Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category
November 13, 2010
Reuters
State-run Coal India (COAL.BO) is in talks to buy mines from U.S.-based Peabody Energy and Massey Energy , according to a media report citing the company’s chairman. “They expressed interest in offering certain mines to us and we are looking at that,” Partha Bhattacharyya said in a report by the Associated Press carried in the Economic Times newspaper on Saturday. “The discussions are continuing,” the report quoting him as saying. He declined to provide further details.
The Economic Times:
Coal India has budgeted $1.2 billion to buy assets in the US, Indonesia and Australia during the year ending March as it battles a widening gap between domestic coal supply and demand. The company, which last month raised $3.4 billion in the nation’s biggest-ever initial public offering, has near-monopoly control of India’s coal market. Indian companies are increasingly turning to the US to secure vital commodities to fuel the nation’s breakneck growth.
This year, Reliance Industries — India’s most valuable company by market value — bought stakes in three US shale gas companies for a combined $3.4 billion, the largest Indian investment in the US ever made. In 2007, India’s Essar Group acquired Minnesota Steel and is investing over $1 billion to build two plants and run its iron ore mine near Nashwauk, in northern Minnesota. This March, the company spent $600 million to acquire US-based Trinity Coal with mines in Kentucky, West Virginia.
St Louis, Missouri-based Peabody Energy says it is the world’s largest private sector coal company, with 9 billion tonnes of reserves. Richmond, Virginia-based Massey Energy says it is the largest coal producer in the Central Appalachian region, which accounted for 20% of United States coal production in 2007.
Tags:Acquisitions, Coal India, Essar Group, Massey Energy, Peabody Energy, Reliance Industries
Posted in Business, Energy, Environment, India, International Trade, Investing | Comments Off on Coal India looking to acquire mines in US, Australia and Indonesia
November 11, 2010
The steep-sided, cone-shaped Mount Merapi volcano is both boon and curse to the people of Indonesia. Volcanic ash from its frequent eruptions makes the soil fertile enough to support a large population. It is also one of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes, posing a constant threat to tens of thousands of people who live in its shadow. On October 26, 2010, the volcano once again turned destructive, unleashing a series of eruptions that had killed at least 44 people and forced 75,000 people from their homes, said CNN on November 4.
Eruption at Mount Merapi, Indonesia: Nov 1st: image NASA
The mountain has been shrouded in clouds throughout the eruption, but on October 30 the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured the thermal signature of hot ash and rock and a glowing lava dome. The thermal data is overlaid on a three-dimensional map of the volcano to show the approximate location of the flow. The three-dimensional data is from a global topographic model created using ASTER stereo observations.
The Center of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation reported that two pyroclastic flows moved down the volcano on October 30. A pyroclastic flow is an avalanche of extremely hot gas, ash, and rock that tears down the side of a volcano at high speeds. ASTER imaged one of those flows.
Merapi shows no signs of slowing. After several days of eruptive episodes, the volcano began an eruption on November 3 that was five times more intense than on October 26 and lasted more than 24 hours. It is the most violent eruption at the volcano since the 1870s, said local geologists.
See more NASA images at:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/event.php?id=46815
SO2 cloud from Mt. Merapi: 4th November: image NASA
Ash plume from Mt. Merapi 8th Nov: image NASA
Tags:Indonesia, Mount Merapi, NASA images, Pyroclastic flow, Volcano
Posted in Air pollution, Environment, Geosciences, Natural Disasters, Science, Volcanos | Comments Off on Mount Merapi eruption images from Nasa
November 10, 2010
President Obama will cut short his visit to Indonesia by two hours to be able to meet a take-off window created by further ash eruptions from Mount Merapi volcano (431 km from Jakarta) last night and today. Some international flights to Jakarta on Wednesday and Thursday have been cancelled.
The Jakarta Globe.
Mount Merapi erupting again on Wednesday. Four airlines, including Qantas and Malaysia Air, have canceled flights to Jakarta. Some international flights to Bali have also been affected. (EPA Photo)
Indonesia’s Merapi volcano has forced a number of international airlines to cancel flights over concerns about air safety. The volcanic eruptions in central Java also forced United States President Barack Obama to cut short his visit to the country. Obama sliced several hours off his whirlwind 24-hour tour Wednesday.
Mount Merapi, hundreds of kilometers east of Jakarta, has been spewing massive clouds of ash and gas high into the air for more than two weeks, killing at least 153 people and causing travel chaos and forcing two nearby airports to shut down. Syaiful Bahri, who oversees operations at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, says that concerns about the ash also forced several international carriers to again cancel flights into and out of the capital. Among them were Cathay Pacific, Value Air, Qantas and Malaysia Air.
An Indonesian government volcanologist said the pace of the eruption had slowed, but Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific and Australia’s Qantas canceled flights because of the ash. Cathay said it had canceled flights to and from Jakarta on Wednesday and Thursday, while Qantas canceled a Sydney-Jakarta service on Wednesday. “Cathay Pacific will monitor and assess the situation and the possibility of operating flights,” the airline said on its website Wednesday. Jetstar, the low-cost offshoot of Qantas, has also changed its flight schedule for services to the Indonesian island of Bali, canceling flights that arrive at or depart from the popular holiday destination at night.
Officials said safety worries about the ash also meant Yogyakarta airport would stay closed until Monday next week at the earliest.
Tags:Central Java, flight cancellations, Indonesia, Mount Merapi ash, President's Obama's visit to Indonesia
Posted in Environment, Indonesia, Natural Disasters, Volcanos | Comments Off on New Merapi ash forces Obama to curtail visit, causes more flight cancellations
November 9, 2010
Anak Krakatau: Image via Wikipedia
Yogyakarta’s Adi Sutjipto domestic and international airport has been closed until at least next Monday Nov. 15, at which time another decision would be made. Despite the ban on civilian and commercial flights in and out of Yogyakarta, the Indonesian Air Force was still operating Hercules flights to deliver aid to the internally displaced.
More than 300,000 people are believed to be housed in government shelters.
Indonesian rescue workers resumed efforts to retrieve bodies of victims from an eruption of Mount Merapi in central Java on Nov. 5, after surface temperatures forced a halt to the search on Monday. More than 320,000 people are housed at evacuation centers outside the 20-kilometer safety zone in four regencies in Yogyakarta and Central Java provinces, the National Disaster Management Agency said in a statement on its Web site today. Evacuees reached 280,000 people yesterday.
“Volcanic activity is relatively stable this morning compared with yesterday,” said Oka Hamid, a spokesman at Red Cross Indonesia’s Yogyakarta branch. “We recovered two remains in one village but we have to leave another four as the field is hard to reach and they’re all covered with thick ash.”
Meanwhile –
The crater of Anak Krakatau in the Sunda Strait has expanded to a diameter of 25-26 meters, an Indonesian volcanologist says. The news comes as the frequency of eruptions of the volcano, once misidentified as Krakatoa, increases: On Friday there were 615 eruptions, on Saturday 623 eruptions, and on Sunday 668.
Anton S Pambudi, a official from Banten province monitoring the eruptions, said the eruptions over the past two weeks had changed the shape of the crater. Authorities have warned that several other volcanoes in Indonesia are showing increased signs of activity. These include Mount Karangetang on Siau Island in North Sulawesi and Mount Ibu on Halmahera Island in North Maluku.
Banten Governor Ratu Atut Chosiyah said she believed that Anak Krakatau did not pose a threat and that the eruptions, which can be seen from the western tip of Java Island, were interesting to observe.
Philippine Airlines Inc., Emirates, Eva Airways Corp. and Valuair Ltd. resumed flights to Jakarta on Monday after suspending them for two days, PT Angkasa Pura, the Soekarno-Hatta international airport operator said on its Web site. Singapore Airlines Ltd., Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. and Japan Airlines Corp. restarted services on Sunday.
President Obama arrives in a few hours in Jakarta.
Tags:Anak Krakatau, Indonesia, Mount Merapi, President's Obama's visit to Indonesia
Posted in Environment, Indonesia, International Trade, Investing, Natural Disasters, US, Volcanos | Comments Off on Mount Merapi rumbles on while Anak Krakatau crater expands and Obama flies in to Jakarta
November 8, 2010
From The Telegraph:
The Natural History Museum has been warned that a forthcoming trip to find hundreds of new species in the remote forests of Paraguay could risk the lives of indigenous people and the scientists.
The 100-strong expedition, one of the largest undertaken by the museum in the last 50 years, is due to set off in the next few days to explore one of the most unknown regions of the world for one month.
However the museum has been warned by campaigners that the trip could cause “genocide” for isolated tribes.
The group Iniciativa Amotocodie, that protects local indigenous people, said groups of Ayoreo Indians in the area have never come into contact with westerners before. If they come across the expedition without preparation they could catch common western viruses that could wipe out the small groups in a matter of weeks.
A statement from the group, that has been circulated online, read: “If this expedition goes ahead we will not be able to understand why you prefer to lose human lives just because the English scientists want to study plants and animals. There is too much risk: the people die in the forest frequently from catching white people’s diseases – they get infected by being close. Because the white people leave their rubbish, their clothes, or other contaminated things. It’s very serious. It’s like genocide.”
The vast area of dry forest across parts of Bolivia, Argentina as well as Paraguay, known as the Gran Chaco, is the only place in South America outside the Amazon where there are uncontacted tribes. Until about 1950 it was thought there were around 5,000 people in the area but now there are thought to be less than 150 as people leave or die out.
Richard Lane, Director of Science at the NHM, confirmed that he had received a letter from a group representing indigenous groups. “Clearly the needs of indigenous people to remain uncontacted needs to be respected and we as an institution have always respected that,” he said.
With a hundred people involved in this expedition and tramping through the jungle it is hardly a case of being very discreet or showing very much respect for the indigenous tribes. (Does it really take one hundred people? Explorers used to go in twos.)
The naming of new species of plants in the name of protecting biodiversity seems to be rather more important than the lives and the way of life of these unfortunate tribes. That a body such as the Natural History Museum is prepared to risk genocide for the sake of finding and naming species that have not been recorded is astonishing. The species will carry on very well even if they receive no names and will probably be better off for not having any contact with the expedition (or perhaps circus would be more accurate).
The Natural History Museum would be well advised to cancel this vacation in the jungle or at least to reduce the numbers in the expedition to about two.
Tags:Genocide, Indigenous People, Natural History Museum, Paraguay
Posted in Behaviour, Biodiversity, Biology, Environment, Evolution, Social Science | 2 Comments »
November 8, 2010
The Chicago Tribune runs with the latest example of faith-based zealots declaring war!
Warriors of the Faith: image Jesus Christ Superstar
Faced with rising political attacks, hundreds of climate scientists are joining a broad campaign to push back against congressional conservatives who have threatened prominent researchers with investigations and vowed to kill regulations to rein in man-made greenhouse gas emissions.
The still-evolving efforts reveal a shift among climate scientists, many of whom have traditionally stayed out of politics and avoided the news media. Many now say they are willing to go toe-to-toe with their critics, some of whom gained new power after the Republicans won control of the House in Tuesday’s election.
On Monday, the American Geophysical Union, the country’s largest association of climate scientists, plans to announce that 700 climate scientists have agreed to speak out as experts on questions about global warming and the role of man-made air pollution.
John Abraham of St. Thomas University in Minnesota, who last May wrote a widely disseminated response to climate change skeptics, is also pulling together a “climate rapid response team,” which includes scientists prepared to go before what they consider potentially hostile audiences on conservative talk radio and television shows.
“This group feels strongly that science and politics can’t be divorced and that we need to take bold measures to not only communicate science but also to aggressively engage the denialists and politicians who attack climate science and its scientists,” said Scott Mandia, professor of physical sciences at Suffolk County Community College in New York.
This new Rapid Response Team has so far recruited 39 Warriors of the Faith!!!
A rapid-response team, however, is willing to delve into politics. In the week that Abraham and others have been marshaling the team, 39 scientists agreed to participate, including Richard Feely, senior scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research; and Michael Oppenheimer, professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University.
“People who’ve already dug their heels in, we’re not going to change their opinions,” Mandia said. “We’re trying to reach people who may not have an opinion or opinion based on limited information.”
neela.banerjee@latimes.com
It is difficult to take any Global Warming “Science” or “Scientists” seriously as long they continue the shenanigans revealed in Climategate and behave like a bunch of religious fanatics. It remains to be seen how many real scientists will join these religious fanatics in committing scientific and political suicide.
Tags:American Geophysical Union, climate change, Climate rapid responce force, Climategate, science fraud
Posted in Alarmism, Behaviour, Climate, Environment, Scientific Fraud | 2 Comments »
November 8, 2010
Reality and common sense are returning to dampen the mad rush to wind power. The fact that connecting intermittent power sources to the grid is a source of dangerous instabilities and that intermittent power sources do not actually contribute to any secure generating capacity are bringing a “cap” into play. Following the drop of orders in the US, the UK is also expecting sharp reductions in installations.
From The Guardian:
Britain recently overtook Denmark to become the world’s largest offshore windfarm player, implying the tripling of capacity in the next two years. But new projects will dry up in 2013. Only 90 megawatts (MW) of newly installed capacity, which is enough to supply 30,000 homes when the wind blows, is being forecast compared with 1,368Mw the year before. Analysts are forecasting a 93% drop in the installation of new offshore windfarms in 2013 compared with the previous year. As orders for cables, foundations and other equipment are typically made two to three years ahead of the project being completed, the slowdown will start to bite among UK suppliers next year.
There are other extra projects on the drawing board which are supposed to fill this gap. But planning problems, difficulties securing finance and cost overruns on existing projects mean that these plans could be scaled back. Swedish firm Vattenfall said last month that it would not take up the option of expanding its Thanet windfarm – the largest offshore project in the world – blaming problems securing access to the grid.
The availability of bank finance for offshore projects – at least twice as costly as onshore windfarms – has still not returned to pre-credit crunch levels. Now there are only 10-14 banks actively lending, compared with almost 40 before 2008, each lending about half what they were lending before.
Just a few days ago Reuters reported:
The wind energy industry continues to struggle and Vestas Wind is confirming what General Electric is seeing… weak demand. GE went so far as to say the US wind energy market has collapsed. Vestas hasn’t made similar claims, but their actions speak much louder than words.
The company is cutting 3000 jobs and shutting plants due to shrinking power demand, rising component costs and uncertain US policy. While the company posted a smaller than expected loss in 3rd quarter profits, they indicated that the European wind energy market won’t live up to expectations either. Shares of Vestas were down nearly 10 percent Tuesday despite beating analyst earnings estimates and trading very close to the 2008 lows.
Tags:Vattenfall, Vestas, wind power, Wind power difficulties
Posted in Business, Energy, Engineering, Environment, Renewable Energy | Comments Off on Reality check: Orders for wind turbines to fall by 93%
November 8, 2010
From Pajamas Media:
Global warming-inspired cap and trade has been one of the most stridently debated public policy controversies of the past 15 years. But it is dying a quiet death. In a little reported move, the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) announced on Oct. 21 that it will be ending carbon trading — the only purpose for which it was founded — this year.
Although the trading in carbon emissions credits was voluntary, the CCX was intended to be the hub of the mandatory carbon trading established by a cap-and-trade law, like the Waxman-Markey scheme passed by the House in June 2009.
At its founding in November 2000, it was estimated that the size of CCX’s carbon trading market could reach $500 billion. That estimate ballooned over the years to $10 trillion.
The CCX was the brainchild of Northwestern University business professor Richard Sandor, who used $1.1 million in grants from the Chicago-based left-wing Joyce Foundation to launch the CCX. For his efforts, Timenamed Sandor as one of its Heroes of the Planet in 2002 and one of its Heroes of the Environment in 2007.
CCX’s panicked original investors bailed out this spring, unloading the dog and its across-the-pond cousin, the European Climate Exchange (ECX), for $600 million to the New York Stock Exchange-traded Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) — an electronic futures and derivatives platform based in Atlanta and London. (Luckier than the CCX, the ECX continues to exist thanks to the mandatory carbon caps of the Kyoto Protocol.)
The ECX may soon follow the CCX into oblivion, however — the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. No new international treaty is anywhere in sight.
While we don’t know how well Al Gore and Goldman Sachs fared on their investments in the CCX, we do know that there’s no reason to cry for Sandor. He received $98.5 million for his 16.5% stake in CCX when it was sold. Not bad for a failure that somebody else financed.
http://www.chicagoclimatex.com/market/data/daily.jsf
Carbon Financial Instruments – Nov 5, 2010
| Product |
Vintage |
Open |
High |
Low |
Close |
Change |
Volume |
| Total Electronically Traded Volume |
– |
| CFI |
2003 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.05 |
– |
0 |
| CFI |
2004 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.05 |
– |
0 |
| CFI |
2005 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.05 |
– |
0 |
| CFI |
2006 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.05 |
– |
0 |
| CFI |
2007 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.05 |
– |
0 |
| CFI |
2008 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.05 |
– |
0 |
| CFI |
2009 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.05 |
– |
0 |
| CFI |
2010 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.05 |
– |
0 |
| Price and volume reported in metric tons CO2 |
Tags:Carbon Trading, Chicago Climate Exchange, European Climate Exchange, fraud, Kyoto Protocol
Posted in Energy, Environment, Ethics, Fraud, International Trade, Investing | Comments Off on Carbon Trading dies quietly in the US; time for Europe to follow suit
November 8, 2010
Mt. Merapi hazard map: image worldlywise.pbworks.com
Yogyakarta lies some 35 km from Mount Merapi but one of the “hazard” tongues from the volcano (see map above) leads directly to the city.
The Jakarta Globe reports:
Frightened residents in a bustling city of 400,000 at the foot of Indonesia’s rumbling volcano headed out of town Monday, cramming onto trains and buses and even rented vehicles to seek refuge with family and friends far away.
Mount Merapi, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, has erupted many times in the last century, killing more than 1,400. But Friday was the mountain’s deadliest day since 1930, with nearly 100 lives lost. The notoriously unpredictable mountain unleashed its most powerful eruption in a century Friday, sending hot clouds of gas, rocks and debris avalanching down its slopes at highway speeds, smothering entire villages and leaving a trail of charred corpses in its path.
All (international flights) were back in the air Monday and White House officials said Obama was still scheduled to touch down on Tuesday.
Merapi, meanwhile, showed few signs of tiring Monday, sending out thunderous claps as it shot clouds of gas and debris high into the air.
The Indonesian government has put Yogyakarta on high alert. Though there have been no orders to evacuate, many residents decided to go on their own.
Tags:Indonesia, Mount Merapi, Volcano, Yogyakarta
Posted in Environment, Indonesia, Natural Disasters, Volcanoes | Comments Off on Merapi: Residents flee Yogyakarta but flights resume to Jakarta
November 7, 2010
Borobudur Temple: Image via Wikipedia
Update from CNN:
The death toll from recent eruptions at Indonesia’s Mount Merapi continues to rise as the volcano spewed hot ash clouds and gas on Sunday. At least 156 people have died since Merapi started erupting on October 26. Ash columns reached as high as 6 kilometers (3.7 miles), according to the Indonesian Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Agency.
The Borobudur temple lies about 45 km from Mount Merapi and is currently covered with ash which is being painstakingly cleared.
Employees of Borobudur temple on Sunday were working to keep the historic site from being damaged by the thick black ash that has fallen from nearby Mount Merapi’s eruption.
Karyono, a parking lot employee who has been working there since 1986, was taking the ash off the driveway and the parking lot. Using a small iron shovel, he and his 10 coworkers were squatting and painstakingly taking the ash away in buckets.Karyono said that he has been cleaning since Saturday and piling up the ashes to be dumped elsewhere.
While the cleanup operation continues, the famous temple is closed to visitors from Nov. 5 to 9.
Mount Merapi unleashed nearly 50 million cubic meters of gas, rocks and ash on Friday, its most powerful eruption in a century.
Up to 138 people have now died on Merapi’s slopes in the past ten days of eruptions and gas cloud ash emissions.
Authorities charged with conserving the temple say that
ash up to 3-centimetres deep has covered it and the acidity could erode the temple’s stones. They believe that if the ash it is not cleared away quickly it will accelerate the decay of the stones. The monument comprises six square platforms topped by three circular platforms, and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. A main dome, located at the center of the top platform, is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues seated inside perforated stupa. The monument is both a shrine to the Lord Buddha and a place for Buddhist pilgrimage. The journey for pilgrims begins at the base of the monument and follows a path circumambulating the monument while ascending to the top through the three levels of Buddhist cosmology, namely Kāmadhātu (the world of desire), Rupadhatu (the world of forms) and Arupadhatu (the world of formlessness). During the journey the monument guides the pilgrims through a system of stairways and corridors with 1,460 narrative relief panels on the wall and the balustrades. Officials however confirm that over the next few days they will be conducting a technical evaluation for the cleaning process. The temple was again closed down for visitors temporarily after volcanic ash covered it following the Merapi volcano’s powerful eruptions on Friday. When the cleanup is completed visitors will be allowed to visit the site early next week – but they will still not be permitted to climb up to the temple.
Evidence suggests Borobudur was abandoned following the 14th-century decline of Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms in Java, and the Javanese conversion to Islam. Worldwide knowledge of its existence was sparked in 1814 by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, then the British ruler of Java, who was advised of its location by native Indonesians. Borobudur has since been preserved through several restorations. The largest restoration project was undertaken between 1975 and 1982 by the Indonesian government and UNESCO, following which the monument was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is still used for pilgrimage; once a year Buddhists in Indonesia celebrate Vesak at the monument. Borobudur remains Indonesia’s single most visited tourist attraction.
Since Borobudur was built sometime in the 9th Century it has probably seen – and survived – over one hundred eruptions from Mount Merapi in the following 1200 years. Mount Merapi is Indonesia’s most active volcano and has certainly been erupting regularly at least since 8000 BC. Since 1548 written eruption records are available but earlier eruptions are inferred.
Mount Merapi as seen from Borobudur: image ghumakkar.com
Tags:Borobudur Temple, Central Java, Earth Sciences, Indonesia, Mount Merapi, Volcanoes
Posted in Environment, Geosciences, Indonesia, Volcanos | Comments Off on Borobodur Temple covered by Merapi volcano ash
The k2p blog 