In the news September 17th - 20th: Polish Cod Fisherman Protest Fishing Ban, Artic Vault to Save Seeds , Canada Cuts Spending Wildlife Protection, Largest Ever Wind Turbine Deal Signed, and much more.
EU admits to illegal tuna fishing
September 21, 2007 07:25 AM - WWF
Brussels, Belgium – Announcing the closure of the bluefin tuna fisheries in the Mediterranean and East Atlantic, the European Commission has recognised that European fleets had well overfished their quota for 2007 and acknowledged failings in the reporting of catch data and illegal fishing.
Largest Ever Wind Turbine Deal Signed September 20, 2007 12:05 PM - Reuters
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Greater Gabbard Offshore Winds has signed a preliminary agreement to buy wind turbines from Siemens for an undisclosed sum for its wind farm off the British coast, the German group said on Thursday.
Siemens said in a statement the deal -- the largest ever for offshore wind turbines -- was for 140 Siemens 3.6 megawatts turbines for delivery in 2009 and 2010.
The agreement is preliminary because Greater Gabbard, a joint venture between Ireland's Airtricity and U.S.-based Fluor, is still finalizing their project finance.
'Biopiracy' requires reasoned treatment September 20, 2007 07:47 AM - , Science and Development Network
Scientists have long been implicated, whether actively or tacitly, in developed countries' campaigns to seek out and secure natural resources to fuel industrialisation and maintain their own living standards.This was the motive behind many 'scientific' expeditions to explore and map out the centre of Africa in the nineteenth century. More recently, studying indigenous medicine has become a cost-effective way of identifying active chemical ingredients from plants that might be valuable in modern medicine.
Arctic vault takes shape for world food crops September 20, 2007 07:31 AM - John Acher -Reuters
In a cavern under a remote Arctic mountain, Norway will soon begin squirreling away the world's crop seeds in case of disaster. Dynamited out of a mountainside on Spitsbergen island around 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole, the store has been called a doomsday vault or a Noah's Ark of the plant kingdom.
One in four Americans "very worried" by China imports September 19, 2007 11:06 AM - Missy Ryan, Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Around 78 percent of Americans worry about the safety of Chinese imports, and a quarter have stopped buying food from China, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.Almost 35 percent of people polled said they were "very worried," and 43 percent "somewhat worried," about the safety of food and other Chinese goods. The survey followed a series of frightening reports of toys laced with lead paint, seafood containing banned antibiotics, contaminated toothpaste, and other risky products from China, a big U.S. trading partner.
Canada slashes spending on wildlife protection September 19, 2007 10:44 AM - Reuters
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada has slashed spending on wildlife protection and monitoring of ecosystems because of budget problems at the federal environment ministry, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp reported on Wednesday. The cuts mean the Canadian Wildlife Service -- responsible for studying and protecting wildlife in Canada -- has been forced to halt all its scientific field and survey work.In addition, a program monitoring the health of bird populations lost half its budget, while the budget for an operation that protects significant habitats for wildlife and birds was reduced to zero.
Pesticides Pose Risk in Rural and Urban Communities Alike September 19, 2007 08:01 AM - Alana Herro, Worldwatch Institute
n a recent study of 60 children of Latino farmworkers in the U.S. state of North Carolina, nearly 90 percent of those tested were found to have pesticide metabolites in their urine, according to a report in Environmental Health Perspectives. On average, the children had four different pesticides present in their urine, posing a potential long-term health risk. “Because children are so much smaller than adults and because they are developing rapidly, the effects of pesticides on their neurological systems can be devastating,” says Danielle Nierenberg, a food and agriculture researcher at the Worldwatch Institute in Washington, D.C.
Scientists Seek Closed Containment Systems At Salmon Fish Farms September 18, 2007 03:00 PM - AP
Eighteen prominent scientists and researchers say there is no question that sea lice from fish farms are lethal to wild salmon, no evidence to the contrary and a need for greater protection. The scientists, ranging from David Suzuki to National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence Wade Davis, wrote in an open letter to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell that the future of juvenile wild salmon is at risk.
Arctic summer ice thickness halves to 1 meter September 18, 2007 12:54 PM - Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent, Reuters
OSLO (Reuters) - Large tracts of ice on the Arctic Ocean have halved in thickness to just 1 meter (3 ft) since 2001, making the region more accessible to ships, a researcher said on Tuesday. "There was loose ice everywhere we went," Ursula Schauer, leader of a scientific expedition aboard the Polarstern ice-breaker, told Reuters by telephone from the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia. "All of these areas have previously had two meters of ice," said Schauer, who works at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany, of a trip from Norway around the North Pole and back towards Russia. The last major survey was in 2001.
Polish cod fishermen protest against EU ban September 17, 2007 10:36 AM - Malgorzata Rakowiec -Reuters
Polish fishermen staged a protest in their boats on Monday to demand the lifting of a European Union ban on fishing for cod in the eastern Baltic Sea.The Commission ordered Poland to halt trawling for cod in the area, saying the country had misreported its catch and exceeded its EU quota for the threatened species. Monday would have been the first day of the new cod fishing season.
