California to sue EPA on greenhouse gas emissions

California will sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for "wantonly" ignoring its duty to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from ships, aircraft, and construction and agricultural equipment, state Attorney General Jerry Brown said on Wednesday.

Brown said the lawsuit, to be announced at a news conference at the Port of Long Beach on Thursday and filed in Washington after a 180-day waiting period mandated by the Clean Air Act, was meant to force the EPA into action.

The lawsuit follows two similar ones this year by California in conjunction with other states on car and truck emissions and ozone pollution.

"Ships, aircraft and industrial equipment burn huge quantities of fossil fuel, causing greenhouse gas pollution, yet President (George W.) Bush stalls with one bureaucratic dodge after another," said Brown, a strong advocate for the environment since his two terms as a liberal California governor in the 1970s and 1980s.

"Because Bush's Environmental Protection Agency continues to wantonly ignore its duty to regulate pollution, California is forced to seek judicial action," he said.

Brown said he was filing the lawsuit because he had petitioned the EPA three times to implement such regulations and was met only with a "pathetically weak" proposal that did not conclude greenhouse gases endangered public health.

An EPA spokesman disagreed, saying the agency had been "fully responsive" to California's petitions and said Brown would be better served lobbying the Democratic-led U.S. Congress to take action.

"TYPICAL OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL"

"(The lawsuit) is certainly typical of the attorney general of California," EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar said.

"If they don't like how we make a decision on something, they sue and hope the courts will mandate toward their position. It works sometimes and sometimes it doesn't work," he said.

In April, California, with the support of Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, was one of 18 states to sue the EPA for failing to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new cars and trucks despite a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court a year earlier that the agency had the power to do so.

In May, California joined 12 other states in suing the EPA, claiming it violated the Clean Air Act by not toughening ozone pollution standards enough.

The EPA has also come under fire from Democrats in Congress.

Earlier this week, three Democratic senators, including California's Barbara Boxer, called for the resignation of EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, saying he had sided with polluters instead of fighting global warming and other ecological problems.

Brown said California would likely be joined in the latest lawsuit against the EPA by Connecticut, Oregon, New York City, the California Air Resources Board, the South Coast Air Quality Management District and an a coalition of environmental groups.

(Editing by Mary Milliken; Editing by Peter Cooney)

(For more Reuters information on the environment, see http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/)

Judge: EPA turned 'blind eye' to Everglades

The U.S Environmental Protection Agency has turned a "blind eye" to Florida's Everglades cleanup efforts, while the state is violating its own commitment to restore the vast ecosystem, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

In a stinging ruling from Miami, U.S. District Judge Alan Gold put to rest a 2004 lawsuit filed against the EPA, ordering the agency to review water pollution standards and timelines set by Florida for the Everglades.

Gold repeatedly accused EPA of acting "arbitrarily and capriciously" in its failure to adhere to the mandates of the Clean Water Act.

"Plaintiffs are correct," Gold wrote, "that EPA has once again avoided its duty to protect the Everglades."

The Miccosukee Indians, who live in the Everglades, and Friends of the Everglades sued the EPA in 2004. They claimed the agency violated the Clean Water Act by allowing Florida to change its water pollution requirements for the Everglades and delay its pollution compliance deadlines.

Gold agreed, adding that the Florida Legislature "violated its fundamental commitment and promise to protect the Everglades."

The case centered on a 2003 amendment to the state's 1994 Everglades Forever Act.

Florida was originally supposed to meet lower phosphorous levels in the Everglades by 2002. The 1994 act pushed that deadline to 2006.

The amendment changed the timeline again, making it more ambiguous by setting a date of 2016 at the earliest.

The phosphorous pollution comes largely from fertilizer runoff from farms and development. The nutrient has long suffocated life in the Everglades, driving out native species and poisoning the water.

The entire wetlands once covered more than 6,250 square miles, but have shrunk by half, replaced with homes and farms and a 2,000-mile grid of drainage canals. The Everglades has since lost 90 percent of its wading birds, and 68 threatened or endangered species face extreme peril.

The restoration effort is the largest of its kind in the world.

The Miccosukee and environmentalists have long accused the state of dragging its feet. The state has spent about $2 billion on restoration, but lawsuits, missteps and a lack of federal funds have bogged down substantial progress for decades.

In his ruling, Gold said the EPA failed to abide by federal law when it did nothing to stop Florida from amending its statute that put off its timeline for cleaning up the Everglades.

"I have both the authority and duty to assure that any future Florida regulations affecting water quality standards are based on statutory authority which has been reviewed comprehensively by the agency entrusted by Congress to enforce" the Clean Water Act, he wrote.

The judge did hand EPA a partial victory by noting it did not violate the Clean Water Act in approving how Florida measures phosphorous levels in the Everglades, by averaging concentrations over time. The plaintiffs had sought a more precise method.

"This is a very big step in stopping the evasion of the state from doing its duty for the Everglades," said Miccosukee attorney Dexter Lehtinen, who called Tuesday's ruling a victory.

Lehtinen said the message from the judge to the state and EPA is clear: "You can't keep changing the rules in the middle of the game just to look good."

The not-for-profit Everglades Foundation also lauded the ruling.

"Most Floridians would find it odd that we have to go to court to force the Environmental Protection Agency to do its job," said foundation CEO Kirk Fordham.

Florida's Department of Environmental Protection and EPA said they were still reviewing the ruling.

China claims pollution success as skies clear

China claimed success on Tuesday in its pre-Olympic battle against Beijing's infamous pollution, as strong winds helped clear the thick smog that has hung over the Chinese capital this month.

Pollution levels have fallen by at least 20 percent since the first of a raft of short-term measures began at the beginning of July, Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau deputy director Du Shaozhong told reporters.

Despite visible signs of heavy smog that had pervaded Beijing in recent weeks and some branches of China's state-run press highlighting the pollution problems, Du insisted there had been 25 days of "clean air" in July.

"We have seen comprehensive measures implemented already and we have seen that they have had comprehensive results," he said.

Australian Olympic officials have told athletes they can withdraw from events in Beijing with no repercussions if they are concerned about pollution levels, it was reported Tuesday.

Australia's deputy head of mission Peter Montgomery said athletes would not be forced to compete, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Montgomery emphasised that he expected the country's 433 team members would choose to compete but any decision not to would be respected.

"It is extremely unlikely an athlete will not compete, most athletes train for 10 years for this moment," Montgomery said.

"For us, the athletes' attitude to the event is paramount. If they don't want to compete, that is fine. They will be under absolutely no pressure to compete if they feel uneasy or don't want to compete."

Nevertheless, Du confirmed that further emergency measures were being planned if pollution was a concern during the Games, which start on August 8.

"If we still don't have ideal air quality for the Games, we will take more measures, and they will be measures that are similar to what has already been taken but to a higher degree."

In the most dramatic of the recent anti-pollution steps, one million of the city's 3.3 million cars were taken off the roads on July 20, and more than 100 heavily polluting factories and building sites were closed down.

As Du gave his press conference on Tuesday morning, the skies of Beijing were much clearer than in recent weeks, thanks partly to a strong breeze blowing through the city that began overnight.

The heavy smog had reduced visibility to a few hundred metres (yards) on Monday, raising pressure on Beijing's Olympic organisers who had promised to stage a "Green Games".

The heavy smog had made international headlines because Olympic athletes began arriving in Beijing on Monday amid the thick haze -- highlighting the race against time to fix the problem.

Du said the winds in Beijing were three times faster on Tuesday than the previous day, and the air quality index had shown an improvement.

Mississippi expected to be fully open by Tuesday

Commercial traffic along a stretch of the Mississippi River shut by a massive oil spill should return to its normal pace by Tuesday, the Coast Guard said Monday.

The Coast Guard captain of the port, Capt. Lincoln Stroh, said about 60 large vessels were expected to move along the river between the Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans Monday — twice as many as moved Sunday.

They must move slowly so their wakes won't wash fuel oil off the banks of the Mississippi River and from booms stretched to trap the 419,000 gallons spilled when a barge and tanker collided Wednesday, breaking the barge open.

More ships than usual were using the stretch Monday because they had been backed up by the river's closure, said Brett Bourgeois, executive director of the New Orleans Board of Trade. The week before the collision, about 35 to 40 tankers, freighters and other large vessels went through that stretch each day, he said.

"We're very happy to see that the river is getting back to normal," Bourgeois said.

River traffic was halted for two days; four ships were allowed in and out Friday, and five on Saturday.

Barge traffic on the Intracoastal Gulf Waterway, a major east-west shipping lane for fuel and other commodities, is crossing the river again, he said.

Stroh said that as shipping returns to normal, port personnel will resume deciding which ships move when, a job the Coast Guard has handled since the spill.

He also said there shouldn't be any problems with a cruise ship scheduled to dock Thursday in New Orleans. The Carnival Fantasy had to dock in Mobile on Saturday, but the 2,056 passengers were bused from New Orleans with the expectation of getting their cars Thursday at the New Orleans lot.

Ships in the area at the time of the spill were scrubbed as they left to prevent contaminating other waters. But the channel was clear of oil Monday, so ships passing through from the Gulf or north of New Orleans didn't need cleaning, Stroh said.

Stroh said crews would soon take the high-pressure hoses and steam-cleaning equipment to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of barges and tugboats docked between New Orleans and the Gulf.

Welders and divers were at work on the 100-foot American Commercial Lines barge, attaching huge pad-eyes that will be used first to secure it so divers can patch it and pump out any remaining oil, and then to haul it out of the water.

Pulling it out is still days away, Stroh said.

Charlie Henry, a scientist from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, said very little oil got into the swamps and marshes, where it would have injured wildlife and been harder to clean up.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is also using cannons to keep birds away from areas where most of the oil has collected.

First ships crawl up Mississippi after spill

Ships began crawling up the Mississippi River at New Orleans in a tightly controlled procession Friday, two days after a massive oil spill shut down a stretch of one of the nation's most critical commercial arteries.

The pecking order was based on Coast Guard determination of the economic importance of the ships' cargo, and the pace was slowed by a scrubbing process to remove oil from each hull. A ship carrying refinery-bound oil was the first to get the go-ahead.

With more than 200 ships to be cleared, it was expected to take days to clear the backlog that developed after the tanker Tintomara collided with a barge in the early morning hours Wednesday. About 419,000 gallons of fuel oil spilled from the barge into the Mississippi at New Orleans.

The shutdown of a 100-mile stretch of river to the Gulf of Mexico halted vessels ranging from oil supertankers to grain barges in one of the world's busiest ports. Gary LaGrange, executive director of the Port of New Orleans, said a recent economic impact study conducted by the port showed that such a total shutdown could cost the national economy up to $275 million per day.

The first ship to heard north from the river's mouth, the Overseas New York, was cleared to sail to the refinery corridor that lines the river between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

Traffic-copping the situation was a Coast Guard unit established after Katrina to handle river shutdowns, said Coast Guard Capt. Lincoln Stroh. The unit is consulting with the shipping industry over the order of movement but has final say.

Coast Guard and industry officials hadn't begun to tally the costs of the shipping interruption or cleanup.

The spill had sparked fears of widespread environmental damage. But crews moved in to contain the fuel oil, which pooled fortuitously in the bends of the river. State authorities were optimistic damage could be contained.

A cleaning station was set up near the river's mouth to scrub the hulls of vessels on their way to the Gulf. Another was being set up on the river near the New Orleans suburb of Westwego. Officials said high-pressure water would be applied to the ships' hulls at the water line to remove oil — a process that would take three to four hours per ship.

Refineries adjusted to the shutdown. Royal Dutch Shell PLC, for example, said its Gulf Coast sites were operating as usual and meeting supply obligations. One refinery was sending some fuel by pipeline that normally would be transported by vessel.

About 2,000 passengers on a cruise ship diverted to to Mobile, Ala., were being bused to New Orleans, said its operator, Carnival Corp.

Divers inspected the wrecked barge, which is wedged against supports for the Mississippi River bridge but not considered a hazard. Stroh said little fuel oil was believed to remain. It's unclear when efforts to raise the barge might begin.

The spill was the largest in the Mississippi River since a tanker ran aground in 2000 about 40 miles south of New Orleans, dumping more than half a million gallons of crude oil. That spill closed about 26 miles of the river.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the crash, and said there wasn't a properly licensed pilot aboard the tugboat pushing the barge. Officials would say only that their probe is continuing.

Meanwhile, residents filed a suit Friday against the owners and operators of the vessels, alleging that they were exposed to fuel oil fumes. State officials have said tests showed that the air was safe to breathe.

A fuel odor hung in the air in the French Quarter Thursday. By Friday, morning diners at the Cafe du Monde near the French Quarter riverfront were sipping coffee, and the aroma of beignets, a fried and sugar-powdered pastry, had replaced the fuel smell.

Still, the riverboats Natchez and Creole Queen, which carry tourists on daily tours along the river, awaited Coast Guard approval to sail.

"There's a lot of disappointed people," said Jamie Messersmith, manager for the Natchez steamboat. "One couple was married on the Natchez and they came for their anniversary," he said.

___

Associated Press writers John Moreno Gonzales and Cain Burdeau in New Orleans contributed to this report.

First ships crawl up Mississippi after spill

Ships began crawling up the Mississippi River at New Orleans in a tightly controlled procession Friday, two days after a massive oil spill shut down a stretch of one of the nation's most critical commercial arteries.

The pecking order was based on Coast Guard determination of the economic importance of the ships' cargo, and the pace was slowed by a scrubbing process to remove oil from each hull. A ship carrying refinery-bound oil was the first to get the go-ahead.

With more than 200 ships to be cleared, it was expected to take days to clear the backlog that developed after the tanker Tintomara collided with a barge in the early morning hours Wednesday. About 419,000 gallons of fuel oil spilled from the barge into the Mississippi at New Orleans.

The shutdown of a 100-mile stretch of river to the Gulf of Mexico halted vessels ranging from oil supertankers to grain barges in one of the world's busiest ports. Gary LaGrange, executive director of the Port of New Orleans, said a recent economic impact study conducted by the port showed that such a total shutdown could cost the national economy up to $275 million per day.

The first ship to heard north from the river's mouth, the Overseas New York, was cleared to sail to the refinery corridor that lines the river between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

Traffic-copping the situation was a Coast Guard unit established after Katrina to handle river shutdowns, said Coast Guard Capt. Lincoln Stroh. The unit is consulting with the shipping industry over the order of movement but has final say.

Coast Guard and industry officials hadn't begun to tally the costs of the shipping interruption or cleanup.

The spill had sparked fears of widespread environmental damage. But crews moved in to contain the fuel oil, which pooled fortuitously in the bends of the river. State authorities were optimistic damage could be contained.

A cleaning station was set up near the river's mouth to scrub the hulls of vessels on their way to the Gulf. Another was being set up on the river near the New Orleans suburb of Westwego. Officials said high-pressure water would be applied to the ships' hulls at the water line to remove oil — a process that would take three to four hours per ship.

Refineries adjusted to the shutdown. Royal Dutch Shell PLC, for example, said its Gulf Coast sites were operating as usual and meeting supply obligations. One refinery was sending some fuel by pipeline that normally would be transported by vessel.

About 2,000 passengers on a cruise ship diverted to to Mobile, Ala., were being bused to New Orleans, said its operator, Carnival Corp.

Divers inspected the wrecked barge, which is wedged against supports for the Mississippi River bridge but not considered a hazard. Stroh said little fuel oil was believed to remain. It's unclear when efforts to raise the barge might begin.

The spill was the largest in the Mississippi River since a tanker ran aground in 2000 about 40 miles south of New Orleans, dumping more than half a million gallons of crude oil. That spill closed about 26 miles of the river.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the crash, and said there wasn't a properly licensed pilot aboard the tugboat pushing the barge. Officials would say only that their probe is continuing.

Meanwhile, residents filed a suit Friday against the owners and operators of the vessels, alleging that they were exposed to fuel oil fumes. State officials have said tests showed that the air was safe to breathe.

A fuel odor hung in the air in the French Quarter Thursday. By Friday, morning diners at the Cafe du Monde near the French Quarter riverfront were sipping coffee, and the aroma of beignets, a fried and sugar-powdered pastry, had replaced the fuel smell.

Still, the riverboats Natchez and Creole Queen, which carry tourists on daily tours along the river, awaited Coast Guard approval to sail.

"There's a lot of disappointed people," said Jamie Messersmith, manager for the Natchez steamboat. "One couple was married on the Natchez and they came for their anniversary," he said.

___

Associated Press writers John Moreno Gonzales and Cain Burdeau in New Orleans contributed to this report.

Obama presses Europe on Afghanistan in Berlin

U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama urged Europe to stand by the United States in stabilizing Afghanistan in a speech to over 200,000 in Berlin that stressed the need for unity in the face of new threats.

Speaking at the Victory Column in the central Tiergarten park on Thursday, the Democratic senator said America had no better partner than Europe but cautioned both sides against turning inward.

"I recognize the enormous difficulties in Afghanistan," Obama said. "But my country and yours have a stake in seeing that NATO's first mission beyond Europe's borders is a success. For the people of Afghanistan, and for our shared security, the work must be done. America cannot do this alone."

Broad in scope, the speech was aimed not only at European audiences but also U.S. voters who face a choice in the November 4 election between Obama and Republican John McCain.

McCain, a Vietnam veteran and former prisoner of war, is an Arizona senator who has long been an influential voice on foreign policy and military matters.

He is making national security a central focus of his campaign and contends that Obama, a 46-year-old first-term senator from Illinois, lacks the foreign affairs seasoning to serve as commander-in-chief.

Obama has aimed to dispel that notion with a seven-nation tour this week that has taken him to Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Israel and Germany, where he is highly popular.

The German media has likened his visit to that of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, whose "Ich bin ein Berliner" address shortly after the building of the Berlin Wall became an iconic moment of the Cold War.

The Obama campaign has been accused of exploiting the comparison by staging such a public show in the heart of the German capital. His campaign's initial plan to hold the speech at the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin's most famous landmark, was rebuffed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

McCain, speaking to reporters in Ohio, took a swipe at Obama for campaigning abroad, saying he would also like to speak in Berlin but would wait until he was president.

NEW HOPE, NEW DANGERS

While Obama did not break into German like Kennedy, he did speak at length of the historic ties between the United States and Germany, touching on the Berlin airlift 60 years ago and the fall of the Wall in 1989.

"The fall of the Berlin Wall brought new hope. But that very closeness has given rise to new dangers," he said, citing terrorism, climate change and violence in Sudan and Somalia. "No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone."

Obama is popular in Europe partly because he opposed the Iraq war and has vowed to pull U.S. troops out of the country. But he is now pledging to shift the focus to Afghanistan, which is likely to mean more demands on Germany.

Obama said Europe and the United States needed to stand together to pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions and urged both sides to move beyond their differences over the Iraq war to help suffering Iraqis rebuild their lives.

Relations between the United States and Germany reached a post-war low under Merkel's predecessor Gerhard Schroeder, who strongly opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

"Yes, there have been differences between America and Europe. No doubt, there will be differences in the future," he said. "The greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another."

His comments were cheered by a huge crowd, some wearing Obama badges, t-shirts with the campaign slogan "Yes We Can" and carrying American flags. A reggae band played and people gulped down beer under clear skies in a summertime party atmosphere.

The loudest applause came when Obama talked about the environment, multilateralism and human rights, but his audience fell silent when he raised Afghanistan.

"Relations between Germany and the United States will improve under Obama," said Dennis Buchner, 31. "But he has high expectations of Germans increasing their military engagement in Afghanistan. That will certainly spark debate in Germany."

(Additional reporting by Kerstin Gehmlich, Madeline Chambers)

(Writing by Noah Barkin; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Obama presses Europe on Afghanistan in Berlin

U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama urged Europe to stand by the United States in stabilizing Afghanistan in a speech to over 200,000 in Berlin that stressed the need for unity in the face of new threats.

Speaking at the Victory Column in the central Tiergarten park on Thursday, the Democratic senator said America had no better partner than Europe but cautioned both sides against turning inward.

"I recognize the enormous difficulties in Afghanistan," Obama said. "But my country and yours have a stake in seeing that NATO's first mission beyond Europe's borders is a success. For the people of Afghanistan, and for our shared security, the work must be done. America cannot do this alone."

Broad in scope, the speech was aimed not only at European audiences but also U.S. voters who face a choice in the November 4 election between Obama and Republican John McCain.

McCain, a Vietnam veteran and former prisoner of war, is an Arizona senator who has long been an influential voice on foreign policy and military matters.

He is making national security a central focus of his campaign and contends that Obama, a 46-year-old first-term senator from Illinois, lacks the foreign affairs seasoning to serve as commander-in-chief.

Obama has aimed to dispel that notion with a seven-nation tour this week that has taken him to Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Israel and Germany, where he is highly popular.

The German media has likened his visit to that of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, whose "Ich bin ein Berliner" address shortly after the building of the Berlin Wall became an iconic moment of the Cold War.

The Obama campaign has been accused of exploiting the comparison by staging such a public show in the heart of the German capital. His campaign's initial plan to hold the speech at the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin's most famous landmark, was rebuffed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

McCain, speaking to reporters in Ohio, took a swipe at Obama for campaigning abroad, saying he would also like to speak in Berlin but would wait until he was president.

NEW HOPE, NEW DANGERS

While Obama did not break into German like Kennedy, he did speak at length of the historic ties between the United States and Germany, touching on the Berlin airlift 60 years ago and the fall of the Wall in 1989.

"The fall of the Berlin Wall brought new hope. But that very closeness has given rise to new dangers," he said, citing terrorism, climate change and violence in Sudan and Somalia. "No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone."

Obama is popular in Europe partly because he opposed the Iraq war and has vowed to pull U.S. troops out of the country. But he is now pledging to shift the focus to Afghanistan, which is likely to mean more demands on Germany.

Obama said Europe and the United States needed to stand together to pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions and urged both sides to move beyond their differences over the Iraq war to help suffering Iraqis rebuild their lives.

Relations between the United States and Germany reached a post-war low under Merkel's predecessor Gerhard Schroeder, who strongly opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

"Yes, there have been differences between America and Europe. No doubt, there will be differences in the future," he said. "The greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another."

His comments were cheered by a huge crowd, some wearing Obama badges, t-shirts with the campaign slogan "Yes We Can" and carrying American flags. A reggae band played and people gulped down beer under clear skies in a summertime party atmosphere.

The loudest applause came when Obama talked about the environment, multilateralism and human rights, but his audience fell silent when he raised Afghanistan.

"Relations between Germany and the United States will improve under Obama," said Dennis Buchner, 31. "But he has high expectations of Germans increasing their military engagement in Afghanistan. That will certainly spark debate in Germany."

(Additional reporting by Kerstin Gehmlich, Madeline Chambers)

(Writing by Noah Barkin; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Beijing starts car ban in Olympics clean-air drive

Beijing residents enjoyed the novelty of congestion-free streets Sunday as the city launched strict driving curbs to rein its notorious air pollution and traffic for the Olympics.

Traffic on the capital's normally bustling roads was noticeably light, even for a weekend, amid the new rules which ban cars with odd- and even-numbered licence plates from the roads on alternate days.

"It's great. It's like driving in the middle of the night. This will be a big help for the Olympics," attorney Fan Wenling said as she climbed into her car for a trip to her office.

The rules, in effect until September 20, are part of a wider campaign to try to clear the air in Beijing, which is typically wrapped in acrid smog.

However, despite the driving curbs a familiar light haze hung over the city of 17 million Sunday morning, illustrating Beijing's continued challenge keeping its air clean amid spiralling vehicle and industrial emissions.

The largest source of pollution is believed to be the emissions from the city's 3.3 million vehicles, whose ranks swell by an estimated 1,000 per day as increasingly affluent Beijing residents can afford the luxury of their own car.

Beijing conducted a four-day test of similar driving restrictions last August but the hazy conditions persisted during the trial.

International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge warned last year that poor air quality during the August 8-24 Games could result in the suspension of some events, particularly endurance races such as the marathon.

Some of the 10,000 athletes due in Beijing for the Games also have expressed health fears.

The new measures will not be truly tested until Monday, when the city's millions of commuters take to the roads under the new regime.

The city on Saturday opened three new subway lines built as part of a pre-Olympic infrastructure upgrade that are expected to absorb an increase in daily ridership to 21 million passengers trips from the usual 16 million, due to the curbs.

Unlike last year's trial, however, this time authorities are taking other steps including shutting down polluting industries in the region around Beijing and halting construction in the city.

Businesses also are being pressured to adjust their working hours to cut down on rush-hour gridlock.

Only cars with even-numbered licence plates were allowed on the streets Sunday, and motorcycle police could be seen at key intersections watching the traffic.

Motorists face a fine of 100 yuan (14 dollars) for driving on the wrong day, according to the city's transportation bureau.

Despite rising affluence in Beijing, a 100-yuan fine remains a significant deterrent for many in China, where annual incomes remain far lower than those in developed countries.

The restrictions will not apply to taxis, and some cab drivers welcomed the chance to make more money, but worried about overwork.

"I think there will be more money to be made but you will probably have to work harder to make it and I don't want to because I have to be home to see my 12-year-old daughter," said cab driver Ma Guiwei.

"But it will be nice to drive on better road conditions for a while," she added.

Judge restores protection for Rockies wolves

A federal judge has restored endangered species protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies, derailing plans by three states to hold public wolf hunts this fall.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula granted a preliminary injunction late Friday restoring the protections for the wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Molloy will eventually decide whether the injunction should be permanent.

The region has an estimated 2,000 gray wolves. They were removed from the endangered species list in March, following a decade-long restoration effort.

Environmentalists sued to overturn the decision, arguing wolf numbers would plummet if hunting were allowed. They sought the injunction in the hopes of stopping the hunts and allowing the wolf population to continue expanding.

"There were fall hunts scheduled that would call for perhaps as many as 500 wolves to be killed. We're delighted those wolves will be saved," said attorney Doug Honnold with Earthjustice, who had argued the case before Molloy on behalf of 12 environmental groups.

In his ruling, Molloy said the federal government had not met its standard for wolf recovery, including interbreeding of wolves between the three states to ensure healthy genetics.

"Genetic exchange has not taken place," Molloy wrote in the 40-page decision.

Molloy said hunting and state laws allowing the killing of wolves for livestock attacks would likely "eliminate any chance for genetic exchange to occur."

The federal biologist who led the wolf restoration program, Ed Bangs, defended the decision to delist wolves as "a very biologically sound package."

"The kind of hunting proposed by the states wouldn't threaten the wolf population," Bangs said Friday. "We felt the science was rock solid and that the delisting was warranted."

Bangs said government attorneys were reviewing Molloy's court order and would decide next week whether to appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Federal and state officials had argued killing some wolves would not endanger the overall population — as long as numbers did not dip below 300 wolves. With increasing conflicts between wolves and livestock, they said public hunts were crucial to keeping the predators' population in check.

Gore urges total shift to renewable energy to avert disaster

Nobel laureate and former US vice president Al Gore echoed president John F. Kennedy on Thursday as he urged Americans to shoot for the moon and make a total shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy in 10 years.

"I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years," Gore told thousands of people who packed into a conference hall near the White House to hear the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner speak.

"When president John F. Kennedy challenged our nation to land a man on the moon and bring him back safely in 10 years, many people doubted we could accomplish that goal," Gore said.

"But eight years and two months later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the surface of the moon," Gore told the crowd, eliciting a huge cheer.

Just as Kennedy, in 1961, urged Americans to "take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on earth", Gore said the shift to new energy sources was needed to ensure "the survival of the United States of America as we know it."

"Even more, the future of human civilization is at risk," he told the crowd.

Nay-sayers would say the shift to renewable energy could not be achieved, or that 10 years was not enough time to make the transition.

But Gore dismissed them as having "a vested interest in perpetuating the current system no matter how high a price the rest of us will have to pay," and again citing the history-making speech in which Kennedy called on Americans to enter the space race and put a man on the moon.

"Once again, we have an opportunity to take a giant leap for humankind," Gore said, echoing the words spoken by Armstrong when he became the first man to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969.

The chief obstacle to achieving 100 percent renewable energy in 10 years was a dysfunctional US political system that panders to special interests, said Gore, who served as vice president for two terms in the 1990s under Democratic president Bill Clinton.

"In recent years, our politics has tended toward incremental proposals made up of small policies designed to avoid offending special interests ..." Gore told the rally organized by environmental activist group wecansolveit.org.

Scientists and researchers applauded Gore's leadership and urged Americans to heed his call to rapidly move over to renewable energy sources.

"Responding to climate change requires the full engagement of national, state and local public officials, business executives, religious and community leaders, and every citizen," said Alden Hayden of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

"By uniting in this common purpose and mobilizing America's ingenuity and can-do spirit, we can rise to this challenge. We can revitalize our economy, increase our energy security, and do our part to cut global warming pollution, all at the same time," he said.

Going over to renewable energy would "cure our carbon addiction and stimulate the economy. It would be the turning point that is needed to lead the world to a stable climate," said James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

And Jonathan Lash, head of the environmental think-tank, the World Resources Institute, said: "America has led every major technological shift in the last 100 years, and we can lead the next one as well.

"The problem is not technology, it is political will," he said.

Gore, who narrowly lost the 2000 presidential election to President George W. Bush, was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN body of 3,000 scientists, for work on global warming.

To a rousing cheer and standing ovation, Gore, who jokingly calls himself the man who used to be the next president of the United States, called on Americans to take concrete steps to halt climate change.

Americans need to change "not just light bulbs, but laws," he said.

New French giant GDF Suez interested in British nuclear sites

Newly formed global energy giant GDF Suez of France is interested in nuclear power operator British Energy but only if the company is split up and sold off site by site.

"If the plan remains to sell British Energy in one go, then it will be sold without us," said GDF Suez head Gerard Mestrallet in an interview with Les Echos daily to appear Thursday.

To acquire the company in a bloc "would require an enormous amount of investigation and in a very short period of time, a very heavy investment in an industry where the least problem costs a lot of money," Mestrallet said.

"That is not in our plans."

The head of GDF Suez, formed Wednesday after shareholders approved the tie-up between Gaz de France and Suez, noted the issue could be revisited "if one returned to the initial plan, which envisaged a sale of the company site by site."

At the same time, "other opportunities besides British Energy will come along -- I am certain of that," he said.

The British government plans to sell its 35.2 percent stake in British Energy but the company said early last month that a series of takeover proposals it had received from unnamed parties undervalued the company.

French state-owned energy giant EDF has been touted as a prospective suitor for the compnay.

Bush lifts offshore drilling ban

US President George W. Bush has lifted a White House ban on offshore oil drilling and urged lawmakers to follow suit amid an election-year fight over painfully high gasoline prices.

"The American people are watching the numbers climb higher and higher at the pump, and they're waiting to see what the Congress will do" about legislative prohibitions, he said in a brief statement in the White House Rose Garden on Monday.

But Democrats who control both houses of the US Congress rejected Bush's mostly symbolic appeal, effectively dooming a proposal that appeared to enjoy broad US public support some four months before the November elections.

"The Bush plan is a hoax. It will neither reduce gas prices nor increase energy independence," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who urged Bush to bring some of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve stockpile to market.

"We cannot drill our way out of this problem," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who charged that big oil companies are "not using more than half of the public lands they already have leased for drilling."

The existing ban may be renewed or modified when it expires September 30, and the White House wants legislation that would give states a say in whether to allow offshore drilling, how much and where, and how to manage revenues.

Bush's announcement came two weeks before lawmakers leave for their month-long August recess, at a time when four out of five Americans tell public opinion surveys that sky-high gasoline prices cause considerable economic pain.

"As the Democratically controlled Congress has sat idle, gas prices have continued to increase. Failure to act is unacceptable. It's unacceptable to me, and it's unacceptable to the American people," he said.

Democrats counter that a plan that, by some estimates, would not yield a drop of oil for as much as a decade will not bring down gasoline prices now and that Bush has done too little to seek alternative energy sources.

The announcement came amid a bitter political battle over soaring gasoline prices at a time when US public opinion polls show most voters worry most about the economy -- even more than about the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Presumptive Republican presidential champion John McCain has pushed for ending the offshore drilling ban, drawing fire from environmental groups and his all-but-certain Democratic rival, Barack Obama.

A late-June poll by CNN found that 73 percent of the US public at least mildly supports increased offshore drilling, while 27 percent at least mildly opposes it. The error margin was plus or minus three percentage points.

Under the 1981 federal moratorium, states are prohibited from allowing offshore oil and gas drilling and exploration, protecting virtually the entire Atlantic and Pacific coastlines and sections of the Gulf of Mexico.

The Governor of oil-rich Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, welcomed Bush's announcement.

"Louisiana produces 30 percent to 40 percent of the nation's oil and gas off our coast. It is certainly good for our economy ... It is also good for the nation," he told Fox News.

"We're sending tens of billions of dollars overseas, often to countries who are not friendly to us ... this is one of the reasons we've got such a large trade deficit," the Indian-American governor said.

Critics of lifting the drilling moratorium say it would jeopardize the environment and that production would take years to get up and running, and thus is not a realistic answer to the current supply crunch.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had already said he wants no drilling off his state's lengthy portion of the US west coast, renewed his opposition and urged the country to move away from its dependence on oil.

"I know people are frustrated with the soaring price of gas, and I welcome the national debate on solutions to lower our energy costs, but in California we know offshore drilling is not the answer," he said.

The White House hopes for a two-step process, first lifting the congressional ban and then legislating a precise distance from shore where drilling would be possible, a formula for revenue sharing, and measures to make sure states have a say in how the drilling would proceed.

Bush lifts offshore drilling ban

US President George W. Bush has lifted a White House ban on offshore oil drilling and urged lawmakers to follow suit amid an election-year fight over painfully high gasoline prices.

"The American people are watching the numbers climb higher and higher at the pump, and they're waiting to see what the Congress will do" about legislative prohibitions, he said in a brief statement in the White House Rose Garden on Monday.

But Democrats who control both houses of the US Congress rejected Bush's mostly symbolic appeal, effectively dooming a proposal that appeared to enjoy broad US public support some four months before the November elections.

"The Bush plan is a hoax. It will neither reduce gas prices nor increase energy independence," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who urged Bush to bring some of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve stockpile to market.

"We cannot drill our way out of this problem," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who charged that big oil companies are "not using more than half of the public lands they already have leased for drilling."

The existing ban may be renewed or modified when it expires September 30, and the White House wants legislation that would give states a say in whether to allow offshore drilling, how much and where, and how to manage revenues.

Bush's announcement came two weeks before lawmakers leave for their month-long August recess, at a time when four out of five Americans tell public opinion surveys that sky-high gasoline prices cause considerable economic pain.

"As the Democratically controlled Congress has sat idle, gas prices have continued to increase. Failure to act is unacceptable. It's unacceptable to me, and it's unacceptable to the American people," he said.

Democrats counter that a plan that, by some estimates, would not yield a drop of oil for as much as a decade will not bring down gasoline prices now and that Bush has done too little to seek alternative energy sources.

The announcement came amid a bitter political battle over soaring gasoline prices at a time when US public opinion polls show most voters worry most about the economy -- even more than about the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Presumptive Republican presidential champion John McCain has pushed for ending the offshore drilling ban, drawing fire from environmental groups and his all-but-certain Democratic rival, Barack Obama.

A late-June poll by CNN found that 73 percent of the US public at least mildly supports increased offshore drilling, while 27 percent at least mildly opposes it. The error margin was plus or minus three percentage points.

Under the 1981 federal moratorium, states are prohibited from allowing offshore oil and gas drilling and exploration, protecting virtually the entire Atlantic and Pacific coastlines and sections of the Gulf of Mexico.

The Governor of oil-rich Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, welcomed Bush's announcement.

"Louisiana produces 30 percent to 40 percent of the nation's oil and gas off our coast. It is certainly good for our economy ... It is also good for the nation," he told Fox News.

"We're sending tens of billions of dollars overseas, often to countries who are not friendly to us ... this is one of the reasons we've got such a large trade deficit," the Indian-American governor said.

Critics of lifting the drilling moratorium say it would jeopardize the environment and that production would take years to get up and running, and thus is not a realistic answer to the current supply crunch.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had already said he wants no drilling off his state's lengthy portion of the US west coast, renewed his opposition and urged the country to move away from its dependence on oil.

"I know people are frustrated with the soaring price of gas, and I welcome the national debate on solutions to lower our energy costs, but in California we know offshore drilling is not the answer," he said.

The White House hopes for a two-step process, first lifting the congressional ban and then legislating a precise distance from shore where drilling would be possible, a formula for revenue sharing, and measures to make sure states have a say in how the drilling would proceed.

Governors talk of moving beyond corn-based ethanol

Governors from the coal fields of West Virginia to the corn fields of Iowa talked Sunday at their summer meeting about moving beyond ethanol produced just from food sources.

They sometimes have different priorities in reaching this conclusion — priorities that can be as simple as who grows corn and who feeds it to livestock.

And they're also not talking about replacement so much as supplementing: using switchgrass or wood waste products, for example, along with corn.

Still, the conversation — including an energy forum Sunday — has big implications. The nation has 134 ethanol plants in 26 states with 77 more under construction or expanding, according to the Renewable Fuels Association, a trade group for the ethanol industry.

This year's corn crop, expected to be a record, is worth about $52 billion.

Meanwhile, the Agriculture Department says economic growth in developing countries, tight global grain supplies and demand for ethanol have pushed corn prices to record or near-record prices.

That in turn has led some to blame the push for ethanol on high food prices. Disagreeing sharply, the ethanol industry and corn growers point the finger at record fuel prices driving up the cost of growing and shipping food.

"Corn-based and commodities-based ethanol for states like Minnesota has been a success story," said the state's governor, Tim Pawlenty.

"But we recognize that this has to now move to phase two," he said.

Pawlenty was among about half the nation's governors who gathered for the summer meeting, where clean and renewable energy is the top official topic.

Pawlenty, a Republican, launched "Securing a Clean Energy Future" when he took the reins of the National Governors Association last year as the group's chairman, a one-year post.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry raised the stakes in the debate in April when he asked the Environmental Protection Agency to cut by half a requirement in last year's energy law to produce 9 billion gallons of ethanol in 2008 for blending into gasoline.

Perry and other opponents of the requirement say the push to turn more corn into ethanol is raising food prices and the cost of feed for livestock.

The EPA hasn't acted on Perry's request and the Energy Department isn't thrilled about it, saying it would slow investment in biofuel technology.

Several Republican lawmakers — but no other governors — have signed onto Perry's request.

"I truly do not believe that a food-based product should be used for energy," said Gov. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, where almost all energy needs are met by coal. "It should be used for human consumption."

Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina called the EPA requirement "a totally bogus government mandate" at Sunday's energy forum.

The current buzz is cellulosic ethanol, or ethanol made from plant matter. Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm pitched the idea Sunday of using more wood products because of the large number of forests in her state.

Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania says his state "could be to cellulosic ethanol what Iowa was to corn-based ethanol." A new state law will require a minimum of a billion gallons of fuel annually pumped in Pennsylvania come from renewable fuels.

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver said he welcomed the debate as a way to reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil. But he said that "you can't get to cellulosic ethanol until you do ethanol first."

He pointed to the construction of a plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa, by ethanol maker Poet where the company hopes to produce cellulosic ethanol on a large scale.

"We should be thanking these Iowa farmers, these ethanol producers, these innovators, that are — as we speak today — out in Iowa trying to solve that energy security challenge," Culver said.

"No one believes that, long term, ethanol is going to be the silver bullet, but it is clearly one of the better options right now," he said.

Pawlenty says biofuels will be a big part of the nation's energy future but the type of biofuels will evolve and change.

Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah echoed that notion when he dismissed the idea of an energy argument along the lines of to drill or not to drill for oil.

"The choices increasingly are plentiful," he said on C-SPAN Sunday.

"The question before policy makers really is what are the choices we have to get us from today's very hydrocarbon dependent world to one, 20, 30, 40 years from now, that will be much less hydrocarbon dependent," he said.

Bush administration puts off greenhouse gas regulation

Environmentalists are seething after the administration of US President George W. Bush delayed any decision on regulating greenhouse gases, likely leaving any substantive action to his successor.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a 588-page report Friday that cites "the complexity and magnitude" of the issue and calls for 120 days of public comment.

The decision follows a Supreme Court ruling ordering the EPA last year to devise ways to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act.

"The Bush administration's refusal to respond to the Supreme Court and do something about global warming is not just illegal, it is grossly immoral," said Danielle Fugere of Friends of the Earth, an environmental group.

"President Bush's inaction in the face of this crisis is one of the greatest failures of leadership in presidential history," she said in a statement.

The EPA said there were doubts whether "greenhouse gases could be effectively controlled under the Clean Air Act."

EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson wrote that regulating greenhouse gases under any portion of the act "could result in an unprecedented expansion of EPA authority that would have a profound effect on virtually every sector of the economy and touch every household in the land."

David Bookbinder, the climate counsel for the Sierra Club environmental group, said the EPA's decision underscores Johnson's "utter lack of credibility."

"The American public, Congress, world leaders, and even career government officials are counting down the days until this administration leaves town and a new president undoes the damage done by President Bush and makes up for nearly a decade of lost time -- time we didn't have to waste in the first place," Bookbinder said in a statement.

The EPA decision came after Bush agreed during the Group of Eight industrialized nations meeting in Japan this week to cut carbon emissions blamed for global warming by at least half by 2050. It was the strongest language yet signed by the US leader.

The Bush administration has fiercely opposed any imposition of binding emissions limits on the nation's industry and has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas blamed for global warming.

But the Supreme Court ruled in April 2007 that the EPA must consider greenhouse gases as pollutants and deal with them.

The ruling came in response to legal action undertaken by Massachusetts and a dozen other states and environmental groups that went to court to determine whether the agency had the authority to regulate greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide emissions.

Environmentalists have alleged that since Bush came to office in 2001 his administration has ignored and tried to hide looming evidence of global warming and the key role of human activity in climate change.

At a hearing in November 2006, Massachusetts argued that it risked losing more than 4.5 meters (15 feet) of land all along its coastline if the sea level should rise by 30 centimeters (one foot).

But the Bush administration, backed by nine states and several auto manufacturers, urged the court not to intervene, arguing that if the situation was so dire it could not be solved by a simple legal decision.

It further argued that reducing emissions from new US motor vehicles would have only a minor effect on global climate change.

While the court's decision is unlikely to change US policy, it has ramifications on several other ongoing issues, such as the agency's refusal to regulate emissions from electricity plants which produce some 40 percent of US carbon dioxide emissions. Motor vehicles are responsible for just 20 percent.

EPA says climate rules are the job of U.S. Congress

The top U.S. environmental regulator on Friday declined to make rules to regulate planet-warming emissions under existing pollution laws despite a Supreme Court decision that has pressured his agency to act.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson said Congress should make rules to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming.

U.S. lawmakers said the Bush Administration has saddled the next president with the responsibility of rule-making. A proposed U.S. climate bill died last month in the Senate.

Last year's Massachusetts v. EPA Supreme Court ruling had found that greenhouse gases can be regulated under the U.S. Clean Air Act. The decision pressured the EPA to reconsider its refusal to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from new cars and trucks.

But instead of laying out rules, Johnson solicited public comments for a 120-day period on a nearly 1,000 page draft on the effects of climate change and the ramifications of the Clean Air Act on greenhouse emissions.

"If the nation is serious about regulating greenhouse gases the Clean Air Act is the wrong tool for the job and it's really at the feet of Congress to come up with good legislation that cuts through what will likely be decades of regulation and litigation," Johnson told reporters in a teleconference.

The White House said in a statement that the "onerous command-and-control regulation contemplated in the EPA staff draft would impose crippling costs on the economy in the form of a massive hidden tax, without even ensuring that the intended overall emissions reductions occur."

In March, the EPA started writing regulations for emissions from cars and stationary sources like power plants. But Johnson said Congress could make rules faster than the agency.

He said the time it would take to regulate greenhouses gases under the Clean Air Act would be akin to walking across the entire country, while getting Congress to make rules would be like traveling on a supersonic jet.

RECKLESS

Lawmakers from both parties said the administration had delayed needed action on global warming.

"The deliberate efforts to delay adherence to the Supreme Court's decision is reckless and irresponsible," Sen. Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, said in a release,

"After more than seven years, this administration is still not willing to make the hard choices to confront global warming," Sen. Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat and chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety, said in a release.

The delay gives some car-makers, electric utilities and oil refiners time to prepare for changes in their products and plants that could cost them billions of dollars.

The Alliance of Automobile Makers said the Clean Air Act "does not include all of the tools and criteria needed to address the global issue of climate change, including requirements to balance the economic effects and impacts on U.S. manufacturing jobs along with the environmental considerations."

Both U.S. presidential candidates say they support regulating greenhouse gases with the help of market mechanisms such as cap and trade.

(Additional reporting by Tom Doggett in Washington; Editing by David Gregorio)

In Namibian desert, the heat is on to address climate change

It was never easy living among the Namib desert's spectacular vistas, with ancient camel thorn trees providing sparse shade and huge red sand dunes reflecting the burning hot sun.

But signs that climate change may be worsening the already harsh conditions in this patch of desert have led to novel experiments and skillful improvisation under some of the world's hottest weather.

Scientists toil at the privately run Gobabeb research station -- a center appropriately powered by solar panels -- to come up with new ways of collecting water that could help local farmers. Nearby uranium mines are meanwhile paying for the construction of a desalination plant to cover their needs.

Such projects are vital, with water demand expected to exceed ground water extraction capacity by 2015, posing a major risk in such a dry country.

Leon Jooste, the country's deputy environment minister, said climate change could severely impact Namibia's agriculture, and Gobabeb's experiments will help address the problem.

"Most agricultural activities of our country depend on rainfall," Jooste said.

Without it, "livestock has no grazing and crops cannot be harvested."

Started in 1962, Gobabeb has gained an international reputation among scientists for its biodiversity and underground water supply research in the Namib.

One of its experiments involves harvesting morning fog from the nearby coast with screens. The fog condenses into water that is then sent through a pipe.

Namibia is the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa, with annual rainfall varying between 30 millimetres (1.2 inches) in the desert to as much as 500 millimetres in the extreme northeastern Caprivi Region.

Climate change may already be making the situation worse.

"Recent analysis of the country's climate data, which stretch over a hundred years, shows an observable increase in temperature of approximately one to 1.2 degrees Celsius," Namibia's Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Institute (REEEI) said in a report published in June.

"In recent years, hot temperatures are getting hotter, hot days of above 35 degrees Celsius are becoming more frequent and the number of cold nights decreasing."

Rainfall seasons are already starting later and ending earlier, affecting subsistence farmers who grow staple foods maize and mahangu (pearl millet).

"For the last few years we've had to plant these crops later -- January, February -- and harvest later as well -- July instead of May -- because it rains late," said Bollen Masule, a Caprivi communal farmer.

The Namib Desert, considered one of the world's oldest, stretches some 1,400 kilometres (875 miles) from the Orange River in the south to the Kunene River, which forms the border with Angola.

Concerns over water shortages extend beyond agriculture to include Namibia's key uranium mining industry.

Not far from Gobabeb, a sign explains plans for a nearby uranium mine -- one of 12 new uranium mines that have applied for approval with the government. Two open pit mines are already active.

"We are constructing a water desalination plant at the coast to accommodate the water needs of those new mines," said Vaino Shivute, head of the Namibian Water Corporation (NamWater).

The project is worth 1.2 billion Namibian dollars (160 million dollars, 102 million euros). It however only benefits the mines, which must pay for it, not nearby coastal towns for now.

Once uranium is depleted in about 20 years, the desalinated water will flow for the towns.

Bush's last climate summit leaves much to do

US President George W. Bush's last Group of Eight summit only inched forward the fight against climate change but drew the battle lines more sharply than ever between rich and poor nations.

The G8 major industrial powers agreed at a three-day summit in northern Japan to cut carbon emissions blamed for global warming by at least half by 2050, the strongest language yet signed by Bush.

But developing nations shot back by insisting that rich countries were most to blame for climate change and needed to commit to bigger and quicker emissions cuts.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who took part in an expanded 16-nation summit on climate change on Wednesday here in the secluded mountain resort of Toyako, said that it failed to reach a needed consensus.

"The challenge will be great and there is no great breakthrough at this particular meeting," Rudd said.

Some leaders who were not invited to the elite summit were disappointed at the outcome.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said the climate deal was "another step but not definitive," while his Dutch counterpart Jan Peter Balkenende said the results "were not those that were expected."

Zapatero also faulted the G8 summit for not doing more to bring down soaring food prices, which have caused riots in parts of the developing world.

The summit of the G8 -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- was the last for Bush, whose first act on taking office in 2001 was to pull the world's biggest polluter out of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

The Bush administration has since clashed bitterly with the European Union in UN-led negotiations that have a December 2009 deadline to come up with a treaty for the period after Kyoto's obligations expire in 2012.

But in a change in tone, European leaders in the G8 all hailed the Toyako summit as a step forward and joined the United States in calling for more action by developing countries.

Environmentalists said the Europeans saw no point in fighting with Bush as both major candidates to succeed him, Barack Obama and John McCain, have pledged to take stronger action against climate change.

Greenpeace campaigner Daniel Mittler said that Europeans also did not want an ugly brawl while in Japan, which sought desperately to show leadership on the world stage through the G8 summit.

But Mittler said that the Europeans, the champions of the Kyoto Protocol, have widened the chasm with developing nations by aligning with Bush.

"I can't understand why the Europeans are taking the diplomatic niceties as far as they are," he said.

"It's difficult to grasp because of the impact it is having on the relationship with the developing countries."

Paradoxically, one of the biggest outcomes of the G8 meeting is that developing nations put a clear proposal on the table.

Leaders of the so-called Group of Five -- Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa -- said that by 2020 rich nations should cut emissions by 25 to 40 percent from 1990 levels, and by 80 to 95 percent by 2050.

"What's new here is that we've now got a sense of what the G5 want. So if developed countries want to do something, they now have an open door," said Kim Carstensen, director of the WWF Global Climate Initiative.

The Group of Eight also aired concerns about oil prices, threatened more action on Zimbabwe over its disputed election and set a five-year deadline for rich nations to provide 60 billion dollars to Africa to fight disease.

Andrew Cooper, a professor of political science at the University of Waterloo in Canada, said that while the G8 summit yielded some progress on climate change, it tried to do too much.

"The statement looks like a Christmas tree with lots of lights, lots of attractions," he said.

"The G8 doesn't do justice to the world if it tries to have statements on every top issue of the world."

Oil industry wakes up to its battered image

As oil companies reap huge profits and are blamed for greenhouse gas emissions, even industry insiders acknowledge they have an image problem and that slick adverts are not the answer.

Major Western oil groups have been parodied on the Internet for the kind of soft-focus "green" television adverts they have produced in recent years to demonstrate their commitment to preventing climate change.

In one spoof production poking fun at US oil firm ExxonMobil available on the video-sharing website YouTube, a beautiful sunset fades to green leaves and then to a child in a lush field.

Next comes a soft reassuring voice: "Here at Texxon, we're doing our part to make the world a whole lot greener."

The voiceover continues: "We at Texxon are committed to developing the images and words that make you think we really care."

A more candid approach is needed, especially with today's youth, to convince the public of the industry's commitment to environmental concerns, experts admitted at a leading industry gathering last week.

"The industry has sometimes pretended to be what it is not, and it doesn't fool anybody," said Andrew Gould, the chairman and CEO of oil services group Schlumberger.

Gould was addressing a plenary session, "Societal Expectations in the Oil and Gas Industry" at the World Petroleum Congress in Madrid last week, part of which was devoted to the industry's poor public image and what could be done about it.

Crude prices have soared above 145 dollars a barrel, causing strikes and demonstrations across the world against rocketing fuel prices. At the same time, record profits by the oil majors mean they are viewed as gaining from the troubles inflicted on consumers.

Environmental groups have also attacked the industry's efforts to combat climate change.

"Instead of taking responsibility for its contribution to climate change, the oil industry is trying to wriggle out of its obligations," Darek Urbaniak, extractive industries campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe said in a recent report.

But there are signs that even within the oil industry things are changing.

During a contentious meeting in late May, ecology-minded shareholders at ExxonMobil, which in 2007 posted the largest US corporate annual profit in history of 40.6 billion dollars, proposed that the board set goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to develop more alternative energy solutions.

ExxonMobil chairman and chief executive Rex Tillerson responded to this by saying that the company was focused on "safely and reliably meeting the growing energy demand while working to reduce our impact on the environment."

He highlighted the company's investment in reducing gas flaring during refinement, limiting oil spills to just a teaspoon per million barrels transported, and working with automakers to develop more fuel efficient vehicles through use of hybrid batteries, lighter materials and better engine oil and tyres.

"Climate change is rapidly becoming one of the defining challenges of this generation and much of the public's fear and frustration is directed at the oil and gas sector," said Leor Rotchild, secretary of the World Petroleum Council Youth Committee.

He said the industry has also "developed a negative image by being connected, in some instances, with human rights abuses, corruption scandals, explosions and oil spills."

As a result, a dwindling number of young workers are joining the industry, he said in an article for WPC News, the daily gazette issued at the WPC.

"Attracting the best and brightest young talent to the petroleum industry will require an image makeover, but young people are too savvy and mistrustful to fall for an empty public-relations exercise.

"This makeover will have to be grounded in substance, consistent with the desire for a better world."

This need for a more transparent approach was echoed by Gould, who said the industry must work on two aspects to improve its "negative image."

"Firstly, the sector has to be proud of its activity of supplying energy to society and secondly, and more importantly, the sector should not be so reluctant to talk about its own problems, something that has happened continuously in the past."

Huguette Labelle, the head of corruption watchdog Transparency International called for "a third party to carry out an audit, so that it is not only the actual (oil) companies or governments that declare their good practices.

"International observers with a recognised impartiality would contribute towards the required objectivity."

Spoof YouTube ad, poking fun at ExxonMobil

G8 set for showdown with poorer states over climate

Big emerging economies will come under pressure on Wednesday to respond in kind to an initiative by rich countries to work towards a target of at least halving their global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The Group of Eight (G8) industrial nations want the leaders of eight fast-growing countries to adopt a "shared vision" of tackling global warming in U.N. negotiations due to conclude in Copenhagen in December 2009.

"There has been major progress on the climate change agenda beyond what people thought possible a few months ago," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said of Tuesday's agreement.

"For the first time the G8 has said we will adopt at least a 50 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 as part of a worldwide agreement that we hope to get in Copenhagen," he said.

The U.N.-led talks aim to create a new framework for when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

Critics said the agreement was a timid advance on last year's summit commitment in Heiligendamm, Germany, to seriously consider the 2050 goal of halving emissions by mid-century.

"This is a complete failure of responsibility. They haven't moved forward at all. They've ducked the responsibility of adopting clear mid-term targets and even the 2050 target is not a single thing more than what we got in Heiligendamm," said Daniel Mittler, Greenpeace International's political adviser.

Environmental group WWF called the G8's stance "pathetic."

Even one of the G8 signatories sounded a note of caution.

"We are ready to cooperate on this goal on understanding that it is not legally binding," said Alexander Pankin, a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official. "It is very difficult to imagine a government subscribing to something which happens 42 years later."

The other G8 members are Japan, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, the United States and Britain.

GET ON BOARD

The cool reaction of a group of five developing countries also suggested that hard bargaining was in store.

China, India, South Africa, Mexico and Brazil called on rich nations to slash their carbon emissions by 80-95 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, and make cuts of 25-40 percent by 2020.

This Group of Five will join the G8 on the last day of its three-day annual summit on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido in a so-called Major Economies Meeting that Australia, Indonesia and South Korea will also attend.

The G5's stance is important. The G8 nations emit about 40 percent of mankind's greenhouse gas emissions. But China and India together emit about 25 percent of the total, a proportion that is rising as their coal-fueled economies boom.

Washington in particular has said a global climate deal is impossible unless China and India make sacrifices. But the G5 not only failed to make an offer of its own after a coordinating meeting on Tuesday but said the ball was still in the G8's court.

"It's not we who are not on board. We've got a more ambitious package. Now we need the U.S. to get on board. It's going to be two years of tough negotiations," said a Group of Five diplomat who declined to be identified.

Given the positions that have been staked out, a Japanese official said the meeting was unlikely to get down to specific targets for emission cuts.

"We do not expect our final statement to touch on numerical targets that include the emerging economies," he said.

TRADE AND FOOD PRICES

Climate change will not be the only bone of contention at Wednesday's talks. Emerging nations are suffering more than rich countries from soaring fuel and food prices and bristled at the suggestion that their rising demand is to blame.

"This is not a responsible attitude," Chinese President Hu Jintao said after the G5 met in the northern city of Sapporo.

Developing countries are also likely to come under pressure to help achieve a breakthrough in long-running global trade talks when ministers gather in Geneva on July 21.

"This could be the last chance to seal a deal and we should not miss it," said Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Union's executive Commission.

The EU, United States and other rich countries are trying to win further concessions in areas of interest to their exporters of goods such as cars and chemicals, and their service providers.

But emerging countries complain that the rich world is not doing enough to scale back huge farm subsidies or high farm import tariffs that penalize exporters in poor countries.

"Developed countries must dismantle barriers and distortions, especially agriculture subsidies and domestic support that affect the overall efforts of developing countries," the G5 said.

(Reporting by Linda Sieg, David Clarke, William Schomberg and Lucy Hornby; Writing by Alan Wheatley; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

G-8 endorses halving emissions by 2050

Japan's prime minister says the Group of Eight industrialized economies have endorsed cutting world greenhouse gases in half by 2050.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda says the agreement was struck Tuesday during the G-8 summit in northern Japan.

Fukuda says the G-8 is also calling for individual countries to set mid-term targets for reducing the gases behind global warming.

Toyota to add solar panels to some Prius hybrids

Toyota Motor Corp plans to install solar panels on some Prius hybrids in its next remodeling, responding to growing demand for "green" cars amid record-high oil prices, a source briefed on the matter said on Monday.

The panels, supplied by Kyocera Corp would be able to power part of the air-conditioning on high-end versions of the gasoline-electric Prius, the source said.

"It's more of a symbolic gesture," said the source, who asked not to be identified. "It's very difficult to power much more than that with solar energy."

Toyota is due to launch the third-generation Prius next year.

Big automakers are racing to come up with alternative solutions to using fossil fuels to appear ecologically conscious and to lure consumers looking to save money at the pump.

But solar power is not seen as a viable solution to power cars. Solar panels are expensive due to rising silicon prices and storing energy is difficult, the source said. It was unknown how much the solar panels on the new Prius cars would cost, or how many solar-mounted versions Toyota would build.

A Toyota spokesman declined to comment, saying the company does not talk about future product plans.

Mazda Motor Corp briefly offered a solar panel option on two car models, the Eunos 800 and Sentia, in the early 1990s to ventilate the sedans while parked on hot summer days. The expensive option was unpopular and discontinued after a few years.

Kentaro Endo, a director at Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry who specializes in renewable energy, said the application of solar energy was severely limited in vehicles.

"Even if you laid solar panels out on the entire roof of a house, you only generate enough energy to run two hair dryers," he said.

"It's an interesting idea, but it would be very difficult to power a whole car, even with technological advances."

Toyota has struggled to keep up with demand for the Prius as soaring gasoline prices put consumers off of gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks. Rival Honda Motor Co will also step up its hybrid push with a new, low-cost model early next year, followed by several other gasoline-electric cars.

For a related graphic click https://customers.reuters.com/d/graphics/JP_TYTAPRS0708.gif

Automakers have teamed up with battery makers to develop and produce lithium-ion batteries to store more energy in smaller packages to extend cruising distances.

Toyota has partnered with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co while Nissan Motor Co has a joint venture with the NEC Corp group. Mitsubishi Motors Corp is working with GS Yuasa Corp.

The Prius, the world's first mass-produced gasoline-electric hybrid car, first went on sale in Japan in late 1997 and in other markets in 2000. Cumulative sales have topped 1 million units worldwide.

Toyota has a goal of selling at least 1 million hybrid cars a year in the early part of the next decade by offering the fuel-saving system on more vehicles.

Toyota shares ended 1.4 percent higher at 4,990 yen as the dollar rose against the yen. Kyocera lost 0.1 percent to 9,740 yen, while the Nikkei average gained 0.9 percent.

(Reporting by Mayumi Negishi, Sachi Izumi, Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Brent Kininmont)

Bush arrives in Japan for G8; oil, climate in focus

U.S. President George W. Bush arrived in Japan on Sunday for the Group of Eight rich nations' meetings where North Korea's nuclear weapons program, soaring oil and food prices, and climate change top the agenda.

Six months before his term ends and shadowed by low job approval ratings, questions abound whether Bush and the other leaders can forge any major agreements, particularly on how to deal with unchecked oil prices and curbing greenhouse gases.

The Bush administration has also been under pressure from abroad to take action to stabilize the weak U.S. dollar, another issue likely to come up during the meetings at the luxury hotel overlooking the lakeside resort of Toyako on July 7-9.

Upon arriving, Bush headed to bilateral talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda. Later this week he will also hold one-on-one talks with the leaders of Russia, China, Germany, India and South Korea.

Bush will want to rally support for pressuring North Korea to fully account for its nuclear weapons activities and finish dismantling its program. Other topics include Iran's nuclear program, the political turmoil in Zimbabwe and aid to Africa.

(Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky, editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Omega-3 fatty acid may stop repeat stroke

Eicosapentaenoic acid, or EPA -- the essential omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid abundant in oily fish -- may help protect stroke patients from suffering a second stroke, a Japanese study shows.

In a study of people with high cholesterol who were taking a low dose of a cholesterol-lowering "statin," researchers found that adding EPA did not reduce the occurrence of a first stroke but did lower recurrence rates in those with a history of stroke.

The finding, published in the journal Stroke, stems from a large study of patients with elevated cholesterol levels who were randomly assigned to a low dose of pravastatin or simvastatin daily alone or with 1800 milligrams daily of EPA for roughly 5 years.

Of the 9,326 patients in the EPA group, 485 had a history of stroke, as compared with 457 of the 9,319 patients in the no-EPA group.

Dr. Kortaro Tanaka of Toyama University Hospital and colleagues found that rates of first stroke were 1.3 percent and 1.5 percent in the EPA and no-EPA groups -- a nonsignificant difference.

However, there were far fewer second strokes in the EPA group. The recurrent stroke rates were 6.8 percent in the EPA group versus 10.5 percent in the no-EPA group -- a significant difference.

Tanaka and colleagues say it is noteworthy that even among Japanese individuals, who have relatively high blood concentrations of EPA, "further increases in EPA concentration may lead to prevention of recurrence of stroke."

The researchers note that because this trial used purified EPA instead of the fish oil used in previous studies, the preventive effects on stroke can be attributed to EPA.

The exact mechanism remains unclear, however, because EPA has a variety of beneficial effects in the body including lowering cholesterol and inflammation as well as production of platelets, a blood component that promotes the formation of blood clots. It may also guard against heart rhythm disturbances.

Based on the many studies of fish consumption in the US and Europe, Tanaka told Reuters Health, "the beneficial effects of EPA which became clear from our study can be applied to other nationalities."

SOURCE: Stroke, July 2008.

China sticks to its guns on emissions ahead of G8 meet

China said Thursday it was eager to discuss "long-term goals" on fighting climate change at the G8 summit but stuck to its position that rich nations must lead on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"We are ready to discuss the establishment of a long-term global goal to cope with climate change including sustainable development, emissions reductions and efforts to tackle climate change," said Chinese official Su Wei.

But Su, head of the climate change department in China's top economic planning agency, gave reporters no specifics.

China and the United States are the world's top sources of the industrial and other emissions blamed for global warming, an issue expected to top the agenda at the G8 meeting next week in Japan.

But Su and other Chinese officials repeated Beijing's position that China and other developing nations were the "victims" of climate change caused by the long-term emissions of developed countries.

"Actually, developing countries are innocent and they are the biggest victims of climate change," Su said in a briefing on China's position ahead of the summit.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said last week he would press Group of Eight leaders at the summit to tackle climate change, along with other major issues such as the world food crisis.

Japanese media this week quoted President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, who also will attend meetings surrounding the summit, as urging developing countries to join rich nations in setting targets for emissions cuts.

China has long resisted such calls, saying its relatively low per capita emissions and emergence only recently as a major source of greenhouse gases should exempt it from drastic actions.

Su deflected repeated questions about whether China would commit to targets in emission cuts.

China's greenhouse gas output has soared in recent years as its largely coal-powered economy has expanded at double-digit pace.

Chinese President Hu Jintao, who will attend meetings at the summit, last month urged renewed efforts to curb global warming, stressing "time is limited" in finding solutions to the problem, according to state media.

Ship pilot to retire as probe into crash continues

A container ship pilot will retire rather than testify at a hearing on his conduct when a vessel he was piloting struck a bridge support tower last year, creating the worst oil spill in San Francisco Bay in nearly two decades.

Capt. John Cota said in a letter to state licensing authorities that he is ending his career because the multiple investigations into his actions left him "in an impossible situation."

Investigators have been probing whether Cota's sleep disorder or medications contributed to the accident. He has been charged with lying about his medical record, his licenses have been suspended and he is a subject of several lawsuits related to the Nov. 7 spill.

"I have only one option and that is to retire effective Oct. 1, 2008," Cota wrote in the letter to the State Board of Pilot Commissioners dated June 23.

Cota was piloting the 900-foot cargo ship Cosco Busan when it sideswiped the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, opening a gash in its hull and leaking 53,000 gallons of toxic fuel that killed and injured thousands of birds.

After the spill, the commissioners accused Cota of misconduct, and a hearing before an administrative law judge was scheduled for September.

Cota's attorney, John Meadows, said the federal charges would have led Cota to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination at the hearing.

"The federal criminal case is such a delicate matter that he doesn't want to jeopardize his position by anything he would testify to in the administrative case," Meadows said Tuesday by telephone.

K. Michael Miller, president of the San Francisco Board of Pilot Commissioners, said Tuesday that the board had not yet decided whether to cancel the September hearing.

Cota, 60, has pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor environmental crimes and two felony charges of lying to the Coast Guard about his medical record. If convicted, he could face jail time and fines.

In his letter, Cota said the Coast Guard had ruled his sleep disorder "a disqualifying medical condition," but he notes it was being treated and controlled with appropriate medication prescribed by a sleep specialist.

Sleep apnea is a breathing condition that can disrupt sleep and leave sufferers severely fatigued. Cota took Provigil to ward off drowsiness, and its known side effects include impaired judgment.

Under Coast Guard policy, a sleep disorder can be grounds for disqualification, but is not automatically so.

A spokesman for the Coast Guard in Washington did not immediately return phone calls late Tuesday.

Neither Miller nor Cota's lawyer knew the exact annual amount of pension Cota would collect.

Cota has 27 years of pension credit, and pilots association financial records show the average San Francisco bar pilot was paid $450,673 in 2007.

Pensions are determined by a complex formula set by state law and based on a percentage of the retiring pilot's income over his last five years of service. That means Cota probably would collect well over $150,000 per year.