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Energy Department Warns of Higher Heating Costs WASHINGTON, DC, October 8, 2003 (ENS) - Consumers are likely to experience higher heating costs this winter, the Energy Department said Tuesday. High natural gas prices and oil prices will ripple down to consumers, and the severity of the impact will largely depend on the weather, federal officials say.Heating fuel inventory levels are currently on track to reach normal or near normal levels by the end of October, according to projections released today by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) in its October "Short Term Energy Outlook." But U.S. oil and natural gas markets remain tight, the EIA says, pointing to relatively high prices for crude oil and natural gas, low domestic stocks of crude oil and relatively low petroleum stocks throughout the industrialized countries. With these conditions, the department says that there is a strong upwards price risk for heating oil as well as other fuels if winter temperatures fall well below normal. The agency says if national projections for a 3 percent drop in heating degree days pans out, consumers would pay on average about 5 percent more in heat costs compared to 2002. But it predicts that if heating degree days are 10 percent higher than normal, national average residential prices for heating with oil could rise 17 percent, 16 percent for natural gas and 19 percent for propane. The EIA report finds that natural gas spot prices are expected to average more than $5 per thousand cubic feet for all of 2003. This is some 70 percent higher than 2002. It predicts natural gas demand to fall by 1.1 percent in 2003 due mainly to high prices discouraging demand, in particular in the industrial and electric power sectors. The report estimates a 3 percent rise over 2002 for residential electricity prices, with heating oil and propane prices remaining relatively flat. The agency predicts a steady outlook for world oil prices to remain near $30 per barrel for the coming months and the winter of 2003/2004.
Greenpeace Says Justice Department Case Unwarranted WASHINGTON, DC, October 8, 2003 (ENS) - Greenpeace has asked a federal judge to dismiss an indictment brought against the environmental group for boarding ships. The indictment by the U.S. Justice Department centers on an April 2002 protest in which two Greenpeace activists climbed aboard a commercial ship off the coast of Florida and held a banner that said, "President Bush, Stop Illegal Logging."The activists say the ship was carrying mahogany illegally exported from Brazil's Amazon rainforest. The individuals involved in the protest settled charges against them last year, but the Justice Department filed criminal charges against the entire organization in July 2003. A trial is presently set for later this month. Greenpeace says the government has used an obscure 18th century law prohibiting the boarding of ships and alleges that it is being targeted because of its opposition to the Bush administration's policies. In addition to its motion filed Monday to dismiss the indictment, the organization filed a motion to find the Justice Department is engaged in improper selective prosecution. The law used by the Justice Department, according to Greenpeace, was designed to prevent unscrupulous boarding house proprietors from luring arriving sailors to their establishments. "Instead of indicting Greenpeace for blowing the whistle on illegal smuggling, our government should be intercepting the contraband and prosecuting the smugglers," Passacantando said. "The law under which we are being charged is so archaic that we can only conclude that the Justice Department dredged it up to shut us down." The environmental group has also filed motions to hold a jury trial if the case is not dismissed and to compel the government to turn over evidence that may support Greenpeace's claim the ship was carrying mahogany.
Wildlife Service Declares Tibetan Antelope Endangered WASHINGTON, DC, October 8, 2003 (ENS) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that the Tibetan antelope should be listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The species is native to the Tibetan Plateau in China as well as small areas of northern India and western Nepal.Tibetan antelope populations are declining principally because large numbers of animals are being killed illegally for their wool, known in the international marketplace as "shahtoosh" or "king of wool." Shahtoosh is considered to be one of the finest animal fibers in the world - since the 1980s shahtoosh shawls and scarves have become high fashion status symbols. It has been illegal to commercially import shahtoosh products into the United States since 1979, but the listing of the species on the ESA tightens regulations by prohibiting the sale or offering for sale of shahtoosh products in interstate or foreign commerce. This affords U.S. prosecutors additional means to tackle the illegal market for shahtoosh products. The Fish and Wildlife Service listed the species in response to a petition submitted by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Tibetan Plateau Project of the Earth Island Institute. Conservationists say some 40 to 50 years ago, between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Tibetan antelope may have roamed the Tibetan Plateau - today the numbers are estimated at 65,000 to 75,000. Federal officials say wool is smuggled from China to the states of Jammu and Kashmir in India, where it is woven into expensive high fashion shawls and scarves and subsequently exported illegally to the principal markets in the United States and Europe. The impact of habitat from domestic grazing is having some negative effect on the species, conservationists say, but currently the primary concern is illegal killing. Tibetan antelope are always killed to collect their wool - there are no cases of capture and release wool collection and little evidence of collection of naturally shed wool.
Animal Groups Blast Wildlife Service Geese Management Plan WASHINGTON, DC, October 8, 2003 (ENS) - Animal rights groups representing some eight million U.S. members and constituents are criticizing a plan by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that calls for killing some 400,000 to 800,000 Canadian geese each year for the next decade.The Humane Society of the United States joined today with the Fund for Animals on behalf of more than eight million members and constituents nationwide to question plans recently announced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that call for killing between 400,000 and 800,000 "resident" Canada geese and their goslings each year for the next ten years. There are approximately three million resident Canada geese in the United States - the federal agency is proposing to reduce this total by more than a million birds. This is an arbitrary target the groups say is not scientifically forecasted to resolve conflicts at resident goose hot spots, according to the U.S. Humane Society and the Fund for Animals. "These birds will die for the offense of defecating on public beaches, parks and sidewalks," says Dr. John Grandy, a senior vice president for Humane Society. "The irony is that they would not be there in the first place had wildlife agencies not moved the birds all around the country to create sport hunting opportunities." Most of these birds have settled into the ideal habitat people created in municipal parks and golf courses, Grandy says, rather than taking up residence in areas where they could safely be hunted. The animal protection groups acknowledge there are local areas that need to stabilize local goose populations, but contend that preventing development of eggs - known as addling - is far more humane than shooting or gassing adults and goslings or slaughtering them at commercial poultry processing facilities. They believe the Wildlife Service's plan will create a virtual open season on resident geese beginning in spring while they are nesting and continuing though the brood rearing season until official hunting seasons in the fall. "Our species does not live in a vacuum - with millions of people and millions of geese in urban areas, there are going to be some conflicts," says Mike Markarian, president of the Fund for Animals, "but there are dozens of success stories where property owners and land managers have rejected cruel killing programs and have solved their goose problems using non-lethal means." Markarian says addling, combined with proven habitat alteration techniques to exclude geese from sites or harass them away with specially trained dogs or other scare tactics, has been demonstrated to work. In addition, the animal rights groups say special repellents are commercially available to deter geese from feeding on turf or to irritate them with fogs that are harmless to people and their pets, but will send the local goose population packing. The deadline for comment on the Fish and Wildlife Service's plan is October 20. Feds Launch New Air Quality Study BOULDER, Colorado, October 7, 2003 (ENS) - Federal scientists are launching a new project to model air quality in the United States. The researchers will use the National Center for Atmospheric Research's (NCAR) climate system model - along with scenarios of future wildfires and land use - to simulate the atmosphere over regions of the United States during a 10 year period in the middle of this century.They will compare their projections with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) analysis of air pollution in 1996 and a model of air quality in 2000, when wildfires burned extensively. "The result of this project will be a greater understanding of how future climate may impact urban and regional air quality," said Alex Guenther, a study participant at NCAR. "The knowledge should be very valuable for long-term planning efforts to improve and maintain clean air well into the future." The study will examine the impact of higher temperatures on plan emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) - these react with heat and nitrogen oxides to form ground level ozone, a key ingredient for smog. VOCs are carbon containing compounds, some of which exist naturally, others are emitted by industrial process and used in a wide variety of commercial, industrial and residential products. Researchers have found that an increase of 1.8 degree Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) can cause emissions of VOCs rise by 15 percent to 25 percent. As the climate warms, the population increases, and forests and croplands are altered, scientists expect the potential for air pollution in coming decades will change in significant and sometimes subtle ways. This study will also factor in the impacts of wildfires, tree plantations and natural forests have on the formation of pollution. When natural vegetation is cleared to make room for plantations of fast growing trees, such as poplars, VOC emissions can increase as much as 20 times. The study, funded by the EPA, National Science Foundation and U.S. Forest Service, will also consider the likely effect of Asian pollution on U.S. air quality. NEW YORK, New York, October 8, 2003 (ENS) - Kraft Foods has committed to a multiyear deal to purchase coffee from farms certified as sustainably managed. The food giant will buy some five million pounds of coffee in the first year from farms in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Central America. The deal was brokered by the Rainforest Alliance, which certifies, monitors and verifies compliance of the coffee farms through the Sustainable Agriculture Group. It commits Kraft Foods to increasing purchases of certified coffee, paying more to farmers that employ sustainable farm management practices, and working more closely with local community. In addition, the company says it will support training of local certification specialists, auditors and to support the work of the Sustainable Agriculture Group. The deal signals "an institutional change," said Tensie Whelan, executive director of the Rainforest Alliance. "Given Kraft's global leadership in coffee sales, this partnership is the first indisputable evidence that the concept of sustainability, once limited to niche markets, is ready to enter the mainstream," she said. Certified farms can be "havens for wildlife and good places to work, as well as economically viable and outstanding community citizens," said Juan Marco Alvarez, executive director of SalvaNATURA, a member of the Sustainable Agriculture Network. The price of coffee has fallen some 50 percent over the past three years and now hovers near a 30 year low. This has caused an economic crisis for some 25 million coffee growing families in more than 50 developing countries. "This news motivates us," said Simon Antonio Chavez, the manager of one of the cooperatives certified by SalvaNATURA. "We are glad to hear that a big company like Kraft is now buying certified coffee."
The Link Between Migrating Birds and Sleep Depravation BOWLING GREEN, Ohio, October 8, 2003 (ENS) - Scientists have started a new investigation into how migrating birds compensate for lack of sleep to keep their biological systems functioning. Some migrating birds make migrations of 3,000 miles or more, abandoning their typical nighttime sleep pattern to turn nocturnal for a few weeks in the spring and fall.A new study led by Bowling Green neuroscientist Verner Bingman seeks to understand how birds manage it - and to see what might be applicable to humans, including nightshift workers and military personnel who are deployed across time zones. The research team will address physiology in the dozen or so thrushes capturing along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Using an electroencephalogram (EEG) to determine whether there are changes in brain wave activity from a typical sleep pattern to a time of wakefulness during migration. Migratory behavior can be simulated even in a laboratory setting, Bingman explained, because the light dark cycle - the amount of daylight - is a migration trigger. In addition to studying physiology, the researchers will observe the birds' behavior. They will be videotaped, and frequency of behaviors will be recorded. But criteria must be determined to judge whether the birds are sleeping. "This is more complicated than simply eyes being open or closed," Bingman said. Swainson thrushes sleep on perches, either with their bills resting on their chests or in a position with their bills facing backward. If a bird has one eye open and the other closed, it may be in the "truly extraordinary" state of unihemispheric sleep, Bingman says - a phenomenon is common in marine mammals such as whales and dolphins, which would drown if fully asleep. Determining whether birds sleep during flight will require simultaneous monitoring of the eyes and activity in both hemispheres of the brain, the researcher explained. The study is funded by a $20,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. Bingaman will collaborate with Dr. Frank Moore, a professor and chair of biological sciences at the University of Southern Mississippi. Bingman, who has previously studied homing pigeons, said he and Moore are using Swainson thrushes for the sleep study because the birds are common, reasonably large and "their migrations are impressive." The greenish brown birds breed in northern Michigan, New England and Canada but winter as far south as Peru and Ecuador, forsaking sleep for 12-14 hours to cross the Gulf of Mexico alone, Bingman says.
Boreal Forest Fires Send Mercury to Northeast U.S. CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, October 8, 2003 (ENS) - Wildfires in the Canadian boreal forest may be contributing significant amounts of mercury to the atmosphere above the northeastern United States, according to a new study.In July 2002, a series of widespread fires swept the Canadian boreal forest north of Montreal, Quebec. The plume of smoke blanketed the entire region, enveloping the city of Montreal and affecting visibility as far south as Virginia. Researchers from Yale and Harvard say the fires sent mercury as far as rural Massachusetts. The group monitored atmospheric mercury levels during the fires at a rural Massachusetts site and "detected a large increase in mercury at this site coincident with the smoke plume," says Jeff Sigler, a Ph.D. candidate at Yale University and lead author of the study. The vast plume allowed the researchers to clearly link mercury from the fire to mercury at the test site, more than 500 miles away at Harvard Forest in Petersham, Massachusetts. The researchers also used this data to estimate annual emissions from Canadian forests and the worldwide boreal forest, and say it provides the first clear evidence that Canadian forest fires may significantly increase levels of atmospheric mercury in the northeastern United States. The boreal forest, also known as the taiga, nearly encircles the globe just below the Arctic Circle. It stretches across North America and Eurasia and constitutes about a third of Earth's total forest area. "We used existing data to determine a ballpark estimate of mercury emissions, not only from this fire event, but also from the Canadian and global boreal zone on an average, annual basis," Sigler says. The researchers estimate that Canadian forest fires may emit about 3.5 tons of mercury each year, and boreal forest fires worldwide about 22.5 tons. The study indicates that mercury emissions from the forests may equal 30 percent of Canada's manmade mercury emissions. Roughly half the mercury in the world is a natural element in the environment - the other half is from human sources, mostly from burning coal for electricity. The findings are in the Sept. 29 issue of "Environmental Science & Technology" a peer reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society.
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AmeriScan: October 7, 2003
