Coloriver

DYE POWDER: sodium fluorescine
1 lb-120.000 gallons of water
1 kg- 1.000.000 litri di acqua
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorescein

Un altro Green River di Olafur Eliasson?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WftvdZV-jY&feature=related
il guardiaboschi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaNHo6QEeZc&feature=related
la giovane ambientalista

: due personaggi perfetti per il prossimo documentario di Herzog

from yuppies to DJs

Re-..................(2010)
From yuppies to DJs
di Enrico Forestieri

Quali sono i nostri margini e strumenti operativi nel contesto attuale?
Quali sono le strategie di progetto oltre il mito delle avanguardie e delle utopie, del progresso infinito, della crescita illimitata e della sovrabbondanza di risorse materiali?
Novità, Creatività, Qualità, Eccellenza e Sostenibilità sono (ancora) paradigmi validi per la progettazione futura o sono ormai compromessi dalla stretta relazione con i “miti” recentemente sepolti?
Se siamo pessimisti non ci resta che accogliere la proposta di Hawking (http://bigthink.com/ideas/21570) e abbandonare definitivamente la Terra.

Potrebbe sembrare paradossale eppure, se accettiamo come liberatorio il superamento della condizione oggettuale della nostra disciplina e dell’ansia creativa ad essa associata, viviamo una situazione estremamente favorevole.
- Disponiamo di un repertorio formale pressochè infinito, ampliatosi a ritmo esponenziale con il superamento della condizione di necessità e con il consolidarsi della società iperconsumista.
- Possiamo accedere pubblicamente e manipolare un numero sempre crescente di banche dati sempre più dettagliate fino ad arrivare al livello di informazione non aggregata.
- Si stanno consolidando prassi inclusive, tese all’estensione di diritti ben oltre i gruppi canonici; per questo, sta rapidamente sfumando il limite tra umano e non umano.

Tre punti che al contempo ampliano campi di attuazione, ricalibrano strumenti di indagine e ridefiniscono strategie d’intervento.
Traslando Bourriaud [Postproduction (2004); Adriana Hidalgo editora] al nostro ambito, il movente architettonico non è più il valore di novità, ma l’uso che possiamo attribuire alla massa caotica di oggetti, nomi e referenze che costituiscono il nostro intorno.
Un’attitudine postproduttiva consiste nell’invenzione di protocolli di uso per le strutture formali esistenti. Si tratta di entrare in possesso di tutti i codici culturali, di tutte le formalizzazioni della vita quotidiana, di tutte le opere del patrimonio mondiale e farli funzionare.
La finalità di tale operazione non è interrogarsi retrospettivamente su forme e significati passati, quanto mettere a punto strategie per abitare le stesse forme producendo effetti completamente differenti. In una frase, “appropiandosi” di Wittgenstein: Don’t look for the meaning, look for the use.

Con leggero ritardo rispetto a DJ Shadow e al suo interamente “sintetico” Endtroducing, ci siamo convertiti anche noi in DJ, in semionauti, che immaginano vincoli e relazioni coerenti tra ambiti lontani ed eterogenei.
Ci concentriamo sulla messa a punto dell’ordine e della modalità in cui i frammenti risuonano nel nuovo contesto e in come scivolano uno nell’altro, rappresentando allo stesso tempo un prodotto, uno strumento e un supporto.
É un approccio fondamentalmente infrastrutturale nella misura in cui accorda alla riprogrammazione e rifunzionalizzazione delle transizioni la gestione della risignificazione dell’insieme dei frammenti selezionati.

Ancora sicuri di voler seguire Hawking?

At German Airports, Bees Help Monitor Air Quality

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/business/29airports.html?_r=1

By TANYA MOHN

Published: June 28, 2010

Germany have come up with an unusual approach to monitoring air quality. The Düsseldorf International Airport and seven other airports are using bees as “biodetectives,” their honey regularly tested for toxins.

“Air quality at and around the airport is excellent,” said Peter Nengelken, the airport’s community liaison. The first batch of this year’s harvested honey from some 200,000 bees was tested in early June, he said, and indicated that toxins were far below official limits, consistent with results since 2006 when the airport began working with bees.

Beekeepers from the local neighborhood club keep the bees. The honey, “Düsseldorf Natural,” is bottled and given away as gifts.

Biomonitoring, or the use of living organisms to test environmental health, does not replace traditional monitoring, said Martin Bunkowski, an environmental engineer for the Association of German Airports. But “it’s a very clear message for the public because it is easy to understand,” he added.

Volker Liebig, a chemist for Orga Lab, who analyzes honey samples twice a year for the Düsseldorf and six other German airports, said results showed the absence of substances that the lab tested for, like certain hydrocarbons and heavy metals, and the honey “was comparable to honey produced in areas without any industrial activity.” A much larger data sampling over more time is needed for a definitive conclusion, he said, but preliminary results are promising.

Could bees be modern-day sentinels like the canaries once used as warning signals of toxic gases in coal mines?

Assessing environmental health using bees as “terrestrial bioindicators“ is a fairly new undertaking, said Jamie Ellis, assistant professor of entomology at the Honey Bee Research and Extension Laboratory, University of Florida in Gainesville. “We all believe it can be done, but translating the results into real-world solutions or answers may be a little premature.” Still, similar work with insects to gauge water quality has long been successful.

Many experts say aircraft are not the only, or even main, source of pollution at airports. Cars, taxis, buses and ground activities as well as local industry are often major polluters.

Not surprisingly, Nancy Young, vice president of environmental affairs at the Air Transport Association of America, an airline trade group, defended the air quality at airports. “Airports are not significant contributors” to local air pollution, she said, adding that aviation emissions represent “less than 1 percent of the nation’s inventory and typically only a few percentage points in any given metropolitan area with a major airport.” She said the United States had improved the air quality at its airports through more stringent standards and improved monitoring techniques.

Internationally, there have been similar improvements, said Steven Lott, a spokesman for the International Air Transport Association. Since the 1960s, carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons, smoke and nitrogen-oxide emissions have been substantially reduced, he said. Standards for most of them are set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations body.

“It’s a challenge for an industry that continues to grow,” Mr. Lott said. But the industry has invested in developing cleaner aircraft engines and ground-support equipment and vehicles as well as improvements in how equipment is operated. Initiatives like its Green Teams, for example, allow industry consultants to visit airlines to identify and share ways to reduce fuel burn and emissions. More than 105 airlines have participated, he said.

Still, some community groups are not persuaded that air quality at airports has improved.

“It’s way worse than people think,” said Debi Wagner, a board member of Citizens Aviation Watch USA, who lives in Seattle. Some emissions are not adequately sampled and measured, Ms. Wagner said, and other potentially dangerous ones are not monitored at all. She said she was concerned particularly about the health of people living within three miles of commercial airports.

Two recent studies also raise questions about the quality of air at airports. Both focus on small general aviation airports, like the one in Santa Monica, Calif., which was studied in both reports.

“The traditional pollutants did not seem to be a local issue,” said Philip Fine, atmospheric measurements manager for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, an air quality regulatory agency for most of Southern California. “However, there were issues for ultrafine particles and lead.”

Dr. Fine, who oversees a network of air-monitoring stations, was a lead researcher on a study financed by the Environmental Protection Agency that is to be released in the next few weeks.

The lead levels from non-jet aircraft emissions did not exceed federal limits, but were significantly elevated, Dr. Fine said. Elevated levels of ultrafine particles, primarily from jet aircraft, were also a concern. The particles are short-lived, but because they are in high concentration down wind during takeoff, they are particularly worrisome for people who live close to small airports or who are repeatedly exposed, he said.

Most large airports are farther from residential communities, and also have buffer zones separating them.

The health implications of ultrafine particles are not yet known, but some medical research suggests they could pose a serious risk because the extremely fine particles pass through cell walls easily and are able to penetrate far into the brain and circulatory system.

Epidemiological studies have shown there are health risks from elevated levels of these particles emitted by cars and trucks, a concern for people who live near or frequently travel on busy highways, said Suzanne E. Paulson, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles. But “we know next to nothing about the health effects of aircraft emissions” of these particles, Dr. Paulson said. She was a lead researcher on another study, published late last year in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

The federal government sets standards for pollutants like ozone and particulate matter, Dr. Fine said, “but ultrafine particles are not currently regulated.”

Europe has limits on ultrafine particles from vehicle emissions, Dr. Fine said. But Emanuel Fleuti, head of environment services for Zurich Airport, said there were concerns in Europe as well. Meanwhile, he said, he is confident about the biomonitoring work the German airports are doing with bees, as the results are consistent with traditional air quality monitoring in Europe.

“If you look at the honey, it’s perfectly fine,” Mr. Fleuti said, adding that he often gets jars of it when he visits Germany. “It’s good honey.

España aprueba el mapa que lanza la energía eólica marina

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/Espana/aprueba/mapa/lanza/energia/eolica/marina/elpepisoc/20090421elpepisoc_4/Tes/

Los molinos de viento que jalonan sierras y llanuras por casi toda España llegarán al mar. El Gobierno anunció ayer que ha aprobado el estudio estratégico para la energía eólica marina. Este mapa es el elemento clave para que las empresas puedan presentar proyectos, ya que señala las zonas aptas y las que, por su impacto ambiental o por su afección con el tráfico marítimo o la pesca, quedan excluidos. Las empresas tienen ya proyectos por unos 8.000 megavatios (casi la mitad de la que hay en tierra), en lugares como el golfo de Cádiz, el Delta del Ebro o la costa gallega, que el Gobierno deberá sacar a concurso.

Desde 2007, los ministerios de Industria y Medio Ambiente preparan el estudio que define las zonas aptas para molinos en el mar. La elaboración del mapa no ha sido sencilla, ya que ha generado airadas protestas en las zonas con más potencial, como Cádiz o Galicia. Los alcaldes temen por el turismo y los marineros por la pesca. El mapa final amplía las zonas sin molinos frente al Estrecho.
Estos temores no se han cumplido en países como Dinamarca, que lideran esta tecnología y donde acudió en junio de 2008 Zapatero a visitar el parque eólico que hay frente al puerto de Copenhague.
Los más de 4.000 kilómetros de costa hacen de España un lugar envidiable para esta tecnología. El problema de España es que la profundidad del mar aumenta rápidamente al alejarse de la costa, lo que aumenta el coste de la instalación. Sin embargo, la eólica marina es imprescindible para cumplir el 20% de renovables que la UE exige en 2020. El viento en el mar es más constante que en tierra y la prima prevista -alcanza el doble de lo que se paga por un molino en tierra- la hace viable.
Ahora, el Ejecutivo deberá sacar a concurso las zonas en los que hay proyectos, para que las empresas oferten sus condiciones y a qué prima están dispuestos a construir el parque. Félix Avia, del Centro Nacional de Energías Renovables (Cener), explicó que pasará "un mínimo de dos años" hasta que puedan estar en marcha los trabajos.

computer generated identikit

Reversing the Life Cycle: Medusae Transforming into Polyps and Cell Transdifferentiation in Turritopsis nutricula (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa)

http://www.biolbull.org/cgi/content/abstract/190/3/302

S. Piraino, F. Boero, B. Aeschbach and V. Schmid Istituto Sperimentale Talassografico CNR "A. Cerruti," Via Roma 3, I-74100 Taranto,and Laboratorio di Ecologia de1 Benthos, Stazione Zoologica di Napoli "A. Dohm, " 80077 Ischia Porto (Naples), Italy

Organisms develop through a series of stages leading to sexually mature adults. In a few cases ontogeny reversal is possible, but it does not occur typically after the onset of sexual reproduction. All stages of the medusa Turritopsis nutricula, from newly liberated to fully mature individuals, can transform back into colonial hydroids, either directly or through a resting period, thus escaping death and achieving potential immortality. This is the first metazoan known to revert to a colonial, juvenile morph after having achieved sexual maturity in a solitary stage. Selective excision experiments show that the transformation of medusae into polyps occurs only if differentiated cells of the exumbrellar epidermis and part of the gastrovascular system are present, revealing a transformation potential unparalleled in the animal kingdom.

'Immortal' jellyfish swarming across the world

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/4357829/Immortal-jellyfish-swarming-across-the-world.html

The Turritopsis Nutricula is able to revert back to a juvenile form once it mates after becoming sexually mature.
Marine biologists say the jellyfish numbers are rocketing because they need not die.
Dr Maria Miglietta of the Smithsonian Tropical Marine Institute said: "We are looking at a worldwide silent invasion."
The jellyfish are originally from the Caribbean but have spread all over the world.
Turritopsis Nutricula is technically known as a hydrozoan and is the only known animal that is capable of reverting completely to its younger self.
It does this through the cell development process of transdifferentiation.
Scientists believe the cycle can repeat indefinitely, rendering it potentially immortal.
While most members of the jellyfish family usually die after propagating, the Turritopsis nutricula has developed the unique ability to return to a polyp state.
Having stumbled upon the font of eternal youth, this tiny creature which is just 5mm long is the focus of many intricate studies by marine biologists and geneticists to see exactly how it manages to literally reverse its aging process

HDVB: High Density Vertical Bioreator

http://www.valcent.net/s/Ecotech.asp?ReportID=182039

The Holy Grail in the renewable energy sector has been to create a clean, green process which uses only light, water and air to create fuel. Valcent's HDVB algae-to-biofuel technology mass produces algae, vegetable oil which is suitable for refining into a cost-effective, non-polluting biodiesel. The algae derived fuel will be an energy efficient replacement for fossil fuels and can be used in any diesel powered vehicle or machinery. In addition, 90% by weight of the algae is captured carbon dioxide, which is "sequestered" by this process and so contributes significantly to the reduction of greenhouse gases. Valcent has commissioned the world's first commercial-scale bioreactor pilot project at its test facility in El Paso, Texas.Current data projects high yields of algae biomass, which will be harvested and processed into algal oil for biofuel feedstock and ingredients in food, pharmaceutical, and health and beauty products at a significantly lower cost than comparable oil-producing crops such as palm and soyabean (soybean).The HDVB technology was developed by Valcent in recognition and response to a huge unsatisfied demand for vegetable oil feedstock by Biodiesel refiners and marketers. Biodiesel, in 2000, was the only alternative fuel in the United States to have successfully completed the Environmental Protection Agency required Tier I and Tier II health effects testing under the Clean Air Act. These tests conclusively demonstrated Biodiesel's significant reduction of virtually all regulated emissions. A U.S. Department of Energy study has shown that the production and use of Biodiesel, compared to petroleum diesel, resulted in a 78.5% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.Algae, like all plants, require carbon dioxide, water with nutrients and sunlight for growth. The HDVB bioreactor technology is ideal for location adjacent to heavy producers of carbon dioxide such as coal fired power plants, refineries or manufacturing facilities, as the absorption of CO2 by the algae significantly reduces greenhouse gases. These reductions represent value in the form of Certified Emission Reduction credits, so-called carbon credits, in jurisdictions that are signatories to the Kyoto Protocol. Although the carbon credit market is still small, it is growing fast, valued in 2005 at $6.6 Billion in the European Union and projected to increase to $77 Billion if the United States accepts a similar national cap-and-trade program.Valcent's HDVB bioreactor system can be deployed on non-arable land, requires very little water due to its closed circuit process, does not incur significant labor costs and does not employ fossil fuel burning equipment, unlike traditional food/biofuel crops, like soy and palm oil. They require large agricultural acreage, huge volumes of water and chemicals, and traditional farm equipment and labor. They are also much less productive than the HDVB process: soybean, palm oil and conventional pond-grown algae typically yield 48 gallons, 635 gallons and 10,000 gallons per acre per year respectively

El Internet rural se apaga

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/Internet/rural/apaga/elpepisoc/20090117elpepisoc_2/Tes

Municipios sin acceso a la banda ancha desconectan sus 'telecentros' - El Estado financió hace tres años su lanzamiento, pero el contrato ha expirado

La brecha digital no se cierra. Los intentos del Gobierno por extender la sociedad de la información a los pequeños y despoblados territorios rurales han chocado con una barrera: la de la crisis. Muchos municipios que se acogieron al programa de telecentros (un plan oficialmente conocido como Puntos de Acceso Público Rural y financiado por el Ministerio de Industria) han echado el cierre a estos locales públicos que abrían la puerta a las nuevas tecnologías de forma gratuita. La banda ancha de Internet se ha apagado justo cuando las subvenciones se han agotado. La placa - Entra y navega- colocada por la entidad estatal Red.es, ha desaparecido de muchas fachadas.

El programa Internet Rural, impulsado por los ministerios de Agricultura e Industria y por la Federación Española de Municipios y Provincias (FEMP) perseguía "garantizar el acceso a Internet en condiciones óptimas" a los ciudadanos del medio rural. Iba dirigido a poblaciones que tenían cobertura mediante las tecnologías de acceso a Internet de banda ancha más extendidas (ADSL o cable). La alternativa fue el satélite.
El plan fue diseñado en 2003 y desde entonces, Red.es, organismo adscrito a Industria, ha invertido 34,8 millones de euros en la instalación de 2.964 telecentros. A éstos se unen los que nacieron al amparo de las administraciones autonómicas y locales. En total, más de 5.400 pueblos -la mayoría situados en zonas remotas y poco pobladas- de los que se han beneficiado alrededor de 600.000 personas. Estos centros de acceso a Internet han estado funcionado durante los tres años de vigencia del contrato de Red.es con los ayuntamientos. Transcurrido este plazo, el 58% de los casi 3.000 telecentros siguen activos. Han sido traspasados y ahora es la administración autonómica la que ha asumido los costes. La dirección general de Telecomunicaciones, dependiente de Industria, calcula que "en los próximos días" se van a traspasar otros 190, con lo que el porcentaje de telecentros que seguirán enganchados a Internet será de 64,4%. ¿Y el resto? Algunos municipios han optado por apagar los ordenadores. Aseguran que no tienen recursos para asumir su coste. Y nada hace suponer que vayan a recibir en breve financiación. Se han quedado sin terminales y ha desaparecido incluso la antena parabólica que permitía acceder a Internet a través del satélite. Aunque algunos municipios consultados no han dado cifras sobre lo que costaría mantener viva la conexión, Industria estima que el coste mensual de un telecentro oscila entre 100 y 130 euros.
Además del acceso a Internet, el convenio con Industria garantizaba el equipamiento del centro, su control y gestión, la instalación y el mantenimiento, clases de formación y portales de servicios para poblaciones rurales. "Red.es no cierra los telecentros", sostiene Industria. "Estamos en un proceso de traspaso ordenado, hablando con las comunidades autónomas, las diputaciones y los cabildos para que se hagan cargo de la conexión. Nuestra idea es traspasar el 100% de las instalaciones".
Internet Rural aspiraba a limar la brecha digital, es decir, la discriminación de los ciudadanos según la calidad de su acceso a Internet. Tener a su alcance banda ancha era una puerta abierta a las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TIC). Además de la barrera económica, la exclusión digital tiene un componente geográfico. Poblaciones ubicadas fuera del área de cobertura de las redes de ADSL caían de lleno en la zanja digital.
Los telecentros vinieron a mitigar estos desequilibrios. A principios de 2005, poco después de la puesta en marcha del programa estatal, el municipio soriano de Miño de San Esteban había marcado tendencia. El 53% de la población censada (47 habitantes sobre 90) utilizaba la banda ancha, un porcentaje similar al de Corea del Sur, un país paradigmático en el mundo de las telecomunicaciones, según apuntaba entonces el Gobierno.
Hoy, Miño de San Esteban sigue conectado, pese a que ha expirado el acuerdo con Red.es. José Peñalba, su alcalde, es un convencido de las ventajas de Internet. Incluido en el Programa Internet Rural, el municipio se conectó hace cinco años. El Ayuntamiento habilitó un local público para la instalación de los equipos (seis ordenadores, impresora) conectados a una antena parabólica que facilitaba el acceso a Internet vía wi-fi. "Los ordenadores cada vez se utilizan menos. Ahora, cada uno se lleva su portátil", comenta Peñalba, que ha apostado por mantener vivo Internet para los 74 habitantes que tiene ahora el pueblo. Aunque el coste de llevar la señal (alrededor de 500 euros al año) no corra a cargo del Estado sino de sus propias arcas.
"Al principio la gente lo recibió con mucho ánimo, pero luego ya no acudían al telecentro", cuenta Peñalba. Una de las cosas que peor llevaban era adaptarse a los horarios para acudir a los cursillos de formación. Peñalba, que trabaja en una empresa de electricidad, no duda de que Internet es "una herramienta muy útil", aunque admite que hace cinco años lo veía como "algo difícil y complicado, casi imposible". Ahora utiliza la Red para enviar planos o para conectarse con su partido (el PSOE).
La extensión de la banda ancha ha sido meteórica. En 2003, cuando se puso en marcha el plan de Acceso Público Rural, sólo un 20% del territorio español tenía cobertura de ADSL. Ahora llega al 98,8%, según Industria. Las zonas rurales están más castigadas, ya que el porcentaje se queda en el 87%, según el informe sobre la Sociedad de la Información 2008 elaborado por la Fundación Telefónica. De los 7,7 millones de hogares que tenían acceso a Internet el año pasado, 6,6 utilizaban la banda ancha (una gran mayoría gracias al ADSL). El Gobierno ha declarado "servicio universal" este tipo de conexión, independientemente del tipo de tecnología y la ubicación geográfica. Pero la España rural navega a una velocidad inferior.

joshua silver adaptive glasses

http://www.adaptive-eyecare.com/index.htm

Around one fifth of any group of people will need vision correction to get the best acuity (ie. image sharpness or accuracy) their eyes can achieve. As a population get older, this fraction also rises, as a condition known as presbyopia develops. Presbyopia is caused by a diminution in the power of accommodation of the crystalline lens. For example, it has been estimated that around 89 million people in the USA are presbyopic, and this number rises as the average age of the population increases.
The starting point for the development of Adaptive Eyecare's technology was the astonishing statistic that according to the World Health Organization there are currently around one billion people - including 10% of school children - in the world who would benefit from vision correction, but are as yet uncorrected. Most of these people live in the developing world, and the problem arises principally because the numbers of personnel trained to deliver vision correction in the conventional way are simply inadequate to meet the needs of the people. These statistics have profound implications - they mean that hundreds of millions of adults do not have the vision correction they need to be socially and economically active, and many children are educationally and socially disadvantaged.
The approach of Adaptive Eyecare has been to develop a completely new ophthalmic lens technology which permits us to manufacture revolutionary new spectacles which are universal, in the sense that one pair may be used to correct the vision of over 90% of people requiring correction. The special feature is that the wearer can adjust the power of each lens to his or her own requirements - this is particularly useful for developing world populations in areas which do not have adequate numbers of those specially trained personnel normally associated with the provision of vision correction.
The lenses in Adaptive Eyecare's spectacles operate in a manner which is somewhat similar in its optical function to the crystalline lens in the human eye - our lenses have the feature that the curvature of the lens surfaces is under the control of the wearer of the spectacles, and a simple manual adjustment is all that is needed to vary the power of each lens. In use, the wearer adjusts each lens so as to get clearest vision. This process takes less than a minute for both eyes. Having found the best setting, the lenses are then set, and the ancillary device used for lens adjustment is removed and discarded.
Adaptive Eyecare's adaptive lenses are fluid- filled and the power is changed by varying the amount of fluid in the lens. The power range of our lenses is +6 to -6 Dioptres, and the optical quality is similar to that of the typical human eye.

S Korean group to lease farmland in Madagascar / Daewoo unsure of Madagascar deal

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/22ccaa98-b5d9-11dd-ab71-0000779fd18c.html?nclick_check=1
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/38cf416a-c26e-11dd-a350-000077b07658.html

Daewoo Logistics of South Korea has secured a huge tract of farmland in Madagascar to grow food crops to send back to Seoul, in a deal that diplomats and consultants said was the largest of its kind.
The company said it had leased 1.3m hectares of farmland - about half the size of Belgium - from Madagascar for 99 years. It planned to ship the corn and palm oil harvests back to South Korea. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The pursuit of foreign farm investments is a sign of how countries are seeking food security following this year's food crisis, which saw record prices for commodities such as wheat and rice and food riots in countries from Egypt to Haiti.
Agricultural commodities prices have tumbled by about 50 per cent from their record levels this year but countries remain concerned about long-term supplies.
The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation warned this year that the race by agricultural commodity-importing countries to secure farmland overseas risked creating a "neo-colonial" system.
Those fears could be heightened by the fact that Daewoo's farm in Madagascar represents about half the African country's arable land, according to estimates by the US government.
Shin Dong-hyun, a senior manager at Daewoo Logistics in Seoul, said the company would develop the arable land for farming over the next 15 years, using labour from South Africa. It was intended
to replace about half South Korea's corn imports.
South Korea, a resource-poor nation, is the world's fourth-largest importer of corn and among the 10 largest buyers of soyabean.
Carl Atkins, of consultants Bidwells Agribusiness, said Daewoo Logistics' investment in Madagascar was the largest it had seen. "The project does not surprise me, as countries are looking to improve food security but its size it does surprise me."
Concepción Calpe, a senior economist at the FAO in Rome, said the investment came after this year's food crisis. "Countries are looking to buy or lease farmland to improve their food security," she said.
Al-Qudra Holding, an Abu Dhabi-based investment company, said in August it planned to buy 400,000 hectares of arable land in countries in Africa and Asia by the end of the first quarter of next year.
Meles Zenawi, the prime minister of Ethiopia, said this year its government was "very eager" to provide hundreds of thousands of hectares of agricultural land to Middle Eastern countries for investment.

Daewoo unsure of Madagascar deal
Daewoo Logistics of South Korea has not received approval from Madagascar for a plan to farm maize and palm oil in an area half the size of Belgium, contrary to statements by company officials, it has emerged.
Daewoo managers told the media last month the company would develop 1.3m hectares on the island to secure stable food supplies for South Korea under a 99-year lease, joining a flurry of Asian and Middle Eastern companies seeking to tap Africa's agricultural export potential.
A Daewoo official told the Financial Times that the company understood it would not have to pay to lease the land, given the investment involved and the jobs to be created.
But in a statement attributed to the company and posted on the website of the Malagasy president, Daewoo said: "There is not yet a contract on the land between Daewoo Logistics and [the] Madagascar government."
Echoing that, the Malagasy land reform ministry told the FT: "There has been no contract at regional or central government level. They [Daewoo] have prospected for land and now the central government is waiting for the prospecting reports."
The ministry said an environmental investigation would be required as well. Marius Ratolojanahary, the land reform minister, confirmed to a Malagasy newspaper that Daewoo still had several hurdles to clear.
"Every request must be examined by a commission before being supported by the cabinet," he said. "So Daewoo was free to file an application in line with the procedure but that does not mean it will get the land."
Daewoo declined to confirm or comment on the statement on the government website.
Responding to initial reports of the deal, critics said the welfare of Malagasy people and global food security would be better served by islanders being helped to manage their own farms.
They stressed the trickle-down effect of Daewoo's plan would be marginal and noted the company's focus on exporting food from a country in which about 600,000 people rely on relief from the United Nations World Food Programme.
South Korea is the world's fourth biggest maize importer and wants to wean itself off US shipments.

Paradise almost lost: Maldives seek to buy a new homeland

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/10/maldives-climate-change

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/audio/2008/nov/10/randeep-ramesh-maldives-climate-change

The Maldives will begin to divert a portion of the country's billion-dollar annual tourist revenue into buying a new homeland - as an insurance policy against climate change that threatens to turn the 300,000 islanders into environmental refugees, the country's first democratically elected president has told the Guardian.
Mohamed Nasheed, who takes power officially tomorrow in the island's capital, Male, said the chain of 1,200 island and coral atolls dotted 500 miles from the tip of India is likely to disappear under the waves if the current pace of climate change continues to raise sea levels.
The UN forecasts that the seas are likely to rise by up to 59cm by 2100, due to global warming. Most parts of the Maldives are just 1.5m above water. The president said even a "small rise" in sea levels would inundate large parts of the archipelago.
"We can do nothing to stop climate change on our own and so we have to buy land elsewhere. It's an insurance policy for the worst possible outcome. After all, the Israelis [began by buying] land in Palestine," said Nasheed, also known as Anni.
The president, a human rights activist who swept to power in elections last month after ousting Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, the man who once imprisoned him, said he had already broached the idea with a number of countries and found them to be "receptive".

He said Sri Lanka and India were targets because they had similar cultures, cuisines and climates. Australia was also being considered because of the amount of unoccupied land available.
"We do not want to leave the Maldives, but we also do not want to be climate refugees living in tents for decades," he said.
Environmentalists say the issue raises the question of what rights citizens have if their homeland no longer exists. "It's an unprecedented wake-up call," said Tom Picken, head of international climate change at Friends of the Earth. "The Maldives is left to fend for itself. It is a victim of climate change caused by rich countries."
Nasheed said he intended to create a "sovereign wealth fund" from the dollars generated by "importing tourists", in the way that Arab states have done by "exporting oil". "Kuwait might invest in companies; we will invest in land."
The 41-year-old is a rising star in Asia, where he has been compared to Nelson Mandela. Before taking office the new president asked Maldivians to move forward without rancour or retribution - an astonishing call, given that Nasheed had gone to jail 23 times, been tortured and spent 18 months in solitary confinement.
"We have the latitude to remove anyone from government and prosecute them. But I have forgiven my jailers, the torturers. They were following orders ... I ask people to follow my example and leave Gayoom to grow old here," he said.
The Maldives is one of the few Muslim nations to make a relatively peaceful transition from autocracy to democracy. The Gayoom "sultanate" was an iron-fisted regime that ran the police, army and courts, and which banned rival parties.
Public flogging, banishment to island gulags and torture were routinely used to suppress dissent and the fledging pro-democracy movement. Gayoom was "elected" president six times in 30 years - but never faced an opponent. However, public pressure grew and last year he conceded that democracy was inevitable.
Upmarket tourism had become a prop for the dictatorial regime. Gayoom's Maldives became the richest country in South Asia, with average incomes reaching $4,600 a year. But the wealth created was skimmed off by cronies - leaving a yawning gap between rich and poor. Speedboats and yachts of local multimillionaires bob in the lagoon of the capital's harbour, while official figures show almost half of Maldivians earn less than a dollar a day.
Male is the world's most densely populated town: 100,000 people cram into two square kilometres. "We have unemployment at 20%. Heroin has become a serious social issue, with crime rising," Nasheed said, adding that the extra social spending he pledged would cost an immediate $243m. He said that without an emergency bailout from the international community, the future of the Maldives as a democracy would be in doubt. To raise cash, his government will sell off state assets, reduce the cabinet and turn the presidential palace into the country's first university.
"It's desperate. We are a 100% Islamic country and democracy came from within. Do you want to lose that because we were denied the money to deal with the poverty created by the dictatorship?" he said.
At a glance
• The highest land point in the Maldives is 2.4 metres above sea level, on Wilingili island in the Addu Atoll
• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that sea levels could rise by 25-58cm by 2100
• The country comprises 1,192 islands grouped around 26 Indian Ocean atolls. Only 250 islands are inhabited. The population is 380,000
• The main income is from tourism, with 467,154 people visiting in 2006

Los costes del transporte naufragan

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/economia/costes/transporte/naufragan/elpepueconeg/20081207elpnegeco_1/Tes

Pese a la gravedad de la crisis, el mundo no se ha parado. Cada día, millones de empresas envían de un lugar a otro del planeta sus productos y materias primas, que siguen engrasando -aunque sea lentamente- la máquina de la economía. Sólo que hace apenas seis meses contratar un buque de transporte era una misión casi imposible [¡y millonaria!] y ahora el sector empieza a hablar de un exceso de capacidad que ha hundido sus tarifas.

El indicador más conocido, el índice de contratación de fletes (Baltic Dry Index), ha perdido este año más del 90% de su valor [ver gráfico], desde el máximo histórico alcanzado en mayo pasado cuando rozó los 12.000 puntos. En este momento cotiza en su nivel más bajo desde 1986, a poco más de 600 puntos. Y bajando.
Este índice mide la cantidad de contratos de envío de mercancías que se cierran en las principales rutas marítimas mundiales. En la medida en que la economía mundial está en crisis, los contratos de transporte se reducen y el índice baja. De ahí que haya sido utilizado durante mucho tiempo como un indicador adelantado de las perspectivas del comercio y el crecimiento mundial.
Los expertos ponen ahora en duda esta teoría. "El índice había alcanzado niveles poco creíbles. Detrás de los máximos registrados en mayo pasado había mucha especulación, y ahora todo eso ha estallado", asegura Roberto Ruiz-Schlotes, director de estrategia del banco suizo UBS.
De hecho, el Dow Jones y los principales índices bursátiles mundiales alcanzaron su máximo en octubre de 2007. Para finales de ese año, la economía estadounidense, según han certificado las autoridades esta semana, ya había entrado en recesión. El Baltic Dry Index (BDI) no alcanzó su pico hasta mayo, lo que daría al traste con su capacidad de anticipar un punto de inflexión en la economía. O no tanto. El estallido de la burbuja en las materias primas se produjo unos meses después, en julio. Fue entonces cuando el petróleo alcanzó su máximo de 146 dólares por barril. Pero también la soja, el acero o el cobre registraron los precios más altos de su historia. Ahí sí que se le puede atribuir al BDI su condición de indicador adelantado.
La caída del índice se ha acelerado en las últimas semanas. Ahora cabe saber si esa tendencia apunta a una desaceleración más intensa de la producción y la inflación en todo el mundo, o si esconde otras razones. De todo hay.
Deutsche Bank calcula que, con la economía mundial encaminada a una recesión, el exceso de capacidad del sector oscila entre el 20% y el 10%, "una situación tan funesta como la del mercado de tanques en los años ochenta, cuando las tarifas cayeron por debajo del nivel de equilibrio y se alcanzaron en algunos casos tasas a cero dólares diarios". Caso muy distinto es el del petróleo y el gas, transportes que se mantendrán a flote mientras coticen entre 30 y 40 dólares por barril, dice el banco.
La Agrupación de Industrias Marítimas de Euskadi (Adime) y la propia Asociación de Navieros de Españoles (Anave) coinciden en parte con esta tesis. Aseguran que buena parte de la caída de los fletes se debe al fuerte aumento de la oferta de buques. Lo que parecía el imparable ascenso del precio de las materias primas, sobre todo del petróleo, llevó a muchas empresas a encargar buques de carga que se están entregando ahora. Pero aún quedan muchos pendientes. Adime asegura que los astilleros vascos y del resto del Estado mantienen carga de trabajo para los próximos tres años "con una cartera de buques firmados y con la financiación aprobada". Aunque ya empiezan a ver reducidas sus carteras de pedidos con cancelaciones sobre todo de países asiáticos, como Corea, China o India.
Eso es lo que más preocupa al sector. Y al mundo entero.
El último informe trimestral del Banco Mundial sobre China advierte de un deterioro de su economía mayor del inicialmente previsto y cuyas causas atienden más a razones internas que a la crisis internacional. La construcción de viviendas se ha frenado en seco, al pasar de un crecimiento del 20% a cero. Eso significa que China produce ahora más cemento y acero del que necesita, lo que explica a su vez las cancelaciones de pedidos de este metal que se han producido en los últimos meses.
Sólo en octubre, los precios del acero han caído un 12,4% respecto a un año antes y un 6,9% respecto a septiembre. La producción industrial creció en octubre al menor ritmo en siete años y el consumo de electricidad cayó (-4%) por primera vez en una década.
Los analistas también apuntan a una derivada directa de la crisis financiera sobre el comercio en todo el mundo, financiado en un 90% a través del crédito. La industria explica que algunas cargas se han quedado en los muelles porque es difícil encontrar bancos dispuestos a financiar el movimiento de los bienes. Los bancos están mostrando reticencias a proporcionar letras de crédito para operaciones de importación y exportación, hasta tal punto que el propio Banco Mundial ha ampliado sus programas de financiación de estas operaciones (1.500 millones de dólares) para evitar el colapso del comercio mundial. Según sus cálculos, por primera vez en 27 años el comercio mundial puede registrar un descenso el año que viene después de registrar un crecimiento del 6% en 2007 y del 8,5% en 2006.
"Nadie en activo en el sector ha pasado por una situación parecida, no tenemos precedentes y no sabemos qué pasará", admite Manuel Carlier, director general de Anave. "Evidentemente, los tres últimos años han sido excepcionalmente buenos y las empresas cuentan con un pequeño margen, pero las compañías no podrán aguantar mucho así", concluye Carlier.

Cambio ladrillo por huerto solar

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/Cambio/ladrillo/huerto/solar/elpepisoc/20081207elpepisoc_1/Tes

Millones de paneles solares han germinado en el paisaje español con la voracidad de una plaga. Donde antes había cultivos o terreno baldío han surgido 29.000 instalaciones dotadas de la última tecnología fotovoltaica. Ni siquiera el boom inmobiliario ha registrado un crecimiento parecido (900% en dos años) en sus tiempos dorados. Alguna cifra es elocuente. Se necesitó todo el año 2004 para alcanzar 8 megavatios de potencia de origen solar: en 2008, bastaban cuatro días. El Plan de Energías Renovables confeccionado por el Gobierno socialista para la energía solar preveía la instalación de un total de 371 megavatios en el periodo comprendido entre 2005 y 2010. Pues bien, el objetivo previsto para un quinquenio se alcanzó en cuatro meses durante el año 2008. El fenómeno puede ser contradictorio si se confirma que una energía limpia tiene un origen sucio.

A lomos de esa expansión sin freno ha surgido un potente sector industrial que ha generado 24.000 empleos, con fuertes inversiones en I+D+i y plena capacidad exportadora, pero también la sospecha de un fraude que puede tener grandes proporciones y causar dolores de cabeza en varias comunidades autónomas, tanto socialistas como populares. Detrás del caso hay dos viejos conocidos, la especulación y el tráfico de influencias. La explicación es bien sencilla: algunos hábitos perversos del boom inmobiliario han cambiado de domicilio. El Estado deberá desembolsar durante los próximos 25 años unos 18.500 millones de euros en subvenciones comprometidas.
Un repaso a la prensa regional sirve para describir qué tintes alcanzó la peculiar competición entre comunidades autónomas por el liderazgo en el sector solar. Mes a mes se fueron reproduciendo escenas parecidas en puntos diferentes del mapa.
Septiembre de 2007. La prensa de Castilla y León daba cuenta de la inauguración de "la planta solar fotovoltaica más grande del mundo" entre las localidades salmantinas de Zarapicos y San Pedro del Valle sobre una superficie equivalente a 100 campos de fútbol. El vicepresidente de la Junta, Tomás de Villanueva, declaraba en el acto que "Castilla y León es la región más avanzada en el desarrollo de energías renovables".
Dos meses después. La localidad alicantina de Beneixama celebraba la puesta en marcha de la planta solar "más grande del mundo" sobre una superficie de 418.515 metros cuadrados, equivalente, según la prensa local, a 70 campos de fútbol. Francisco Camps, presidente de la Generalitat valenciana, proclamaba que su comunidad "se convierte en un ejemplo para todo el mundo del aprovechamiento de una fuente energética inagotable".
Enero de 2008. Murcia. Jumilla. Durante el acto inaugural de una planta considerada como la "más eficiente de Europa", Benito Mercader, consejero de Desarrollo Sostenible de Murcia, declaraba que Murcia es un "referente nacional para la producción de energías limpias", al tiempo que sentenciaba que "el Sol es el petróleo de Murcia". La nota de prensa no dejaba escapar la comparación: la planta está ubicada sobre una extensión aproximada a "100 campos de fútbol".
Unos días después, José María Barreda, presidente de la Junta de Castilla la Mancha, visitaba las obras de la planta solar de El Calaverón, calificada como "la mayor planta solar del mundo en su género" por ser de doble eje. "Con una potencia de 20 megavatios, se ubica sobre una extensión equivalente a 90 campos de fútbol" rezaba la nota de prensa. Barreda bautizó a Castilla-La Mancha como la "rosa de los vientos" en materia de energías renovables.
Su colega Guillermo Fernández Vara, presidente de la Junta de Extremadura, no se quedó atrás en mayo de este año durante la presentación de la planta solar de Abertura (Cáceres). Aprovechó el momento para anunciar eufórico que "uno de cada cuatro proyectos en energía solar se desarrollan en Extremadura". Meses después, en octubre, visitó la planta situada entre Mérida y Don Álvaro (Badajoz), de 30 megavatios, bautizada en ese momento como "la planta solar de dos ejes más grande del mundo". Toda la prensa regional se hizo eco del mismo dato: la superficie ocupada equivale a 390 campos de fútbol.
En las mismas fechas, Aragón vivió su inauguración particular en Figueruelas (Zaragoza). No hubo discursos oficiales en este caso, pero sí otro dato para el Guinness autonómico: el estreno de la "planta solar más grande del mundo sobre tejado" con 85.000 módulos instalados sobre 183.000 metros de techo en la fábrica de General Motors.
Manuel Chaves, el presidente andaluz, inauguró en tres días dos plantas solares en un septiembre especialmente fructífero. La de El Coronil (Sevilla) el 23, y la de Lucainena de las Torres (Almería) el 26. Chaves declaró a Andalucía como "la mayor superficie de energía verde de Europa" tras haber multiplicado por ocho en un solo año la potencia solar instalada. En este caso no hubo comparación futbolística.
¿Qué estaba pasando en España para esta alocada competición solar entre comunidades autónomas? ¿A qué venía esta eufórica conversión a la fe renovable, proclamada con tanto entusiasmo por dirigentes políticos sin distinción de ideologías? Las notas de prensa, además de la alusión inevitable a la relación entre hectáreas y campos de fútbol, abundaban en otras consideraciones positivas sobre la obra recién inaugurada, tales como inversión económica, puestos de trabajo creados, toneladas de dióxido de carbono ahorradas al medio ambiente y algunos datos técnicos de difícil digestión. Pero ninguna ponía sobre el papel otros datos significativos: la identidad de los beneficiarios (o propietarios) de esas instalaciones y las entidades bancarias que habían participado en la concesión de créditos que cubrían hasta el 80% de la inversión efectuada por esos particulares, a quienes probablemente no les movió un impulso ecologista sino una mera operación contable: amortización de la inversión en diez años, retornos económicos asegurados durante un mínimo de 25 años, además de exenciones fiscales. Total, rentabilidad asegurada de un 12% como poco. Detrás de cada planta solar había un producto financiero. La otra cara de la sostenibilidad ocultaba algunos hábitos muy conocidos del boom inmobiliario: el tráfico de influencias y la especulación.
Ningún otro sector productivo ha registrado un crecimiento del 900% en España durante los dos últimos años. Expertos del propio sector fotovoltaico no han dudado en calificar esta expansión como "irracional". España ha pasado a ser de golpe una potencia mundial en energía solar por el total de la potencia instalada, que equivale a casi tres centrales nucleares de tipo medio. Como consecuencia de ello, el Estado tendrá que abonar una cantidad próxima a los 1.000 millones de euros anuales durante un cuarto de siglo a los propietarios de dichas instalaciones en concepto de subvención. Sin embargo, hay serias dudas de que una parte de esas plantas solares esté funcionando correctamente en la actualidad. Hay evidentes sospechas de fraude y de la existencia de auténticos caza-primas. La sombra de la sospecha afecta a buena parte de las comunidades autónomas que emprendieron con tanto entusiasmo la veloz carrera por el liderazgo solar.
Durante el último Gobierno de Aznar se establecieron una serie de primas a la producción eléctrica de procedencia solar y eólica para estimular ambos sectores. El arranque de la solar fue más tardío. Disposiciones posteriores del Gobierno terminaron por facilitar su despegue hasta cotas insospechadas.
La inclusión de una prima muy generosa de 0,44 euros por kilovatio hora para pequeñas instalaciones no superiores a los 100 kilovatios de potencia con la idea de "democratizar" la fuente de energía fue el detonante. La planta solar dejó sitio al huerto solar, convertido en un producto financiero. El mecanismo era muy simple: divide la planta solar en parcelas (huertos solares) y ponlas en el mercado. Cualquier inversor podía adquirir su huerto solar en unas condiciones ideales: rentabilidad asegurada superior al 10% durante los primeros 25 años. Ni el mejor de los planes de pensiones podía garantizar un beneficio de ese tipo.
Numerosos constructores, los especuladores de rigor, empresarios que buscaban diversificar sus actividades, volvieron la vista hacia la energía solar. Hubo inmobiliarias e incluso agencias de viajes que crearon divisiones solares. No fue una conversión hacia el ecologismo, sino pura ingeniería financiera. Aparecieron ciertos síntomas muy conocidos en el mundo inmobiliario: compra de terrenos rústicos que no necesitaban recalificación, y obtención de permisos para instalación de una planta solar, entre ellos el denominado permiso de conexión.
¿Cómo se obtenían esos permisos? Cada comunidad autónoma era soberana a la hora de establecer los requisitos y conceder dichas autorizaciones. ¿A quiénes se les concedió permisos? Ahí aparece la sombra de la sospecha: no han existido concursos públicos ni decisiones transparentes. Las primeras evidencias de un tráfico de influencias surgieron en Castilla y León, donde media docena de funcionarios han cesado por existir pruebas de que concedieron permisos a familiares. No hay posibilidad de acceder a los listados de permisos concedidos en Castilla y León (de hecho, el Gobierno autónomo rechaza la creación de una comisión de investigación al efecto), pero esa misma opacidad se reproduce en Castilla-La Mancha, Valencia, Murcia, Andalucía y Extremadura, las regiones donde más se ha expandido este sector. Por otro lado, el número de sociedades que aparecen ligadas a una planta solar es tan grande que dificulta la identificación de sus propietarios reales.
Durante el periodo de expansión se divulgaron anuncios de particulares que vendían puntos de conexión (600.000 euros por megavatio), de forma que quien tuviera un permiso en vigor lo vendía obteniendo sustanciosas ganancias con una inversión previa que apenas superaría los 60.000 euros. Y algo parecido sucedió con los permisos de instalación. El terreno estaba sembrado para el pelotazo solar.
Vinieron entonces algunos efectos indeseables: los precios de los componentes adquirieron precios desorbitados por exceso de demanda. Pero no importaba: España consumía buena parte de la producción china de paneles solares. "Se han dado casos de barcos mercantes procedentes de China que pusieron la carga a subasta antes de tocar puerto", reconoce un empresario.
El fenómeno sorprendió a un Gobierno que no acertaba a regular lo que estaba pasando. La sucesión de tres ministros de Industria en poco tiempo (Montilla, Clos y Sebastián) tampoco contribuyó a poner orden. El sector acusa al Gobierno socialista de ir por detrás de los acontecimientos.
La cuestión es que España creció en 2008 tanto como Alemania, la primera potencia mundial, pero el perfil de su crecimiento era bien distinto. Mientras el 45,4% de las instalaciones solares en Alemania se han hecho sobre tejado (el 36% en Francia, Italia y Grecia) esa cifra en España se sitúa en un modesto 8,8%. "Mientras en Alemania se ha democratizado la energía solar beneficiando a los particulares, en España se ha favorecido a los de especuladores de siempre, entre ellos a demasiada gente del sector inmobiliario", dice un experto, responsable de la página web Jumanji.bogspot.com considerada como la más independiente del sector.
La sospecha de fraude está servida. La del tráfico de influencias también. La Comisión Nacional de la Energía (CNE) acaba de terminar una inspección de 30 instalaciones. No tiene muchos medios, apenas 10 inspectores. El resultado final no es concluyente pero si premonitorio: sólo 13 de esas 30 instalaciones cumplen con todos los requisitos y están vertiendo electricidad a la red. Comunidades como Castilla y León, Andalucía y Castilla-La Mancha van a tener que dar algunas explicaciones. Y lo que antes era una competencia totalmente descentralizada ha cambiado de signo: ahora el Gobierno ha creado un registro central. Un Gobierno que puede verse obligado a imponer fuertes sanciones a las Comunidades Autónomas si se confirma el fraude.

Desolacion en los caladerosdel planeta

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/weekinreview/16bittman.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

According to many scientists, it may be the way of the future: most of the fish we’ll be eating will be farmed, and by midcentury, it might be easier to catch our favorite wild fish ourselves rather than buy it in the market.
It’s all changed in just a few decades. I’m old enough to remember fishermen unloading boxes of flounder at the funky Fulton Fish Market in New York, charging wholesalers a nickel a pound. I remember when local mussels and oysters were practically free, when fresh tuna was an oxymoron, and when monkfish, squid and now-trendy skate were considered “trash.”
But we overfished these species to the point that it now takes more work, more energy, more equipment, more money to catch the same amount of fish — roughly 85 million tons a year, a yield that has remained mostly stagnant for the last decade after rapid growth and despite increasing demand.
Still, plenty of scientists say a turnaround is possible. Studies have found that even declining species can quickly recover if fisheries are managed well. It would help if the world’s wealthiest fish-eaters (they include us, folks) would broaden their appetites. Mackerel, anyone?
It will be a considerable undertaking nonetheless. Global consumption of fish, both wild and farm raised, has doubled since 1973, and 90 percent of this increase has come in developing countries. (You’ll sometimes hear that Americans are now eating more seafood, but that reflects population growth; per capita consumption has remained stable here for 20 years.)
The result of this demand for wild fish, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization, is that “the maximum wild-capture fisheries potential from the world’s oceans has probably been reached.”
One study, in 2006, concluded that if current fishing practices continue, the world’s major commercial stocks will collapse by 2048.
Already, for instance, the Mediterranean’s bluefin tuna population has been severely depleted, and commercial fishing quotas for the bluefin in the Mediterranean may be sharply curtailed this month. The cod fishery, arguably one of the foundations of North Atlantic civilization, is in serious decline. Most species of shark, Chilean sea bass, and the cod-like orange roughy are threatened.
Scientists have recently become concerned that smaller species of fish, the so-called forage fish like herring, mackerel, anchovies and sardines that are a crucial part of the ocean’s food chain, are also under siege.
These smaller fish are eaten not only by the endangered fish we love best, but also by many poor and not-so-poor people throughout the world. (And even by many American travelers who enjoy grilled sardines in England, fried anchovies in Spain, marinated mackerel in France and pickled or raw herring in Holland — though they mostly avoid them at home.)
But the biggest consumers of these smaller fish are the agriculture and aquaculture industries. Nearly one-third of the world’s wild-caught fish are reduced to fish meal and fed to farmed fish and cattle and pigs. Aquaculture alone consumes an estimated 53 percent of the world’s fish meal and 87 percent of its fish oil. (To make matters worse, as much as a quarter of the total wild catch is thrown back — dead — as “bycatch.”)
“We’ve totally depleted the upper predator ranks; we have fished down the food web,” said Christopher Mann, a senior officer with the Pew Environmental Group.
Using fish meal to feed farm-raised fish is also astonishingly inefficient. Approximately three kilograms of forage fish go to produce one kilogram of farmed salmon; the ratio for cod is five to one; and for tuna — the most beef-like of all — the so-called feed-to-flesh ratio is 20 to 1, said John Volpe, an assistant professor of marine systems conservation at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.

Industrial aquaculture — sometimes called the blue revolution — is following the same pattern as land-based agriculture. Edible food is being used to grow animals rather than nourish people.

This is not to say that all aquaculture is bad. China alone accounts for an estimated 70 percent of the world’s aquaculture — where it is small in scale, focuses on herbivorous fish and is not only sustainable but environmentally sound. “Throughout Asia, there are hundreds of thousands of small farmers making a living by farming fish,” said Barry Costa-Pierce, professor of fisheries at University of Rhode Island. But industrial fish farming is a different story. The industry spends an estimated $1 billion a year on veterinary products; degrades the land (shrimp farming destroys mangroves, for example, a key protector from typhoons); pollutes local waters (according to a recent report by the Worldwatch Institute, a salmon farm with 200,000 fish releases nutrients and fecal matter roughly equivalent to as many as 60,000 people); and imperils wild populations that come in contact with farmed salmon.
Not to mention that its products generally don’t taste so good, at least compared to the wild stuff. Farm-raised tilapia, with the best feed-to-flesh conversion ratio of any animal, is less desirable to many consumers, myself included, than that nearly perfectly blank canvas called tofu. It seems unlikely that farm-raised striped bass will ever taste remotely like its fierce, graceful progenitor, or that anyone who’s had fresh Alaskan sockeye can take farmed salmon seriously.
If industrial aquaculture continues to grow, said Carl Safina, the president of Blue Ocean Institute, a conservation group, “this wondrously varied component of our diet will go the way of land animals — get simplified, all look the same and generally become quite boring.”
Why bother with farm-raised salmon and its relatives? If the world’s wealthier fish-eaters began to appreciate wild sardines, anchovies, herring and the like, we would be less inclined to feed them to salmon raised in fish farms. And we’d be helping restock the seas with larger species.
Which, surprisingly, is possible. As Mr. Safina noted, “The ocean has an incredible amount of productive capacity, and we could quite easily and simply stay within it by limiting fishing to what it can produce.”
This sounds almost too good to be true, but with monitoring systems that reduce bycatch by as much as 60 percent and regulations providing fishermen with a stake in protecting the wild resource, it is happening. One regulatory scheme, known as “catch shares,” allows fishermen to own shares in a fishery — that is, the right to catch a certain percentage of a scientifically determined sustainable harvest. Fishermen can buy or sell shares, but the number of fish caught in a given year is fixed.
This method has been a success in a number of places including Alaska, the source of more than half of the nation’s seafood. A study published in the journal Science recently estimated that if catch shares had been in place globally in 1970, only about 9 percent of the world’s fisheries would have collapsed by 2003, rather than 27 percent.
“The message is optimism,” said David Festa, who directs the oceans program at the Environmental Defense Fund. “The latest data shows that well-managed fisheries are doing incredibly well. When we get the rules right the fisheries can recover, and if they’re not recovering, it means we have the rules wrong.”
(The world’s fishing countries would need to participate; right now, the best management is in the United States, Australia and New Zealand; even in these countries, there’s a long way to go.)
An optimistic but not unrealistic assessment of the future is that we’ll have a limited (and expensive) but sustainable fishery of large wild fish; a growing but sustainable demand for what will no longer be called “lower-value” smaller wild fish; and a variety of traditional aquaculture where it is allowed. This may not sound ideal, but it’s certainly preferable to sucking all the fish out of the oceans while raising crops of tasteless fish available only to the wealthiest consumers.

made in Tokyo / made in Palermo

Scoperto un bunker a Palermo nel quartier Zen

http://www.repubblica.it/2008/09/sezioni/cronaca/mafia-5/bunker-palermo/bunker-palermo.html

PALERMO - Aria condizionata, lettore dvd, un comodo divano: era arredato di tutto punto il bunker, rigorosamente abusivo, ricavato da Antonino Grimaldi, pregiudicato di 29 anni arrestato dalla polizia a Palermo, in uno dei padiglioni del quartiere Zen 2, feudo dei capimafia Salvatore e Sandro Lo Piccolo, ora detenuti. All'interno del bunker sotterraneo era stato realizzato un poligono di tiro. Nella stanza, ampia circa 20 metri quadrati, sono state trovate, oltre alle munizioni, 100 dosi di cocaina confezionata per la vendita per un valore di 10mila euro e 7000 euro in contanti. Secondo gli inquirenti, il locale avrebbe ospitato latitanti di mafia che potrebbero essere riusciti a sfuggire alla cattura. Il poligono di tiro, ricavato a 10 metri di profondità, lungo una decina di metri, veniva utilizzato secondo gli investigatori per testare le armi. Sulle pareti c'erano buchi di proiettili e a terra bossoli esplosi da pistole di diverso calibro, dalla 22 alla 9x21. Il locale, a cui si accedeva attraverso una rete di cunicoli collegati al bunker, era completamente insonorizzato. Al rifugio gli agenti del commissariato San Lorenzo sono giunti seguendo le tracce di Grimaldi, pregiudicato con precedenti per detenzione e spaccio di sostanze stupefacenti e per reati contro il patrimonio. Gli agenti hanno atteso il weekend, momento in cui gli spacciatori si riforniscono di stupefacenti, e hanno organizzato un blitz nella sua abitazione. Durante la perquisizione è stato scoperto il passaggio segreto che portava al locale, cui si accedeva attraverso gli scantinati di uno dei tanti palazzoni del rione popolare palermitano. Nell'appartamento è stata trovata anche la chiave: l'ingresso al rifugio era impossibile per gli estranei che dovevano superare prima un cancello azionabile solo attraverso un telecomando e poi una porta blindata.

made in Tokyo

stazione dei taxi, uffici della compagnia dei taxi, centro allenamento golf,

Made in Palermo

bunker, rifugio, poligono di tiro, laboratorio stupefacenti, cantina,...

evolutionary myths

Economics of Industrial Ecology: Materials, Structural Change, and Spatial Scales

http://www.amazon.com/Economics-Industrial-Ecology-Materials-Structural/dp/0262220717/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227130817&sr=8-2

+

http://books.google.com/books?id=VGzfMtfhIZMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=economics+of+industrial+ecology&hl=it

Product Details
Hardcover: 396 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press (January 1, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0262220717
ISBN-13: 978-0262220712

Editorial Reviews
Review"As the first text focused on this subject, Economics of Industrial Ecology fills a big hole in the literature of the field. It moves the interdisciplinary claim of industrial ecology a long way forward."—John R. Ehrenfeld, Executive Director, International Society for Industrial Ecology"

There have long been calls for the integration of economics and industrial ecology. This book assembles a number of important works—especially on integrated modeling of physical and economic systems—that form an important contribution to the industrial ecology literature."—Reid Lifset, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, editor, Journal of Industrial Ecology"

This is one of the first books that focuses primarily on the economics of industrial ecology, without ignoring the scientific and analytical treatment of its problems."—Arpad Horvath, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley

The use of economic modeling techniques in industrial ecology research provides distinct advantages over the customary approach, which focuses on the physical description of material flows. The thirteen chapters of Economics of Industrial Ecology integrate the natural science and technological dimensions of industrial ecology with a rigorous economic approach and by doing so contribute to the advancement of this emerging field. Using a variety of modeling techniques (including econometric, partial and general equilibrium, and input-output models) and applying them to a wide range of materials, economic sectors, and countries, these studies analyze the driving forces behind material flows and structural changes in order to offer guidance for economically and socially feasible policy solutions.After a survey of concepts and relevant research that provides a useful background for the chapters that follow, the book presents historical analyses of structural change from statistical and decomposition approaches; a range of models that predict structural change on the national and regional scale under different policy scenarios; two models that can be used to analyze waste management and recycling operations; and, adopting the perspective of local scale, an analysis of the dynamics of eco-industrial parks in Denmark and the Netherlands. The book concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of an economic approach to industrial ecology.