Environmental Everythings

Penguins facing longer commute for food

2009-02-12T22:44:00.000-05:00

By Julie Steenhuysen

Reuters

CHICAGO - A penguin species found in Argentina is under threat because climate change is forcing the birds to swim farther to find food, researchers said on Thursday.

Climate change has displaced fish populations, so Magellanic penguins must swim "an extra 25 miles further from the nest for fish," University of Washington professor Dee Boersma told reporters at the American Association of the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago.

While that might not sound like much, she said that while the penguins are swimming an extra 50 miles, their mates are sitting on a nest and starving.

"They are racing against their own physiology," Boersma told the meeting.

The penguins, which live on Argentina's Atlantic coast, are also laying their eggs three days later, she said.

"That means their breeding season is really short now and the chance of their chicks leaving at the wrong time, when there is not food out there, is getting greater and greater," she said.

Last summer, Boersma reported that the Punta Tombo colony she tracks about 1,000 miles south of Buenos Aires has fallen by more than 20 percent in the past 22 years, leaving just 200,000 breeding pairs.

She said some younger penguins are now moving their breeding colonies north to be closer to fish, but, in some cases, this is putting them on private, unprotected lands.

Twelve out of 17 penguin species are experiencing rapid population declines, she said.

Boersma, who has tracked Magellanic penguins in their breeding colony for the past 25 years, said they serve as a barometer of the effects of climate change.

"They keep us abreast of what is happening, not only in the ocean, but on land," she said.

"We really have to reduce our impacts," she said. "If we don't, both penguins and humans will suffer."

New flying car already has buyers waiting

2009-01-22T14:15:00.005-05:00

Have we hit the age of The Jetsons? Remember the fold up flying cars in the cartoon? Well soon you can buy one for your garage. Right now there are car crashes every day. I'm not sure I want the "average Joe" crashing his flying car into another flying car over my roof. Read on:

'Flying Car' Goes to Market

Irene Klotz, Discovery News

Jan. 22, 2009 -- A Boston-area company plans to begin flight tests this year of a two-seater airplane that moonlights as a car.

The aptly named Transition takes a stab at bridging the gap between automobiles and airplanes. Some people call it a flying car. The company designing and selling the vehicle prefers the term "roadable aircraft."

Either way, it boils down to this: You sit down behind the steering wheel, drive to the runway, unfold two wings and take off. You can fly 500 miles on a tank of gas -- regular unleaded -- and when you land, you simply fold up the wings and drive where you want to go. At the end of the day, you fly back, drive home and park inside your garage.

Terrafugia, of Woburn, Mass., is not the first firm to attempt what may be the ultimate hybrid.

"It's probably a concept that people have been dreaming up since there have been airplanes and cars," said Dick Knapinski with the Experimental Aircraft Association, a 55-year-old aviation group based in Oshkosh, Wisc.

A company called Aerocar of Longview, Wash., debuted one of the first flying cars in 1949. The company built six prototypes, one of which is sitting in the EAA's museum, but never went into production.

Terrafugia, founded in 2006 by a group of MIT students, has taken deposits for more than 40 Transitions and plans to begin deliveries in 2010, said Richard Gersh, vice president of business development.

The vehicles sell for $194,000.

Advances in materials and propulsion technologies are among the reasons why Terrafugia is in position for commercial success. But equally important, says Knapinski, is an easing of government regulations on private aircraft and pilot licensing.

In 2004, the Federal Aviation Administration created a new category of aircraft and license for sport aviation, an attempt to re-awaken interest in flying after steady drops in the number of licensed pilots.

In the United States, about 600,000 people are licensed to fly aircraft, a drop of 25 percent since 1980, Knapinski said.

"The FAA and the aviation industry realized there has to be a way to get people interested in flying. Even the airline pilots of today had to start somewhere with basic flying. There had to be an entry point that was practical and affordable," he said.

Sport pilot licenses don't require as many hours of training as private and commercial pilot licenses, though sport fliers are not eligible to take off and land at runways with air traffic control towers. The medical requirements for sport pilots also are less stringent than for other types of pilot licenses, matching what is needed for a driver's license.

"What the FAA and the government say by having that rule is that these vehicles have the same level of complexity as motor vehicles," Knapinski told Discovery News. "You fly in non-complex airspace at relatively low speed."

Regulations covering the new category of sport aviation aircraft likewise are reduced.

"It gives us an opportunity," said Terrafugia's Gersh. "We could never compete with Cessna or Boeing."

One of the biggest obstacles facing a company like Terrafugia in launching a personal aircraft is not technical in nature or even cost, added Knapinski. It's perception.

"The comfort level for a significant percentage of the population is not there," Knapinski said. "They just don't believe they can operate this type of machine."

Perhaps having an airplane under the same roof as the family car will be just the ticket.

For more info and photos see www.terrafugia.com

Study: Cleaner air adds 5 months to US life span

2009-01-22T03:36:00.001-05:00

By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer

LOS ANGELES – Cleaner air over the past two decades has added nearly five months to average life expectancy in the United States, according to a federally funded study. Researchers said it is the first study to show that reducing air pollution translates into longer lives.

Between 1978 and 2001, Americans' average life span increased almost three years to 77, and as much as 4.8 months of that can be attributed to cleaner air, researchers from Brigham Young University and Harvard School of Public Health reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Some experts not connected with the study called the gain dramatic.

"It shows that our efforts as a country to control air pollution have been well worth the expense," said Dr. Joel Kaufman, a University of Washington expert on environmental health.

Scientists have long known that the grit in polluted air, or particulates, can lodge deep in the lungs and raise the risk of lung disease, heart attacks and strokes. The grit — made of dust, soot and various chemicals — comes from factories, power plants and diesel-powered vehicles.

In 1970, Congress passed a revised Clean Air Act that gave the Environmental Protection Agency the power to set and enforce national standards to protect people from particulate matter, carbon monoxide and other pollutants.

The law is widely credited with improving the nation's air quality through such things as catalytic converters on cars and scrubbers at new factories.

For the study, scientists used government data to track particulate pollution levels over two decades in 51 U.S. cities. They compared these changes to life expectancies calculated from death records and census data. They adjusted the results to take into account other things that might affect life expectancy, such as smoking habits, income, education and migration.

On average, particulate matter levels fell from 21 micrograms per cubic meter of air to 14 micrograms per cubic meter in the cities studied. At the same time, Americans lived an average 2.72 years longer.

"We saw that communities that had larger reductions in air pollution on average had larger increases in life expectancies," said the study's lead author, C. Arden Pope III, a Brigham Young epidemiologist.

Pittsburgh and Buffalo, N.Y., which made the most progress cleaning up their air, saw life spans increase by about 10 months. Los Angeles, Indianapolis and St. Louis were among the cities that saw gains in life expectancy of around five months.

The study was partly funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and EPA.

"This finding provides direct confirmation of the population health benefits of mitigating air pollution," Daniel Krewski, who does pollution research at the University of Ottawa in Canada, wrote in an accompanying editorial.

In a statement, the EPA said such studies provide critical information that can help the agency set standards on particulates. EPA data show that average particulate levels nationally have fallen 11 percent since 2000.

Last year, government researchers reported that U.S. life expectancy has surpassed 78 years for the first time. They attributed the increase to falling mortality rates for nine of the 15 leading causes of death, including heart disease, cancer, accidents and diabetes.

Tons of coal ash stored in ponds

2009-01-09T22:32:00.000-05:00

Nearly 20 million tons of coal ash stored in ponds in 2005 with no federal oversight

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Millions of tons of toxic coal ash is piling up in power plant ponds in 32 states, a practice the federal government has long recognized as a risk to human health and the environment but has left unregulated.

An Associated Press analysis of the most recent Energy Department data found that 156 coal-fired power plants store ash in surface ponds similar to the one that collapsed last month in Tennessee.

Records indicate that states storing the most coal ash in ponds are Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia and Alabama.

The man-made lagoons hold a mixture of the noncombustible ingredients of coal and the ash trapped by equipment designed to reduce air pollution from the power plants.

Over the years, the volume of waste has grown as demand for electricity increased and the federal government clamped down on emissions from power plants.

Climate warming means food shortages, study warns

2009-01-08T23:13:00.001-05:00

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor, Reuters

WASHINGTON - The warming climate is likely to put stress on crops and livestock alike and could cause serious food shortages for half the world's population, U.S. researchers predicted on Thursday.

The worst effects will be in the regions where the poorest people already live -- the tropics and subtropics, the researchers wrote in the journal Science. But temperate regions will see very warm average temperatures, they added.

"In temperate regions, the hottest seasons on record will represent the future norm in many locations," David Battisti, a University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor, and Rosamond Naylor, director of Food Security and the Environment at California's Stanford University, wrote in their report.

The two combined direct observations with data from 23 global climate models.

They found a greater than a 90 percent probability that by 2100, growing-season low temperatures in the tropics and subtropics will be higher than the highest current temperatures.

"We are taking the worst of what we've seen historically and saying that in the future it is going to be a lot worse unless there is some kind of adaptation," Naylor said.

There have been some recent tastes of what is to come, such as a heat wave that struck Europe in summer 2003 and resulted in deaths and reduced food production, they said.

Record temperatures hurt key crops including maize and fruit and accelerated crop ripening by 10 to 20 days. Livestock were stressed, the soil was dryer and more water was used in agriculture, they said.

Italy experienced a record drop in maize yields of 36 percent from a year earlier, and in France maize and fodder production fell by 30 percent, fruit harvests declined by 25 percent and wheat harvests declined by 21 percent, they wrote.

"I think what startled me the most is that when we looked at our historic examples there were ways to address the problem within a given year. People could always turn somewhere else to find food," Naylor said. "But in the future there's not going to be any place to turn unless we rethink our food supplies."

Battisti said 3 billion people live in the areas that will be worst affected. The researchers urged investment in development of crop varieties that can withstand higher heat.

"You are talking about hundreds of millions of additional people looking for food because they won't be able to find it where they find it now," he said.

"The stresses on global food production from temperature alone are going to be huge, and that doesn't take into account water supplies stressed by the higher temperatures."

Scientists find new penguin, extinct for 500 years

2008-11-19T18:03:00.002-05:00

In this 2006 photo released Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008 by the New Zealand Science Media Centre shown is a yellow-eyed penguin. Australian and New Zealand researchers studying one of the world's rare and endangered penguins have uncovered a previously unknown penguin species that disappeared about 500 years ago.

By RAY LILLEY, Associated Press Writer

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Researchers studying a rare and endangered species of penguin have uncovered a previously unknown species that disappeared about 500 years ago.

The research suggests that the first humans in New Zealand hunted the newly found Waitaha penguin to extinction by 1500, about 250 years after their arrival on the islands. But the loss of the Waitaha allowed another kind of penguin to thrive — the yellow-eyed species that now also faces extinction, Philip Seddon of Otago University, a co-author of the study, said Wednesday.

The team was testing DNA from the bones of prehistoric modern yellow-eyed penguins for genetic changes associated with human settlement when it found some bones that were older — and had different DNA.

Tests on the older bones "lead us to describe a new penguin species that became extinct only a few hundred years ago," the team reported in a paper in the biological research journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

Polynesian settlers came to New Zealand around 1250 and are known to have hunted species such as the large, flightless moa bird to extinction.

Seddon said dating techniques used on bones pulled from old Maori trash pits revealed a gap in time between the disappearance of the Waitaha and the arrival of the yellow-eyed penguin.

The gap indicates the extinction of the older bird created the opportunity for the newer to colonize New Zealand's main islands around 500 years ago, said Sanne Boessenkool, an Otago University doctoral student who led the team of researchers, including some from Australia's Adelaide University and New Zealand's Canterbury Museum.

Competition between the two penguin species may have previously prevented the yellow-eyed penguin from expanding north, the researchers noted.

David Penny of New Zealand's Massey University, who was not involved in the research, said the Waitaha was an example of another native species that was unable to adapt to a human presence.

"In addition, it is vitally important to know how species, such as the yellow-eyed penguin, are able to respond to new opportunities," he said. "It is becoming apparent that some species can respond to things like climate change, and others cannot. The more we know, the more we can help."

The yellow-eyed penguin is considered one of the world's rarest. An estimated population of 7,000 in New Zealand is the focus of an extensive conservation effort.

Canada seeks climate pact with United States

2008-11-06T16:35:00.000-05:00

By David Ljunggren

Reuters

OTTAWA - Canada's Conservative government is interested in negotiating a climate change pact with the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, which looks set to take a tougher line on the environment than did President George W. Bush, an official said on Thursday.

Obama's election could cause problems for Ottawa, since he favors tougher emission cuts than the Conservatives and has expressed alarm over what he sees as excessive U.S. reliance on "dirty oil" -- much of which comes from Canada's tar sands.

Concluding a pact could placate Washington by agreeing on tougher emissions standards while recognizing the importance of the tar sands, located in the western province of Alberta. Extracting oil from the sands produces huge amounts of greenhouse gases.

Canada is the largest single supplier of energy to the United States, accounting for around 9 percent of U.S. oil consumption and 15 percent of U.S. natural gas consumption.

The two nations have worked together before on green issues, most notably in 1991, when they signed a landmark agreement to cut acid rain.

"We do want to explore the possibility of a Canada/U.S. agreement similar to what we did on acid rain in the early 1990s," said a spokesman for Environment Minister Jim Prentice. He would not give further details.

Obama's targets for emissions cuts are much tougher than those set by Canada's Conservatives, who -- like Bush -- walked away from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

The energy industry in Canada is immensely influential and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who comes from oil-rich Alberta, has long stressed that any measures designed to clean up the environment should not overly harm the oil patch.

He said on Thursday that he believed the incoming Obama administration would adopt tougher green policies "but will do so in a way that balances the environmental concerns with economic and energy concerns".

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers welcomed the idea of harmonized climate change regulations but warned against singling out the oil sands.

"We want clear and consistent policy that should be across the board and no discriminatory measures saying only here (the oil sands) and not there (the United States)," said Greg Stringham, a vice-president at the association.

Greenpeace campaigner Mike Hudema welcomed Obama's victory, saying it said could spell big changes for the oil sands.

"There is a growing movement to curb dirty oil imports and start building a clean energy future and it's time our governments get on board," he said in a statement.

But Harper, speaking to reporters in Toronto, suggested that Washington would have to balance its desire for more environmental regulations with Canada's importance as a key energy supplier.

"The United States faces major challenges if you're talking about energy security and Canada remains the most important and most secure U.S. source of energy. It's a reality for any president of the United States," he said.

Measuring extinction, species by species

2008-11-05T21:56:00.000-05:00

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent Reuters

OSLO - The Yangtze River dolphin, the Christmas Island shrew and the Venezuelan skunk frog are all victims in an alarming flood of extinctions, but how do scientists decide when such "possibly extinct" creatures no longer exist?

The United Nations says the world faces the worst spate of extinctions since the dinosaurs vanished 65 million years ago, with man-made threats such as rising populations, felling of forests, hunting, pollution and climate change.

Yet proving that any individual species has gone the way of the dodo necessarily demands long, fruitless searching.

"If there's one thing in my career I'd like to be proved wrong about, it's the baiji," said Sam Turvey of the Zoological Society of London, using another name for the Yangtze River dolphin.

Turvey spent almost 3 months this year interviewing Chinese fishermen in vain for sightings of the long-snouted dolphin, which has not been seen since 2002. Some colleagues in China are still looking.

The baiji was almost declared extinct in 2006 after an acoustic and visual survey of the river turned up nothing. Then, a blurry video gave experts pause, and it was rated "possibly extinct."

About 300 plant and animal species, including the Christmas Island shrew and the Venezuelan skunk frog are also "possibly extinct," the worst category short of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List.

If Turvey's study turns up no firm evidence, it will likely push the Yangtze River dolphin into the "extinct" column, said Mike Hoffmann, who manages a global project to assess species for the IUCN and Conservation International.

It would be the first "megafauna" mammal -- one weighing more than 100 kg (220 lb) -- to die out since the Caribbean monk seal in the 1950s.

"To say something is extinct requires quite a lot of proof, of negative evidence, and may take many years to collect," said Craig Hilton-Taylor, who manages Red List.

Scientists working on the "possibly extinct" list rummage in the undergrowth for rare plants, frogs or rats, set up night-time traps for bats or moths, or scour the seabed for corals.

Some experts liken the difficulties to "proving" that the mythical Loch Ness Monster does not exist.

The Christmas Island shrew has not been seen on its Australian island since 1985. The Venezuelan skunk frog, known from a cloud forest habitat of 10 sq km (3.9 sq mile), has not been spotted despite repeated searches.

Despite the difficulties of proof, scientists say species are disappearing at an ever faster rate.

Some 76 mammals have gone extinct since 1500, a much faster rate than in previous centuries, and 29 are "possibly extinct" on the 2008 Red List.

BACK FROM THE DEAD

Extinct species have often unknown economic value, such as the Australian gastric brooding frog, which incubated its young in its stomach and might have pointed to ways to treat ulcers. Or South Africa's bluebuck antelope, which could have boosted tourism.

While most news is bleak, a few "Lazarus" species give cause for celebration -- last year, a lizard presumed extinct turned up on La Palma in Spain's Canary Islands after no sightings in 500 years.

Australian scientists were even delighted to find two dead night parrots in 2006 and 1990, taken as signs the reclusive species survives.

A few years ago the fabulous green sphinx moth, known from one Hawaiian island, was written off as extinct but then experts on another island were flabbergasted to catch one in a net.

Nevertheless, Hoffmann said Red List's demands for evidence meant that it probably underestimated the pace of extinctions. Searches have to be rigorous, at the right seasons, and in nearby habitats, with the correct equipment.

"Scientists want to be cautious" because of the finality of extinction, Hoffman said.

"Possibly extinct" is a category so bleak that it does not even include the critically endangered ivory-billed woodpecker -- subject of speculation about a U.S. comeback after reported sightings in Arkansas in 2004.

"It has never been listed as 'possibly extinct' because there were sightings 20 to 30 years ago in Cuba," Hilton-Taylor said. "There is still good habitat there."

One result of declaring a species extinct is that it inevitably ends cash for conservation -- lending agencies such as the Global Environment Facility use Red List data.

And, when one species goes extinct, new ones become endangered, as is happening on the Yangtze River, where the finless porpoise and the Chinese paddlefish, reported to grow up to 7 meters (23 feet), are also in danger.

"The problem with the Yangtze is that the threats are still there and they are escalating," Turvey said.

And there are wider threats. The U.N. Climate Panel said in 2007 that up to 30 percent of species will face increasing risks of extinction if temperatures rise by another 1 degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit).

The panel, which says temperatures rose 0.7 C in the 20th century, also forecasts more droughts, heatwaves and rising seas linked to human emissions of greenhouse gases spurred mainly by burning fossil fuels.

In a 2006 report, Birdlife expert Stuart Butchart wrote that 150 bird species had gone extinct since 1500, or 0.3 a year. That was 30-300 times the background rate of extinctions -- a natural process deduced from fossil records.

And no one knows the number of species on earth -- one U.N.-backed study estimated 5-30 million against about 2 million documented so far. The U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity estimates they may be vanishing faster than they are found, at a rate of three per hour, the fastest in millions of years.

U.S. to boost geothermal energy use on federal lands

2008-10-22T16:54:00.001-04:00

by Tom Doggett

Reuters

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Interior Department said on Wednesday it would make more than 190 million acres of federal lands in 11 western states and Alaska available to energy companies to develop geothermal energy resources for generating electricity.

"These federal lands ... hold a huge energy potential," said Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne.

He said the geothermal areas that will be leased could provide 5,540 megawatts of electric generation capacity by 2015, enough to meet the power needs of 5.5 million homes.

Tax breaks for geothermal energy that were passed by Congress this month will help support the use of the renewable energy source.

Geothermal energy comes from heat sources deep in the earth that generate electricity with few carbon emissions.

Direct use of geothermal energy supplies heat for buildings, greenhouses, aquaculture and other activities.

The United States is already the world leader in producing electricity from geothermal energy. Twenty-nine geothermal power plants currently operate on federal lands in California, Nevada and Utah, with a total generating capacity of 1,250 megawatts, enough to supply the needs of 1.2 million homes.

Lands within the National Park System, such as Yellowstone National Park, would still be unavailable for leasing under the final geothermal plan.

Half the geothermal leasing revenue and royalties would go to the state where the lease occurred and the relevant county would get 25 percent. The other 25 percent would go to a federal fund for investing in geothermal development.

The department will publish details of its geothermal leasing plan in Friday's edition of the Federal Register of government regulations.

Climate change linked to Indian tiger attacks

2008-10-20T22:24:00.001-04:00

By Sujoy Dhar

Reuters

KOLKATA, India - The number of tiger attacks on people is growing in India's Sundarban islands as habitat loss and dwindling prey caused by climate change drives them to prowl into villages for food, experts said Monday.

Wildlife experts say endangered tigers in the world's largest reserve are turning on humans because rising sea levels and coastal erosion are steadily shrinking the tigers' natural habitat.

The Sundarbans, a 26,000 sq km (10,000 sq mile) area of low-lying swamps on India's border with Bangladesh, is dotted with hundreds of small islands criss-crossed by water channels.

"In the past six months, seven fishermen were killed in an area called Netidhopani," Pranabes Sanyal of the World Conservation Union said.

"Owing to global warming, the fragile Sundarbans lost 28 percent of its habitat in the last 40 years. A part of it is the core tiger reserve area from where their prey migrated."

But as sea levels rise, two islands have already disappeared and others are vulnerable. Wildlife experts say the destruction of the mangroves means the tigers' most common prey, such as crocodiles, fish and big crabs, is dwindling.

Kenya's elephants send text messages to rangers

2008-10-11T22:57:00.002-04:00

Kimani, a huge bull elephant, can be seen with his collar containing a sim card, Friday, Sept. 26, 2008 in the Ol Pejeta conservancy near Mt. Kenya. Save the Elephants has set up a project where they placed a mobile phone SIM card in an elephants collar, then set up a virtual 'geofence' using a global positioning system that mirrored the conservatory's boundaries. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)

By KATHARINE HOURELD
Associated Press Writer

The text message from the elephant flashed across Richard Lesowapir's screen: Kimani was heading for neighboring farms.

The huge bull elephant had a long history of raiding villagers' crops during the harvest, sometimes wiping out six months of income at a time. But this time a mobile phone card inserted in his collar sent rangers a text message. Lesowapir, an armed guard and a driver arrived in a jeep bristling with spotlights to frighten Kimani back into the Ol Pejeta conservancy.

Kenya is the first country to try elephant texting as a way to protect both a growing human population and the wild animals that now have less room to roam. Elephants are ranked as "near threatened" in the Red List, an index of vulnerable species published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The race to save Kimani began two years ago. The Kenya Wildlife Service had already reluctantly shot five elephants from the conservancy who refused to stop crop-raiding, and Kimani was the last of the regular raiders. The Save the Elephants group wanted to see if he could break the habit.

So they placed a mobile phone SIM card in Kimani's collar, then set up a virtual "geofence" using a global positioning system that mirrored the conservatory's boundaries. Whenever Kimani approaches the virtual fence, his collar texts rangers.

They have intercepted Kimani 15 times since the project began. Once almost a nightly raider, he last went near a farmer's field four months ago.

It's a huge relief to the small farmers who rely on their crops for food and cash for school fees. Basila Mwasu, a 31-year-old mother of two, lives a stone's throw from the conservancy fence. She and her neighbors used to drum through the night on pots and pans in front of flaming bonfires to try to frighten the elephants away.

Once an elephant stuck its trunk through a window into a room where her baby daughter was sleeping and the family had stored some corn. She beat it back with a burning stick. Another time, an elephant killed a neighbor who was defending his crop.

"We had to go into town to tell the game (wardens) to chase the elephants away or we're going to kill them all," Mwasu remembered.

But the elephants kept coming back.

Batian Craig, the conservation and security manager at the 90,000 acre Ol Pejeta conservancy, says community development programs are of little use if farmers don't have crops. He recalled the time when 15 families had their harvests wiped out.

"As soon as a farmer has lost his livelihood for six months, he doesn't give a damn whether he has a school or a road or water or whatever," he said.

Iain Douglas-Hamilton, founder of Save the Elephants, said the project is still in its infancy — so far only two geofences have been set up in Kenya — and it has its problems.

Collar batteries wear out every few years. Sometimes communities think placing a collar on an elephant implies ownership and responsibility for the havoc it causes. And it's expensive work — Ol Pejeta has five full-time staff and a standby vehicle to respond when a message flashes across a ranger's screen.

But the experiment with Kimani has been a success, and last month another geofence was set up in another part of the country for an elephant known as Mountain Bull. Moses Litoroh, the coordinator of Kenya Wildlife Service's elephant program, hopes the project might help resolve some of the 1,300 complaints the Service receives every year over crop raiding.

The elephants can be tracked through Google Earth software, helping to map and conserve the corridors they use to move from one protected area to another. The tracking also helps prevent poaching, as rangers know where to deploy resources to guard valuable animals.

But the biggest bonus so far has been the drop in crop raiding. Douglas-Hamilton says elephants, like teenagers, learn from each other, so tracking and controlling one habitual crop raider can make a whole group change its habits.

Mwasu's two young daughters play under the banana trees these sultry evenings without their mother worrying about elephants.

"We can live together," she said. "Elephants have the right to live, and we have the right to live too."

On the Net:

http://www.olpejetaconservancy.org

http://www.savetheelephants.org/

Wal-Mart to cut global plastic shopping bag waste

2008-09-25T16:52:00.003-04:00

"Wal-Mart is aiming for a 25 percent reduction from its U.S. stores and a 50 percent reduction from its international operations."
- why the difference? Do they have less faith in Americans to switch to a more environmentally friendly habit?

by Nicole Maestri
Reuters

NEW YORK - Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Thursday it will cut its worldwide plastic shopping bag waste by an average of 33 percent per store by 2013, an effort the world's biggest retailer said could eliminate more than 135 million pounds of plastic waste globally.

To meet that goal, Wal-Mart stores will give out fewer bags and encourage shoppers to use reusable ones.

The announcement is part of the discount retailer's overarching goal of one day creating zero waste.

It also comes amid a global push to curb the use of plastic bags, which environmentalists say can take up to 1,000 years to disintegrate and pose threats to marine life, birds and other animals.

Earlier this year, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to outlaw non-biodegradable plastic bags from large supermarkets, and the state of California has enacted a law that requires large stores to take back plastic bags and encourage their reuse.

Wal-Mart said its stores in Mexico and the United States are introducing cheaper, affordable reusable bags. While in the United States it currently sells a reusable bag for $1, the retailer said it will begin offering a new reusable bag for 50 cents each.

To reach its goal of reducing plastic bag waste globally by 33 percent, Wal-Mart is aiming for a 25 percent reduction from its U.S. stores and a 50 percent reduction from its international operations.

FDA defends plastic in baby bottles

2008-09-16T19:24:00.003-04:00

FDA defends plastic linked with health risks
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and LINDSEY TANNER
Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON - With scientists at odds about the risks of a chemical found in plastic baby bottles, metal cans and other food packaging, the government on Tuesday gave consumers some tips on how to reduce their exposure to BPA even as it said the substance is safe.

A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee met as a major study linked bisphenol A to possible risks of heart disease and diabetes. The scientific debate could drag on for years.

"Right now, our tentative conclusion is that it's safe, so we're not recommending any change in habits," said Laura Tarantino, head of the FDA's office of food additive safety. But she acknowledged, "there are a number of things people can do to lower their exposure."

For example, consumers can avoid plastic containers imprinted with the recycling number '7,' as many of those contain BPA. Or, Tarantino said, they can avoid warming food in such containers, as heat helps to release the chemical.

More than 90 percent of Americans have traces of BPA in their bodies, but the FDA says the levels of exposure are too low to pose a health risk, even for infants and children. Other scientists, however, say BPA has been shown to affect the human body even at very low levels.

And Tuesday a study released by the Journal of the American Medical Association suggested a new concern about BPA. Using a health survey of nearly 1,500 adults, the study found that those exposed to higher amounts of BPA were more likely to report having heart disease and diabetes. Because of the possible public health implications, the results "deserve scientific follow-up," its authors said.

The study is preliminary, far from proof that the chemical caused the health problems. Two Dartmouth College analysts of medical research said it raises questions but provides no answers about whether the ubiquitous chemical is harmful.

FDA officials said they are not dismissing such findings. "We recognize the need to resolve the concerning questions that have been raised," said Tarantino, acknowledging that more research is needed. But the FDA is also arguing that the studies with rats and mice it relied on for its assessment are more thorough than some of the human research that has raised doubts.

The agency has asked an outside scientific panel for a second opinion on BPA's safety, and the medical journal article was released to coincide with the advisers' hearing. The FDA has the power to ban or limit use of BPA in food containers and medical devices.

Past animal studies have suggested reproductive and hormone-related problems from BPA. The JAMA study is the largest to examine possible BPA effects in people and the first suggesting a direct link to heart disease, said scientists Frederick vom Saal and John Peterson Myers, both longtime critics of the chemical.

Still, they said more rigorous studies are needed to confirm the results.

Vom Saal is a biological sciences professor at University of Missouri who has served as an expert witness and consultant on BPA litigation. Myers is chief scientist at Environmental Health Sciences, a Charlottesville, Va., nonprofit group. They wrote an editorial accompanying the JAMA study.

BPA is used in hardened plastics and in a wide range of consumer goods, including the lining of metal cans, eyeglass lenses and compact discs. Many scientists believe it can act like the hormone estrogen, and animal studies have linked it with breast, prostate and reproductive system problems and some cancers.

Researchers from Britain and the University of Iowa examined a U.S. government health survey of 1,455 American adults who gave urine samples in 2003-04 and reported whether they had any of several common diseases.

Participants were divided into four groups based on BPA urine amounts; more than 90 percent had detectable BPA in their urine.

A total of 79 had heart attacks, chest pain or other types of cardiovascular disease and 136 had diabetes. There were more than twice as many people with heart disease or diabetes in the highest BPA group than in the lowest BPA group. The study showed no connection between BPA and other ailments, including cancer.

No one in the study had BPA urine amounts showing higher than recommended exposure levels, said co-author Dr. David Melzer, a University of Exeter researcher.

Drs. Lisa Schwartz and Steven Woloshin of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice said the study presents no clear information about what might have caused participants' heart disease and diabetes.

"Measuring who has disease and high BPA levels at a single point in time cannot tell you which comes first," Schwartz said.

The study authors acknowledge that it's impossible to rule out that people who already have heart disease or diabetes are somehow more vulnerable to having BPA show up in their urine.

The American Chemistry Council, an industry trade group, said the study is flawed, has substantial limitations and proves nothing.

But Dr. Ana Soto of Tufts University said the study raises enough concerns to warrant government action to limit BPA exposure.

"We shouldn't wait until further studies are done in order to act in protecting humans," said Soto, who has called for more restrictions in the past.

An earlier lab experiment with human fat tissue found that BPA can interfere with a hormone involved in protecting against diabetes, heart disease and obesity. That study appeared online last month in Environmental Health Perspectives, a monthly journal published by the National Institutes of Health.

One of the FDA's outside advisers was skeptical of the JAMA study. "For diabetes, I really don't see it," said Dr. Garret FitzGerald of the University of Pennsylvania. As for a link to heart disease, FitzGerald questioned why the JAMA study did not also find high blood pressure problems in the people exposed to higher amounts of BPA.

Toxicology experts from another government agency have studied BPA and recently completed their own report. They found no strong evidence of health hazards from BPA, but unlike the FDA, said there was "some concern" about possible effects on the brain in fetuses, infants and children.

Several states are considering restricting BPA use, some manufacturers have begun promoting BPA-free baby bottles, and some stores are phasing out baby products containing the chemical. The European Union has said BPA-containing products are safe, but Canada's government has proposed banning the sale of baby bottles with BPA as a precaution.

The FDA advisory panel is expected to make its recommendations to the FDA late next month.

Many products contain the chemical BPA

2008-09-16T19:24:00.001-04:00

The Associated Press

Bisphenol A, or BPA, a chemical used in consumer goods, was the subject of a federal safety hearing Tuesday where new preliminary research suggested it might be linked to a higher risk of heart disease and diabetes.

BPA is used in lightweight, durable plastics. Products include some baby bottles, sippy cups and reusable food and drink containers, such as reusable sports water bottles and Tupperware, compact discs, DVDs, eyeglass lenses and sports safety goggles and helmets.

Most recyclable, single-use plastic bottles, such as those made for soft drinks and bottled water, don't contain BPA.

Some manufacturers are phasing out BPA in some products and Tupperware's Web site says it does not use BPA in children's products sold in the United States and Canada.

BPA is also in epoxy resins used to make paints, adhesives and canned food liners.

Animal studies have linked BPA with breast, prostate and reproductive system abnormalities and some cancers, but experts disagree on whether it poses health risks for humans.

Government toxicology scientists say that to reduce exposure, people can avoid non-recyclable plastic containers that have the number 7 on the bottom; avoid using these plastics in the microwave, and don't wash them in the dishwasher with harsh detergents.

Sources:

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences:

http://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/media/questions/sya-bpa.cfm

American Chemistry Council: http://www.americanchemistry.com

Baby bottle chemical problematic

2008-09-14T23:26:00.002-04:00

By Will Dunham
Reuters

WASHINGTON – The Food and Drug Administration this week reopens the debate over a chemical used in many plastic products -- including baby bottles -- amid mixed messages on its safety from the U.S. government.

An FDA panel of outside experts on Tuesday was set to review the agency's draft report issued last month saying that bisphenol A, or BPA, is safe. Critics argue the FDA has ignored strong evidence in animal studies that BPA is harmful.

Government toxicologists at the U.S. National Institutes of Health on September 3 reiterated their view that BPA presents "some concern" for harmful effects on development of the prostate and brain and for behavioral changes in fetuses, infants and children.

BPA is used to make polycarbonate plastic, a clear shatter-resistant material in products ranging from baby and water bottles to sports safety equipment and medical devices.

It also is used to make durable epoxy resins used as the coating in most food and beverage cans and in dental fillings.

People can consume BPA when it leaches out of plastic into liquid such as baby formula, water or food inside a container.

Environmental and consumer safety groups say studies show the chemical can interfere with how the body absorbs the hormone estrogen, which is key to the development of young bodies.

The NIH's National Toxicology Program, or NTP, became the first U.S. government agency to embrace health concerns regarding BPA. It followed up this draft report with a final report this month reiterating the concerns.

The FDA said the meeting would focus on these worries.

"FDA concludes that an adequate margin of safety exists for BPA at current levels of exposure from food contact uses, for infants and adults," the FDA said in its draft report.

The agency said its findings were based on "a full examination of data considered pivotal to the relevant exposure levels associated with food contact substances."

The European Union's top food safety body said in July the amount of BPA found in baby bottles cannot harm human health.

"Many common consumer products that contribute to healthier and safer lives are based on plastics and resins made from bisphenol A, which has a 50-year safety track record," the American Chemistry Council industry group said in a statement.

Critics have argued the FDA's views are based principally on industry-funded studies clearing the chemical even though many other studies have raised health concerns.

"We have serious concerns about FDA's risk assessment for bisphenol A," Sonya Lunder of the Environmental Working Group advocacy organization said in a telephone interview.

"I am hopeful the agency will begin to listen to the large amount of scientific evidence from independent scientists about the consequences of bisphenol A, particularly on children's health, and weigh that very heavily against industry-supported science that has been informing their decisions," said Elizabeth Hitchcock of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

Some leading retailers plan to stop selling products made with BPA and some manufacturers say they will phase it out.

Democratic U.S. senators in April introduced a bill to ban BPA in children's products. Canada's government in April decided BPA was harmful to infants and toddlers and announced plans to ban some products.

U.S. states including California, Maryland, Minnesota and Michigan are considering bills to ban or restrict BPA in children's products.

Dispose of tires Saturday

2008-09-11T22:42:00.001-04:00

Montgomery County will financially underwrite a free tire collection for residents.
This is the third year for the program.
Unlike last year when the county held two tire collections, there will only be one this year.
This collection is scheduled for Sept. 13, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Whitemarsh Township Public Works Facility property at 2015 Joshua Road.
Unlike the county's household hazardous waste program, the tire-recycling program is limited to county residents only.
A maximum of four tires per vehicle will be allowed. No commercial tires will be accepted.
The commissioners in 2006 initiated the idea to hold a tire recycling program, explaining they were tired of seeing old discarded tires along the county's roads, streams and other waterways. At the same time, they said they were concerned about the tires serving as breeding areas for mosquitoes that have the potential for carrying the West Nile virus.

Fire retardant chemical found in children

2008-09-04T16:39:00.000-04:00

By Deborah Zabarenko

Environment Correspondent
Reuters

WASHINGTON - A fire retardant chemical used in electronics, toys and furniture has been detected in children's blood at triple the levels found in their mothers, the Environmental Working Group reported on Thursday.

In a small pilot study of 20 families, the non-profit environmental group tested blood samples from mothers and their young children -- ages 18 months to four years -- for the presence of PBDEs, a hormone-disrupting chemical.

In 19 of the 20 families, concentrations of PBDEs were typically three times as high in children as in their mothers, said Sonya Lunder, the study's author. One child had six times the level of the chemical that was detected in her mother.

"To us, this raises concerns that kids live very differently in the same environment than their parents do and those kid-like behaviors put them at risk for contaminant exposure," Lunder said in a telephone interview.

Lunder said young children are exposed to more of these substances because they play by putting their hands and other household items in their mouths after touching furniture or appliances that contain PBDEs. They also eat more and drink more, proportionally, than their mothers do, and food and drink can contain these chemicals, she said.

PBDEs, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers, are hormone-disrupting pollutants that build up in the blood and tissues. Two forms of PBDEs are no longer made in the United States but are still present in items in U.S. homes, the study said.

The largest volume of PBDEs are in electronics in a form called Deca, which is banned in European electronics and in some U.S. states, according to the study.

The study cited peer-reviewed tests that showed a single dose of PBDEs given to mice on a single day when their brains were growing rapidly can cause permanent behavior changes, including hyperactivity.

Lunder said there have been numerous studies of the toxic effects of fire retardants on adults, but few on how these substances affect children.

A spokesman for the Bromine Science and Environment Forum, a trade group, took issue with the environment group's study, saying that even the highest levels of PBDEs detected were relatively low, and that Deca was barely found in the children.

"Flame retardants save actual human lives, and no illness, ailment or harm to any human anywhere has ever been reported as a result of exposure to Deca, even among those who work producing the material," the spokesman, John Kyte, said in an e-mail.

Kyte said the flame retardant manufacturers group supported monitoring and analysis of "potential concerns" raised by the environmental group's study.

Electric car company to build plant

2008-08-25T20:13:00.004-04:00

ZAP's Alias electric car model for 2009 from www.zapworld.com.

By JOE BIESK
Associated Press Writer
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky is already home to bourbon and thoroughbred horse racing, now it’s aiming for electric cars too.
Gov. Steve Beshear said Monday that the state has authorized a tax incentive plan to bring an electric car plant to southern Kentucky. California-based Zero Air Pollution, or ZAP, is scheduled to begin production next year.
“They’ll have to build this facility, they’ll have to start hiring the people and building the cars and then those incentives kick in,” Beshear said after taking a three-wheel model for a test drive around the state Capitol.
Beshear signed an executive order earlier this month allowing low-speed three- and four-wheel electric cars to travel Kentucky’s roads with speed limits of 45 mph or less. Officials at the electric car manufacturer had said they would not consider locating the plant in Kentucky if the state did not allow the cars to travel its roads.
Officials said the plant was expected to eventually bring up to 4,000 new jobs within the next four years to the rural town of Franklin, about 135 miles southwest of Louisville. The planned 1 million square-foot plant is slated to be built on 225 acres in an industrial park.
State officials have authorized $48 million in tax credits, Beshear said.
Meanwhile, local city and Simpson County officials have offered about $80 million in investment revenue bonds as incentives for the plant, said Dennis Griffin, director of the Franklin-Simpson Industrial Authority.
Randall Waldman, CEO of Integrity Automotive, said his company’s “venture partnership” with ZAP was aimed at providing electric cars to many people — not just the rich. Waldman said his company’s cars are priced from $10,000 to about $63,000.
The cars can travel up to 40 mph. Waldman said the company had sold more than 100,000 vehicles in the last three years.

Global warming pushes Peru to pick coffee earlier

2008-08-21T16:31:00.000-04:00

By Dana Ford

Reuters

LA MERCED - Teresa Rocha, a migrant worker who picks coffee on the steamy, lush, green farms near La Merced in central Peru, might not understand the mechanics of climate change, but she knows its effects.

Rising temperatures and erratic weather patterns are changing historic trends in the coffee season, growers say in Peru, a country closely tied to the impact of climate change because of its rapidly melting tropical glaciers.

Rocha, 16, who moves with the seasons in search of ripe plants, says warmer temperatures are responsible for her early start this year -- about a month earlier than last.

Farmers are also reporting high-altitude plants are maturing at times more typical of their low-land counterparts.

"The seasons are changing tremendously. You can no longer say winter is in November, December or March. It falls in other months sometimes," said Cesar Rivas, president of the national growers' group.

"This is generating complete productive disorder," he said.

Traditionally, Peruvian coffee growers start picking their crop in April, some six months before the global arabica harvest. Its flip season has given Peru, the world's sixth largest exporter of coffee, a unique comparative advantage.

If the season continues to move earlier, farmers worry they could lose their privileged position.

Gore: Make all U.S. electricity from renewable sources

2008-07-17T22:50:00.001-04:00

REUTERS/Jim Young
Former U.S. presidential candidate Al Gore delivers a speech on America's future energy needs in Washington, July 17, 2008.

By Jasmin Melvin and Deborah Zabarenko
Reuters

WASHINGTON - Al Gore, the Nobel Prize-winning crusader on climate change, challenged the United States on Thursday to commit to producing all U.S. electricity from renewable sources like solar and wind power in 10 years.

"Our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of all three of these challenges -- the economic, environmental and national security crises," the former Democratic vice president and presidential candidate in 2000 told a meeting in Washington.

"So today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years," he said.

Gore also took aim at the Bush administration's policies on climate change, without mentioning the president by name. Advocates of tougher measures to combat global warming caused by carbon emissions have long said President George W. Bush has done too little about climate change.

Gore, who faced a smattering of protesters rallying against big government outside the hall, likened the fight against climate change to the successful challenge in the 1960s to send humans to the Moon within the decade.

Gore, who starred in the Academy Award-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" about the perils of global warming, also disparaged goals set too far in the future.

"A political promise to do something 40 years from now is universally ignored because everyone knows it's totally meaningless. Ten years is about the maximum time that we as a nation can hold a steady aim and hit our target."

Bush has opposed economy-wide limits on the emission of climate-warming carbon dioxide. Last week, he and other leaders of the Group of Eight major industrialized nations offered a non-binding pledge to cut emissions 50 percent by 2050 -- 42 years from now.

"WE MUST MOVE FIRST"

The Bush administration and the other rich nations said they could not meet this goal without participation from developing economies like China and India.

Gore, noting that an international climate change treaty is expected to be concluded by the end of the next U.S. president's first year in office, questioned any delay on combating global warming.

"It is a great error to say that the United States must wait for others to join us in this matter," he said. "In fact, we must move first, because that is the key to getting others to follow; and because moving first is in our own national interest."

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said he supported Gore's challenge, and said he would fast-track investments in renewable energy like solar, wind and biofuels if elected. "It's a strategy that will create millions of new jobs that pay well and cannot be outsourced, and one that will leave our children a world that is cleaner and safer," he said.

Obama's rival in the November election, Republican candidate John McCain, also backed Gore's plan. "If the vice president says it's do-able, I believe it's do-able," he told reporters.

Gore said he had had conversations with Obama, McCain, and with Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party candidate.

EPA says climate change puts U.S. way of life at risk

2008-07-17T22:46:00.001-04:00

By Deborah Zabarenko

Reuters Environment Correspondent

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under fire for apparently discounting the impact of climate change, on Thursday said global warming poses real risk to human health and the American way of life.

Risks include more heat-related deaths, more heart and lung diseases due to increased ozone and health problems related to hurricanes, extreme precipitation and wildfires, the agency said in a new report.

"Climate change poses real risk to human health and the human systems that support our way of life in the United States," the agency's Joel Scheraga said in a telephone briefing.

The report does not specify how many people in the United States could die due to climate change, because that number can be changed by taking action, Scheraga said.

"We are not saying in this report that more people will die in the future due to climate change," he said. "What we are saying is that there's an increased risk of deaths due to heat waves in the future as the climate changes.

"We have an opportunity to anticipate these increased risks ... and to due to prepare for the future in order to mitigate these risks."

Limited to climate change impacts in the United States, the report found a likely increase in food and water-borne germs as the world warms and habitat ranges expand for some disease-causing organisms.

Also, the inequities now found in the U.S. health care system are likely to be exacerbated by global warming: "Many of the expected health effects are likely to fall disproportionately on the poor, the elderly, the disabled and the uninsured."

Global warming is expected to affect water supplies across the country, with reduced water flow in rivers, lower groundwater levels and more salt creeping into coastal rivers and groundwater, the report said.

People who live along the coasts will face the consequences of rising sea levels and severe weather events while city dwellers can expect higher energy demand to cool buildings -- though the demand for heat will probably decline.

The report covers much of the same substance as an EPA document released on Monday that found global warming endangers human health. This document was part of the agency's response to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that found the EPA had the power to regulate climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions if it was found that they hurt human health.

However, the agency has indicated no action is likely before the Bush administration leaves office next January.

Stephen Johnson, head of the environmental agency, has been called to testify on July 30 before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on alleged White House interference with the agency. Researchers have repeatedly complained of White House censorship of environmental science.

Cow burps being studied

2008-07-08T16:10:00.001-04:00

By Juan Bustamante

Reuters

BUENOS AIRES - Argentine scientists are taking a novel approach to studying global warming -- strapping plastic tanks to the backs of cows to collect their burps.

Researchers say the slow digestive system of cows makes them a producer of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that gets far less public attention than carbon dioxide in efforts to fight global warming.

Scientists around the world are studying the amount of methane in cow burps and Argentine researchers say they have come up with a unique way.

Attaching a red plastic tank to a cow's back and connecting it through a tube to the animal's stomach, scientists say they can trap bovine burps and analyze them.

"When we got the first results, we were surprised. Thirty percent of Argentina's (total greenhouse) emissions could be generated by cows," said Guillermo Berra, a researcher at the National Institute of Agricultural Technology.

One of the world's biggest beef producers, Argentina has some 55 million heads of cattle grazing on the famed Pampas grasslands.

Berra said the researchers "never thought" a cow weighing 550 kg (1,210 lb) could produce 800 to 1,000 liters (28 to 35 cubic feet) of emissions each day.

At least 10 cows are being studied, Berra said, including some in a corral whose burps are collected in yellow balloons hanging from the roof.

Greenhouse gases are widely blamed for causing global warming. Methane, researchers say, is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere and can be found in animal waste, landfills, coal mines and leaking natural gas pipes.

Scientists are working to develop new diets for cows that could make it easier for them to digest food, moving them away from grains to plants like alfalfa and clover.

"We have done a preliminary study and have found that by using tannins, you can reduce methane emissions by 25 percent," said Silvia Valtorta of the National Council of Scientific and Technical Investigations.

Canada puts brakes on electric vehicles

2008-06-30T22:57:00.003-04:00

Agence France Presse File/Karen Bleier
A Zenn Low Speed Electric Vehicle is seen driving on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC in 2006.

by Guillaume Lavallee
Agence France Presse

Despite increasing local demand for zero-emissions cars and trucks and robust exports of electric vehicles, Canada will not allow them on its roads, lament manufacturers.

"It's a daily embarrassment," said Ian Clifford, president of Zenn Motor Company, which builds "zero emissions no noise" vehicles in Canada for export primarily to the United States.

"Even my employees can't drive to work in a Zenn. It's absurd," he said of federal and provincial rules that forbid electric cars from being driven on most Canadian roads.

Clifford's frustration is aggravated by the view that Canadians are increasingly concerned about the environment and are said to be eager to drive electric vehicles in this warming climate.

"We build the car in St. Jerome (Quebec) and ship them all south of the border," where 44 states allow them, and some 45,000 electric cars are in use today, he said.

But Transport Canada says the vehicles made of lightweight metals and plastics are not safe to drive on Canada's open roads, and would not stand up in a collision.

The regulatory agency has so far certified only five models as road-worthy, including the Zenn, and two others that are no longer in production, said Transport Canada spokeswoman Maryse Durette.

But most provinces, which have jurisdiction over the vast majority of roads and highways in the country, have balked at giving electric cars the green light, citing Transport Canada's safety concerns.

"We found Transport Canada to be very hostile towards low speed electric vehicles," echoed Danny Epp of Dynasty Electric Car in an email to AFP.

The Canadian company was recently sold to a Pakistani group which plans to move production to Karachi and continue exporting its vehicles to the United States.

According to reports, others allege political bias, noting Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government's base of support in oil-rich Alberta province.

To date, only westernmost British Columbia allows low speed electric vehicles on its urban roads.

This week, Quebec in eastern Canada announced a three-year pilot project that would permit starting in July the Zenn and an electric truck called Nemo on its roads with posted speed limits of 50 kilometers (31 miles) per hour.

Manufacturers are hoping Quebec's pilot may spur its neighbors to jump on the bandwagon and eventually make it possible to drive an electric car from coast to coast across all 10 of Canada's provinces.

"We hope it will lead to changes," said Jacques Rancourt, head of utility truck maker Nemo, based in Montreal. But the road promises to be uphill all the way, he said.

Despite their widespread use in the United States and strong sales, there are still technical improvements to be made, say experts, such as boosting the life of batteries used in electric vehicles to allow them to go further.

Hydro Quebec subsidiary TM4, which makes electric motors for the Cleanova electric car built by a subsidiary of France's Dassault auto group, is working on a new more powerful lithium-ion battery for use in electric vehicles.

According to Quebec's Transport Minister Julie Boulet, TM4 is also seeking to partner on the project with a large automaker, which she refused to name.

"The battery is really at the heart of the matter to get electric cars rolling," said Hydro Quebec spokesman Flavie Cote. "We all want exceptional performance from a battery that doesn't take long to recharge, at a low cost."

Galapagos eruption no threat to giant turtles

2008-06-01T22:09:00.003-04:00

By Alonso Soto

Reuters

QUITO - A volcano in the Galapagos islands that spewed molten lava is not a threat to 100-year-old giant tortoises living around the crater, island officials said on Friday.

The 5,541-feet- (1,690-metre-) high Cerro Azul mountain started spewing lava on Thursday after 10 years of inactivity on the largest island of the Galapagos archipelago, a chain formed from volcanoes thrusting from the Pacific Ocean.

"There is no threat to the local human population ... nor for the tortoise population because lava rivers are flowing in the opposite direction," the Galapagos Park said in a statement after its rangers flew over the mountain to assess the eruption.

In the last eruption in 1998, rare tortoises were airlifted from around the crater on helicopters to escape the lava, but several massive turtles were burned.

"I could see the red glow from my house last night," said Jacqueline Brunf, a New York native who owns a tour operator business on another of the islands. "It was really strange we didn't feel anything or hear anything."

The Galapagos islands are part of Ecuador and lie 600 miles west of the South American mainland.

English naturalist Charles Darwin developed his evolution theory after studying their unique animal population.

The islands are scarcely populated, but the United Nations last year said the Galapagos' pristine environment was in danger due to booming tourism and immigration.

Pesticide DDT shows up in Antarctic penguins

2008-05-12T21:02:00.002-04:00

REUTERS/Mark Baker
Three Adellie penguins wait on the edge of the ice as they prepare to swim for food at Cape Evans in Antarctica February 8, 2002.

By Deborah Zabarenko

Reuters

WASHINGTON - The pesticide DDT, banned decades ago in much of the world, still shows up in penguins in Antarctica, probably due to the chemical's accumulation in melting glaciers, a sea bird expert said on Friday.

Adelie penguins, known for their waddling gait and a habit of nesting on stones, have long shown evidence of DDT in their fatty tissues, although not in enough concentration to hurt the birds, according to Heidi Geisz of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

But researchers were surprised to see that the level of the pesticide in Adelies' fat had not declined, even after DDT was banned for exterior use in the 1970s in the United States and elsewhere.

First noted in 1964, while the chemical was still widely used, the amount of DDT found in Adelie penguins rose in the 1970s and has stayed stable since then, Geisz said in a telephone interview.

In findings published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, Geisz and her colleagues noted that persistent organic pollutants like DDT accumulate and become concentrated in the Antarctic ecosystem.

"DDT, along with a lot of other of these organic contaminants, actually travel through the atmosphere ... toward the polar regions by a process of evaporation and then condensation in cooler climates," Geisz said, explaining this is how the pesticide got deposited in Antarctic glaciers.

DDT declined dramatically in Arctic wildlife over the last decade, while the amount of the chemical in Antarctic Adelies stayed stable, the study said.

DDT was easily detectable in glacier melt water, Geisz said.

FOOD CHAIN

Adelies feed off tiny creatures called krill that live in melted glacier water, and DDT is transmitted up the food chain directly to the penguins.

There is not enough of the chemical to harm the birds, but it is measurable in samples of penguin corpses and their abandoned eggs, Geisz said.

Some kinds of birds that ingest DDT, especially birds of prey like the American bald eagle, produce eggs with extremely thin shells which are easily crushed by adult birds. Geisz said this has not been demonstrated to be the case with sea birds.

A more pressing issue for the Adelie penguins that breed on the Antarctic Peninsula is encroaching climate change, she said. The peninsula, which stretches north toward South America, has been warming much faster than the rest of the continent.

Warming on the peninsula means "we see more snow and more moisture and these (Adelie) eggs end up getting soaked and frozen," Geisz said. "It allows opportunities for people like me to study the eggs, but it's not necessarily ideal for the penguins."

Originally developed as a powerful multi-species pesticide, DDT was used in World War Two to clear South Pacific islands of malaria-causing insects for U.S. troops and in Europe as a de-lousing powder. The United States banned the chemical in 1972. The World Health Organization approved it in 2006 for use indoors to fight malaria.