the pet trade at a time when many reefs are starting to die back from bleaching - caused by rising sea temperatures - is thought to be the main culprit.

Dr Sinclair said the film – the best-selling DVD of all time at over 40 million copies – had done much to educate children about marine life. But as the tiny, brightly-coloured creature had since become a “must-have” pet, captive breeding programmes could now only meet about 50 per cent of demand. The rest are captured from the wild.

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With a central message against keeping marine life in captivity, the film featured a host of Hollywood stars such as Ellen DeGeneres, Willem Defoe and Geoffrey Rush.

Following its release, it became a favourite screening at snorkelling and diving hotspots around the world. But within months, the scuba diving industry was reporting a steep decline in sightings of the diminutive creature, while some pet suppliers saw an eight-fold increase in sales.

(Disney/Pixar/Reuters)

emagazine.com

Jennifer Phillips always felt guilty that her large Nashville law firm didn’t recycle. So after big client meetings, she collected all the empty plastic water bottles, took them home and added them to her own curbside recycling bin. Now, she is proud to report that her firm, Bass, Berry & Sims, serves an icy pitcher of tap water during meetings. “We even have glasses with the company logo on them,” she says. Phillips estimates switching to tap keeps 3,000 plastic water bottles per week out of the landfill. It’s a trend that is taking hold in the U.S., Europe and Canada: more people are switching from bottled water to tap. Call it reverse snob appeal. Bottled water once carried a certain European mystique. But these days, it’s the tap water enthusiasts, concerned about the environment, who get to act self-righteous. Just like it has become cool to bring your own cloth bags to the grocery store and your own mug to the coffee shop, the reusable water bottle is the hip, new eco accessory.

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In Canada, the bottled water issue has become, as Wilk says, an “uprising.” College students are staging protests—declaring “bottled water-free zones” on campus. High school activists are raising questions about why their school board members are locking them into a contract with Coke or Pepsi (makers of Aquafina and Dasani bottled water) when they have access to drinking fountains for free. Some students have jokingly started to sell bottled air for $1.

In an even bolder move, the United Church of Canada asked its three million members to consider banning bottled water during meetings and events. “We just had a lot of concerns about governance and accountability,” says Julie Graham, who leads the anti-bottled water campaign for a Toronto ecumenical activist group called Kairos. “Why is it people in Canada are willing to pay twice as much for bottled water as for gasoline? We started challenging that and raising questions about billions of empty bottles going into landfills.”

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Another big push for the bottled water backlash came during World Water Day 2007, when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom declared a ban on bottled water contracts for all city departments. Instead of bottled water vending machines, he installed large dispensers in city buildings that poured out pure tap water from the Sierra mountains. Other cities, from Chicago to Salt Lake, followed suit.

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It takes 15 million barrels of oil per year to make all of the plastic water bottles in America, according to the Container Recycling Institute. Sending those bottles by air and truck uses even more fossil fuel.

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It takes 1,000 years for plastic bottles to break down, CRI estimates. But when they do, they disintegrate into tiny bits. The green and blue bottles, especially, look like tasty food to fish and shorebirds. Scientists are finding these dead animals on the beach, with bellies full of plastic pellets.

If more states added deposits on bottled water bottles, it might spur recycling. Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA) has even proposed a national beverage bottle bill. But PET water bottles (short for polyethylene terephthalate) can only be recycled a few times. What about going back to refillable glass bottles? For one thing, they are heavy to ship. And Zero Waste expert Neil Seldman of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance doesn’t imagine anyone could persuade the beverage industry to go that route. “They have always lobbied against it,” Seldman says. “The industry does not want to deal with it after people buy their product—they want to wash their hands of the containers.” That’s why it makes the most sense to avoid creating the waste in the first place by drinking tap from your own container, Seldman says.

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The IBWA argues that bottled water companies are responding to environmental concerns by making lighter bottles that require less plastic in the manufacturing process. Kay says the industry does invest significant money to improve access to recycling at large public venues, such as airports and concert halls. Companies like Nalgene, Sigg and Brita are aggressively marketing their refillable bottles and home filters as a more responsible option.

When it comes to reusable bottles, however, consumers still need to do their homework. Research shows that clear bottles made of polycarbonate plastic (such as the original 32-ounce Nalgene) can leach bisphenol-A (BPA). This is an endocrine-disrupting chemical that acts like estrogen in the body. BPA essentially tricks your body into thinking it’s estrogen, says Washington State University Researcher Patricia Hunt. She discovered the dangers of BPA when some of her polycarbonate mouse cages started to leach BPA, causing infertility in female mice.

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Now that more people are trying get out of the bottled water habit, groups like Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and EWG wonder if this new awareness will translate into more support for public water supplies, and for water conservation in general.

Once you kick the bottle, they say, the next step is to get educated and get involved—find out what your water system needs and start pushing your elected officials to bring more funds to bear on the problem. According to NRDC, the EPA has asked for billions of dollars for a public water supply needs assessment. But the Bush Administration has allocated only a small portion of that request, says NRDC attorney Mae Wu.

“People are very concerned about what’s in their water because we drink so much of it,” says Jane Houlihan, EWG’s vice president for research. “We’re advocating for more protection for the waters that are the source of what comes out of kitchen faucets.”

MELISSA KNOPPER is a Colorado-based science writer and tap water enthusiast.

reuters

The costs of making electricity with solar power within a decade will reach parity with power made with fossil fuels like natural gas and coal, a study announced on Tuesday by supporters of renewable and solar energy says.

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The statement says solar power can make 10 percent of U.S. power generation by 2025, or about 255,000 of installed solar generation.

Installed solar power — both photovoltaic and concentrated solar power — has jumped to 3,000 megawatts in 2008 from 600 MW in 2003, the study said. Even that higher number is less than a tenth of 1 percent of total U.S. power generation.

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Among the study’s findings is that the average cost for solar photovoltaic power will drop to 8 to 18 cents per kilowatt-hour by 2015 from today’s 15 to 32 cents per KWh, and further to 4 to 8 cents per KWh by 2025.

The study was written after more than 30 interviews with solar, utility, financial and policy experts and a study of market data, Clean Edge said.

A different study by the U.S. Energy Department and wind power industry advocates issued in May said it is feasible to have 20 percent of U.S. power generation from wind power by 2030. U.S. installed wind generation is about 16,000 MW now. (Reporting by Bernard Woodall, editing by Mark Porter)