ECOLOGY

GREENLAND GLACIER MOVING INTO SEA FAR FASTER THAN THOUGHT

STEVE CONNOR, INDEPENDENT, UK - Scientists monitoring a glacier in
Greenland have found it is moving into the sea three times faster than a
decade ago. Satellite measurements of the Kangerdlugssuaq glacier show
that, as well as moving more rapidly, the glacier's boundary is
shrinking dramatically - probably because of melting brought about by
climate change. . . Experts believe any change in the rate at which the
glacier transports ice from the ice sheet into the ocean has important
implications for increases in sea levels around the world. If the entire
Greenland ice sheet were to melt into the ocean it would raise sea
levels by up to seven meters (23ft), inundating vast areas of low-lying
land, including London and much of eastern England.

Computer models suggest that this would take at least 1,000 years but
even a sea-level rise of a meter would have a catastrophic impact on
coastal plains where more than two-thirds of the world's population
live.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0725-02.htm


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WITH HIGH ENERGY PRICES, SOME FARMERS GO BACK TO HORSES

FORBES - To some, the thought of a farmer patiently working the field
behind a horse and plow might evoke pangs of nostalgia for the early
days of agriculture. But in fact, the practice is making a comeback. Ol'
Dobbin hasn't run the tractors out of the fields yet. But increasingly,
small farmers are finding horse-powered agriculture a workable
alternative to mechanization.

Lynn Miller, whose quarterly "Small Farmer's Journal" tracks
horse-farming, estimates about 400,000 people depend in some measure on
animal power for farming, logging and other livelihoods. He says the
number is on the rise.

Many are Amish farmers in Iowa and Pennsylvania who shun mechanization,
but some are farmers who have turned to horses because of the bottom
line, citing soaring fuel prices and the ability of the animals to
produce their own replacements.

http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2005/07/22/ap2151918.html

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ENERGY EFFICIENT BARGES COME BACK ON THE ATLANTIC

BOSTON GLOBE - A new barge service designed to transport containerized
cargo between Portland and New York Harbor gets under way next month.
The weekly service is being offered by Columbia Coastal Transport and
represents an extension of its service between Boston and New York.

Columbia was attracted to Portland by Sprague Energy's plan to build a
waterfront facility to ship products from Maine's paper mills to New
York Harbor, where they can then be shipped worldwide. If successful,
the new barge operation would put Portland on the leading edge of a new
transportation mode called "short sea shipping."

Maine prospered through much of its early history as ships hauled
lumber, ice and granite to other U.S. ports. But the state's geographic
advantage declined with the development of rail and highway systems that
shifted commerce from water to land.

The new sea link allows shippers to avoid the region's increasingly
congested highway system, said Martin Toyen, a transportation consultant
who is helping Bridgeport, Conn., set up a daily barge service to New
York Harbor. . .

The U.S. Maritime Administration has been pushing for the development of
a short sea shipping system to help reduce the growing freight
congestion in the nation's rail and highway systems. Some states,
including Massachusetts, view the creation of such a system as part of a
"smart growth" strategy to reduce congestion without building more
highways.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2005/07/22/
portland_new_york_barge_service_to_transport_container_freight/
?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Maine+news

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REPORT OUTLINE PERILS FROM WASTING WATER

ABID ASLAM, ONE WORLD - Humans waste water and foul their watersheds at
their growing peril, environmentalists warned in a new report. "It
almost seems as if the point of public policy is to liquidate Earth's
water assets like a store going out of business," said Sandra Postel,
author of the report from the Worldwatch Institute. Cities and rural
areas alike can purify drinking water, alleviate hunger, and mitigate
flood damage at a fraction of the cost of conventional technological
alternatives simply by taking advantage of the work that healthy
watersheds and freshwater ecosystems perform naturally, said the report.

The document urged immediate steps to reduce waste and conserve water,
saying these would increase the "cost efficiency of nature's
'factories'." . . .

The report credited what it termed "forward-thinking cities and
municipalities" with discovering that it is more cost-effective to
employ nature's services rather than further destroy them. It cited
examples including:

--New York City, which in 1997 reached an agreement with local and
federal officials, environmental organizations, and 70 towns to spend
$1.5 billion over 10 years on watershed protection and conservation
measures, thereby avoiding construction of a filtration plant that would
cost $6 billion to build and $300 million a year to operate. As of 2004,
the city had invested more than $1 billion in the watershed program.

--Bogota, Colombia, which through successful conservation efforts has
delayed the need to build new water supply facilities for at least 20
years. . . Today, 95 percent of households in Bogota have potable water
and 87 percent have sewage services.

--The Boston metropolitan area, where water use hit a 50-year low in
2004 due to an aggressive conservation program launched in the late
1980s that has indefinitely postponed a proposed diversion of the
Connecticut River, saving residents more than $500 million in capital
expenditures.

http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/115592/1/

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FUTURE TECH - Organic farming uses less energy than regular farming
Organic farming produces the same yields of corn and soybeans as
conventional farming, but consumes 30 percent less energy, less water
and no pesticides, according to a study that reviewed 22-years of
farming results.

http://news.com.com/2061-11128_3-5794734.html?part=rss&tag=5794734&subj=news

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SALMON TRAVEL 10,000 MILES FROM RIVER TO PLATE

CHOY LENG YOUNG, BLOOMBERG NEWS: Pacific salmon swim as far as 2,000
miles to lay their eggs in rivers up and down the Northwest. Once
caught, some make a longer journey: 8,000 miles round-trip to China.

Facing growing imports of low-cost seafood, fish processors in the
Northwest, including Seattle-based Trident Seafoods, are sending part of
their catch of Alaskan salmon or Dungeness crab to China to be filleted
or de-shelled before returning to U.S. tables.

"There are 36 pin bones in a salmon and the best way to remove them is
by hand," says Charles Bundrant, founder of Trident, which ships about
30 million pounds of its 1.2 billion-pound annual harvest to China for
processing. "Something that would cost us $1 per pound labor here, they
get it done for 20 cents in China."

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EPA DECIDES TO SPIN THE AIRWAVES RATHER THAN CLEAN THE AIR

FELICITY BARRINGER, NY TIMES - The Office of Research and Development at
the Environmental Protection Agency is seeking outside public relations
consultants, to be paid up to $5 million over five years, to polish its
Web site, organize focus groups on how to buff the office's image and
ghostwrite articles "for publication in scholarly journals and
magazines." The strategy, laid out in a May 26 exploratory proposal
notice and further defined in two recently awarded public relations
contracts totaling $150,000, includes writing and placing "good stories"
about the E.P.A.'s research office in consumer and trade publications. .
.

Three similar contracts - one of which was abandoned, the agency said -
and the broader $5 million proposal were provided to The New York Times
by the environmental group Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility. Its director, Jeff Ruch, said he had received them from
an agency employee who believed that research money was being
inappropriately diverted to a public relations campaign.

"The idea that they would take limited science dollars and spend them on
P.R. is not only ill advised, it's just plain stupid," Mr. Ruch said in
an interview.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/18/politics/18contracts.html


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SUSTAIN YOURSELF
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NEW HIGH MILEAGE CAR TO BE LAUNCHED

MDI NEWS RELEASE - On September 20, a car with an air-compressed engine,
invented by the Frenchman Guy Negre, will be presented in London. The
MDI car can reach a speed of 68 mph and has a road coverage of roughly
124 miles -some 8 hours of travel - which is more than double the road
coverage of an electric car. When recharging the tank, the car needs to
be connected to the mains for 3 to 4 hours or attached to an air pump in
a petrol station for only 2 minutes.

Economy and the ecological benefits are the main advantages for the
client since the car's maintenance cost is 10 times less than that of a
petrol-run car, costing 1 pound for the car to travel for up to 8 hours
or to cover 124 miles in an urban area.

Compressed air is stored in fiber tanks. The expansion of this air
pushes the pistons and creates movement. The atmospheric temperature is
used to re-heat the engine and increase the road coverage. The air
conditioning system makes use of the expelled cold air. Due to the
absence of combustion and the fact there is no pollution, the oil change
is only necessary every 31,000 miles.

At the moment, four models have been made: a car, a taxi (5 passengers),
a pick-up truck and a van. The final selling price will be approximately
5,500 pounds.

"Moteur Development International" is a company founded in Luxembourg,
based in the south of France and with its commercial office in
Barcelona. MDI has researched and developed the Air Car over 10 years
and the technology is protected by more than 30 International patents.

It is predicted that the factory will produce 3.000 cars each year, with
70 staff working only one 8-hour shift a day. If there were 3 shifts
some 9,000 cars could be produced a year.

www.theaircar.com (English)

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GOP FAR BEHIND PUBLIC ON CLIMATE CHANGE

ZOGBY - Global warming is a real threat to the global environment, and
not, as critics frequently say, "junk science," according to a survey of
adults nationwide. In the survey, 53% called global warming a threat,
while 28% dismissed it. Another 18% either viewed it as neither or were
not sure. The majority of respondents to the poll also say they are
willing to put up with tougher automobile emissions standards and higher
fuel costs if it will combat global warming.

Democrats universally believe global warming is real, and a threat, with
92% choosing that option. Republicans, meanwhile are much more inclined
to see it as junk science, with a full 57% holding that viewpoint. Just
13% of Republicans, whose party currently controls both the White House
and the Congress, see global warming a threat to the global environment.
As is typical, independents tend to split the difference between the two
parties, with 57% seeing global warming as a threat and 25% calling it
junk science.

http://www.zogby.com/

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POACHING CHANGING ELEPHANT GENE POOL

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - A recent study has predicted that more male Asian
elephants in China will be born without tusks because poaching of tusked
elephants is reducing the gene pool, the China Daily reported Sunday.
The study, conducted in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in
southwest China's Yunnan province, where two-thirds of China's Asian
elephants live, found that the tuskless phenomenon is spreading, the
report said.

The tusk-free gene, which is found in between two and five percent of
male Asian elephants, has increased to between five percent and 10
percent in elephants in China, according to Zhang Li, an associate
professor of zoology at Beijing Normal University.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050717/sc_afp/chinaanimalselephant_050717075953


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INDICATORS
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FROM ZOGBY

- 39% of Americans throw out recyclables on a regular basis. 14% throw
out recyclables on a regular basis despite local mandatory recycling
laws. 26% throw out cans and bottles despite paying a deposit.

- 79% of Americans vote for the person they are more comfortable with as
their chief executive, and 78% do the same when voting for governor.
Only 19% to 20% in each instance cast their ballot for the party rather
than the person. On the local level, party-line voting plunges to 11%
for mayoral candidates, with 85% voting for the person they feel is most
qualified.

- 42% of Americans listen to talk radio on their morning commute.

http://www.zogby.com