Oil majors face backlash as era of big profits returns

PARIS, France — Soaring energy prices have brought massive profits to oil majors -- along with fierce criticism from environmentalists and politicians at a time when consumers are left with rising bills.

US firm ExxonMobil, France's TotalEnergies, and UK giants Shell and BP announced in the past week 2021 profits totalling a whopping $66.7 billion.

It marked a huge turnaround from 2020, when they posted losses as the pandemic emerged, prompting lockdowns that brought the world economy to a grinding halt and caused crude prices to collapse.

But oil and gas prices rallied big time last year, surging to $70 per barrel after briefly sinking into negative territory in 2020.

The main international and US contracts rose to seven-year highs in January and now sit at around $90. Gas prices, meanwhile, hit records in Europe.

"Oil companies benefited from an extraordinary alignment of the planets," said Moez Ajmi, oil industry expert at EY consultancy.

In addition to higher energy prices, energy firms "cleaned up" their assets to only keep the most profitable ones, Ajmi said.

The companies also strengthened their cost-cutting policies which started in a previous price slump in 2014.

A gradual increase in output by OPEC and its allies has also helped.

ExxonMobil went from a $22.4 billion loss in 2020 to a $23 billion profit in 2021. 

Shell was $20.1 billion in the green last year after a $21.7 billion loss in 2020. 

TotalEnergies went from a historic $7.2 billion loss to a 15-year high profit of $16 billion.

BP's recovery was not as big, going from $20.3 billion in the red to $7.6 billion in the green.

Prices at the pump and utility bills, meanwhile, have gone up for consumers.

'Slap in the face'

BP said the result would allow it to accelerate "the greening" of the company.

But the performances at the companies triggered calls for a windfall tax on the profits of energy firms in the UK.

"These profits are a slap in the face to the millions of people dreading their next energy bill," Greenpeace UK's head of climate Kate Blagojevic said in a statement.

"BP and Shell are raking in billions from the gas price crisis while enjoying one of the most favourable tax regimes in the world for offshore drillers," she said.

"And these are the same companies responsible for pushing our world closer to catastrophic climate change."

Seeking to head off a political storm, the government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced last week a package of financial support after the state energy regulator lifted prices.

The opposition Labour Party said it was not enough.

Finance minister Rishi Sunak's "energy plans last week left families more worried than ever," tweeted Labour shadow minister Rachel Reeves after the oil companies published their results.

"It's time for Labour's plan for a one-off windfall tax on oil & gas producers to cut bills."

Sunak rejected the tax idea.

More profits

With a presidential election looming in France in April, Green candidate Yannick Jadot spoke out against profits made "on the back of French men and women" while "gas and petrol bills rise for the benefit of shareholders".

TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne said that if the company paid more to governments, "it would be at the expense of investments, workers or shareholders".

But in apparent move to fend off criticism, TotalEnergies announced this week a discount at the pump in rural areas of France along with a 100-euro voucher for people struggling to pay their gas bills.

Oil majors, however, could be in for another banner year for their bottom lines as analysts forecast prices climbing to $100 per barrel.

"The health crisis appears to be ending, the economic recoveries in China, the United States and Europe don't appear to be flagging, supply continues to be limited due to a lack of oil investments in the past two years and environmental pressure," Ajmi said.

"So, yes, the profit rebound of the oil majors could continue in 2022."

Agence France-Presse

Airlines' fuel practices feed doubts over climate commitment

PARIS, France — Airlines have taken steps to reduce their carbon footprints under the gaze of public opinion, but the pressure of the bottom line means some fly with extra fuel, boosting emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases.

As the highly competitive air travel industry is being pushed to reduce its carbon emissions—which it puts at two to three percent of the global total—the practice known as fuel tankering has become an acid test for airlines' commitment to really go green.

In fuel tankering, an aircraft's tanks are filled sufficiently at the departure airport to avoid having to take on additional fuel for the return leg at a destination airport where fuel costs may be higher, or there are supply issues.

According to a study by Eurocontrol, the practice is a money-saving strategy for airlines as it outweighs the cost of additional fuel needed to carry the extra weight on the outbound flight.

"Aviation is a very competitive market and each airline needs to minimise operating costs, in order to keep its ticket prices as competitive as possible," said the group, an inter-governmental organisation that helps harmonise regulations in the sector.


With fuel accounting for up to 25 percent of airlines' operating expenses, "saving fuel has become a major challenge for aviation", it added.

Eurocontrol found that in Europe fuel tankering concerns about one in six flights, on average resulting in an extra 136 kg of fuel burned.

Despite the additional fuel cost of 75 euros it still results in a net saving of 126 euros per flight. That saving also includes nine euros for purchasing carbon allowances for the 428kg of additional CO2 generated.


The report estimated that in Europe fuel tankering could generate net savings of 265 million euros per year for airlines, while adding 286,000 tonnes of fuel burnt and 901,000 tons of CO2 emissions.

"This represents about 2,800 round-trips between Paris and New York or the annual emissions of a European city of 100,000 inhabitants," said the report.

Everybody does it...

After being called out for fuel tankering by the BBC, British Airways called it a "common practice across the airline industry" and said that it is done for "operational, safety and price reasons."

British Airways said it resorts to fuel tankering for "mainly short-haul destinations where there are considerable fuel price differences between European airports."

Willy Walsh, the head of IAG, British Airway's parent company, acknowledged that the issue shows that airlines are torn between economic and environmental imperatives.

"What we see today is that there is often a conflict between what we do that makes a commercial and financial sense and the things we should be doing from an environmental point of view," he told investors at a gathering at the beginning of November.

Germany's Lufthansa said it resorts to fuel tankering only exceptionally for operational reasons because the practice "goes against our goal of reducing carbon emissions," said a spokesman.

Air France said it practiced fuel tankering only on "some specific" routes for economic or organisational reasons.

Offsets

The airline industry adopted in 2016 a mechanism called CORSIA to offset any increase in CO2 emissions from 2020 levels using tree-planting and other schemes that absorb carbon.

This will allow the industry to continue to grow to meet rising demand for air travel without adding any additional carbon on a net basis.

Budget airline easyJet announced it plans to go further by offsetting emissions from all flights.

Most airlines have also undertaken efforts to reduce their emissions such as optimising flight paths, using electric towing vehicles or reducing the weight of seats.

But these efforts are not sufficient believes Andrew Murphy of the non-governmental organisation Transport and Environment.

"The increase of aviation emissions and stories like this show that actually the industry isn't doing enough and actually we can't just rely on the industry to cut it's own emissions," said Murphy.

"The equation is super complex" to arrive at a reduction of emissions when the volume of air traffic is expected to double every 15 to 20 years, said Pascal Fabre, an air travel expert at the consultancy Alix Partners.

The situation is even more daunting as airlines need to make money to survive, with around a dozen going out of business in the past year and a half according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

source: philstar.com

Climate change, corruption blamed for Venice flood devastation

VENICE, Italy — Much of Venice was under water on Wednesday night after the highest tide in 50 years ripped through the historic Italian city, beaching gondolas, trashing hotels and sending tourists fleeing through rapidly rising waters.

The government in Rome was expected to declare a state of emergency at a cabinet meeting on Thursday after Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte described the flooding as "a blow to the heart of our country."

Officials blamed climate change while shopkeepers on the Grand Canal raged against those who have failed to protect the UNESCO city from the high tide.


They said corruption had repeatedly delayed a barrier protection system that could have prevented the disaster.

"The city is on its knees," Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro said in an interview with national broadcaster RAI.

"There's widespread devastation," he said in the famed St Mark's Square, which bore the brunt of the flooding. "In all likelihood the damage from last night runs into hundreds of millions of euros."

The state of emergency for a natural disaster will allow the government to use "exceptional powers and means" to intervene more quickly, and Conte said his government was ready to allocate funds.

"The disaster that has struck Venice is a blow to the heart of our country," Conte said at the scene. "It hurts to see the city so damaged, its artistic heritage threatened."


St Mark's Square was calm on Wednesday evening, with just a smattering of tourists walking through the relatively dry square marked with occasional puddles.

Four Venetian friends who had gathered in the square, all wearing boots, said the relative quiet and lack of tourists was upside of an otherwise harrowing few days.

"We've never seen anything like it," said Alvise, 19.

Earlier, tourists lugging heavy suitcases waded in thigh-high boots or barefoot through the submerged alleys, as gondola and water taxi drivers baled sewage-tainted water out of their trashed vessels.

'We can't live like this' 

Dirty water was swirling around the marble tombs inside the 12th-century crypt of St Mark's Basilica, which suffered untold damage when an unprecedented high tide swept through the city.

It was closed to tourists as were many other Venice highlights including the Fenice Theatre and the Ducal Palace.

"We said last year that the basilica had aged 20 years in a high tide. It risks having aged much more than that in this one," said the building's procurator Carlo Alberto Tesserin.

A 78-year old was killed by an electric shock as the waters poured into his home.

"We ask the government to help us, the costs will be high," mayor Brugnaro tweeted. "These are the effects of climate change."

"The future of Venice is at stake," he warned. "We cannot live like this anymore."

Environment Minister Sergio Costa blamed climate change and the "tropicalization" of violent rainfall and strong winds.

"This is what is happening more and more often in the Mediterranean," Costa said on Facebook.

"Global warming will destroy our planet if we do not immediately reverse the direction."

'Acqua alta' 

The exceptionally intense "acqua alta," or high waters, peaked at 1.87 meters (six feet). Only once since records began in 1923 has the water crept even higher, reaching 1.94 meters in 1966.

"It was unbelievable. The water rose so quickly," said resident Tiziano Collarin, 59, as he surveyed the damage.

"Windows were blown out, there are those who have lost everything," he said as the flood alarm rang out to warn those in the canal city that the tide, which had receded somewhat overnight, was rising once again.

The fire brigade said it had carried out over 400 operations as well as laying on extra boats as water ambulances.

Around 160 firefighters were deployed to rescue people stranded on jetties and to recover boats broken free from their moorings.

President of the Veneto region Luca Zaia said 80 percent of the city had been submerged, causing "unimaginable damage" to the city, which has 50,000 residents but receives 36 million visitors each year.

A massive infrastructure project called MOSE has been under way since 2003 to protect the city, but it has been plagued by cost overruns, corruption scandals and delays.

The plan involves 78 gates that can be raised to protect Venice's lagoon during high tides—but a recent attempt to test part of the barrier caused worrying vibrations and engineers discovered parts had rusted.

Outside historic Venice, the Lido and Pellestrina islands were also hard hit by flooding

source: philstar.com

Climate activist Greta Thunberg declines environmental award

STOCKOLM, Sweden —  Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on Tuesday refused to accept an environmental award, saying the climate movement needed people in power to start to "listen" to "science" and not awards.

The young climate activist, who has rallied millions to her "Fridays for Future" movement, was honored at a Stockholm ceremony held by the Nordic Council, a regional body for inter-parliamentary cooperation.

Thunberg had been nominated for her efforts by both Sweden and Norway and won the organization's annual environment prize.

But after it was announced, a representative for her told the audience that she would not accept the award or the prize sum of 350,000 Danish kroner (about $52,000 or 46,800 euro), the TT news agency reported.

She addressed the decision in a post on Instagram from the United States.

"The climate movement does not need any more awards," she wrote.

"What we need is for our politicians and the people in power start to listen to the current, best available science."

While thanking the Nordic Council for the "huge honor," she also criticized Nordic countries for not living up to their "great reputation" on climate issues.


"There is no lack of bragging about this. There is no lack of beautiful words. But when it comes to our actual emissions and our ecological footprints per capita... then it’s a whole other story," Thunberg said.

Still only 16 years old, Thunberg rose to prominence after she started spending her Fridays outside Sweden's parliament in August 2018, holding a sign reading "School strike for climate."

source: philstar.com

Chill your Netflix habit, climate experts say

PARIS, France — Movie nights once required driving to the local video store to rent, rewind and return the latest blockbuster. Now on-demand video content providers offer countless binge-worthy options at the touch of a finger.

But experts say the ease of streaming services comes with a hefty environmental price tag.

Watching a half-hour show would lead to emissions of 1.6 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent, said Maxime Efoui-Hess of French think tank the Shift Project. That's equivalent to driving 3.9 miles (6.28 kilometres).

Last year, online video streaming produced emissions equivalent to Spain and that amount may double in the next six years, according to the Shift Project.

While most of the online traffic -- 34 percent -- is related to streaming videos, on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu, for example, the next biggest sector is online porn.

"Digital videos come in very large file sizes and (are) getting bigger with each new generation of higher definition video," said Gary Cook of Greenpeace, which monitors the IT sector's energy footprint.

"More data equals more energy needed to maintain a system that is ready to stream this video to your device at a moment's notice," Cook told AFP.

Much of the energy needed for streaming services is consumed by the data centre, which delivers data to your computer or device, explained Cook.

The centres contribute about 0.3 percent of all carbon emissions, according to an article by Nature.

Experts remain divided on how much that number will grow. 

'Waste of resources on all levels' 

"For energy consumption to stay flat for the next five to 10 years, significant improvement in IT equipment and data centre energy performance must be made or our appetite for computations must diminish," said Dale Sartor of the Center of Expertise for Data Centers, linked to the US Department of Energy.

Anders Andrae of Huawei Technologies told AFP he estimated they would consume as much as 4.1 percent of global electricity by 2030.

Web-based video traffic is expected to increase four times from 2017 to 2022 and account for 80 percent of all internet traffic by 2022, according to the CISCO Network.

Netflix is continuing to expand globally —- the company reported a 53-percent increase in international revenue for streaming subscriptions between 2017 and 2018. And Disney and Apple are launching their own streaming services this year.

Meanwhile, the equipment used to view videos is getting larger -— the average screen size shot up from 22 inches (55 centimetres) in 1997 to an expected 50 inches by 2021, according to the Consumer Technology Association.

"The changing screen size and related shift to digital video technology has set the stage for higher definition and thus larger file sizes that we are streaming," said Cook.

Screens with 4K resolution use about 30 percent more energy than high-definition screens, according to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council. Last year, 8K screens made their debut.

The consequence is "a waste of resources at all levels", added Laurent Lefevre of the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation.

Experts suggest that viewers disable autoplay and stream over Wi-Fi in lower-definition formats. The worst-case scenario is watching over a 3G connection on a mobile device, said Lefevre.

The Shift Project offers a browser extension that monitors internet use, displaying the amount of electricty used, the CO2 that electricity produces, and how far the user would have to drive to match those emissions.

Cook emphasizes the most impactful change consumers can make is through their wallets.

"Exercising collective responsibility, with individuals demanding internet giants rapidly transition their data centres to renewable energy, has been the biggest driver thus far," he said. 

source: philstar.com

Greta Thunberg berates leaders as UN climate summit falls short

UNITED NATIONS, United States — An emotional Greta Thunberg tore into world leaders at a UN climate summit Monday, accusing them of betraying her generation by failing to tackle greenhouse gas emissions, as announcements by major economies fell far short of expectations.

The Swedish teen's impassioned speech, in which she repeated the words "How dare you" four times, was the defining moment of the meeting, called by UN chief Antonio Guterres to reinvigorate the faltering Paris climate agreement.

Ahead of the conference, the United Nations issued a release saying 66 countries vowed to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, along with 10 regions, 102 cities, and scores of businesses.

But pre-summit predictions of new, headline-grabbing commitments, particularly by the likes of China and India, failed to match reality, angering environmental groups.

The world's top scientists believe long-term temperature rise must be limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels to prevent runaway warming with catastrophic effects.

But rather than peaking, the level of emissions being released into the atmosphere are at an all-time high, triggering global weather hazards from heat waves to intense hurricanes and raging wildfires.

New data released Monday showed the 2019 Arctic sea ice minimum is ranked at second-lowest in the 41-year satellite record, effectively tied with 2007 and 2016.

"I shouldn't be up here. I should be back at school on the other side of the ocean," said Thunberg, 16, who has become the global face of a growing youth movement against climate inaction that mobilized millions in a worldwide strike on Friday.

"You come to us young people for hope. How dare you?" she thundered, her voice at times breaking with emotion.

Matters did not improve much as a succession of national leaders took to the podium saying they understood the gravity of the situation but then failing to announce concrete plans.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not say explicitly whether his country would enhance its commitments made under the Paris agreement -- though he did say it was working on more than doubling its renewable energy capacity.

There was also no new announcement by China, the world's biggest emitter. Senior foreign policy official Wang Yi spoke instead about the need for multilateralism, taking a veiled swipe at US President Donald Trump for pulling out of the Paris accord on taking office.

"The withdrawal of certain parties will not shake the collective will of the international community," he said.

Environmental and campaign groups reacted with almost unanimous disappointment.

"I think Greta's impassioned cry for sanity and for actually listening and acting based on the science was ignored," Greenpeace International chief Jennifer Morgan told AFP.

Trump surprise

Fewer than half of the 136 heads of government or state in New York this week to attend the UN General Assembly attended on Monday.

Trump, who announced his intent to withdraw the US from the Paris agreement and has heaped scorn on climate science, had been expected to skip the event but made a brief unscheduled appearance, spending a few minutes in the hall, where he applauded Modi's speech and then left.

Among those absent were President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, under whose leadership the Amazon rainforest is continuing to burn at record rates, and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, whose government has pursued an aggressively pro-coal agenda.

Laurence Tubiana, one of the architects of the Paris agreement, told AFP the summit that Chinese lack of action was linked to its internal politics as it prepares its next five-year-plan.

But she said that she saw progress too.

"The big win is these group of countries who are for net zero by 2050," she said.

"The next step is to have them explain how they do that and what they do immediately." 

Increased urgency

Earlier, opening the summit, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: "The climate emergency is a race we are losing, but it is a race we can win."

French President Emmanuel Macron invited his counterparts from Chile, Colombia and Bolivia to a meeting where $500 million in extra funds were pledged by major donors.

Macron also lauded Russia, which ratified the Paris agreement on Monday, and said Europe must do more, repeating a vow to close coal-fired plants by 2022.

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, repeated recently announced pledges including $55 billion for a new innovation and technology package and net zero emissions by 2050.

And British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the UK would double its climate change funding through an overseas development program to $14.4 billion over five years.

In his closing comments, Guterres emphasized the positives, highlighting the growing action from the corporate sector, commitments from countries to plant more than 11 billion trees.

But he added: "We need more concrete plans, more ambition from more countries and more businesses, saying the next critical landmark would come at a conference in Santiago in December.

source: philstar.com

Environmental activists pluck plastic from world's beaches on mass cleanup day

PARIS, France — Thousands of volunteers wielding nets and bin bags scoured coasts, parks and riverbanks across the globe Saturday, in a litter-picking drive highlighting the vast quantity of trash dumped worldwide, a day after mass international climate protests.

Campaigners took part in World Cleanup Day from Manila to the Mediterranean, as hundreds of thousands of people across the world take part in demonstrations and activities calling for urgent action on the environment.

Young people have been at the forefront of the movement, with masses of children skipping school on Friday for a global climate strike, which teen activist Greta Thunberg said was "only the beginning".

Some four million people filled city streets around the world on Friday, organisers said, in what was billed as the biggest ever protest against the threat posed to the planet by rising temperatures.

It kicked off a week of climate action called for by Thunberg, who was among several hundred young activists attending a climate summit at the United Nations on Saturday.

The World Cleanup Day on Saturday is an initiative that has got millions into the streets and cleaning up litter across the globe since it began just over a decade ago.

In France, volunteers posted images of their trash hauls on social media -- heaps of assorted waste, soft drink cans and plastic containers.

A climate protest on the streets of Paris attracted some 15,000 people, according to a tally by independent consultancy Occurrence, but the rally was marred by clashes between security forces and a relatively small number of troublemakers. 


"The conditions for a non-violent march are not in place," Greenpeace, a co-organiser of the event, said on Twitter, as police fired teargas at protesters. 

'For us to help'

While the types of trash collected varied, the common material in the bin bags across the planet was plastic, amid surging concerns over the environmental costs of single use items and microplastics in world waterways. 

Plastic pollution is a major problem across Southeast Asia, but particularly in the Philippines, which -- along with China, Vietnam and Indonesia -- is frequently listed among the world's worst offenders.

In the Philippine capital, some 10,000 people swept across a long stretch of beach on heavily polluted Manila Bay, clutching sacks they filled with rubbish.

"It's for us to help the environment, especially here in Manila, there's a lot of garbage," Mae Angela Areglado, a 20-year-old student told AFP as she pitched in with the cleanup -- held right next to the city's huge Baseco slum.

"(Plastic is) affecting the marine life because they think that it is food," she added.

In the Pacific island nation of Fiji, which is among the countries worst affected by sea level rises and has become a vocal advocate for global climate action, people scoured palm-fringed beaches west of the capital Suva, heaving discarded car tyres and engine parts from the coast.

On Australia's Bondi beach activists sifted through the sand, carting off bits of plastic and cigarette butts.

Youth leading way

The mass cleanup is coordinated by the Let's Do It Foundation, which began life in Estonia and says that 18 million people from 157 countries participated in the global cleanup day last year. This year, it says more than 160 countries are taking part.

"Garbage is a global problem and it affects all the people in the world. It knows no state borders," said the organisation's president Heidi Solba in a statement.

The group said about 30,000 people are participating in Estonia on Saturday in a drive focusing on small litter like bottle tops and cigarette butts.

Mart Normet, leader of the initiative in Estonia, said he drew hope from the enthusiasm of young people.

"When I look at the new photos on Facebook, I can see that the new generation is bringing a completely new attitude. Littering and damaging consumption are a thing of the past," he said.

In Vietnam's capital Hanoi, around 1,400 volunteers went searching for litter under the scorching sun.

"Although our actions are very small -- like cleaning trash from the sidewalk -- it could spread a meaningful message," 18-year-old Hoang Thi Hoan told AFP, as motorists zipped by on a busy street.

Friday's strike organisers 350.org said the youth-led rallies were the start of 5,800 protests across 163 countries over the next week.

UN chief Antonio Guterres met young activists in New York on Saturday, telling them: "There is a change in momentum... due to your initiative and to the courage, with which you have started these movements."

A landmark UN report to be unveiled next week will warn global warming and pollution are ravaging Earth's oceans and icy regions in ways that could unleash misery on a global scale.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said in August that the level of microplastics in drinking-water is not yet dangerous for humans but called for more research into potential future risk and a reduction in plastic waste.

Seventy-nine percent of the plastic ever made has ended up dumped, with little reused or destroyed despite recycling and other initiatives to curb use, a UN report from 2018 said.

source: philstar.com

Science Says: Amount of straws, plastic pollution is huge

WASHINGTON  — Cities and nations are looking at banning plastic straws and stirrers in hopes of addressing the world's plastic pollution problem. The problem is so large, though, that scientists say that's not nearly enough.

Australian scientists Denise Hardesty and Chris Wilcox estimate, using trash collected on U.S. coastlines during cleanups over five years, that there are nearly 7.5 million plastic straws lying around America's shorelines. They figure that means 437 million to 8.3 billion plastic straws are on the entire world's coastlines.

But that huge number suddenly seems small when you look at all the plastic trash bobbing around oceans. University of Georgia environmental engineering professor Jenna Jambeck calculates that nearly 9 million tons (8 million metric tons) end up in the world's oceans and coastlines each year, as of 2010, according to her 2015 study in the journal Science .

That's just in and near oceans. Each year more than 35 million tons (31.9 million metric tons) of plastic pollution are produced around Earth and about a quarter of that ends up around the water.

"For every pound of tuna we're taking out of the ocean, we're putting two pounds of plastic in the ocean," says ocean scientist Sherry Lippiatt, California regional coordinator for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's marine debris program.

Seabirds can ingest as much as 8 percent of their body weight in plastic, which for humans "is equivalent to the average woman having the weight of two babies in her stomach," says Hardesty of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.

Organizers of Earth Day, which is Sunday, have proclaimed ending plastics pollution this year's theme. And following in the footsteps of several U.S. cities such as Seattle and Miami Beach, British Prime Minister Theresa May in April called on the nations of the British commonwealth to consider banning plastic straws, coffee stirrers and plastic swabs with cotton on the end.

McDonald's will test paper straws in some U.K. locations next month and keep all straws behind the counter, so customers have to ask for them. "Together with our customers we can do our bit for the environment and use fewer straws," says Paul Pomroy, who runs the fast-food company's U.K. business.

The issue of straws and marine animals got more heated after a 2015 viral video showing rescuers removing a straw from a sea turtle's nose in graphic and bloody detail.

But a ban may be a bit of a straw man in the discussions about plastics pollution. Straws make up about 4 percent of the plastic trash by piece, but far less by weight.

Straws on average weigh so little — about one sixty-seventh of an ounce or .42 grams — that all those billions of straws add up to only about 2,000 tons of the nearly 9 million tons of plastic waste that yearly hits the waters.

"Bans can play a role," says oceanographer Kara Lavendar Law, a co-author with Jambeck of the 2015 Science study. "We are not going to solve the problem by banning straws."

Scientists say that unless you are disabled or a small child, plastic straws are generally unnecessary and a ban is start and good symbol. These items that people use for a few minutes but "are sticking round for our lifetime and longer," Lippiatt says.

Marcus Eriksen, an environmental scientist who co-founded the advocacy group 5 Gyres, says working on bans of straws and plastic bags would bring noticeable change. He calls plastic bags, cups and straws that break down in smaller but still harmful pieces the "smog of microplastics."

"Our cities are horizontal smokestacks pumping out this smog into the seas," Eriksen says. "One goal for advocacy organizations is to make that single-use culture taboo, the same way smoking in public is taboo."

Steve Russell, vice president of plastics for the American Chemistry Council, said people can reduce waste by not taking straws, but "in many cases these plastics provide sanitary conditions for food, beverages and personal care."

The key to solving marine litter, Russell says, is "in investing in systems to capture land-based waste and investing in infrastructure to convert used plastics into valuable products."

Even though Jambeck spends her life measuring and working on the growing problem of waste pollution, she's optimistic.

"We can do this," Jambeck says. "I have faith in humans."

___

AP Retail Writer Joseph Pisani contributed from New York.

source: philstar.com

More than half of world's wildlife population lost: WWF

MOSCOW -- The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) released a statement Saturday following the 12th meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity, highlighting that the world has lost more than half of the planet's wildlife population.

"At a time when the world has seen the loss of more than half of the planet's wildlife populations, countries are neither moving fast enough nor doing enough to prevent further decline," the statement reads.

Species populations worldwide have declined 52 percent since 1970, with a 76 percent decline in freshwater species and a 39 and 40 percent decline in marine and terrestrial species decline respectively, according to findings revealed at the convention that was concluded on Friday in South Korea.

The findings compiled in the WWF Living Planet 2014 report also states that global freshwater demand is projected to exceed current supply by more than 40 percent by 2030.

While urging governments to "supercharge" their efforts in conserving the environment, the WWF statement noted that forest ecosystems alone contribute $720 billion to the global economy.

"The COP [convention] urges Parties to take comprehensive and urgent measures necessary to ensure the full implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and corresponding national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs)," the statement says, adding that it urges the relevant parties to do so by October 2015.

The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, also known as the Aichi targets, and a main theme at the convention, is a 10-year framework for action by all countries and stakeholders to save biodiversity and enhance its benefits for people, as explained on the Convention on Biological Diversity website.

Among the strategies are getting the governments and society more involved, promoting sustainable use, safeguarding ecosystems and promoting the benefits of conserving biodiversity.

The WWF, formerly the World Wildlife Fund, was founded in 1961 in Switzerland and has been active in issues regarding the conservation, research and restoration of the environment. It is the world's largest independent conservation organization with over 5 million supporters worldwide, working in more than 100 countries.

source: interaksyon.com

Coke plant in India ordered closed for extracting too much groundwater

LUCKNOW - Authorities in northern India have ordered the closure of a Coca-Cola bottling plant at the center of protests that it is extracting too much groundwater, an official said Wednesday.

An anti-pollution official said the Mehdiganj plant in Varanasi in the state of Uttar Pradesh had breached the conditions of its operating licence, prompting the order closure earlier this month.

"The plant is closed following our orders," Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board member secretary J.S. Yadav told AFP.

"They have also been asked to take suitable measures to recharge the depleting groundwater level by twice the amount they have extracted.

"Also, the effluents released by the plant contain pollutants beyond the permissible limits."

The company has appealed the closure order to India's environment court, the National Green Tribunal, saying the allegations were false.

Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Limited, a unit of Coca-Cola, said the plant has been in operation for 15 years "complying with all regulatory approvals and applicable laws."

The unit said in a statement that it was confident the courts would find that it has acted in the "best interests of the communities we serve."

The company hit a hurdle earlier this year when local authorities said they would demolish the Varanasi plant, claiming it was built on village council land and was "illegal."

The authorities also imposed a 126,000 rupee ($2,000) fine on the company over the land issue.

India is one of Coke's fastest-growing markets thanks to an expanding middle class.

The bottling plant, one of 58 that Atlanta-based Coca-Cola has in India, has been at the center of protests for years.

Demonstrators accuse the company of creating major water shortages through excessive extraction of water and of polluting groundwater and soil.

Coke, the world's largest soft drinks maker, last year announced the completion of work to expand the Varanasi bottling facility which can produce 600 polyethylene terephthalate bottles a minute.

Protests have been held against Coke's bottling plants in other parts of the country, alleging depletion of groundwater and pollution.

Activists welcomed the Varanasi plant's closure, claiming the company has a dismal environmental record.

"Coca-Cola's thirst for profits in India has placed its business interests over the well-being of communities and the environment and this is not acceptable," said Amit Srivastava of the India Resource Center, an activist group.

source: interaksyon.com

8 dead, 18 missing after Washington state landslide

OLYMPIA, Washington - Eight people were dead and at least 18 were still missing nearly two days after a landslide in Washington state buried homes and cars under mud and tangled debris up to 15 feet deep, authorities said.

The search for victims was due to resume early on Monday after dangerous, quicksand conditions forced rescue workers to suspend their efforts at dusk on Sunday. Some workers had to be dragged to safety after becoming mired in mud to their armpits.

The landslide was triggered after rain-soaked embankments along State Route 530 near Oso, Washington, about 55 miles northeast of Seattle, gave way on Saturday morning, washing away at least six homes.

A spokesman for the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office said eight bodies had been found in the square mile (2.6 square km) of tangled debris, rocks, trees and mud by Sunday evening. A further eight people were hurt in the landslide.

"We didn't find anybody alive. There was no sign of life" after a search of much of the area on foot, Snohomish County Fire District 21 chief Travis Hots told a news conference on Sunday, adding that the tally of the missing was likely to grow.

A press briefing was slated for 9 a.m. PDT on Monday.

"I have a sense that we're going to have some hard news here," Washington Governor Jay Inslee said after flying over the affected area on Sunday.

The slide in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains along the Stillaguamish River piled mud, rock and debris up to 15 feet deep in some places.

It blocked the flow of the river, creating floods and a backup of water behind a natural dam of mud and debris, but the threat to people downriver had begun to ease, Inslee said.

The highway was closed in both directions, with no timeline for it to be reopened, he said.

The Snohomish County sheriff's office has asked people affected by the slide to report to the Red Cross so an accurate count can be made of the missing.

Washington state Lieutenant Governor Brad Owen has declared a state of emergency in Snohomish County. (Additional reporting and writing by Kevin Murphy in Kansas City, Missouri)

source: interaksyon.com

Thousands march in Romania against shale gas, gold mine

BUCHAREST - Thousands of Romanians rallied on Sunday against a controversial Canadian gold mine project and against shale gas exploration, in weekly demos that have turned into one of the country's longest-running protests in years.

In Bucharest, some 2,500 people marched on the government's offices, chanting "Resign!, an AFP reporter saw.

The protest marked the ninth consecutive Sunday that Romanians have taken to the streets to voice their anger over the mine planned by Canada's Gabriel Resources, a project seen as harmful to the environment.

The mine, to be based in the heart of Transylvania, would be Europe's largest opencast gold mine.

Gabriel Resources hopes to extract 300 tonnes of gold with mining techniques requiring the use of thousands of tons of cyanide.

"We want tourism, not cyanide," protesters chanted.

The demonstrators said they were also protesting against plans by US energy giant Chevron to dig for shale gas in eastern Romania using the controversial "fracking" technique they fear might contaminate ground water.

The marchers accused Prime Minister Victor Ponta's administration of betraying his election promises by backing shale gas exploration and the planned mine, despite opposing these projects while in opposition.

Some 1,500 people also took part in protests in the northwestern city of Cluj, while another 500 took to the streets in the village of Rosia Montana, also in the northwest, where the mine is to be based.

source: interaksyon.com

18 Chinese detained for illegal mining in Aparri - DOJ

MANILA, Philippines -- The government has detained 18 Chinese men on suspicion of illegal black sand mining in the northern coastal town of Aparri, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.

Authorities say there has been a rise in the illegal extraction of magnetite -- also known as black sand -- which is an iron ore in huge demand by China's steel mills.

Justice department investigators raided two mine sites run by Chinese firm Hua Xia Mining and Trading Corp. last Thursday and detained 18 of its employees, spokesman Alex Lactao told AFP. 


The company had a permit to dredge magnetite from a nearby river but not from the coast, he said.

It is illegal to extract any minerals within 200 meters (656 feet) of a beach.

"Nine Chinese nationals were burrowing and processing magnetite sand within the prohibited zone," said Lactao.

The other nine were arrested at a nearby beach where they were building a magnetite processing plant, he added.

Environmental groups say illegal magnetite mining has been stripping Philippine coasts through erosion.

They have blamed small-scale mining firms, most of them allegedly Chinese and often operating in collusion with shady local government officials, for the devastation.

The men detained in Aparri lacked permits required to work in the country and could face further criminal charges, said Lactao, adding they have now been handed over to the immigration bureau.

The justice department launched a third raid in the northern town of San Vicente on Saturday but found the site, previously operated by another Chinese outfit, had been abandoned, the official said.

The raid teams seized mining equipment from all three sites as well as 1,500 tons of magnetite concentrate from the Aparri operations, he added.

Chinese embassy spokesmen could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Under the mining law, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has regulatory oversight over large operations but not small-scale miners, who are defined as using only light equipment and no explosives.

Instead small-scale miners are licensed by local governments, which often lack the expertise or will to properly supervise them.

Black-sand miners are increasingly flouting the law by mining near the nation's beaches, Carlos Tayag, Mines and Geosciences Bureau director for the northwestern Philippines, told AFP in May.

Reports of Chinese nationals breaking these laws have occurred frequently in recent years.

Authorities arrested 80 Chinese miners from one chromite mine in Zambales in 2010, and another eight at a similar chromite operation in the central island of Samar last year.

source: interaksyon.com

US study links pollution to autism risk

WASHINGTON DC - Pregnant women who were exposed to high levels of air pollution were twice as likely to have a child with autism as women who lived in low pollution areas, a US study said on Tuesday.

According to experts at Harvard University, the research is the first large national study to examine links between the prevalence of pollution and the development of the developmental disorder.

The findings are published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

"Our findings raise concerns," said lead author Andrea Roberts, a research associate in the Harvard School of Public Health Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

"Depending on the pollutant, 20 percent to 60 percent of the women in our study lived in areas where risk of autism was elevated," she said.

The data came from a large survey of 116,430 nurses that began in 1989.

For the analysis, researchers isolated 325 women who had a child with autism and 22,000 women who had a child without the disorder.

To estimate exposure to pollutants while pregnant, they used air pollution data from the Environmental Protection Agency, and adjusted for factors like income, education, and smoking during pregnancy.

The analysis found that women who lived in locations with the highest levels of diesel particulates or mercury in the air were twice as likely to have a child with autism as those who lived in the areas with the lowest levels.

When the pollutants included lead, manganese, methylene chloride, and combined metal exposure, women in areas with the highest levels of these pollutants were about 50 percent more likely to have a child with autism.

Autism is a brain disorder that affects as many as one in 88 in the United States, and about one in 100 in Britain.

Researchers said the findings suggest that metals and other pollutants should be regularly measured in the blood of pregnant women to give a better understanding of whether certain pollutants increase autism risk.

source: interaksyon.com

Diets rich in fruits and veggies great for the body - but are they harmful to Earth?

A nutritious diet that includes lots of fruits and vegetables might be healthier for humans but not necessarily healthier for the environment, according to a French study.

After analyzing the eating habits of about 2,000 French adults, and the greenhouse gas emissions generated by producing the plants, fish, meat, fowl and other ingredients, researchers concluded in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that such a diet might not be the greenest in environmental impact.

"When you eat healthy, you have to eat a lot of food that has a low content of energy. You have to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables," said Nicole Darmon, the study's senior author from the National Research Institute of Agronomy in Marseille, France.

Growing fruits and vegetables doesn't produce as much greenhouse gas as raising cattle or livestock, but food production - including the use of farming equipment and transportation - is estimated to be responsible for 15 percent to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in development countries, the authors said.

Scientists have long advised people to switch to a plant-based diet to benefit the environment and their own health.

To more closely examine that premise, Darmon and her colleagues used food diaries from 1,918 French adults to compare the nutritional quality of people's real-world diets and how much greenhouse gas they produced.

From the diaries that were kept for seven days between 2006 and 2007, the researchers identified the 400 most commonly consumed foods. They then used a database to find out how much greenhouse gas was emitted to produce each one, measured as the grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per 100 grams of food.

All aspects of a food's lifecycle were taken into account, including how it was cooked, Darmon said.

"The only step that wasn't taken into account was the transport from the supermarket to the home," she added.

Overall, about 1,600 grams of carbon dioxide were emitted for every 100 grams of meat produced. That's more than 15 times the amount of greenhouse gas emitted during the production of fruits, vegetables and starches and about 2.5 times as much greenhouse gas as that from fish, pork, poultry and eggs.

That gap narrowed, however, when the researchers looked at how many grams of carbon dioxide were emitted per 100 kilocalories (kcal) - a measure of energy in food.

The most greenhouse gas - 857 grams - was still emitted to produce 100 kcal of meat, but only about three times the emissions from a comparable amount of energy from fruit and vegetables.

Greens also ended up emitting more gas for the calories than starches, sweets, salty snacks, dairy and fats. It was also about as much gas as pork, poultry and eggs.

When Darmon and her colleagues looked at what people actually ate to get a certain amount of energy from food every day, they found that the "highest-quality" diets in health terms - those high in fruit, vegetables and fish - were linked to about as much, if not more, greenhouse gas emissions as low-quality diets that were high in sweets and salts.

Overall, the documented diets were responsible for around 5,000 grams of greenhouse gas emissions per day per person.

Darmon said that's because people who eat a plant-based diet need to eat more produce to get the amount of energy they'd have in a piece of meat.

Roni Neff, the director of research and policy at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for a Livable Future, cautioned against taking the findings too literally. For example, according to the study's calculations, people would need to eat about four kilograms (nine pounds) of fruit and vegetables to make up for a smaller serving of meat.

"I think they're raising a lot of important questions that need further investigation," she said.

source: interaksyon.com

SM to collect P2 plastic bag charge in QC even without IRR

MANILA – A day before a ban on the use of plastic shopping bags takes effect, the Quezon City government has yet to provide retailers a copy of the implementing rules and regulations of the new ordinance.

Corazon Guidote, SM Investments Corp. head of investor relations, told InterAksyon.com that the conglomerate’s retail establishments in Quezon City will collect starting September 1 the P2 charge for every plastic bag customers use in line with the city ordinance.

The money raised would be remitted to the LGU once the IRR is in place, she said.

"It's easy to monitor all the transactions because they are all recorded in the cashier. We can monitor how many used the plastic bags," Guidote said.

Quezon City is one of the largest markets of the SM retail group, she said, with its largest mall in the Philippines located in North Edsa, housing three supermarkets and a department store.

"We have always been supportive of environmental initiatives. We've been doing it in Pasig through our hypermarket there," Guidote said.

The Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance will enforce a Plastic Recovery System Fee that charges a fixed amount of P2 per plastic bag used regardless of its size.

The collected fee will be part of a "green fund" that will finance various initiatives for the benefit of the environment.

Reusable bag users will be given incentives, giving them points that can be used later for purchase, and a “green lane,” which is a special counter for customers with reusable bags.

source: interaksyon.com

Filipinos urged to adapt to climate change

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje today said that Filipinos must learn to accept the growing intensity of typhoons, including the great volume of water that comes with storm or monsoon rains, as well as the long drought during the dry season, as the “new normal”.

“There is nothing we could do but to adapt to climate change and the only way we could be prepared for the impact of climate change is to accept that these recent developments in our country like intense weather disturbances, heavy rainfall, as well as long dry season are now the “new normal,” Paje said in an interview in PTV Channel 4.

Paje also urged people to listen to authorities during calamities and stop being “sutil” (stubborn) when they are asked to evacuate to safer grounds. The landslide area at Litex in Brgy. Commonwealth, Quezon City has been identified as susceptible to landslide in 2002.

He said he would ask the local government of Quezon City to have the area be declared as a “permanent danger zone”.

According to Paje, the Philippines has been identified to be highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. For this, he said, the government has been working on long term solutions to minimize damage on people and government infrastructures.

He cited the convergence project his agency is working with the Department of Public Works and Highways in building small water impounding dams in the uplands.

“If you allow rainwater to go down the watersheds it would result in flooding. But if you can impound them, the water becomes precious resource that you can use during the dry season,” Paje stressed.

According to him, the Agriculture Department has already successfully developed new rice varieties that are resilient to climate change.

He also said the DENR through its Mines and Geosciences is developing new bigger geohazard maps with a scale of 1:10,000, which will be distributed down to the barangay level.

The DENR has previously distributed more than 75,000 geohazard maps with scale of 1:50,000.

(www.denr.gov.ph)

source: asianjournal.com

For Ian Somerhalder, the environment is everything

“Filipinos are some of the most underappreciated people in the world. You guys are leading the change into our green future. And I think the rest of the world should know about this.”

That’s Ian Somerhalder, who plays hunky vampire Damon Salvatorre in the hit TV series “The Vampire Diaries”, talking about his Philippine experience, which included a photo shoot at El Nido Resort in Palawan for the fashion retail brand, Penshoppe.

The 33-year old actor started out as a model at the very young age of 10 before pursuing acting by the time he’s 17. His other best known roles are that of bisexual Paul Denton in the film “The Rules of Attraction” and the ill-fated Boone Carlyle in the first season of “Lost.”

During a press conference at the Peninsula Manila Wednesday afternoon, Somerhalder admitted that he was deeply touched and amazed at the efforts being made by big corporations such as Penshoppe’s Golden ABC in making what he describes as “massive strides” in promoting environmental causes.

Before Somerhalder took the stage, Golden ABC’s Bernie Liu announced that the company will be supporting the Ian Somerhalder Foundation that the actor founded in 2010.

Although it was not specified how exactly the company will support his foundation, Ian gratefully acknowledged it and said he’s excited about his partnership with Penshoppe, which he describes as an “organic marriage.”

“I feel as though I’m part of something special here and this partnership, what it means, what it’s going to get back is we’re going to see concrete changes and real results. I’m going to use this exposure for the greater good,” Somerhalder told TV5 news anchor Paolo Bediones, who hosted the event.

Citing another example, the actor recalled how much he was fascinated with International Transvoyager, Inc. (ITI), the air charter service that took him to El Nido.

“To offset carbon emission generated by their flights, ITI actually plants six trees for every passenger. How cool is that?” the actor enthused. ‘I mean I fly so much it’s awful. So it’s good to see one company finding ways to offset all those CO2s.”

In describing his work with his foundation which, he said, “aims to empower, educate and collaborate with people and projects to positively impact the planet and its creatures,” the actor himself sometimes wonder how he finds all the time for his causes.

“Most of the time, I just scribble all my ideas on my iPad which is always beside me in my bed. Then when I wake up, I ask myself, ‘What the hell is this all about’?” he joked.

Turning serious, Somerhalder revealed that he has around 100 people in his team. “A hundred people may not be a lot but a hundred people doing all these things for the environment, that’s very cool.”

He admitted that while his father, an independent contractor, visited the Philippines many years ago, it was his first time in the country, and he described Palawan in particular as “one of the most beautiful places on the planet.”

In describing his recent photo shoot, Somerhalder narrated, “I’m just running around in a secluded island, drinking coconut, photographed by an amazing photographer (Darren Tieste) and surrounded by all these incredible people.”

As for appearing on the big screen again, the actor, who was earlier announced to star in the gothic film “Cradlewood” scheduled for a 2013 release, said he is still looking for the right project but would like to work with a lot of outstanding filmmakers and actors.

“Doing ‘The Vampire Diaries’ means nine months of straight shooting for 22 episodes in one season,” he pointed out. “Making a film is more about the filmmakers. Among the people I’d like to work with are Clint Eastwood, Sean Penn and Ed Harris. There’s something to be said about these people who do not compromise their craft. So if I suck as an actor, I might be able to bring myself up to their level someday.”

Somerhalder also doesn’t see the big deal about admitting his real age. “There’s something amazing about aging. Turning 30 plus is such a powerful number. I find it bizarre that people can still lie about their age in 2012, in this age of Google.”

And while Ian did not discuss his personal life, including the status of his reported relationship with “Vampire Diaries” co-star Nina Dobrev, he did talk about the role that’s making millions of girls swoon every week.

“Ripping people’s heads off and seducing women are not exactly the worst things in the world,” Somerhalder quipped with a wink.

source: interaksyon.com

Greenpeace urges action on slumping tuna stocks

BANGKOK — Greenpeace Wednesday accused the tuna industry of failing to stop the decimation of fish stocks, and called for an end to fishing methods that also accidentally snare turtles, dolphins and sharks.

Five tuna species are classed as “threatened” or “near threatened” with extinction due to overfishing, according to the Red List of Threatened Species, prompting environmental groups to appeal for fewer industrial-scale boats.

As big players in the multi-billion dollar industry gathered for a trade conference in Bangkok, Greenpeace urged tuna brands to source fish sustainably and end “destructive” fishing methods that see other marine life caught.

“It’s an urgent situation. There are simply too many boats… there needs to be a radical cut if we are going to reverse the decline in stocks,” Sari Tolvanen, a campaigner with the environmental group, told AFP.

“You would think the industry would be concerned about declining stocks, but it’s sitting on its hands.”

Greenpeace says tuna populations can rebound if they are given adequate protection.

The group wants a ban on “fish aggregating devices” that lure marine life into vast bucket-like nets with the result that 10 percent of each catch is made up of species other than tuna.

The tuna industry—from the factory-sized boats to supermarkets—says it recognizes the problem of dwindling stocks and follows quotas limiting catch to mature fish in waters where stocks are abundant.

In the United States, the world’s largest canned tuna market, major brands have pledged to work with their suppliers to reduce the amount of marine life netted accidentally.

In-Soo Cho, chief executive of StarKist, the U.S.‘s largest tinned tuna firm, urged the Bangkok conference to recognize how “precious this limited source of food is,” but warned plunging tuna prices threatened profits.

The Atlantic bluefin species, which can live to 40 years old and grow to more than four meters long, is in the gravest danger of disappearing with stocks estimated in some areas to have halved over four decades.

It is so highly prized by sushi-loving Japanese that a 269-kilogram fish went for a record 56.49 million yen in January auctions.

International agreements to tighten fishing controls are coming into effect, with the European Union, whose waters provide 60% of the global haul of bluefin tuna, mulling laws to protect the endangered species by slashing quotas.

But they can do little to prevent illegal fishing of at-risk species, which also include bigeye, classified as vulnerable, along with yellowfin and albacore, both ranked as near threatened.

“As with any industry there are bad actors,” said Susan Jackson, head of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF)—a coalition of conservation groups, scientists and the tuna companies.

“But we must aim to prevent tuna stocks and their ecosytems being exposed to unnecessary pressure,” she said, adding the industry will still “thrive” with tightened controls on catches.

One ISSF idea is to equip boats with tablet computers to record hauls and help build a detailed picture of global tuna stocks and the scale of accidental catches, she added.

Five main species of tuna make up the annual worldwide catch of 4-4.5 million tons.

Destined mainly for supermarket shelves, the abundant skipjack accounts for 60% of the total.

source: japantoday.com

Australian authorities race to drifting ship

SYDNEY -- Australian authorities were racing Sunday to secure a cargo ship drifting off the Great Barrier Reef, with one expert saying it was "sheer luck" it had not hit a reef near the World Heritage-listed site.

The Hong Kong-flagged bulk carrier ID Integrity broke down north of the Queensland city of Cairns late Friday, sparking alarms that it would smash into the coral dive site Shark Reef.

Simon Meyjes, who heads the century-old marine group Australian Reef Pilots, said it appeared an environmental disaster had been averted by the crew dumping some of the Integrity's sea water ballast so it passed over Shark Reef.

"I don't know what the actual under keel clearance would have been as it went over the reef," he told AFP. "But certainly it would have been a very, very uncomfortable situation. They were at the mercy of the weather completely.

"I think that they have been very, very lucky."

Meyjes said had the Townsville-bound Integrity drifted slightly further to the north, it could have hit Osprey Reef, an exposed coral outcrop.

"So it's just sheer luck," he said. "We're all breathing a huge sight of relief I can assure you."

The ship, which suffered an engine breakdown en route from Shanghai, was reached by a commercial tug, PT Kotor, on Sunday as it drifted in open water in the Coral Sea towards the Outer Reef, on the edge of the main reef body.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said the tug had connected a towline to the Integrity and they were travelling slowly away from the Outer Reef and awaiting the arrival of the larger tugs.

The Australian Government's emergency towage vessel Pacific Responder was scheduled to be on scene at about 0500 GMT.

"Once on scene it will provide assistance as required and remain on station until the third tug, the PB Leichhardt, arrives and has connected a tow line," AMSA said in an update.

The ship's owner, Hong Kong-based ID Wallem, said its 186-meter-long vessel was empty and there had been no pollution spills, adding it would "take measures to avoid any environmental impact in Australian waters."

But the incident has angered conservationists who have long raised fears about the impact on the Great Barrier Reef, particularly from shipping, from Queensland's coal and gas boom.

The Chinese-registered coal carrier Shen Neng 1 foundered in April 2010 leaking tons of heavy fuel oil and threatening an ecological disaster.

A major catastrophe was ultimately avoided but the huge ship gouged a three kilometer-long (1.8 mile) scar in the world's biggest coral reef and was stranded for nine days before salvagers could refloat it.

Environmental group WWF Australia said in the latest incident, a major disaster had been averted by only a matter of meters.

It said the forecast increase in shipping traffic in the waters off Queensland was "a risky game of Russian roulette that is destined to end in disaster."

source: interaksyon.com