Signalfire

(AFP)
BEIJING — At least four Tibetans may have been killed and 30 others hurt when Chinese police fired on crowds protesting the expansion of mine operations blamed for environmental damage, a report said Saturday.

The shooting occurred August 17 in a remote region of southwestern China’s Sichuan province with a history of seething unrest involving the area’s Tibetan community, US-based Radio Free Asia said.

Quoting exiled Tibetans with sources in the region, the report said the confrontation began on or around August 13 when a group of Tibetans went to the Palyul county government headquarters to protest.

They complained that stepped-up Chinese gold-mining operations had brought large numbers of people and heavy machinery to the area, damaging farmland and the local grassland habitat, it said.

County officials rejected the accusations and had the demonstrators detained, touching off a steadily escalating confrontation that lead to the August 17 shootings.

Some of those injured were severely hurt, it said. Two police officers also were reportedly injured that day.

It quoted a county government official saying negotiations were under way to settle the dispute.

Local police denied knowledge of any confrontation when reached by AFP via phone. Calls to the county government went unanswered.

Palyul is in the Garze Tibetan Autonomous prefecture, one of many areas of the Tibetan plateau hit by widespread anti-Chinese rioting in March 2008 that was met with a massive security clampdown.

August 26

At his inauguration at the pre-Inca ruins of Tiwanaku five years ago, Evo Morales donned a poncho, it was a moment of high symbolism: Bolivia’s first president of Indian descent has championed their rights ever since.

Five landslide elections have made Mr Morales, a leftwing former llama herder and coca farmer, one of Latin America’s most popular leaders and left the opposition fragmented.

Mr Morales and his Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) have a comfortable majority in Congress, enjoy the loyalty of the military and hold sway over the judiciary. The government expects 4.5 per cent gross domestic product growth this year.

But divisions among his traditional Indian supporters are surfacing. In the mining region of Potosi, traditionally one of Mr Morales’ bastions, residents, miners and peasants have been on strike and engaged in anti-government protests since late July.

They are demanding greater investment in their region and want a solution to a boundary dispute with neighbouring Oruro. In one of Latin America’s key mining areas, these protests and blockades have ground mining production to a halt.

That disenchantment is increasingly visible around Bolivia. “Evo traitor” reads graffiti near the presidential palace, in La Paz.

“Evo has betrayed some large sectors of the indigenous population”, says Pedro Nuni, a disenchanted MAS congressman. “He and many others in the government love the label ‘indigenous government’, but the reality is that he is turning his back on some of the indigenous brothers – especially us lowlanders – on behalf of indigenous highlanders”, says Mr Nuni, whose lowland seat in gas-rich Santa Cruz lies in what was traditionally the heartland of the rightwing opposition.

“The situation is complicated,” says Senator Eugenio Rojas, one of Mr Morales’ closest allies. For the first time we the peasants, the indigenous, have the right to run this country. But now we are seeing problems between indigenous people over power, territories and ancient disputes,” he acknowledges. “This is provoking some clashes inside the MAS structure.”

Divisions within the MAS between leftist, indigenous, union and civic groups are growing, says Carlos Toranzo, a political economist with the Latin American Institute of Social Research. “They all fight for control of government spending and opportunities for patronage. These are classic power fights inside the structure of all-powerful political apparatuses that are based on clientelism.”

One problem is that Mr Morales has raised expectations in terms of the decentralisation of power, indigenous rights and land rights. Recent protests and strikes by Indians and trade unionists expose the government’s vulnerability to unrest from previously stalwart supporters. “Everybody seems to be taking advantage of the dissatisfaction with inefficiencies, corruption and MAS intimidation,” Mr Toranzo adds.

Part of the anger felt by some indigenous lowlanders is due to what some call “Evo’s oil lust” as the government explores for resources in protected areas of the Amazon.

“Evo’s environmentalist and industrialist rhetorical facade that helped secure a second term has fallen away. Everything shows that this is a government desperate to get money and is returning the country to what it said it was against: a model of pure extraction of natural resources at any cost,” says Mr Toranzo.

The energy sector needs investment urgently and fluctuations in the volumes and price of gas exports, Bolivia’s main source of revenue, have had an impact on the economy.

Some even fear Bolivia may lose a share of its main market for gas exports, neighbouring Brazil, if José Serra wins October’s presidential election. The centre-right candidate is likely to cool ties with some of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s leftwing allies, among them Mr Morales.

Bolivia’s finance minister, Luis Arce, forecasts 4.5 per cent growth for Bolivia and a $1bn trade surplus by the end of the year. “We are advancing and delivering results into the hands of the people,” he said. “The change is now irreversible.”

August 8, 2010

Korean organic farmers have held a “Mass for life and peace” to urge the government not to evict them from their lands to make way for a controversial river project.

The farmers’ lands are to be compulsorily purchased to make way for the Four Rivers Project. Authorities have already deposited the purchase price for the lands in a local court as the final step in the process.

The government must heed the cry of the farmers as a voice from heaven, said Father Joseph Cho Hae-bung, president of the Catholic Solidarity for Deterrence of the Four Rivers Project, at the Aug. 5 Mass.

Following the Mass, the farmers staged a protest rally in front of the Seoul Regional Construction Management Administration.

In a statement released there, the farmers “strongly urged” the government to seek an alternative solution through dialogue rather than through imposed administrative measures.

They also revealed that the government is threatening that evictions could begin within a month.

The farmers warned that the Four Rivers Project “would cause unimaginable damage.”

Authorities claim it is needed to prevent flooding and pollution, but its many opponents – ranging from Churches to local environmentalists – say it will have the opposite effect.

After the country’s ruling party was defeated at the recent June 2 nationwide local elections, the Catholic Church has called for an immediate halt to the project.

India clamps down on Maoists to woo mining investors
3 Aug 2010
NEW DELHI: India’s growing Maoist violence is worrying investors, forcing authorities to fight back aggressively in hopes of luring up to $7 billion in funds needed to boost coal and iron ore output vital for growth.

Maoist violence killed 426 people in the period from January to July, up nearly three times from a year ago, the South Asia Terrorism Portal shows, spotlighting the danger of mining in India’s mineral-rich eastern and central states and the challenge to the country’s ability to maintain law and order.

The Maoist rebels say they are fighting for the rights of India’s poor and disenfranchised, and find support among millions of tribal and lower caste people who accuse the state and big firms of neglect and exploitation in regions rich in minerals.

“If this issue is resolved, first of all logistics will improve significantly because trying to transport material has become a big problem,” said Prasad Baji, senior vice-president at Edelweiss Securities in Mumbai, the financial capital.

“Mining operations and production will also improve.” Analysts say India must attract $7 billion in funds by 2013 to develop an additional 100 million tonnes of coal and 50 million tonnes of iron ore to meet estimated demand and maintain economic growth of more than 6 percent over the last two years.

India has reserves of 267 billion tonnes of coal and about 25 billion tonnes of iron ore.

But investors can only be won over by a concerted effort to crush the Maoist threat and speed reform, the government’s twin aims in overhauling a law more than 50 years old that regulates the mining industry.

The changes would affect domestic metal and mining firms such as Sesa Goa, Sterlite Industries, Tata Steel and the Steel Authority of India, and global giants Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton

STAKES OF 26 PCT FOR LOCALS

Several federal ministries are weighing the new bill’s proposals for companies to share more than a quarter of their profit or equity with locals, for foreign investor participation in joint ventures and wide federal powers to tackle lawlessness.

The legal overhaul is part of government moves to expand social programmes for the poor, simultaneously pleasing its core supporters among voters, blocking flows of new recruits to the Maoists and balancing modern lifestyles against traditional ways.

Several government panels will debate the bill, revising it, and perhaps watering down the 26 percent profit-sharing figure, before it goes to parliament early next year prior to becoming law, analysts say.

Containing the Maoists, who were spawned by a peasant revolt in eastern India in 1967, is one of the biggest challenges the government faces and there is no guarantee fresh investments in mining will pay off, many analysts and industry figures agree.

“The eradication of Maoists may take at least two years,” said Edelweiss’s Baji, adding that the well-armed groups were entrenched in forested and hilly terrain, enjoyed the support of locals, and had gained strength over many years.

India’s security forces fanned out against the rebels in March in their biggest deployment in post-independence history, but the army is not being used for fear of alienating locals, leaving ill-trained police forces to fight a guerrilla war.

The government also plans to set up a unified command to coordinate the security offensive against the Maoists and spend more than 9.5 billion rupees to build roads and bridges in strife-torn areas.

SLOW PROJECTS

But the payoff for the government could be a while in coming.

“Who will go to these areas to work? There is no development, no law and order,” said S. B. S. Chauhan, an advisor at the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI) in New Delhi, which groups 400 metal and mining firms.

Slow development of new mines could see India’s coal imports swell nearly 47 percent over the next two years and iron ore supplies fall short of big steel capacities on the drawing board.

India imported about 68 million tones of coal in the year to March 2010, on top of output of 531 million tonnes. Analysts expect coal imports to exceed 100 million by March 2012.

Iron ore production of 226 million tonnes in the year to March 2010 sufficed for domestic use and exports, but more high-grade ores are needed for major steel capacity growth, to the tune of 120 million tonnes, by March 2012.

Annual output at India’s largest iron ore miner, NMDC Ltd fell nearly 16 percent in the year to March 2010 after Maoists cut a slurry pipeline in India’s central state of Chhattisgarh, the worst hit by the revolt.

Market sources said pipeline owner Essar Steel had decided not to repair the link between its plants and NMDC’s mines until the surrounding area was made safe.

NMDC chairman Rana Som said the company planned to build its own slurry pipeline traversing safer areas.

A. K. Sarkar, marketing director of Coal India, said strikes cost 80 days during the year to March 2009 in subsidiary Central Coalfields Ltd, several of them attributable to disruption by the Maoists.

“If the law and order situation is improved, coal production can rise by at least 25 percent,” Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said in June.

Delays suffered by domestic firms Tata Steel and Essar Steel and leading global steelmakers POSCO and Arcelor Mittal show how tough it is to complete projects in the central and eastern regions, analysts say.

Securing mining leases and negotiating farmers’ protests against land buys have caused POSCO and Arcelor Mittal delays of more than two years in building a total of 37 million tonnes of capacity in eastern India.

“People are scared to come here,” said Ashok Surana, president of the Chhattisgarh Mini Steel Plant Association in Raipur, which has 135 members.

“Such big projects are planned, but the local businessmen don’t know if they can invest in building new hotels because of the Maoists.”

Maoist strike hits road, rail services
August 03, 2010
Road and rail services were badly affected in Jharkhand due to a 48-hour strike called by Maoists that began on Tuesday, officials said. The national highways wore a deserted look and no long-route buses plied in many parts of the state. Life came to standstill in many districts like Gumla,
Latehar, Khuti, Chatra, Palamau and Giridih, among others.

As a precautionary measure, railway authorities cancelled five train services and diverted the routes of six others. Trucks were stranded at many places due to the strike and buses didn’t ply either in many areas.

“We stopped the movement of buses as a precautionary step. There are recent examples of Maoists attacking passengers travelling in buses during a strike period,” said Ramdev Yadav, a travel agent at a Ranchi bus stand.

The pro-Maoist Peoples’ Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) and its militant wing have called for the 48-hour shutdown in five states, including Jharkhand, to mourn the recent killing of their supreme commander Sidhu Soren in a shootout in West Bengal.

India offers Maoist rebels cash for weapons

August 02. 2010

NEW DELHI // In an attempt to tackle growing Maoist violence, two state governments revealed details yesterday of a weapons-buyback and job-traing program that offers rebels substantial money for their surrender and weapons.

For example, the plan provides a one-time payment of 150,000 rupees (Dh11,920), a monthly stipend of 2,000 rupees for three years and additional future payments to rebels who surrender their bullets, guns, missiles and explosives. They also will receive training as special police officers.

Under the plan, 25,000 rupees is offered for a surrendered machine gun, sniper rifle or rocket-propelled grenade. A surface-to-air missile would fetch an extra 20,000 rupees, an AK-series assault rifle 15,000 rupees, a landmine, improvised explosive device or pistol revolver 3,000 rupees and each kilogram of explosive 1,000 rupees, a West Bengal police statement said.

Zulfiquar Hassan, inspector general of Maoist-infested western range of West Bengal, said that the surrendered guerrillas would be placed in a special camp and provided extra security, so they are not targeted by fellow rebels who might want to punish them.

“We can train and employ the surrendered rebels as [short-term] special police officers. We can also arrange permanent government jobs for some if their performance is that satisfying. We shall also give them vocational training which can help them secure jobs in future… we are even open to negotiations with more attractive offers if some rebels really want to surrender, but do not find our package interesting.”

Manoj Verma, police chief of Maoist-infested West Midnapur district in West Bengal, said that as the Maoists are losing their support in many villages it was the “right time” to introduce the scheme.

Mr Verma said the goverment has received feelers from at least 10 Maoist cadres who are willing to surrender since a broad outline of the plan was revealed last week. “We believe some more rebels will be ready to return to normal life after they know the details of our scheme for surrender on offer,” he said.

“Many Maoists cadres are hiding in forests and remote villages. To distribute our leaflets which are carrying the details of our scheme in different languages, we may use helicopter.”

Neyaz Ahmed, police chief of Maoist-troubled neighbouring Jharkhand state, said yesterday that two Maoists, impressed with the government-offered rehabilitation package, had surrendered.

Rajdeo Yadav, a Maoist commander who surrendered in Jharkhand, told police that he left his group because he did not agree with the Maoists’ way of solving problems of the society, Mr Ahmed said.

“Another girl cadre said she left her group because she was disenchanted with the Maoists’ violent lifestyle and many other young cadres too were planning to surrender,” said Mr Ahmed, referring to 18-year-old Lalmuni who ran away from a Maoist women’s armed guerilla squad in Jharkhand last week.

“Many Maoists cadres are disillusioned with their movement. They want to leave the path of violence and want to join their democratic mainstream,” he said.

Communist Party of India [Maoist] West Bengal State Committee member Akash, who uses one name, said yesterday in a statement that the government would not be able to “buy-out oppressed and protesting masses” and would not be able to solve the crisis in the region.

“The government is trying to lure away our comrades with money. But our party workers are driven by a high level of dedication. They will all reject such surrender and rehab offers outright. No true Maoist can fall prey to such mean temptations,” said Akash.

Landmines recovered in Orissa, 6 Maoists held
Bhubaneswar, Aug 3: Two unexploded landmines were found in Sundergarh district of Orissa.

According to the police, the landmines were found fitted under two separate culverts during a combing operation by the police on Tuesday, Aug 3.

Six Maoist guerrillas were also arrested and they would be produced in a local court on Tuesday, Aug 3, Superintendent of Police Diptesh Patnaik said.

The rebels were held from Kalta area of the Maoist-infested Bonai sub-division, about 450 km from Bhubaneswar.

“Maoists planted landmines under two separate culverts to trigger blasts, thankfully we recovered the landmines,” Diptesh Patnaik said.

“They were involved in several crimes, including the murder of trade union leader Thomas Munda in Jan 2010,” Patnaik added.

2010-07-08 15:30:00

Members of the Penan tribe have mounted the blockade in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, to stop the destruction of the forests they depend on for their survival.

Malaysian timber company Lee Ling is logging in the area, and there are plans to clear the Penan’s forests completely to establish plantations of fast-growing trees for paper production.

The Penan say the plantations will leave them with nothing. They live by hunting, gathering and fishing, and will have nowhere to find food if the forests are chopped down.

Penan protesting at the blockade in northern Sarawak say they have experienced a violent attack by a logger. They are also going hungry, because manning the blockade means they are unable to spend time finding food.

The protestors include nomadic Penan, and those living in settled villages.

One Penan man told Survival International, ‘We can’t live in a plantation environment. It is like asking fish to live on the land.’

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘How many more Penan protests, and how much more intimidation by the loggers, will we see before Malaysia recognizes that this land belongs to the Penan?’(ANI)

A new study shows that deforestation in the Amazon helps spread disease by creating an optimal environment for malaria-carrying mosquitoes. The study, published in the online issue of the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, found that clearing forests in the Brazilian Amazon raised incidences of malaria by almost 50 percent.

“It appears that deforestation is one of the initial ecological factors that can trigger a malaria epidemic,” says Sarah Olson, the lead author of the new report and a postdoctoral fellow at the Nelson Institute, Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment with the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Researchers combined information on malaria occurrences in 54 Brazilian health districts with satellite imagery of Amazon deforestation.

“The deforested landscape, with more open spaces and partially sunlit pools of water, appears to provide ideal habitat for this mosquito,” Olson says of Anopheles darlingi, the primary carrier of malaria in the Amazon. In deforested areas Anopheles darlingi displaces other less-malaria prone mosquitoes that favor forest landscapes.

“A 4 percent change in forest cover was associated with a 48 percent increase in malaria incidence in these 54 health districts,” explains Olson. “The health data used in the study is of the highest quality and spatial resolution. Unlike previous studies, our data allowed us to zoom in on areas where people are being exposed to malaria and to exclude areas where they are not being exposed.”

The study adjusted for human population, access to healthcare, and additional factors, yet still found malaria outbreaks closely aligned with deforestation.

OIL from the Gulf of Mexico disaster has been found more than 100 miles from the leak, adding to fears of more pollution.

As slicks continued to wash ashore in the US, tests showed that plumes of oil were also lurking deep underwater.

Their presence carries implications for deep-sea life because tiny microbes eat them and consume oxygen, choking off the supply to other organisms.

The impact could cascade up the food chain, cutting off the food supply of larger predators.

The containment cap on the stricken BP wellhead is helping to limit the leak, collecting more than 620,000 gallons of oil.

But it is unclear how much oil is still escaping, and underwater video feeds continued to show a dark geyser.

The amount of oil kept from spilling into the Gulf “has climbed steadily,” Admiral Thad Allen said.

The initial clean-up could take months and the spill’s effects could linger for years. And as the oil patches dance unpredictably from coastline to coastline, residents who depend on tourism and fishing are wondering how to head off the damage or salvage a season that’s nearing its peak.

The random, scattered nature of the oil was evident this week near the Alabama- Florida state line. On the Alabama side, oil-laden seaweed littered beaches for miles, and huge orange globs stained the sands.

But at Perdido Key, on the Florida side, the sand was white and virtually crude-free.

“The daily images of the oil is obviously having an impact,” said Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, the state closest to the leak and the one where the oil is having its most insidious effects on wildlife. “It’s having a heavy, real, very negative impact on our economy.”

Some of the most enduring of those images are of pelicans and other wildlife drenched in oil.

As the sun rose on Barataria Bay, Louisiana, just west of the mouth of the Mississippi River, marsh islands teemed with oily brown pelicans and crude-stained white ibis.

Some struggled to fly, fluttered and fell, while others just sat and tried to clean themselves, squawking and flapping their wings.

Snakes may be declining across the world, according to a global study.

Researchers examined records for 17 snake populations covering eight species over the last few decades, and found most had declined markedly.

For reasons that are not entirely clear, some populations shrank in number abruptly around 1998.

Writing in the journal Biology Letters, the researchers describe the findings as “alarming” but say much more work is needed to understand the causes.

“This is the first time that data has been analysed in this way, and what we’ve shown is that in different parts of the world we seem to have this steep decline in a short period,” said project leader Chris Reading.

“It surprised us when we realised what we were looking at,” he told BBC News.

“And we don’t have a clue what it was about that period of time (around 1998).”

Dr Reading’s team at the UK’s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology ran the study with institutions in Australia, France, Italy and Nigeria.

Data deficiencies

The main problem for anyone wanting to conduct a global survey such as this is simply lack of data.

Monitoring snake populations means marking the individuals in some way – typically by snipping a pattern into their scales, or implanting a microchip.

Field seasons can last for many months, and have to be repeated annually.

The researchers believe they amassed most, if not all, long-term datasets for this study – although “long-term” in this context means going back more than one decade, in some cases more than two.

Nevertheless, within this relatively short timeframe, eight of the 17 populations were seen to fall markedly in size – some by more than 90% – with only one showing any sign of a rise.

Species in decline include the asp and the smooth snake from Europe, the Gabon viper and rhinoceros viper of West Africa, and the royal python.

Populations shrank even in protected areas, suggesting that the progressive loss of habitat for wild animals being seen all over the world is not the only cause.

Similar steep declines observed in frogs and newts in an earlier period were eventually found to be caused by the fungal disease chytridiomycosis.

The year when many of the snake declines began – 1998 – raises the question of whether climatic factors might be involved, as very strong El Nino conditions contributed to making it the hottest year recorded in modern times.

Dr Reading’s research group suggests many causes might be involved, and is appealing to other researchers to come forward with any more long-term datasets that might broaden the picture.

“The purpose of this paper was to say ‘this is what we’ve found’, and to say to other herpetologists ‘now go and look at your own data’,” he said.

“But I think that with so many populations in different places showing decline, it’s more than co-incidence.”

Alabama fishermen used a half-dozen boats to prevent access to the Mississippi Sound in an early morning blockade to protest BP’s unfair hiring practices yesterday. The fishermen, who’ve been idled by the massive ban on fishing in the oiled waters of the Gulf of Mexico, say BP is hiring far more recreational boaters than commercial fishermen in its cleanup efforts. The Press-Register reports:

A handmade sign that read “Commercial 1st We need work now” hung from one of the vessels idling in the waterway. A smaller gray boat was spray-painted with bright orange letters “44 days still pumping BP lied.”

At least two boats were blocked from passing through the mouth of the Bayou before police and other authorities asked the men to end the blockade or face arrest.

At issue, according to those there, is that recreational boat owners are being hired before those who make their livelihoods solely from fishing local waters.

When asked about the protest, BP officials emailed this statement: “We are adjusting the vessels of opportunity program to give priority to commercial vessels and fisherman. We are working diligently to resolve any issues VOO operators may have.”

The owner of the boat with the orange message, Brent Buchanan, was taken from the docks in handcuffs by local police about an hour after the protest began at 5 a.m. His two sons watched from a small pier a few feet away.

BP seems to admit that it failed to give priority to commercial fishermen with its statement that the company is “adjusting” how it hires boats for its cleanup operation. That’s nice, but in addition to “adjusting” how it hires, BP might also want to actually use those whom it does hire.

Several fishermen at the protest said that while they had been hired by BP, they never actually did any work. “Wait by the phone” were the instructions given to at least two fishermen whose phones never rang.

Ray Foster, 62, who owns the trawler Miss Joyce, docked his wooden-hulled boat across from the others in a show of solidarity Wednesday morning. “I ain’t against nobody making money,” Foster said, “but I think BP ought to put all our commercial fishermen’s boats to work.”

Foster, of Heron Bay, who was hired by BP through its vessels of opportunity program, said he and his crew were on standby for 14 days and submitted an invoice for payment. That was more than a week ago. “They told me to stand by the phone,” Foster said. As of Wednesday morning, more than nine days later, he hadn’t been called back to work or paid for his service. “I need to go to work.”

Several other fishermen at the docks Wednesday, including Philip Seaman and Michael Sprinkle, of Irvington, said they are still waiting on checks from BP for two weeks of work.

“They hired me for 14 days,” Sprinkle said. “They’ve got boats that have been working for 30 days.” [...]

Sprinkle said he has spent hours calling BP phone numbers to find out when he’ll get paid or get work again: “They said be patient and wait by the phone.”

Not only are fishermen in the Gulf region desperate for work after BP’s oil disaster ruined their waters, and not only is BP apparently giving preference to recreational boats over professional fishermen, but the company is neither using nor paying those it did hire.

I heard similar stories about idled boats while in Louisiana. While several fishermen and boat owners did go out on the waters in oil containment efforts, a good number were idled without any direction from BP. The Administration claimed yesterday that “more than 1,900 vessels are responding on site” in the cleanup. Are all of those active? Or do they include the idled fishermen who organized the blockade?

Meanwhile, fishermen and other Alabamans are anxious with an evidently impotent federal government in the shadow of BP. The Washington Post reports from a town meeting:

The crowd was several hundred jittery Alabamians, many with the deep tans that marked them as commercial shrimpers or oystermen. They had come to a community meeting that promised to “help provide answers” about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. [...]

“Please respect our experts,” said moderator Ann Weaver, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “when they tell you they don’t know the answers to your questions.”

Don’t be mad when we can’t help you.

As it turned out, it was the right advice for the event. [...]

“People are not looking for I-don’t-knows,” said Alex Jones, 25, a Mobile area resident, later, after he had walked out. “They’re looking for answers, because they need money.”

The best/worst part? Questions for BP are to be submitted on index cards to the company.

Another question from the audience: Why is BP hiring outsiders instead of local fishermen to do cleanup work in Alabama? The officials on the panel didn’t know: That was a question for BP. They asked people to write down questions on cards, and promised to deliver them to the oil company.

It’s increasingly evident that BP just isn’t capable of organizing the massive scale of personnel and resources required to adequately respond to the increasingly massive oil disaster. The task of organizing cleanup crews, fishermen with boats, and the other vast human resources along the Gulf Coast may be better suited for the Army, National Guard, or other military organization already on the scene, but clearly not in charge. If it’s a question of payment, the Obama Administration demonstrated it’s clearly capable of just sending BP the bill.

Until BP gets its act together, expect similar acts of outrage, and solidarity, from fishermen and other Gulf residents. Things are getting ugly by the hour, and there needs to be a significantly better way to deal with the human toll of this disaster. And it shouldn’t be BP’s face doing it.

Fri Jun 4,
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The government plans to force foreign and domestic mining firms to share a quarter of their net profit with local communities, seeking to undercut a sense of alienation among its rural poor opposed to giving up land for industry.

In a country where two-thirds of the population lives on farming, the government has struggled to provide land to industry, fuelling a growing Maoist insurgency and a wider resentment that foreign firms are being allowed to displace poor people and cart away natural resources.

“The idea is to create a win-win situation by enabling miners to mine and local people to genuinely benefit,” S. Vijay Kumar, special secretary in the mines ministry, told Reuters.

“But that win-win has to come out from the parting of a greater share of profits (by mining companies), so that local people do not see mining as a threat to their way of life but as an opportunity for progress and development.”

The new mining bill has to be passed by parliament. It was not clear yet whether the profit to be shared would be from a company’s overall operations in India or a particular mine.

Years of protests, sometimes violent with backing from the Maoists, have delayed many projects, including India-focused miner Vedanta Resources Plc’s bauxite mines and POSCO’s proposed steel plant in Orissa.

It has now led to a growing realisation in the ruling Congress-led coalition as well as state governments that economic progress must include local stakeholders and industry must secure “social licence” to overcome hostility and speed up projects.

The proposed law is being seen in the context of the government’s expanding social programmes that seek to keep poor voters, its core support base, happy and away from the Maoists while also balancing modernisation with traditional ways of life.

This could impact local mining companies including listed companies such as Sesa Goa, Sterlite, Tata and the Steel Authority of India, besides global giants such as Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton.

Land acquisition for large projects, often forcible, and poverty have boosted the appeal of Maoist rebels in eastern and southern states, home to many deprived tribal communities.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the Maoists as India’s biggest internal security challenge, an insurgency that has appeared to be spinning out of control with 400 people already killed this year.

The rebellion, present in mineral-rich rural pockets of 20 of India’s 28 states, may not yet be a threat to its trillion-dollar economy, but mining firms have long felt the heat.

The world’s leading steelmaker Arcelor Mittal’s plans for two plants in eastern India have already faced a two-year lag.

Frequent rebel strikes have hit production and shipment at firms such as India’s largest miner of iron ore, NMDC Ltd’s and state-run National Aluminium Co Ltd.

TIGHTER CONTROL

Maoist rebels extort about $300 million from companies in India every year in protection money, police and officials say. Local resentment has also often been fuelled by uncontrolled mining in some areas.

Kumar said the bill will also help crack down on illegal mining, an issue now in the spotlight due to a proactive environment ministry.

“This will bring tighter regulation, more stringent penalties. Besides issues of profitability, this is perhaps one of the reasons why there is opposition (to the bill) from mainly some vested interests,” he said.

India, with about 85 billion tonnes of mineral reserves yet to be exploited, has set a target of increasing foreign investment to $20 billion over the next few years.

But exploration companies have shied away from India because the current mining law in India does not allow mining concessions to be transferred from one company to another.

The law seeks to allow mining concessions to be transferred, Kumar said, adding this will enable exploration of deep-seated mineral deposits, particularly copper, zinc, gold and platinum.

(Editing by Paul De Bendern)

(Reuters) – The United States has nearly doubled the no-fishing zone in the Gulf of Mexico because of the spread of oil leaking from the ruptured BP well, a federal official said on Tuesday.

The no-fishing zone now covers 19 percent of U.S. waters in the Gulf, up from 10 percent on Monday, said Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

She said the move was made in response to the possibility that leaking oil had entered the Loop Current that could carry it to the Florida Keys and then possibly up U.S. Atlantic Coast.

U.S. territorial waters in the Gulf of Mexico are technically referred to as the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, which extends 200 nautical miles from shore or 230 statute miles.

The world faces the nightmare possibility of fishless oceans by 2050 without fundamental restructuring of the fishing industry, UN experts said Monday.

“If the various estimates we have received… come true, then we are in the situation where 40 years down the line we, effectively, are out of fish,” Pavan Sukhdev, head of the UN Environment Program’s green economy initiative, told journalists in New York.

A Green Economy report due later this year by UNEP and outside experts argues this disaster can be avoided if subsidies to fishing fleets are slashed and fish are given protected zones — ultimately resulting in a thriving industry.

The report, which was opened to preview Monday, also assesses how surging global demand in other key areas including energy and fresh water can be met while preventing ecological destruction around the planet.

UNEP director Achim Steiner said the world was “drawing down to the very capital” on which it relies.

SHANGHAI

Officials in the eastern Chinese city of Wuxi are investigating after workers from a factory of Japanese camera maker Nikon Corp. protested over the handling of an apparent gas poisoning incident.

Local media reports said more than 50 workers at Nikon Imaging (China) Co.’s Wuxi plant have taken ill since late April, complaining of nausea and vomiting from the apparent release of sulfur dioxide in the area.

Nikon and local government officials said the gas was thought to have come from a nearby pharmaceutical company, rather than the camera factory itself. But an official in the media affairs office of Wuxi Hi-tech Industrial City — an industrial zone — would not give details.

“It’s not convenient to tell you the name of that pharmaceutical factory now, because the incident is still under investigation. The sick workers are being well cared for in the hospital,” said the official, who gave only his surname, Chen.

Nikon’s offices in Wuxi gave no immediate response to questions e-mailed to them at their request. Reports said the Nikon factory has halted production pending the results of the investigation.

Late last week, the Wuxi health bureau issued a statement saying that the results of tests for hazardous substances at the factory had shown no problems. It said doctors who examined the workers found no serious abnormalities and concluded that any problems were psychological in origin. It recommended counseling for the workers.

According to the Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao and other reports, some 5,000 workers went on strike Saturday, objecting to those conclusions and demanding compensation.

The protest blocked traffic in the area but broke up later in the day. Several hundred workers continued to protest earlier this week, the reports said.

According to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, hospital workers said eight of the factory’s workers were hospitalized after being seriously affected by sulfur dioxide poisoning.

The Nikon factory, located in an industrial zone of Wuxi, was set up in May 2002 and makes digital cameras and lenses. In years past, local authorities have commended the factory for its good labor relations.

According to the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, exposure to very high levels of sulfur dioxide can be life threatening. The gas burns the nose and throat and can cause breathing difficulties and other discomfort.

Youths and women of Ibeno local government area of Akwa Ibom State, last week took to the streets in protest of oil spill from an off-shore pipeline belonging to Exxon Mobil.
According to what this publication gathered, the company, despite having knowledge of the spill was yet to take any corrective measure towards the damage done to the community, which resulted in the protest.
As part of their demands, from what this reporter was able to piece together, the community is demanding a compensation of $1bn for the damages.
Speaking to Journalists at Ibeno, a community leader and former Commissioner for Lands in the State, Mr. Abang O. Abang said the spill had negatively affected the community and regretted that Mobil was not taking urgent steps to curtail the spill since the incident occurred.
He informed newsmen that the company was also yet to clean up a dispersant chemical injected in to the water which had resulted in eye problems in the community before the spill occurred.
The former commissioner condemned the acts of security men at the Exxon Mobil who assaulted the protestants, saying, government officials, SSS and a representative of the community in NDDC, Chief Ette were duly informed.
On his part, Chairman of National Youths Council of Nigeria, Akwa Ibom Chapter, Mr. Edem Ebong said the community should exercise patience as the company’s Public Affairs Manager has informed him that the company was taking steps to stop the spill.
Reacting to the incident, Paramount Ruler of Ibeno community, HRH Obong Effiong Atiaha said the protest would continue despite assaults from security men until Mobil rise up to the demands of the community, which among other things, include $1bn as compensation.

SEOUL, April 27 (AFP) – South Korea was Tuesday to inaugurate the world’s longest seawall, the first step in a massive project aimed at reclaiming the ocean for industry, tourism and agriculture by 2020.

The 33 kilometre (21 mile) Saemangeum seawall encloses 401 square kilometres (160 square miles) of seawater, about two thirds of Seoul’s land area.

The government has already spent 2.9 trillion won (2.6 billion dollars) on what is billed as the country’s largest-ever development project, despite environmental concerns.

Another 21 trillion won in state and private spending is envisaged until 2020 to reclaim land, build infrastructure and create giant freshwater reservoirs.

The project was first mooted in the early 1970s and work on the west coast dike 280 kilometres south of Seoul began in 1991.

Originally, the government planned to use most of the reclaimed land for farming but the country’s rice production now outstrips demand.

The plan now is to build a new city focused on logistics, industry, tourism and leisure as well as floriculture.

The reclaimed area and the port city of Gunsan will jointly house an international business complex to be called the Saemangeum-Gunsan Free Economic Zone by 2020.

The project has been dogged by fears of environmental disaster, and was marked by protests and clashes with riot police.

Environmentalists say it will destroy huge mudflats providing habitats for wildlife and serving as natural water purification plants.

Opposition eased somewhat as authorities promised to invest more to address environmental concerns, including tighter control of pollution upstream on the two rivers that flow into the area.

“However, the overall development project must be reviewed in order to preserve the mudflats as much as possible,” Jee Woon-Geun, a director of the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement, told AFP.

“Mudflats enable sustainable development. They are also a great tourist attraction.”

April 7 (Bloomberg) — The deadliest attack on Indian security forces in four decades of left-wing conflict underscores the challenge companies including ArcelorMittal, Posco and NMDC Ltd. face in investing in mineral-rich states.

Maoist rebels killed 76 officers in an ambush yesterday in the eastern state of Chhattisgarh, where NMDC operates its biggest iron-ore mine. In neighboring states, ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steelmaker, and South Korea’s Posco have yet to start their $32 billion projects because of protests over land.

Resistance from property owners, some backed by Maoist or Naxalite rebels, and delays in approvals for land and mines have stalled more than $80 billion of projects in India that would double national steel output. Yesterday’s attacks are a setback to India’s efforts to rid the eastern states of left-wing guerillas and open up regions rich in iron ore, coal, bauxite and manganese to investment.

“If the global players had got a footprint in India they could have really made a good return on their investment,” said Abhisar Jain, metals and mining analyst with ICICI Securities Ltd. in Mumbai. “India as a whole will stand to lose if no global player is able to put up its plant here.”

The Naxalite rebels, named after the 1967 peasant uprising in the West Bengal village of Naxalbari, have waged a violent campaign against the government, police and landowners for more than four decades to install communist rule. It was greeted as “a peal of spring thunder” by China’s People Daily at its birth during the political purges of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution.

High Risk

“Most of the mining assets in India are present in the Maoists belt, which is a threat as more mining can’t take place and new leases can’t be executed,” Santha Sheela Nair, secretary at the mines ministry, said in a March 5 interview.

ArcelorMittal, which aimed to build two mills, one each in Jharkhand and Orissa states, has yet to acquire any land needed to set up the 12 million ton plant in Jharkhand, said a director at the state’s industries department, asking not to be identified as he isn’t authorized to speak to the media. The company hasn’t also acquired land in Orissa. Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal declined to comment on yesterday’s attacks.

“Containing the Naxal movement is integral to raising India’s energy and mineral self sufficiency,” Deutsche Bank AG’s Abhay Laijawala and Anuj Singla wrote in an April 2 report. “Unless the Naxal resistance abates, the high levels of risk associated with doing business in Naxal-infested areas will deter investment.”

Local Opposition

Posco’s $12 billion steel unit and iron-ore mine in Orissa has been delayed for five years as the company is unable to acquire almost 90 percent of the land required for the project due to opposition from the local population. The company has also not been able to secure any mines.

“When you are setting up projects of this size there are bound to be some people who will dissent,” Posco India General Manager Simanta Mohanty said yesterday in an interview. “The challenge before us is to mobilize the support of the people and get the required land.”

Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh-based NMDC, Asia’s third-biggest iron ore producer, posted a 40 percent decline in third-quarter profit after a slurry pipeline used for transporting ore was damaged by Maoists. The company, in which the government sold an 8.38 percent stake last month, mentioned rebel attacks as one of the risk factors in the sale document. The company has plans to raise production capacity by 67 percent to 50 million tons by 2015.

Watchtowers, Patrols

NMDC said yesterday’s incident hadn’t disrupted its biggest mine as the company protects its facilities with barriers and security patrols.

“Mining operations in the Bailadila mines are normal,” NMDC Chairman Rana Som said yesterday in a telephone interview. “The mine area is surrounded by several layers of fencing and we monitor the area from watchtowers.”

India needs to counter the terror tactics that risk hampering industrial growth, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, or Ficci, said in a November report.

“Just when India needs to ramp up its industrial machine to lock in growth and when foreign companies are joining the party, Naxalites are clashing with mining and steel companies essential to India’s long-term success,” the report said.

At the Niyamgiri Hills in Orissa, the tribal population and non-governmental agencies oppose a bauxite mine planned by Vedanta Aluminium Ltd., a unit of London-based Vedanta Resources Plc. Construction has been delayed for more than four years.

“What can the company give us?” Niranjan Acharya, who lives in the area and “absolutely” opposes the Vedanta mine, said in an interview with Bloomberg UTV. “How much employment can they possibly generate? Our livelihood is Niyamgiri, we get everything from there. If the mining happens, 10 to 20 years down the line this place will become a desert, what will the people here do then?”

To win over the population, the federal government is proposing laws to quicken mine allocation and land acquisition. The law will allow companies to give annuities to the families displaced from mining areas, besides a one-time compensation.

“The aim is to involve the local population in the developmental activities of the region so they do not feel left out and resort to opposition” Mines Secretary Nair said.

Move aimed at protecting Clinch River, already polluted by one billion gallons of coal ash

Nashville, TN — Ann Harris, 70, remembers growing up near the Clinch River in Tennessee, frequently swimming and fishing its waters with her family. For the past few decades, the river has changed drastically. Its once clear waters now look and smell like sewage, which led Harris to sell her ancestral home and move away eight years ago.

Read more…

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) — A coal-mine explosion in the northeastern Chinese province of Heilongjiang killed 42 miners and left 66 missing, Xinhua News Agency said on its Web site.

The explosion happened at 2:30 a.m. at Xinxing mine where 528 miners were working, the State Administration of Work Safety said on its Web site. Rescue efforts are under way, according to the statement.

The explosion destroyed the mine’s ventilation and communication system, making it difficult for rescue, China Central Television reported on its Web site.

China relies on coal to generate 80 percent of its electricity. A coal-mine explosion in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing on May 30 killed 30 workers and another coal- mine blast in Shanxi province on Feb. 22 left 74 miners dead, according to the government.

Xinxing mine, owned by Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Holding Group Co., has an annual production capacity of 1.45 million tons of coal, according to the statement.

China’s death toll from coal mine accidents fell 12 percent in the first seven months of this year from a year earlier after the government closed small pits to improve safety, according to Luo Lin, head of the State Administration of Work Safety.

–Jiang Jianguo. Editors: Sean Collins, John Chacko.

from: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aW2Vn7_VJ3eU&pos=9

JAMMU: Kashmir’s biggest glacier, which feeds the region’s main river, is melting faster than other Himalayas glaciers, threatening the water supply of tens of thousands of people, a new report warned on Monday.

Experts say rising temperatures are rapidly shrinking Himalayan glaciers, underscoring the effects of climate change that has caused temperatures in the mountainous region to rise by about 1.1 ºC in the past 100 years. The biggest glacier in Kashmir, the Kolahoi glacier spread over just a little above 11sqkm, has shrunk 2.63sqkm in the past three decades, the study said.
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LONDON: The Arctic ice cap will disappear completely in summer months within 20 to 30 years, a polar research team said as they presented findings from an expedition led by adventurer Pen Hadow.

It is likely to be largely ice-free during the warmer months within a decade, the experts added.
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BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Four months after the government removed gray wolves from the endangered species list, a federal judge has ruled that the first hunts for them in the contiguous United States in decades can proceed.

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Observer investigation uncovers link between dramatic rise in birth defects in Punjab and pollution from coal-fired power stations

Their heads are too large or too small, their limbs too short or too bent. For some, their brains never grew, speech never came and their lives are likely to be cut short: these are the children it appears that India would rather the world did not see, the victims of a scandal with potential implications far beyond the country’s borders.

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Two mountaintop-removal opponents took to the trees of Raleigh County on Tuesday, hoping to shut down a Massey Energy operation they say is blasting dangerously close to nearby homes.

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Scientists have just completed an unprecedented journey into the vast and little-explored “Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch.”

On the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition (SEAPLEX), researchers got the first detailed view of plastic debris floating in a remote ocean region.

It wasn’t a pretty sight.

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NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s greenhouse gas emissions are expected to jump to between 4 billion tonnes and 7.3 billion tonnes in 2031 but the Asian power’s rapid economic growth will be sustainable, a government-backed report said on Wednesday.

Per-capita emissions are estimated to rise to 2.1 tonnes by 2020 and 3.5 tonnes by 2030, according to a government-funded study by five different organisations, including environmental groups and the management consultancy firm, McKinsey.

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Next spring, farmers in Canada will be able to sow one of the most complicated genetically engineered plants ever designed, a futuristic type of corn containing eight foreign genes. Read more…

PICHER, Okla. – Two years ago, Orval “Hoppy” Ray vowed it would take someone meaner than him to make him leave the town where he was born.

But now the crusty, 84-year-old former miner is moving out, leaving behind a blighted, ghostly landscape, its soil, water and air poisoned by generations of lead-ore extraction that produced bullets for both world wars. Read more…

Prenatal Air Pollution Exposure Linked to Low Childhood IQ

Prenatal exposure to pervasive air pollutants may adversely affect a child’s intelligence by preschool, researchers reported today. Read more…

Chinese Solar Power Company Shares Rise on Government Subsidy

July 22 (Bloomberg) — Chinese solar power companies, led by Wuhan Linuo Solar Energy Group Ltd., rose in both mainland and Hong Kong trading after the government announced subsidies for solar power projects. Read more…

The blacksoil Liverpool Plains in north-west New South Wales have been called the food bowl of Australia, the nation’s most fertile agricultural land.

But this week’s Four Corners reports that the area is turning into a battlefield in a stoush between two of Australia’s primary resource sectors, as farmers confront mining giants BHP Billiton and Shenhua with a blockade that’s intended to keep coal exploration teams off their property. Read more…