"The 21st century will be a solar century"

A very dear friend sent this from Costa Rica where she and her husband are spending the next three months. What better way to close out the year than with a hopeful story. We are, after all, emerging from an eight-year dark age (courtesy of George W. and friends) and about to usher in a new era of hopefulness.

The story of Centralia, Pennsylvania stands in stark contrast to the recent coal ash spill in Kingston, Tennessee. As Kingston residents cope with the task of digging themselves out of a toxic sludge, Centralia residents point with pride to the wind turbines that grace the ridge lines that heretofore were best known for the coal they harbored.

Positive, tangible signs of a new day dawning. (GW)

Renewable energy push signals winds of change

By Darrin Youker
Reading Eagle
December 16, 2008

CENTRALIA - Centralia owes its birth and death to coal.

Settlers came to this Columbia County borough to mine its coal. Decades later, residents were forced out as a mine fire consumed the land beneath the community.

Now, a new form of energy development has sprung up near the ghost town. On the ridge above this shattered community, a series of long, sleek, modern-looking turbines disappear into the horizon.

The wind turbines above Centralia are part of a large wind farm that stretches into Schuylkill County. When completed next year, it will be the largest wind farm in Pennsylvania. And it's all happening in the shadow of old coal mines and patch towns that define the Anthracite Region.

To the southeast, Exelon Generation is constructing the largest solar energy farm on the East Coast on a Bucks County landfill. The company, known better for its nuclear plant at Limerick, is diversifying its energy portfolio through wind and solar projects.

Energy experts predict that wind and solar power will play an even greater role in the nation's quest for energy independence. Pennsylvania stands to benefit from the interest in both.

Two European wind companies have opened offices and manufacturing centers in the Keystone state. And state lawmakers have recently adopted legislation aimed at jump-starting the solar market by giving rebates for home installation.

"The 21st century will be a solar century," said John Hanger, acting secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. "I want Pennsylvania to be a leader in solar."

The state has made significant strides to promote renewable energy resources, he said.

In the next decade, Pennsylvania has the potential to supply more than a million homes with power from wind plants, Hanger said. More homes and business are likely to install roof-top solar panels in the coming years, he said.

"Pennsylvania might have been thought of as a state that was not progressive, but that is yesterday's news," Hanger said.

Wind

Three years ago, Joe Green broke ground on a project to bring wind power to the top of Locust Ridge in northern Schuylkill County. Green, who grew up in the area, saw the potential for wind energy.

That first project of 13 turbines near Mahanoy City has expanded into 64 turbines that will produce enough electricity to power 38,000 homes, Green said. Iberdrola Renewables, a Spanish wind company with offices in Pennsylvania, is financing the project.

The turbines dominate the ridge line, rising more than 100 feet above the crest of the mountain. Most residents don't mind the turbines, Green said.

"I speak to people on both sides of Locust Ridge and I am amazed at the positive response," said Green, who is the project manager for Locust Ridge. "People see this as the future. They are proud to have this on their ridge."

Paul Copleman, a spokesman for Iberdrola Renewables, said Pennsylvania is well situated to benefit from wind energy. The state has a promising wind supply, ample transmission lines and is close to the energy-hungry Eastern Seaboard, he said.

In 2000, the state did not have any working wind farms, Copleman said. Now, with 10, it has more coming each year, he said.

Pennsylvania is not the windiest state in the nation. It's away from the high-wind corridor that cuts through the Midwest from North Dakota to Texas.

Pennsylvania ranks 16th in the nation for generating capacity, said Christine Real de Azua, a spokeswoman for the American Wind Energy Association. Pennsylvania has the potential to generate 45 billion kilowatts a year, based on its wind resources, she said.

But the state is capitalizing on its available wind energy, both through putting up wind farms and attracting manufacturing jobs, Real de Azua said. Gamesa, a Spanish company, manufactures blades for wind turbines at a Bucks County plant.

"Pennsylvania has been a leader in realizing the opportunity provided in job creation and manufacturing," Real de Azua said. "Pennsylvania was one of the fist to spot that opportunity."

Solar

Early next year, Exelon expects that its 16.5-acre solar farm in Bucks County will begin producing power.

The farm, which will generate enough to power 350 homes, is one of the largest on the East Coast, with more than 17,000 solar panels, said Tim Wirth, a spokesman for Exelon. The company has also invested in four wind farms in southwestern Pennsylvania, he said.

"We are trying to have a diversity of generating sources," Wirth said. "There isn't one renewable energy source that can solve all our energy problems."

Hanger, the acting DEP secretary, said he expects to see an increase in the number of homes supplementing their power supply through solar panels. State legislation has provided $100 million in grants and rebates for households and small business installing solar panels, he said.

As the technology continues to advance, solar will become more cost effective, he said.

"We have enough solar energy hitting the Earth to supply all our energy needs," he said. "We have only captured a drop of it."

Picturesque assessments of climate change

In his landmark book "Times of Feast, Times of Famine: A History of Climate Since the Year 1,000", Emmaunuel Le Roy Ladurie makes extensive use of the writings of farmers and others to piece together a description of what climate was like and how it has changed over the centuries.

Today scientists in the UK are using paintings from the 19th century as tools for undertaking similar investigations about changes in Great Britain's coastline. (GW)

Artistic clues to coastal change

By Julian Siddle
BBC
December 30, 2008

Nineteenth Century artwork is a useful tool for studying coastal erosion, according to a retired coastal engineer.

Robin McInnes assessed the accuracy of geological and topological features in more than 400 paintings of the Isle of Wight and Hampshire coastline.

Dr McInnes said such old masters gave engineers the chance to see coastal features before they were changed by industrial development.

He was standing in London's Tate Gallery, admiring a painting entitled Pegwell Bay, Kent - a recollection of October 5th 1858 by Pre-Raphaelite artist William Dyce, when the thought struck him that the detailed accurate depiction of groynes and foreshore, despite being painted 150 years ago, might be of use in his work as a coastal engineer.

Over the years, Dr McInnes had amassed quite a collection of paintings, prints and etchings depicting the coastlines of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, where he ran the island's coastline management strategy.

Combining his interests in paintings of the local environment, geology and coastal erosion, he looked at hundreds of artworks and came up with a method to assess their value as indicators of coastal change - especially erosion.

"From the late 18th Century, Europe was cut off by the Napoleonic wars, this resulted in travellers and artists paying greater attention to the picturesque landscapes of the British Isles," said Dr McInnes.

Artists such as William Turner visited the Hampshire coast and produced panoramic paintings in aquatint and water colour.

Geological forms are shown in views of undeveloped coastline

Dr McInnes began to examine images from the 1770s to the 1920s. From more than 400 paintings, prints and illustrations he drew up a scale to asses how useful such artworks were as coastal engineering tools.

"The ranking system is based on four or five factors, it is a qualitative assessment," he said.

"I looked at issues such as the material and the nature of the media, oil paintings versus prints; generally, water colour allowed the most accurate depiction.

"The next question was what do they actually show, do they provide understanding of the geology or beach levels? I gave each a score for that.

"Also to time periods, from a coastal engineers point of view, the most relevant period is when rapid coastal development took place."

Dr McInnes said the Victorian era saw a dramatic change in the coastline as towns, such as Portsmouth, grew with the opening up of railway links.

He also gave marks for the accuracy of the artistic style, and whether the painting showed the topography.

Many Victorian artists painted beaches and coastal defences in precise detail.

"In Italian landscape style accuracy was not the prime consideration, (whereas) traditional Victorian coastal painting was the most accurate as the idea was to provide an exact image to take home.

"Followers of the pre-Raphaelites captured in precise detail this period, it coincided with an interest in geology and natural sciences. "

He added that the paintings of the period were not just a tool for categorising physical change, but also environmental and developmental issues.

"Many artists returned to the same spot to capture the same scenes over a period of years.

"The study shows how Victorian development has radically changed the coastline; it's nice to strip it back because it helps you understand what might be the underlying problems of erosion and instability.

"Natural processes in the past are largely masked by coastal development," Dr Innes explained.

"Looking back 150 years, it's easier to understand the geography and topography when you don't have this coastal development covering the slopes."

The study - carried out with help from Portsmouth University, the Crown Estate and the National Maritime Museum - has been well received by organisations concerned with coastal erosion.

Dr McInnes recently presented his findings at a coastal engineering conference in Venice, where he learned of similar research that used Caravaggio's paintings to asses historic water levels in the sinking Italian city.

"A lot of people think it can be applied to other parts of the coast that are well illustrated," he says.

The study could be extended, he suggested, to cover areas of south-east England where the erosion of soft rocks, combined with human development, has led to dramatic coastal change.

China exporting farmers to Africa

China is sending thousands of farmers to Africa sharing technology and agricultural expertise in exchange for the continent's rich oil and mineral resources. It is an arrangement that seems to make sense on a number of levels, but one that is not without some possible serious problems.

The potential for exploitation loom as political turmoil swirls within many African countries. Scisms resulting from cultural differences and biases also threaten to bubble up if time is not taken to learn more about each others peoples and customs. (see the comments from Chinese farmer Liu Jianjun below). GW

China's new export: farmers

China has a shortage of land, Africa a shortage of food. So one entrepreneur had the bright idea of persuading Chinese farmers to emigrate.

By Clifford Coonan
The Independent
December 29, 2008

Liu Jianjun is wearing a brightly coloured African tunic, the tall hat of a tribal leader, a string of red beads round his neck and carrying a stick with a secret knife in the handle. Beside him sits a portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong. It is a slightly incongruous scene but one that mirrors the ever-closer relationship between Asia's economic giant China and the world's poorest continent.
"The African people yell, 'Mao Zedong is all right' and they are very warm-hearted when I'm there," says one of China's most prominent private sector ambassadors. "The minute Chinese people get off the plane, the Africans are friendly. Chinese do not bring rifles and weapons; they bring seeds and technology."

China's Ministry of Commerce triumphantly announced this month that its bilateral trade with the continent is set to hit $100bn (£67.8bn) by the end of 2008, two years ahead of schedule. Africa's plentiful oilfields and rich mineral deposits are top of China's imports, and in return the world's most populous nation is exporting tens of thousands of its countrymen.

By some estimates, 750,000 Chinese people have spent time on the continent or have moved to Africa permanently to do business and take advantage of the natural resources. And Hebei, the province from where the middle-aged Mr Liu hails, is no exception. He reckons 10,000 farmers from Hebei alone have gone to 18 African countries in the past few years.

They work in "Baoding villages", named after the dusty township where Mr Liu lives; he likes to point out that Baoding means "Protection and peace". The villages, ranging in size from 400 to 2,000 Chinese, have been set up across the continent, from Nigeria to Kenya, from Sudan to Zambia.

Mr Liu started the Baoding villages when he was head of Hebei province's foreign trade bureau in 1998 and was seeking ways to boost the local economy, which had been dampened by the Asian financial crisis. He discovered Africa.

"We found Africa was not affected by the crisis, and we went there, and found that local people were short of food, even though there was lots of land not in use for farming and plenty of animals," he says. "So I decided to switch from exporting goods to exporting agricultural expertise."

It is a winning formula for China, which has more than 20 per cent of the world's population but only 7 per cent of its arable land. "China has too many people and too little land," Mr Liu ponts out. "In Africa, they have plenty of land and too few farmers. Places such as Ivory Coast are short of 400,000 tonnes of food a year, and the local people cannot farm enough to feed the population. Local farming skills are not developed."

In the kind of comment you do not hear in public in the politically correct West any more, Mr Liu describes African farmers as "a little bit lazy, happier to pick the fruits off the trees than grow it themselves". But he obviously loves the place.

One of the Baoding villagers who went to work in an African namesake is farmer Zhang Xuedong, who spent about a year in Abidjan, the Ivory Coast capital. "I'm fond of African culture and I find the people there quite lively," the farmer says.

Although China has witnessed astounding economic growth, albeit slowing in recent months, there is a yawning gap between the city and the countryside, and the largely rural hinterland remains poor. So for Chinese farmers in places such as Hebei, the prospect of earning up to £7,000 a year in Africa is remarkably attractive, allowing them to send home vital remittances. "My family stayed in Baoding while I went to Africa on my own to teach the Africans how to plant vegetables," Mr Zhang adds.

Li Zhu, chairman of Dafei International Investment, first heard about the opportunities in Africa through the internet and the papers. "Before going there, I was very worried," says Mr Li, who bought 2,000 acres in Mbale in Uganda and is running a Chinese club there. "My family also felt worried. We all heard there were wars, conflicts and diseases. But finally I went there in August last year." A friend of Mr Liu, he hopes to set up a farm and a tractor factory, and is teaching Africans planting techniques using machinery.

"I don't like the food – it's always Western cuisine – but I do love Africa," Mr Li says. "The weather is nice, comfortable and warm. The people are kind and they live in a harmonious society, and are full of passion. I visited Kenya and Uganda. I ultimately chose Uganda, because the country is steady. The local government is very eager to develop the country, but they don't know how to do that. So they want to learn from us. We provide ideas such as development zones. I also heard that there are some good mines, gold mines and quarries, in Uganda. The downside is that we don't know the countries and their local customs; corruption is a problem."
It is not just individuals who are capitalising on an abundance of workers to send over to Africa.

The head of China's Export-Import Bank, Li Ruogu, pledged to help finance emigration to Africa as part of a rapid urbanisation scheme in the western Chinese city of Chongqing, already reckoned the world's biggest metropolitan area with 32 million people. "With the establishment of the rapid urbanisation project, several million farmers will have to move," Mr Li told the People's Daily.

But critics of Chinese expansion into Africa see plenty of downsides. Beijing is willing to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses, and is widely accused of helping prop up unpopular leaders, including Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, with arms shipments. China has also been widely condemned in the West for not doing more to pressure the government of Sudan – from whom it buys two-thirds of the national oil output – to end the conflict in stricken Darfur.

Now two Chinese destroyers and a supply vessel are to set sail to Somali waters to help international efforts to fight piracy. Somali pirates off east Africa have taken an array of shipping vessels hostage, including at least seven ships flying the Chinese flag or carrying Chinese crew, in the past 12 months. Now Chinese warships will be deployed to Africa for the first time in 600 years.

Mr Liu largely skirts these broader geo-political concerns, focusing more on the positive impact of Sino-African relations. He notes that the cultural exchange can even extend to marriage.
"Some Chinese men marry African women; they like African girls because they are very slim."

With that, he stands up beside the portrait of Mao, and gathering his chiefly African robes, he quotes a Chinese proverb. "People are scared before they go, they are surprised when they arrive, and they miss it when they leave."

Transforming the nation's food system

Many political observers agree that major reforms in the federal departments of energy and agriculture could go a long way towards addressing the nation's energy needs and concerns. Most progressives were thrilled when President-elect Barack Obama chose physicist Steve Chu to become the next secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy. However, at first take they were equally upset with his choice of former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack to head the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Disappointed food activists who petitioned Mr. Obama to choose the next Agriculture secretary from a list of a dozen "sustainable"candidates they compiled are hoping that he and Mr. Vilsack will consider their agenda for transforming the nation's food system. (GW)

A food agenda for Obama

Now's the time to reinvent America's farm and food policies.

By Christopher D. Cook
Christian Science Monitor
December 26, 2008

San Francisco - Within hours of former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack's nomination last week as Agriculture secretary, websites were humming with well-documented critiques of his affinity for genetically engineered crops, agribusiness giant Monsanto, heavily polluting factory farms, and other Big Farm interests.

Some critics expressed outrage, others surprise, especially since they had mounted a vigorous, 55,000-plus strong online petition to persuade President-elect Barack Obama to nominate someone more progressive who would promote sustainable food and farming.

The need for sweeping change could not be clearer when it comes to our food: At taxpayer expense, current policy subsidizes large corporate farms and destructive industrial agriculture, which rob the countryside of economic diversity and precious environmental resources, such as water and topsoil.

These same subsidies, and anemic regulatory enforcement, encourage an increasingly monopolized food system, and a "cheap food" policy that lards us with fatty, processed foods – the cost of which is ultimately dear, more than $100 billion annually for obesity and diet-related diseases. Today's food system also generates a sizable portion of America's greenhouse gases, and rests on fast-dwindling and volatile oil supplies.

Now is the time for something different – change we can eat.

As Mr. Obama weighs a massive stimulus package, he should include new funding streams that promote sustainable food – to build up alternatives such as farmer's markets, local "foodshed" programs that promote consumption of local produce, and farm-to-institution projects that encourage schools, hospitals, and other large buyers to purchase local organic foods when possible.

The change we need in food is as urgent as any we face – changes that affect national health, energy security, global warming, and more. Here, then, is a not-so-modest nine-point platform for food reform, some of which could be included in Obama's stimulus package. Other elements may require a lengthier policy push:

1. New public investments targeting sustainable agriculture, defined as organic, small- to mid-sized, diversified farming.

2. New investments in local/regional food networks and foodsheds – to help build up the connections between farmers and consumers, to open up and expand new markets for organic farmers and those considering the transition; for more farmer's markets and food stores that feature local produce.

3. A moratorium on agribusiness mergers, and strenuous antitrust provisions and enforcement to protect what little is left of diversity in the food economy.

4. A moratorium on all new genetically modified (GMO) products, and an expansion of existing ones, and appointment of a blue-ribbon panel/commission to assess the impact of GMO foods on our environment and our health.

5. A moratorium on – and gradual phasing out of – concentrated animal feeding operations, aka factory farms, which are among the nation's top polluters of water and air, and breeders of widespread and virulent bacterial strains.

6. Dramatically expanded regulatory enforcement and staffing in the US Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration to protect food safety and meat industry labor and environmental practices.

7. Slowing the hazardously fast meatpacking (and poultry) assembly line, to protect workers and consumers.

8. Incentives for small-scale urban, suburban, and rural farming ventures oriented toward diversified local food systems.

9. Bold public investment in a raft of public awareness campaigns that build support, and expand markets and demand, for sustainable alternatives such as urban agriculture and gardening, and reducing fast-food consumption.

10. Fill in the blank, and send me your thoughts at www.christopherdcook.com.

Food is a vital cornerstone of both individual life and civil society, and our current system is making us fatter, churning out greenhouse gases, and abusing workers and animals.

With a new administration elected on a "change" agenda, it's a timely moment to press for the most basic change of all: change in the food that ends up on our plates and in our bodies.

• Christopher D. Cook is a journalist and the author of "Diet for a Dead Planet: Big Business and the Coming Food Crisis."

Will adaptation be the "new green"?

It may be the practical thing to do, given society's procrastination in dealing with the problem, but the idea of adapting to climate change sure sounds like a concession to me. It also feels likde a terribly "iffy" option. Think about it for a minute: having failed to to take preventative action in light of mounting irrefutable evidence that human introduction of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere was forcing an unprecedented rate of climate change, we're now suggesting that we'll be able to predict nature's complex, nonlinerar response and mobilize ourselves to adapt to her adaptations.

Don't get me wrong, I think options for success still exist and those options will have to focus to some degree on adaptation strategies (the longer we wait, the higher the degree). However finding this new family of solutions will, in turn, require a higher level of comprehensive thinking, planning and implementation than ever before. (GW)

Going with climate's flow

Environmentalists shift approach, planning to adapt to nature's changes

By Carolyn Y. Johnson

Boston Globe

December 26, 2008

Environmental advocates, wildlife officials, and land trusts charged with protecting the natural world are beginning to take a new approach to climate change: rather than focus only on stopping it, they are also thinking about how to adapt to what's coming.

That may mean accepting that certain northern species - such as moose or loon - may not be part of Massachusetts' future ecology. More immediately, it means restoring bogs that could help prevent flooding, or serve as a fallback position for wildlife if sea levels rise - and tearing down dams to give fish access to cooler waters. Both such efforts are underway.

"The old model is - let's protect a certain species or natural community; let's protect this habitat for box turtle or for maple forest," said Andy Finton, director of conservation science at The Nature Conservancy. "We've got to be more flexible in our thinking, because we can't necessarily nail down all the species . . . In a way, we're protecting the stage, while the actors may change over time."

This shift in approach comes as President-elect Obama recently announced his environmental team, calling global warming an urgent issue.

Locally, a range of environmentalists and state officials are trying to anticipate the effects of climate change: From whether the spruce and fir trees atop Mount Greylock will turn into northern hardwood forests, to the fate of the region's vernal pools, home to salamanders.

The Nature Conservancy, an environmental organization, recently completed the purchase of a freshwater marsh and a tidal marsh around the Kennebec Estuary in Maine. If sea levels rise, the freshwater marsh could transform into a tidal marsh, and the tidal marsh into mudflats.

"We're now looking at the entire estuary as a potential pilot site, where we're going to start doing the measurements and the research to tell us whether in fact these ecosystems do migrate," said Bruce Kidman, spokesman for the Conservancy in Maine. "Given the rise in sea level, will they do what we believe they do?"

The state is focusing on creating tracts of unbroken wild space that provide a large, resilient habitat for species to weather climate change.

For example, the state was a partner a year ago in the acquisition of 240 acres in the town of Webster, helping to create a connected landscape of 8,000 acres of conservation land, straddling the Massachusetts-Rhode Island border.

In Hanson and Halifax, state environmental officials are restoring a cranberry bog, creating a more natural wetlands at Burrage Pond. The idea is that the wetlands will soak up water, helping to prevent flooding - and also act as a refuge for wildlife driven inland if coastal wetlands are submerged as sea level rises.

Elsewhere in Southeastern Massachusetts, state officials are partners in removing dams from Red Brook (photo above), in part so that salter brook trout will be able to find a cool habitat if the rest of the stream warms.

"It's pretty clear that what we've traditionally thought of as natural communities in Massachusetts, because of these warming temperatures, are probably going to change," said Mary Griffin, commissioner of the state department of fish and game. "As a department, we're thinking there are a number of actions we can take today in everything we do . . . we will use the climate change science as a factor in a lot of the things we do day to day," from land acquisition to habitat management.

Next year, the state plans to factor in climate change in making land acquisitions. Last month, environmental leaders from across the state came together at a first of its kind conference to discuss how to cope with the predicted effects on flora and fauna.

A year ago, the New England Wild Flower Society called for a "new paradigm," in which "plant community concepts will likely need revision." The society, for example, will continue "banking" seeds from native plants, but with the knowledge that those seeds may not be natives of Massachusetts in 50 or 100 years.

"The interesting question will be, as plants move up from south that aren't considered native in New England, how do we look at those - at what point do they consider those native plants?" said Bill Brumback, conservation director of the Society.

Hector Galbraith, director of the climate change initiative at the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, is working with a panel of specialists to rank the vulnerability of habitat around the state to climate change. Considered at risk of being eliminated over the coming decades are spruce-fir forest, boreal swamp, and cold water lakes and ponds.

Knowing the vulnerability of different habitat types is critical, he said, because it can help guide land acquisitions and allow the state to better make management decisions. The organization is developing a planning tool - based on historical and projected rates of climate change in the state, along with other stressors - that could give conservation officials a smarter way to decide how to invest limited resources.

While integrating climate change into current planning is relatively new, advocates noted that it was a critical time to rethink environmental strategies.

"I think the traditional conservation approach has embraced a sort of static view of the world, and that climate change is emphasizing the need for every one of us landowners to accept that change is going to happen," said Lisa Vernegaard, director of planning and stewardship at The Trustees of Reservations. "We could sit and wring our hands as change happens, but it would be just that - wringing our hands."

Seasons greetings from the Okefenokee Swamp

In my humble opinion, Pogo is hands down the greatest comic strip ever to grace the pages of American newspapers. From 1949-1973 Walt Kelly and the denizens of the Okenfenokee Swamp provided some of the most insightful and biting commentary on American politics found anywhere -- and in the process created a wonderful menagerie of political caricatures including the likenesses of (among others) Joe McCarthy, Lyndon Johnson, George Wallace, Nikita Khrushchev, Fidel Castro, Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew.

Kelly wrote the original verses of "Deck Us All With Boston Charlie" in 1948. (GW)

Deck Us All With Boston Charlie

Lyrics By Walt Kelly
Music By Traditional (whoever that is)
1948

Deck us all with Boston Charlie,
Walla Walla, Wash., an' Kalamazoo!
Nora's freezin' on the trolley,
Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-garoo!

Don't we know archaic barrel
Lullaby Lilla Boy, Louisville Lou?
Trolley Molly don't love Harold,
Boola boola Pensacoola hullabaloo!

Bark us all bow-wows of folly,
Polly wolly cracker 'n' too-da-loo!
Donkey Bonny brays a carol,
Antelope Cantaloupe, 'lope with you!

Hunky Dory's pop is lolly gaggin' on the wagon,
Willy, folly go through!
Chollie's collie barks at Barrow,
Harum scarum five alarm bung-a-loo!

Dunk us all in bowls of barley,
Hinky dinky dink an' polly voo!
Chilly Filly's name is Chollie,
Chollie Filly's jolly chilly view halloo!

Bark us all bow-wows of folly,
Double-bubble, toyland trouble! Woof, woof, woof!
Tizzy seas on melon collie!
Dibble-dabble, scribble-scrabble! Goof, goof, goof!

Tickle salty boss anchovie
Wash a wash a wall Anna Kangaroo
Ducky allus bows to Polly,
Prolly Wally would but har'ly do!

Dock us all a bowsprit, Solly --
Golly, Solly's cold and so's ol' Lou!

Africa's water future

The pressure is on for the nations of Africa to tap their water resources in an effort to promote agriculture and hydropower development -- both critical to improving economic conditions. The fear is that, if not done with careful planning, this precious resource could be exploited to benefit the powerful few, polluted or squandered.

The good news is that leaders from 53 African nations have vowed to work together to craft a coordinated (and hopefully sustainable) water development plan. (GW)

African ministers adopt $65b fund to develop water infrastructure

By Chinedu Uwaegbulam
The Guardian
December 22, 2008

Efforts at harnessing the continent's largely untapped water resources may soon be underway, following the backing of African ministers to a proposal attempting to secure billion-dollar commitments for the building of critical hydropower and agricultural irrigation systems across the continent.

The ministers attended a three-day a pan-African ministerial conference, which was hosted by Libya in Sirte, and anchored by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in collaboration with the African Union, the African Ministers' Council on Water Development, the African Development Bank and the Economic Commission for Africa, bringing together ministers from 53 African nations with the theme "moving from talk to action."

At the Water for Energy and Agriculture in Africa meeting in Sirte, Libya, FAO suggested convening a world summit of heads of State and government next year aimed at finding $30 billion a year for investment in the continent's water and rural infrastructure, needed to provide food and energy for its expanding population.

Sub-Saharan Africa - already suffering from the world's highest rate of malnourishment - needs to triple its food production by 2050 to feed a population predicted to balloon to two billion people, while also expected to be the hardest-hit by climate change.

In a final declaration, delegates noted that water is a key resource to economic and social development, as well as, to hunger and poverty eradication. The meeting was wrapped up with a pledge to work together in promoting water development throughout the continent and to fully exploit Africa's agricultural and hydropower potential.

Implementation of integrated water, agriculture and energy programmes to enhance sustainable development in Africa should be considered a priority, the declaration said, while noting that food and energy security are prerequisites for the development of Africa's " human capital."

While calling on donors, development partners and countries bordering on Lake Chad - once the world's sixth largest lake but has now shrunk to a tenth of its size - to help save the lake and its basin from a " looming human and environmental disaster," the Conference agreed to foster climate change research, as well as, promote the development of renewable energy and agriculture in Africa.

Under the proposal, FAO is pushing for a $65 billion, 20-year Blue Revolution water management programme designed to exploit Africa's natural resources by providing investment for water control at the village level, extensive irrigation systems and developing major river basins for agriculture and hydro-energy generation.

Water management is "a key element" in food security, FAO Director-General, Jacques Diouf said at the conference on Water for Agriculture and Energy in Africa: the Challenges of Climate Change.

Delegates also adopted a joint declaration supporting water development at the national, regional and continental levels to fully exploit Africa's potential agriculture and energy sectors, ensuring the food security of the continent and meet its increasing food and energy needs.

The summit was expected to discuss the creation of a "rapid action fund" to revive local agricultural production in case of crisis, particularly in low-income countries heavily reliant on food imports.

On the ongoing global financial, economic and food crises, Diouf stressed that "the revival of agricultural production in poor countries is the only viable and lasting way to combat hunger. We must, therefore, invest more in agriculture."

He has called for a world summit of heads of state and government to "ensure greater coherence in the governance of global food security and lay the foundations of a new system of agricultural trade that offers farmers in the developed and developing countries alike the opportunity to earn a decent living."

FAO also issued a report today warning that the global economic slowdown threatens to reduce flows of investment and assistance to developing countries, including the support to agriculture that has helped many strengthen their potato sectors.

The drop in investment, trade and potato farmer's access to credit comes at a time when the vegetable has become an important staple food and lucrative cash crop in many developing countries, with China becoming the world's biggest producer, and Bangladesh, India and Iran among the leading potato consumers.

Developed countries may be tempted to raise trade barriers, while the banking crisis will leave many farmers with no credit to invest in production in 2009, according to a statement issued by the agency.

Street musicians playing for peace

A friend sent around this video over the weekend as her way of wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season. I was moved and wanted to know more about the folks who are in it and those who are behind it. That led to the discovery of Playing For Change -- a Multimedia Movment whose mission is to promote peace through music.

Among other things, the foundation produces documentaries reflecting its mission. Director Mark Johnson wrote the following piece to describe his first film, "Playing For Change: Peace Through Music" which was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2008.(GW)

The Music of Inspiration

By Mark Johnson
Playing for Change

When trying to document music, art and heartfelt dialogue, we found that inspiration and an open mind are essential factors. The driving force for this film is to find a way to inspire the planet to come together as a human race. We wanted to focus on our connections rather than all of our differences. We believe music can break down the walls and barriers between cultures and raise the level of human understanding and connection. Here are some direct examples of what I am talking about. We traveled to New Orleans shortly after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The city felt sad and desolate, yet the music never stopped. The street musicians and music in the clubs kept the city alive and gave it a sense of hope. When we share the struggle of New Orleans with other parts of the world in the context of song, it becomes something that everyone on the planet can understand and be a part of. The same is true in South Africa. When we visited South Africa and witnessed the pain of the aftermath of Apartheid, we saw that through music we can raise the issue to a human situation rather than one of race and economics. The South Africans marching down the streets singing in groups of thousands did more to effect positive change than all the guns and weapons ever did. One of the musicians we recorded in South Africa, named Bhekani Memela, offered us this quote, "Because music knows no races, knows no boundaries, it is possible for music to bring peace around the world."

Everywhere on this planet, people play music. Some may play to celebrate life, some may play to stay as far away from the grave as possible. The reasons for playing music may differ everywhere you go, but the human impact it has on all of our souls is something we share. I believe that when people watch this film, they will feel more connected to the human race and more inspired to help each other. Perhaps nothing can do more do connect a planet so divided by war, economics, religion and race than MUSIC!! As Bob Marley said, "One great thing about music: When it hits, you feel no pain."

Playing for Change: Peace Through Music is a documentary film which demonstrates that MUSIC will change the world and help bring us all peace. The film features more than 100 musicians and includes live performances, from native Indian reservations to South African Townships to the Himalayan Mountains. Music has always been an integral part of the identity and expression of various cultures on this planet. However, music's greatest power is its ability to transcend cultural boundaries and connect us as a Human Race. -MPM


Mark Johnson is a Grammy Award-winning producer/engineer and award-winning film director. For the past decade, Mark has worked with some of the most renowned musicians and producers in the music, film and television industries. As co-founder of the Playing for Change documentaries, Mark has been perfecting an innovative, mobile technique for recording musicians outdoors, all over the world, and combining the recordings to create "Songs Around The World." Mark is also chairman of the board for the Playing for Change Foundation, and has dedicated his life to connecting the world through music.

"Like seeing the Earth as God might see it"

I grew up -- came of age if you will -- during the Cold War-inspired Space Age. I compiled voluminous scrapbooks on most of the of the Mercury space flights beginning with John Glenn's first orbital flight which just so happened to take place on my birthday. So i ask for your forgiveness if my zealous support of the space race was politically incorrect.

NASA was pretty heady back then and apparently had a pretty good budget for outreach and public relations. I would frequently write to them for materials and would always get a response. In most cases boxes (complete with NASA logo affixed) filled with detailed reports would arrive in the mail within weeks.

I thought that President John F. Kennedy's pledge that we would land an American on the moon by the end of the decade (60s) was bold and visionary. I was a totally unapologetic space nerd and would often get into arguments with friends who thought that the money spent on the U.S. space program should have been directed to addressing critical socioeconomic issues here on Earth.

I remember the Apollo missions to the moon as if they were yesterday. (GW)

'God bless all of you . . . on the good Earth'

By Jeff Jacoby

Boston Globe

December 21, 2008

IT HAD BEEN a wretched and demoralizing year.

In April, Martin Luther King had been murdered in Memphis; in Los Angeles two months later, Bobby Kennedy was struck down. The fighting in Vietnam ground bloodily on, pushing the American death toll past 30,000 and fueling massive antiwar demonstrations at home. The United States was humiliated when North Korea captured the USS Pueblo and imprisoned its crew for 11 months. Racial tensions worsened, as segregationist George Wallace launched a third-party campaign for president. Outside the Democratic convention in Chicago, TV cameras broadcast appalling scenes of chaos and police brutality. "Seldom," Time magazine observed, "had the nation been confronted with such a congeries of doubts and discontents."

But in its final days, the annus horribilis of 1968 was unexpectedly redeemed by a dazzling display of intrepidity and ambition and nerve: Apollo 8's flight around the moon - the first human voyage to another world.

Afterward, the decision to send Apollo 8 to the moon would be called the greatest gamble in the history of the space program. The mission had originally been scheduled to test the new lunar landing vehicle while orbiting the Earth; the first moon-orbit mission wasn't planned until 1969. But the lunar lander wasn't ready. And the CIA was reporting that the Soviets were on the verge of upstaging the United States by sending a manned Soyuz spacecraft around the moon.

So NASA decided not to wait. Apollo 8 would go all the way to the moon. It was a gutsy, dangerous decision, and not just because flying without a lunar lander meant that Apollo 8's crew - Commander Frank Borman, James Lovell, and Bill Anders - would be stranded without a lifeboat if anything went wrong. Houston still didn't have the software Apollo would need to navigate to the moon. And the huge Saturn V rocket required to launch a spacecraft beyond the Earth's gravity was still being perfected, and had never been used on a manned flight. By today's standards, the risks were unthinkable. Apollo's program director, Chris Kraft, figured the odds of getting the crew home safely at 50-50.

Yet in the end, it was a triumph. Apollo 8 lifted off on the morning of Dec. 21. The massive rocket, as tall as a 35-story building and burning 20 tons of fuel per second, performed flawlessly. Two years earlier, Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon had flown Gemini 11 to a record-breaking 850 miles above the Earth. Now Borman, Lovell, and Anders were on their way to beating that record by more than 230,000 miles.

They reached their target on Dec. 24, easing into orbit around the moon just 69 hours after leaving home. As an Earthbound audience of hundreds of millions tuned in, the astronauts of Apollo 8 - the first humans to view the lunar surface up close - described what they were seeing.

"The moon is essentially gray, no color," Lovell reported, according to a transcript. "Looks like plaster of Paris, or sort of a grayish deep sand." Borman described it as "vast, lonely, forbidding," a "great expanse of nothing that looks rather like clouds and clouds of pumice stone."

But it was only when they turned their camera away from the moon and back to the heavens that the full emotional impact of their achievement began to sink in.

"Oh, my God," Anders gasped. "Look at that picture over there!"

"What is it?" asked Borman.

"The Earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty."

Rising above the horizon, over a bleak lunar surface, was the world they had come from, a delicate marble of blue and white, floating alone in the darkness, home to everyone and everything they or anyone had ever known - "the most beautiful, heart-catching sight of my life," Borman later said, "one that sent a torrent of nostalgia, of sheer homesickness, surging through me." It was like a glimpse of Creation - like seeing the Earth as God might see it.

For their Christmas Eve broadcast from lunar orbit, NASA had instructed the astronauts simply: "Say something appropriate." And so, as half a billion people watched and listened 40 years ago this week, they did. Anders began:

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth; and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light.

Lovell took up the reading after Anders, and then Borman brought the broadcast to an end.

And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering-together of the waters called He seas. And God saw that it was good.

"And from the crew of Apollo 8," Borman finished, "we close with, Good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you - all of you on the good Earth."

A short, powerful primer on climate change

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip from Leo Murray on Vimeo.

Art and science can be a powerful combination. This short, powerful video is a case in point.

Although parts are very disturbing, I would encourage teachers to show it in their classrooms. As the title suggests, the first order of business is waking up as many people as possible and confronting them with the problem. For many that will lead to a "freak out". Then, after helping them get a grip, follow up with discussions around our options for addressing this serious problem. There are many ways to bring the discussion down to the local level so as to empower individuals, families and communities to take meaningful action. (GW)

Revitalizing island food systems in Maine

Maybe it's the recession. Maybe it's just a sense of wanting to gain some measure of control over their basic needs. Perhaps it's a combination of these and other factors. Whatever the reason, Maine islands are producing more food than in they have in decades.

New England imports more than 90 per cent of its food and energy. That leaves the region incredibly vulnerable to outside sources to meet two crucial basic needs. Reversing this trend will require concerted action at every level of civic engagement. (GW)

Island farms make a comeback

By Bridget Huber
The Working Waterfront
December 18, 2008

When North Haven farmer Doug Record brought his first harvest of island-produced honey to the local farmers' market this summer, he sold all twenty pounds of the liquid gold in as many minutes. The next time he brought it to market, the same thing happened. There was no third time; customers came to his house and bought the rest before Record could get it to market.

Record and his wife, Julie, operate a farm called Sheep Meadow, which also produces eggs, meat, wool, and vegetables, all sold on North Haven. The Records are among a modest but growing number of small-scale farmers who, acre by acre, are revitalizing island food systems in Maine.

"It's partly a trend that we're seeing, with people wanting to buy local food. But people also want to support local business and especially a North Haven entity like ours. And the product we sell is good," said Julie Record.

A century ago, Maine islands grew much more of their own food than they do today. At island agriculture's peak, most families grew their own vegetables and raised animals and some larger farms supplied several towns with dairy and even exported produce to Boston.

By the final third of last century, most of those farms had gone by the wayside due to a number of factors including increased access to the mainland and its grocery stores, rising property values and larger numbers of young people opting to take off-island jobs.

Over the last several years, a number of new farms have taken root on the islands. Interest in local, sustainable food continues to rise, and many involved with these fledgling operations say they can't keep up with demand for their products and only expect to see their business grow in the coming years.

"There is a tremendous amount of energy and enthusiasm around this issue on the islands," said Bill McGuinness, a Little Cranberry Island resident and policy specialist at the Island Institute. McGuinnes organized the Sustainable Island Living Conference, to be held Nov. 8, where islanders will discuss community food production and island gardening, among many other topics.

These days, Maine islands are producing more food than in they have in decades. More island residents are planting backyard vegetable patches and many island schools have gardens that provide both produce for school lunches as well as fodder for hands-on science classes. Summer farmers' markets are well attended on many islands and small-scale commercial farms have popped up on several islands, such as Vinalhaven, Islesford, Chebeague and North Haven.

Still, island farmers, like their mainland counterparts, face many financial and technical challenges. Some of these issues are exacerbated on islands where land prices and taxes are steep, markets are limited and soil is often poorly suited to agriculture.

Though daunting, many of these obstacles are surmountable, said Russell Libby, executive director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA), which trains hundreds of aspiring farmers through its apprentice and journeyperson programs each year. Libby is speaking at the Sustainable Island Living Conference. In addition, Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch, organic farming experts and co-owners of Four Season Farm in Brooksville, a nationally recognized model of small-scale sustainable agriculture, will be speaking.

Though it may be unrealistic for new farmers to buy land to cultivate on an island, Libby said many large landowners are looking for ways to make their property more productive and might be willing to lease their land to farmers who would farm it responsibly.

Libby said farms could potentially create jobs on islands, too. Farms typically begin to hire help when they hit the three-to-five acre mark, Libby said.

"People are going to need to figure out relationships that allow beneficial land use, and it's got to be beneficial to both sides," said Libby, adding that some large landowners might be more interested in leasing land in exchange for fresh vegetables than the amount of rent a farmer could afford to pay. "The relevant part is can you provide food to the families that own that land. And can you farm in a way that's sufficiently responsible? That means not running tractors at four a.m. or spreading manure of the day of the Fourth of July picnic," he said.

Sheep Meadow is an example of what shape a creative land use arrangement could take. The Records are caretakers for a family, headed by John and Caroline Macomber, who summer on North Haven. The Records live, farm and operate greenhouses on the Macomber land. Some of the food they produce goes to the Macombers and the rest is sold on the island. "The people we work for are very wonderful, generous people and they support our endeavors. They also appreciate knowing where some of their food comes from," said Record.

If such an arrangement didn't exist, Record said it would be unlikely she and her husband could farm on the island, "Land values are just so high that we wouldn't be able to do it," she said.

But even people who own land on islands may not be able to farm it because of high property taxes, said Sandra Oliver, food historian and frequent Working Waterfront columnist, who called taxes and deer "the two main impediments to agriculture on the islands."

Oliver, who raises pigs and vegetables on Isleboro, said "If the community seriously wants to feed itself, it's going to have to do something to change the tax codes or ordinances so that the land under cultivation for food is not taxed as if it could more profitably grow a 22-room cottage," she said.

High taxes aside, Oliver said island farmers have advantages, "Otherwise, we have an ideal setup," she said, mentioning Isleboro's school garden that has raised awareness about local food and the island's popular farmers' market. She also said the island's growers have a captive market, since island stores are often more expensive than mainland ones and do not carry much fresh, high-quality produce.

For North Haven farmer Jen Porter, a local inn and restaurant, Nebo Lodge is also an important outlet for her produce. Porter said Amanda Hallowell, the inn's chef, has been a huge supporter. "I have certainly felt a huge boost this summer," said Porter, who estimates that she sold 90 percent of her produce to the Nebo Lodge. "Amanda is very open to what we are growing and will arrange the menu around what we have available," she said.

Porter, who got her start working on farms for three years in Chile, said she appreciates the camaraderie between farmers on North Haven. "I definitely think there a wonderful sense of camaraderie, there's zero competition," she said. Record echoed the sentiment, saying her husband and other beekeepers on the island often share information.

Furthering the community spirit, Porter, who helped found the island's farmers' market, said she may team up with two other island farmers next growing season and farm collaboratively, and hopes to plow up some of her land and make it available as a community garden space for other island residents. Porter said there isn't huge money in farming, but it brings other rewards, "We probably break even when you look at it all in terms of paying for babysitters and farm help but I think it's the beginning of pretty exciting movement," she said.

Even under the best of circumstances, most small farmers make razor-thin profit margins, but McGuinness and several of the farmers interviewed said that while it might be hard for island farmers to support themselves entirely through agriculture, it could bring in a significant part of their yearly income. Island farmers might boost their incomes by developing produce-based cottage industries such as jam or salsa, he added.

McGuinness said the Island Institute is looking into ways to support island agriculture, and plans to devote more energy to the issue in the future as a way to increase the sustainability of Maine's year round island communities, "The more self-sufficient the islands are, the stronger they are. It's not that we want to be disconnected from the mainland. We want to be connected to the mainland, but we don't want to be dependent on it," he said.

Porter said there are issues she'd like to see addressed, such as how to make island-grown produce available and affordable to year-round island residents. Record would like to see more would-be farmers matched up with the farms that sit unused on North Haven. And, in addition to tax reform, Oliver wants to see farmland that has been overgrown by trees reclaimed and used as pasture.

The three agree that the market will support more farmers and interest in island-grown food will continue to grow. "It seems like interest is brewing everywhere for local food and people want strong connections to where their food comes from," said Porter.

"All we can do now is cut, and pray"

Mark Jacobson, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University recently published the results of a study pitting twelve combinations of electric power generation and vehicular motivation against each other. He evaluated and ranked them based on eleven factors.

The results of his mathematical ranking are both rational and unexpected. Wind power emerged as the overall victor. When teamed with battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, it claimed the top two spots by winning seven of the eleven categories.

There are alternatives to the internal combustion engine and our continuing dependence on oil. It is clearly time to aggressively pursue them. (GW)

OPEC Plans Record Output Cut

Crude Prices Plunge Anyway on Falling Demand, Doubts Cartel Will Follow Through

By Neil King, Jr.
Wall Street Journal
December 18, 2008

ORAN, Algeria -- The world's big oil producers, flush and powerful just months ago, said they would cut crude supplies by a record amount but found even that couldn't stop prices from sliding to their lowest level in four years.

The plunge in oil prices has slammed oil-producing economies and shelved important energy projects. Oil has fallen by more than two-thirds from its high last July, turning a boom year into one of the most alarming in memory for producers. On Wednesday, OPEC said it would cut output by 2.2 million barrels a day, or about 7%, after slicing 1.7 million barrels a day over the past three months.

OPEC President Chakib Khelil, Algeria's oil minister, said Wednesday in Oran that the cartel had agreed to cut production by 2.2 million barrels a day.

The cuts by the 12-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, meant to be effective Jan. 1, are huge by OPEC standards and clearly intended to send a message. They would mark the swiftest reduction in the cartel's production since it began setting output quotas in 1982.

The new cut was 200,000 barrels a day more than expected, and two other big producers, Russia and Azerbaijan, said they may contribute an additional 600,000 barrels a day in cuts to show support. "We needed to do something big. Demand is falling fast," said Kuwait Oil Minister Mohammad Al Olaim.

But within minutes of the announcement, U.S. benchmark crude prices fell sharply. They ended up down 8.12%, or $3.54, to $40.06, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The plunge in oil prices is a rare dose of good news for the U.S., Japan and other struggling economies that rely heavily on oil imports. The sharp drop in oil prices amounts to the equivalent of a massive stimulus package for big consuming countries, worth hundreds of billions of dollars. That relief has taken some pressure off of airlines, shipping companies and commuters, and over time can pare the cost of goods ranging from car tires to children's toys. After soaring to more than $150 a barrel in intraday trading, oil prices have since plunged by more than $100 a barrel in just five months.

The extraordinary OPEC summit here on the shores of the Mediterranean reflected much of the grimness and tension now overshadowing the world economy. Delegates expressed astonishment at how deeply the economic slump has eaten into world-wide energy demand.

OPEC now satisfies around 40% of world oil needs, which stand just under 86 million barrels a day. OPEC officials acknowledge that Wednesday's agreed cuts probably won't reverse the fall in prices. A rebound may only happen, they say, when traders begin to see real declines in oil inventories and some hint that demand in consuming countries is beginning to pick up.

In a sign of the overall mood, Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali Naimi said he hoped the output cut would "bring the market into balance." But he acknowledged that the unprecedented move "may lead to higher prices or may not."

Heard on the Street: No Hope for OPEC

Heard on the Street's Liam Denning explains to Simon Constable why the oil cartel's production cuts are not enough to bolster crude prices. Plus, he details the outlook for energy consumption.

Unlike when prices were soaring and consuming countries clamored for more supply, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait and the other big OPEC producers now are mainly bystanders in a much bigger drama. "All we can do now is cut, and pray," said one OPEC delegate.

Collapsing oil prices have put dozens of big oil and other energy projects on hold. OPEC officials worry that the economic slowdown could weigh on oil prices for a year or even longer, keeping droves of important new oil projects from Brazil to the Persian Gulf from being economically viable.

OPEC ministers said in a statement that if unchecked, the rapid slump in prices could soon jeopardize "the investments required to guarantee adequate energy supplies in the medium to long term."

Shrinking oil revenues have also begun to eat a big hole in the budgets of oil-producing nations, several of which have based government spending on prices well over $70 a barrel.

Both Iran and Venezuela have warned their citizens of leaner times ahead as leaders rein in social spending. The pain has been particularly acute in Russia, where falling energy prices and the international credit crisis have halted a nearly decadelong boom.

After a long run of soaring prices and rising demand, OPEC faces its strongest headwinds in decades. Demand is retreating sharply -- and may never return to its 2007 levels -- in the U.S., the world's largest oil consumer. Europe and Japan are also skimping. But most chilling for OPEC are increasing signs of sluggishness in China, until now the primary driver of demand growth.

Oil demand in China fell in November for the first time in four years. Next year, demand is likely to grow by less than 3%, according to New York-based energy analyst Paul Ting, almost certainly too little to outweigh the declines in developed economies.

Russia, now the world's largest oil producer since Saudi Arabia began cutting output in August, joined the world's other top oil exporters here in an attempted display of solidarity, as did Azerbaijan. Neither country is part of OPEC, but the cartel is eager to get other exporters to share in the pain of output reductions.

Russian Deputy Premier Igor Sechin said his country's oil companies had already cut output last month by around 320,000 barrels a day, and could impose a similar cut in the months ahead if market conditions warrant. Azerbaijan said it was prepared to curtail output by more than a third, or around 300,000 barrels a day.

There was widespread surprise at the Azeri announcement in the oil industry. Most of Azerbaijan's oil production comes from a big complex of fields in the Caspian Sea, Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli, or ACG, which is operated by a consortium led by BP PLC. A person close to the British oil giant said the Azeri oil minister hadn't discussed the output cut with BP prior to the Oran announcement. "Clearly, clarification will be sought when he returns to Baku," the person said. BP declined to comment.

Russia's claim that it would cut oil output by around 320,000 barrels a day if prices continue to fall carries little weight, because the country already is expected to produce less oil next year.

—Guy Chazan and Spencer Swartz contributed to this article.

Who will bail out the atmosphere?

If you really care to know just how disconnected from Nature the “powers that be” have become you simply need to compare their responses to news we’re receiving of late from the financial and scientific communities. Everyone from bankers to businesspeople to the average person on the street is (rightfully) concerned over recent developments on Wall Street and in Detroit.

On the other hand the news from NASA that glaciers around the world are melting at a much more rapid rate than previously thought may warrant a mention on the evening news.

But probably only if it’s a slow news day. (GW)

Ice melting across globe at accelerating rate, NASA says

By Emanuella Grinberg
CNN
December 17, 2008

Between 1.5 trillion and 2 trillion tons of ice in Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska has melted at an accelerating rate since 2003, according to NASA scientists, in the latest signs of what they say is global warming.

Using new satellite technology that measures changes in mass in mountain glaciers and ice sheets, NASA geophysicist Scott Luthcke concluded that the losses amounted to enough water to fill the Chesapeake Bay 21 times.

"The ice tells us in a very real way how the climate is changing," said Luthcke, who will present his findings this week at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco, California.

NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE, mission uses two orbiting satellites to measure the "mass balance" of a glacier, or the net annual difference between ice accumulation and ice loss.

"A few degrees of change [in temperature] can increase the amount of mass loss, and that contributes to sea level rise and changes in ocean current," Luthcke said.

The data reflects findings from NASA colleague Jay Zwally, who uses different satellite technology to observe changing ice volume in Greenland, the Arctic and Antarctica.

In the past five years, Greenland has lost between 150 gigatons and 160 gigatons each year, (one gigaton equals one billion tons) or enough to raise global sea levels about .5 mm per year, said Zwally, who will also present his findings at the conference this week.

GRACE measured that mountain glaciers in the Gulf of Alaska lost about 84 gigatons each year, about five times the average annual flow of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, according to NASA.

"Every few extra inches of sea level have very significant economic impacts, because they change the sea level, increase flooding and storm damage," said, Zwally, ICESat Project Scientist. "It's a warning sign."

Melting ice, especially in Greenland and the Arctic, is also thought to contribute to global warming, Zwally said. When the vast ice sheets and glaciers melt, they lose their reflective power, and instead, oceans and land absorb the heat, causing the Arctic waters and the atmosphere to warm faster.

"We're seeing the impacts of global warming in many areas of our own lives, like agriculture," Zwally said.

As an example, he cited the pine beetle infestation of this summer in the forests of Colorado and western Canada.

"They were believed to be spreading because the winter was not cold enough to kill them, and that's destroying forests," he said.

In the 1990s, Greenland took in as much snow and water as it let out, Zwally said. But now, about 15 years later, sea levels are rising about 50 percent faster, making the global climate situation even more unpredictable.

"The best estimates are that sea levels will rise about 18 to 36 inches by the end of the century, but because of what's going on and how fast things are changing, there's a lot of uncertainty," he said.

A flawed "World Energy Outlook"

It’s more important than ever that we know what our options for success are because leaving it to the “experts” can be a risky proposition to say the least.

The stakes are just to high for us not to be thinking for ourselves. (GW)

A limited world outlook

Editorial
Windpower Monthly
December 2008

Last month, the head of the OECD's energy strategy advisory body, Nobuo Tanaka, spoke out on the pressing need to radically change the global electricity supply system for the sake of the economy, the climate and the future well being of society. The strong words were spoken shortly after Tanaka released the International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook, an annually updated bible of facts and figures used to guide energy strategy around the globe. For the first time the report unequivocally advocates a huge reduction in the use of fossil fuel and a correspondingly huge increase in energy saving, nuclear power and the use of renewable sources of energy, wind in particular.

Coming from the International Energy Agency (IEA), an organisation born in 1974 with the primary task of guarding the world against the effects of further disruptions in oil supplies, the demand for action packs considerable punch. Tanaka believes the IEA's report "will provide a solid basis for all countries seeking to negotiate a new global climate deal."

Ironically, that is just what is worrying environmental organisations and the renewable energy industry. They argue that the report seriously underestimates the potential of renewables and overestimates the role of nuclear power and carbon capture and storage, an as yet unproven technology. Any energy strategy based on the IEA's flawed assumptions will seriously brake the current rapid growth of the renewable energy industry, they fear.

Even the IEA's most ambitious scenario limits wind power's growth to less than its current trajectory and far less than the wind industry's projections. That point is demonstrated by Windpower Monthly in a unique graphic illustration in the current issue of the magazine accompanying our concise examination of what the IEA claims and what its critics have responded with.

"The IEA has produced an example of what not to do," says Sven Teske of environmental campaign group Greenpeace. "Paying lip service to the climate change crisis, the IEA forecasts more fossil fuel consumption than the planet can handle, while promoting carbon capture (CCS) and storage and nuclear power," he says.

Greenpeace points out that there are no commercial CCS plants operating or planned, "yet the IEA believes two to three coal-fired power plants equipped with CCS will be brought online every month between now and 2030." It is "dangerous to rely on a technology for climate protection which virtually does not exist yet," it says. The projected uptake of nuclear energy in the IEA scenarios are "equally unrealistic," says Greenpeace. It points out that the grid connection of a new nuclear reactor every month until 2030 is "a volume far beyond the nuclear industry's capacity."

Greenpeace, in a just released Energy [R]evolution scenario using the same assumptions for economic growth, fuel costs and population development as the IEA, demonstrates how wind power can contribute up to 20% of global electricity by 2030, double that proposed by the IEA. That would cost just 8% more than the $13.6 trillion investment in the power sector the IEA says would be required under its business as usual scenario, but saves more than $18 trillion in fuel costs, says Teske.

From the World Wind Energy Association, Stefan Gsänger says the IEA fails to fully realise the dynamics and economics of renewable energy. "The new World Energy Outlook may, as a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy, mislead policy makers to make poor decisions by not putting enough focus on renewable energy and thus slowing down the renewable energy deployment rates," he warns.

For the truth about wind power's full potential, from an independent source of expert knowledge, subscribe to Windpower Monthly today. We are wedded to the principles of factual and responsible journalism. Our independence is your guarantee of accuracy.