Beijing looks to neighboring provinces to help curb air pollution during Olympics

By The Associated Press

BEIJING: Beijing is ordering neighboring provinces to reduce industrial pollution this summer to help clean up the Chinese capital's air during the Olympic Games, state media reported Tuesday.

Beijing and surrounding areas are being told to cut back factory operations and increase the use of technology to clean their emissions, the China Daily newspaper said. It said authorities were hoping to avoid shutting down industries altogether in order to temper the economic impact. The full extent of pollution control measures, however, would depend on atmospheric conditions during the Aug. 8-24 Games, it said.

"The air quality of Beijing is definitely influenced by neighboring provinces and ... we have made this move to guarantee air quality," State Environmental Protection Agency official Wang Jian was quoted as saying by the paper. Concerns over heat, humidity and polluted air in Beijing have set national Olympic committees scrambling for ways to protect their athletes, especially those competing in outdoor endurance events.

Already, the capital has announced plans to shut down construction sites, gas stations and oil depots to reduce the amount of dust and harmful chemicals in the air, and has begun shutting down blast furnaces at the city's biggest steel maker.

Temporary traffic restrictions to ease congestion and reduce vehicle exhaust are also being mulled. Beijing hopes the Olympics will also build momentum behind longer-term pollution reduction plans, including rules to reduce use of plastic bags and tougher standards for power plants and the steel industry. Wang said more than 10 factories in Beijing and the surrounding province of Hebei that were scheduled to close over the next two years will now be shut by June. The newly announced rules apply to Hebei and the neighboring provinces of Shanxi and Shandong, along with the coastal city of Tianjin and the sprawling Inner Mongolia autonomous region to the north, the report said. It said reductions would be required starting in July, although other reports have said measures could begin taking effect as early as May.

Additional restrictions on vehicles, building sites and industry could be enacted in the event of bad weather, although positive forecasts appear to show those won't be needed, Wang was quoted as saying. "As long as the plan is carried out properly, we will have no problem in meeting the standard of air quality for the Olympics and Paralympics," Wang said, referring to the games for physically disabled athletes that follow the regular Olympics.

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(Jakarta, Rabu 27 February 2008)

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Virgin Atlantic flies jumbo jet powered by biofuel

By The Associated Press

LONDON: Virgin Atlantic carried out the world's first flight of a commercial aircraft powered with biofuel on Sunday in an effort to show it can produce less carbon dioxide than normal jet fuels. Some analysts praised the jumbo jet test flight from London to Amsterdam as a potentially useful experiment. But others criticized it as a publicity stunt and noted scientists are questioning the environmental benefits of biofuels.

"This breakthrough will help Virgin Atlantic to fly its planes using clean fuel sooner than expected," Sir Richard Branson, the airline's president, said before the Boeing 747 flew from London's Heathrow Airport to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. He said the flight would provide "crucial knowledge that we can use to dramatically reduce our carbon footprint," he said.

Sunday's flight was partially fueled with a biofuel mixture of coconut and babassu oil in one of its four main fuel tanks. The jet carried pilots and several technicians, but no passengers. Virgin Atlantic spokesman Paul Charles predicted this biofuel would produce much less CO2 than regular jet fuel, but said it will take weeks to analyze the data from Sunday's flight. "It's great that somebody like Richard is willing to put some of his billions into an experiment aimed at reducing the climate change impact of aviation," said James Halstead, an airline analyst at the London stockbroker Dawnay Day Lochart. "But there are a lot of unanswered questions about the usefulness of biofuels in the battle against global warming," he said. The flight is the latest example of how the world's airlines are jumping on the environmental bandwagon by trying to find ways of reducing aviation's carbon footprint.

These efforts have included finding alternative jet fuels, developing engines that burn existing fuels more slowly, and changing the way planes land. The experiment by Virgin Atlantic and its partners — Boeing, General Electric and Imperium Renewables — also comes at a time when high oil prices and the U.S. economic slowdown are promoting consolidation in the airline industry.

Aircraft engines cause noise pollution and emit gases and particulates that reduce air quality and contribute to global warming and global dimming, where dust and ash from natural and industrial sources block the sun to create a cooling effect. About a year ago, the European Commission, the executive of the European Union, said greenhouse gas emissions from aviation account for about 3 percent of the total in the EU and have increased by 87 percent since 1990 as air travel cheapened.

Charles said Virgin's Boeing 747-400 jet and its engines did not have to be redesigned to use biofuel on the test flight. He said CO2 emissions on a normal flight are generally three times the fuel burned, and that technical engineers on the test flight would take readings and analyze data to estimate its greenhouse gas emissions.

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(Jakarta, Rabu 27 February 2008)

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Scientists are Split over Hurricane Trends

PARIS: A year after Hurricane Katrina wrecked New Orleans, a storm of a different kind is buffeting climate scientists: are hurricanes becoming more vicious or more frequent? The raw fuel for tropical storms is a warm sea, so experts have long speculated that global warming, by driving up ocean surface temperatures, is bound to intensify hurricanes and their Asian cousins, typhoons.

That debate was largely framed on what might happen 30 or 40 years from now or even longer. After the shock of Katrina and a series of new studies, the focus shifted abruptly from the middle distance to the present. Has the feared link between warming and storms alreadykicked in? Many scientists urge caution. They say hurricane hyperactivity, as was the case in 2004 and 2005, occurs in what appears to be cycles and they say the meteorological data is just too recent and too sketchy to venture a firm conclusion.

Though, offer long-term evidence for saying Atlantic storms have become progressively worse in the last few decades. And, they note, this increase also tracks a rise in emissions of carbondioxide gas from fossil fuels, which traps solar heat and thus warms the seas. "We have known since 1987 that the intensity of hurricanes is related to surface sea temperature, and we know that over the last 15 to 20 years surface sea temperatures in these regions have increased by half a degree Celsius, (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit)," said the British government's chief scientist, David King. "So it is easy to conclude that the increased intensity of hurricanes is associated with global warming." Kerry Emanuel, a professor at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology, began to warn of a link between hurricane intensity and global warming way back in 1987.

According to Emanuel's calculations, the power of tropical cyclones has roughly doubled since the 1950s. His measurement, a power dissipation index, is based on storm intensity and duration.He notes a significant rise over the last 30 decades - when Earth's surface temperatures began to rise significantly - but especially since 1995, when global mean temperatures began to scale ever-higher annual peaks.

"The large upswing in the last decade is unprecedented and probably reflects the effects of global warming,"Emanuel said. Peter Webster of the Georgia Institute of Technology and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, calculates that category 4 and 5 hurricanes - the two most powerful storm ratings - have nearly doubled in number over the past three decades.

Critics point to what they say is the weakness of historical data. Philip Klotzbach, a meteorologist at Colorado State University, says satellite records prior to 1984 are unreliable. He sees an increase in post-1984 hurricane frequency but says it has been prompted by the simple fact that better measuring tools have become available. For other experts, the question of whether hurricanes are worse today is less urgent than the fate of coastal cities that are already badly exposed to storms- and could become more vulnerable.

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(Jakarta, Senin 25 February 2008)

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Paradox of Global Warming, Climate Change and Adsense Affiliate Energy

Paradox of Global Warming, Climate Change and Adsense Affiliate Energy

by Jacob Paradox

Conservation and which is developing hopefully can succeed and can change various fuel owning negative element to environment and health of human being. Big really gas contribution of emission of motor and car using fuel of petroleum. In atmosfir all element making environment become indisposed gather. Not human being conciousness is contributor of damage of compared to biggest environment and earth of other element.

Have always remember if Google Adsense Affiliate work along with promotor of pencinta environmental and environmental Observer. There is nothing wrong if all that aim to to save earths of ruination. Luck between Google Adsense Affiliate with Saving of earth of change of climate will become a paradox which for some peoples of opinion pessimists. Like Greenpeace the peripateticness in saving of Environment, just Honest of given respect to them very big but in their one side also get lampooning of side making them in ill part and enemy see this earth of green return. Hopefully Google Adsense Affiliate can find new product with reference to change of climate which progressively deteriorate situation of him.

All have to early from trusts. Again if you will give contribution you earn attached advertisement click of Google Adsense. This one of the way where you earn additional fund to the expense of activity. This no matter I and you but this is the problem of human beings all of us. If you not yet understood also open lah of Web concerning natural disaster that happened in almost in all the world. If you still feel balmy with situation of you now mean you the including people which do not want to care to fellow being. Any of your aid very mean for us.

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(Jakarta, Senin 25 February 2008)

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Global warming expected to wipe out most polar bears

By John M. Broder and Andrew C. Revkin

WASHINGTON: Two-thirds of the world's polar bears will disappear by 2050, even under moderate projections for shrinkage of summer sea ice caused by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, according to government scientists. The finding is part of a year-long review of the effects of climate and ice changes on polar bears to help determine whether they should be protected under the Endangered Species Act. Scientists estimate the current polar bear population at 22,000.

The report, which the U.S. Geological Survey released here Friday, offers stark prospects for polar bears as the world grows warmer. Biologists and climate scientists conclude in the report that under middle-of-the-road projections for warming the bears will by midcentury be largely relegated to the Arctic archipelago of Canada and spots off the northern Greenland coast, where summer sea ice tends to persist even in warm summers like this one, a shrinking that could be enough to reduce the bears by two-thirds. The bears would disappear entirely from Alaska, the study said. "As the sea ice goes, so goes the polar bear," said Steven Amstrup, lead biologist for the survey team.

The report was released as President George W. Bush was in Australia meeting with Asian leaders to try to agree on a strategy to address global warming. Bush will be host to major industrial nations in Washington this month to discuss the framework for a treaty on climate change. The United Nations plans to devote its general assembly in the autumn to global warming.

A spokeswoman for the White House declined to comment on the report, saying it was part of decision making at the Interior Department, parent of the survey. In the report, the team said, "Sea ice conditions would have to be substantially better than even the most conservative computer simulations of warming and sea ice" to avoid the anticipated drop in population.

In a conference call with reporters, the scientists also said the momentum to a warmer world with less Arctic sea ice - and fewer bears - would be largely unavoidable at least for decades, no matter what happens with emissions. "Despite any mitigation of greenhouse gases, we're going to see the same amount of energy in the system for 20, 30 or 40 years," the survey director, Mark Myers, said. "We would not expect to see any significant change in polar conditions regardless of mitigation."

In other words, even in the unlikely event that all the major economies were to agree to rapid and drastic reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, the floating Arctic ice cap will continue to shrink at a rapid pace for the next 50 years, wiping out much of the bears' habitat. The report makes no recommendation on listing the bears as a threatened species or to take any action to slow ice cap damage. Such decisions are up to another Interior Department agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which enforces the Endangered Species Act. That decision is due in January, officials have said. The wildlife agency had to make a determination on the status of a threatened species because of a suit by environmental groups like Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

In some places, the bears have adapted to eating a wide range of food like snow geese and garbage. But the survey team said that their fate was 84 percent linked to the extent of sea ice. A fresh analysis by scientists of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which was published Saturday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, says sea-ice coverage of the Arctic Ocean will decline by more than 40 percent before the summer of 2050 compared with the average ice extent from 1979 to 1999.

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(Jakarta, Jumat 22 February 2008)

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Aviation and global warming (Global climate change)

KEEPING THE SKIES FRIENDLY

Aviation and global warming

By Giovanni Bisignani

Is aviation a major contributor to global warming? Is it the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions? Hyperbole characterizes the debate on aviation and climate change. Who to believe? Politicians? Environmental activists? Airlines? Scientists?

So let's look at the facts. And let's take them from the world's most authoritative body on this issue, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC estimates that aviation today is responsible for 2 percent of global CO2 emissions with a total climate change impact of 3 percent. These figures have remained largely unchanged over the last two decades, despite the growth of air traffic.

Projecting forward to 2050, the IPCC has aviation at 3 percent of global CO2 emissions and 5-6 percent of climate change impact. We are and will remain a small part of the big problem of climate change. Nonetheless, aviation's carbon footprint is growing, and that is politically unacceptable for any industry. The challenge is to keep the many benefits of aviation - unprecedented global mobility that supports 32 million jobs and $3.5 billion worth of economic activity - while eliminating its negative impacts. The solution is not to return to the days when flying was reserved for the well-to-do by making it artificially expensive with even more taxes. Punitive economic measures like emissions trading will not have a big impact on aviation's environmental performance.

With 28 percent of costs coming directly from fuel, the airline industry has the strongest incentive of any industry to keep fuel consumption low. Positive measures - tax credits to encourage faster re-fleeting or grants to fund alternative fuel research - would deliver better results. Unilateral European proposals to include aviation into its emissions trading scheme have put economic measures at the center of a political debate, partially fueled by the approaching Kyoto deadlines. But regional initiatives are no way to solve a worldwide issue.

A meeting currently taking place in Montreal is our best opportunity for a global solution. Government leaders responsible for civil aviation are meeting at the Triennial Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Environment tops their agenda. If emissions trading is going to be imposed on airlines, we must make sure it is effective. The ICAO needs to work towards a global emissions trading scheme that states could implement on a mutual consent basis. This is what the drafters of Kyoto had always envisaged. But the industry is pushing governments for much loftier goals. In June, I proposed a vision for the industry to aim for carbon-neutral growth in the medium-term and to develop zero-carbon emissions technology within 50 years.

Since then, I have met with aircraft manufacturers, engine makers, fuel-suppliers and airlines. Nobody has all the answers, but no one said our goal was impossible. On the contrary, it is absolutely achievable. Remember, this is the industry that went from the Wright Brothers to the jet age in just five decades.

The critical question is: How do we turn the vision into reality? The first part of the answer is efficiency. It is the best way to take us to carbon neutral growth. Airlines are investing billions of dollars in new, more fuel-efficient aircraft. In the last four decades, fuel efficiency increased 70 percent and will improve a further 25 percent by 2020. Better air traffic control, including straightening air routes, and more efficient operations can reduce fuel burn by 18 percent.

Unfortunately, politics often gets in the way of good common sense. Uniting Europe's skies offers the biggest single opportunity to improve aviation's environmental performance. But after 15 years of talks, a Single European Sky is still just an idea. This political failure results in 12 million tons of unnecessary carbon emissions each year. The second part of our vision is technology. It is the only way to zero emissions. Quite simply we need to build better planes and more efficient engines powered by non-carbon sources. Some potential building blocks already exist - solar power, hydrogen cells and biofuel.

The world's airlines - IATA's 240 members - are committed to the vision. Manufacturers are aligned. All are working hard. It is now time for governments to come on board. Through ICAO, governments must set challenging but realistic targets in two important areas. First we need targets to improve air traffic management and eliminate unnecessary fuel burn. Then we need technology targets in a roadmap. This will provide regulatory certainty to back major investment decisions by manufacturers and airlines. So, please, less hyperbole and more concrete actions.

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(Jakarta, Jumat 22 February 2008)

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The Nobel committee takes on climate change (Global Warming Problem)

The Nobel committee takes on climate change

Al Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are certainly worthy of this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Coming from different directions, they have done a remarkable job of calling the world's attention to what Gore rightly calls "a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity." A lot of people will also see this as a serious slap to the Bush administration. They'll be right. The Nobel committee has, unsurprisingly, tried to minimize the political aspects of the Peace Prize. But this prize is in fact political, and there's no reason it should not be so. Alone among the Nobel prizes, the Peace Prize is meant to make a statement about the world.

The Bush administration should read a clear message in some of the committee's recent choices - the UN Secretariat; Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the UN nuclear monitoring agency, former President Jimmy Carter. This year's signal is even clearer, celebrating, as it does, the sort of global panel the administration abhors, and calling attention to an issue that Bush has essentially ignored, and even disparaged.

While every responsible institution and government has begun to take seriously the fateful ramifications of global warming, the Bush administration has adamantly dragged behind, conceding the obvious only when there is no remaining choice, boycotting any initiative that is not its own, avoiding any action that might reduce the profits of big business. Bush's people are bound to grumble that they are victims of an ideological smear, and there's little chance that the prize will convert them on climate change. But everything that contributes to building a coalition for action is good, and every alarm bell helps.

Looking back over recent years, it is clear that the former vice president has done very well with his time after losing the 2000 presidential contest to George W. Bush - far better than any other failed presidential contender that comes to our minds. It reminds us of what another Peace Prize winner once said. In the words of Theodore Roosevelt: "It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood." A firefighter extinguishes a bushfire on Sydney's northern suburbs Wednesday.

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(Jakarta, Jumat 22 February 2008)

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