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Frightening new research shows honey bees are being exposed to deadly neonicotinoid insecticides and several other agricultural pesticides throughout their foraging period. The research, published in the scientific journal PLoS One says extremely high levels of clothianidin and thiamethoxam were found in planter exhaust material produced during the planting of treated maize seed. The work, which could raise new questions about the long-term survival of the honey bee, was conducted by Christian H. Krupke of the Department of Entomology at Purdue University, Brian D. Eitzer of the Department of Analytical Chemistry at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station and Krispn Given of Purdue.

“Neonicotinoids  were found in the soil of each field we sampled, including  unplanted fields,” they report. Dandelions visited by foraging bees growing near these fields were found to contain neonicotinoids as well. “This indicates deposition of neonicotinoids on the flowers, uptake by the root system, or both. Dead bees collected near hive entrances during the spring sampling period were found to contain clothianidin as well.”

“These results have implications for a wide range of large-scale annual cropping systems that utilize neonicotinoid seed treatments,” the report says. The research was funded by grants from the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign and the Managed Pollinator Coordinated Agricultural Project.

Neonicotinoids are persistent. The new report says the half-lives of these compounds in aerobic soil conditions can vary widely, but are best measured in months – 148 – 1,155 days for clothianidin.

Among the largest single uses of these compounds is application to maize seed. Production of maize for food, feed and ethanol production represents the largest single use of arable land in North America, reaching a record
88,216,620 acres in 2010 and is expected to increase.  All of the maize seed planted in North America except for 0.2% used in organic production is coated with neonicotinoid insecticides.

Two major compounds are used – clothianidin and thiamethoxam, with the latter metabolized to clothianidin in the insect. The application rates for these compounds range from 0.25 to 1.25 mg/kernel. These compounds are highly toxic to honey bees – a single kernel contains several orders of magnitude of active ingredient more than the published LD50 values for honey bees – defined as the amount of material that will kill 50% of exposed individuals.
In fact, the amount of clothianidin on a single maize seed at the rate of 0.5 mg/kernel contains enough active ingredient to kill more than 80,000 honey bees.

The results prompted researchers to carry out more experiments to determine how honey bees may be gaining exposure to clothianidin and other pesticides commonly applied to either maize seed or to plants later in the season. They collected samples from a variety of potential exposure routes near agricultural fields and analyzed them to determine whether pesticides were present. They sampled soils, pollen both collected by honey bees and directly from plants, dandelion flowers, and dead and healthy bees. They even checked waste products produced during the planting of treated seed. Maize seed is sewn with tractor-drawn planters that use a forced air/vacuum system and a perforated disc to pick up individual seeds and drop them into the planting furrow at the selected spacing. Maize kernels treated with neonicotinoids and other compounds such as fungicides do not flow readily and may stick to one another, causing uneven plant spacing. To overcome this, talc (a mineral composed of hydrated magnesium silicate) is added to seed boxes to reduce friction and stickiness and ensure the smooth flow of seed. Much of the talc is exhausted during planting, either down with the seed or behind the planter and into the air using an exhaust fan. Researchers sampled the waste talc after planting to determine whether this material was contaminated with pesticides abraded from treated seeds. The waste is a mixture of the talc that has been in contact with treated maize kernels and minute pieces of the seeds.

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

Note: this sign on letter comes from our friends at Jubilee South:

Please find below a sign-on statement of condemnation and solidarity on the case of protestors in Indonesia who were killed and injured on Christmas eve when the police attacked their peaceful demonstration against the Bima Gold Mine Project in Sumbawa, Indonesia. Please email back if you’d like your organization to be one of the signatories,

Lidy Nacpil

Jubilee South

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the violent attack by the Indonesian police against a peaceful demonstration in the island of Sumbawa on Christmas eve that killed three (3) protestors and injured nineteen (19) others.

The brutality perpetrated by the police is totally unacceptable, especially as the protestors were exercising the right to express their demands and sentiments against the Bima Gold Mine Project, an undertaking that has grave and harmful consequences on the environment and the lives of community residents.

We express our solidarity with the demonstrators who have been legitimately fighting for their rights and protecting the interests of their community against the profiteering of Arc Exploration, an Australian owned company.

We demand that the Australian government probe into the role of Arc Exploration in the violent attack and the company’s possible collusion with the Indonesian police.  Equally important, we call on the Indonesian government to investigate the brazen assault by Indonesian authorities and hold accountable those responsible for the killings and injuries suffered by the victims.’

For background information go to: http://wp.me/pDT6U-3o9

Signatories:

Jubilee South Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development (JSAPMDD)
Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA)
South Asian Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE)
Bangladesh Krishok Federation
EquityBD, Bangladesh
Jatiyo Sramik Jote, Bangladesh
SUPRO, Bangladesh
VOICE, Bangladesh
Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF)
Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR), Indonesia
KRUHA, Indonesia
Solidaritas Perempuan, Indonesia
All Nepal Women Association (ANWA)
All Nepal Peasants’ Federation (ANPFa)
Jagaran Nepal
Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee
Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum
Aniban ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (AMA), Philippines
Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), Philippines

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Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

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Filed under Climate Change, Corporate Globalization, Energy, False Solutions to Climate Change, Greenwashing, Hydrofracking, politics, Pollution, Tar Sands, Videos

Tagged as Climate Change, coal, energy, oil, pollution, Tar Sands

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Filed under Climate Change, Corporate Globalization, Energy, False Solutions to Climate Change, Greenwashing, Hydrofracking, politics, Pollution, Tar Sands, Videos

Tagged as Climate Change, coal, energy, oil, pollution, Tar Sands

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

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Filed under Actions, Climate Change, Corporate Globalization, Occupy Wall Street, Political Repression, politics

Tagged as activists, american winter, arab spring, develpment, human rights, Occupy Movement, occupy wall street, protests, sustainability, Time’s person of the year: the protester

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

Chinese government to invest $1.78B in Nigerian biofuels, the latest in a series of projects announced in West Africa.

Jim Lane | January 2, 2012

Cross-posted from BiofuelsDigest 

In Nigeria, Bloomberg and several local outlets are reporting that the Nigerian government has signed a $2.55 billion development deal with Global Biofuels, to construct 15 integrated biorefineries throughout the West African nation. According to reports, the first pilot plant will be completed in Ilemeso, in Ekiti State by Q4 2012, and projects thereafter will be completed in Ondo, Osun, Kwara, Kogi,Benue,  Gombe, Bauchi, Zamfara, Kano, Kaduna, Nasarawa and  Plateau states.  Project cost for the initial pilot plant is $108M, while full-scale plants are expected to cost $183 million each.

According to Global Biofuels, $1.78 billion, or 70 percent of the financing will come from the Chinese government. The remainder will come from NEXIM Bank, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development, Africa Finance Corporation; Fond Gari, and First Bank of Nigeria. The projects expect to generate 100 tons of total biomass per hectare, per yearn, using two cropping cycles per year, with total tonnage including tops, leaves, stalks and the primary crop. That equates to roughly 20 tons of total biomass per growing season, per acre.

But the massive Nigerian investment is just one of several announced in recent weeks and months in West Africa.

Nigerian Export-Import Bank:$695M

Just last week, the Nigerian Export-Import Bank gave $695 million to five companies investing in renewables including $12 million for a jatropha project and $56 million for a sorghum ethanol project. The majority of the funding went to a sugarcane project that will include a bagasse co-generation component while the rest of the funding was for waste-to-energy projects.

Just before the US Thanksgiving holiday, the Ondo State Commissioner for Agriculture, Ademola Olorunfemi, said that the state would approve development of three sugarcane plantations and ethanol plants, with a focus on the production of biofuels and rural economic development. The Commissioner also said that the plants could provide materials for the bio-pharma industry.

The projects, whose goals center around industrialization and employment, indicate a new direction for the economy of this agriculture-heavy area of Nigeria.

Dangote Group, $7.7B

The same week, Aliko Dangote, the president of Dangote Group, announced an investment of $7.7 billion in Rivers Energy City, home of the budding $2 billion fertilizer and ethanol plant project put on by Indorama Eleme Petrochemical Company. His investment, says a top government source, will span into the methane and ethanol industries and provide thousands of jobs in the upcoming energy city.

Global Biofuels: $91M

In August, Global Biofuels has announced plans for ethanol plants across the West African region, with $91 million in sellers credit from COZA of Hong Kong and WEMET of China.  The final project is expected to cost over $183 million, and produce 72 million liters of ethanol from 1.95 million tons of sorghum per year, and 216 gigawatts of electricity.  Total land use as reported would be 65,000 ha in Nigeria and 32,500 ha in neighboring Economic Community of West African States member countries.

Also in August, Nosak Distilleries Ltd said it would raise production capacity at its Lagos facility to 540,000 liters per day from its current 350,000 liters per day. It also announced plans to commission a new 150,000 liter per day facility in Calabar, Cross River. Its first facility was commissioned in 2001 and together the company supplies about 70% of local ethanol demand.

The Bottom Line

Announcements of MOUs should be taken for what they are – an understanding that steel will go into the ground, as opposed to the actual construction of actual capacity. However, the trend is clear, scale is happening, project financing is becoming easier to source, especially overseas, and China is definitely expanding its ambitions with respect to countering the US lead in advanced biofuels technology, with a Chinese lead in actual gallons of renewable fuel.

More Coverage on this Topic

• Nigeria training farmers in jatropha biodiesel and pineapple peel ethanol
• AMG Bioenergy launches jatropha, eucalytpus venture in China
• AMG Bioenergy raises $1.47M for Chinese jatropha project
• Nigeria proposes to limit large-scale jatropha cultivation
• Chinese group seeks 10,000 hectares in DR Congo for jatropha
• Jatoil lines up Chinese investor for jatropha expansion
• Aura Bio, Tolao Energy partner for Nigerian jatropha venture
• Tolao, Aura Bio partner in 7,500 acre Nigerian jatropha project

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Chinese government to invest $1.78B in Nigerian biofuels, the latest in a series of projects announced in West Africa.

Jim Lane | January 2, 2012

Cross-posted from BiofuelsDigest 

In Nigeria, Bloomberg and several local outlets are reporting that the Nigerian government has signed a $2.55 billion development deal with Global Biofuels, to construct 15 integrated biorefineries throughout the West African nation. According to reports, the first pilot plant will be completed in Ilemeso, in Ekiti State by Q4 2012, and projects thereafter will be completed in Ondo, Osun, Kwara, Kogi,Benue,  Gombe, Bauchi, Zamfara, Kano, Kaduna, Nasarawa and  Plateau states.  Project cost for the initial pilot plant is $108M, while full-scale plants are expected to cost $183 million each.

According to Global Biofuels, $1.78 billion, or 70 percent of the financing will come from the Chinese government. The remainder will come from NEXIM Bank, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development, Africa Finance Corporation; Fond Gari, and First Bank of Nigeria. The projects expect to generate 100 tons of total biomass per hectare, per yearn, using two cropping cycles per year, with total tonnage including tops, leaves, stalks and the primary crop. That equates to roughly 20 tons of total biomass per growing season, per acre.

But the massive Nigerian investment is just one of several announced in recent weeks and months in West Africa.

Nigerian Export-Import Bank:$695M

Just last week, the Nigerian Export-Import Bank gave $695 million to five companies investing in renewables including $12 million for a jatropha project and $56 million for a sorghum ethanol project. The majority of the funding went to a sugarcane project that will include a bagasse co-generation component while the rest of the funding was for waste-to-energy projects.

Just before the US Thanksgiving holiday, the Ondo State Commissioner for Agriculture, Ademola Olorunfemi, said that the state would approve development of three sugarcane plantations and ethanol plants, with a focus on the production of biofuels and rural economic development. The Commissioner also said that the plants could provide materials for the bio-pharma industry.

The projects, whose goals center around industrialization and employment, indicate a new direction for the economy of this agriculture-heavy area of Nigeria.

Dangote Group, $7.7B

The same week, Aliko Dangote, the president of Dangote Group, announced an investment of $7.7 billion in Rivers Energy City, home of the budding $2 billion fertilizer and ethanol plant project put on by Indorama Eleme Petrochemical Company. His investment, says a top government source, will span into the methane and ethanol industries and provide thousands of jobs in the upcoming energy city.

Global Biofuels: $91M

In August, Global Biofuels has announced plans for ethanol plants across the West African region, with $91 million in sellers credit from COZA of Hong Kong and WEMET of China.  The final project is expected to cost over $183 million, and produce 72 million liters of ethanol from 1.95 million tons of sorghum per year, and 216 gigawatts of electricity.  Total land use as reported would be 65,000 ha in Nigeria and 32,500 ha in neighboring Economic Community of West African States member countries.

Also in August, Nosak Distilleries Ltd said it would raise production capacity at its Lagos facility to 540,000 liters per day from its current 350,000 liters per day. It also announced plans to commission a new 150,000 liter per day facility in Calabar, Cross River. Its first facility was commissioned in 2001 and together the company supplies about 70% of local ethanol demand.

The Bottom Line

Announcements of MOUs should be taken for what they are – an understanding that steel will go into the ground, as opposed to the actual construction of actual capacity. However, the trend is clear, scale is happening, project financing is becoming easier to source, especially overseas, and China is definitely expanding its ambitions with respect to countering the US lead in advanced biofuels technology, with a Chinese lead in actual gallons of renewable fuel.

More Coverage on this Topic

• Nigeria training farmers in jatropha biodiesel and pineapple peel ethanol
• AMG Bioenergy launches jatropha, eucalytpus venture in China
• AMG Bioenergy raises $1.47M for Chinese jatropha project
• Nigeria proposes to limit large-scale jatropha cultivation
• Chinese group seeks 10,000 hectares in DR Congo for jatropha
• Jatoil lines up Chinese investor for jatropha expansion
• Aura Bio, Tolao Energy partner for Nigerian jatropha venture
• Tolao, Aura Bio partner in 7,500 acre Nigerian jatropha project

<!– Advertisement –>

Chinese government to invest $1.78B in Nigerian biofuels, the latest in a series of projects announced in West Africa.

Jim Lane | January 2, 2012

Cross-posted from BiofuelsDigest 

In Nigeria, Bloomberg and several local outlets are reporting that the Nigerian government has signed a $2.55 billion development deal with Global Biofuels, to construct 15 integrated biorefineries throughout the West African nation. According to reports, the first pilot plant will be completed in Ilemeso, in Ekiti State by Q4 2012, and projects thereafter will be completed in Ondo, Osun, Kwara, Kogi,Benue,  Gombe, Bauchi, Zamfara, Kano, Kaduna, Nasarawa and  Plateau states.  Project cost for the initial pilot plant is $108M, while full-scale plants are expected to cost $183 million each.

According to Global Biofuels, $1.78 billion, or 70 percent of the financing will come from the Chinese government. The remainder will come from NEXIM Bank, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development, Africa Finance Corporation; Fond Gari, and First Bank of Nigeria. The projects expect to generate 100 tons of total biomass per hectare, per yearn, using two cropping cycles per year, with total tonnage including tops, leaves, stalks and the primary crop. That equates to roughly 20 tons of total biomass per growing season, per acre.

But the massive Nigerian investment is just one of several announced in recent weeks and months in West Africa.

Nigerian Export-Import Bank:$695M

Just last week, the Nigerian Export-Import Bank gave $695 million to five companies investing in renewables including $12 million for a jatropha project and $56 million for a sorghum ethanol project. The majority of the funding went to a sugarcane project that will include a bagasse co-generation component while the rest of the funding was for waste-to-energy projects.

Just before the US Thanksgiving holiday, the Ondo State Commissioner for Agriculture, Ademola Olorunfemi, said that the state would approve development of three sugarcane plantations and ethanol plants, with a focus on the production of biofuels and rural economic development. The Commissioner also said that the plants could provide materials for the bio-pharma industry.

The projects, whose goals center around industrialization and employment, indicate a new direction for the economy of this agriculture-heavy area of Nigeria.

Dangote Group, $7.7B

The same week, Aliko Dangote, the president of Dangote Group, announced an investment of $7.7 billion in Rivers Energy City, home of the budding $2 billion fertilizer and ethanol plant project put on by Indorama Eleme Petrochemical Company. His investment, says a top government source, will span into the methane and ethanol industries and provide thousands of jobs in the upcoming energy city.

Global Biofuels: $91M

In August, Global Biofuels has announced plans for ethanol plants across the West African region, with $91 million in sellers credit from COZA of Hong Kong and WEMET of China.  The final project is expected to cost over $183 million, and produce 72 million liters of ethanol from 1.95 million tons of sorghum per year, and 216 gigawatts of electricity.  Total land use as reported would be 65,000 ha in Nigeria and 32,500 ha in neighboring Economic Community of West African States member countries.

Also in August, Nosak Distilleries Ltd said it would raise production capacity at its Lagos facility to 540,000 liters per day from its current 350,000 liters per day. It also announced plans to commission a new 150,000 liter per day facility in Calabar, Cross River. Its first facility was commissioned in 2001 and together the company supplies about 70% of local ethanol demand.

The Bottom Line

Announcements of MOUs should be taken for what they are – an understanding that steel will go into the ground, as opposed to the actual construction of actual capacity. However, the trend is clear, scale is happening, project financing is becoming easier to source, especially overseas, and China is definitely expanding its ambitions with respect to countering the US lead in advanced biofuels technology, with a Chinese lead in actual gallons of renewable fuel.

More Coverage on this Topic

• Nigeria training farmers in jatropha biodiesel and pineapple peel ethanol
• AMG Bioenergy launches jatropha, eucalytpus venture in China
• AMG Bioenergy raises $1.47M for Chinese jatropha project
• Nigeria proposes to limit large-scale jatropha cultivation
• Chinese group seeks 10,000 hectares in DR Congo for jatropha
• Jatoil lines up Chinese investor for jatropha expansion
• Aura Bio, Tolao Energy partner for Nigerian jatropha venture
• Tolao, Aura Bio partner in 7,500 acre Nigerian jatropha project

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Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

By Matthew Daly-Associated Press   January 2, 2012

Cross-posted from The Washington Times

**FILE** Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (left) listens as President Obama speaks following a meeting at the White House in Washington on Dec. 7, 2011. President Obama warned congressional Republicans that he would reject any effort to tie extraneous issues to an extension of the payroll tax cut, including the approval of an oil pipeline between the U.S. and Canada. (Associated Press/The Canadian Press)

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and Congress are starting the election year locked in a tussle over a proposed 1,700-mile oil pipeline from Canada to Texas that will force the White House to make a politically risky choice between two key Democratic constituencies.

Some unions say the Keystone XL pipeline would create thousands of jobs. Environmentalists fear it could lead to an oil spill disaster.

A law Obama signed just before Christmas that temporarily extended the payroll tax cut included a Republican-written provision compelling him to make a speedy decision on whether to build the pipeline. The administration is warning it would rather say no than rush a decision in an election year.

It’s a dicey proposition for Obama, who enjoyed strong support from both organized labor and environmentalists in his winning 2008 campaign for the White House.

Environmental advocates, already disappointed with his failure to achieve climate change legislation and the administration’s decision to delay new smog standards, have made it clear that approval of the pipeline would dampen their enthusiasm for Obama in the upcoming November election.

Some liberal donors even threatened to cut off funds to Obama’s re-election campaign to protest the project, which opponents say would transport “dirty oil” that requires huge amounts of energy to extract.

If he rejects the pipeline, Obama risks losing support from organized labor, a key part of the Democratic base, for thwarting thousands of jobs.

Obama appeared to have skirted what some dubbed the “Keystone conundrum” in November when the State Department announced it was postponing a decision on the pipeline until after this year’s election. Officials said they needed extra time to study routes that avoid an environmentally sensitive area of Nebraska that supplies water to eight states.

The affected area stretches just 65 miles through the Sandhills region of northern Nebraska, but the concerns were serious enough that the state’s governor and senators opposed the project until the pipeline was moved.

Republican Gov. Dave Heineman, who opposed the initial route, says he supports efforts to accelerate the project, noting that provisions in the payroll tax bill allow the project developer to find a new route avoiding the Sandhills.

The new route would have to be approved by Nebraska environmental officials and the State Department, which has authority because the pipeline would cross an international border.

The pipeline would carry oil from tar sands in western Canada to refineries in Texas, passing through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma. The project’s developer, Calgary-based TransCanada, says the pipeline could create as many as 20,000 jobs, a figure opponents say is inflated. A State Department report last summer said the pipeline would create up to 6,000 jobs during construction.

The payroll tax cut law gives the Obama administration 60 days to decide whether to allow construction of the pipeline.

An “arbitrary deadline” for the permit decision would compromise the process, short-circuiting time needed to conduct required environmental reviews and preventing the issuance of a permit, the State Department warned in a written statement on Dec. 12. Obama administration officials confirmed that view after the payroll tax bill was approved.

Republicans call the threat little more than an excuse that allows Obama to placate environmental groups while not rejecting the pipeline outright.

Story Continues →

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Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

US military technology adapted as ‘eye in the sky’ by eco-activists in the Antarctic seas

Jonathan Franklin in Santiago, Chile

Cross-posted from The Observer, Saturday 31 December 2011

The drone is launched from the deck of the Steve Irwin.

Environmental activists in the rough Antarctic seas have launched a new tool in the fight to stop a Japanese operation to kill hundreds of whales – remote-controlled drones.

Every morning for the past week, a battery-powered drone with a range of 300km (190 miles) has been launched from the MV Steve Irwin, which is attempting to disrupt the annual Japanese whale hunts in the waters off Antarctica.

“We first found the Japanese fleet when they were 28 nautical miles away,” said Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an international marine wildlife protection group based in the United States.

Subsequent attempts by Japanese whaling ships to block the anti-whaling flotilla and allow the whale factory ship Nisshin Maru to escape were foiled by the activists, who repeatedly launched the drone, which uses GPS co-ordinates and provides both video and still images to track the whaling ships.

“Our helicopter pilot, Chris Aultman, has been lobbying for this technology for the past two years and now that we have this ‘eye in the sky’ it makes it much harder for the whaling fleet to escape,” said Watson in a telephone interview from the Steve Irwin. “The other day they switched back from east to west and we detected this with the drone.”

Watson has 88 crew on three ships, two of which are equipped with drones. They act as spotters, finding the whalers in the vast expanse of ocean and allowing Watson’s ships to home in on them.

Watson has embarked on his annual expedition to stop the slaughter of thousands of whales – the Japanese consider this to be scientific research while critics call it cruel and archaic. “Last year they had a quota of over 1,000 whales and only caught 16%. We saved at least 800 whales,” said Watson, who has been known to ram the Japanese boats as part of his anything-goes tactics.

The advent of new technologies such as drones may finally put an end to the Japanese hunt, said Watson, who is also bringing publicity to the cause in Whale Wars, the Discovery channel documentary series that tracks the hunts: “Our goal is to bankrupt them and destroy them economically. Now that we can track them, it is getting easier.”

Once exclusive to Israeli spy forces and the US air force, drones and other types of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are being sent on civilian missions such as crop inspections or marine mammal surveys. In April, drones hovered inside highly radioactive areas at Japan‘s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and recorded data from areas too dangerous for humans to enter.

Federal bodies in the US, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), are scrambling to monitor the burgeoning industry. According to the Los Angeles Times, the FAA will issue proposals this month to clarify rules for the use of UAVs in civilian and commercial roles.

While drones used to cost hundreds of thousands of pounds, some are now available for less than £500. The unit used by Sea Shepherd is a highly durable model known as the Osprey, which can run for hundreds of hours .

It was given to Sea Shepherd by Bayshore Recycling, a New Jersey-based solid waste recycling company committed to environmental protection. In addition to paying for the drone at an estimated cost of £10,000, Bayshore also paid for pilot training to run the remote control equipment.

“Everyone here at Bayshore is thrilled with the Sea Shepherd’s news of not only saving the lives of many whales, but knowing our drone will continue to track the Japanese whaling fleet in this chase,” said Elena Bagarozza, marketing co-ordinator at Bayshore.

Watson expects drones will be used to patrol environmentally sensitive areas ranging from the Galapagos Islands to other famed wildlife areas, including South Africa’s Kruger National Park.

“There is huge potential and great value in this technology – for our expedition it is wonderful,” said Eleanor Lister, 20, a Sea Shepherd crew member from Jersey, who spoke by satellite phone from aboard the Steve Irwin from a location that, she said, “was about 1,000 miles south-west of Australia”.

She described the daily routine that begins when the ship’s first mate holds aloft the Osprey drone, then tosses it into the headwinds. After tracking the Japanese whalers, the drone ends its mission as it homes in on the Steve Irwin and is flown into a thick net, where crew members inspect it for damage and download the video and photographs from the latest mission.

Despite severe weather in the Antarctic, the drone has flown dozens of flights and had no problems so far with ice buildup on the wings or trouble negotiating the gusty winds.

“The Osprey is comfortable in the wind and can handle 40 knots,” said Jimmy Prouty, systems engineer at Hangar 18, the Kansas-based company that manufactures it. “This unit is waterproofed and has multiple security backups so that if it has problems or low battery it automatically returns to base.”

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

Note:  The following are the top ten articles from Climate Connections from 2011 according to those the number of views each received.  Several of these are original articles/photos from GJEP’s Jeff Conant, Anne Petermann and Orin Langelle, and were also published in magazines, over the wires and cross-posted in other websites/blogs over the past twelve months.  We have posted them in reverse order, from number 10 through number 1.

Please subscribe to our news blog on this page or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

–The GJEP Team

10. A Broken Bridge to the Jungle: The California-Chiapas Climate Agreement Opens Old Wounds (April 7) GJEP post

Photo: Jeff Conant

By Jeff Conant, Communications Director at Global Justice Ecology Project

When photographer Orin Langelle and I visited Chiapas over the last two weeks of March, signs of conflict and concern were everywhere, amidst a complex web of economic development projects being imposed on campesino and indigenous communities without any semblance of free, prior, and informed consent. Among these projects is a renewed government effort to delimit Natural Protected Areas within the Lacandon Jungle, in order to generate carbon credits to be sold to California companies. This effort, it turns out, coincides with a long history of conflicting interests over land, and counterinsurgency campaigns aimed at the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), as well as other allied or sympathetic indigenous and campesino groups.  Continue article

photo: Kim Kyung-hoon / Reuters. caption: Officials in protective gear check for signs of radiation on children…

9. Nuclear Disaster in Japan; Human Health Consequences of Radiation Exposure and the True Price of Oil  (March 15) Cross-posted from Earthbeat Radio

8.  Today’s tsunami: This is what climate change looks like (March 11) Cross-posted from Grist

March 11 tsunami leads to an explosion at Chiba Works, an industrial (chemical, steel, etc.) facility in Chiba, Japan.Photo: @odyssey

So far, today’s tsunami has mainly affected Japan — there are reports of up to 300 dead in the coastal city of Sendai — but future tsunamis could strike the U.S. and virtually any other coastal area of the world with equal or greater force, say scientists. In a little-heeded warning issued at a 2009 conference on the subject, experts outlined a range of mechanisms by which climate change could already be causing more earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic activity.  Continue article

7.  2011 Year of Forests: Real Solutions to Deforestation Demanded (February 2) GJEP post

As UN Declares International Year of Forests, Groups Demand Solutions to Root Causes of Deforestation

Insist Indigenous Forest Peoples’ Rights Must Be at the Heart of Forest Protection

New York, 2 February 2011-At the launch of the High Level segment of the UN Forum on Forests today, Mr. Sha Zhukan, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs will declare 2011 “the International Year of Forests.” Civil society groups advocating forest protection, Indigenous Rights, and climate justice are launching a program called “The Future of Forests,” to ensure that forest protection strategies address the real causes of global forest decline, and are not oriented toward markets or profit-making.

Critics from Global Justice Ecology Project, Global Forest Coalition, Dogwood Alliance, Timberwatch Coalition, BiofuelWatch, and Indigenous Environmental Network charge that the UN’s premier forest scheme: REDD… Continue article

6. Chiapas, Mexico: From Living in the jungle to ‘existing’ in “little houses made of ticky-tacky…” (April 13) GJEP post

Selva Lacandona (Lacandon jungle/rainforest)

Photo Essay by Orin Langelle

At the Cancún, Mexico United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) last year, journalist Jeff Conant and I learned that California’s then-Governor Arnold Swarzenegger had penned an agreement with Chiapas, Mexico’s Governor Juan Sabines as well as the head of the province of Acre, Brazil.  This deal would provide carbon offsets from Mexico and Brazil to power polluting industries in California—industries that wanted to comply with the new California climate law (AB32) while continuing business as usual.

The plan was to use forests in the two Latin American countries to supposedly offset the emissions of the California polluters.

Conant and I took an investigative trip to Chiapas in March.  When we arrived… Continue photo essay

Overview of the March. Photo: Petermann/GJEP-GFC

5. Photo Essay: Global Day of Action Against UN Conference of Polluters (COP) in Durban (December 3) GJEP post

3 December 2011–Thousands of people from around the world hit the streets of Durban, South Africa to protest the UN Climate Conference of Polluters.

Photo Essay by Orin Langelle/Global Justice Ecology Project and Anne Petermann/Global Justice Ecology Project-Global Forest Coalition. Continue photo essay

4. Showdown at the Durban Disaster: Challenging the ‘Big Green’ Patriarchy (December 13) GJEP post

GJEP’s Anne Petermann (right) and GEAR’s Keith Brunner (both sitting) before being forcibly ejected from the UN climate conference. Photo: Langelle/GJEP

By Anne Petermann, Executive Director, Global Justice Ecology Project

Dedicated to Judi Bari, Emma Goldman, my mother and all of the other strong women who inspire me

An action loses all of its teeth when it is orchestrated with the approval of the authorities.  It becomes strictly theater for the benefit of the media.  With no intent or ability to truly challenge power.

I hate actions like that.

And so it happened that I wound up getting ejected from one such action after challenging its top-down, male domination.  I helped stage an unsanctioned ‘sit-in’ at the action with a dozen or so others who were tired of being told what to do by the authoritarian male leadership of the “big green’ action organizers–Greenpeace and 350.org.  Continue article

3. Photo Essay from Vermont: The Recovery from Hurricane Irene Begins (August 31) GJEP post

Route 100–this and other washed out bridges and culverts cut off the town of Granville, VT from the outside world

As of Tuesday, 30 August 2011, there were still thirteen towns in the U.S. state of Vermont that were completely cut off from the outside world due to the torrential rains of Hurricane Irene.  This was because roads like Route 100, which runs north and south through the state, sustained catastrophic damage to its culverts and bridges for many miles.    In all, over 200 roads across the state were closed due to wash outs from the heavy rains that pelted the state for nearly twenty-four hours on Sunday, August 28.

Text: Anne Petermann, Executive Director, Global Justice Ecology Project

Photos: Orin Langelle, Co-Director/Strategist, Global Justice Ecology Project  Continue photo essay

2. Environmental Destruction, Effects of Climate Change to Worsen in Philippines (January 6) Cross-posted from  Bulatlat.com

By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL

MANILA – The year 2010 should have been an opportunity for the new administration to implement fundamental reforms to protect the environment and national patrimony, especially since during the former administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the state of the environment of the country has gone from bad to worse. Continue article

1. Permafrost Melt Soon Irreversible Without Major Fossil Fuel Cuts (February 22) Cross-posted from IPS News

By Stephen Leahy

UXBRIDGE, Canada, Feb 17, 2011 (IPS) – Thawing permafrost is threatening to overwhelm attempts to keep the planet from getting too hot for human survival.

Without major reductions in the use of fossil fuels, as much as two-thirds of the world’s gigantic storehouse of frozen carbon could be released, a new study reported. That would push global temperatures several degrees higher, making large parts of the planet uninhabitable.

Once the Arctic gets warm enough, the carbon and methane emissions from thawing permafrost will kick-start a feedback that will amplify the current warming rate, says Kevin Schaefer, a scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado. That will likely be irreversible.  Continue article

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

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Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

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Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

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