marchartists

THE HANDSTAND

AUGUST 2006

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS, SCARES AND SOLUTIONS - A SERIES
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The spill was caused by Israeli bombing of the Jiyyeh power station
Why not make Israel pay for this?
www.newyorktimes.com

PIRAEUS, Greece, Aug. 17 — The United Nations Environment Program on Thursday pledged 50 million euros, about $64 million, to help clean up and contain a major Mediterranean oil spill caused by the conflict in Lebanon.

The 87-mile-long slick, described by experts as the worst environmental disaster in Lebanese history, stained Lebanon’s shores after Israeli warplanes bombed an oil storage depot at Jiyeh, about 19 miles south of Beirut, on July 13 and 15.

The continuing hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah barred marine experts from inspecting the most severely affected areas.

But the cease-fire that took effect on Monday cleared the way for the start of an international effort to clean up and contain the spill, said United Nations, European and maritime officials who met here about the situation.

“Now that the bombs have stopped and the guns have silenced,” said Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, “we have a chance to rapidly assess the true magnitude of the problem and finally mobilize the support for an oil cleanup and restoration of the coastline.” Up to 15,000 tons of heavy fuel poured into the Mediterranean after the Jiyeh bombings, also polluting the Syrian coast and threatening other countries.

The spillage could total 35,000 tons, close to the 1989 spill from the Exxon Valdez tanker accident in Alaska, officials said on the sidelines of the meeting here, in Greece’s biggest port.

The participants included Stavros Dimas, the European commissioner for the environment, and representatives from Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey.

“The treatment of this spill, the re-establishment of the ecosystem will take years,” said the Lebanese environment minister, Yacoub Sarraf.

Lebanon began cleaning up the black sludge on Wednesday, sending vacuum trucks and pumps to clean tar balls that have settled on Beirut’s sandy coast. Despite the cease-fire, officials said, a continuing Israeli sea and air blockade hampered the arrival of equipment.

Environmentalists say that endangered Mediterranean wildlife, like the green turtle, whose eggs hatch on Lebanese and Syrian beaches in July, faces an imminent threat. They say the spill — a cocktail of highly toxic substances — could damage tourism, rob fishermen of their livelihood and endanger human health, with a heightened risk of cancer because the fuel that spilled contained carcinogens like benzene.

Under the four-page United Nations-sponsored plan completed Thursday, a number of Mediterranean countries will contribute personnel, training and equipment for the cleanup. Kuwait and Norway have already sent chemicals and equipment to clean up the oil, while OPEC has promised $200,000 for the effort, which also includes aerial surveys to assess the extent of the spill.

Fighting in the north leaves behind severe environmental damage:
ByZafir Rinat, Haaretz Correspondent

Israel and Lebanon will long bear the environmental scars left behind by the fighting in the North, with the Galilee region in Israel and the Lebanese coastline, both major tourism locations, now requiring urgent rehabilitation: The Galilee has been blackened by fires caused by rockets hitting the region; and the Lebanese coastline is under threat from a large oil spill caused by Israeli air strikes on a fuel installation south of Beirut.

Lebanese officials say the country's coastline was under threat from the worst ecological disaster in its history as a result of the Israeli airstrikes on the fuel installation. "The contamination that has accumulated, some of it on the seabed, is threatening animals such as turtles and tuna," the Lebanese environmental organization, Green Line, noted this week. "The beautiful white sands that we will need for tourism so that the country can recover have become toxic and useless."

Some 10,000 tons of fuel have leaked from the tank hit in the Israeli air strike; the spill initially stretched some 70 kilometers, but the latest figures from the United Nations speak of a 150-kilometer-long oil slick that is threatening the Syrian coast too.

The UN notes, too, that a change in weather conditions could see the spill move southward in the direction of the Israeli coastline. UN and European Union experts are expected in the region soon to put together a plan to deal with the contamination.

In Israel, meanwhile, officials from the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority and the Jewish National Fund have yet to fully assess the extent of the damage caused by fires in the Galilee as the result of Hezbollah rocket strikes. Clearly, however, tens of thousands of dunams of forest and woodland have been destroyed by fire, causing severe ecological and landscape damage.

During the course of the fighting, JNF personnel dealt with some 600 incidents of fire; and the organization is preparing to allocate tens of millions of shekels to a campaign to rehabilitate and replant forests on the Naftali Mountains (west of Kiryat Shmona), in Beit Keshet (Central Galilee) and in Biriya (near Safed).

Officials at the INNPPA, on the other hand, are adopting a different approach, and plan to allow the natural woodlands and brush to rehabilitate themselves. "Natural woodlands require dozens of years to recover," says Didi Kaplan, the INNPPA's ecologist for the North. "The Katyushas' fires also damages areas of the Har Meron Reserve that were burned in 1978 and have yet to recover to this day."

According to Kaplan, "It is not just a matter of direct damage during the course of the fire. Tens of thousands of dunams of grassland were burned on the edges of the Golan Heights. I assume that the antelope that live in the area fled, but their source of food for the coming months has been damaged."

Kaplan believes that the grasslands on the Golan Heights will recover quickly, already after the coming winter. Regarding the woodlands, the INNPPA has no plans to intervene in their recovery but will have to take measures to prevent landslides in the winter.

During the course of the fighting, there were concerns in Israel regarding severe ecological damage as a result of rockets strikes on installations in the Haifa Bay area that contain hazardous materials, ammonia in particular. While no rockets struck such installations, Environment Ministry and Haifa region officials have noted the need to set up a number of protected sites for storing the ammonia, which, they say, is needed by many industries around the country.

A few Paragraphs for American Readers from listadmin@organicconsumersfund.org:
FACTORY FARMS SEEK "GRASS-FED" LABEL
For most people, the concept of beef labeled as "grass-fed" means animals roaming in pastures, freely grazing on the grasses and forage that ruminants have evolved over eons to digest. Now the USDA has proposed federal regulations that would allow the meat from factory farm animals, injected with antibiotics and hormones, who are fed corn and grain rather than being raised on pasture to be labeled as "grass-fed." Literally no one supports this proposed regulation other than large beef corporations who would like a federal license to defraud consumers and put family scale farmers and ranchers who still pasture their animals out of business. If you'd like to comment on this issue, letters should reference Docket #LS-05-09 and be mailed to: Chief, Standardization Branch, Livestock and Seed Program, AMS, USDA, Room 2607-S, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20250-0254 Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/2006/article_1496.cfm
* Animals raised on factory farms are routinely fed genetically modified grains, slaughterhouse waste, chicken manure, and municipal garbage.
* Because ruminants have evolved to eat fibrous grasses (not starchy low fiber grain) they are more prone to disease when they are reared on a diet of grains rather than pasture and pasture forage.
* Compared to corn and grain-fed cattle, beef and dairy products from grass-fed animals have higher levels of vitamin E, beta-carotene, vitamin C, andomega-3 fatty acids
* The manure from pasture-fed animals is easily taken up by the soil as natural fertilizer. In factory farm feedlots, the animals are confined to such a small space, the manure collects and runs-off into area waterways, increasing algae and bacteria levels.

Source: http://www.eatwild.com
THE 100 MILE DIET
The everyday-American meal contains an assortment of foods that have traveled an average of 2,000 miles to get from farm to fork. For those concerned about energy conservation, greenhouse gases, and oil dependence, the types of food we choose to eat are as important as the types of cars we choose to drive (or avoid). Industrial agriculture and long-distance food transportation generate between 20-25% of all climate destabilizing greenhouse gases in the U.S. Given this fact, buying food that is locally or regionally grown can dramatically reduce energy consumption and greenhouse pollution.. The local food movement has received a recent boost with the new trend of the "100 mile diet," the brainchild of Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon. "We're the kind of people that ride our bikes everywhere, so we wondered why we were going to all this effort when our food was flying around the world," says Smith. The diet trend, which requires participants to only eat foods grown within a 100 mile radius, is catching on across North America. Philadelphia journalist Elisa Ludwig took up the 100 mile diet for 12 days to learn more about the foods she eats. "If eating local is a moral imperative, then every meal is an opportunity to do the right thing," says Ludwig, who kept a daily journal of the experience. Read her journal entries here: http://www.organicconsumers.org/2006/article_1463.cfm
PRODUCT PLUNDER OF THE WEEK: PEPSI & COKE
After repeated discoveries of dangerously high pesticides levels in Coke and Pepsi products in India, six states have announced bans of the products in schools and hospitals. In response, the U.S. Under Secretary for International Trade, Frank Lavin, has threatened India with withdrawals of foreign investment. Although the Indian Centre for Science and the Environment have confirmed previous studies, and found levels of pesticides 24 times the legal limit in the Indian-made soft-drinks, New York-based spokesman for PepsiCo's international division, Dick Detwiler, said of the situation, "All of the data and all of the science point to the fact our products in India are absolutely safe." Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/2006/article_1511.cfm

CHINA : Symposium To Highlight Dragon Program Successes

by Staff Writers
Lijiang, China (SPX) Jul 12, 2006
Nearly 200 scientists have gathered in this city in the Yunnan Province this week for the third annual Dragon Symposium. Opening the symposium, Liao Xiaohan, China's vice director of the Department of High Technology and Industrialization in the Ministry of Science and Technology, highlighted the success of the Dragon Program and the scientific results achieved so far, after two years of cooperation with ESA and MOST.

The Dragon Program is a wide-ranging research initiative designed to encourage increased exploitation of ESA's Earth observation satellite data within China.

In his address, ESA's Stephen Briggs, head of the Department of EO Science, Applications and Future Technologies, also welcomed the success of the Dragon Program and spoke of the progress in EO at ESA since last year's symposium in Greece.

This year's event brings together the joint Sino-European teams assigned to work together after more than two years of activity to report on the progress and results of each project to date.

Presentations will include details of research being done into the use of ESA's Envisat and ERS satellite sensors for the building up of land, ocean and atmosphere observations for thematic mapping of key environmental phenomena in China.

Supporting in-situ data measurements required to validate the satellite results will be detailed and reports will be presented on joint field missions undertaken by the project teams in 2005.

There currently are 16 Dragon projects including agricultural and forest monitoring, water resource assessment, atmospheric chemistry , terrain measurement, desertification, the ocean environment and climate change . The joint Sino-European teams are led by Chinese and European lead investigators.

Since September 2004, 13 of the projects are supported by young European scientists who are receiving training in land, ocean and atmospheric applications in China.

Presentations are set to include details of research being done into the synergistic use of Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar with Envisat's optical Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer and other satellite sensors for the building up of land use databases for flood disaster assessment.

Presenters will report on how using ASAR in multi-polarization mode improves the definition and mapping of flood extents, and the measuring of soil moisture content in the upper surface layer.

Forests, which cover one seventh of China's land, have undergone dramatic changes in the last several decades due to forest fires, massive logging and insect infestation.

The need to monitor the forests is increasing, especially since the introduction of new laws against deforestation. The Forest Dragon project was developed to generate forest and biomass maps for the main forested regions of China.

To date, the generation of a wall-to-wall forest biomass map of Northeast China has been created based on multi-temporal ERS-1 and -2 tandem data and recently acquired Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar data. The data can enable more accurate woodland monitoring using SAR Interferometry - or InSAR for short.

InSAR involves combining two or more radar images of the same spot in such a way that very precise measurements can be made of ground motion taking place between acquisitions.

When repeat pass acquisitions are combined in this way, forested areas can become de-coherent, providing a distinctive signature that enables forested areas to be classified from non-forested areas.

China's spectacular economic growth during the last decade has brought many benefits along with some challenges.

Global atmospheric mapping of nitrogen dioxide pollution performed by ERS-2's Global Monitoring Ozone Experiment instrument and Envisat's Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography instrument revealed a high level of NO2 hanging above Beijing and northeast China.

Also as part of the Dragon Program, Chinese and European researchers are using results returned from GOME and SCIAMACHY to monitor Chinese air quality. Forecasting of air pollution is important to warn and inform the general public.

By using data assimilation in combination with meteorological data, researchers are able to forecast air pollution levels.

Flooding is the world's most costly type of natural disaster. In China, flooding has cost billions of Euros, caused many fatalities and displaced millions of people.

The flooding that occurred in 2005 of the Xijiang, Hanjiang and Weihe Rivers killed 1,247 people, left 331 missing and caused 14 billion Euros worth of damage.

One of the biggest problems is obtaining a clear picture of the overall extent of the flood. Wide area satellite images can show an entire flood within a single picture, with radar instruments of the type flown on ESA's ERS and Envisat spacecraft especially well suited for differentiating between flooded and dry land.

A sequence of satellite images can show if the flood is growing or diminishing over time and highlight further areas coming under threat of inundation.

Within the Dragon Program, a short notice acquisition and delivery procedure exists, enabling Chinese partners to request ASAR acquisitions ahead of the satellite overpass. The processed images are available to download from ESA servers within eight hours after acquisition.

By comparing before and after images of the flooded region, a rapid and authoritative damage assessment estimate can be made, factoring in different land cover types to quantify the cost of the flood. Chinese authorities are able to use the maps to identify floodwater extent and coordinate mitigation efforts.

Spring is arriving sooner

David Fickling
Friday August 25, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

Spring is arriving sooner and autumn is starting later because of climate change, according to a study of more than 500 plants and animals across Europe.

Scientists found that events associated with the start of spring - such as the flowering and leafing of plants and activities of certain animal species - were now appearing six to eight days earlier across the continent than they did 30 years ago.

Britain saw an even more dramatic change, with spring events happening 10 days earlier and particular species seeing even earlier flowerings. Wild cherry trees are now flowering two weeks earlier than they did in the 1970s, the report found.

The study of 542 plants and 19 animals from 1971 to 2000 found 78% of plants flowering, leafing and fruiting earlier, with only 3% waiting longer before the spring change.

There was also a marked delay in the arrival of autumn, which arrived an average three days later across the 21 countries surveyed.

Tim Sparks, the UK researcher who co-led the study, said that the change in seasonal dates could disrupt the ecological cycles of many species, as average temperatures rise by 2-5C or more over the coming century. "There's a limit to how much earlier these events can get without affecting some of these species. Trees need a rest period during the winter, and if leafing starts happening earlier, that period becomes shorter," he said. Migratory cuckoos, whose arrival has long been one of the traditional signs of spring, can also be affected by the changes, as the insects they feed on and the plants that the insects feed on start emerging earlier in the year. But Dr Sparks said that a 30% decline in the population of British cuckoos meant that they were no longer a reliable marker of the season, and spring-watchers were better off listening out for swallows.

People in Britain may be surprised to learn that the summer season is getting longer after this year's severe winter and dreary August, but Dr Sparks said that weather over the past month has actually been more typical of the historical average. "We've become accustomed to much warmer years recently, and I think we're probably so overwhelmed by the temperature in July that when August returned to the rather unimpressive summers that Britain usually has, everyone was surprised," he said. He said there was no sure rule of thumb for the start of spring from the flowering and leafing events seen in the UK, with even early flowers such as snowdrops and wood anemones showing markedly different flowering dates in different parts of the country.

Traditionally, spring starts on March 21 with the vernal equinox, the point at which day and night are of equal length and the day starts lengthening towards the summer solstice. But the Met Office caused irritation this year when it attempted to tidy up the seasonal calendar by announcing that the official start of the season would by March 1.

ing sooner and autumn is starting later because of climate change, according to a study of more than 500 plants and animals across Europe.

The study of 542 plants and 19 animals from 1971 to 2000 found 78% of plants flowering, leafing and fruiting earlier, with only 3% waiting longer before the spring change.

There was also a marked delay in the arrival of autumn, which arrived an average three days later across the 21 countries surveyed.

"There's a limit to how much earlier these events can get without affecting some of these species. Trees need a rest period during the winter, and if leafing starts happening earlier, that period becomes shorter," he said.

Migratory cuckoos, whose arrival has long been one of the traditional signs of spring, can also be affected by the changes, as the insects they feed on and the plants that the insects feed on start emerging earlier in the year.

But Dr Sparks said that a 30% decline in the population of British cuckoos meant that they were no longer a reliable marker of the season, and spring-watchers were better off listening out for swallows.

"We've become accustomed to much warmer years recently, and I think we're probably so overwhelmed by the temperature in July that when August returned to the rather unimpressive summers that Britain usually has, everyone was surprised," he said.

He said there was no sure rule of thumb for the start of spring from the flowering and leafing events seen in the UK, with even early flowers such as snowdrops and wood anemones showing markedly different flowering dates in different parts of the country.

Illustrations by the Editor, Jocelyn Braddell