EU Airline Emissions Restrictions

Last August, the European Union (EU) voted to impose a law restricting carbon dioxide emissions from commercial airlines flying within, to and from Europe. The law went into effect on January 1 of this year and now, the United States government is trying to counteract the EU Airline Emission Restrictions, saying that the new laws are too costly for American air carriers to keep up with. The new EU law requires all air carriers on flights into and out of Europe to pay to offset their carbon emissions caused from transcontinental flights, adopting a carbon credit system that allows airlines to trade emissions produced for carbon credits...

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Garuda seeks to dodge EU carbon tax scheme

[The Jakarta Post]. Garuda seeks to dodge EU carbon tax scheme. National airline Garuda Indonesia said that they were not willing to pay the European Union’s emission trading scheme (ETS), which charges airlines for greenhouse gases produced by their jets flying to and from the EU, a senior official said. “We actually do not want to pay the ETS because the consequences would be that we would raise our ticket prices,” Garuda Indonesia finance director Elisa Lumbantoruan told The Jakarta Post on Sunday. It would be financially viable for Garuda, however, to pay such a tax next year, Elisa said. In addition, the airline’s vice president for...

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Climate change skepticism seeps into science classrooms

By Neela Banerjee, Washington Bureau Los Angeles Times. Reporting from Washington—Climate change skepticism seeps into science classrooms. A flash point has emerged in American science education that echoes the battle over evolution, as scientists and educators report mounting resistance to the study of man-made climate change in middle and high schools. Although scientific evidence increasingly shows that fossil fuel consumption has caused the climate to change rapidly, the issue has grown so politicized that skepticism of the broad scientific consensus has seeped into classrooms. Texas and Louisiana have introduced education standards...

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Mount Rainier: Missing snowshoer found alive

SEATTLE (Reuters) - A 66-year-old snowshoer missing for two nights in harsh conditions on Mount Rainier in Washington was found alive on Monday by members of a search party, a National Park Service official said. Yong Chun Kim was leading a hiking club from Tacoma on a snowshoe outing near the 5,400-foot-high Paradise region of the mountain on Saturday afternoon when he slipped and fell down a steep incline, park spokeswoman Lee Taylor said. Kim radioed his group to continue the hike, saying he would traverse the area where he fell, but rangers began the search about an hour after he failed to show up, Taylor said. Kim, who has 10 years...

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Select Edible Oils

Edible oils turned weak with prices falling by Rs 20 per quintal on the wholesale oils and oilseeds market today, owing to slackness in demand at prevailing levels amid weakening global trend. However, non-edible oils moved in a narrow range in scattered deals and settled around previous levels. Marketmen said sluggish demand at prevailing higher levels and reports of a weakening global trend, mainly led to decline in edible oil prices. Meanwhile, palm oil for the March-delivery contract declined 0.7 per cent to USD 1,015 a tonne on the Malaysia Derivatives Exchange. In the national capital, soyabean refined mill delivery (Indore) and soyabean...

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Malaysia’s Palm Oil Stockpiles

Palm oil production declines in Malaysia, the world’s second-biggest grower, outpaced the drop in exports in December, indicating inventories may have fallen for the third month in a row, Oil World said.Exports of palm, the world’s most-used cooking oil, from Malaysia fell by about 3 percent while production dropped as much as 10 percent, the Hamburg-based researcher said today in a report. Palm oil futures gained 9.3 percent in the last quarter of 2011 on speculation that inventories would decline and unusually high volumes of rain may hurt yields in Malaysia.Declining stockpiles “supported palm oil prices in recent weeks, coinciding...

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mistakes in fishkeeping

We take a look at some of the biggest mistakes made by fishkeepers – and not just newcomers to the hobby! 1. Lighting on for too longIn these days of ultra bright lighting you can actually have too much light, and have it on for too long. Your tank only needs light if you grow plants, or corals, and given the choice, your fish would much rather be in the shade.For plants or corals 10 hours per day is fine, or with very bright lighting you can have an even shorter photo period. Anything over that, or if you just have fish, you will get algae. For a fish only tank just light the tank for viewing - ie when you are at home, sitting...

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Endangered species

Concerns are rising in Australia for a number of endangered species after a bulk carrier ship ran aground on Christmas Island, releasing oil and phosphate into the surrounding waters. A stretch of beach 60m long has been affected by the spill and environmentalists are worried about the welfare of a number of animals including whale sharks, coral, 17 species of endemic land crab and at least two varieties of birds. The 78m Panamanian-flagged 'MV Tycoon' was being loaded with phosphate fertiliser in Flying Fish Cove when it broke from its mooring on Sunday. The crew were safely evacuated but weather conditions were so bad that it soon...

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Carbon Trading Grows 19 per Cent

The volume of carbon allowances traded globally grew by almost 20 per cent last year, according to new figures that also show that falling prices meant the value of the market grew by just four per cent. Researchers Thomson Reuters Point Carbon reported yesterday that allowances covering eight gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent (Gt CO2e) were traded on the global carbon markets in 2011, compared with 7Gt in 2010, an increase of 19 per cent. However, the value of the market edged up just four per cent year-on-year to €96bn, primarily as a result of sluggish prices for carbon allowances. Although the European market received a temporary boost...

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Oregon’s Small Farmers Want Subsidies

Four years ago, Florence Jessup spent a small fortune to start her Hillsboro farm, Artisan Organics: more than $70,000 from an inheritance and her retirement accounts.  Since then, Jessup, farming on rented land, has joined the Portland area’s burgeoning local food movement—selling at three farmers markets and through community-supported agriculture, the subscription-based buying system where consumers purchase shares of local crops.  If she hadn’t had the cash, Jessup says, she could never have got her 6-acre operation up and running. “What does this mean for the future of food in the United States when the only people who...

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Conservation Grade Oats

Committing 10 per cent of your land to environmental stewardship may appear a field margin too far. But a Suffolk farmer growing winter oats under the Conservation Grade protocol reckons wildlife and crop production have both benefited his farm.Suffolk farmer Stephen Honeywood is in no doubt there has to be a balance between intensive crop production and wildlife-friendly habitats on UK farms.He also believes while his farm lends itself to creating a patchwork of habitat that has seen bird and butterfly numbers soar, there are other farms where wildlife conservation is not so straightforward to achieve.“Our farm layout and field boundaries...

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After Storm Destroys in Vermont Dairy Farms

MONTPELIER, Vt. — Flooding from Tropical Storm Irene swept away some bales of hay Doug Turner grew to feed his dairy cows and ripped open others, contaminating them with muddy water. When the water receded, he had to mow down a third of his corn, which had turned brown and moldy. In most years, Turner grows all the hay and corn his 45 cows need, but like a number of Vermont farmers, he's struggling to find feed this winter after the August storm damaged a third of his crops. The timing of the destruction couldn't be worse. Feed prices have risen nationwide amid a hay shortage caused by drought in the Southwest....

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Earthquake off the west coast of northern Sumatra

Tectonic Summary (sources: USGS)The January 10, 2012 earthquake off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia, occurred as a result of strike-slip faulting within the oceanic lithosphere of the Indo-Australia plate, approximately 100 km to the southwest of the major subduction zone that defines the plate boundary between the Indo-Australia and Sunda plates offshore Sumatra. At the location of this earthquake, the Indo-Australia plate moves north-northeast with respect to the Sunda plate at a velocity of approximately 52 mm/yr.While they are rare, large strike-slip earthquakes are not unprecedented in this region of the Indo-Australian...

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Powerful earthquake hits off coast of Indonesia

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) – A powerful earthquake hit waters off western Indonesia early Wednesday, prompting officials to briefly issue a tsunami warning. Panicked residents poured into the streets, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or serious damage. The U.S. Geological Survey said the 7.3-magnitude quake struck 260 miles (420 kilometers) off the coast of Aceh province just after midnight. It was centered 18 miles (30 kilometers) beneath the ocean floor. People in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh— still deeply traumatized by the 2004 monster quake and tsunami — were rattled from their sleep. They fled their homes and...

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Ligneous flora diversity of a submountain forest

Download the Journal *pdf Ligneous flora diversity of a submountain forest of West Cameroon: The Kouoghap sacral forest of the village Batoufam   Emmanuel NOUMI   Laboratory of plant Biology, Higher Teachers’ Training College of the University of Yaoundé I, P. O. Box 47 Yaoundé, Cameroun. E-mail: noumikap@yahoo.fr .   Accepted 21 September, 2011 Abstract Batoufam is a village of the high lands of the West of Cameroon, situated about 20 km to the South of Bafoussam (5°14' to 5°18'...

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Development tasks supporting scale for fathers

Download the Journal *pdf Development tasks supporting scale for fathers Perihan Ünüvar1* and Hülya Şahin2   1Department of Preschool Education, Faculty of Education, Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Turkey. 2Department of Counseling and Guidance, Faculty of Education, Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Turkey.   *Corresponding author. E-mail: perihanunuvar@mehmetakif.edu.tr , perihanunuvar@mynet.com  Tel: +9.0505.832.30.87.   ...

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The effect of waste polypropylene fibre inclusion

Download the Journal *pdf  The effect of waste polypropylene fibre inclusion on the mechanical behaviour of sand generated from the aggregate industry   Choura .M 1,2*, Khelif .N 2, Mnif .T 2 and Menaa .L3   1National School of Engineers (ENIS), University of Sfax, Tunisia. 2Research Unit, Environmental Geotechniques and Civil Materials, ENIS, Sfax, Tunisia. 3University of Medea, Algeria.   *Corresponding author. E-mail: chouramed@gmail.com.   Accepted 8 November,...

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Mathematical modeling on tomato plants: A review

Download *pdfC. A. Medina-Ruíz, I. A. Mercado-Luna, G. M. Soto-Zarazúa and I. Torres-Pacheco and E. Rico-García*   Department of Biosystems, School of Engineering, Queretaro State University, C.U. Cerro de las Campanas, Querétaro, México. *Corresponding author. E-mail: ricog@uaq.mx  or garciarico@yahoo.com.mx.  Tel: (52) (442) 1921200 ext. 6016. Fax: (52) (442) 1921200. Ext: 6015. Accepted 31October, 2011 Abstract ...

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Organic Philosophy

In the 1990 Farm Bill, the Organic Foods Production Act invested the U.S. Department of Agriculture with the power to set up a National Organic Program that determines the standards that organic food producers must meet and enforces compliance with those regulations. Organic agriculture standards apply to plant- as well as animal-based farming.  Organic Philosophy In 1995, the USDA's National Organic Standards Board defined organic agriculture as practices aimed at promoting the health of the whole ecosystem rather than a single crop or livestock animal within that system. Organic practices, according to the NOSB, should increase...

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Sustainable Palm Oil

Major China-based producers and users of palm oil have committed support for sustainable palm oil, “an important boost for efforts to halt tropical deforestation,” WWF reported today. The public statement, made at the 2nd International Oil and Fats Summit in Beijing on July 9, committed the companies to “support the promotion, procurement and use of sustainable palm oil in China,’”as well as “support the production of sustainable palm oil through any investments in producing countries.” China is the world’s largest importer of palm oil, accounting for one third of all global trade. “Increasing demand for palm oil, which is used in everything...

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