div class="track"img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.8/55046?ns=guardianpageName=Oil+industry+safety+record+blown+open%3AArticle%3A1432973ch=Environmentc3=Guardianc4=BP+oil+spill+Deepwater+Horizon%2COil+%28business%29%2COil+%28environment%29%2COil+and+gas+companies+%28Business%29%2COil+spills+%28Environment%29%2CWildlife+%28Environment%29%2CEnvironment%2CUS+news%2CWorld+newsc5=Environment+Conservation%2CWildlife+Conservation%2CCredit+Crunch%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Markets%2CEnergy%2CEthical+Livingc6=Suzanne+Goldenbergc7=10-Jul-29c8=1432973c9=Articlec10=Newsc11=Environmentc13=c25=c30=contenth2=GU%2FEnvironment%2FBP+oil+spill" width="1" height="1" //divp class="standfirst"National Wildlife Federation says catalogue of oil industry accidents proves BP disaster in Gulf of Mexico is not a one-off/ppThe oil industry has been responsible for thousands of fires, explosions, and leaks over the last decade, killing dozens of people and destroying wildlife and the environment across America, according to a a href="http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/Media-Center/Reports/Archive/2010/Oil-Disasters-Report.aspx" title=""report published today/a./ppNone of the individual incidents catalogued by the National Wildlife Federation comes close in scale to BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the worst environmental disaster in America's history. But the thousands of lesser offshore spills, pipeline leaks, refinery fires and other accidents demolish the industry argument that BP's ruptured well was a one-off, and that the oil and gas business has grown safer, the report's authors said./pp"These disasters make it clear that the BP disaster isn't a rare accident," said Tim Warman, who directs the global warming programme for NWF, which calls itself the country's largest conservation organisation. "These are daily occurrences. These are daily incidents of not paying attention."/ppIn a further grim reminder, the American midwest was in the throes of its own environmental disaster today, with a ruptured pipeline gushing gallons of oil into Michigan's Kalamazoo River./ppEnbridge Energy, which is Canadian-owned but based in Houston, said the spill may have reached 1m gallons. Federal government officials in Washington and the state of Michigan were struggling to stop the oil from reaching the Great Lakes./ppIn the Gulf of Mexico, meanwhile, while BP's oil well remains capped, a tugboat crashed into an abandoned well this week and set off a 100ft gusher of oil and gas./ppThe coastguard commander, Thad Allen, told reporters today that operations were switching from response to recovery, suggesting that equipment and personnel in the Gulf could be drastically scaled back in four to six weeks. "If you need fewer skimming vessels out there, there is going to be a levelling you need to consider," he said./ppThe report from the National Wildlife Federation drew on records from the Minerals Management Service, which regulates offshore drilling, and the Environmental Protection Agency, to come up with a figure of 1,440 offshore leaks, blowouts, and other accidents were reported between 2001-2007./ppIn addition to environmental damage, these caused 41 deaths and 302 injuries./ppThe safety record for onshore activities was even more dismal. Some 2,554 pipeline accidents occurred between 2001 and 2007, killing 161 people and injuring 576./pp"Oil and gas is being produced in 34 states across the country and it is just not being regulated to the extent it needs to be," said Lauren Pagel of Earthworks, which monitors extractive industries./ppAt times, the accidents occurred far from industrial installations such as offshore drilling rigs or refineries. In one particularly gruesome incident from August 2000, three families with young children on a camping trip in New Mexico were consumed by a 500ft fireball from a ruptured pipeline. All 12 people were killed, and an official investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board later blamed the pipeline company for failing to detect or repair severely corroded pipes./ppFour years later, a tanker truck lost control and crossed guard rails outside Washington DC, igniting 8,000 gallons of burning petrol on one of the country's busiest highways. "There was fire everywhere," the report quotes highway officials as saying. Four people were killed./pp/ppAmong the causes for the poor safety record was the industry's relentless costcutting, despite record profits, said the report's authors, describing equipment failures, tank corrosion, and other signs of poor maintenance. The poor safety and environmental records were not restricted to the so-called Big Oil companies./ppEnbridge Energy has had 400 separate spills between 2003 and 2008, spewing 1.3m gallons of crude into the environment, according to official records./pdiv class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bp-oil-spill"BP oil spill/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/oil"Oil/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/oil"Oil/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/oilandgascompanies"Oil and gas companies/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/oil-spills"Oil spills/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/wildlife"Wildlife/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa"United States/a/li/ul/divdiv class="author"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/suzannegoldenberg"Suzanne Goldenberg/a/divbr/div class="terms"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"More Feeds/a/divp style="clear:both" /

div class="track"img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.8/33558?ns=guardianpageName=World%27s+oldest+living+creatures+found+in+Scottish+field%3AArticle%3A1432969ch=Environmentc3=Guardianc4=Biodiversity+%28environment%29%2CAnimals+%28News%29%2CScotland+%28News%29%2CScience%2CEnvironmentc5=Environment+Conservation%2CWildlife+Conservation%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CEthical+Livingc6=Ian+Samplec7=10-Jul-29c8=1432969c9=Articlec10=Newsc11=Environmentc13=c25=c30=contenth2=GU%2FEnvironment%2FBiodiversity" width="1" height="1" //divp class="standfirst"Two colonies of age-old and endangered tadpole shrimps discovered alive and well near Solway coast/ppA field near Gretna in Dumfriesshire might not be an obvious place to find the world's oldest living creatures, but a team of scientists has done just that./ppTwo colonies of a prehistoric shrimp that evolved when the dinosaurs ruled the Earth have been found alive and well in the Caerlaverock nature reserve on the Solway coast./ppThe discovery has led experts to think there could be more of the little crustaceans, which are listed as endangered species, elsewhere in the area./ppThe ancient creatures, known as emTriops cancriformis /emorem /emtadpole shrimps, are thought to have the oldest pedigree of any living animal. Fossil evidence suggests they have hardly changed in the more than 200m years that they have been around./ppWild tadpole shrimps can grow to more than 10cm long and are remarkable in surviving three major extinctions in the Earth's history. The shrimps have an extraordinary lifecycle. They live in temporary pools of water in which they lay eggs. When the pools dry out, the adults die off, but their eggs remain dormant until the pools fill up again./ppResearchers at Glasgow University discovered the rare shrimps after collecting samples of mud, which were dried out and then made wet again before being placed in glass tanks. A fortnight later Elaine Benzies, a research student, noticed a tadpole shrimp swimming around in one of the aquariums. "I hadn't expected to find it and was just going in to check on the heat and lights. It was great to see everyone in the lab gathering round and peering into the tank to look at this ancient survivor from the past," she said./ppUntil recently, researchers believed the ancient shrimps lived only in a single pond in the New Forest in Hampshire. Six years ago, Larry Griffin, a scientist at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, discovered what appeared to be an isolated colony of the creatures in a pool at Caerlaverock./pp"At the time it seemed that the Caerlaverock colony was a vulnerable historic outlier," he said. "But now that we know how this curious creature survives, we have realised that there's a good chance there are more populations out there./pp"emTriops/em matures rapidly and produces hundreds of eggs in just a couple of weeks. The pond they live in may dry out, but the eggs can survive in the mud for many years. Although in the UK they are all females, they have both male and female reproductive parts, so just one egg needs to survive to regenerate a whole population."/pdiv class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/biodiversity"Biodiversity/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/animals"Animals/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/scotland"Scotland/a/li/ul/divdiv class="author"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/iansample"Ian Sample/a/divbr/div class="terms"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"More Feeds/a/divp style="clear:both" /

div class="track"img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.8/67212?ns=guardianpageName=All+set+for+synthetic+silk%3F%3AArticle%3A1432282ch=Sciencec3=GU.co.ukc4=Biochemistry+and+molecular+biology%2CChemistry+%28Science%29%2CBiology%2CMedical+research+%28Science%29%2CScience%2CInsects+%28environment%29c5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Cian+O%27Luanaighc7=10-Jul-29c8=1432282c9=Articlec10=Blogpostc11=Sciencec13=c25=Science+blogc30=contenth2=GU%2FScience%2FBiochemistry+and+molecular+biology" width="1" height="1" //divp class="standfirst"Synthetic silks have a great future – if only scientists can unlock the chemistry of natural silk/ppIt's tougher than Kevlar and stronger than steel, and no one really knows how to make it. Except spiders of course. And silkworms. /ppScientists have been trying to mimic the remarkable properties of natural silk for years, with varying success. New approaches are needed to break the deadlock, argue a href="http://ase.tufts.edu/faculty-guide/fac/fomene01.biomed.htm"Fiorenzo Omenetto/a and a href="http://engineering.tufts.edu/chbe/people/kaplan/index.asp"David Kaplan/a of a href="http://www.tufts.edu/"Tufts University/a in tomorrow's issue of the journal Science./ppOmenetto and Kaplan say reconstituted silks could have a wide range of applications, from implantable drug delivery systems to optical and electronic devices. /ppWe've all watched a spider build a web or lower itself down a delicate thread. You might even have seen a silkworm make a cocoon. It looks simple, but nothing could be further from the truth./ppResearchers still do not fully understand the complex chemical changes that turn silk from a concentrated protein solution inside the glands of a spider or silkworm to a high-strength extensible fibre on the outside. /ppThough synthetic silks have been made in the lab, Omenetto says they fall short of natural silk./pp"We don't use synthetic silks [for hi-tech applications] because they're basically not good enough," he said. Instead scientists use reconstituted silk extracted from silkworm cocoons. /pp"The natural fibre is put in solution and purified, the protein is extracted and essentially you go back to what is in a silkworm gland. That's the 'magic sauce' from which you can make new materials," Omenetto explains. /ppHowever, he and Kaplan predict that high-quality synthetic silks, modified for a diverse range of applications, could soon be made on an industrial scale. /pp"In the next few years, silk sutures, drug delivery systems and fibre-based tissue products that exploit the mechanical properties of silks can be envisioned for ligament, bone and other tissue repairs," the pair write in Science. /ppFollow-on applications could include degradable electronic displays and implantable optical systems for diagnosis and treatment. /ppOmenetto believes that silk will be harvested from transgenic plants in the same way as cotton. Researchers have already created transgenic bacteria and fungi in an attempt to increase silk yields. /ppIn 1995, a href="http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/bi00034a022"a team of American researchers/a inserted a synthetic gene for spider dragline silk into the bacterium emEscherichia coli/em, which made the protein. In 2002, a North American team a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/sci;295/5554/472"produced spider silk in mammalian cells/a. /pp"The remaining challenges are quality control and scale-up," says Omenetto.br / br /Currently silk is harvested by boiling and separating the cocoons of the domesticated silkmoth larva, a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombyx_mori"Bombyx mori/a, which are reared on farms. The 5,000-year-old process, known as a href="http://www.insects.org/ced1/history-of-sericulture.html"sericulture/a, provides over 300,000 tonnes of silk per year to the commodity textile and medical suture industries. But the process is labour and time-intensive. /pp"In a synthetic form we could bypass the purification process and have control over quality and yield," argues Omenetto. /ppThere may be other advantages. Natural silk contains the glycoprotein sericin, which causes an immune response when used in medical sutures. The sutures have to be wax-coated to eliminate this problem, but it makes them non-biodegradable. "With purified silk you could eliminate the immune response and still maintain the mechanical properties of the silk," says Omenetto. /ppHowever, others urge caution about the prospects for artificial silk. "There are many applications for such materials, but first we have to be able to make them to order and at reasonable cost, and here we have quite a way to go," says a href="http://users.ox.ac.uk/~abrg/spider_site/fvollrath.html"Fritz Vollrath/a of the University of Oxford's a href="http://users.ox.ac.uk/~abrg/spider_site/index.html"silk research group/a. /ppOne of the many challenges scientists face is in their understanding of the molecular structure of silk. /ppSilks are large proteins made from repeating sequences of a href="http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-amino-acids.htm"amino acids/a flanked by specific side chains that determine the protein's chemical behaviour. Making the correct side chains in synthetic silks is essential to capture the properties of the natural fibre. /ppAnother mystery is how silk protein stays fluid at high concentrations inside the glands of spinning animals. At similar concentrations on the outside, many of the proteins aggregate, coming out of solution to form a gooey mess. /ppThough the future looks bright for silk-based technologies, it may be some time before silkworms can weave their cocoons in peace./pdiv class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/biochemistrymolecularbiology"Biochemistry and molecular biology/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/chemistry"Chemistry/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/biology"Biology/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/medical-research"Medical research/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/insects"Insects/a/li/ul/divdiv class="author"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/cian-o-luanaigh"Cian O'Luanaigh/a/divbr/div class="terms"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"More Feeds/a/divp style="clear:both" /

div class="track"img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.8/89051?ns=guardianpageName=Shell+could+pursue+BP+for+gulf+damages%3AArticle%3A1432936ch=Businessc3=Guardianc4=Shell+%28business%29%2CBP+%28Business%29%2CBP+oil+spill+Deepwater+Horizon%2COil+and+gas+companies+%28Business%29%2CBusinessc5=Environment+Conservation%2CBusiness+Markets%2CEnergyc6=Tim+Webbc7=10-Jul-29c8=1432936c9=Articlec10=Newsc11=Businessc13=c25=c30=contenth2=GU%2FBusiness%2FRoyal+Dutch+Shell" width="1" height="1" //divp class="standfirst"Shell refuses to rule out action against BP over losses caused by the deepwater drilling ban in the Gulf of Mexico/ppShell today refused to rule out pursuing damages claims against BP and other companies involved in the Gulf of Mexico disaster./ppThe company took a $56m (£36m) hit after it was forced to stand down seven rigs and platforms because of the moratorium on drilling in the US imposed in the wake of the disaster./ppThe Anglo-Dutch firm, which has long been a fierce rival of BP, said it would take another hit in the next quarter if the moratorium continues./ppOne of the projects affected is Perdido, Shell's deepest deepwater well in the Gulf of Mexico, at just under 8,000ft. Shell has had to delay plans for one or two new wells scheduled during the six-month drilling ban. In total, production was down by 8,000 barrels a day./ppShell's chief executive, Peter Voser, said "no comment" when asked directly if the firm would seek compensation from the companies responsible./ppThe owners of the rigs are taking the lion's share of the losses, after Shell negotiated 60-70% reductions in the cost of hiring them./ppBP is likely to resist any attempt to pay compensation to companies like Shell affected by the moratorium as it seeks to try to limit its liabilities. It tried to resist pressure from the US government to pay damages to rig workers who had lost their jobs, but was eventually forced to create a $100m compensation fund for them./ppVoser also disagreed with some US politicians who want to force oil companies to drill a costly second well alongside exploration wells which could then be used to cap a leak in the event of an accident. BP's relief well – which should finally seal the BP spill in the gulf next month – will have taken more than three months to complete./pp"I would not say that it is a solution," Voser said. "We have to concentrate on prevention first, where global standards already play a major role. Then we look at containment." Forcing companies to drill an extra well would increase the cost of exploration, and some executives have claimed that drilling in two places would increase the risk of accidents./ppShell also said that it was confident that it would get the go-ahead for drilling in a virgin region in the Arctic which was supposed to have begun this summer but has been blocked by the US government./ppShell produces 500,000 barrels of oil a day from deepwater sites, a third of which comes from the Gulf of Mexico, out of total production of just over 3m barrels of oil and gas. Voser said that the industry needed to learn lessons from the disaster, but that deepwater drilling would continue./pp"We have never had a significant offshore incident or spill in the Gulf of Mexico," he said. "You are not in a position to say an accident will never happen. Accidents happen everywhere, not just in the oil industry, but on the road. The key is to improve safety standards."/ppShell said that profits in the second quarter increased by a third to £2.7bn. This was thanks to higher oil and gas prices, a 5% increase in production and faster than expected progress in cutting £2.2bn of costs./pdiv class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/royaldutchshell"Royal Dutch Shell/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/bp"BP/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bp-oil-spill"BP oil spill/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/oilandgascompanies"Oil and gas companies/a/li/ul/divdiv class="author"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/timwebb"Tim Webb/a/divbr/div class="terms"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"More Feeds/a/divp style="clear:both" /

div class="track"img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.8/51344?ns=guardianpageName=UN+withdraws+Galapagos+from+world+heritage+danger+list%3AArticle%3A1432919ch=Environmentc3=Guardianc4=Endangered+habitats+%28Environment%29%2CEndangered+species+%28Environment%29%2CUnited+Nations+%28News%29%2CEnvironment%2CWorld+news%2CEcuador+%28News%29c5=Wildlife+Conservation%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CEthical+Living%2CCharitiesc6=Rory+Carrollc7=10-Jul-29c8=1432919c9=Articlec10=Newsc11=Environmentc13=c25=c30=contenth2=GU%2FEnvironment%2FEndangered+habitats" width="1" height="1" //divp class="standfirst"Improved efforts to protect Ecuador archipelago's biodiversity leads to Unesco vote/ppThe UN has withdrawn the Galápagos Islands from its world heritage danger list, citing improved efforts by Ecuador to protect the archipelago's unique biodiversity./ppThe world heritage committee of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/636" title=""Unesco/a) voted 15 to four to remove the islands from the list of sites endangered by environmental threats or overuse./pp"It's important to recognise the effort made by the Ecuadorean government to preserve this heritage," said Luiz Fernando de Almeida, head of the Brazilian delegation, which proposed the motion at the meeting in Brasilia./ppEcuador's government will welcome the decision, which reversed Unesco's listing in 2007, but some conservationists expressed alarm./ppPresident Rafael Correa's administration had tackled serious problems in the archipelago but it was too soon to declare victory, said Johannah Barry, head of Galápagos Conservancy, a Virginia-based research group./pp"The growing human presence in Galápagos, both through tourism and residents, has put biodiversity at risk. Introduction of disease, alien and invasive plants and animals are all factors which must be addressed immediately and aggressively. I believe the decision is premature and I hope it does not signal a relaxation of vigilant management and conservation efforts."/ppThe chain of volcanic islands 600 miles off Ecuador's Pacific coast are home to endogenous species, such as giant tortoises and boobies, which helped inspire Charles Darwin's theories on evolution and natural selection./ppA permanent human population which doubled to about 30,000 in the past decade, swollen by more than 190,000 tourists annually, triggered concern about pollution, fuel spills and poaching./ppHuman settlers have also brought invasive species such as insects, cats, rats, cattle and fire ants threatening a habitat which evolved in isolation over millennia./ppEcuador's government has tried to balance conservation and tourism with the demands of residents and migrant workers from mainland South America. Authorities have tried to cap the number of new arrivals and deported illegal migrants. Nevertheless rubbish dumps and new housing developments continue to sprout on some islands./ppA Unesco team recently inspected the archipelago. The panel listened to Ecuador's environment minister, Marcela Aguinaga, before voting. She said controls on migration and the introduction of invasive species had been tightened./ppThe same meeting added Uganda's tombs of Buganda kings at Kasubi (Uganda) to the list of endangered sites. Unesco's complete and amended a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/35/" title=""list of heritage sites/a was published today/ppThe list allows the UN to allocate immediate assistance to sites from the World Heritage fund and puts pressure on local authorities to act./pdiv class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/endangered-habitats"Endangered habitats/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/endangeredspecies"Endangered species/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/unitednations"United Nations/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/ecuador"Ecuador/a/li/ul/divdiv class="author"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/rorycarroll"Rory Carroll/a/divbr/div class="terms"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"More Feeds/a/divp style="clear:both" /

div class="track"img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.8/47618?ns=guardianpageName=Farmland+bird+numbers+in+England+fall+to+record+low%3AArticle%3A1432849ch=Environmentc3=GU.co.ukc4=Birds+%28environment%29%2CFarming+%28environment%29%2CConservation+%28Environment%29%2CWildlife+%28Environment%29%2CEnvironment%2CUK+news%2CAnimals+%28News%29c5=Environment+Conservation%2CWildlife+Conservation%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CEthical+Livingc6=James+Meiklec7=10-Jul-29c8=1432849c9=Articlec10=Newsc11=Environmentc13=c25=c30=contenth2=GU%2FEnvironment%2FBirds" width="1" height="1" //divp class="standfirst"Bird numbers plunge to 44-year low after dramatic habitat loss and harsh winter/ppPopulations of breeding birds on farmland in England are at their lowest levels since formal attempts to monitor them began in 1966, the government a href="http://ww2.defra.gov.uk/2010/07/29/birds-stats/" title="said today"said today/a. The figures suggest overall populations have fallen by more than half in the past 44 years./ppAlthough the most recent annual decline of 5% might be down to a cold winter and recent changes to farming practice, experts believe the long-term trends caused by continuing pressure on habitats mean most of the 19 species surveyed are in trouble. Figures for the last five years suggest a 10% decline and since the most recent ones are based on 2009 observations, the cold 2010 winter weather may bring further bad news next year./ppThe significant falls last year included kestrels (down 27%) lapwings (12%), grey partridge (23%), skylarks (5%) and starlings (20%). Relatively small percentage falls may still have huge impact because of low numbers in the first place./ppThe figures for England are based on the a href="http://www.bto.org/bbs/results/BBSreport09.pdf" title=""annual breeding birds survey by the British Trust for Ornithology/a, in which volunteers check 3,200 randomly selected 1km squares around the UK twice each year. But other data is included in the index published by a href="http:///nds.coi.gov.uk/content/detail.aspx?ReleaseID=414756NewsAreaID=2HUserID=893,777,889,857,777,684,710,705,765,674,677,767,684,762,718,674,708,683,706,718,674ClientID=-1" title=""environment department Defra/a, which makes figures for species decline slightly different. These figures are not yet online./ppTwelve of the 19 species monitored had falling populations. The 2009 index is the first since the European Union stopped ordering crop farmers not to use part of their land for agriculture, a measure first introduced in the 1990s to stop over-production but suspended because of high grain prices. Although UK farmers are still encouraged to seek subsidies to "green" their land through the UK's a href="http://www.naturalengland.gov.uk/ourwork/farming/funding/es/els/default.aspx" title="entry"entry/a and a href="http://www.naturalengland.gov.uk/ourwork/farming/funding/es/hls/default.aspx" title="higher level environmental stewardship schemes"higher level environmental stewardship schemes/a, there are fears these may fall victim to the looming austerity cuts./ppDavid Noble, a principal ecologist with the trust, said the latest index published by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), "shows that two-thirds of farmland bird species are continuing to decline, and although the latest drop may be in part due to a relatively harsh winter in 2008-09, there is certainly no evidence yet that (farming) initiatives such as environmental stewardship have succceded in reversing national population declines."/ppMark Avery, director of conservation at the a href="http://www.rspb.org.uk/" title=""RSPB/a, said: "It's difficult to draw any hard and fast conclusions from a short one-year time span, but this certainly makes for some depressing reading."/ppThe winter before last had been " a moderately cold one" which could have impacted on birds' ability to find food. The loss of set-aside had also removed valuable foraging and nesting habitats for wild birds, he said./pp"Lapwings … are particularly vulnerable and their populations have been steadily falling for more than 30 years, so a decline of 12% in one year across England is really bad news."/ppCuts in evironmental stewardship could be "disastrous", he warned, even though some schemes were not working as well as they should. The charity is meeting government experts to discuss the problem tomorrow./ppA Defra spokesman said: "We are looking into the reasons for this and working with farmers through environmental stewardship schemes that encourage them to do all they can to support birdlife on their farms."/ppOn Monday a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2010/jul/26/environment-natural-foundation-economy" title="Defra launched a discussion paper"Defra launched a discussion paper/a that will lead to a white paper on the natural environment in spring 2011. "We encourage anyone with a view on how we can improve our wildlife to contribute their ideas.'/pdiv class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/birds"Birds/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/farming"Farming/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/conservation/"Conservation/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/wildlife"Wildlife/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/animals"Animals/a/li/ul/divdiv class="author"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jamesmeikle"James Meikle/a/divbr/div class="terms"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"More Feeds/a/divp style="clear:both" /

pA United Nations panel has voted to remove Ecuador's Galápagos Islands from its list of endangered sites/pbr/p style="clear:both" /

div class="track"img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.8/94477?ns=guardianpageName=First+Amazon+bridge+to+open+world%27s+greatest+rainforest+to+development%3AArticle%3A1431797ch=Environmentc3=GU.co.ukc4=Conservation+%28Environment%29%2CForests+%28environment%29%2CCarbon+emissions+%28Environment%29%2CEnvironment%2CWorld+news%2CBrazil+%28News%29c5=Environment+Conservation%2CWildlife+Conservation%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CEthical+Livingc6=Damian+Carringtonc7=10-Jul-29c8=1431797c9=Articlec10=Newsc11=Environmentc13=c25=c30=contenth2=GU%2FEnvironment%2FConservation" width="1" height="1" //divp class="standfirst"A new bridge has come to symbolise Brazil's most challenging and urgent issue: balancing the demands of economic development with environmental protection/ppIn the shadow of a giant bridge under construction, waiting in her dented Fiat for a ferry, Jandira Costa has no qualms about development in the Amazon. "We can't wait for it to open," she says of the 3.5km-long road over the Amazon's major tributary, the Rio Negro. Without a bridge, it takes Costa and her family at least half an hour to queue up and cross to the other side. Worse, crossing the river costs up to 100 real (around £37). When the bridge is completed in November, it be quicker, more convenient, and - most importantly for Costa - free./pp/ppThe bridge - a href="http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1029099" title=""the first on the world's greatest river system/a symbolises the surging development at the heart of the world's largest rainforest and will bring much-needed economic opportunities for those living on the far bank. But environmentalists fear that the bridge, combined with new gas pipelines, roads and rising populations, could open up the rainforest to further destruction./pp/pp/ppa href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manaus" title=""Manaus/a is the steamy and sprawling industrial capital of the vast Amazonas state, manufacturing the latest flatscreen TVs and mobile phones for the whole of Brazil. It has been an island of wealth for 200 years, but it is now opening up in all directions./pp/ppThe bridge runs from north to south, to the undeveloped towns of Iranduba, Manacapuru and Novo Airão and towards the untouched jungle. To the west, a a href="http://pipelinesinternational.com/news/the_amazon_challenge_petrobras_builds_the_urucu_coari_manaus_pipeline/041512/" title=""600km gas pipeline/a will next month begin powering a huge new electricity power station by bringing energy from a pristine part of the forest at Urucu into the city./pp/ppTo the south, the planned re-paving of an impassable 900km-long highway could break Manaus's isolation from the rich and populous south, and to the east, a a href="http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-14412215_ITM" title=""new electricity line/a will connect the city to the national grid, giving an outlet for the fossil fuel and hydroelectric riches of the Amazon, such as the recently approved a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/21/contract-belo-monte-dam" title=""controversial Belo Monte dam/a./pp/ppWhile the 25m people in the Amazon and their local politicians welcome the opening of new horizons the question troubling scientists, environmental policymakers and campaigners is whether all these riches can be delivered while leaving the ancient trees of the Amazon standing. Their continued loss woulddrive climate change, and deprive the world of its most diverse store of animal and plant life./pp/pp"Now is a transition moment," said a href="http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izabella_Teixeira" title=""Izabella Teixeira/a, Brazil's environment minister. She says the country must find ways of improving the lives of those across the Amazon and exploiting its natural resources, such as hydroelectricity, without causing environmental damage. "I cannot forget this region. We have an economy there that needs to be developed," she says, pointing out the example of the a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/Amazonas_%28Brazil%29" title=""Amazonian town of Labrea/a, which was a leper colony just 20 years ago./pp/ppThe new a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8314407.stm" title=""BR-319 road south to Porto Vehlo/a, officially planned to open by 2012 if government funds are allocated, is also very popular locally. It is backed by a href="http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfredo_Nascimento" title=""Alfredo Nascimento/a, who stood down as Brazil's transport minister in March to run for the governorship of Amazonas. Locals even joke that, given that Manaus will host some games in the 2014 football World Cup, fans should have the right to drive to the game, rather than fly in./pp/ppBut Professor Philip Fearnside, an ecologist at the a href="http://www.inpa.gov.br/" title=""National Research Institute for the Amazon/a in Manaus, fiercely opposes the opening of the road in the absence of enforceable laws to protect the forest around it. He has lived in the Amazon for 34 years and has seen it all before. In 1982, the World Bank funded the BR-364 highway from east to west across the southern Amazon. "The consequence was a href="http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=onlineaid=5931084" title=""near total deforestation/a," says Fearnside. In the last decade, 75% of all deforestation in the Amazon is estimated to have taken place within 50km of roads, which provide access for the loggers. Mauro Pires, director of government's department of policy to combat deforestation agrees: "The arc of destruction is exactly where the roads are."/pp/pp/pp/ppThe tension between economic development and protecting a global resource for the good of all is a huge challenge for Brazil, and far from easy in an area so vast, poor and frequently corrupt. President Ignácio Lula has been vehement in his defence of development. He has said people should not suffer simply because they live in the Amazon and that other countries need to pay for the benefits of a healthy rainforest. "I don't want any a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/27/lula-gringos-pay-protect-amazon" title=""gringo asking us to let an Amazon resident die/a of hunger under a tree," Lula said last November./pp/ppThe government is now developing ways in which people can earn more without destroying the Amazon rainforest. The Ambé project in Para state, 700km downstream from Manaus, allows the felling of selected trees in a 25-year cycle to enable new trees to flourish. The project, the most advanced in the country, has doubled the incomes of the farmers taking part, and community leader, João Rocha, confirms "life is better now". But it employs just 280 people, and non-wood products like cosmetic oils, "bio-jewellery" made from seeds and latex toys make up just 5% of the income. The vast size of the Amazon makes it hard to connect people and scale up businesses./pp/ppThe government is also beginning to solve land rights disputes and granting concessionary plots to local families in the region. Domingos dos Santos Rodriguez, manager of the a href="http://www.lbaeco.org/lbaeco/invest/docs/reports/santarem_report/santarem2.html" title=""Tapajós natural forest park/a in Para, is proud of the protection his park has afforded but acknowledges it is "quite common" for people to find ways to acquire more than the one concession allowed./pp/ppAnother question being raised is whether the rewards brought by new roads and other infrastructure will benefit the majority of the 25m people who live in the Amazon, or simply boost the wealth of the rich. Raquel Carvahlo, a href="" title=""Greenpeace Amazon/a campaigner in Manaus, says the city, with its tax breaks for manufacturers, is already very attractive. "It will see an increase in population which will probably overburden public services – medical care, sewage treatment, housing etc - but the truth is the workers needed must have some level of technical ability so the major portion of migrants survive in the black economy." Fearnside believes the large cattle ranchers, responsible for most of past deforestation, will gain far more than landless labourers who sit at the bottom of Brazil's yawning wealth divide./pp/ppThe destruction of forest has a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jul/23/amazon-deforestation-decline" title=""dropped dramatically since its peak in 2004/a and was 75% lower in 2009. But it is difficult to unpick how much of that fall is due to increased government enforcement - meaning deforestation is under permanent control - or fluctuations in beef and soy prices, or the rising value of Brazil's currency or increases in the productivity of cleared land./pp/ppProf Troy Beldini, at the a href="http://150.163.158.28/lba/site/" title=""large-scale Biosphere-Atmosphere programme centre/a 85km south of Santarem, is working to turn the scientific research of his team into practical protective policies. "The Amazon will one way or another be used because it provides jobs," he says. "The deforestation trend will go up unless there is a strong monitoring presence. We have satellite technology in Brazil, what we need is a [stronger] ground presence."/pp/ppFearnside also believes the Amazon will be developed but argues that strong and enforceable protections must be in place before the chainsaws move in. In the past, he says, protection plans were prepared in parallel and then forgotten when building began. He adds: "If you are going to spend a billion reals to improve life in the interior of the Amazon you do not build a road [the BR-319], you build hospitals and schools where the people already live."/pp/ppThe upcoming presidential election in October is not likely to change Brazil's direction of travel. Both leading candidates - a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilma_Rousseff" title=""Dilma Rouseff/a and a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Serra" title=""José Serra/a - are seen as developmentalists, though the presence of a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/aug/19/marina-silva-resigns" title=""Marina Silva/a, the ex-environment minister who resigned in 2008 in frustration at development plans, is giving campaigning a green tinge./pp/ppHowever, a serious political threat is a proposed a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jun/30/amazon-brazil" title=""change to the Forest Code/a that would massively increase the proportion of a farmer's land that can legally be cleared of trees. It is opposed by Teixeira and Brazil's environment agency a href="http://www.ibama.gov.br/" title=""Ibama/a, but has passed the committee stage in Brazil's congress and will be voted on later this year. Its architect, the populist Communist Aldo Rebello, frequently talks of an international conspiracy by rich countries to suppress Brazil's growth./pp/pp/pp/pp/ppThe biggest hope for a game-changing moment that will protect the Amazon's thick blanket of stored carbon is the agreement of a global regime, known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/24/redd-reducing-emissions-from-deforestation" title=""(REDD)/a, where forest saved from felling can be used to create international carbon credits, bought by nations seeking to offset their own emissions. Norway has already promised Brazil $1bn by 2015 for a parallel scheme./pp/pp"You cannot polarise the debate. Brazil is a big player in the timber trade and it will be in the future," says Teixeira. "You have to discuss what are the economic requirements to prevent deforestation. REDD is essential to this new step of development."/pp/ppThe failure to agree a a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/copenhagen" title=""global climate deal in Copenhagen/a has slowed the founding of a forest based carbon credit scheme. Hopes remain that the next meeting, in a href="http://cc2010.mx/swb/" title=""Mexico in November/a, could see a breakthrough. But disagreements remain with Brazil wary of a full market-based system, arguing grants must be part of the package, and also expecting more of the money to go to poorer countries with tropical forests such as Congo./pp/ppMaking trees worth more alive than dead is one of the least expensive ways of tackling global warming. The colossal amount of carbon stored in the Amazon means it could provide billions of dollars of funding for development while keeping the forest intact./pp/pp/pp/pp/ph2The Manaus-Iranduba bridge in numbers/h2p/ppAt 3,595m long, it is the longest bridge in Brazil/pp/pp/ppIt has 74 supporting columns, with the central one standing 187m high/pp/ppThe height of the road rises to 55m in the middle/pp/ppThe cost is an estimated $400m and will be toll-free/pp/ppCurrently 2,500 vehicles a week are ferried across the river, at fares up to R100 (£37)./pp/ppIts construction consumed 1m bags of cement - around 500,000 tonnes/pp/pp/pp• Damian Carrington's travel expenses were paid for by the Brazilian government. They had no say in the content of this article/pdiv class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/conservation/"Conservation/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/forests"Forests/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/carbon-emissions"Carbon emissions/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/brazil"Brazil/a/li/ul/divdiv class="author"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/damiancarrington"Damian Carrington/a/divbr/div class="terms"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"More Feeds/a/divp style="clear:both" /

div class="track"img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.8/93491?ns=guardianpageName=India+approves+plans+to+reintroduce+cheetah%3AArticle%3A1432831ch=Environmentc3=GU.co.ukc4=Wildlife+%28Environment%29%2CConservation+%28Environment%29%2CEndangered+species+%28Environment%29%2CIndia+%28News%29%2CAnimals+%28News%29%2CWorld+newsc5=Wildlife+Conservation%2CNot+commercially+usefulc6=Jason+Burkec7=10-Jul-29c8=1432831c9=Articlec10=Newsc11=Environmentc13=c25=c30=contenth2=GU%2FEnvironment%2FWildlife" width="1" height="1" //divp class="standfirst"Eighteen cheetahs to be imported from Iran, Namibia and South Africa more than 60 years after the species was hunted to extinction/ppThe cheetah is to return to India, more than 60 years after the last three were shot dead by hunters on the subcontinent./ppIndian minister for the environment and forests, Jairam Ramesh, has picked three sites for the reintroduction of the animal within a year. Eighteen cheetahs are to be brought from Iran, Namibia and South Africa. A budget of over £500,000 has been made available to prepare the sites for their release./pp"It is important to bring the cheetah back as it will help restore the grasslands of India," Ramesh said. "The way the tiger restores forest ecosystems, the snow leopard restores mountain ecosystems, and the Gangetic dolphin restores waters in the rivers, in the same way the cheetah will restore our grasslands."/ppIndia's wildlife has struggled in recent decades. The country's world famous population of tigers has a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/07/india-vanishing-tiger-rajasthan" title="shrunk from more than 3600 in 2002 to around 1,400 now"shrunk from more than 3,600 in 2002 to around 1,400 now/a. Successive government initiatives have foundered on corruption; conflicts between often extremely poor local communities and the animals; the power of organised criminal smuggling networks which supply tiger parts to east Asia, and simple administrative inertia. The population of snow leopards now numbers between 100 and 200, possibly less than a third of the total a decade ago. The Gangetic dolphin remains endangered, although the number of Asiatic lions has recently increased./ppIndia's last wild cheetahs are thought to have been shot by the Maharajah of Surguja in 1947./pp"Nature has given us something that we did not know how to keep. Why do we think we can recreate it? Why do we think we will be able to keep it better now?," Dr Ali Sher, cheetah expert at the Indian Institute of Immunology told the Guardian./ppMany experts believe that with the herds of deer and antelopes that once provided the cheetahs' diet also long gone, the project is bound to fail./ppThe objections were rejected by Ramesh, the minister./pp"Reintroduction is matter of national importance, as cheetah is the only mammal to [become] extinct from India. " he said./ppThe a href="http://moef.nic.in/downloads/public-information/Reintroducing%20the%20Cheetah%20in%20India.pdf" title="three sites recommended by scientists for the project (pdf)"three sites recommended by scientists for the project (pdf)/a are the Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary and Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary in the central state of Madhya Pradesh and Shahgarh in the desert near Jaisalmer in Rajasthan./ppEventually it is hoped the three reserves will sustain a population of over 100 cheetahs, creating a thriving tourist business which will benefit local communities./pp"The return of the cheetah would make India the only country in the world to host six of the world's eight large cats and the only one to have all the large cats of Asia," MK Ranjitsinh of Wildlife Trust of India told the Press Trust of India news agency./pdiv class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/wildlife"Wildlife/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/conservation/"Conservation/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/endangeredspecies"Endangered species/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/india"India/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/animals"Animals/a/li/ul/divdiv class="author"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jasonburke"Jason Burke/a/divbr/div class="terms"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"More Feeds/a/divp style="clear:both" /

div class="track"img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.8/31351?ns=guardianpageName=Lyydd+Airport+expansion%3A+RPSB+reserve+threatened%3AArticle%3A1432803ch=Environmentc3=GU.co.ukc4=Environmentc5=Ethical+Livingc6=c7=10-Jul-29c8=1432803c9=Articlec10=Resourcec11=Environmentc13=Piece+by+piece+%28environment%29c25=c30=contenth2=GU%2FEnvironment%2F" width="1" height="1" //divp class="standfirst"Increased numbers of flights and larger aircraft will threaten birds/ppbr /strongName of project/strongbr /Lydd Airport Expansion/ppstrongbr /Describe the site currently, including details of protected or threatened habitat or species/strongbr /Dungeness to Pett Level SPA and Dungeness SAC- unique shingle habitats threatened by excessive nitrogen deposition from aircraft. Airport adjacent to RSPB Dungeness reserve with many bird species that would be threatened by bird-strike control methods./ppstrongWhat development is proposed?/strongbr /"Expansion of Lydd Airport, Romney Marsh Kent. Two planning applications were submitted to Shepway District Council in December 2006 for a new terminal building and an extended runway. The airport currently handles a few hundred passengers a year with light aircraft and occasional services to Le Touquet. Phase 1 (this application) is to make the airport suitable for 737 aircraft to allow up to 500,000 passengers a year. Phase 2 is further improvements to increase capacity to 2 million passengers a year.br /The applications were approved by Shepway Council by has been called in for public inquiry early next year."/ppstrongWhat one thing would help you or your group protect this site?/strongbr /"CPRE Protect Kent (the Kent Branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England) will be fighting this application, alongside our partnersm including RSPB, at public inquiry next year. The more members we have, the greater our mandate at that inquiry. br /Natural England is facing cuts of 800 of its 2100 staff over the next year or so. We can't leave it to them alone. br /Join via http://www.cpre.org.uk/support/joinus/join and select 'Kent' branch./ppAny specialist knowledge or experience from other regional airport public inquiries would also be really helpful."/ppstrongExact locationbr //strong50.955818, 0.935748/ppstrongDeveloper/strongbr /London Ashford Airport, Lydd, Romney Marsh, Kent, TN29 9QL /ppstrongPlanning authority, and reference number of planning application/strongbr /Shepway District Council (Y06/1648/SH , Y06/1647/SH) /pp• strongIf you are the developer and would like to respond to this campaign, please email a href="mailto:piece.by.piece@guardian.co.uk"piece.by.piece@guardian.co.uk/a/strong/pbr/div class="terms"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"More Feeds/a/divp style="clear:both" /

div class="track"img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.8/69032?ns=guardianpageName=Where+next+for+the+wrecked+US+climate+bill%3F%3AArticle%3A1432782ch=Environmentc3=GU.co.ukc4=Climate+change+%28Environment%29%2CGlobal+climate+talks+%28environment%29%2CEnvironmentc5=Climate+Change%2CEthical+Livingc6=Eric+Pooley+for+%3Ca+href%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.e360.yale.edu%22+title%3D%22Yale+Environment+360%22%3EYale+Environment+360%3C%2Fa%3E%2C+part+of+the+%3Ca+href%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Fenvironment%2Fnetwork%22+title%3D%22Guardian+Environment+Network%22%3EGuardian+Environment+Network%3C%2Fa%3Ec7=10-Jul-29c8=1432782c9=Articlec10=c11=Environmentc13=Guardian+Environment+Network+%28series%29c25=c30=contenth2=GU%2FEnvironment%2FClimate+change" width="1" height="1" //divp class="standfirst"There is a chance build on the rubble of the Senate's failure to cap carbon emissions, says Eric Pooley/ppFollowing the rocky path of climate legislation in the U.S. Congress these past years brought me back to the 1980s, and my time as a crime reporter in New York City. After a shooting in those days, a homicide detective named Marty Davin would go to the hospital and intercept the gunshot victim on a gurney outside the emergency room. If the victim was conscious, Davin would lean over and ask, "Who killed you?"/ppThat usually got the victim's attention, along with an emI'm-not-dead-yet/em protest. Davin would reply, "You are going to die. You might as well tell me who did it."/ppAs I interviewed the sponsor of whichever emissions-reduction bill had just been gunned down, I often thought of Davin. The politicians and climate campaigners would assure me that they were still alive — passage of a carbon cap was inevitable, they'd say — and I'd remind myself that they had survived countless near-death experiences./ppBut what happened last week, when a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jul/23/us-senate-climate-change-bill"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced/a he would not even try to bring a compromise climate bill to the Senate floor, was not just another setback. Sometimes dead really is dead — and for this Congress, barring a miracle, climate action is finished. With an ugly election looming in November, it may be years before we get another chance to debate a bill that prices carbon. And the consensus approach to federal climate action — the idea that cap-and-trade was the most politically viable policy — may well be dead, too./ppThis is a time to take stock. The first question is whether this was a failure of policy; a failure of politics, message, and messenger; or both? Second, is there a Plan B around which the climate campaign should now unify? And third, what needs to be done to allow a better outcome when the next opportunity finally does appear?/ppNo one who follows climate politics could have been very surprised by Reid's move. The bigger shock was his decision to remove from the bill a mandate that utilities must generate 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources. (Proponents hope to offer it as a floor amendment.) It was if the Senate was saying: Anything remotely effective, we're not going to do./ppWhen Reid pulled the plug, I thought back to a snowy afternoon in Copenhagen last December. Sitting with Al Gore in an empty hotel café, I asked him to contemplate this very moment. "If the United States doesn't act," he replied, "if the Senate defeats the legislation or waters it down to a point where it is not even worth having a bill, that is an event horizon beyond which it is difficult to see."/ppHe parsed the same issues then that climate campaigners are parsing now: "It may mean there is a fundamental flaw in the international political approach, but I'm not sure there is a good alternative. The reality is so dire that a new plan would have to emerge — but just now I can't imagine what it would be."/ppGore had a point. When the goal is emissions reduction, there aren't many alternatives: You've got to reduce emissions. The Plan B options now being offered by various advocates should be vigorously debated, but all of them seem vulnerable to the same polluted politics that killed the cap. Advocates of the carbon tax are ready to take a run at their goal, and Godspeed — but it is hard to see how politicians who were terrified to support a cap (because opponents labeled it a tax) will suddenly become bold enough to support a carbon tax. Policy groups such as a href=" http://www.thebreakthrough.org/" title=""the Breakthrough Institute/a argue that instead of making dirty fuels more expensive, a href="http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2153"it's time for intensive energy research and development/a to make clean fuels cheaper. That sounds reasonable, but without the revenue stream that a cap or tax would provide — and in an era of budget cutbacks — it is hard to see government supplying the massive, long-term funding their plan requires./ppIs the cap so fundamentally flawed that it should be abandoned forever? I don't think so. I believe it needs to be liberated from legislative bloat and rehabilitated as a modest first step: a tool for regulating power sector emissions, the job it performed so successfully in the 1990s, when America tamed acid rain. It's worth remembering that while climate politics were bogging down, climate policy mechanisms were being improved. Clever wonks found ways to cushion consumers and high-carbon industries from the price impact of the cap, while preserving a price signal for generators. Trading restrictions were added to keep speculators out of the carbon game. Though the term cap-and-trade has been demonized, the cap itself isn't broken./ppSome will argue that this latest setback is proof that the U.S. will never cap carbon. I reject that view. All we can say for sure is that the U.S. will never cap or price carbon emuntil the politics of the issue change/em — so the first order of business must be to begin improving the political atmosphere. During the three years I worked on emThe Climate War/em, a narrative of the campaign to pass a carbon cap, I came to realize I was writing a political thriller, a whodunit with multiple culprits. Let's look for lessons by considering some of the culprits, starting with the most obvious./ppstrong1. The Professional Deniers./strong Gore and environmental leaders made a tactical error several years ago when they declared the science "settled" and refused to engage the forces of denial and delay. The basic science was indeed settled, but the resulting message vacuum was the perfect medium for a href=" http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id="2285""those who sow doubt and confusion about global climate change/a. It shouldn't be surprising that so many Americans remain skeptical about global warming. For 20 years, this loose network of PR pros, working for industry associations and anti-tax think tanks, has spread doubt about climate science and fear about climate economics, claiming that any attempt to cap CO2 would wreck the American economy. Their disinformation, amplified via the Internet, helped poison the debate. To counter the deniers' campaign, President Obama needs to speak out forcefully, and champions of the clean energy economy must point to the new jobs that are already being created by the renewable energy economy and show Americans precisely where they fit into it./ppstrong2. Senate Republicans./strong Most climate campaigners understand the folly of trying to remake the American energy system without bipartisan support. But it's hard to forge centrist solutions when an entire party is denying there's a problem and vilifying the solutions. A scaled-back approach, one that can be sold as a modest, incremental step and not a new industrial revolution, might fare better./ppThere was a time — 2007 and 2008, to be precise — when some Republicans were moving away from deny-and-delay tactics. (In 2007, briefly, Newt Gingrich supported the carbon cap.) More recently, opposition to climate action has become a litmus test in the GOP. Arizona /pblockquotepIt's hard to forge centrist solutions when an entire party is denying there's a problem./p/blockquotep Republican John McCain, who sponsored the Senate's first serious climate bills but now faces a primary challenge from the right, recently called a successor bill "a farce." His mantle of Republican climate courage passed to Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who took so much heat from his own party that he withdrew from the climate bill he helped write. Graham's position has been incoherent since then, but he has signaled support for a cap on the power sector. That could be something to build on./ppstrong3. Senate Democrats./strong After Reid pulled the plug, Democrats were quick to blame Republicans for obstruction. But what about the obstructionists within the Democratic ranks? Harry Reid didn't have the clout to force action on this issue because a dozen or more centrist Democrats — from states that either mine coal or produce much of their electricity from it — were dug in against it. It is impossible to tell if the senators were truly concerned about what the cap would do to their state economies — nonpartisan studies suggest its impact would be minimal — or just worried about what attack ads would do to them. Again, a more modest first step could change the dynamic. The crucial thing is to get started./ppstrong4. The Green Group./strong At a meeting in February 2007, the Green Group, an unofficial association of the leaders of the big U.S. environmental non-profits, told Harry Reid they supported a single legislative goal: An economy-wide cap. Their strategy was to assemble the broadest possible coalition to push the broadest possible bill. Given the magnitude of the crisis and the need to reduce emissions quickly, this made sense. Politically, though, it proved disastrous, because it led to bills of such cost, scope, and complexity that they scared the pants off timid legislators./ppThe Green Group held out for an economy-wide bill even after it became clear, in late 2009, that it was unachievable in the Senate. Only recently did /pblockquotepThe Green Group wanted too much and ended up with nothing./p/blockquotep environmental leaders try to negotiate a compromise cap on electric power plants, which account for 40 percent of U.S. emissions. Passing a utility cap would have been a great first step, but the talks got started too late. The Green Group wanted too much and ended up with nothing./ppstrong5. The Power Barons./strong When the eleventh-hour search for a compromise began, the utilities got too greedy. If they had to go it alone, they argued, they deserved virtually all of the carbon allowances in the program for free. This left too few for other crucial purposes, such as cushioning manufacturers from higher electricity prices. Worse, in exchange for supporting a carbon cap, some utilities demanded relief from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations governing conventional pollutants such as mercury. Like the greens, they asked for too much and got nothing. (The greens, however, were overreaching on behalf of the planet, not their own coffers.) Some utility bosses were relieved to see the bill die. Those feelings may prove short-lived as the battle to reduce emissions moves to the EPA and the courts./ppSome advocates, such as Lee Wasserman of the Rockefeller Family Fund, regard the decision to negotiate with the power barons as the height of folly. Washington, they argue, should simply dictate the terms of surrender to the polluters. Such a stance ignores an important fact: It isn't possible to remake the U.S. energy system without negotiating with the power barons. Punishing generators means punishing households that pay electricity bills. That doesn't mean, however, that the politicians should give the barons everything they want. But there was only one player with the clout to cut a fair deal with them, and he was missing in action./ppstrong6. The President./strong Barack Obama chose not to lead on this issue. His decision to address health care reform before energy and climate change doomed the latter. With advisors Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod whispering that climate was a losing proposition (a self-fulfilling prophesy, to be sure), Obama never threw himself behind a particular climate bill. He left it to the Senate, the Green Group, and the power bosses — all of whom were sorely in need of adult supervision./ppThe real grownups in this tale were Rep. Henry Waxman and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who last year surprised the Obama Administration by taking a href="http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2163"a comprehensive climate bill/a to the House floor. The White House had no choice but to help whip the vote, and it passed. Then Obama stopped trying, and the Senate refused to take up the legislation. It was a colossal failure of nerve, and a decision that likely destroyed any chance of achieving climate action in Obama's first term./ppSince the president and his political advisers thought an economy-wide cap was too heavy a lift, Obama should have led a tactical retreat to what, in the past several months, became the last-ditch compromise position: the cap on the electric power sector. Had negotiations focused on this months ago instead of weeks ago, and had the president thrown his weight behind it then, we might today be celebrating a step forward instead of mourning another failure. Only Obama had the authority to call this audible early. The environmental NGOs and their allies were too invested in the economy-wide approach; they needed Obama to lead them./ppHe refused. To the bitter end, the White House pursued what his aides called a "stealth strategy" that deployed the president only sparingly. As a result, he failed to take advantage of a href="http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2272"the BP oil spill/a. When its terrible scope became apparent, in June, Obama began talking about the need to /pblockquotepWelcome to the 'glorious mess' — the tangle of regulation and litigation that follow when Congress fails to act./p/blockquotep cap carbon and accelerate the transition to clean energy. But it was a fleeting moment. Many climate campaigners knew the climate bill was dead on June 15, when Obama gave a href=" http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/president-obama-s-oval-office-address-bp-oil-spill-energy" title=""his long-awaited Oval Office address on the oil spill/a. Instead of making an explicit connection to the climate bill — and explaining that by capping carbon the U.S. could speed its transition to clean energy and help break its addiction to fossil fuels — Obama whiffed. He had a road map but didn't try to share it with the people. "We don't yet know precisely how we're going to get there," he said. Today, with that map in shreds, we surely don't./ppAs climate campaigners wait however long it takes to get another shot at legislation, there is important work to be done. Greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. have been dropping — and not just because of the recession. The task is to build on this trend during the economic recovery. Changes in our energy infrastructure are making this possible. In Texas, our highest-emitting state and a bastion of climate skepticism, carbon emissions have been declining since 2004 thanks in part to a renewable energy standard — signed into law by then-Gov. George W. Bush — that accelerated the installation of wind power and created thousands of jobs along the way./ppThe Department of Energy now has 7,000 clean energy projects across the country — projects that save money, create jobs, and reduce emissions. According to an analysis by the a href="http://www.wri.org/" title=""World Resources Institute/a, by leveraging existing authority over the next ten years the U.S. could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent to 12 percent below 2005 levels. This is far short of the 17 percent reduction Obama promised in Copenhagen and nothing close to what needs to be done. But if we continue cutting emissions before asking voters to embrace a cap, we prove that cuts are both technologically feasible and economically sustainable. And we'll be in a better position when the next legislative opportunity comes./ppUntil then, the climate war will be waged by cities, a href=" http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id="2015""states/a, regional cap-and-trade programs, and, above all, the EPA, which early next year is set to begin regulating stationary sources of CO2 — power plants and large factories./ppWelcome to the "glorious mess" — Michigan Rep. John Dingell's phrase for the tangle of regulation and litigation that will follow when Congress fails to act. We are about to experience precisely the sort of costly, protracted, plant-by-plant trench warfare the cap was intended to avoid. Since the utilities and the manufacturers weren't willing to cut a deal, this is what they get. The fragile period of compromise and cooperation between environmentalists and big business may now be coming to an end. Green groups that have invested time and money into the legislative process are now putting on their war paint and returning to the courts, with a renewed focus on stopping new coal-fired power plants and shutting down the oldest and dirtiest ones./ppTough new EPA rules for conventional pollutants will help, and so will new EPA carbon regulations. Perhaps these strict new regulations will refresh the power bosses' appetite for a cap. But they have plenty of lawyers, and the long, ugly battles over implementation of EPA regulations could extend the current period of uncertainty by many years. Republicans (and some Democrats) will try to strip EPA of its authority over carbon, or at least delay implementation of its new rules./ppIn effect, the Senate will be saying that Congress alone should have the power to act — so that it can then not exercise that power. Obama's aides say the president will be fully engaged in the battle to save EPA authority over carbon. It is a fight that he can't possibly duck, because it is our last line of defense. As Gore reminded me in Copenhagen, "The fact that this is extremely hard doesn't mean we should quit."/pdiv class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climate-change"Climate change/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/global-climate-talks"Global climate talks/a/li/ul/divbr/div class="terms"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"More Feeds/a/divp style="clear:both" /

div class="track"img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.8/71337?ns=guardianpageName=The+spill+is+gone%3F+%7C+Michael+Tomasky%3AArticle%3A1432732ch=Comment+is+freec3=GU.co.ukc4=BP+oil+spill+Deepwater+Horizon%2CUS+politicsc5=Environment+Conservation%2CUS+Electionsc6=Michael+Tomaskyc7=10-Jul-29c8=1432732c9=Articlec10=Blogpostc11=Comment+is+freec13=c25=Michael+Tomasky%27s+blogc30=contenth2=GU%2FComment+is+free%2Fblog%2FMichael+Tomasky%27s+blog" width="1" height="1" //divpTime magazine's Michael Grunwald, a fine environmental reporter who knows the region well, a href="http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,2007202,00.html"writes /athat it's turning out that the damage from the BP spill may not be as great as (nearly) everyone feared:/pblockquotepYes, the spill killed birds — but so far, less than 1% of the birds killed by the Exxon Valdez. Yes, we've heard horror stories about oiled dolphins — but, so far, wildlife response teams have collected only three visibly oiled carcasses of any mammals. Yes, the spill prompted harsh restrictions on fishing and shrimping, but so far, the region's fish and shrimp have tested clean, and the restrictions are gradually being lifted. And, yes, scientists have warned that the oil could accelerate the destruction of Louisiana's disintegrating coastal marshes — a real slow-motion ecological calamity — but, so far, shorelines assessment teams have only found about 350 acres of oiled marshes, when Louisiana was already losing about 15,000 acres of wetlands every year.../pp...The scientists I spoke with cite four basic reasons the initial eco-fears seem overblown. First, the Deepwater Horizon oil, unlike the black glop from the Valdez, is comparatively light and degradable, which is why the slick in the Gulf is dissolving surprisingly rapidly now that the gusher has been capped. Second, the Gulf of Mexico, unlike Prince William Sound, is balmy at more than 85 degrees, which also helps bacteria break down oil. Third, heavy flows of Mississippi River water helped keep the oil away from the coast, where it can do much more damage. Finally, Mother Nature can be incredibly resilient. Van Heerden's assessment team showed me around Casse-tete Island in Timbalier Bay, where new shoots of spartina grasses were sprouting in oiled marshes, and new leaves were growing on the first black mangroves I had ever seen that were actually black./p/blockquotepThis doesn't seem so improbable to me. That is to say, while I'm some distance from being an environmental scientist, those four reasons given in the second graf above sound plausible./ppAs Grunwald notes elsewhere, there is still the economic and psychic damage to consider, and those are immense. Just this morning NPR ran an interview with a shrimp fisherman who basically hasn't been out on the waters all summer and is apparently living on the settlement he got from BP. Many billions in economic activity have surely been lost./ppBut this is nevertheless an interesting point. If true, what might the political fallout be? Hard to say. The alarm was pretty bipartisan, including the president and the Louisiana governor, including the state's politicians of both parties. I guess right-wing talk-radio cranks probably downplayed it. But they downplay everything that happens that might demonstrate that liberals have a point about anything. So they finally hit the dartboard once, big deal./ppIt probably helps Obama a little to the extent that if the damage were massive it would hurt him. But in the longer term, if Grunwald is right, the fact that the spill didn't live up to the hype will be used by the free marketers as basis for arguing for more deregulation./ppThis is itself ahistorical, because in fact there is wide agreement that significant environmental damage has been done to Louisiana's coastline and marshes in recent years by all the oil and gas industry dredging that has taken place - to build networks of pipelines and canals to ferry men and materiel. a href="http://blogs.edf.org/restorationandresilience/2010/05/21/the-untold-gulf-disaster-louisiana-wetlands-in-trouble-long-before-oil-spill/"This short piece/a from May by two environmental advocates (and yes, it opens with some BP alarmism) describes some of the history./ppSo in sum: a year or two or five from now, the right will have ensured that it will be a firmly established meme that the BP spill didn't do much damage; therefore, the koo-koo environmentalists are wrong as usual; therefore, dredge baby dredge and drill baby drill. /ppThe actual truth, that dredging has done loads of damage, spill or no spill, will be buried, and the Democrats and progressive groups will do their usual bumbling job of getting that information out and defending that position. Am I wrong?br //pdiv class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bp-oil-spill"BP oil spill/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-politics"US politics/a/li/ul/divdiv class="author"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/michaeltomasky"Michael Tomasky/a/divbr/div class="terms"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"More Feeds/a/divp style="clear:both" /

div class="track"img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.8/72085?ns=guardianpageName=Vegetarianism+is+not+contrary+to+Arab+culture+%7C+Joseph+Mayton%3AArticle%3A1432681ch=Comment+is+freec3=GU.co.ukc4=Vegetarianism+%28Life+and+style%29%2CEgypt+%28News%29%2CJordan+%28News%29%2CClimate+change+%28Environment%29%2CWorld+news%2CMiddle+East+%28News%29%2CLife+and+style%2CEnvironmentc5=Climate+Change%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CEthical+Living%2CFood+and+Drinkc6=Joseph+Maytonc7=10-Jul-29c8=1432681c9=Articlec10=Commentc11=Comment+is+freec13=c25=Comment+is+freec30=contenth2=GU%2FComment+is+free%2Fblog%2FComment+is+free" width="1" height="1" //divp class="standfirst"Meat is important in Middle East religious and social culture but giving it up could solve economic and environmental concerns/ppWhen the Jordanian activist Amina Tariq took to the streets of Amman a href="http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=28638" title="The Jordan Times: Lettuce Lady gets dressing down"clad in lettuce leaves/a, she captured the attention of the Middle East's media. With a sign in Arabic that read "Let vegetarianism grow on you", she was trying to spark interest in a diet without animal products./ppJordan was the final stop on a tour of the region by the global animal rights group a href="http://www.peta.org/" title="Peta website"People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals/a (Peta), and the lettuce leaf demonstration was arguably its most successful attempt yet to get Arabs thinking about a vegetarian diet./ppThe case for vegetarianism rarely gets a sympathetic hearing in the region. Many Arab intellectuals and even animal welfare campaigners believe it is not a readily accessible concept. One activist who is not vegetarian was angered at Peta's plans earlier this month to hold a demonstration a href="http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=14652" title="Bikya Masr: Chili storm in Cairo"promoting vegetarianism in Egypt/a. "Egypt is not ready for such a lifestyle and there are other aspects dealing with animals that should be looked at first," he said./ppAlthough Jason Baker, Peta's Asia-Pacific director, pointed out that by removing meat from the diet "you are doing more for animals", the idea didn't go down well. In conversations I had with activists here in Cairo, the sense was that vegetarianism is "too foreign" a concept to take hold in the near future – and they are probably right./ppWith Ramadan on the horizon, followed by the a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/religion/islam/eid_haj.shtml" title=""Eid al-Adha /aholiday, including the sacrificial slaughter of sheep by millions of Muslims worldwide, it is important not to underestimate the importance meat has, and has had, in Arab/Islamic culture. The ancient Egyptians, for instance, kept cows in one of the first massive domestication efforts./ppAnother aspect of meat culture in the Arab world is social class. Meat is eaten daily by upper-class families, and so the poor see this as something to aspire to./ppCarnivorous journalists and academics also argue that humans evolved to eat meat and need certain by-products from animals in order to survive. Certainly, humans evolved to eat meat and it has been a major staple in our diet historically, but have we not evolved to a position where we can choose a lifestyle that is sensible and that does not destroy our environment or force millions to go hungry?/ppThe question we should be asking, instead of looking at evolution and history, is how we want to live in the coming decades. Research shows that one of the easiest methods of combating climate change is through a plant-based diet./ppThe UN has said that raising animals for food (whether on factory or traditional farms) "is one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global … [Animal agriculture] should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution and loss of biodiversity. Livestock's contribution to environmental problems is on a massive scale"./ppIn other words, even if you are not convinced of the moral case for vegetarianism, if you care about the future of our planet it makes sense to stop eating animals – both in environmental and economic terms./ppIn Egypt, for example, we see that hundreds of thousands of cattle are imported into the country for slaughter; lentils, wheat and other staples of the Egyptian diet are also imported. That all costs money./ppIf Egypt were to promote and incorporate vegetarianism into its economic policy, the millions of Egyptians who struggle and complain about the rising costs of meat could be fed. It takes around 16kg of animal feed to produce one kilo of meat for consumption. That's a lot of money and food that could serve the hungry population./ppAccording to Hossam Gamal, a researcher at the Egyptian agriculture ministry, "the exact amount of money that could be saved by reducing meat production is unknown, but I have estimated it to be in the billions [of dollars]"./ppElsewhere across the region, Gamal continues, "we could increase the health and living situation for millions of people if we didn't have to spend so much on maintaining the desire to eat meat"./ppHe points to what other experts, such as a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jul/18/vegetarianism-save-planet-environment" title="Observer: 10 ways vegetarianism can help save the planet"John Vidal in the Observer/a, say about the reduction of land for planting as a result of animal farming. "Nearly 30% of the available ice-free surface area of the planet is now used by livestock, or for growing food for those animals," Vidal writes./ppGamal says that as Egyptians consume more and more meat, the need for factory farming is increasing. According to him, more than 50% of all animal products consumed in the Middle East come from factory farming. By reducing the need for meat, he argues, "we could, simultaneously, increase health of people, feed more and increase our local economies through the use of farmland for crops that we are currently importing, such as lentils and beans"./ppGamal says he is one of only a handful of vegetarians at the ministry and this has left a stigma that is hard to overcome. "I get heckled because I don't eat meat," he says, "but if these people, who are ardently against the idea, would look at the reality, economically and environmentally, they would see that it is something to think about."/pdiv class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/vegetarianism"Vegetarianism/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/egypt"Egypt/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/jordan"Jordan/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climate-change"Climate change/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middleeast"Middle East/a/li/ul/divdiv class="author"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/joseph-mayton"Joseph Mayton/a/divbr/div class="terms"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"More Feeds/a/divp style="clear:both" /

div class="track"img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.8/80081?ns=guardianpageName=Greenpeace+exposes+Indonesian+palm+oil+firm%27s+%27broken%27+rainforest+pledge%3AArticle%3A1432629ch=Environmentc3=GU.co.ukc4=Forests+%28environment%29%2CDeforestation+%28environment%29%2CEndangered+habitats+%28Environment%29%2CGreenpeace+%28environment%29%2CEnvironment%2CFood+and+drink+industry+%28Business+sector%29%2CBusiness%2CIndonesia+%28News%29%2CWorld+newsc5=Environment+Conservation%2CWildlife+Conservation%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Markets%2CEthical+Livingc6=Reutersc7=10-Jul-29c8=1432629c9=Articlec10=c11=Environmentc13=c25=c30=contenth2=GU%2FEnvironment%2FForests" width="1" height="1" //divp class="standfirst"New evidence shows country's largest palm and pulp group is breaking its environmental commitments by destroying critical habitats/ppGreenpeace said today it had fresh evidence that palm oil firms linked to Indonesian agribusiness giant a href="http://www.sinarmasgroup.com/app.html" title="Sinar Mas"Sinar Mas/a have bulldozed rainforest and destroyed endangered orang-utan habitats in Kalimantan./ppThe charges were denied by palm oil firm PT SMART Tbk, part of Sinar Mas, which has already said it would stop clearing critical forests./ppThe accusations, a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/sinar-mas-empires-of-destruction" title="levelled by Greenpeace in a new report"levelled by Greenpeace in a new report/a, are the latest chapter in a long and bitter dispute between the conservationists and a key player in one of Indonesia's biggest industries, palm oil./ppThe high-stakes battle has already led to top palm oil-buyers Unilever and Nestle dropping PT SMART as a supplier. Earlier this month, a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/hsbc-sinar-mas-greenpeace-protest" title="HSBC has already sold its shares in Sinar Mas"HSBC sold its shares in Sinar Mas/a./ppIndustry giant Cargill today reiterated that it may also delist the Indonesian producer if the allegations of wrongdoing are borne out in an audit due to be released next month./ppIt also has implications for Indonesia, which competes fiercely with neighbouring Malaysia for dominance of the lucrative palm oil market, and which is also under intense international pressure to curb deforestation, seen as fuelling dangerous climate change./ppPresident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has promised to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 by as much as 41% from business-as-usual levels, and agreed to a moratorium starting in 2011 on issuance of new permits to clear primary forest./ppThe ban is part of a $1bn climate deal signed with Norway earlier this year./ppSMART has already promised to stop clearing high conservation value (HCV) forests, which refers to forests that shelter endangered species or provide valuable natural services such as trapping climate-warming greenhouse gases./ppIt said it will publish an audit of its operations on 10 August./ppSMART manages Indonesian palm oil firms PT Agro Lestari Mandiri (ALM) and PT Bangun Nusa Mandiri (BNM). The parent company for SMART, ALM and BNM is Singapore-listed Golden Agri-Resources, which is part-owned and led by the Widjaja family that controls Sinar Mas./pp/ppGreenpeace said in a report released on Thursday that aerial photographs taken in July by their own photographers, as well as by a Reuters photographer, showed that ALM was still clearing carbon-rich peatland forests in Ketapang district, in Indonesia's West Kalimantan province./pp"What we found was that, despite their commitment, high carbon destruction is still going on,"said Greenpeace forest campaigner, Bustar Maitar. "This is still happening, even while their auditor is writing the report."/ppa href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publications/forests/2010/SMG_ExpandingEmpires.pdf" title="Greenpeace also published photographs (pdf)"Greenpeace also published photographs (pdf)/a which it said showed BNM clearing in an area in Ketapang that was identified by the United Nations Environment Programme as habitat for highly endangered orang-utans./ppSMART released a press statement saying the firm did not clear virgin or primary forest and that it complied with Indonesian laws and regulations./pp"We are not responsible for clearing primary forests, which are the natural habitats for orang-utans. On the contrary, all our concession areas do not contain primary forests and we conserve high conservation value areas, creating sanctuaries that will continue to preserve biodiversity," said Daud Dharsono, PT SMART's president director. Areas of untouched greenery in the aerial shots were proof that parts of their concession areas are being set aside for preservation, the statement said./ppEnormous amounts of greenhouse gases are emitted when peatland forests are cleared and drained. Their preservation is seen as crucial to preventing runaway climate change./ppSMART's spokesman, Fajar Reksoprodjo, told Reuters that in the past, aerial photographs that appeared to show clearing in peatlands had been misinterpreted and showed mineral soil./ppSMART initially planned to release its audit in July but delayed it to August 10 because it was not yet finished./ppThe auditors are paid by SMART and were selected in collaboration with Unilever, which chairs the a href="http://www.rspo.org/" title="Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)"Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)/a, an industry body made up of producers, consumers and non-government organisations./ppThe Greenpeace report also called on fast food chains Pizza Hut – a unit of Yum Brands Inc – and Burger King to stop buying palm oil from firms linked to Sinar Mas./pdiv class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/forests"Forests/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/deforestation"Deforestation/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/endangered-habitats"Endangered habitats/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/greenpeace"Greenpeace/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/fooddrinks"Food drink industry/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/indonesia"Indonesia/a/li/ul/divbr/div class="terms"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"More Feeds/a/divp style="clear:both" /

pBen Darvill and Bob Dawson of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust on the importance of conserving Britain's declining bumblebee population/pbr/p style="clear:both" /

div class="track"img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.8/2963?ns=guardianpageName=Response+to+George+Monbiot%3A+Why+%27Amazongate%27+matters%3AArticle%3A1432630ch=Environmentc3=GU.co.ukc4=Climate+change+%28Environment%29%2CIPCC+%28Environment%29%2CEnvironmentc5=Climate+Change%2CEthical+Livingc6=Richard+Northc7=10-Jul-29c8=1432630c9=Articlec10=Commentc11=Environmentc13=c25=Cif+greenc30=contenth2=GU%2FEnvironment%2FClimate+change" width="1" height="1" //divp class="standfirst"George Monbiot should be calling the IPCC to account for its unreferenced rainforest claims, rather than attacking its criticsbr /br /a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2010/jun/24/sunday-times-amazongate-ipcc" title="• George Monbiot: Who's to blame for 'Amazongate' story?"• George Monbiot: Who's to blame for 'Amazongate' story?/abr /a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/jun/21/sundaytimes-scienceofclimatechange" title="• Sunday Times apologises for false climate story in a 'correction'"• Sunday Times apologises for false climate story in a 'correction'/abr /a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/24/sunday-times-ipcc-amazon-rainforest" title="• Forests expert officially complains about 'distorted' Sunday Times article"• Forests expert officially complains about 'distorted' Sunday Times article/a/ppIn what has become the long-running saga of the unsubstantiated claim by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) about the potential effects of global warming on the Amazon rainforest, the fact that a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2010/jun/24/sunday-times-amazongate-ipcc" title=""George Monbiot has weighed in so heavily to the "Amazongate" issue/a is perhaps a measure of its importance./ppOne cannot help but enjoy the irony of Monbiot's apology for troubling his readers over an issue which he claims is "trivial", then spending so much time and effort exploring it./ppBut the one thing Monbiot has not told us, in his torrent of excoriating verbiage, is quite why "Amazongate" – the name given to the "outing" of the IPCC - is so important. In his rush to condemn those who pointed out the error of the IPCC's ways, and a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2010/jun/24/sunday-times-amazongate-ipcc" title=""me in particular/a, he somehow glosses over this essential point./ppAnd that essential point is that the IPCC got it wrong, not once but in several different ways, in making a key assertion about the Amazon rainforests which, when the chips are down, is entirely without foundation. Let us count the errors of its ways./ppFirstly, we have the offending claim, which asserts that up to 40% of the entire rainforest could turn to savannah, given even a slight reduction in rainfall (which we can assume is the result of climate change)./ppFor such a startling assertion, one would of course expect the IPCC to have good evidence and, in the very essential nature of its report, to cite that evidence to support its claim. This is the very basis on any reputable reporting – the fundamental requirement to disclose the sources. So what do we have?/ppWell, the referenced source of the claim is a review, the lead publisher of which is the advocacy group the WWF. The lead author is an unqualified freelance journalist and green activist. He relies, we are told by the WWF, on a claim made by the "respected" Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia (IPAM - The Amazon Institute of Environmental Research)./ppBy some error, we are told by the WWF, the reference to the work of the "respected" institute is missing from the review. But, we are assured, the original does make the claim, and it is "supported" by peer-reviewed scientific literature./ppCome what may, this is enough to support the charge against the IPCC. It has referenced an important claim to so-called "grey" literature which is not the originator of the work on which the claim is supposedly based. That work in turn has omitted the reference. Then, through the writing process and the three-layer review process, which assures quality control, the IPCC has failed to notice this error and correct it./ppAlready, this is more than a referencing problem, as some assert. It is a major system failure on the part of the IPCC, a real failure in quality control./ppBut it does not stop there. While the WWF refers to this mysterious IPAM "report", it does not supply the missing reference. And somehow it has omitted to tell us that the source is actually an educational website entry, put up by the Brazilian institute in 1999 and removed in 2003./ppThus is the final source of the IPCC claim. It is not even a report. It is not a research document. The author is not identified. It is neither referenced nor peer-reviewed. And neither, as Monbiot later admits, is there peer-reviewed scientific literature which supports the specific claim./ppThat he claims that there is research which supports the general thesis, is not the point. Apart from the fact that its meaning and value is arguable, the fact is that Working Group II of the IPCC did not refer to this work and did not call it in aid of its claim/ppBy any measure, my original assertion that the IPCC claim is unsubstantiated stands up. Yet Monbiot, rather than follow the trail of evidence, chooses to use the inexplicable and unexplained a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/jun/21/sundaytimes-scienceofclimatechange" title=""retraction of the "Amazongate" story in the Sunday Times/a as evidence that the IPCC has been vindicated./ppAnd, on that slender basis, he asserts that its accusers – "North first among them" – are exposed for "peddling inaccuracy, misrepresentation and falsehood."/ppIt is a fascinating reflection of the mindset of Monbiot that, when the Sunday Times first printed the story in January, it is somehow not credible. Yet, when the newspaper retracts the story, it acquires such great authority that this one action is taken to vindicate the IPCC. The source, it seems, it is not the issue. It is whether the source says what Monbiot want to hear./ppHowever, the fact is that the IPCC has been caught out. And instead of admitting its error – by no means the first, as we know from its claims on Himalayan glaciers –it retreats behind a wall of bluster and obfuscation./ppThat is really why "Amazongate" matters. We have in the IPCC an organisation which purports to offer the best that science has to offer on the state of the climate. To err is human, and it is not surprising that there are errors in its report – although the basic nature of this system failure should raise eyebrows. But a failure to investigate and then to correct its errors is unpardonable./ppAn honest commentator would be joining us to ensure that the unsubstantiated claim by the IPCC is removed. But Mr Monbiot has instead resorted to emad hominem/em abuse which he – or his employers – justify as "fair comment"./ppRather, he should be concerned, even if for entirely different reasons, that the response of the IPCC to a proven and egregious error has not been healthy. And an organisation which cannot admit error and deal with it is one that cannot be trusted./ppThe same might also be said of its supporters who, instead of dealing with the entirely justified criticisms, seek to attack the critics. By their deeds shall we know them and, in respect of his particular deeds in relation to "Amazongate", we have come to know Monbiot quite well./ppWe are not enriched by the experience./pp• Richard North is a writer who blogs at a href="http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/" title="EU Referendum"EU Referendum/a/pdiv class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climate-change"Climate change/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/ipcc"Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)/a/li/ul/divbr/div class="terms"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"More Feeds/a/divp style="clear:both" /

div class="track"img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.8/11870?ns=guardianpageName=Upper+Thames+Reservoir%3A+Wildlife+habitats+under+threat%3AArticle%3A1432615ch=Environmentc3=GU.co.ukc4=Environmentc5=Ethical+Livingc6=c7=10-Jul-29c8=1432615c9=Articlec10=Resourcec11=Environmentc13=Piece+by+piece+%28environment%29c25=c30=contenth2=GU%2FEnvironment%2F" width="1" height="1" //divp class="standfirst"Protected species displaced would include water voles, bats and hedgehogs and, in addition, 94 per cent of bird species presently found there would go/ppstrongName of project/strongbr /Upper Thames Reservoir/ppstrongbr /Describe the site currently, including details of protected or threatened habitat or species/strongbr /The four square mile development site is currently occupied by prime agricultural land, 70 per cent of which is very high quality productive farmland which is protected by national planning policy./ppSome studies have shown that Thames Water's proposals for the reservoir could create great environmental damage and habitat destruction on and around the reservoir site./ppA report by Dr Clive Spinage, who has studied in close detail the area of the proposed reservoir, highlights the scale of destruction of wildlife habitats over this huge area. Protected species displaced would include water voles, bats and hedgehogs and, in addition, 94 per cent of bird species presently found there would go, leading to a further decline in some of the rare birds which nest there, including Lapwing and Golden Plover. /ppstrongWhat development is proposed?/strongbr /Thames Water is proposing to build a £1 billion mega reservoir near Abingdon, Oxfordshire with the £1bn construction cost set to be passed on to consumers across London and the southeast in higher water bills. /ppGroup Against Reservoir Development (GARD) is fighting the proposals at a make-or-break Public Inquiry into Thames Water's future development plans, set out in its 25 year Water Resources Management Plan./ppThe inquiry started on 15 June and is expected to last for five weeks, after which time the new Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Caroline Spelman MP, will determine whether the plans get the go-ahead or whether Thames Water will be forced to reconsider its plans in the light of evidence from GARD, CPRE and the Environment Agency. The campaign groups argue that:/pp1. There is no need for a reservoir that would cost consumers a billion pounds in higher water bills. The reservoir could provide 60 million gallons of water each day - Thames Water's own forecasts show that the daily projected shortage in 2035 will be just 13 million gallons. The cost will be borne by consumers.br / br /2. There are cheaper and more sustainable alternatives. Thames Water has rejected more cost effective schemes such as the Severn-Thames transfer scheme that could provide just as much water at half the cost. /pp3. The building of the reservoir could come at a huge environmental cost. It could destroy 5,000 acres of productive farmland, increase flood risk and increase carbon emissions. It could involve a ten year construction programme, devastating some four square miles of rural Oxfordshire. /ppstrongWhat one thing would help you or your group protect this site?/strong/ppReaders could do one (or more!) of the following by going to a href="http://www.abingdonreservoir.org.uk/"www.abingdonreservoir.org.uk/a/pp1 Join our e-newsletter – Please fill in this form and join our campaign to stop Thames Water's plans. Sign-up for our e-newsletter to keep up to date with our progress. br /2 Sign our petition – Please sign our petition to stop Thames Water's plans! We will also keep you informed with our campaign progress.br /3 Follow us on Twitter – Keep up to date with our progress by following the GARD Campaign on Twitter. br /4 Find us on Facebook – Show your support by joining our Facebook group and keep up to date with our campaign./ppstrongExact locationbr //strongbr /OX13 6AP/ppstrongDeveloper/strongbr /Thames Water, Swindon/ppstrongPlanning authority, and reference number of planning application/strongbr /The project will not reach the planning stage unless the Secretary of State for Environment Food and Rural Affairs approves Thames Water's Water Asset Management Plan./pp• strongIf you are the developer and would like to respond to this campaign, please email a href="mailto:piece.by.piece@guardian.co.uk"piece.by.piece@guardian.co.uk/a/strong/pbr/div class="terms"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"More Feeds/a/divp style="clear:both" /

div class="track"img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.8/33975?ns=guardianpageName=Squirrel+meat+flies+off+supermarket%27s+shelves%3AArticle%3A1432610ch=Environmentc3=GU.co.ukc4=Food+%28Environment%29%2CFood+and+drink+%28Life+and+style%29%2CSupermarkets+%28business%29%2CAnimal+welfare+%28News%29%2CWildlife+%28Environment%29%2CUK+newsc5=Wildlife+Conservation%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Markets%2CFood+and+Drinkc6=Matthew+Weaverc7=10-Jul-29c8=1432610c9=Articlec10=Newsc11=Environmentc13=c25=c30=contenth2=GU%2FEnvironment%2FFood" width="1" height="1" //divp class="standfirst"Owner of north London Budgens store defends sale, saying squirrel is a sustainable meat and tastes lovely/pp/ppThe owner of a local Budgens supermarket has defended selling squirrel meat as a sustainable way of feeding people and says it has a "lovely" taste./ppAndrew Thornton, started selling the meat about five months ago after requests from customers at his Budgens store in Crouch End, north London./pp"There are too many squirrels around, we might as well eat them rather than cull them and dispose of them," he said./ppThornton sells up to 15 squirrels a week when they are in stock./ppThe animal welfare group Viva accused Budgens of a href="http://www.viva.org.uk/mediareleases/display.php?articlepid=223" title=""profiting from a "wildlife massacre"./a/ppIts founder and director, Juliet Gellatley, said: "If this store is attempting to stand out from the crowd by selling squirrel, the only message they are giving out is that they are happy to have the blood of a beautiful wild animal on their hands for the sake of a few quid."/ppThornton rejected the claim: "That's not the case at all. If we are selling 10 or 15 a week I don't think that falls into the definition of a massacre."/ppHe predicted more people would eat squirrel in the future./pp"I think it's lovely. It's bit like rabbit. I think there will be a lot of fuss about this now, but in a few years it will become accepted practice that we eat squirrels. People don't bat an eyelid now about eating rabbit," he said./ppThornton buys the meat from a game supplier in Suffolk, the a href="http://www.wildmeat.co.uk/squirrel_meat.htm?ac=HXN5N-U" title=""Wild Meat Company/a, but said he hadn't stocked it for several weeks because the firm had run out of squirrel while it focused on other game products./pp"We would like to get it back on shelves as soon as we can. We are a mainstream supermarket but we take a very strong sustainability stance," he said./pp"We got into it because we had requests from customers. There are a lot of people who understand sustainability issues around here."/ppThornton claimed that squirrel meat is more sustainable than beef. "It takes about 15 tonnes of grain to produce one tonne of beef, which is not sustainable./pp"Squirrels will be culled anyway. You have two choices. Either you dispose of them or you eat them."/ppThe actor and Viva patron Jenny Seagrove said selling squirrel meat was "unbelievable"./pp"Anyone who cares about wildlife, as I do, should be appalled at Budgens for allowing this," she said./ppA spokesman for Musgrave, which operates Budgens, told the Daily Mail: "As our retailers are independent, they therefore have the right and ability to secure products that Budgens do not offer for sale, within their individually owned stores."/pdiv class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/food"Food/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/food-and-drink"Food drink/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/supermarkets"Supermarkets/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/animal-welfare"Animal welfare/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/wildlife"Wildlife/a/li/ul/divdiv class="author"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/matthewweaver"Matthew Weaver/a/divbr/div class="terms"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"More Feeds/a/divp style="clear:both" /

div class="track"img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.8/26262?ns=guardianpageName=Wildlife+conservation+projects+do+more+harm+than+good%2C+says+expert%3AArticle%3A1432581ch=Environmentc3=Guardianc4=Conservation+%28Environment%29%2CWildlife+%28Environment%29%2CAnimals+%28News%29%2CEthical+holidays+%28Travel%29%2CEthical+and+green+living+%28Environment%29%2CEndangered+species+%28Environment%29%2CEndangered+habitats+%28Environment%29%2CEnvironment%2CUK+newsc5=Wildlife+Conservation%2CGreen+Travel%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CEthical+Livingc6=Amelia+Hillc7=10-Jul-29c8=1432581c9=Articlec10=Newsc11=Environmentc13=c25=c30=contenth2=GU%2FEnvironment%2FConservation" width="1" height="1" //divp class="standfirst"New book claims western-style schemes to protect animals damage the environment and criminalise local people/ppEcotourism and western-style conservation projects are harming wildlife, damaging the environment, and displacing and criminalising local people, according to a controversial new book./ppThe pristine beaches and wildlife tours demanded by overseas tourists has led to developments that do not benefit wildlife, such as beaches being built, mangroves stripped out, waterholes drilled and forests cleared, says Rosaleen Duffy, a world expert on the ethical dimensions of wildlife conservation and management./ppThese picture-perfect images all too often hide a "darker history", she adds. Her new book, Nature Crime: How We're Getting Conservation Wrongstrong, /strongwhich draws on 15 years of research, 300 interviews with conservation professionals, local communities, tour operators and government officials, is published today./ppWhen wildlife reserves are established, Duffy says, local communities can suddenly find that their everyday subsistence activities, such as hunting and collecting wood, have been outlawed./ppAt the same time, well-intentioned attempts to protect the habitats of animal species on the edge of extinction lead to the creation of wild, "people-free" areas. This approach has led to the displacement of millions of people across the world./pp"Conservation does not constitute neat win-win scenarios. Schemes come with rules and regulations that criminalise communities, dressed up in the language of partnership and participation, coupled with promises of new jobs in the tourism industry," claims Duffy, professor of international politics at Manchester University./ppA key failure of the western-style conservation approach is the assumption that people are the enemies of wildlife conservation – that they are the illegal traders, the poachers, the hunters and the habitat destroyers. Equally flawed, she says, is the belief that those engaged in conservation are "wildlife saviours"./ppSuch images, she argues, are oversimplifications. "The inability to negotiate these conflicts and work with people on the ground is where conservation often sows the seeds of its own doom," she adds./pp"Why do some attempts to conserve wildlife end up pitting local communities against conservationists?" she asks. "It is because they are regarded as unjust impositions, despite their good intentions. This is vital because failing to tackle such injustices damages wildlife conservation in the long run."/ppDuffy stresses that her intention is not to persuade people to stop supporting conservation schemes. "Wildlife is under threat and we need to act urgently," she acknowledges. Instead, she says, she wants to encourage environmentalists to examine what the real costs and benefits of conservation are, so that better practices for people and for animals can be developed./pp"The assumption that the ends justify the means results in a situation where the international conservation movement and their supporters around the world assume they are making ethical and environmentally sound decisions to save wildlife," she says. "In fact, they are supporting practices that have counterproductive, unethical and highly unjust outcomes."/ppDuffy focuses on what she says is the fallacious belief that ecotourism is a solution to the problem of delivering economic development in an environmentally sustainable way./ppThis is, she says, a "bewitchingly simple argument" but the assumption that such tourism necessarily translates into the kinds of development that benefits wildlife is far too simplistic./pp"Holiday makers are mostly unaware of how their tourist paradises have been produced," she says. "They assume that the picture-perfect landscape or the silver Caribbean beach is a natural feature. This is very far from the truth. Tourist playgrounds are manufactured environments, usually cleared of people. Similarly, hotel construction in tropical areas can result in clearing ecologically important mangroves or beach building which harms coral reefs."/ppBut the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, one of the four biggest environmental NGOs in the world, maintains that the loss of wildlife is one of the most important challenges facing our planet. As such, a powerful focus on conservation is necessary: "Conservation is essential so let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater," says a WWF-UK spokesman. "There are examples out there where ecotourism is working and has thrown a lifeline to communities in terms of economics and social benefits, as well as added biodiversity benefits./pp"Let's have more of those projects that are working for everybody and everything," he adds. "There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to ecotourism and conservation."/pdiv class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/conservation/"Conservation/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/wildlife"Wildlife/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/animals"Animals/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/ethical-holidays"Ethical holidays/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/ethical-living"Ethical and green living/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/endangeredspecies"Endangered species/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/endangered-habitats"Endangered habitats/a/li/ul/divdiv class="author"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/ameliahill"Amelia Hill/a/divbr/div class="terms"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"More Feeds/a/divp style="clear:both" /

div class="track"img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.8/52929?ns=guardianpageName=Are+vertical+farms+the+future+of+urban+food%3F%3AArticle%3A1432558ch=Environmentc3=GU.co.ukc4=Food+%28Environment%29%2CEnvironment%2CFarming+%28environment%29c5=Environment+Conservation%2CEthical+Living%2CFood+and+Drinkc6=Duncan+Graham-Rowe+for+%3Ca+href%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.forumforthefuture.org.uk%2Fgreenfutures%2F%22%3EGreen+Futures%3C%2Fa%3E%2C+part+of+the+%3Ca+href%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Fenvironment%2Fseries%2Fguardian-environment-network%22%3EGuardian+Environment+Network%3C%2Fa%3Ec7=10-Jul-29c8=1432558c9=Articlec10=c11=Environmentc13=Guardian+Environment+Network+%28series%29c25=c30=contenth2=GU%2FEnvironment%2FFood" width="1" height="1" //divp class="standfirst"With more mouths to feed and increasing demands on land, Duncan Graham-Rowe looks to see if high rise city blocks will be the source of tomorrow's supper/ppThe vaults rose up as high as the city walls, bearing reeds richly bedded in bitumen and gypsum. The layered galleries peered each beyond its neighbour to reach the sunlight, and water drawn from the river was pumped through conduits up to the highest level. The topsoil was thick enough to root even the largest trees.../ppThese were the renowned Hanging Gardens of Babylon, as described by the Greek historians Diodorus and Callisthenes, and the earliest example of vertical farming – at least according to Dan Caiger-Smith. His company, a href="http://www.valcent.net/s/Home.asp"Valcent/a, is taking the concept into the 21st century, recently launching the first farm of its kind at Paignton Zoo in Devon./ppIt's a beguilingly simple idea: make maximum use of a small amount of space by filling glass houses with plant beds stacked high one above the other./ppFinancial and environmental pressures on modern agriculture have sparked new interest in vertical farming. With global population expected to exceed 9 billion by 2050, competition for land to grow both food and energy crops will become increasingly fierce. Four-fifths of us will live in dense urban areas, and increasing awareness of the carbon and water footprints of well-travelled food will have pushed locally grown produce even further up the list of desirables./ppSo it's easy to see the appeal of a system which, its proponents insist, can surpass the productivity of existing agricultural spaces by up to 20 times, while using less water, cutting mileage and energy costs, and delivering food security./pp"It answers so many of the big questions of the future", says Caiger-Smith./ppValcent's system requires about the same amount of energy as having a home computer on for ten hours a day. That's enough to produce half a million lettuces a year – and, the company claims, seven times less than is required to grow the same crop on a traditional farm./ppThe 100 square metre farm at Paignton Zoo grows leaf vegetables for animal feed. It applies a technique called hydroponics, where plants are grown in nutrient rich solutions instead of soil. Stacked in trays eight layers high, the crops are continually rotated to ensure that all have adequate access to air and sunlight. The system also allows nutrients that have not been directly taken up by the plants to be collected and recirculated, along with the water, reducing usage and minimising waste./ppThis is just the beginning, says Caiger-Smith. His company now has more than 150 clients around the world queuing up to see how hydroponics could meet the needs of human food production, too./ppHow indeed. Inspiring concepts and artists' impressions abound, but with none actually up and running yet, how can vertical farms meet the impressive efficiency and production claims being made for them?/ppBy cutting lots of corners. For a start, they remove the need for tractors and other fuel-dependent equipment. Distances to ship the produce from grower to retailer to consumer are also slashed. As Jeanette Longfield, Co-ordinator of the food and farming non-profit group, a href="http://www.sustainweb.org/"Sustain/a, puts it: "Intensive agriculture is currently entirely dependent on fossil fuels, from its use of nitrogen-based fertilisers to mechanical equipment, transport and refrigeration – and so urban agriculture really makes a lot of sense". In particular, Longfield sees "great potential for perishables that don't travel well"./ppMoreover, the traditional dependence of yield on the weather is taken out of the equation, offering greater security to the full supply chain. /ppProven business models are still a way off. "It takes a stock market to build a high-rise," says Natalie Jeremijenko, an aerospace engineer and environmental health professor at New York University. She doubts that the income from vertically farmed crops would be sufficient to recoup the rent. But this hasn't stemmed her interest. Instead, she's come up with two designs to sidestep the problem: one is a small hydroponic rooftop pod with a curved shape to maximise exposure to the sunlight. The other is a vertical farm designed around a fire escape on an occupied high rise. /ppSustain has also set out to demonstrate that urban land doesn't always come at a premium. The organisation has launched the programme Capital Growth, which aims to create 2,012 new food growing spaces in London before the city hosts the Olympics that year. The search encompasses "all kinds of nooks and crannies" – from school grounds and the banks of canals to roof terraces./ppThe other option is to simply do things on an industrial scale. Dickson Despommier at Columbia University, author of The Vertical Farm: The World Grows Up, believes there is scope to take vertical farming to an entirely new level, quite literally. He wants to create a new type of skyscraper to pierce the Big Apple's skyline – vast multi-storey buildings dedicated to vertical farming. According to Despommier, a single 30-storey building could provide enough food for 10,000 people./ppAnd he's not alone in thinking big. Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut has drawn up plans for a huge tower, also in New York, on the city's Roosevelt Island (see a href="http://www.forumforthefuture.org/greenfutures/articles/weak_signals_track_changing_horizon"'Weak signals: how to track a changing horzion'/a). Callebaut's vision, dubbed the Dragonfly, is to create buildings with lush, fertile interiors that function as self-contained, sustainable eco-systems, producing food for their residents./ppIt's not just a flight of fancy. Will Allen in Milwaukee has already demonstrated the concept with a community food aquaculture system he calls Growing Power. This symbiotic cultivation system relies on aquatic life, such as tilapia fish and yellow perch, to redistribute nutrients. Waste products from the fish fertilise plants, while vegetable waste and worms from the gardens feed the fish. Both the vegetables and the fish are sold to local businesses at a marked up price, so that local residents can buy the produce directly from the farm at a subsidised price./ppIf vertical food does prove cheaper to produce and consume, then it's unlikely to face much opposition. In years to come, "locally grown" may mean just a few blocks from home./pp• Duncan Graham-Rowe is a former staff writer for the New Scientist and a regular contributor to The Economist and The Guardian./pp• Additional material by Anna Simpson, Deputy Editor, Green Futures./pdiv class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/food"Food/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/farming"Farming/a/li/ul/divbr/div class="terms"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"More Feeds/a/divp style="clear:both" /