Saylac - This time around there is a global awareness that the world is facing the challenges of population explosion and global warming that could endanger almost all biological entities in the world.
There is a consensus that the global warming and population explosion is now a significant burden to the environment where biological entities are living.
Last week the Biological Society of Ethiopia, at the opening of its 17th annual conference, picked a central theme: "Population Explosion and Global Warming: Local and Global Context." During a two-day session many scholars presented papers related to the topic.
Dr. Solomon Yirga, president of the Biological Society of Ethiopia, said that the issue of climate change is a headline in almost all kinds of papers and forums, including in business and politics around the world. The impact of global warming can be manifested in various forms of changes in the environment. "For example, hundreds of thousands of our citizens have been victims of the recent flood disaster in Ethiopia and capital-intensive measures were taken to alleviate the problems by the government and the people," he said. Any change in the environment would definitely have negative consequences like droughts, floods and mosquitoes.
Today, he said, the global human population has reached about 6.5 billion. The problem of rapid population growth has assumed critical stage in the least developed countries like Ethiopia. "Unless we create a means to increase production and productivity of the arable land through basic and applied research results, that would minimize effects of global warming and population growth."
The president noted that experience over the last couple of decades in Ethiopia has shows that as human population increases, the carrying capacity of the environment decreases. A high population growth rate induces environmental degradation, increase in demand for resources and the rate at which these resources are exploited.
In Ethiopia, the rate at which agricultural and medical technologies are generated and disseminated to the rural poor is not sufficient enough. However, the research resulted that are formulated in some way and disseminated to end users clearly show that the technologies generated by Ethiopian scientists could have significant contribution towards the improvement in the livelihoods of many of our people Ethiopians. "Such successful results of pilot projects in the area of agriculture, medicine and education would motivate biological scientists towards generating, evaluating and promoting new research results that could change the lives of our society through minimizing effects of environmental factors," he added.
Fisseha Itanna, from the department of biology at the Addis Ababa University (AAU), in his presentation, said that Ethiopia is among the most populated nations in Africa, ranking third after Nigeria and Egypt. Recent annual population growth rate in the country is estimated to be 2.3 percent. It is well understood that increase in population definitely adds to the actively engaged in a taskforce in a community. On the other hand, with increase in population some problems start to be manifested.
According to his observation, one salient feature that commonly occurs is competition among people for limited resources such as land, water and even air. It is also understood, as population increases, that traditional farming and productions systems come under extreme pressure to withstand the needs of the additional mouths. Industrialization and intensification of productive systems then become the only option of nations to come out of this problem.
Fisseha said that thousands after thousands migrate into cities in search of better opportunities from rural communities, thereby accelerating the rate of urbanization in the country. Ethiopia is not an exception to this state of affairs and over the past decades such has been the scenario in this country too. "The major industries in the country are food processing, beverages, textiles, leather, chemicals, metals processing and cement. The industrial production growth rate is estimated at about 6.7 percent."
The scholar said that as processes of industrialization and urbanization continue, degradation of different forms appear in the urban setting. Soil degradation through industrial and urban development is described as sealing, physical, chemical and biological degradation. Sealing of soils occurs through the construction of roads, industrial premises, houses, sporting facilities, and the use of soils as dumping grounds for different kinds of refuse. Agricultural lands, which otherwise could be used for cereal, fruit or vegetable production, or serve as rangelands are converted into roads and housing grounds through sealing.
Reduction of farmlands in urban and sub-urban centers in this manner will consequently result in commensurate crop losses. There are reports that the water from the rivers crossing Addis Ababa was much cleaner before several decades and people even used to drink it. However, he said, with the increase in urban population and industrialization, the water has now become contaminated with organic and inorganic pollutants. With increase in population degradation of the ecosystems takes place at a more rapid rate. Soil degradation through urban activities is mainly due to the enormous consumption of air, water and other goods within towns. Consumption of these products results in the release of huge amounts of solid and liquid wastes in the cities.
With regard to industrial pollution, he said chemical and biological degradation are caused by contamination with inorganic compounds such as heavy metals, as well as organic compounds such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The physico-chemical and biological degradation resulting from industrial activities is more concentrated and intense than that from urban activities. These urban and industrial activities in many cases irreversibly reduce the multi-functionary soils. "Under natural conditions, plants, animals and human beings are adapted to the local natural metal concentrations. Increased extraction of heavy metals and use of raw materials and fossil energy since the mid-18th century, however, are now leading to global pollution through atmospheric and water contamination." Population explosion has also impact on the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere; land use changes could induce emissions of carbon into the atmosphere with a resultant global warming, he added.
Jason O. Onsembe from the United Nations Fund for Population (UNFPA) in his presentation indicated that Ethiopia has an estimated total population of 79.3 million which is expected to be 170.2 million by 2050. "High growth rate of population affects the future size of population, the age structure, labor force supply, rural and urban distribution, regional densities, all of which have implications on development."
Regarding fertility rate, the presenter said that the total fertility rate in Ethiopia is 5.9 which is high by any standard. Only 17 percent of women favor having fewer than four children, and women consider 5.3 children as the average ideal family size. The Ethiopian government considers high rate of population as a great challenge to its objectives of meeting the demands for social services and facilities, particularly in such areas as health, education employment, housing, environmental security and general well-being.
He added that nine counties, one of which is Ethiopia, are expected to account for half of the world's projected population increase during the period 2005-2007; global life expectancy is expected to rise; and the net international migration to more developed regions is projected to reach 98 million during the period 2005-2050. "In Ethiopia, high population growth will impede all efforts aimed at reducing poverty, as the recent analysis of the trends in economic growth, poverty and population dynamics indicate." He suggested that it now remains the responsibility of policymakers to put in place appropriate policies and strategies to change the direction of population growth. In poor counties, massive efforts are required to ensure non-deterioration of social and economic conditions.
Dr. Solomon said the greater understanding of the factors that affect global warming and population growth patterns can help the country plan for the future; the national population policy has been adopted together with several important policy initiatives on natural resource development and environmental protection. The professional societies like Biological Societies of Ethiopia are expected to contribute a lot towards the development of ways and means of reducing pressure. "Then the combined efforts from various stakeholders will be synthesized to produce packages that could be promoted to the societies and policy makers for possible interventions."
Friday, March 16, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
United Arab Emirates Consume More Energy Than U.S.
AP - When it comes to squandering the earth's natural resources, residents of this desert land of chilled swimming pools, monster 4x4s and air-conditioned malls are on a par with even the ravenous consumption of Americans, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
The average person in the Emirates puts more demand on the global ecosystem than any other, giving the country the world's largest per-capita "ecological footprint," WWF data shows. The United States runs second.
But the oil-rich Emirates is considered a developing country, and even as a signatory to the United Nations' Kyoto protocol on global warming, is not required to cut emissions. The United States is not bound by Kyoto.
Even so, the Emirates government has been embarrassed by the WWF report, which it says is flawed. The federal environment agency is devising strategies to cut emissions, including a public campaign that may offer economic incentives to those who turn down their air conditioning, said Saad al-Numairy, an adviser to the agency.
"We have an action plan," al-Numairy said. "But we are a multicultural country with 180 nationalities. It's not going to be easy."
Energy consumption in the Emirates runs high for many of the same reasons found in the United States: a feeling that the good life requires huge air-conditioned houses and cars, and a disdain for public transportation.
Making matters worse are Dubai's audacious developments, including artificial resort islands that have destroyed coral reefs and an indoor ski slope that still creates snow when it is 120 degrees outside.
"Of all the places to make artificial snow, this has to be the most absurd," said Jonathan Loh, a British biologist who co-authored the WWF report.
Nearby Kuwait, another scorching-hot Persian Gulf oil producer, ranked fifth in the WWF report. Finland was third and Canada fourth.
Environmental officials here say the Emirates ranking is based on outdated information, since the WWF report relies on 2003 data that estimates the country's population at 3 million when it is closer to 5 million.
"It's a fact of life that the UAE will always have a large ecological footprint because of where we are," said Habiba al-Marashi, who chairs the Emirates Environmental Group. "But to be classified as the worst, that hurts. We don't think the report is on solid ground."
Loh acknowledged that factoring in more accurate population figures might put UAE in second place just behind the United States, but "it's still going to show that the UAE is right on the top of the scale."
The country's full damage is not tallied because the WWF study ignores aircraft emissions, Loh said. The UAE emirate of Dubai claims one of the world's busiest airports.
The WWF rankings are measured in "global hectares" - the area of biologically productive land and sea needed to provide the resources consumed by an average person. The Emirates' ecological footprint measured 11.9 global hectares per person, compared to 9.6 hectares per person for the United States and a global average of 2.2 hectares a person.
The country took the top spot because its energy consumption is high and emissions are spread among a small population, Loh said.
The country's landscape offers little help. Undulating sand dunes and jagged mountains of bare rock offer precious little greenery to soak up carbon emissions.
One focal point for Dubai's emissions is the red-and-white smokestacks jutting from gas-fired power plants and an aluminum smelter that line the beach on the city's outskirts. The plants do double duty distilling fresh water from Gulf seawater, an energy-intensive process that accounts for 98 percent of the fresh water in a country with no rivers and little usable groundwater.
In Dubai and Abu Dhabi desalinated water is lavished, Las Vegas-style, on fountains, artificial lakes, swimming pools, resort greenery and golf courses sitting atop once drifting desert sands. Desalination also produces most fresh water in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, Gulf countries that also showed high footprints.
Due to the country's small size, carbon emissions and consumption in the Emirates are a tiny fraction of that of the United States, and Loh said most efforts to cut greenhouse gases need to concentrate on America and other large industrial countries.
But unlike in the United States, energy consumption has not emerged as an issue. The Emirates, like the rest of the oil-producing Gulf states, was until the 1960s an impoverished desert country whose residents survived through subsistence fishing, farming and small-time trade.
Now, the government's energy subsidies give Emirates citizens free water and cheap electricity. Gasoline sells for around $1.70 per gallon.
"Really, we're happy to be rich now," said Majid al-Mansouri, who heads the environment agency serving Abu Dhabi.
The WWF has asked the Emirates government to cut energy use and move toward renewable energy, especially solar power viable in one of the world's sunniest climates.
Al-Mansouri said the country was looking to make improvements, such as running publicly owned vehicles on compressed natural gas - which is cleaner burning but still emits globe-warming carbon dioxide. The state oil company has eliminated 80 percent of its wasteful flaring off of natural gas at oil wellheads, he said.
Other projects once considered environmentally friendly here are being re-evaluated.
***
Nakheel via AP
ILLUSTRATION OF 'THE WORLD' ISLANDS
This illustration shows that "The World," a collection of 300 man-made islands off the United Arab Emirates, is intended to look like its name when completed by 2008. More on MSNBC.
The average person in the Emirates puts more demand on the global ecosystem than any other, giving the country the world's largest per-capita "ecological footprint," WWF data shows. The United States runs second.
But the oil-rich Emirates is considered a developing country, and even as a signatory to the United Nations' Kyoto protocol on global warming, is not required to cut emissions. The United States is not bound by Kyoto.
Even so, the Emirates government has been embarrassed by the WWF report, which it says is flawed. The federal environment agency is devising strategies to cut emissions, including a public campaign that may offer economic incentives to those who turn down their air conditioning, said Saad al-Numairy, an adviser to the agency.
"We have an action plan," al-Numairy said. "But we are a multicultural country with 180 nationalities. It's not going to be easy."
Energy consumption in the Emirates runs high for many of the same reasons found in the United States: a feeling that the good life requires huge air-conditioned houses and cars, and a disdain for public transportation.
Making matters worse are Dubai's audacious developments, including artificial resort islands that have destroyed coral reefs and an indoor ski slope that still creates snow when it is 120 degrees outside.
"Of all the places to make artificial snow, this has to be the most absurd," said Jonathan Loh, a British biologist who co-authored the WWF report.
Nearby Kuwait, another scorching-hot Persian Gulf oil producer, ranked fifth in the WWF report. Finland was third and Canada fourth.
Environmental officials here say the Emirates ranking is based on outdated information, since the WWF report relies on 2003 data that estimates the country's population at 3 million when it is closer to 5 million.
"It's a fact of life that the UAE will always have a large ecological footprint because of where we are," said Habiba al-Marashi, who chairs the Emirates Environmental Group. "But to be classified as the worst, that hurts. We don't think the report is on solid ground."
Loh acknowledged that factoring in more accurate population figures might put UAE in second place just behind the United States, but "it's still going to show that the UAE is right on the top of the scale."
The country's full damage is not tallied because the WWF study ignores aircraft emissions, Loh said. The UAE emirate of Dubai claims one of the world's busiest airports.
The WWF rankings are measured in "global hectares" - the area of biologically productive land and sea needed to provide the resources consumed by an average person. The Emirates' ecological footprint measured 11.9 global hectares per person, compared to 9.6 hectares per person for the United States and a global average of 2.2 hectares a person.
The country took the top spot because its energy consumption is high and emissions are spread among a small population, Loh said.
The country's landscape offers little help. Undulating sand dunes and jagged mountains of bare rock offer precious little greenery to soak up carbon emissions.
One focal point for Dubai's emissions is the red-and-white smokestacks jutting from gas-fired power plants and an aluminum smelter that line the beach on the city's outskirts. The plants do double duty distilling fresh water from Gulf seawater, an energy-intensive process that accounts for 98 percent of the fresh water in a country with no rivers and little usable groundwater.
In Dubai and Abu Dhabi desalinated water is lavished, Las Vegas-style, on fountains, artificial lakes, swimming pools, resort greenery and golf courses sitting atop once drifting desert sands. Desalination also produces most fresh water in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, Gulf countries that also showed high footprints.
Due to the country's small size, carbon emissions and consumption in the Emirates are a tiny fraction of that of the United States, and Loh said most efforts to cut greenhouse gases need to concentrate on America and other large industrial countries.
But unlike in the United States, energy consumption has not emerged as an issue. The Emirates, like the rest of the oil-producing Gulf states, was until the 1960s an impoverished desert country whose residents survived through subsistence fishing, farming and small-time trade.
Now, the government's energy subsidies give Emirates citizens free water and cheap electricity. Gasoline sells for around $1.70 per gallon.
"Really, we're happy to be rich now," said Majid al-Mansouri, who heads the environment agency serving Abu Dhabi.
The WWF has asked the Emirates government to cut energy use and move toward renewable energy, especially solar power viable in one of the world's sunniest climates.
Al-Mansouri said the country was looking to make improvements, such as running publicly owned vehicles on compressed natural gas - which is cleaner burning but still emits globe-warming carbon dioxide. The state oil company has eliminated 80 percent of its wasteful flaring off of natural gas at oil wellheads, he said.
Other projects once considered environmentally friendly here are being re-evaluated.
***
Nakheel via AP
ILLUSTRATION OF 'THE WORLD' ISLANDS
This illustration shows that "The World," a collection of 300 man-made islands off the United Arab Emirates, is intended to look like its name when completed by 2008. More on MSNBC.
Introducing the Nation's First Solar-Hydrogen House
The Christian Science Monitor -- Mike Strizki lives in the nation's first solar-hydrogen house. The technology this civil engineer has been able to string together – solar panels, a hydrogen fuel cell, storage tanks, and a piece of equipment called an electrolyzer – provides electricity to his home year-round, even on the cloudiest of winter days.
Mr. Strizki's monthly utility bill is zero – he's off the power grid – and his system creates no carbon-dioxide emissions. Neither does the fuel-cell car parked in his garage, which runs off the hydrogen his system creates.
It sounds promising, even utopian: homemade, storable energy that doesn't contribute to global warming. But does Strizki's method – converting electricity generated from renewable sources into hydrogen – make sense for widespread adoption?
According to some renewable-energy experts, the answer is "no," at least not anytime soon. The system is too expensive, they say, and the process of creating hydrogen from clean sources is itself laced with inefficiency – the numbers just don't add up.
Strizki's response: "Nothing is as wildly expensive as destroying the whole planet."
Life free from the power grid
Strizki lives with his wife in a rural section of Central New Jersey. His 12-acre property is surrounded by trees and his gravel driveway leads to a winding country road. His 3,500-square-foot house has all the amenities, including a hot tub and a big-screen TV.
It was here, four years ago, that Strizki set out to do something that's never been done in this country – power his home completely through a combination of solar and hydrogen. "My motivation was, I saw what fossil fuels were doing to the environment," he says.
Strizki works for a company that installs solar panels. In previous jobs, he's helped integrate hydrogen fuel cells into cars, a boat, a fire truck, and an airplane. His latest project, the one involving his house, is an extension of that expertise.
The solar-hydrogen house took longer to complete than Strizki expected – a strict local zoning officer and the state permitting process caused delays, he says – but in October 2006, the system finally went online. The total cost, $500,000, was paid for in part with a $250,000 grant from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.
This is how it works
On sunny days, solar panels on the roof of Strizki's detached garage generate more than enough electricity to power his home. The excess electricity powers a device inside the garage called an electrolyzer, which transforms a tank of water into its base elements – oxygen and hydrogen.
The oxygen is released into the atmosphere, while the hydrogen is stored in 10 1,000-gallon propane tanks on Strizki's property. In the winter, when the solar panels collect less energy than the home needs, that hydrogen is piped to an air-conditioner-size fuel cell, located just outside the garage, which generates electricity.
The final piece of the equation is "The New Jersey Genesis," a hydrogen fuel-cell car Strizki helped design and now maintains for the New Jersey Department of Transportation. He can fill up the Genesis with hydrogen from his electrolyzer and drive it pollution free.
Strizki understands that few people can afford to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for clean energy. Now that he's demonstrated his idea works, his goal is to make the system better and less expensive. (For example, the 10 propane tanks could be replaced by one high-pressure hydrogen tank buried underground.) With mass production, he believes he could get the price of the system, not including the solar panels, down to about $50,000. (A new solar panel system can cost as much as $80,000, Strizki says, but some states, including New Jersey, have offered rebates that cover up to 70 percent of the cost.) Strizki is seeking government grants and private donors for funding, and he's started a company, Renewable Energy International, which he hopes will one day market his product. He says he's already heard from potential customers: "We've been called by some A-list Hollywood types interested in powering their islands."
Hydrogen hurdles
Strizki's project proves that carbon-free living is possible right now, but renewable-energy experts are skeptical that hydrogen houses with hydrogen-run cars in the driveway will catch on anytime soon.
"There's no way your average person is going to want to buy five expensive pieces of hardware," says Joseph Romm, a former
Department of Energy official who analyzed clean-energy technologies during the Clinton administration.
In addition to the high cost of the equipment, there's another huge hurdle that must be overcome if hydrogen is to become a viable clean energy: Although hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, it doesn't exist alone in nature; you can't just bottle it up.
To get at hydrogen, it must be processed from another source, such as natural gas, oil, coal, or water. According to the National Hydrogen Association, 95 percent of the hydrogen produced in the United States is made through steam reforming natural gas – a process that releases greenhouse gases into the air.
Strizki's method for making hydrogen is totally clean, but suffers from a different problem: Electrolyzers are only 50 percent efficient. By the time the electricity from his solar panels is converted into hydrogen, and the hydrogen converted back into electricity in the fuel cell, half of the clean energy he started with is used up.
Mr. Romm thinks it's a waste. That electricity would do more good toward reducing pollution if it was sent into the main power grid to displace other energy, he says. "[Strizki's system] doesn't get you that much environmentally," he says.
Romm is an advocate for clean-energy use – in recent books and articles he advocates a sharp cut in greenhouse-gas emissions within 10 years – but he's characterized hydrogen as an overhyped distraction that isn't ready yet to help toward that goal. He supports continued hydrogen research, but other technologies that are more developed could help the Earth much more and much sooner, he says.
Not ready for prime time
Robert Boehm, director of the Center for Energy Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has studied renewable energy for the past 35 years. His reaction to Strizki's home project is tempered.
"Does it make sense in the present environment? Probably not. Does it make sense as a sustainable thing in the future? It very well could," Dr. Boehm says.
Boehm predicts that it will be at least a decade before hydrogen energy is ready for the mainstream, and then only if enough money is put into research and development.
"In any of these new technologies, they need a lot of government support," he says.
Boehm sees the most immediate potential for a system like Strizki's in places far from a power grid, where selling renewable energy back to a power company is not an option.
Strizki isn't dissuaded by criticisms that his system is too expensive or too inefficient to be practical. He's determined to push technology ahead toward an end goal – totally clean energy – and he sees renewable hydrogen as the best solution.
"It's the way that makes the most sense, and we have to start somewhere," he says. "If you look at it, no one has said what I'm doing doesn't work."
Mr. Strizki's monthly utility bill is zero – he's off the power grid – and his system creates no carbon-dioxide emissions. Neither does the fuel-cell car parked in his garage, which runs off the hydrogen his system creates.
It sounds promising, even utopian: homemade, storable energy that doesn't contribute to global warming. But does Strizki's method – converting electricity generated from renewable sources into hydrogen – make sense for widespread adoption?
According to some renewable-energy experts, the answer is "no," at least not anytime soon. The system is too expensive, they say, and the process of creating hydrogen from clean sources is itself laced with inefficiency – the numbers just don't add up.
Strizki's response: "Nothing is as wildly expensive as destroying the whole planet."
Life free from the power grid
Strizki lives with his wife in a rural section of Central New Jersey. His 12-acre property is surrounded by trees and his gravel driveway leads to a winding country road. His 3,500-square-foot house has all the amenities, including a hot tub and a big-screen TV.
It was here, four years ago, that Strizki set out to do something that's never been done in this country – power his home completely through a combination of solar and hydrogen. "My motivation was, I saw what fossil fuels were doing to the environment," he says.
Strizki works for a company that installs solar panels. In previous jobs, he's helped integrate hydrogen fuel cells into cars, a boat, a fire truck, and an airplane. His latest project, the one involving his house, is an extension of that expertise.
The solar-hydrogen house took longer to complete than Strizki expected – a strict local zoning officer and the state permitting process caused delays, he says – but in October 2006, the system finally went online. The total cost, $500,000, was paid for in part with a $250,000 grant from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.
This is how it works
On sunny days, solar panels on the roof of Strizki's detached garage generate more than enough electricity to power his home. The excess electricity powers a device inside the garage called an electrolyzer, which transforms a tank of water into its base elements – oxygen and hydrogen.
The oxygen is released into the atmosphere, while the hydrogen is stored in 10 1,000-gallon propane tanks on Strizki's property. In the winter, when the solar panels collect less energy than the home needs, that hydrogen is piped to an air-conditioner-size fuel cell, located just outside the garage, which generates electricity.
The final piece of the equation is "The New Jersey Genesis," a hydrogen fuel-cell car Strizki helped design and now maintains for the New Jersey Department of Transportation. He can fill up the Genesis with hydrogen from his electrolyzer and drive it pollution free.
Strizki understands that few people can afford to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for clean energy. Now that he's demonstrated his idea works, his goal is to make the system better and less expensive. (For example, the 10 propane tanks could be replaced by one high-pressure hydrogen tank buried underground.) With mass production, he believes he could get the price of the system, not including the solar panels, down to about $50,000. (A new solar panel system can cost as much as $80,000, Strizki says, but some states, including New Jersey, have offered rebates that cover up to 70 percent of the cost.) Strizki is seeking government grants and private donors for funding, and he's started a company, Renewable Energy International, which he hopes will one day market his product. He says he's already heard from potential customers: "We've been called by some A-list Hollywood types interested in powering their islands."
Hydrogen hurdles
Strizki's project proves that carbon-free living is possible right now, but renewable-energy experts are skeptical that hydrogen houses with hydrogen-run cars in the driveway will catch on anytime soon.
"There's no way your average person is going to want to buy five expensive pieces of hardware," says Joseph Romm, a former
Department of Energy official who analyzed clean-energy technologies during the Clinton administration.
In addition to the high cost of the equipment, there's another huge hurdle that must be overcome if hydrogen is to become a viable clean energy: Although hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, it doesn't exist alone in nature; you can't just bottle it up.
To get at hydrogen, it must be processed from another source, such as natural gas, oil, coal, or water. According to the National Hydrogen Association, 95 percent of the hydrogen produced in the United States is made through steam reforming natural gas – a process that releases greenhouse gases into the air.
Strizki's method for making hydrogen is totally clean, but suffers from a different problem: Electrolyzers are only 50 percent efficient. By the time the electricity from his solar panels is converted into hydrogen, and the hydrogen converted back into electricity in the fuel cell, half of the clean energy he started with is used up.
Mr. Romm thinks it's a waste. That electricity would do more good toward reducing pollution if it was sent into the main power grid to displace other energy, he says. "[Strizki's system] doesn't get you that much environmentally," he says.
Romm is an advocate for clean-energy use – in recent books and articles he advocates a sharp cut in greenhouse-gas emissions within 10 years – but he's characterized hydrogen as an overhyped distraction that isn't ready yet to help toward that goal. He supports continued hydrogen research, but other technologies that are more developed could help the Earth much more and much sooner, he says.
Not ready for prime time
Robert Boehm, director of the Center for Energy Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has studied renewable energy for the past 35 years. His reaction to Strizki's home project is tempered.
"Does it make sense in the present environment? Probably not. Does it make sense as a sustainable thing in the future? It very well could," Dr. Boehm says.
Boehm predicts that it will be at least a decade before hydrogen energy is ready for the mainstream, and then only if enough money is put into research and development.
"In any of these new technologies, they need a lot of government support," he says.
Boehm sees the most immediate potential for a system like Strizki's in places far from a power grid, where selling renewable energy back to a power company is not an option.
Strizki isn't dissuaded by criticisms that his system is too expensive or too inefficient to be practical. He's determined to push technology ahead toward an end goal – totally clean energy – and he sees renewable hydrogen as the best solution.
"It's the way that makes the most sense, and we have to start somewhere," he says. "If you look at it, no one has said what I'm doing doesn't work."
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
'Fair Trade' Food Booming in Britain
Christian Science Monitor - In a quiet church vestibule on the southern edge of London, they're doing brisk business. Customers are digging out change for tea bags and cookies. Bags of coffee are being snapped up as if they were the last in town.
"It's only the second year we've done this, but it's really taking off," says Nova Smith, a church volunteer who helps organize the sale of "fair-trade" items. "People are more and more interested in fair trade."
Data show that Britons are avidly buying fair-trade groceries, organic foods, and sustainably farmed produce. Experts speak of a cultural shift in which foodstuffs once considered niche and expensive are now going mainstream.
"They've gone from the margins to the mainstream quite fast," says Professor Tim Lang, an expert in food policy at London's City University. He says the reasons are manifold: good campaigning, globalization, and "large problems that have come into the public arena, like water shortages, adulteration of foods, pollution, contamination, and public-health problems."
In recent months, evidence of this quiet food revolution has multiplied. Supermarkets and major retailers are rapidly expanding their fair-trade offerings such that there are now 1,500 different fair-trade goods on the market. Sales reached more than $500 million last year, up 46 percent from the previous year. Last month, one leading supermarket, Sainsbury, said all its bananas would now be fair-trade. Tea and coffee in another leading retailer, Marks and Spencer, is now exclusively fair-trade.
Purveyors of organic (chemical-free) foods report strong growth as well. Sales of more than $1.9 billion annually (out of a total national grocery turnover of around $135 billion) are growing at 30 percent a year in England. A recent survey by the Oxfam charity, a proponent of fair trade, found that two-thirds of shoppers had refused to buy something because its producer was associated with unethical practices.
"It's part of a whole change of mood around the way we want to live our lives," says Helen Browning, food and farming director of the Soil Association, a charity promoting sustainable farming. "There's a recognition that the consumer society and values of the 1980s have worn thin, and people are looking for something more real."
Or, as Smith puts it: "People feel it's a small thing they can do to make a difference. You can't change the world, but you can do a little bit that helps."
Of course, Britain is not alone. Organic food is popular in other European countries such as Germany, where sales outstrip those in Britain. Organic retail sales in the US have grown more than 20 percent each year since 1990.
In Britain, organic farmers now find it much easier to make a living than non-organic farmers, says Ms. Browning.
"The tipping point came when we started getting retailers doing 100-percent [fair trade] for certain products," says Barbara Crowther of the Fairtrade Foundation, the British member of Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO). "In terms of volume and range of product available to the consumer, the UK is the world's leader," she says. "Fair trade can help farmers who can see they can get even more value from their crop. It can give them a stability of income."
Some have argued that ethical food is a new type of status symbol, a hallmark of the affluent society with time on its hands.
But academics say the evidence shows that ethical food is not limited to a class or sector of society.
"There is strong evidence that [fair trade] has a cross-class appeal," says Mr. Lang.
Elizabeth Dowler, a food expert at Warwick University, agrees that it is not merely a manifestation of the modern affluent society. "The 'counterculture' movement has a long history, as does a concern for the social and economic local well-being," she says. "The food-retailing sector argues that affluence plays a part – people have the leisure and capacity to indulge in that which is not 'essential.' I think this is too limited a view."
"It's only the second year we've done this, but it's really taking off," says Nova Smith, a church volunteer who helps organize the sale of "fair-trade" items. "People are more and more interested in fair trade."
Data show that Britons are avidly buying fair-trade groceries, organic foods, and sustainably farmed produce. Experts speak of a cultural shift in which foodstuffs once considered niche and expensive are now going mainstream.
"They've gone from the margins to the mainstream quite fast," says Professor Tim Lang, an expert in food policy at London's City University. He says the reasons are manifold: good campaigning, globalization, and "large problems that have come into the public arena, like water shortages, adulteration of foods, pollution, contamination, and public-health problems."
In recent months, evidence of this quiet food revolution has multiplied. Supermarkets and major retailers are rapidly expanding their fair-trade offerings such that there are now 1,500 different fair-trade goods on the market. Sales reached more than $500 million last year, up 46 percent from the previous year. Last month, one leading supermarket, Sainsbury, said all its bananas would now be fair-trade. Tea and coffee in another leading retailer, Marks and Spencer, is now exclusively fair-trade.
Purveyors of organic (chemical-free) foods report strong growth as well. Sales of more than $1.9 billion annually (out of a total national grocery turnover of around $135 billion) are growing at 30 percent a year in England. A recent survey by the Oxfam charity, a proponent of fair trade, found that two-thirds of shoppers had refused to buy something because its producer was associated with unethical practices.
"It's part of a whole change of mood around the way we want to live our lives," says Helen Browning, food and farming director of the Soil Association, a charity promoting sustainable farming. "There's a recognition that the consumer society and values of the 1980s have worn thin, and people are looking for something more real."
Or, as Smith puts it: "People feel it's a small thing they can do to make a difference. You can't change the world, but you can do a little bit that helps."
Of course, Britain is not alone. Organic food is popular in other European countries such as Germany, where sales outstrip those in Britain. Organic retail sales in the US have grown more than 20 percent each year since 1990.
In Britain, organic farmers now find it much easier to make a living than non-organic farmers, says Ms. Browning.
"The tipping point came when we started getting retailers doing 100-percent [fair trade] for certain products," says Barbara Crowther of the Fairtrade Foundation, the British member of Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO). "In terms of volume and range of product available to the consumer, the UK is the world's leader," she says. "Fair trade can help farmers who can see they can get even more value from their crop. It can give them a stability of income."
Some have argued that ethical food is a new type of status symbol, a hallmark of the affluent society with time on its hands.
But academics say the evidence shows that ethical food is not limited to a class or sector of society.
"There is strong evidence that [fair trade] has a cross-class appeal," says Mr. Lang.
Elizabeth Dowler, a food expert at Warwick University, agrees that it is not merely a manifestation of the modern affluent society. "The 'counterculture' movement has a long history, as does a concern for the social and economic local well-being," she says. "The food-retailing sector argues that affluence plays a part – people have the leisure and capacity to indulge in that which is not 'essential.' I think this is too limited a view."
Kenya: U.S. Funds $4.5 Million Dairy Project
allAfrica - Dairy farmers in Eastern Province are to benefit from a $4.5 million (Sh325 million) programme funded by the American government.
Speaking yesterday during the launch of the Kenya Food for Progress Programme at the Windsor hotel, Livestock and Fisheries minister, Joseph Munyao, said the assistance would help 20,000 people in the marginal districts of Machakos, Makueni, Mbeere, Meru and Embu districts.
The three year programme will be implemented in three phases by Land O' Lakes International Development, under the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
The minister said the programme was aimed at addresing the challenges in the dairy sector, particularly in raising productivity and marketing for value addition, including the small-holder dairy farmers. He said the recently concluded Kenya Dairy Development Project (KDDP) was carried out in high potential areas of Central and Rift Valley provinces, and its successes would be replicated in the marginal districts of Eastern province.
The programme in collaboration with other stakeholders, he said, will provide technical and training assistance to all the players in the value chain by imparting skills in productivity and marketing efficiency to enable them compete effectively in the local and international market. "The programme should therefore address the issue of unreliable animal feeds by building farmers capacity in terms of feed conservation techniques and use of farm by-products during the dry seasons," he said.
Mr Munyao said the programme should support co-operatives to enable farmers access and offer quality artificial insemination services at affordable prices to the small--holders.
He said the liberalisation of the sector had resulted in limited use of artificial insemination by the smallholder farmers. On marketing, he said, technical barriers would be eliminated and farmers linked to suppliers.
The minister added that growth in milk production was estimated at 4.1 per cent per year, generating about 365,000 waged jobs and another 30,000 in the processing and marketing chain. US Ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, said the Land O' Lakes would provide 25,000 metric tonnes of wheat for the animal feeds in the three years.
Speaking yesterday during the launch of the Kenya Food for Progress Programme at the Windsor hotel, Livestock and Fisheries minister, Joseph Munyao, said the assistance would help 20,000 people in the marginal districts of Machakos, Makueni, Mbeere, Meru and Embu districts.
The three year programme will be implemented in three phases by Land O' Lakes International Development, under the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
The minister said the programme was aimed at addresing the challenges in the dairy sector, particularly in raising productivity and marketing for value addition, including the small-holder dairy farmers. He said the recently concluded Kenya Dairy Development Project (KDDP) was carried out in high potential areas of Central and Rift Valley provinces, and its successes would be replicated in the marginal districts of Eastern province.
The programme in collaboration with other stakeholders, he said, will provide technical and training assistance to all the players in the value chain by imparting skills in productivity and marketing efficiency to enable them compete effectively in the local and international market. "The programme should therefore address the issue of unreliable animal feeds by building farmers capacity in terms of feed conservation techniques and use of farm by-products during the dry seasons," he said.
Mr Munyao said the programme should support co-operatives to enable farmers access and offer quality artificial insemination services at affordable prices to the small--holders.
He said the liberalisation of the sector had resulted in limited use of artificial insemination by the smallholder farmers. On marketing, he said, technical barriers would be eliminated and farmers linked to suppliers.
The minister added that growth in milk production was estimated at 4.1 per cent per year, generating about 365,000 waged jobs and another 30,000 in the processing and marketing chain. US Ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, said the Land O' Lakes would provide 25,000 metric tonnes of wheat for the animal feeds in the three years.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Ethiopia Loses 200,000 Hectares Forest Annually
The Ethiopian Herald -- The Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute says Ethiopia loses up to 200,000 hectares of forest every year, and warned that if the trend continues the country would lose all of its forest resources by the year 2020.
Institute Forestry development head, Dr. Alemu Gezahegn told ENA that deforestation has continued at an alarming rate in several parts of Ethiopia.
The warning was given here Monday at a day-long symposium on 'Functional Ecology and Sustainable Management of Mountain Forests in Ethiopia,' organized by the Institute in collaboration with the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Dr. Alemu said the stated area of forest has been destroyed due to deforestation, select logging, and other human activities.
Dr. Alemu said special emphasis should be given to strengthen forestry research capabilities of the nation to institutionalize sustainable use of forest resources across the nation.
A research conducted in forests of Shashemene town in Oromia State clearly shows that there is a possibility of institutionalizing sustainable utilization of forests in the country, he said.
According to a report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, forests cover 30 per cent of the total land of the world.
The total forest area of the world in 2005 was just less than 4 billion hectares, according to the report.
Meanwhile, the National Fishery and other Living Aquatic Resources Research Centre under the auspices of the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute (EARI) said that it has been undertaking preliminary activities to introduce a new technology that would enable farmers to produce fish on reservoirs, ponds and temporary water bodies.
Centre Director Kassahun Asaminew told WIC that the technology has proved successful in Kenya as farmers were able to produce up to 150 fish in one cubic metre of water which can also be used for irrigation and other purposes.
Accordingly, the centre has identified water bodies in Debre Zeit, Ataye and Butajira towns to carry out verification work after two months. Following that, training would be offered to farmers and cages would be distributed among them on loan basis through microfinance projects, he added.
The new technology would help farmers obtain additional income, Kassahun said, adding that it is a simple technology which does not demand much labour.
Some 10,000-15,000 farmers living nearby small water bodies are expected to become beneficiaries of the new technology after two and a half years, the director said.
The centre in collaboration with Russian scientists, has identified 150 species of fish, he further said.
The centre envisages facilitating the production after identifying species with better growth performance as only few species are being utilized in the country and species imported from overseas have negative impact on the environment.
More Info at:
Forests.org
World Rainforest Movement
PBS
Journal of Ethiopian Environmental and Energy Concern
Institute Forestry development head, Dr. Alemu Gezahegn told ENA that deforestation has continued at an alarming rate in several parts of Ethiopia.
The warning was given here Monday at a day-long symposium on 'Functional Ecology and Sustainable Management of Mountain Forests in Ethiopia,' organized by the Institute in collaboration with the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Dr. Alemu said the stated area of forest has been destroyed due to deforestation, select logging, and other human activities.
Dr. Alemu said special emphasis should be given to strengthen forestry research capabilities of the nation to institutionalize sustainable use of forest resources across the nation.
A research conducted in forests of Shashemene town in Oromia State clearly shows that there is a possibility of institutionalizing sustainable utilization of forests in the country, he said.
According to a report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, forests cover 30 per cent of the total land of the world.
The total forest area of the world in 2005 was just less than 4 billion hectares, according to the report.
Meanwhile, the National Fishery and other Living Aquatic Resources Research Centre under the auspices of the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute (EARI) said that it has been undertaking preliminary activities to introduce a new technology that would enable farmers to produce fish on reservoirs, ponds and temporary water bodies.
Centre Director Kassahun Asaminew told WIC that the technology has proved successful in Kenya as farmers were able to produce up to 150 fish in one cubic metre of water which can also be used for irrigation and other purposes.
Accordingly, the centre has identified water bodies in Debre Zeit, Ataye and Butajira towns to carry out verification work after two months. Following that, training would be offered to farmers and cages would be distributed among them on loan basis through microfinance projects, he added.
The new technology would help farmers obtain additional income, Kassahun said, adding that it is a simple technology which does not demand much labour.
Some 10,000-15,000 farmers living nearby small water bodies are expected to become beneficiaries of the new technology after two and a half years, the director said.
The centre in collaboration with Russian scientists, has identified 150 species of fish, he further said.
The centre envisages facilitating the production after identifying species with better growth performance as only few species are being utilized in the country and species imported from overseas have negative impact on the environment.
More Info at:
Forests.org
World Rainforest Movement
PBS
Journal of Ethiopian Environmental and Energy Concern
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Brazil Gambles on Monitoring of Amazon Loggers
Aerial view of an area deforested in Brazil - deforestation is the second biggest contributer to climate change
New York Times -- A Brazilian government plan set to go into effect this year will bring large-scale logging deep into the heart of the Amazon rain forest for the first time, in a calculated gamble that new monitoring efforts can offset any danger of increased devastation.
The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in an attempt to create Brazil’s first coherent, effective forest policy, is to begin auctioning off timber rights to large tracts of the rain forest. The winning bidders will not have title to the land or the right to exploit resources other than timber, and the government says they will be closely monitored and will pay a royalty on their activities.
The architects of the plan say it will also help reduce tensions over land ownership in the Amazon, the world’s largest tropical forest, which loses an area the size of New Jersey every year to clear-cutting and timbering.
In theory, 70 percent of the jungle is public land, but miners, ranchers and especially loggers have felt free to establish themselves in unpoliced areas, strip the land of valuable resources and then move on, mostly in the so-called arc of destruction on the eastern and southern fringes of the jungle.
But the called-for monitoring of the loggers allowed into the rain forest’s largely untouched center will come from a new, untested Forest Service with only 150 employees and from state and municipal governments. That concerns environmental and civic groups because local officials are more vulnerable to the pressures of powerful economic interests and to corruption.
Further, the new system assumes that the world community will also play a part and buy timber only from merchants who are properly licensed and will avoid unscrupulous dealers.
The plan “can be a good idea in places where the situation is already chaotic,” said Philip Fearnside, a researcher at the National Institute for Amazon Research in Manaus who recently visited this remote area. “But it’s a different story in areas where hardly any logging or deforestation has taken place, where you are actually going to be encouraging the introduction of predatory forces that don’t exist there now.”
On paper and in principle, said Stephan Schwartzman, an Amazon specialist at Environmental Defense in Washington, “I think everyone agrees that this system is an improvement over the current situation, which is totally out of control.”
But in the end, he added, “everything is going to depend on how it is done and whether the financial and human resources are there to make it work.”
Here in this small settlement called Reality, along the rutted Highway BR-319, those resources do not yet exist, as residents have discovered. When outsiders recently appeared to fish out of season, wiping out protected species and killing three manatees, the peasants here went to the authorities looking for help, only to be turned away.
“They told us that we had to be the monitors ourselves, but we don’t have the ability to do that,” said Antonio Marfoni, a settler. “There’s no working phone here, and we don’t have the money or the time to be able to take the bus into town to denounce violations.”
Last October, during the final debate of the presidential campaign, the opposition candidate, Geraldo Alckmin, called the plan “irresponsible,” accused Mr. da Silva of wanting to “privatize the Amazon” and added, “If today there is no supervision, imagine what will happen if you hand it over to the private sector.”
Though the environmental movement was one of the founding constituencies of Mr. da Silva’s Workers’ Party, he made it clear after being re-elected to another four year term that his main goal was to get the Brazilian economy growing at 5 percent a year.
In November, he complained of “all the obstacles I have with the environment” and with “the Indian question,” which he said were hindering Brazil’s development.
But the proposal’s supporters dismiss criticisms as unfounded. Jorge Viana, who is a member of Mr. da Silva’s party and was governor of the Amazon state of Acre until Jan. 1, contends that “this is one of the most important initiatives that Brazil has ever adopted in the Amazon precisely because you are bringing the forest under state control, not privatizing it.”
“This is a battle Brazil has to win,” he added. “There’s only one way to save the forest, and that is by using it, responsibly and rationally.”
Claudio Langone, executive secretary of the Environment Ministry, said in a telephone interview from Brasília: “Brazil today is losing money due to the illegal exploitation of timber. With this new dynamic of management, legal deforestation and sustainable development, we want to create barriers to predatory advancement and increase the value of the forest.”
But some here fear that increased value will bring with it the kind of violence that has struck other more-developed areas of the Amazon.
Ivonete Aparecida Paes, a Roman Catholic nun who is the coordinator of the church’s Justice and Peace Commission in this area, said, “Since none of the settlers already here have titles to their tracts, that creates the possibility of greater conflicts over land ownership.”
After much debate, it was decided that the leases would run for 30 years. But Paulo Adario, director of Greenpeace’s Amazon campaign, said that “some species need 45 years or more to regenerate,” and that loggers might thus lack an economic incentive to care properly for a tract that would no longer be theirs when the trees they replaced reached harvestable size.
Already, there are signs of logging interests establishing themselves here. A sawmill opened just down the highway in mid-2005 and was operating at full capacity during a recent visit. Along the highway itself, there is now a clearing in which logs are piled haphazardly, like giant sticks.
“No one has the authorization to cut so much wood, even with a forest management plan,” said Leila Mattos, the director of Pacto Amazônico, an environmental group based in Humaitá, the closest town of any size. “I came by here at the beginning of November, and none of this was here. This is more than a year’s worth of timber.”
In addition, peasant settlers unable to obtain land of their own in Rondonia, a state south of here, have also begun moving up the highway and flocking to the area. Theirs is a pre-emptive action, aimed at establishing themselves on land that may go to logging companies later and thus forcing the government to give them other homesteads in return.
During an interview in Humaitá, Francisco Araujo, the director of the regional office of the governmental environmental agency, said that no matter who ended up in charge of supervising the timber extraction plan, the task would be hard. He complained of a shortage of gasoline and personnel and a lack of police protection for his agents.
“In reality, these conservation areas were created without very precise field studies,” Mr. Araujo said. “Only now are the technicians looking at the problems in the area. The infrastructure is very precarious. There is no equipment or physical base from which to operate, just a shack in which to stay, without a telephone.”
In the absence of the needed resources, he said, government policy envisions “a new partnership with society.” But those who work most closely with the peasant settlers who are being asked to bear that burden remain skeptical.
“To think that they can monitor violations in the absence of the state is a dream,” Sister Paes said. “The Amazon has no tradition of the poor standing up to the powerful. People simply don’t know how to do that.”
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
British Lawyers to Sue Trafigura Over Waste
Reuters/Planet Ark -- British lawyers suing Dutch-based oil trader Trafigura over toxic waste dumped in Ivory Coast are gathering evidence from thousands of victims for what they say will be one of Britain's largest class action cases.
The lawyers from Leigh Day & Co, based in London, are seeking financial compensation for people made ill by the toxic oil slops unloaded from a tanker chartered by Trafigura and dumped around the main city Abidjan in August.
"Our case is straightforward. We say Trafigura was responsible for bringing toxic waste down here to Ivory Coast," lawyer Martyn Day told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.
"It was dumped in open dump sites instead of being treated and that toxic waste caused people's injuries."
The poisonous slops were unloaded from the Panamanian-registered Probo Koala tanker before being dumped at 17 mostly open-air sites. Ten people died and thousands were ill with vomiting, diarrhoea, nosebleeds and breathing difficulties.
Trafigura denies any wrongdoing and says it entrusted the waste to an Ivorian disposal company, Tommy, set up weeks before the ship's arrival.
Day said his law firm took on the no-win, no-fee case after being contacted by environment group Greenpeace.
It is seeking cash compensation for the victims through the British courts because Trafigura's London branch had chartered the vessel and bore most responsibility.
"There are probably four or five thousand people who have been seriously affected by the toxic waste dumping so we're going to be coming over here regularly to make sure anyone who wants to join the action can do so," Day said.
A hearing in London on Jan. 29 will determine whether the courts will accept the class action, a means of dealing simultaneously with large numbers of civil suits involving the same defendant and complaint, he said.
Day said the numbers of people involved would make the suit one of the biggest of its kind to be heard in a British court.
Day hopes Trafigura will agree to an out-of-court settlement. He said such a case could involve compensation payments ranging from 1,000 pounds (US$1,950) for mild injuries to 5,000-6,000 pounds for those more seriously hurt.
"People have to have lived close to the (sites) for us to be prepared to take the case on ... We have to prove each individual was injured," Day said.
Ivorian and Dutch authorities have started criminal investigations into the dumping.
A report commissioned by the Ivorian prime minister said in November that port, customs and district officials had been negligent and Trafigura had violated the Basel Convention by shipping toxic substances to a developing country.
Two French Trafigura directors have been detained in Abidjan and face charges under Ivorian poisoning and toxic waste laws.
The lawyers from Leigh Day & Co, based in London, are seeking financial compensation for people made ill by the toxic oil slops unloaded from a tanker chartered by Trafigura and dumped around the main city Abidjan in August.
"Our case is straightforward. We say Trafigura was responsible for bringing toxic waste down here to Ivory Coast," lawyer Martyn Day told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.
"It was dumped in open dump sites instead of being treated and that toxic waste caused people's injuries."
The poisonous slops were unloaded from the Panamanian-registered Probo Koala tanker before being dumped at 17 mostly open-air sites. Ten people died and thousands were ill with vomiting, diarrhoea, nosebleeds and breathing difficulties.
Trafigura denies any wrongdoing and says it entrusted the waste to an Ivorian disposal company, Tommy, set up weeks before the ship's arrival.
Day said his law firm took on the no-win, no-fee case after being contacted by environment group Greenpeace.
It is seeking cash compensation for the victims through the British courts because Trafigura's London branch had chartered the vessel and bore most responsibility.
"There are probably four or five thousand people who have been seriously affected by the toxic waste dumping so we're going to be coming over here regularly to make sure anyone who wants to join the action can do so," Day said.
A hearing in London on Jan. 29 will determine whether the courts will accept the class action, a means of dealing simultaneously with large numbers of civil suits involving the same defendant and complaint, he said.
Day said the numbers of people involved would make the suit one of the biggest of its kind to be heard in a British court.
Day hopes Trafigura will agree to an out-of-court settlement. He said such a case could involve compensation payments ranging from 1,000 pounds (US$1,950) for mild injuries to 5,000-6,000 pounds for those more seriously hurt.
"People have to have lived close to the (sites) for us to be prepared to take the case on ... We have to prove each individual was injured," Day said.
Ivorian and Dutch authorities have started criminal investigations into the dumping.
A report commissioned by the Ivorian prime minister said in November that port, customs and district officials had been negligent and Trafigura had violated the Basel Convention by shipping toxic substances to a developing country.
Two French Trafigura directors have been detained in Abidjan and face charges under Ivorian poisoning and toxic waste laws.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Jamaica, Montego Bay, Cockpit country, landscape
AP -- Descendants of freed African slaves vowed Sunday to fight any plans for bauxite mining in the forested region of Jamaica where they have lived in semiautonomy for centuries.
The Accompong Maroons, descendants of slaves freed by the Spanish in the 17th century to repel invading British forces, will not allow mining companies into any part of their jungle territory, said Sydney Peddie, the group's leader.
"We will be joining forces with all the influential people to thwart this issue. It will not happen or else there will be war," Peddie told a news conference.
Last month, Jamaica's government withdrew a license for U.S.-based aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. and state-owned Clarendon Alumina Production Ltd. to begin bauxite mining in the northwestern region, known as Cockpit Country, following threats of street protests by environmental activists.
Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke said he would review scientific data presented by both sides and decide this month whether to grant the license. Jamaica is the world's fifth-largest producer of bauxite, the raw material for aluminum.
Peddie said opening up the territory to mining would breach a treaty signed between the Maroons and the British in 1739, which gave the group nearly 25,000 acres in Cockpit Country, an inhospitable terrain of rocky cliffs and limestone towers.
After getting their freedom, the first Maroons fled to Cockpit Country and repelled the British for decades before signing the peace treaty.
15 Dead Taken from Collapsed Congo Mine
AP -- Fifteen bodies have been pulled from a diamond mine that collapsed in central Congo last week and further rescue efforts have been abandoned, officials said Sunday.
Three people were rescued soon after the mine in the town of Tshikapa caved in Friday, said Mayor Mwamba Mutombo. He said they did not know if others were in the mine when it fell in but said hope of rescue had been abandoned after two days.
Mutombo said the group appeared to have been teenagers who hoped that recent rains had uncovered diamonds in the community mine.
Mutombo said work at the mine has been suspended and two people in charge of the site have been arrested.
Such collapses are common during the wet season in Congo's diamond-producing region. Diamond concessions and community mines continue to operate in the midst of crumbling infrastructure ruined by decades of war and dictatorship.
The Central African nation produces about 8 percent of the world's diamonds.
Related Post
"Lesotho Promise" Sells for $12.36 Million
Ethiopian Forces Attacked in Somalia
AP - Gunmen attacked Ethiopian troops supporting the Somali government Sunday, witnesses said, in the second straight day of violence in a city struggling to emerge from more than a decade of chaos.
Farah Abdi Hussein, who witnessed the attack, said gunmen launched grenades at Ethiopians about 2 1/2 miles from the airport. One Somali soldier was wounded, according to a Somali military official asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.
The unrest comes at a precarious time for Somalia's transitional administration, which is trying to assert some control for the first time in a capital that has seen little more than chaos in the 15 years since clan warlords toppled a dictatorship and then turned on each other.
The government, backed by Ethiopia's military, drove out a radical Islamic militia last week. But many in predominantly Muslim Somalia resent the presence of troops from neighboring Ethiopia, which has a large Christian population and has fought two wars with Somalia.
On Saturday, hundreds of furious protesters took to the streets, burning tires and smashing car windows while denouncing the presence of Ethiopian forces and shouting defiance at the Somali government's call for disarming Mogadishu.
Two people died in Saturday's violence, including a 13-year-old boy.
On Sunday, a similar protest took place about 215 miles away in Belet Weyne, after Ethiopian troops there detained a Somali military commander who refused to hand over an Islamic militiaman, witnesses said. That protest also turned violent, killing a 20-year-old civilian, Abdi Nor Salah Gedi told The Associated Press by telephone.
It was not clear who shot the man or the teenager killed Saturday.
Clan elders held emergency meetings Sunday and hundreds of Somali troops patrolled Mogadishu, setting up six extra checkpoints in areas where residents burned tires and broke car windows during Saturday's protests.
Dahir Abdi Kulima, a chieftain of the Hawiye, the dominant clan of southern Somalia, said the government's reliance on Ethiopia is backfiring.
"Since the Ethiopians arrived people are sleeping and waking with worry about what will happen next," Kulima told AP during a break in a meeting with about a dozen other Hawiye elders. "This is a sign of upcoming problems in Somalia."
Ethiopian soldiers, tanks and warplanes intervened in Somalia on Dec. 24 to defeat the Islamic movement, which had threatened to overthrow the internationally recognized government. At the time, the government controlled only the western town of Baidoa.
The most senior U.S. diplomat for Africa said Sunday that the United States would use its diplomatic and financial resources to support the Somali government.
"I think we are pushing uphill as an international community, as well as the Somali people themselves, to try to overcome their history," Jendayi Frazer, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Africa, told AP in Nairobi, Kenya.
Frazer was planning a surprise visit to Mogadishu on Sunday but called it off because the details of the trip were made public, prompting concerns for her safety.
The African Union has begun planning for peacekeepers and Uganda has promised at least 1,000 troops. Frazer has said she hopes the first troops would arrive in Mogadishu before the end of the month.
Previous peacekeeping forces, including U.S. troops, met with hostility and violence when they tried to help in the early 1990s, and leaders of the routed Islamic militia are vowing from their hideouts to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla war.
After meeting with Frazer in Nairobi, a top Somali politician with ties to leaders of the militant Muslim movement urged its fighters to surrender and join the peace process.
Sheik Sharif Hassan Aden, speaker of the transitional parliament but a strong critic of the interim government, also dropped his opposition to having foreign peacekeepers in Somalia, calling on people "to welcome, to hail, to respect, to accommodate them in a peaceful manner."
Aden is closely linked to leaders of the militant Council of Islamic Courts, whose fighters scattered into the countryside after being defeated on the battlefield last week.
Frazer reiterated Somalia's importance to the United States because of its location in the Horn of Africa, where the Red Sea opens into the Indian Ocean.
The U.S. wants to make sure Islamic extremists do not take advantage of the chaos to establish a safe haven. Frazer has said al-Qaida's East Africa cell, blamed for the bombings of two U.S. embassies and a Kenyan resort hotel, infiltrated the Islamist movement in Somalia.
But Frazer stressed that the U.S. will provide only a support role.
"Some people would like the United States to lead on this issue," she said. "I would prefer that we lead from behind, and what I mean by that is pushing the Somali people first, pushing the sub-region next and then mobilizing the resources of the international community."
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Ethiopia's Historic Trail: Quest for the Lost Ark
Ethiopia is easy to overlook as a travel destination, as it is one of the poorest countries in the world — and the site of much warfare. However, traveling in northeastern Ethiopia is safer than one might imagine. The country should be a top destination — provided one enjoys nature, religious history and simpler accommodations, says Susan Braden.
The Globalist -- The conflict with Eritrea has been over for more than five years and the government of President Meles Zanawi has brought a degree of calm to the country that enables foreigners to traverse the historic trail safely and in relative comfort.
Ethiopia is the site of one of the oldest Christian empires in the world. It also has an intriguing claim to being the caretaker of the most important relic of the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant.
Outside of the country, most people believe the wooden box built by Moses to protect the stone tablets inscribed by God with the Ten Commandments is lost and has been for more than 3,000 years.
Ark theory
Ask a native, however, and you will be told that the Ark is safely tucked away in Ethiopia. Spend a couple of weeks there — and you will think so too.
To understand the role Ethiopia played in the ancient world and its Christian heritage requires a quick review of the map and a ten-day trip from Bahar Dar to Gonder, Axum and Lalibela.
Deep history
From the map, you will gain an appreciation for northeastern Ethiopia's strategic location along two critical transportation routes — the Blue Nile and the Red Sea.
The trip along the historic trail will give you an intuitive understanding for Ethiopia's ties to the ancient Greeks, Egyptians and Israelites. On Lake Tana, for example, you will see flat reed boats bearing an uncanny resemblance to the reed boats on the Nile outside of Cairo.
Similarly, you will see indigenous Jews in Falasha settlements outside of Gonder and hear about local customs that underscore the deep connection between Judaism and Ethiopian Christianity.
Long journey
Starting in Addis Abba, it takes about an hour on Ethiopian Airlines to reach Bahar Dar, the stopping off point for a visit to the Blue Nile Falls and the island monasteries of Lake Tana. Although the falls were once considered the most spectacular in Africa, the construction of a hydroelectric dam nearby has so reduced its flow as to cause the locals to describe it as "a drunken man pissing."
According to the Ethiopians, the Ark was taken to the islands for safe keeping by Menelik, the son of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, at a time when the Temple of Solomon was under attack.
Rooted tradition
He carried the Ark to Egypt and then followed the Nile to the island monasteries on Lake Tana, where it was kept until the fourth century when Ethiopia converted from Judaism to Christianity and the Ark was moved to Axum.
From Lake Tana, the next stop is Gonder which takes a little over three hours to reach by jeep along a well-built road constructed by the Italians during their occupation of Ethiopia from 1931 to 1941.
Gonder's major attractions are its 17th century castles built by Emperor Fasiladas and his siblings beginning in 1636, when Gonder became the capital of Ethiopia for the next 200 years.
Land of righteousness
Other attractions include an enormous bath where thousands of people are still blessed during the January 19 (Gregorian calendar) celebration of Timket, or the Epiphany, commemorating Christ's baptism by Saint John in the Jordan River.
There is also the church of Debre Berhan Selassie, a relatively plain thatched-roof structure on the outside with beautiful paintings depicting various scenes from the Bible on the inside.
Bloody history
In one scene, for example, St. George is depicted slaying the dragon and in another St. Mary is conversing with Mohammad, who is about to choose a path she opposes.
Ethiopians claim that the Queen of Sheba was an Ethiopian who lived in Axum. To prove it, they will show you the remains of her palace and a bath dug out of red granite on a hillside.
Ethiopia's connection to Islam is almost as old as its ties to Judaism and Christianity. The prophet Mohammad reportedly told his early followers who were being persecuted in Arabia to emigrate to Ethiopia, "a land of righteousness."
In subsequent years, relations between Muslims and Christians soured and turned into bloody wars. Today, however, the country is almost evenly divided between Moslems and Christians, co-existing in relative harmony.
Continue to Part II of Susan Braden's account of Ethiopia's Historic Route.
Click here to view a gallery of Susan Braden's photos taken during her July 2006 visit to Ethiopia.
Related Posts
Land of Queen of Sheba Shows Much and Hides Much
King Tut: African or European?
"This seemed a crime against nature, against aesthetic sensibilities, even local economies..." -Richard Bangs, author of Mystery of the Nile
The Globalist -- The conflict with Eritrea has been over for more than five years and the government of President Meles Zanawi has brought a degree of calm to the country that enables foreigners to traverse the historic trail safely and in relative comfort.
Ethiopia is the site of one of the oldest Christian empires in the world. It also has an intriguing claim to being the caretaker of the most important relic of the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant.
Outside of the country, most people believe the wooden box built by Moses to protect the stone tablets inscribed by God with the Ten Commandments is lost and has been for more than 3,000 years.
Ark theory
Ask a native, however, and you will be told that the Ark is safely tucked away in Ethiopia. Spend a couple of weeks there — and you will think so too.
To understand the role Ethiopia played in the ancient world and its Christian heritage requires a quick review of the map and a ten-day trip from Bahar Dar to Gonder, Axum and Lalibela.
Deep history
From the map, you will gain an appreciation for northeastern Ethiopia's strategic location along two critical transportation routes — the Blue Nile and the Red Sea.
The trip along the historic trail will give you an intuitive understanding for Ethiopia's ties to the ancient Greeks, Egyptians and Israelites. On Lake Tana, for example, you will see flat reed boats bearing an uncanny resemblance to the reed boats on the Nile outside of Cairo.
Similarly, you will see indigenous Jews in Falasha settlements outside of Gonder and hear about local customs that underscore the deep connection between Judaism and Ethiopian Christianity.
Long journey
Starting in Addis Abba, it takes about an hour on Ethiopian Airlines to reach Bahar Dar, the stopping off point for a visit to the Blue Nile Falls and the island monasteries of Lake Tana. Although the falls were once considered the most spectacular in Africa, the construction of a hydroelectric dam nearby has so reduced its flow as to cause the locals to describe it as "a drunken man pissing."
According to the Ethiopians, the Ark was taken to the islands for safe keeping by Menelik, the son of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, at a time when the Temple of Solomon was under attack.
Rooted tradition
He carried the Ark to Egypt and then followed the Nile to the island monasteries on Lake Tana, where it was kept until the fourth century when Ethiopia converted from Judaism to Christianity and the Ark was moved to Axum.
From Lake Tana, the next stop is Gonder which takes a little over three hours to reach by jeep along a well-built road constructed by the Italians during their occupation of Ethiopia from 1931 to 1941.
Gonder's major attractions are its 17th century castles built by Emperor Fasiladas and his siblings beginning in 1636, when Gonder became the capital of Ethiopia for the next 200 years.
Land of righteousness
Other attractions include an enormous bath where thousands of people are still blessed during the January 19 (Gregorian calendar) celebration of Timket, or the Epiphany, commemorating Christ's baptism by Saint John in the Jordan River.
There is also the church of Debre Berhan Selassie, a relatively plain thatched-roof structure on the outside with beautiful paintings depicting various scenes from the Bible on the inside.
Bloody history
In one scene, for example, St. George is depicted slaying the dragon and in another St. Mary is conversing with Mohammad, who is about to choose a path she opposes.
Ethiopians claim that the Queen of Sheba was an Ethiopian who lived in Axum. To prove it, they will show you the remains of her palace and a bath dug out of red granite on a hillside.
Ethiopia's connection to Islam is almost as old as its ties to Judaism and Christianity. The prophet Mohammad reportedly told his early followers who were being persecuted in Arabia to emigrate to Ethiopia, "a land of righteousness."
In subsequent years, relations between Muslims and Christians soured and turned into bloody wars. Today, however, the country is almost evenly divided between Moslems and Christians, co-existing in relative harmony.
Continue to Part II of Susan Braden's account of Ethiopia's Historic Route.
Click here to view a gallery of Susan Braden's photos taken during her July 2006 visit to Ethiopia.
Related Posts
Land of Queen of Sheba Shows Much and Hides Much
King Tut: African or European?
"This seemed a crime against nature, against aesthetic sensibilities, even local economies..." -Richard Bangs, author of Mystery of the Nile
Risks and Perils Loom Large
Gulf News -- Although peering into the fog of the future is always a hazardous business, it would not be rash to say that, of all the potential man-made catastrophes that might afflict the world this coming year, for sheer destructiveness none would surpass an American/Israeli attack on Iran.
Is such an attack probable or even possible? Regrettably, it is.
In the current confrontation with Iran, the military option remains very much on the table. In the US and Israel, the same military planners, political lobbyists and armchair strategists that pressed America to attack Iraq are now urging it to strike Iran - and for much the same reasons.
These reasons may be briefly summarised as the need to control the Middle East's oil resources and deny them to potential rivals, such as China; the wish to demonstrate to friend and foe alike America's unique ability to project military power across the globe; and, last but not least, Israel's determination to maintain its supremacy over any regional challenger, especially one as recklessly provocative as Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
To be effective, an American/Israeli strike against Iran would have to destroy not only its nuclear facilities but also its ability to hit back, that is to say its entire military-industrial complex.
It seems more than likely that, if attacked, Iran will, one way or another, manage to strike back - against US troops in Iraq, against Israel, and against US bases and US allies in the Gulf.
The impact would also be devastating on US-Arab relations, on Israel's long-term security, on the flow of oil from the Gulf, on the oil price, on the economies of the industrial world and on the already highly fragile dollar. And yet, some influential voices in the US argue that the only way the US can hope to "win" in Iraq is to destroy Iran.
US President George W. Bush is due to make a statement of his Middle East strategy early in the New Year. There is talk of sending more troops to Iraq, of tightening sanctions against Iran and Syria, of mobilising "moderate" Arab states against "extremists", of arming the Fouad Siniora government in Lebanon against Hezbollah, and the Fatah forces of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian National Authority president, against the democratically elected Hamas government.
In the Horn of Africa, the US is lending its "tacit support" to Ethiopia in its war against Somalia's Union of Islamic Courts, all this in the name of the ill-conceived "Global War on Terrorism", which continues to create more "terrorists" than it eliminates.
Instead of calming passions and bringing peace to a deeply troubled region, American policies are feeding the flames of civil war in Iraq, exposing American troops to still greater danger, forcing Iran and Syria to look to their defences, exacerbating conflicts in Lebanon and Palestine and opening a "new front" in Somalia, which risks destabilising much of East Africa.
Insane belligerence
Still in the grip of the neocon cabal which has destroyed his presidency by its insane belligerence, Bush continues to see the Tehran-Damascus-Hezbollah-Hamas axis as the main enemy to confront and bring down. The real danger this coming year is that Saudi Arabia, alarmed at the rise of Iran and at the self-assertion of Shiite communities in Lebanon and the Gulf region, will be persuaded to side with the US against Tehran. It would be wiser for the Kingdom to engage Tehran in a wide-ranging dialogue leading to an agreement on mutual interests, and even to the conclusion of a Saudi-Iranian security pact which alone could stabilise the region without the interference of external powers.
Meanwhile, Israel continues to play cat-and-mouse with the international community, pretending to make concessions to Abbas, while blatantly establishing a new illegal colony in the Jordan valley and pressing ahead with its infamous separation wall. The message is clear: Israel's land grab on the West Bank will continue whatever Washington or anyone else might say.
Various influential Israelis have stated that if the US does not strike Iran to destroy its nuclear facilities, Israel must do so itself.
If one considers the likely impact of these American and Israeli policies, it is clear that the coming year is likely to be a hot one in the region.
Real problem
The real problem is a world-wide lack of leadership. There is hardly anyone around with the power or the vision to end the current state of international anarchy.
Bush has de-legitimised himself and squandered American authority by his blunders. Russia's Vladimir Putin has managed to hoist his country back into the front rank of international powers, but his focus is still on reasserting Russian state control over oil and gas resources, while keeping neighbours such as Ukraine, Belarus and Georgia firmly within Russia's orbit.
The European Union is a magnificent example of how 27 nations can, by mutual agreement and by means of carefully crafted laws, give 500 million people a life of peace, stability and considerable prosperity. But in terms of a common foreign policy, the Union has been a failure. Its members have pulled in different directions.
Britain's Tony Blair has marginalised himself and his country by his slavish attachment to the US. He will, in any event, be leaving office in 2007. President Jacques Chirac of France - an experienced and sober Middle East hand - will be out of office by May. Neither of his potential successors has much foreign affairs experience, and both are committed to mistaken policies.
In the Middle East, three men will bear a heavy burden of responsibility in the coming year. They are King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. They all have great problems at home, but if they were to get together, pool their considerable resources and jointly exert their political influence, they could protect the region from some of the risks, perils and potential catastrophes of the year ahead.
Related Posts
US to Sacrifice Democracy in Ethiopia?
Somali Islamists Declare 'Jihad' on Ethiopia
Is such an attack probable or even possible? Regrettably, it is.
In the current confrontation with Iran, the military option remains very much on the table. In the US and Israel, the same military planners, political lobbyists and armchair strategists that pressed America to attack Iraq are now urging it to strike Iran - and for much the same reasons.
These reasons may be briefly summarised as the need to control the Middle East's oil resources and deny them to potential rivals, such as China; the wish to demonstrate to friend and foe alike America's unique ability to project military power across the globe; and, last but not least, Israel's determination to maintain its supremacy over any regional challenger, especially one as recklessly provocative as Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
To be effective, an American/Israeli strike against Iran would have to destroy not only its nuclear facilities but also its ability to hit back, that is to say its entire military-industrial complex.
It seems more than likely that, if attacked, Iran will, one way or another, manage to strike back - against US troops in Iraq, against Israel, and against US bases and US allies in the Gulf.
The impact would also be devastating on US-Arab relations, on Israel's long-term security, on the flow of oil from the Gulf, on the oil price, on the economies of the industrial world and on the already highly fragile dollar. And yet, some influential voices in the US argue that the only way the US can hope to "win" in Iraq is to destroy Iran.
US President George W. Bush is due to make a statement of his Middle East strategy early in the New Year. There is talk of sending more troops to Iraq, of tightening sanctions against Iran and Syria, of mobilising "moderate" Arab states against "extremists", of arming the Fouad Siniora government in Lebanon against Hezbollah, and the Fatah forces of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian National Authority president, against the democratically elected Hamas government.
In the Horn of Africa, the US is lending its "tacit support" to Ethiopia in its war against Somalia's Union of Islamic Courts, all this in the name of the ill-conceived "Global War on Terrorism", which continues to create more "terrorists" than it eliminates.
Instead of calming passions and bringing peace to a deeply troubled region, American policies are feeding the flames of civil war in Iraq, exposing American troops to still greater danger, forcing Iran and Syria to look to their defences, exacerbating conflicts in Lebanon and Palestine and opening a "new front" in Somalia, which risks destabilising much of East Africa.
Insane belligerence
Still in the grip of the neocon cabal which has destroyed his presidency by its insane belligerence, Bush continues to see the Tehran-Damascus-Hezbollah-Hamas axis as the main enemy to confront and bring down. The real danger this coming year is that Saudi Arabia, alarmed at the rise of Iran and at the self-assertion of Shiite communities in Lebanon and the Gulf region, will be persuaded to side with the US against Tehran. It would be wiser for the Kingdom to engage Tehran in a wide-ranging dialogue leading to an agreement on mutual interests, and even to the conclusion of a Saudi-Iranian security pact which alone could stabilise the region without the interference of external powers.
Meanwhile, Israel continues to play cat-and-mouse with the international community, pretending to make concessions to Abbas, while blatantly establishing a new illegal colony in the Jordan valley and pressing ahead with its infamous separation wall. The message is clear: Israel's land grab on the West Bank will continue whatever Washington or anyone else might say.
Various influential Israelis have stated that if the US does not strike Iran to destroy its nuclear facilities, Israel must do so itself.
If one considers the likely impact of these American and Israeli policies, it is clear that the coming year is likely to be a hot one in the region.
Real problem
The real problem is a world-wide lack of leadership. There is hardly anyone around with the power or the vision to end the current state of international anarchy.
Bush has de-legitimised himself and squandered American authority by his blunders. Russia's Vladimir Putin has managed to hoist his country back into the front rank of international powers, but his focus is still on reasserting Russian state control over oil and gas resources, while keeping neighbours such as Ukraine, Belarus and Georgia firmly within Russia's orbit.
The European Union is a magnificent example of how 27 nations can, by mutual agreement and by means of carefully crafted laws, give 500 million people a life of peace, stability and considerable prosperity. But in terms of a common foreign policy, the Union has been a failure. Its members have pulled in different directions.
Britain's Tony Blair has marginalised himself and his country by his slavish attachment to the US. He will, in any event, be leaving office in 2007. President Jacques Chirac of France - an experienced and sober Middle East hand - will be out of office by May. Neither of his potential successors has much foreign affairs experience, and both are committed to mistaken policies.
In the Middle East, three men will bear a heavy burden of responsibility in the coming year. They are King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. They all have great problems at home, but if they were to get together, pool their considerable resources and jointly exert their political influence, they could protect the region from some of the risks, perils and potential catastrophes of the year ahead.
Related Posts
US to Sacrifice Democracy in Ethiopia?
Somali Islamists Declare 'Jihad' on Ethiopia
Ethiopians Are Divided Over War in Somalia
AFP Graphic
LA Times -- The headline in an Ethiopian newspaper drew familiar, if unflattering, comparisons to another nation's faster-than-expected victory in a war abroad.
"Mission Accomplished," blared Addis Ababa's Daily Monitor in a story about Ethiopian forces' triumph over Somalian Islamists this week.
In 2003, the same phrase adorned a banner behind President Bush as he declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq, though the battles and bloodshed proved far from over.
Just as the Iraq invasion has divided Americans, Ethiopians are split over their government's decision to get involved in Somalia's brewing civil war by sending troops across the border.
After just a week of fighting, Ethiopian troops have enabled Somalia's transitional government to gain control of a vast swath of southern Somalia that had been seized by the fundamentalist Islamic Courts Union over the last six months. By Thursday morning, Ethiopian and Somalian government troops had reached the outskirts of the capital city, Mogadishu, with Islamic forces there apparently having disappeared into the populace.
Ethiopian leaders are calling the military intervention a smart preemptive strike against the spread of religious extremism in the Horn of Africa. They say the world should thank Ethiopia for defeating a coalition of militant Islamists that U.S. officials have accused of having links to terrorists, including Al Qaeda.
Others here worry that the incursion could backfire over time by stirring political instability at home or driving Islamic militants to set their sights on this nation.
Ethiopia has no opinion polling to measure public attitudes, and recent government crackdowns against opposition leaders and journalists have made some citizens afraid to express their views.
But nearly everyone, including Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, agrees that the issue has sparked debate.
"It's natural to have disagreements on fundamental issues," Meles said Thursday in a televised news briefing. Yet he stressed that the Ethiopian people "overwhelming" support the action in Somalia.
About three-quarters of Ethiopia's parliament voted this month in favor of military involvement in Somalia. Though the vote suggested a resounding endorsement, opposition leaders said it was the closest tally they've had in a legislative body heavily dominated by Meles' party. One parliament member who is part of Meles' political coalition abstained, a rare act of defiance.
Noting that Islamists have threatened to resort to guerrilla tactics against Ethiopians, opposition leader Beyene Petros said he was not convinced that the threat posed by the Islamic courts merited Ethiopia's declaration of war.
"Ethiopia should not be bogged down in a problem that is not ours," he said. "This is not Ethiopia's problem. It's all of Africa's."
He also expressed concern that the government might use the perceived threat of terrorism to crack down against political enemies. After last year's disputed election, Meles was criticized for his response to large student demonstrations. Nearly 200 people were killed, mostly civilians, and many elected opposition leaders remain in prison awaiting trial for treason.
Supporters of the intervention in Somalia point to the Islamists' declaration of a "holy war" against Ethiopia.
"It's self-defense," said Amare Aregawi, editor of the Reporter newspaper and a former rebel fighter. "People always say, 'Don't touch the terrorists. You'll aggravate them.' What are we supposed to do? Flatter them?"
Others said the Islamists in Somalia were merely a front for international militants or other enemies of Ethiopia.
"I believe this whole thing came from Eritrea," said Michael G. Kirstus, 29, a customs house worker. International experts have said that Eritrea, Ethiopia's chief rival, has dispatched 2,000 troops to aid the Islamists, though the government in Asmara has denied it.
Allegations of U.S. involvement have been another hot-button issue in Ethiopia. Many believe the United States used Ethiopia to launch a proxy war against the Islamists.
"This was an American-made war," said Akmel Negash, 22, a student.
Meles on Thursday denied that U.S. soldiers or weapons were being used in any battles, though he noted that Washington and Addis Ababa have a long-standing agreement to share intelligence.
"We are not fighting anybody's war," Meles said. "We are fighting to defend ourselves."
Meles said that during a visit this month by U.S. Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top American commander in the Middle East had advised against a Somalia invasion. "He shared his experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan with us, and he indicated that we have, to the maximum extent possible, to avoid direct military intervention in Somalia," Meles said.
The war against Somalia's Islamists has been a touchy topic in Ethiopia's Muslim community. The country is about evenly split between Christians and Muslims, though Christians have dominated the government and Muslims were often oppressed. Though the communities have largely coexisted in peace, Muslim and Christian villagers clashed this year in southwestern Ethiopia in a conflict over religious holidays. More than a dozen people were killed and churches were burned.
"Muslims in Ethiopia are angry," said Isaac Eshetu, 25, a student. "For 2,000 years they've been living as strangers in their own motherland."
He said he opposed violence or imposing his religion on others, but "as a Muslim, I would like to live under an Islamic government."
Some Muslims questioned whether Ethiopia's Christian leaders launched the attack because they feared an Islamic government in Somalia might encourage Ethiopia's Muslims to seek the same.
Other Ethiopian Muslims said they supported the war.
"I'm Muslim, but I don't identify with them," said Mohammed Arab, 33, a waiter in Addis Ababa, the capital, referring to Somalia's Islamic courts militants. "They believe in holy war. I don't."
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Monday, December 18, 2006
Two-Thirds of Congo Basin Forests Could Disappear
© IRIN
Reuters/Planet Ark -- YAOUNDE - Two-thirds of the forests in the Congo River Basin could disappear within 50 years if logging and mineral exploitation continues at current rates, environmental group WWF said in a report.
The Congo Basin, the world's second largest tropical forest after the Amazon, loses some 3.7 million acres a year to agriculture, logging, road development, oil exploitation and mining, WWF's Central African regional office (CARPO) said in a report published late on Thursday.
"Tropical forest is vanishing at a rate of 5 percent a decade, wrecking habitats and releasing 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, which is a fifth of global greenhouse emissions," CARPO director Laurent Som said in the report.
About 400 mammal species live in the Congo Basin, including the world's largest populations of lowland gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and forest elephants, all under threat as their habitat is destroyed.
More than 655 bird species fly under its dense canopy and over 10,000 plant species take root in the forest floor, many of them unique to the region and containing medicinal properties.
"The region is blanketed by a patchwork quilt of logging concessions. While the logging itself is usually selective and does little damage, the associated roads, infrastructure and migration degrade surrounding landscape and result in massive wildlife depletion," the report said.
"Studies show that if current trends continue, two-thirds of the Congo's forests could be lost within 50 years."
As well as endangered wildlife, central African forests also harbour vast reserves of minerals which still remain to be tapped and experts say there is a huge potential for the generation of hydroelectric power.
But clearing for agriculture and mining for diamonds and coltan -- a compound found in electronic goods including mobile phones -- are already destroying large parts of the Congo Basin's 470 million acres (200 million hectares) each year.
Parrots, crocodiles and lizards are also hunted for trophies, fetishes and the pet trade, while elephants are still poached extensively for their meat and ivory.
The forests are also home to the pygmies, traditional hunter-gatherers known for their singing, drumming and dancing in honour of the 'Jengi' or the Spirit of the Forest.
The pygmies, too, with their almost mystical knowledge of the forest and its wildlife, must be protected, WWF said.
The environmental group has been working in the Congo Basin for more than two decades, creating millions of acres of protected areas, sometimes across borders, introducing sustainable forest management plans and raising awareness.
One of the plans to make logging sustainable involves certifying certain areas as viable for timber firms. Dutch lumber company Wijma became the first firm in the region to operate in such a concession covering 45,000 acres in January.
The Congo Basin covers Democratic Republic of Congo, most of Congo Republic, the southeastern reaches of Cameroon, southern Central African Republic, Gabon and mainland Equatorial Guinea.
WWF is looking for 300,000 more acres to be certified in Congo Republic in the months ahead.
***
Related News
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Guus van Kouwenhoven
Profile: Liberia's 'Mister Gus'
Dutch timber merchant Guus Kouwenhoven is to spend the next eight years in a prison cell - a far cry from the world of Montecristo cigars and Rolex watches that he once inhabited at the Hotel Africa on the edge of Liberia's capital, Monrovia.
More on BBC NEWS
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Lion Cubs in Ethiopia Find Refuge in Italian Embassy
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The Seattle Times -- Ethiopia is a perilous place to be an Abyssinian lion — so perilous that an Italian aid group brought two orphaned cubs to the Italian Embassy, where the wife of a diplomat has been caring for them inside a fenced garden.
The Lion Zoo in the impoverished nation's capital has been killing the endangered animals, poisoning six cubs this year because of lack of money and space, zoo officials said.
This even though the Abyssinian lion, famed for its black mane, is Ethiopia's national symbol, adorning statues and the local currency. Ethiopians have long been fascinated with the rare creatures.
When the Italian aid group found two orphaned cubs near the Somali border, it took them to the Italian Embassy 500 miles away instead of the zoo. Chantal Benaben, the wife of the Italian deputy ambassador, has been caring for them there.
"They were on the verge of death when I got them, and now they have all of their vaccinations and they are healthy," she said.
But the cubs' fate was still uncertain. Officials from the government-run Ethiopian Wildlife Association, concerned the embassy's fence would not be strong enough to hold the growing cubs, warned Benaben they would be killed if a permanent home was not found.
Enter the cubs' next savior, President Girma Wolde-Giorgis. He learned about the lions and found them a new home in the country's eastern, fertile Awash Valley, 380 miles from Addis Ababa.
On a recent afternoon, the cubs, nicknamed Janu and Andrea, rolled and leaped on the ground, nipping at each other like puppies. They played, oblivious to Wolde-Giorgis, who watched from the sidelines.
"I have been able to find a home from a private individual who will be able to take the cubs in and give them a good home," the Ethiopian leader said.
Abyssinian lions live only in Ethiopia. Although government wildlife officials say 3,000 Abyssinian lions roam the country, conservationists say the real tally is closer to 1,000. They blame lax enforcement of laws against poachers for the animals' dwindling numbers.
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In November, Muhedin Abdulaziz, the administrator of Addis Ababa's Lion Zoo, said the overcrowded, underfunded facility had resorted to killing some of its lions to make ends meet. He said the zoo costs $6,000 to run each month but gets only $5,000 in entrance fees. Taxidermists pay $170 for a dead cub.
Ethiopia, home to 77 million people, has long associated the lion with their monarch, whom they refer to as the lion of Judah.
It's a symbol that merits saving, says Benaben.
"I'm really hoping that these cubs are properly taken care of — because if you look at how the zoo treats their lions, you just never know what can happen," she said.
Ethiopia, she added, "could use these lions like the Chinese use the panda bear, or Pakistan has used the snow leopard — to promote their countries."
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Did You Know?
While still in high school, the late actor Ossie Davis had dreamed about joining Ethiopia's struggle against Mussolini, although he confessed he was not sure where Ethiopia was.
Benito Mussolini's Italy used mustard gas in Ethiopia and Libya.
Coffee with Milk -- and Morals
Orlando Sentinel -- KFAR SHMARIAHU, Israel -- People around the globe down 8 billion cups of coffee a day. Drip, perk, filter, black, espresso, sweetened, decaf, latte, dark roast, instant, ground, freeze-dried, flavored, organic, demitasse -- coffee drinkers are passionate about their preferences. But until this year's film Black Gold, few were passionate about the desperate poverty of farmers who grow the precious beans. Few were even aware of it. The documentary insists everybody in the world who drinks coffee has the power to affect that poverty.
The low-budget movie has exploded as a sleeper in film festivals and movie houses, picking up steam as it goes -- from Seattle to San Diego, Toronto to Tel Aviv, Belfast to Brooklyn, Rio to Rome.
Click here to find out more!
Now it is affecting the epicenter itself: Starbucks Coffee Co. During filming, the company refused to talk to the directors. After Black Gold began to attract audience attention, they were invited to company headquarters. Now public pressure aroused by the film may have helped trigger the recent conciliatory visit to Ethiopia by none other than the CEO of Starbucks. Starbucks disputes Ethiopian plans to trademark the names of coffees named for its local regions, proposing a lesser form of protection. Compromise was not reached, but this publicized gesture shows that a small independent film can ignite public consciousness to the point that an international giant feels shaky about its good-guy humanitarian image.
A cup of coffee priced under a dollar is a bargain, yet Ethiopian farmers receive less than 4 cents for every pound they grow, and the take-home pay of workers who hunch over, manually sorting beans for eight hours, comes to 50 cents. Eighty percent of Ethiopians live on less than $2 a day.
With every new harvest, bone-weary farmers hope against hope that the product of their labors will yield enough to take them from living on the edge of despair. The cooperative they have formed seeks to route profits away from conglomerates and middlemen and back into the hands of impoverished growers. Even a documentary needs a hero -- Black Gold's is the modest representative doggedly traveling the world to sleek coffee fairs, handing out samples from Oromia Coffee Farmers' Cooperative Union, certain that if buyers will only try it, the quality of the product will speak for itself.
The Ethiopian coffee union is one of hundreds of international grass-roots cooperatives for agricultural products that sell as much outside the New York Board of Trade as possible. Four corporations that do deal there dominate the world coffee market, even though it may be news for many to hear these familiar names associated with coffee: Kraft, Procter & Gamble, Sarah Lee and Nestle. None acceded to the directors' requests to participate in the movie.
In light of growing public awareness, these corporate giants have agreed to devote a small share of their products to "fair trade" coffee. Whether or not this is a window-dressing public-relations bid to deflect criticism, as the film directors assert, it is a significant step toward spreading revenues to the growers.
In the Sidama region of Ethiopia, from where Starbucks buys some of its coffee, many farmers can no longer afford to grow the crop. Famine is spreading, and children starve.
Dusty farmers of the coffee cooperative sit around a table beating their heads against the figures to try to scrounge enough funds to build a school so their children will not be doomed to repeat their lives. They fail.
After the screen goes dark, audiences ask what they can do. In the open audience session after Black Gold premiered at Utah's Sundance Film Festival, one viewer pledged $10,000 to build that school. In a much more modest way, I vow to do my part. Every time I go to a coffee store, I buy only fair-trade grinds, whatever is in stock.
It takes effort to find coffee marked "Fair Trade," although more is becoming available to the mainstream consumer, from Peace Coffee in Minneapolis to Ilan's in Israel, and around the globe through Ben & Jerry's ice creams. It's not a case of paying more to do the right thing, because fair-trade coffee is not priced higher; the money just reaches other destinations.
But as time passes the impact lessens. I get lazy. When I can't find free trade where I happen to be grocery shopping, I revert to picking up other brands, fooling myself by saying, "Next time."
News of the Starbucks visit to Ethiopia has rekindled my determination not to neglect the small power I possess. Imagine that power multiplied by 8 billion cups a day.
Helen Schary Motro, who teaches at the Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law, is author of "Maneuvering between the Headlines: An American Lives through the Intifada." She wrote this commentary for the Orlando Sentinel.
The low-budget movie has exploded as a sleeper in film festivals and movie houses, picking up steam as it goes -- from Seattle to San Diego, Toronto to Tel Aviv, Belfast to Brooklyn, Rio to Rome.
Click here to find out more!
Now it is affecting the epicenter itself: Starbucks Coffee Co. During filming, the company refused to talk to the directors. After Black Gold began to attract audience attention, they were invited to company headquarters. Now public pressure aroused by the film may have helped trigger the recent conciliatory visit to Ethiopia by none other than the CEO of Starbucks. Starbucks disputes Ethiopian plans to trademark the names of coffees named for its local regions, proposing a lesser form of protection. Compromise was not reached, but this publicized gesture shows that a small independent film can ignite public consciousness to the point that an international giant feels shaky about its good-guy humanitarian image.
A cup of coffee priced under a dollar is a bargain, yet Ethiopian farmers receive less than 4 cents for every pound they grow, and the take-home pay of workers who hunch over, manually sorting beans for eight hours, comes to 50 cents. Eighty percent of Ethiopians live on less than $2 a day.
With every new harvest, bone-weary farmers hope against hope that the product of their labors will yield enough to take them from living on the edge of despair. The cooperative they have formed seeks to route profits away from conglomerates and middlemen and back into the hands of impoverished growers. Even a documentary needs a hero -- Black Gold's is the modest representative doggedly traveling the world to sleek coffee fairs, handing out samples from Oromia Coffee Farmers' Cooperative Union, certain that if buyers will only try it, the quality of the product will speak for itself.
The Ethiopian coffee union is one of hundreds of international grass-roots cooperatives for agricultural products that sell as much outside the New York Board of Trade as possible. Four corporations that do deal there dominate the world coffee market, even though it may be news for many to hear these familiar names associated with coffee: Kraft, Procter & Gamble, Sarah Lee and Nestle. None acceded to the directors' requests to participate in the movie.
In light of growing public awareness, these corporate giants have agreed to devote a small share of their products to "fair trade" coffee. Whether or not this is a window-dressing public-relations bid to deflect criticism, as the film directors assert, it is a significant step toward spreading revenues to the growers.
In the Sidama region of Ethiopia, from where Starbucks buys some of its coffee, many farmers can no longer afford to grow the crop. Famine is spreading, and children starve.
Dusty farmers of the coffee cooperative sit around a table beating their heads against the figures to try to scrounge enough funds to build a school so their children will not be doomed to repeat their lives. They fail.
After the screen goes dark, audiences ask what they can do. In the open audience session after Black Gold premiered at Utah's Sundance Film Festival, one viewer pledged $10,000 to build that school. In a much more modest way, I vow to do my part. Every time I go to a coffee store, I buy only fair-trade grinds, whatever is in stock.
It takes effort to find coffee marked "Fair Trade," although more is becoming available to the mainstream consumer, from Peace Coffee in Minneapolis to Ilan's in Israel, and around the globe through Ben & Jerry's ice creams. It's not a case of paying more to do the right thing, because fair-trade coffee is not priced higher; the money just reaches other destinations.
But as time passes the impact lessens. I get lazy. When I can't find free trade where I happen to be grocery shopping, I revert to picking up other brands, fooling myself by saying, "Next time."
News of the Starbucks visit to Ethiopia has rekindled my determination not to neglect the small power I possess. Imagine that power multiplied by 8 billion cups a day.
Helen Schary Motro, who teaches at the Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law, is author of "Maneuvering between the Headlines: An American Lives through the Intifada." She wrote this commentary for the Orlando Sentinel.
Friday, December 01, 2006
Worldwide Protest Against Meles Zenawi's Invasion of Somalia
Photo courtesy: Ethiopian Review
Ethiopian Review -- Ethiopian dictator Meles Zenawi has invaded Somalia
after receiving a green light from the United States last week. Leaders of the Somali Islamic Courts Union (ICU), on their part, have asked Muslim jihadists around the world to come to their aid. According to a recent U.N. report, currently at least eight countries are lined up backing either the Meles regime or the ICU. From all indications, Meles and his Tigrean People Liberation Front (TPLF) may have succeeded in igniting a regional war involving all Horn of Africa countries and beyond.
Without Meles, this war will not have started
While the inept U.S. State Department officials may be fooled by the intelligence Meles provided to them about the threat of the ICU, every one else, including the Europeans, believe that he is invading Somalia to divert attention from the internal crises his regime is facing. Sadly, in the name of fighting terrorism, Jendayi E. Frazer and her morally corrupt U.S. State Department officials are assisting Meles Zenawi, the number one terrorist in the Horn of Africa, to wage a war that could cause incalculable damage to the whole region.
Ethiopians around the world, and the major Ethiopian opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (Kinijit), are expressing opposition to Meles Zenawi's adventure in Somalia. It is important for the world, particularly the people of Somalia, to know that Ethiopians are against this war.
Why are we opposing the war:
* The Somali ICU does not pose a threat to Ethiopia.
* Meles, who was rejected by the people of Ethiopia in the May 2005 elections, doesn't have a mandate to declare war on behalf of Ethiopia.
* The legitimately elected rulers of Ethiopia are detained in Kaliti jail.
* The war is being waged by Meles to prolong his illegitimate rule.
* No one in the Horn of Africa has murdered, tortured, looted, pillaged and terrorized the people of the region as much as Meles and his TPLF gangsters.
It is encouraging that Kinijit has taken a strong position opposing the war. The international community needs to know that as a party that has been elected to govern Ethiopia, what Kinijit says reflects the sentiments of the majority of Ethiopians. If Kinijit is in power, we would not be talking about war today. Unfortunately, the Meles dictatorship, with moral and financial supports from the U.S. State Department, the World Bank and others, has denied the people of Ethiopia their choice.
Ethiopian Review urges Kinijit to continue speaking on behalf of Ethiopians in this matter of paramount national importance. We also urge Kinijit to hold frequent press conferences for the world media and get its message out. Issuing a two-page statement in Amharic is not enough.
It would help if, in collaboration with civic and other groups, Kinijit organizes worldwide protest rallies opposing the war, and call for a week of peaceful civil disobedience throughout Ethiopia. The purpose of the civil disobedience must be not only to oppose the war, but to also demand the resignation of Meles Zenawi, who has been certified by the parliament-appointed Inquiry Commission as a mass murderer.
While the peaceful civil disobedience takes place, EPPF, OLF and the other armed groups need to help out by blocking all major roads in the country, paralyzing the brutal regime completely.
Hazardous Hand-Me-Downs Under Spotlight at Waste Conference
Protesters in Abidjan from Sept '06 (photo courtesy: BBC News)
Environmental Data Interactive -- The growing problem of electronic waste was at the top of the agenda of this week's conference on the Basel Convention, held in Nairobi.
The Basel Convention is an international treaty brokered in 1989 by the UN which regulates the cross-boundary transfer of toxic waste.
In practical terms, it attempts to prevent the developing world from becoming the toxic dumping ground of wealthy states which might otherwise be reluctant to deal with their own waste.
But the high-profile case in the Ivory Coast this year (see related story) shows the agreement is not infallible and this week's conference aims to close loopholes whilst addressing issues which simply did not exist when the convention was drawn up.
The meteoric rise of the mobile phone and personal computer have revolutionised communication, but they have also created a new tide of hazardous waste.
"As the recent tragedy in Côte d'Ivoire reminds us, hazardous wastes continue to pose serious risks for human health and the environment," said UNEP's executive director Achim Steiner.
"Like the climate change treaties, the Basel Convention promotes clean technologies and processes that minimize unwanted by-products. It provides the tools and incentives we need to both empower and motivate the producers and consumers of goods that generate hazardous wastes to pursue innovative solutions.
"In this way the Convention also advances sustainable development and the UN's Millennium Development Goals."
On Thursday the Nairobi conference convened a high-level World Forum on E-Wastes to confront the growing reality that, in addition to its many benefits, the global consumer goods revolution is generating massive quantities of end-of-life computers and other obsolete electronic equipment.
Some 20 to 50 million metric tonnes of e-waste are generated worldwide every year, comprising more than 5% of all municipal solid waste. When the millions of computers purchased around the world every year (183 million in 2004) become obsolete they leave behind lead, cadmium, mercury and other hazardous wastes.
Similarly, the use and disposal of mobile phones - which like PCs barely existed 20 years ago - is increasing dramatically. By 2008 the number of cell phone users around the world is projected to reach some two billion. Leading cell phone manufacturers are collaborating through the Basel Convention's Mobile Phone Partnership Initiative to find better ways to reduce and manage this growing waste stream.
Lessons learned from efforts to improve the management of e-wastes could also be applied to other obsolete consumer goods and end-of-life equipment, such as batteries, automobiles and ships.
The key to success will, according to UNEP, be the creation of a global framework for managing wastes that renders waste flows transparent, predictable and traceable, while reflecting the specific attributes of each waste stream.
"Because you can only manage what you can measure, we need to shine a brighter light on hazardous wastes - on where they come from, and on where they end up. More and better information about waste will also help us to tackle the growing challenge of illegal trade," said Sachiko Kuwabara-Yamamoto, the Convention's executive secretary.
The dumping of hazardous wastes last August in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, and the resulting deaths and illnesses, has revived concern about the continuing problem of illegal trade. A 2005 report by the European Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL) indicates that illegal trade is on the rise. A joint enforcement operation carried out in 17 European seaports examined 3,000 shipping documents and physically inspected 258 cargo holds. Of these, 140 were waste shipments, of which 68 - or some 48% - turned out to be illegal.
Governments are working through the Basel Convention to develop partnerships with industry, the public sector and civil society aimed at reducing hazardous wastes at source and promoting recycling and re-use. They are also taking advantage of the Convention's expanding series of technical guidelines for the environmentally sound management of specific kinds of wastes.
The Nairobi meeting will consider adopting three new sets of such guidelines for the environmentally sound management of certain persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Many of these pollutants are amongst the most hazardous substances known to humanity. Guidelines on POPs wastes and on PCBs were finalized in 2004. The new guidelines focus specifically on DDT, other obsolete pesticides, dioxins and furans.
Another hot topic at the conference was the dismantling of obsolete ships. The International Maritime Organization (IMO), which has launched negotiations on a legally binding agreement that would clarify the legal requirements for scrapping obsolete ships.
However, governments recognize that the Basel Convention also has a clear role to play in this issue.
The fate of ships which have reached the end of their useful lives has been a fiercely debated topic, with NGOs highlighting the terrible working conditions and environmental risks at breaking yards in India, China, Bangladesh and other states, mainly in the Far East, that dismantle the majority of the world's ageing hulks.
For many of these states, scrapping the ships is a major source of employment and income, however, and it is down to agreements such as the Basel Convention to ensure trade can continue while managed in an environmentally sound way.
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