Amazon action:climber update

Image.. Leaning back in the evening breeze, listening to the waves churning, I almost feel like I’m lying on the beach at home instead of hanging from an anchor chain near the 10 meter water mark of a cargo ship near Sao Louis in Brazil. But here I am. The Clipper Hope was due to arrive in the port days ago to pick up a load of pig iron, but for 3 days so far we’ve been preventing the ship from heaving up anchor by hanging on their chain.

Along with some other people, the captain of the ship didn’t understand at first why we were protesting at his vessel. What’s wrong with pig iron? It’s used to make steel. The answer is it is a cheap and highly destructive way to make steel, and there are better ways to do it. Pig iron is made with charcoal, which is made with huge quantities of wood, and the cheapest way to get this wood is to secretly and illegally log massive areas of remote Amazonian forest and even sometimes use slave labour to burn it up.

There is more life, and more different types of life, in this forest than anywhere else, and seeing it transformed into wasteland is one of the saddest images of what is happening to our planet. The rate of deforestation of the Amazon is once again increasing because of recent government decisions.

So I hope the captain and friendly crew of the Clipper Hope will google Greenpeace and pig iron to find our new report, and learn about the consequences of the manufacture of their cargo. I hope U.S. car manufacturers like Ford and GM will learn about where their steel comes from. I hope we can all learn about the real costs of maintaining our cheap, convenient lifestyles and choose a better way. We don’t have to destroy the Amazon, and we don’t have to destroy our future.

Emma Briggs is a climber and a deckhand onboard the Rainbow Warrior, she is from Byron Bay, Australia.

Mass pelican deaths in Peru caused by starvation, study finds

Peru says unusually warm ocean currents pushing southwards along its coast have disrupted fish distribution patterns causing around 5,000 seabirds, mostly pelicans and boobies, to starve to death.

Dead and dying seabirds have been littering Peru’s northern beaches since last month and the Peruvian authorities expect other marine species to be impacted if the oceanographic conditions persist.

Peruvian anchovies, anchoveta, usually flourish in the cold water Humboldt Current, which hugs the Chilean and Peruvian coastline, and forms the base of a marine food chain which makes Peru one of the world’s biggest fisheries.

Carmen Grados, a oceanographer studying the EL Niño phenomenon, said there had been “anomalies” causing the coastal sea surface temperature to shift between 1 and 2C since February. She added it was too early to determine whether the warming of sea surface temperatures was caused by the cyclical event El Niño event.

Scientists say the dead pelicans in this incident are generally young, 3-4 years old, an age in which they do not dive as deep as their elders.

Ocean temperatures in the region, said Bocanegra, are currently 6 degrees Celsius above normal for this time of year, Peru’s autumn.

A similar pelican die-off happened in 1982-1983 and again in 1997-1998 when the El Nino meteorological phenomena warmed the ocean, Bocanegra said. “We saw mass deaths along Peru’s entire coast, also associated with high sea temperatures. Pelicans, cormorants, Peruvian boobies and guanay cormorants died,” he said.

The last major El Niño in 1997 and 1998 caused the deaths of millions of seabirds and other marine animals such as sea lions.

“When there is a warming of sea surface temperatures the fish go deeper which means fledging juvenile pelicans, which cannot yet dive, are not able to feed themselves,” Patricia Majluf, marine biologist and former deputy fisheries minister stated.

The seabird deaths follow closely a massive dolphin die-off, which began in January, on the same stretch of coastline. Officially 877 bodies were found but the death toll could exceed 3,000 according to volunteers’ counts. It is among the largest ever reported worldwide.

The strandings remain a mystery. Initially experts said the causes could be acoustic impact from testing for oil, the Peruvian government has said there is no evidence to support this theory.

A multi-sectorial study has so far ruled out contamination by heavy metals or pesticides, bacterial infections - brucellosis and leptospirosis - and a lack of food as possible causes of death, said Gabriel Quijandria, vice minister for the Strategic Development of Natural Resources.

However key tests have yet to be completed for morbillivirus, a highly infectious virus related to measles in humans and canine distemper. Officials say the re-agents needed to carry out the tests have been held up in Peruvian customs. The Florida-based Dolphin Research Center says the morbillivirus has caused several cases of mass deaths among marine mammals in recent years.

However even in the US, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) classified more than half of recorded marine mammals strandings since 1991 as ‘undetermined’.

Yuri Hooker, a biologist, said all but 14 of the dead cetaceans counted were long-beaked common dolphins (delphinus capensis) supporting the hypothesis that the cause of death was a specific virus or pathogen affecting that species. Long-beaked common dolphins (right) have a muted criss-cross color pattern on their sides, a triangular or falcate (curved) dorsal fin, and congregate in large schools of hundreds of animals.

“There is no public health risk related to a possible viral infection either linked to the dolphins or the pelicans”, Dr Quijandria said amid public health fears after the health ministry recommended people avoid beaches where there were dead animals.

He added it was perfectly safe to eat fish.

But small-scale fisherman say they have already felt the impact of reduced fish consumption.

“Industrial fishing fleets are overfishing the anchovy further out to sea and that’s stopping the pelicans from getting enough food – it’s affecting us too, we can’t compete,” Pedro Huapaya, an artisan fisherman in Lima’s southern Chorrillos district, told The Guardian.

Source:
The Guardian,”Mass pelican deaths in Peru caused by starvation, study finds“, accessed May 13, 2012
The Telegraph, “Scientists probe mass marine deaths on Peru beaches“, accessed May 13, 2012

How to send a letter to the International Space Station

Astronaut Donald Pettit has come up with a “space zip code” for sending letters beyond Earth’s atmosphere

Today on New Scientist: 16 May 2012

All today’s stories on newscientist.com, including: interactive “wallpaper” screens are the future of TV and pulsar heavyweight champ challenges Einstein

Mayan people join action to keep honey GE free

Image..

Recently members of the Mayan people living on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico joined Greenpeace activists and said no to genetically engineered crops. Using their own bodies to form the message ‘MA OGM’ or ‘No to GE’, 2000 activists gathered at eight different Mayan archaeological sites to draw attention to the risks of contamination of honey production by Monsanto’s genetically engineered (GE) soy.

It is important to remember that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has already ruled that honey contaminated with pollen from GE maize, also produced by Monsanto cannot be sold on the EU market. 40% of the Mexican honey is produced on the Yucatan and it exports 90% of its production to Europe. Monsanto’s GE soy is therefore threatening the livelihood of the forty thousand beekeepers and their families who rely on honey production.

Monsanto has requested authorization to plant commercial GE soy in Mexico despite a previous court order that invalidated a permit to plant 30 000 hectares with ‘pilot sowing’ of GE soy in the States of Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo. Out of the 253 000 hectares that have been applied for, 60 000 are planned in Yucatan and if approved it could be only a matter of time before the Mexican honey is contaminated by Monsanto’s GE soybean pollen.

The Governor of Yucatan, Ivonne Ortega Pacheco has already said she is in favour of declaring Yucatan GE-free and she made a request to this effect to the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture. The action also aimed to encourage municipalities and other States to declare themselves GE-free and to get the Mexican federal government to ratify these decisions and give them legal standing. Earlier this year, Greenpeace protested to the Mexican authorities as they ignored the recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food â€“ Olivier de Schutter to restore the moratorium on GE maize in the country.

The bee population in general is suffering from Colony Collapse Disorder, a phenomenon where worker bees abruptly disappear and cause a collapse of the bee colony, due to multiple factors linked to agrochemicals. The economic effect is significant as over 90% of the world’s food crops need bees.

Aleira Lara

GE Campaigner, Mexico

Amber reveals earliest example of pollinating insects

A piece of Cretaceous amber found in Spain gives a glimpse into how the relationship between plants and insects first evolved

Fukushima nuclear disaster: who profits and who pays?

Last week, the inevitable finally happened. The company responsible for the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, has been nationalised. Japan’s trade and industry minister Yukio Edano announced a de facto state take-over of the company with a further injection of $12.5bn, bringing the total of state capital in TEPCO to $33.2bn. Edano has said that: “Without the state funds, (TEPCO) cannot provide a stable supply of electricity and pay for compensation and decommissioning costs”.

The Fukushima Daiichi catastrophe has cost TEPCO over $100bn in estimated costs, which includes compensation and clean-up costs. However, the actual costs are much bigger. Many Japanese are bearing the brunt of the damages in their daily lives with most of their claims and losses going uncompensated and most of their suffering unrecognised.

Image.. The nationalisation of TEPCO, together with a legal practice called “channelling of liability” in which all liability related to the Fukushima nuclear disaster has to be channelled to TEPCO, means Japanese taxpayers and ratepayers will foot most of the bill.

An infuriating aspect of this story is that in a recent presentation by General Electric (GE) about its “success” over the past 50 years, there was not a word about the Fukushima disaster and nothing approaching an apology. Yet the Fukushima disaster was affected by well-known problems related to GE’s Mark 1 design, which was used at all four troubled reactors. Furthermore, GE was involved in maintenance throughout the four decades of the plant’s operation and had 44 on site at the time of the accident.

GE, together with its corporate mates from Hitachi, which is responsible for the construction of Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4, and Toshiba, which delivered Reactor No. 3, as well as Ebasco, Kajima, Areva and many others, have mostly kept mum about their involvement.

The Prime Minister orders venting

Prime Minister Naoto Kan had to order venting the day after the disaster. Without venting the containment might have given way to the rising pressure, which is a problem identified 30 years ago by several GE whistleblowers. It was not easy to give the order. Workers would risk potentially lethal doses of radiation and the evacuation around Fukushima had not even started. Venting would expose thousands of people to radiation, but the alternative of an exploding reactor would create even more havoc. TEPCO, GE, Hitachi, and Toshiba knew that this could happen. Not one of them ever demanded the closure of the reactors. By closing their eyes to their obviously faulty product they have spread the impression that people are safe.

Socialising risks, privatising profits

TEPCO is different than Chernobyl where the state owned and operated the reactor. A private enterprise developed the Fukushima Daiichi’s Mark 1 reactors and GE, Hitachi, Toshiba and other companies made huge profits building and servicing the power station. If this were a car, these companies would recall all their nuclear reactors and compensate customers for the costs and losses incurred.

But this is not a car. This is the nuclear industry and these companies continue as if nothing has happened to them. They are saved by TEPCO’s bankruptcy and nationalisation, and they are saved by the unique liability regime surrounding the nuclear industry where profits are privatised but accident liabilities are socialised.

It is clear why we don’t see GE, Hitachi and Toshiba rush to put hundreds of millions of dollars into the Fukushima compensation fund. If they did, they would be admitting some kind of guilt and could open up an avenue for making compensation claims against them. Their share prices would plummet and it would force them to rethink their involvement in the nuclear sector. And who wants that?

Well, I want it.

I think that what we see now is an utter shame and outrage. Elsewhere, Hitachi and GE are trying to convince the Lithuanian government to pump almost $9bn into a new nuclear reactor, and accept a liability regime that is capped at $160m. Toshiba, with its sub-group Westinghouse, is wooing Czech CEZ to buy two reactors with the cap on liability in the Czech Republic at $450m. Hitachi is also actively lobbying Turkey with a cap of $24m, and Vietnam with a $230m cap to buy one of its reactors.

At the same time, I hear of people struggling to make ends meet after they fled the Fukushima region, of suicides because the hardships are too much to bear, of families split apart because they do not dare let their children grow up in the contaminated areas even though the father’s work is still there, and of companies gone bankrupt because their resources are suddenly taken off the market due to contamination.

First, all victims need to get the compensation they deserve. The nationalisation of TEPCO is a step that could improve the situation. But this should not mean that those who profited from the risk that Fukushima Daiichi clearly posed and those that are profiting from all the other uncovered risks from nuclear power in the rest of the world should escape their responsibility. Paying up and accepting responsibility could help prevent a disaster like this happening again.

Jan Haverkamp is a Greenpeace nuclear energy expert on energy issues in Central Europe

Massive fault found beneath Japan’s Mount Fuji

Japan’s Mount Fuji may be sitting on a large, active fault that could trigger a magnitude-7 earthquake, changing the shape of the mountain and devastating nearby communities, the education ministry said on Thursday.

A survey commissioned by the ministry found a 30-km fault beneath Japan’s highest mountain, believed by many to be sacred, and research results indicate it was likely to be active, a ministry official said.

If the fault sets off an earthquake, it could lead to a major landslide and hit communities at the foot of the 3,776-metre-high mountain. Further research was required, the official said.

A magnitude-9 earthquake and massive tsunami hit northern Japan last year, leaving nearly 19,000 people dead or missing and causing the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.

An earthquake in 1707 caused Fuji to erupt and killed an estimated 20,000 people.

Source:
Reuters,”Massive fault found beneath Japan’s Mount Fuji“, Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka, accessed May 12, 2012

Occupying an anchor chain, thinking of freshly baked muffins

What do you need most on an anchor chain in the middle of the Atlantic, when you’ve been there for over 24 hours, and it’s pouring with rain? Muffins.

Freshly baked by our chef, Walter, and put into waterproof tins ready for loading into speedboats. Speedmuffins. Pronto pastries. Two young Brazilians - Leonor and Elissama - are waiting across the water having been up most of the night and little things like this make all the difference. Fruit is great, but nothing beats that fresh-from-the-oven comfort of spongey goodness.

Occupying an anchor chain for over a day is a pretty challenging operation. Just getting off the Rainbow Warrior onto the inflatables is difficult, as the waves make stepping off the ship onto the moving boat like playing Super Mario Brothers for real. Then it’s a ten minute boat ride across the water with salty spray drenching everything in sight – camera gear, sunglasses and baked goods.

Once Leonor arrives on scene she receives the signal from the boat driver and gets onto a tiny stepladder (Supermario again) before scrambling up towards the platform. Well, I say platform – it’s more of a small plank with Greenpeace written underneath it. It’s all done safely and carefully, but that doesn’t stop the heart racing when you see how high up she is.

And then… well, not much really. Hours of sitting there, making sure she is safe, and waiting. No crowds of supporters cheering her on, just a safety boat with a driver giving her the thumbs up once in a while. It’s a bit like David Blane without the ego. When I was out there with I tried to give her my best winning smile and to think positive thoughts, but I’m not sure that was helping very much.

What really keep these girls going are the messages of support we’re receiving not just here in Brazil but around the world. This isn’t a ‘grey area’ environmental protest, where there are two valid points of view – we’re exposing things like slave labor and the illegal destruction of forest that is home to uncontacted tribes like the Awa. These are things that Brazilians – as well as people all over the world – have decided are unacceptable in our society.

It’s pretty hard to explain the link with ships like this one in words, but I’ll try. If Elissama and Leonor hadn’t stopped it, the Clipper Hope would be loading pig iron and taking that to the USA. Pig iron is used to make steel for cars, but here in Brazil it is leading to huge deforestation and is sometimes produced using slave labor. The Brazilian President and companies like Ford, GM and BMW - have a big role to play in stopping this from happening, but at the moment they’re turning a blind eye to the problem.

See? Much easier to close your eyes, think of the young Brazilians and imagine the smell of freshly baked muffins.

Photo copyright Marizilda Cruppe / Greenpeace

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Today on New Scientist: 15 May 2012

All today’s stories on newscientist.com, including: the allure of sweat, when poetry meets medicine and tweeting while Rome burns