Global Warming Blog

'Emissions-free' power plant pilot fires up in Germany

2008-09-09T21:51:00.000-07:00

One of Europe's biggest power firms inaugurated a prototype coal-fired power station on Tuesday it says is almost emissions-free but environmentalists were less than impressed.

Located on the site of the existing Schwarze Pumpe power station in eastern Germany, Sweden's Vattenfall said the new technology has the potential to allow coal to be burnt without releasing harmful greenhouse gases.

"Today industrial history is being written," Vattenfall Europe's chief executive Tuomo Hatakka told a news conference.

"Coal has a future, we are convinced of that, but the carbon dioxide emissions from it have no future."

After first burning the coal, or in this case lignite, in pure oxygen -- itself a new method -- Vattenfall captures the carbon dioxide released using a technology called Carbon Capture and Storage, or CCS.

This involves compressing the gas, transporting it away in liquid form and sending it deep underground where it is safely sealed away, either in depleted gas or oil fields or in underground cavities full of saltwater.

Capturing the gases prevents them escaping into the Earth's atmosphere and contributing to global warming.

In the case of the pilot plant outside Spremberg close to the Polish border, the liquid carbon dioxide is taken 350 kilometres (210 miles) in lorries and injected "for permanent storage" into an empty gas field in northern Germany.

With around two-thirds of the world's power generated by burning fossil fuels and humanity set to rely heavily on these "for the foreseeable future," Vattenfall says the new technology is the way forward.

But environmental groups, which staged a small demonstration outside the plant on Thursday as some 400 guests arrived for the inauguration ceremony, said the technology would never catch on.

Germany's BUND pressure group slammed CCS as a "fig leaf" allowing new coal-fired power stations that chuck out millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide to be built while giving the appearance of addressing global warming.

"Vattenfall managers talk a lot about supposedly environmentally friendly coal power stations but they are still planning and building conventional coal-fired power stations with high levels of CO2 emissions," BUND's energy spokesman Thorben Becker said.

Greenpeace said that CCS decreases the amount of energy produced by coal-fired plants by 10 to 40 percent, meaning a much greater amount of coal must be burnt to produce the same amount of energy.

But the World Wide Fund for Nature was more forgiving, believing CCS "can serve as a technological bridge" until a better alternative is developed, WWF climate expert Regine Guenther told the Berlin daily Tageszeitung.

Vattenfall admitted that the technology has some way to go, not least with regard to its high cost, but also in terms of the infrastructure needed to transport and store the captured carbon dioxide.

At the pilot project around four trucks will be needed to take away the 240 tonnes of gas produced every day, and if CCS was applied on a large scale, the volume produced would mean that pipelines would need to be built, Vattenfall's vice-president for research Lars Stroemberg said.

The firm insisted that storing the gas was safe, however, saying underground reservoirs of carbon dioxide already occur naturally in geological formations where it has been trapped by sedimentary rocks in much the same way as oil or gas.

"There is much more storage capacity than will ever be needed," Stroemberg said.

Pyrenees Glaciers Disappearing

2008-09-09T01:25:00.000-07:00

The crisp, white glaciers of the Pyrenees, the mountain range along the border between France and Spain, have substantially receded in the past 15 years and could disappear by 2050 due to global warming, a new study suggests.

The retreat of glaciers in Greenland and areas like Glacier National Park have been well-documented, but less well-studied are the situations of alpine glaciers around the world.

Researchers at the University of Cantabria, the Autonomous University of Madrid and the University of Valladolid compiled data from current and historic studies of the glaciers in the high mountain regions of the Iberian Peninsula to gauge how climate change has affected these icy behemoths.

"High mountains are particularly sensitive areas to climate and environmental changes, and how glaciers evolve there in response to climate change is one of the most effective indicators of current global warming," said study leader Juan Jose González Trueba.

González Trueba and his colleagues found that the steady increase in temperature - a total of 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius) since 1890 - in Spain's northern mountains indicated that the Pyrenean glaciers would disappear before 2050.

There are only 21 glaciers in the Pyrenees (10 on the Spanish side and 11 on the French side) covering an area of 1.7 miles squared (4.5 kilometers squared), the researchers found.

Calculations show that rapid melting over the past 15 years has caused the total regression of the smallest glaciers and a reduction of 50 to 60 percent of the surface area of the largest glaciers.

The study's findings are detailed in a recent issue of the journal The Holocene.

Video: Learn How Ice Melts Glaciers Disappear in Before & After Photos North vs. South Poles: 10 Wild Differences Original Story: Pyrenees Glaciers Disappearing LiveScience.com chronicles the daily advances and innovations made in science and technology. We take on the misconceptions that often pop up around scientific discoveries and deliver short, provocative explanations with a certain wit and style. Check out our science videos, Trivia & Quizzes and Top 10s. Join our community to debate hot-button issues like stem cells, climate change and evolution. You can also sign up for free newsletters, register for RSS feeds and get cool gadgets at the LiveScience Store.

Afghanistan, economy, environment top Canada election agenda

2008-09-07T23:24:00.000-07:00

The role of Canada's military in Afghanistan, the global economy and climate change are expected to top the agenda in upcoming snap elections called on Sunday by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Harper called the October 14 vote after nearly two-and-half years of struggling to govern with a minority government.

The Conservative leader, who is hoping his party can get closer to an absolute majority in the 308-seat legislature, told reporters the election would lay out for voters the stark contrast between right and left economic and environmental policies.

"We have come to a moment that requires the people of Canada to choose a way forward," Harper said after asking Governor General Michaelle Jean, Canada's titular head, to dissolve parliament.

"Between now and October 14th, Canadians will choose a government to look out for their interest in a time of global economic trouble," Harper said.

"They will choose between clear direction or uncertainty, between common sense or risky experiments, between steadiness or recklessness."

The leader of the Liberal Party, Stephane Dion, meanwhile said the election was pivotal because "there has never been a federal election that has more clearly provided to Canadians such a stark choice between two visions for our country."

Dion called Harper's government "the most conservative government in our history" and pledged to reduce poverty in Canada by one-third overall and one-half among children.

Harper's announcement came with Canada's military involvement in Afghanistan expected to figure prominently during the campaigning, as Ottawa announced the combat death Sunday of another Canadian soldier -- the fourth this week. It was the 97th Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan since 2003.

There are some 2,500 Canadian soldiers currently in Afghanistan. Ottawa's mission was extended to 2011 by the Conservatives with qualified support from the Liberals, but recent opinion polls suggest a slight majority of Canadians oppose Canada's role in the mission.

The Bloc Quebecois and the New Democrats meanwhile have been consistently opposed it.

Harper said the Conservatives would run on a record that includes lowering taxes, changing rules to prevent funding of political campaigns by large corporations and unions, lengthening mandatory criminal sentences and allocating money for family child care.

The sagging economy is also expected to be a major campaign theme, despite a historically-low unemployment rate of 6.1 percent, amid fears of a recession.

Before dissolution the Conservatives held 127 seats, the Liberals 95, the Bloc Quebecois 48, and the New Democratic Party 30. Four seats were vacant while Independents held another four seats, including the seat of one member of Parliament who announced this week he would join the relatively new Green Party.

Opinion polls in the past year have suggested only a slight difference between support for the Liberals and Conservatives.

Recent surveys showed a strengthening of support for the Conservatives, and some pundits suggest the party could win a majority. But Harper downplayed that possibility Sunday, telling reporters, "in all likelihood it will be a minority."

He launched his campaign in the Francophone province of Quebec, where for the first time polls put the Conservatives neck-and-neck with the separatist Bloc Quebecois.

Gilles Duceppe, leader of the Bloc Quebecois, compared Harper and the Conservatives to the administration of US President George W. Bush.

"Let us never forget, never, that Stephen Harper wanted to take Canada into the Iraq war in 2003," said Duceppe, adding the main election choice is between his vision and "a society where the rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer."

Jack Layton, leader of the New Democrats, suggested the governments of the past quarter-century run by either Conservatives or Liberals were more alike than not.

Meanwhile, Green Party leader Elizabeth May, whose party is hoping to capture its first elected seat, urged Canadians not to be cynical about politics and to get involved, and demand better environmental stewardship.

"Our species stands on a precipice," she said. "It's a moment of great peril ... and right now many Canadians are tuned out. There is no other planet which we can move to."

Armed police end Greenpeace timber export ship protest

2008-09-07T06:47:00.000-07:00

Armed police have removed four activists from a timber cargo ship on the South Pacific island of Papua New Guinea, ending a three-day protest against logging, environmentalists said Saturday.

"Armed police have escorted Greenpeace activists off a logging cargo ship on Papua New Guinea's Aiai River at Paia," Greenpeace Australia said in a statement. "The activists were harnessed to the ship's crane for 55 hours."

The activists had prevented the ship from loading logs bound for China at the remote port on Papua New Guinea's south coast.

The environmental group had been invited to the area by local landowners who were concerned about logging operations on their land.

Forests across the island of New Guinea and the nearby Solomon Islands make up a third of the world's tropical rain forests.

Greenpeace claims that 90 percent of logging in Papua New Guinea is illegal because many concession permits have been granted by the PNG government without proper consultation with landowners.

"What needs to happen is a moratorium and a review of all existing logging concessions," said Greenpeace spokeswoman Valerie Phillips.

Papua New Guinea Forests Minister Belden Namah rejected the Greenpeace claims. "As far as I'm concerned all the logging activities in Papua New Guinea have been legally sanctioned," he said.

Recently, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare had a series of meetings in Europe about potential carbon trading deals that would see PNG receive money for not cutting down its forests.

Pyrenees glaciers will melt by 2050: Spanish study

2008-09-05T21:46:00.000-07:00

Climate change will melt the 21 remaining glaciers in the Pyrenees mountains before 2050, a group of Spanish researchers said Friday.

"The steady increase in temperature -- a total of 0.9 degrees Celsius from 1890 to today -- indicates that the Pyrenees glaciers will disappear before 2050, experts say," said a statement published on the SINC website, an official science news site.

The melting of the glaciers is "a result of the global warming we are experiencing," said Juan Gonzalez Trueba, professor at the University of Cantrabria, who led the study.

"High mountains are areas which are particularly sensitive to changes in the climate and environment. The melting of the glaciers is one of the clearest indicators that global warming is happening right now," Trueba said.

Researchers from the universities of Cantabria, Madrid and Valladolid conducted "the first global study" into thawing in the three mountainous areas in Spain: the Pyrenees on the border with France, the Picos in the north-west and Sierra Nevada in the south, the statement said.

"Between 1880 and 1980, at least 94 glaciers melted in the Iberian peninsula. Another 17 disappeared from the 1980s to the present day," the SNIC website said.

Now there are only 21 glaciers in all of the Pyrenees -- 10 on the Spanish side and 11 on the French side of the border. The glaciers cover a total area of 4.5 square kilometres (1.7 square miles).

"From 1990 to today, our calculations show this rapid thawing caused the smallest glaciers to completely disappear whereas the surface area of the larger glaciers was reduced by 50 to 60 percent," the statement said.

Europe's most southerly glacier which used to be in the Sierra Nevada disappeared at the start of the 20th century, while the glaciers in the Picos mountains have also vanished.

All glaciers in Spain were formed during a "mini ice age" which lasted from 1300 to 1860. The largest expansion of glaciers came between 1645 and 1710.

The Spanish researchers also found that the melting of the Pyrenees glaciers is not a new phenomenon. Thawing of the smaller glaciers in this area was detected between 1750 and the start of the 19th century.

Experts offer scaled-back sea level rise forecast

2008-09-05T02:21:00.001-07:00

Worldwide sea levels may rise by about 2.6 to 6.6 feet by 2100 thanks to global warming, but dire predictions of larger increases seem unrealistic, U.S. scientists said on Thursday.

They examined scenarios for loss of ice from Greenland, Antarctica and the world's smaller glaciers and ice caps into the world's oceans, as well as ocean expansion simply due to rising water temperatures.

Their calculations yielded estimates for global sea level increases by the end of the century that are lower than many existing projections, but alarming nonetheless.

"If you look at the actual mechanics of how glaciers work, there doesn't seem to be a realistic way that we know about to get more than about 2 meters of sea level rise in the next century," Tad Pfeffer of the University of Colorado's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, whose study was published in the journal Science, said in a telephone interview.

"The real unknown right now is what we call the dynamic effect of ice not melting but just being pushed straight into the ocean," Pfeffer added, referring to pieces of ice breaking off from huge masses of ice such as glaciers and ice sheets and floating in the sea.

Scientists have been working to predict the global effects in coming decades of rising temperatures attributed to human activities that have fueled a "greenhouse effect" on Earth.

Rising sea levels are one of the threats. Scientists have debated how much the seas will rise this century, and some have predicted increases far higher than what this study predicts.

Previous projections of 20 feet or more of sea level rise by the end of the century do not seem to be supported by solid evidence, Pfeffer said.

Pfeffer and scientists at the University of Montana and the University of California at San Diego came up with an estimate of a sea level rise of about 2.6 feet. But their calculations using a "realistic worst-case scenario" produced a predicted rise of 6.6 feet, Pfeffer said.

Even an increase in that range would likely cause major problems in low-lying coastal areas that are home to untold millions of people, he said.

For example, regions of Bangladesh, China and elsewhere could be devastated, while coastal cities such as New Orleans, Amsterdam or Venice could be swamped.

"These places throughout the world where Third World populations live within a meter of sea level and grow a lot of their food within a meter of sea level, they're the ones who are really going to be hurt," Pfeffer said.

(Editing by Julie Steenhuysen and Todd Eastham)

How Smarter Cars Could Power the Future

2008-09-03T21:52:00.000-07:00

Editor's Note: Each Wednesday LiveScience examines the viability of emerging energy technologies - the power of the future.

Stopping, starting and accelerating your car or SUV can burn unnecessary amounts of fuel while driving. To combat this known challenge, two new technologies have recently come out to provide a greener driving experience.

Nissan's Eco Pedal pushes back on a driver's lead foot, while Audi's Travolution tells a driver how fast to go to make the next green light.

"They are definitely part of a growing trend and are also definitely a good idea - in the category of 'every little bit helps,'" said Mike Millikin, editor of the Green Car Congress, a Web site covering sustainable transportation options.

Several efforts, such as the consumer-based hypermiling movement and the Ford Motor Company's EcoDriving Tips, aim to encourage more efficient driving behavior, such as accelerating smoothly and braking gradually."

The next step is to put technology in the car to make it easier for consumers to eco-drive, Millikin told LiveScience. "Although the benefits of eco-driving, if realized, will by default happen through mass adoption by drivers of cars that don't have the spiffy indicators," he said.

Eco Pedal

Nissan introduced the Eco Pedal last month as a way to actively optimize driving behavior. When the system detects that the driver is pressing too hard on the gas, the pedal pushes back on the foot to inform the driver that they are over-accelerating.

By reducing aggressive driving, the Eco Pedal can improve fuel efficiency by 5 to 10 percent, according to Nissan research. Commercialization of the product will begin in 2009.

It remains to be seen whether drivers will appreciate an "electronic nanny" that tries to alter their driving style. Judging from the Internet response, many consumers are hesitant to give this much control of their vehicle to a computer.

For these people, the Eco Pedal comes with an off-switch.

Travolution

A second kind of "dummy light" technology aims to discourage those who speed all the way up to a red light.

For the past two years, Audi has been testing their traffic control system, Travolution, in the German city of Ingolstadt.

The pilot project incorporates 46 traffic lights that are optimized to increase traffic flow. Three of these lights also beam out a signal that tells when they will turn green. Specially-equipped cars take this signal and compute a speed that the driver should maintain to avoid having to stop at the traffic light.

As of now, there are only two cars using Travolution, but Audi plans to extend the program by 20 additional cars and 50 more traffic lights.

Changing drivers

As these technologies are designed to demonstrate, fuel efficiency is not only about buying hybrids or designing less power-hungry vehicles. It is also about making drivers more conscientious.

Millikin said that Japan has made it clear that in order to reduce fuel consumption and the associated greenhouse gas emission, there need to be improvements in three areas: vehicle/fuel technology, driving behavior and traffic infrastructure.

"In the U.S., we're beginning to frame the problem publicly in that way," he said.

Hypermiling: Driving Tricks Stretch Miles Per Gallon New In-Car Device Warns Speeding Drivers The Science of Traffic Jams
Original Story: How Smarter Cars Could Power the Future LiveScience.com chronicles the daily advances and innovations made in science and technology. We take on the misconceptions that often pop up around scientific discoveries and deliver short, provocative explanations with a certain wit and style. Check out our science videos, Trivia & Quizzes and Top 10s. Join our community to debate hot-button issues like stem cells, climate change and evolution. You can also sign up for free newsletters, register for RSS feeds and get cool gadgets at the LiveScience Store.

Ivory Coast's toxic waste trial to start September 29

2008-09-02T20:52:00.000-07:00

The trial of 12 people charged with involvement in the 2006 toxic waste pollution scandal in the Ivory Coast is set to go ahead on September 29, according to court documents released Tuesday.

The 12 are charged with "poisoning or complicity to poison" in the illicit dumping of 500 tonnes of caustic soda and petroleum residues across more than a dozen open-air rubbish tips around the commercial capital Abidjan.

The toxic sludge, brought into Ivory Coast by Dutch-based multinational trading company Trafigura, killed 16 people and caused an estimated 95,000 people to seek medical attention.

Among those facing trial is the head of a local company sub-contracted to handle the waste, and the harbour master of Abidjan port.

No employees of Trafigura or its local subsidiary are on trial, however, after Trafigura and Ivory Coast authorities reached an out-of-court settlement in February 2007, in which the Dutch-based company agreed to pay 152 million euros (221 million dollars) in damages.

As of the end of last year, Ivory Coast had paid 31.5 million euros to about half the estimated people poisoned.

The waste was brought into Ivory Coast aboard the Probo Koala, a Panamanian-registered cargo ship operated by Trafigura.

Methane gas oozing up from Siberian seabed: Swedish researcher

2008-08-30T22:08:00.000-07:00

Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is leaking from the permafrost under the Siberian seabed, a researcher on an international expedition in the region told Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter on Saturday.

"The permafrost now has small holes. We have found elevated levels of methane above the water surface and even more in the water just below. It is obvious that the source is the seabed," Oerjan Gustafsson, the Swedish leader of the International Siberian Shelf Study, told the newspaper.

The tests were carried out in the Laptev and east Siberian seas and used much more precise measuring equipment than previous studies, he said.

Methane is more than 20 times more efficient than carbon dioxide in trapping solar heat.

Scientists fear that global warming may cause Siberia's permafrost to thaw and thereby release vast amounts of methane into the atmosphere. The effects of global warming are already most visible in the Arctic region.

WMO expects 'normal' ozone hole over Antarctica in 2008

2008-08-29T21:12:00.000-07:00

The World Meteorological Organisation said Friday it expects the ozone hole over Antarctica to be "normal" this year, two years after it reached record size.

"Looking at the preliminary data so far, it looks as if the Antarctica ozone hole of 2008 in size and severity will be something in-between the record 2006 and the much weaker one in 2007," WMO ozone expert Geir Braathen told journalists.

"We expect an 'average' or 'normal' ozone hole," he said.

The hole in the layer over the Antarctic was discovered in the 1980s. It regularly tends to form in August before it fills again in mid-December, but the size it reaches is dependent on weather conditions.

Braathen said there is still more than enough chlorine and bromine in the atmosphere to cause complete ozone destruction in a certain height region (an altitude of 14-20 kilometres, or 9-12 miles).

Stratospheric ozone provides a natural protective filter against harmful ultra-violet rays from the sun, which can cause sunburn, cataracts and skin cancer and damage vegetation.

Its depletion is caused by extreme cold temperatures at high altitude and a particular type of pollution, from chemicals often used in refrigeration, some plastic foams, or aerosol sprays, which have accumulated in the atmosphere.

Most of the chemicals, chloroflurocarbons (CFCs), are being phased out under the 1987 Montreal Protocol, but they linger in the atmosphere for many years.

North Pole ice cap melting faster than ever

2008-08-29T02:05:00.000-07:00

The Arctic ice cap keeps melting under the effects of global warming and in August saw its second largest summer shrinkage since satellite observations began 30 years ago, US scientists said.

Measurements on August 26 showed an ice cap of 5.26 million square kilometers (2.03 million square miles), just below the 5.32 million square kilometers (2.05 million square miles) observed on 21 September 2005, making it the second biggest summer Arctic ice-cap melt in history, said the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

Since the start of August, the Boulder, Colorado-based center said, the Arctic polar cap shrank by 2.06 million square kilometers (0.8 million square miles).

The melting is so fast and extensive it could shrink the ice cap to below the 4.25 million square kilometers (1.64 million square miles) reached in the summer of 2007, the smallest it has ever been observed by satellites, the center said.

Since the end of the Arctic summer and the start of the freezing autumn is several weeks away, it said, the ice cap could dwindle even more than it did in 2007.

At the end of northern hemisphere summer 2007, the Arctic ice cap was 40 percent smaller than the average 7.23 million square kilometers (2.8 million square miles) observed in 1979-2000, the NSIDC said.

The North Pole melting season begins in mid-June. The ice cap shrinks to its smallest area by mid-September and grows the most in winter by mid-March.

"The bottom line, however, is that the strong negative trend in summertime ice extent characterizing the past decade continues," the Center said in a report.

The North Pole itself could even become free of ice by September for the first time in modern history, setting a new milestone in the effects of global warming on the Arctic ice shelf, NSIDC glaciologist Mark Serreze told AFP in late June.

"We could have no ice at the North Pole at the end of this summer. And the reason here is that the North Pole area right now is covered with very thin ice, and this ice we call 'first-year ice,' the ice that tends to melt out in the summer," he explained.

Serrreze said the possibility the ice cap could vanish stood at 50 percent.

If it does happen in September, he added, "it's possible that ships could sail from Alaska right to the North Pole".

The Arctic has been free of ice in the geologic history of the Earth, but never in modern history, Serreze said.

"Clearly, if you look over what we have seen in the past three years and where we were headed, we are in ... this long-term decline and we may have no ice at all in the Arctic Ocean in summer by 2030 or so," he added.

Not long ago, he said, the summer disappearance of the Arctic ice was predicted to happen between 2050 and 2100.

The NSIDC said the receding North Pole ice sheet was chiefly caused by the melting of ice in the Chukchi Sea, off the Alaskan coast, and the East Siberian Seas, off the coast of eastern Russia.

The Chukchi ice sheet is one of the natural habitats of the polar bear, where it hunts for seals, and its disappearance is a direct threat to the animal's survival.

The vanishing summer polar ice cap, however, also opens up the fabled Northwest Passage that winds through the northern Canadian islands and links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Shipping routes using the Northwest Passage would spare very long detours through the Panama Canal and around South America's Cape Horn.

An ice-free North Pole would also expose untold wealth of natural resources, including oil and natural gas, locked up beneath the Arctic Ocean waters, which Canada and Russia are already eagerly preparing to exploit.

Arctic sea ice drops to 2nd lowest level on record

2008-08-27T22:49:00.000-07:00

More ominous signs Wednesday have scientists saying that a global warming "tipping point" in the Arctic seems to be happening before their eyes: Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is at its second lowest level in about 30 years.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that sea ice in the Arctic now covers about 2.03 million square miles. The lowest point since satellite measurements began in 1979 was 1.65 million square miles set last September.

With about three weeks left in the Arctic summer, this year could wind up breaking that previous record, scientists said.

Arctic ice always melts in summer and refreezes in winter. But over the years, more of the ice is lost to the sea with less of it recovered in winter. While ice reflects the sun's heat, the open ocean absorbs more heat and the melting accelerates warming in other parts of the world.

Sea ice also serves as primary habitat for threatened polar bears.

"We could very well be in that quick slide downward in terms of passing a tipping point," said senior scientist Mark Serreze at the data center in Boulder, Colo. "It's tipping now. We're seeing it happen now."

Within "five to less than 10 years," the Arctic could be free of sea ice in the summer, said NASA ice scientist Jay Zwally.

"It also means that climate warming is also coming larger and faster than the models are predicting and nobody's really taken into account that change yet," he said.

Five climate scientists, four of them specialists on the Arctic, told The Associated Press that it is fair to call what is happening in the Arctic a "tipping point." NASA scientist James Hansen, who sounded the alarm about global warming 20 years ago before Congress, said the sea ice melt "is the best current example" of that.

Last year was an unusual year when wind currents and other weather conditions coincided with global warming to worsen sea ice melt, Serreze said. Scientists wondered if last year was an unusual event or the start of a new and disturbing trend.

This year's results suggest the latter because the ice had recovered a bit more than usual thanks to a somewhat cooler winter, Serreze said. Then this month, when the melting rate usually slows, it sped up instead, he said.

The most recent ice retreat primarily reflects melt in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast and the East Siberian Sea off the coast of eastern Russia, according to the center.

The Chukchi Sea is home to one of two populations of Alaska polar bears.

Federal observers flying for a whale survey on Aug. 16 spotted nine polar bears swimming in open ocean in the Chukchi. The bears were 15 to 65 miles off the Alaska shore. Some were swimming north, apparently trying to reach the polar ice edge, which on that day was 400 miles away.

Polar bears are powerful swimmers and have been recorded on swims of 100 miles but the ordeal can leave them exhausted and susceptible to drowning.

And the melt in sea ice has kicked in another effect, long predicted, called "Arctic amplification," Serreze said.

That's when the warming up north is increased in a feedback mechanism and the effects spill southward starting in autumn, he said. Over the last few years, the bigger melt has meant more warm water that releases more heat into the air during fall cooling, making the atmosphere warmer than normal.

On top of that, researchers were investigating "alarming" reports in the last few days of the release of methane from long frozen Arctic waters, possibly from the warming of the sea, said Greenpeace climate scientist Bill Hare, who was attending a climate conference in Ghana. Giant burps of methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas, is a long feared effect of warming in the Arctic that would accelerate warming even more, according to scientists.

Overall, the picture of what's happening in the Arctic is getting worse, said Bob Corell, who headed a multinational scientific assessment of Arctic conditions a few years ago: "We're moving beyond a point of no return."

___

Science Writer Seth Borenstein reported from Washington and Dan Joling reported from Anchorage, Alaska. AP writer Arthur Max contributed from Accra, Ghana.

___

On the Net:

National Snow and Ice Data Center image:

http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/N_daily_extent_hires.

png

Calif. county hit by '69 oil spill reconsiders

2008-08-27T01:12:00.000-07:00

Officials from a Southern California county showed symbolic support Tuesday for offshore oil drilling along the same coast stained by a 1969 spill that spawned modern environmentalism.

The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors has no power to approve new drilling, but voted 3-2 to send a letter asking Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to change long-standing state policy and allow oil exploration and extraction in the county.

Proponents claim drilling would provide new revenue in lean times for the county and that modern advancements have made drilling safer. But opponents claimed the letter was based on faulty studies.

"Santa Barbara is a symbol for the country and the world on the dangers that can occur with offshore oil drilling," Assemblyman Pedro Nava told The Associated Press. The Democrat recently authored an anti-drilling resolution that passed in the State Assembly.

A federal drilling ban has protected the federal Outer Continental Shelf off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the eastern Gulf of Mexico for nearly three decades. Record oil and gas prices have focused more attention on offshore drilling and energy production, though experts note lifting the ban wouldn't produce more oil for five to seven years.

Congress is stalemated on lifting the ban. Republican John McCain supports offshore drilling, and Democrat Barack Obama would consider a limited increase in drilling.

Offshore drilling has long been a touchy issue in Santa Barbara, a tony coastal community 100 miles north of Los Angeles.

The disaster at a Union Oil Co. platform coated miles of beaches with oil, killed thousands of birds and helped lead to the Clean Water Act and a moratorium on offshore drilling.

Representatives from conservation groups that formed after the oil spill, including Get Oil Out!, told supervisors the letter was embarrassing and shortsighted.

In April, GOO and others agreed not to oppose an oil company's offshore drilling in exchange for money, land and a promise to shut down operations in Santa Barbara County in 14 years.

"The problem is we're addicted to oil and this addiction is slowly poisoning us all ... more pollution, more global warming and more economic instability," said GOO! President John Abraham Powell. "More oil is not the answer. It is the problem."

Supervisor Brooks Firestone, who co-wrote the request for a letter, wanted assurances from oil industry representatives that such a spill would not occur again.

"I don't believe a spill of that magnitude could occur ..." answered John Deacon, who has worked for various oil companies and now represents Tracer Environmental Sciences and Technologies.

Companies bid millions to tap Western Gulf

2008-08-20T12:20:00.000-07:00

Energy companies placed $487.3 million in winning bids for the right to drill in the western Gulf of Mexico, knowing they may get a chance later to explore in other areas that have been off limits for decades.

The lease sale Wednesday was the first since President Bush last month lifted an executive ban on oil drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Since then, politicians in both parties have signaled they are willing to expand offshore exploration, and the issue has become a hot topic in the presidential race.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said the results were a step toward more domestic oil production. He acknowledged, however, that some of the purchased leases may not end up producing oil.

"Much more needs to be done to create the access necessary for the oil industry to do what it does best and develop this country's resources to secure our energy security," Kempthorne said at a news conference after the sale, which was held in a downtown New Orleans hotel.

A total of 53 companies offered $607 million for leases covering 1.8 million acres in federal waters off Texas. About 90 percent of the tracts the government auctioned off received no bids. The highest bid — $61 million — came from StatoilHydro USA, followed closely by Chevron USA Inc., which offered $52 million for a tract.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain made a campaign stop Tuesday on a Gulf of Mexico oil platform owned by Chevron, which is already a big player in the Gulf.

"This is where we have found success and we are the clear leader," said Chevron spokesman Mickey Driver. "We came here to win and we are leaving winners."

Once again, companies were most interested in deeper water. About 80 percent of the bids were for parcels in water 1,000 feet deep or more.

Offshore wells now provide 27 percent of the nation's domestic oil. Areas now off limits to drilling may contain much more than the 18 billion barrels of oil and 73 trillion cubic feet of natural gas now estimated to be there, Kempthorne said. Those estimates are based on exploration done over 25 years ago with now outdated technology.

Those present at the lease sale in New Orleans said there was excitement about other areas opening up, but that likely did not influence how companies bid Wednesday.

"Companies are recognizing a movement afoot, but I'm not sure this sale says much about that," said Tom Fry, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, which follows offshore drilling.

Third of U.S. Schools in 'Air Pollution Danger Zone'

2008-08-18T21:51:00.000-07:00

As summer vacation ends and children head back to class, they might need a new school supply: face masks.

About one third of American schools are within an "air pollution danger zone" near major highways and the pollutants that stream from cars and trucks, a new study finds.

Previous research, including the UC Cincinnati Childhood Allergy and Air Pollution Study (CCAAPS), has shown that exposure of school-age children to traffic pollutants near main roads is associated with a greater risk of developing asthma and other respiratory problems later in life.

"This is a major public health concern that should be given serious consideration in future urban development, transportation planning and environmental policies," said study leader Sergey Grinshpun of the University of Cincinnati.

Other research has also shown that children are exposed to pollution on school buses and that one way to reduce their exposure is to stop idling the buses as they wait for their charges to board.

While past research on highway-related air pollution exposure has focused on residences, Grinshpun pointed out that children spend more than 30 percent of their day on school grounds.

For the new findings, Grinshpun's team conducted a survey of major metropolitan areas from every large geographic region of the United States, including Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Minneapolis. More than 8,800 schools representing 6 million students were included.

The study's findings appear in the September issue of the Journal of Environmental Planning and Management. The survey was funded by the UC Center for Sustainable Urban Engineering and the National Institute of Environmental Sciences.

Urban sprawl has contributed to the problem, as rapid expansion of metropolitan areas seems to be associated with building schools near highways, the researchers said.

Grinshpun and his colleagues advocate revising urban planning practices so that schools are built further away from highways. California has already implemented such a law and New Jersey is currently considering legislation to move highway exit ramps further from schools.

In the meantime, "existing schools should be retrofitted with air filtration systems that will reduce students' exposure to traffic pollutants," Grinshpun said.

Video: Overcleanliness and Childhood Allergies Quiz: What's Your Environmental Footprint? What Is Smog? Original Story: Third of U.S. Schools in 'Air Pollution Danger Zone' LiveScience.com chronicles the daily advances and innovations made in science and technology. We take on the misconceptions that often pop up around scientific discoveries and deliver short, provocative explanations with a certain wit and style. Check out our science videos, Trivia & Quizzes and Top 10s. Join our community to debate hot-button issues like stem cells, climate change and evolution. You can also sign up for free newsletters, register for RSS feeds and get cool gadgets at the LiveScience Store.

Celebrations, controversies as Olympics enter final week

2008-08-17T21:46:00.000-07:00

The pollution has lifted, roaring crowds have spurred China to the top of the medals table and athletes have offered warm praise over the near flawless organisation of the Beijing Olympics.

Michael Phelps' historic swimming campaign, the pure joy of Chinese athletes winning home-town gold and Usain Bolt's extraordinary victory in the 100m sprint have been just some of the many reasons to celebrate the Games.

But as the Olympics enter their final week, question marks remain over the spirit in which they have been held -- and whether controls enforced by China's Communist rulers will ultimately overshadow the nation's coming out party.

Wire fences and countless security personnel have sealed off the Olympics from the general public, while the atmosphere inside the secure zones has been often subdued from a lack of entertainment, souvenir shops and restaurants.

"I thought there might be Chinese fireworks, or Chinese food, but it's really lacking," said Australian tourist Andrew Mackenzie, as he stood surrounded by a sea of bare concrete inside the "Olympic Green".

The "Bird's Nest" National Stadium and the "Water Cube" swimming venue are inside the green, a vast domain in the north of the city where fans are meant to congregate and enjoy themselves when not watching the sport.

Instead, spectators are left with little to do but bake in the heat with few shaded areas to rest under, eat instant noodles or bags of chips from sparse food tents, and take photos of the stadia.

Rather than allow a flourish of freedom and fun, the Chinese government has sought to control everything at the green, an attitude that could prove important in defining how the Games in its entirety will be remembered.

Many had already dubbed the Olympics the "No-Fun" Games, as the Communist Party sought to sanitise Beijing.

Thousands of rural migrant workers who spent years building the stadia and many other dazzling new skyscrapers were ordered out of the city, while beggars and hawkers were swept off the streets.

During the first half of the Games, organisers also faced a barrage of media criticism over the faking of parts of the stunning opening ceremony, controversies that highlighted trust issues surrounding the Chinese government.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party refused to allow protests in designated zones as promised, continued to censor the Internet for foreign journalists despite pledging web freedoms, and kept dissidents under house arrest.

"It (the Chinese government) has failed by acting in this way. It has shown the world this is a country that does not respect human rights," prominent dissident lawyer Li Fangping told AFP.

Despite the overarching political concerns, athletes and high-profile visitors have praised the precise organisation of the Games, as well as the state-of-the-art venues, the helpful volunteers and friendly Beijingers.

"I've had a wonderful trip this week. I started off by having a chance to go to the Olympic Games' opening ceremony, and see a lot of those games, which were fantastically managed," Microsoft founder Bill Gates said.

Crowds at some of the events were disappointing in the first half of the Games, particularly after organisers said all tickets were sold out.

But the 91,000-seat Bird's Nest was packed for the start of the athletics competition on Friday and Saturday, promising a week of energy and excitement at the stadium for the highest-profile and most-watched events of the Games.

Athletes reported the Olympic Village being perfectly managed, with the exclusively Chinese-grown food in their kitchens safe and well-cooked.

And the huge concerns over Beijing's toxic air evaporated, thanks partly to last-ditch measures such as taking about one third of the city's 3.3 million vehicles off the road, but also to stormy weather that blew away pollution.

"It was a surprise for me. Where was all the pollution I have read about in the newspapers?" asked Ukrainian heptathlete Ganna Melnichenko. "The sky is blue. It couldn't be better."

Cockroach King reigns as pest-killers discuss climate change

2008-08-16T22:17:00.000-07:00

More than 100 of Southeast Asia's hardiest bugs measured up this week in Bangkok, where experts met to discuss new ways of controlling the pests, which they say are a major contributor to global warming.

On the sidelines of this year's Pest Summit, insects vied for the title of King Cockroach and Termite Queen, with the winning owners winning a 10,000 baht (300 dollar) prize.

The American Cockroach competition was won by a 4.2 centimetre (1.65 inch) specimen, giving him the title of King, with a 7.1 centimetre termite queen winning her division.

But the chairman of the August 13-15 summit said the competition itself was an important exercise in pest control, while other highlighted the bugs' role in climate change.

"Each cockroach produces 600 babies in their lifetime and we have more than 100 entrants, so our success to date is that we are reducing 60,000 cockroaches without using any chemicals at all and that's the beauty of it," Suchart Leelayuthyotin, director of the Thailand Pest Management Association, told AFP.

"The termite queen is like an egg-laying machine... So with every queen we get rid of 100,000 termites immediately," he added.

The winning cockroach was a city slicker, found a week earlier in Kuala Lumpur by female resident Yeap Beng Keok, while the termite was dug up in a Thai army camp in southern Khao Lak.

"We went out with the soldiers and a lot of them helped us because we know them," 20-year-old Chaiamon Chantarapitak from pest management team Union of Unicor Group told AFP.

"I didn't think we had a winner because a lot of people brought big ones and there were many almost as big as this one.

"The prize money is fine but we spent quite a lot of money to get it," Chaiamon added.

More than 600 insect killers and entymologists from Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand convened in a Bangkok hotel for the biannual event to share their knowledge of the latest killer chemicals and techniques. The industry is worth an estimated 3.5 billion dollars this year to Thailand alone.

But this year's summit brought with it a global message -- insects cause climate change.

Suchart said bugs are one of the main contributors to global warming because of the CO2 they emit when passing wind.

"Every termite will emit CO2 from their gut because when they consume the wood and digest it they get wind," Suchart explained.

"With every degree the global temperature rises, the life cycle of each bug will be shorter. The quicker the life cycle, the higher the population of pests," Suchart said.

If the fight against climate change seems impossibly huge, Suchart admitted the war on bugs is at least as hard.

"We know very well we'll not be about to win the war against insects. They have been here much longer than us. Cockroaches were here 350 million years ago," he said, adding that the problem was increasing.

"We used to live plain and simple -- a wall was a simple brick wall. But now we have decorated walls that insects hide behind," Suchart said, advising that the only way to fight bugs at home is through good sanitation and ventilation.

If Suchart's expertise on the insect world seems considerable, it was not always so.

He admitted his expert role came about more through accident than design.

"I am a professional bug killer by accident," he told AFP. "I applied for a job in the late 1960s and was given a choice between marketing and what my poor English thought was "press control". It turns out it was pest control, and here we are."

Swiss companies to build world's highest solar power station

2008-08-15T22:50:00.000-07:00

Swiss companies are planning to build the world's highest solar power station in the country's southern Alpine region, one of the project developers, electricity group BKW FMB, said on Friday.

The installation will power a restaurant 3,800 metres (nearly 12,500 feet) up the Matterhorn glacier, which gives a view of Italy's Mount Cervino (4,478 metres), BKW FMB said in a statement.

The solar station will be constructed by Zermatt Bergbahnen, a Swiss aerial cable car company, and the BKW FMB affiliate Sol-E for 600,000 Swiss francs (370,000 euros, 550,000 dollars).

Some 40,000 kw/h will be available to the high altitude restaurant when the station it is scheduled to be up and running at the end of this year.

Little robin from Gabon is world's newest species

2008-08-15T11:28:00.000-07:00

A red-breasted bird discovered by accident in the forests of Gabon is a new species, U.S. scientists said on Friday.

They have named the little bird the olive-backed forest robin, or Stiphrornis pyrrholaemus, but say they know little about it yet.

The Smithsonian Institution team found the bird while visiting the forest on a biodiversity project, said Brian Schmidt, a research ornithologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

"I suspected something when I found the first bird in Gabon since it didn't exactly match any of the species descriptions in the field guides," Schmidt said in a statement.

"Once I was able to compare them side by side to other specimens in our collections, it was clear that these birds were special."

Genetic tests confirmed the bird, which measures 4.5 inches

in length and averages half an ounce (14 grams) in weight, was a unique species.

Writing in the journal Zootaxa, the Smithsonian team said the males have a fiery orange throat and breast, yellow belly, olive back and black feathers on the head. Females are similar, but less vibrant. A distinctive white dot in front of each eye helps distinguish the species.

"Although finding an unknown species like the olive-backed forest robin was not the goal of the ... project, it is definitely a reminder that the world still holds surprises for us," Schmidt said.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox, editing by Will Dunham and Xavier Briand)

Pollution killing 21,000 Canadians this year: report

2008-08-14T02:33:00.000-07:00

Air pollution this year will kill more than 20,000 Canadians, the Canadian Medical Association said Wednesday in a report.

The research on the human costs of pollution and pollution-related diseases estimated that around 21,000 people in Canada will die from breathing in toxic substances drifting in the air this year.

By 2031, short term exposure to air pollution will claim close to 90,000 lives in Canada, while long-term exposure will kill more than 700,000, the report said.

"Ontario and Quebec residents are the worst hit Canadians, with 70 percent of the premature deaths occurring in Central Canada, even though these two provinces comprise only 62 percent of Canada's population," the report said.

Not all the blame for air pollution falls on Canada, however.

"Canada gets a fair bit of pollution from the American midwest, which drifts north, comes across through Ontario and continues right on through to Quebec," CMA legal advisor Ted Boadway told reporters at the report's presentation.

The national economy, air pollution will top eight billion dollars in 2008, and by 2031 it will go over 250 billion, the report said.

Can NY infrastructure handle floods, intense heat?

2008-08-12T21:20:00.000-07:00

Flooded subways. Bridges deteriorating in the hot sun. Rising seas nipping at the edges of Manhattan. Those scenarios are up for review by a panel of scientists, government officials and private sector representatives studying how the city's infrastructure will hold up to climate change.

The Climate Change Adaptation Task Force met Tuesday for the first time as part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to address global warming in New York City, which already includes orders to switch the city's taxi fleet to hybrids by 2012 and to retrofit city buildings to meet greener standards.

Experts on the panel said the potential consequences of global warming could include more frequent storms, flooding throughout the city's coastal and lowland areas, repeated blackouts on a power grid stressed to its limits and bridges that deteriorate under the heat.

"We have to adapt to the environmental changes that have already taken place, or that we can reasonably expect will occur because of climate change," Bloomberg said.

The panel will begin its work by studying the city's infrastructure to better understand the city's preparedness for possibilities such as more catastrophic storms, hotter temperatures and a rising sea level.

"The city was built with an assumption of an environmental baseline, and climate change in many ways changes that baseline," said panel co-chair William Solecki, director of The Institute for Sustainable Cities at Hunter College.

"Some of these transformations can potentially be catastrophic as large storms; others might be more subtle and difficult to discern over the short term," Solecki said.

The mayor has asked the group to produce a report and inventory of existing at-risk infrastructure, plus plans to make those areas more secure, in one year.

The panel has also been asked to draft guidelines for new construction that take into account anticipated effects of climate change.

Elephant seals join fight against climate change

2008-08-11T23:04:00.000-07:00

Elephant seals swimming under Antarctic ice and fitted with special sensors are providing scientists with crucial data on ice formation, ocean currents and climate change, a study released on Tuesday said.

The seals swimming under winter sea ice have overcome a "blind-spot" for scientists by allowing them to calculate how fast sea ice forms during winter.

Sea ice reflects sunlight back into space, so less sea ice means more energy is absorbed by the earth, causing more warming.

"They have made it possible for us to observe large areas of the ocean under the sea ice in winter for the first time," said co-author Steve Rintoul from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).

Conventional oceanographic monitoring from ships, satellites and drifting buoys, cannot provide observations under sea ice.

"Until now, our ability to represent the high-latitude oceans and sea ice in oceanographic and climate models has suffered as a result," said Rintoul, who also works with the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre in Hobart.

The elephant seals have provided scientists with a 30-fold increase in data recorded in parts of the Southern Ocean, said the study by a team of French, Australian, U.S. and British scientists and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Between 2004 and 2005, the seals swam up to 65 kilometers (40 miles) a day, supplying scientists with 16,500 ice profiles. The seals dived to a depth of more than 500 meters (1,500 feet) on average and to a maximum depth of nearly 2 km (a mile).

"If we want to understand what's going to happen to climate in the future we need to know what the sea ice is going to do. Will there be more or less and will it form more or less rapidly?" Rintoul told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

The experiment involved 85 seals with sensors attached to their heads.

"They measure temperature and salinity as a function of depth as they dive down and up through the water column," he said.

"From that information we can determine what the ocean currents are doing and so they provide us with a very detailed record of how temperatures and salinity's changed," he added.

The polar regions play an important role in the earth's climate and are changing more rapidly than any other part of the world, with the Southern Ocean warming more rapidly than the global ocean average.

Sea ice not only affects the amount of energy reflected back into space, but also the amount of dense water around the Antarctic which drives ocean currents that transports heat around the globe.

Sea ice also provides a critical habitat for krill, penguins and seals.

(Additional reporting by David Fogarty; Editing by David Fogarty)

Yao becomes UN environment campaigner

2008-08-11T01:50:00.001-07:00

Chinese superstar Yao Ming on Saturday became the UN Environment Program's (UNEP) first ever Environmental Champion, tasked with raising awareness of climate change and energy efficiency.

Yao, China's flag bearer in Friday's Olympic opening ceremony, said he wanted do his part in protecting the world.

"As a sportsman, I believe sport has a major role to play in promoting environmental issues," the Houston Rockets center said in a statement.

"So I will work with young people across the world and try to inspire them to plant trees, use energy efficient light bulbs, harvest rain water and to become environmental champions in their own communities.

"As the world celebrates the Beijing Olympic Games, I would also like to call upon the organizers of all major sports events in the world to make sure they use public transport facilities, build proper waste management systems and use greener forms for energy.

"Please join me in this global team effort."

China is holding what it has dubbed the "Green Olympics" although air quality has been a top concern among the 10,500 athletes, with heavy smog blanketing Beijing this week.

UNEP executive director Achim Steiner said Yao's popularity made him the best choice to become their first Environmental Champion.

"As one of the most high profile athletes in these Games and with a fan base of millions across the world, I am sure he can help us raise public awareness on the environment and climate change issues," he said.

Yao becomes UN environment campaigner

2008-08-11T01:50:00.000-07:00

Chinese superstar Yao Ming on Saturday became the UN Environment Program's (UNEP) first ever Environmental Champion, tasked with raising awareness of climate change and energy efficiency.

Yao, China's flag bearer in Friday's Olympic opening ceremony, said he wanted do his part in protecting the world.

"As a sportsman, I believe sport has a major role to play in promoting environmental issues," the Houston Rockets center said in a statement.

"Please join me in this global team effort."

China is holding what it has dubbed the "Green Olympics" although air quality has been a top concern among the 10,500 athletes, with heavy smog blanketing Beijing this week.

UNEP executive director Achim Steiner said Yao's popularity made him the best choice to become their first Environmental Champion.

Global warming threatens indigenous peoples: FAO

2008-08-10T03:49:00.000-07:00

Global warming and limited access to land and other resources threaten many indigenous peoples, the UN food agency warned Friday.

"Indigenous peoples are among the first to suffer from increasingly harsh and erratic weather conditions, and a generalised lack of empowerment to claim goods and services," said indigenous peoples expert Regina Laub of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Many indigenous groups live in vulnerable environments such as mountainous areas, the Arctic, jungles or dry lands, added the FAO statement released on the eve of the International Day for the World's Indigenous Peoples.

The FAO noted that native populations also played a critical role in adapting to climate change.

Indigenous communities are often the custodians of unique knowledge and skills, the Rome-based agency noted, adding that some 80 percent of the world's remaining biodiversity "that may be vital in adapting to climate change" is found within their territories.

The world's indigenous peoples population is estimated at 370 million, representing at least 5,000 different groups in more than 70 countries.

"Defending the recovery of ancestral lands, the self-determination of indigenous peoples and their human rights is at the core of their claims," the statement added.