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China’s Voyage of Discovery to Cross the Less Frozen North

by Ludie69E Posted on August 20, 2013

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Global warming means that the Arctic’s fabled Northern Sea Route could soon be ice-free in summer, slashing journey times for cargo ships sailing from the Far East to Europe. Which is why the Yong Sheng, a rust-streaked Chinese vessel, is on a truly historic journey. ezioman/Flickr For a ship on a mission of worldwide importance, the Yong Sheng is a distinctly unimpressive sight. The grey and green hull of the 19,000-tonne cargo vessel, operated by China‘s state-owned Cosco Group, is streaked with rust, while its cargo of steel and heavy equipment would best be described as prosaic. Yet the Yong Sheng’s journey, which began on 8 August from Dalian, a port in north-eastern China, to Rotterdam is being watched with fascination by politicians and scientists. They are intrigued, not by its cargo, but by its route – for the Yong Sheng is headed in the opposite direction from the Netherlands and sailing towards the Bering Strait that separates Russia and Alaska. Once through the strait, it will enter the Arctic Ocean, where it will attempt one of the most audacious voyages of modern seafaring: sailing through one of the Arctic’s fabled passages, the Northern Sea Route. The passage, which hugs the coast of northern Russia, and its mirror route, the Northwest Passage, which threads its way through the islands and creeks of northern Canada, have claimed the lives of thousands of sailors who tried for centuries to cross the Arctic in an attempt to link the ports of the Far East and Europe by sailing via the north pole. Thick pack ice, violent storms and plummeting temperatures thwarted these endeavours. To keep reading, click here.

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China’s Voyage of Discovery to Cross the Less Frozen North

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China’s Voyage of Discovery to Cross the Less Frozen North

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U.S. and China continue to play nice on climate

by xf0ks040u Posted on July 11, 2013

U.S. and China continue to play nice on climate

By John Upton

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China and the U.S. continued their climate-protecting love affair Wednesday, agreeing to cooperate on five initiatives to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

The initiatives range “from bread-and-butter steps, such as boosting building efficiency, to what officials said would be a leading-edge effort to improve the technology for capturing carbon as it is released from power plants,” reports The Washington Post.

Wednesday’s announcement follows an agreement struck last month during meetings between Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping to work together to reduce climate-changing HFC emissions.

From Reuters:

The U.S.-China climate change working group, which officials from both countries formed in April, will work with companies and non-governmental groups to develop plans by October to carry out the measures aimed at fighting climate change and cutting pollution. …

Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew hosted a Chinese delegation, led by State Councilor Yang Jiechi and Vice Premier Wang Yang, at the talks that cover both economics and wider geopolitical issues.

The climate agreements will concentrate on improving technologies, and will not be binding and will not seek to cut emissions by specific volumes. Still, the hope is any cooperation could help lend support to wider international talks on greenhouse gas reductions and help finalize a global treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol on climate change by 2015.

The State Department released a list of the five initiatives, which we summarize here:

Develop projects to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
Reduce vehicle emissions, particularly from large trucks, by strengthening efficiency standards and developing more efficient vehicles and cleaner fuels.
Increase energy efficiency, first in buildings but also in transportation and industry.
Improve greenhouse gas data collection and management.
Promote smart grids through collaborative projects.

Together, the U.S. and China produce some 43 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and they’ve not been leaders on climate change in past years, so their increasing cooperation is notable. “Environmental activists say this holds immense potential because of the combined size and influence of the two nations — at a time when countries are struggling to agree on a global strategy,” reports the Post.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Coal-burning slashed lifespans by five years in China, study finds

by Traci B. Jackson Posted on July 9, 2013

Coal-burning slashed lifespans by five years in China, study finds

By John Upton

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Now that’s some bad air quality.

Residents of northern China got free coal from the government during winters from 1950 to 1980, but it turns out that the coal actually came at a heavy price: shorter lifespans.

The Chinese government’s Huai River policy provided coal free of charge to everybody living north of Huai River, which cleaves China in two. As residents of northern China, the colder part of the country, huddled around fuel burners inside their homes, the air outside was growing black with particular matter. Breathing that air robbed northern residents of an average of 5.5 years of their lives compared with their southern compatriots.

That’s the stark finding of a new comparison of historical pollution levels and mortality data north and south of the Huai River. The study results, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provide a stark illustration of the deathly consequences of coal burning.

Air quality across much of China is famously awful, largely the result of coal burning. Starting in 1950, when the free-coal program began, the air in northern China grew dirtier than the air in the southern part of the country. The difference persists today, in part because many of the old fuel burners remain in use. And though the supply of free coal long ago dried up, residents of the north can purchase coal that’s subsidized by the government.

Air pollution is linked to everything from lung and heart disease to infant mortality to diabetes to acne. But for this study, the scientists focused on deaths during the 1990s caused by heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, and respiratory illnesses.

By studying official data of some 500,000 deaths in China from 1991 to 2000, researchers from China, Israel, and Massachusetts found a five-year drop in lifespans just north of the river compared with just south of it. This drop was attributed to the differences in air quality triggered by the Huai River policy.

PNAS

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“To the north of the Huai River, particulate concentrations are … 55% higher, and life expectancies are 5.5 [years] lower, almost entirely due to an increased incidence of cardiorespiratory mortality causes,” the researchers wrote in their paper. “The estimates suggest that the 500 million residents of Northern China during the 1990s experienced a loss of more than 2.5 billion life years owing to the Huai River policy.”

With coal use continuing to grow worldwide, the researchers hope their findings will help guide policy makers. From National Geographic news:

Drawing on what they said was the most comprehensive data set ever compiled in the developing world, the researchers aimed to provide a yardstick that public policymakers can use as they consider the implications of decisions now being made on energy. The findings come at a time when coal is on track to surpass oil as the world’s top energy source and 2.8 billion people rely on wood, crop waste, dung, and other biomass to cook and heat their homes.

“We can now say with more confidence that long-run exposure to pollution, especially particulates, has dramatic consequences for life expectancy,” said Michael Greenstone, economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who collaborated with researchers in China and Israel. “To be able to say with some precision what the health costs are, and what the loss of life expectancy is, puts a finer point on the importance of finding policies that balance growth with environmental quality.”

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Coal-burning slashed lifespans by five years in China, study finds

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Chinese wind power company charged with stealing American trade secrets

by Ian Milne Posted on July 1, 2013

Chinese wind power company charged with stealing American trade secrets

By John Upton

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One of China’s biggest wind turbine manufacturers is accused of stealing software from an American firm, then using the ill-gotten trade secrets in turbines in the victim’s own backyard of Massachusetts.

Massachusetts-based AMSC, which makes software and equipment that regulates the flow of electricity from wind turbines to the electrical grid, was allegedly betrayed by an employee of one of its subsidiaries. The U.S. Justice Department charges that the employee stole the software by downloading it to a computer in Austria, then sold it to Chinese company Sinovel, which had formerly been an AMSC customer. Justice has indicted Sinovel, two Sinovel executives, and the rogue AMSC employee.

The theft led to the loss of 500 jobs and $800 million, AMSC says. U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil says it was “nothing short of attempted corporate homicide.”

From The Guardian:

AMSC, which claimed the stolen software was used in four Sinovel turbines installed in Massachusetts, called for the Obama administration and Congress to re-evaluate the US trade relationship with China.

Daniel McGahn, the company’s president, said: “The fact that Sinovel has exported stolen American intellectual property from China back into the United States, less than 40 miles from our global headquarters, shows not only a blatant disrespect for intellectual property but a disregard for international trade law.”

The software in question is used to run AMSC’s PM3000 wind power convertor [PDF].

From a statement by the U.S. Department of Justice:

The indictment alleges that the four defendants conspired to obtain AMSC’s copyrighted information and trade secrets in order to produce wind turbines and to retrofit existing wind turbines with [AMSC’s] technology, without having to pay AMSC for previously-delivered products and services, thereby cheating AMSC out of more than $800 million.

It seems that the masterminds behind the alleged software heist may escape justice, shielded by their foreign residencies, though Justice will proceed with its prosecution of Sinovel. From The New York Times:

The two Chinese executives are in China, and the former employee, who was working for AMSC in Austria, has returned home to Serbia, according to John W. Vaudreuil, the United States attorney. He said that the United States did not have extradition treaties with either nation, but the accused could be arrested if they traveled to a country with which the United States does have an extradition treaty.

Sinovel will face a trial here, he said, and could face fines equal to twice the damages, plus restitution to AMSC.

The employee, Dejan Karabasevic, 40, served a brief prison term in Austria related to the case, Mr. Vaudreuil said.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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U.S. and China team up to fight climate-changing HFCs

by Freince Charles Posted on June 10, 2013

U.S. and China team up to fight climate-changing HFCs

By John Upton

White House / Pete SouzaXi Jinping and Barack Obama, having a tie-less chat about cyberespionage and climate change.

Hydrofluorocarbons, the climate-changing twins of ozone-ruining chlorofluorocarbons, had best watch out. The world’s two most powerful countries have agreed to join forces to prevent the harmful chemicals from entering the atmosphere.

Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping spent Friday and Saturday talking in California. They couldn’t find much middle ground on cyberespionage, or on a handful of other security issues. But they agreed that their two countries will work together to tackle one of the world’s greatest climate threats.

“[N]either country by itself can deal with the challenge of climate change,” Obama said at a press conference with Xi.

The use of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) has been sharply curtailed under the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which is one of the world’s most successful international agreements. But the protocol has led many manufacturers of fridges and other appliances to switch from CFCs over to hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which, while harmless to the ozone layer, are among the most potent of the greenhouse gases.

For years, environmentalists and governments, including the U.S., have been pushing the idea of expanding the Montreal Protocol to also cover HFCs to help tackle climate change. And now China and the U.S. have agreed to do what they can to make that happen. From the White House:

For the first time, the United States and China will work together and with other countries to use the expertise and institutions of the Montreal Protocol to phase down the consumption and production of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), among other forms of multilateral cooperation. A global phase down of HFCs could potentially reduce some 90 gigatons of CO2 equivalent by 2050, equal to roughly two years worth of current global greenhouse gas emissions.

David Doniger, policy director of the Natural Resource Defense Council’s climate program, described the White House’s announcement as “a big deal.” From his blog post:

For the past four years, support has been growing among both developed and developing countries for tackling HFCs under the Montreal Protocol. This treaty has a proven formula that combines phase-down commitments by both developed and developing countries, with the latter receiving extra time and financial assistance. Every country in the world is a party to this treaty, and together they have already eliminated more than 97 percent of the chemicals that damage the earth’s fragile ozone layer.

Despite the widespread support, progress was slowed in past years by opposition from China, India, and Brazil. But this U.S.-China agreement is a strong signal that things are about to change. There have also been signs of change from India as well.

The Europeans are also launching a big push to use the Montreal Protocol to phase out the use of HFCs. From a June 3 Bloomberg article:

International coordination to reduce hydrofluorocarbons, known as HFCs or F-gases, could have a “significant impact” on reducing emissions, said Artur Runge-Metzger, the European Commission’s lead envoy at United Nations climate talks that began today in Bonn. HFCs make up about 1 percent of greenhouse gases and may account for more than 20 percent by 2050, he said.

The EU is seeking ways to expand the global fight against climate change before 2020, when nations plan to bring a new emissions treaty into effect. The bloc is pushing to delegate HFC reductions to a different treaty, the Montreal Protocol, which was established in 1987 to eliminate chlorofluorocarbons, the so-called CFC gases found in aerosols and solvents.

“We and others believe that the best framework for implementing the phase-down is the Montreal protocol,” Runge-Metzger told reporters. “It has 25 years of experience in addressing fluorinated gases and dealing with the industry sectors that are affected.”

It’s no deal on CO2, but it’s something.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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China’s plastic-bag ban turns five years old

by John Basset Posted on June 4, 2013

China’s plastic-bag ban turns five years old

By John Upton

Shutterstock

What do you give a plastic-bag ban for its fifth birthday?

In the case of China, which over the weekend celebrated five years of restrictions on plastic shopping bags, officials are showering their ban with accolades and crediting it with keeping tens of billions of bags out of landfills and the environment.

The rules, which took effect on June 1, 2008, ban the manufacture or use of the thinnest types of plastic bags. They also prohibit supermarkets, department stores, and grocery stores from giving away thicker varieties, requiring them to charge customers for the bags.

From Shanghai Daily:

A plastic bag ban launched five years ago has cut consumption by at least 67 billion bags, saving an equivalent of 6 million tonnes of oil, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said Friday.

Since the ban was implemented, use of plastic bags has dropped by more than two-thirds, said Li Jing, vice chief of energy-saving and environmental protection department under the NDRC, China’s top economic planner.

But the English-language website of China News Service points to a study that shows there’s still lots of room for improvement:

[T]he regulation has not been carried out effectively and super-thin bags are still being used, even at large supermarkets, according to a report by the International Food Packaging Association on Thursday to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the regulation.

The organization surveyed 10 chain supermarkets, 10 open-air markets and three wholesale markets as well as roadside stalls, and discovered that supermarkets have done much better than the others in following the regulation.

All supermarkets provided plastic bags for a fee, but only four supermarkets, including Wal-Mart, provided bags equivalent to or thicker than [the required] 0.025 mm, the report said.

In contrast, it added, all open-air and wholesale markets and roadside stalls provided plastic bags for free, and only one out of the 10 open-air markets provided plastic bags thicker than 0.025 mm.

Some Chinese retailers may be ignoring the bag ban, but at least the country is doing better than the U.S. at tackling the problem.

San Francisco became the first American city to impose similar restrictions, in 2007, and a few other U.S. cities and counties have followed in its footsteps, but no plastic-bag rules exist at the federal level. Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) has introduced a bill that would impose a five-cent fee on all disposable bags, but it’s about as likely to pass as plastic through a seabird’s intestinal system.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Could a Chinese carbon cap pave the way for a global climate deal?

by wqds234der Posted on May 22, 2013

Could a Chinese carbon cap pave the way for a global climate deal?

By Claire Thompson

Like sparring siblings, China and the United States — the world’s two biggest carbon dioxide emitters — keep passing the climate-action buck back and forth: “Why should I cut emissions if they don’t have to?” Well, China is either the more mature of the pair, or just majorly sucking up to Mama Earth. The country is reportedly gearing up to set firm limits on greenhouse-gas emissions, seriously weakening one of the U.S.’s go-to excuses for climate inaction.

China’s powerful National Development and Reform Commission has proposed an absolute cap on emissions starting in 2016. The proposal still needs to be accepted by the Chinese cabinet, but experts say the commission’s influence makes it likely to pass. China today also announced the details of trial carbon-trading programs that will roll out in seven regions by 2014. In February, the country had said it would implement a carbon tax, but backed off a few weeks later, saying it will wait until early next year to get started on that.

The commission’s carbon-cap proposal calls for Chinese emissions to peak in 2025, five years earlier than previously planned. RenewEconomy explains:

China has already pledged to cut its emissions intensity – the amount of Co2 it emits per economic unit – by up to 45 per cent by 2020. The significance of an absolute cap is that it promises to rein in emissions even if the economy grows faster than expected.

A Chinese carbon cap could shake up future international climate negotiations, The Independent reports:

It marks a dramatic change in China’s approach to climate change that experts say will make countries around the world more likely to agree to stringent cuts to their carbon emissions in a co-ordinated effort to tackle global warming. …

“Such an important move should encourage all countries, and particularly the other large emitters such as the United States, to take stronger action on climate change. And it improves the prospects for a strong international treaty being agreed at the United Nations climate change summit in 2015,” added Lord [Nicholas] Stern, [chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at the London School of Economics.]

The 2015 summit will take place in Paris. Previous U.N. climate talks have played out according to a familiar pattern: high hopes giving way to deadlock and failure. When the world’s largest emitters refuse to agree to limits on emissions, it makes the commitments of smaller countries somewhat pointless. U.K. Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey told The Independent:

I’m really much more confident than many people about our ability to get an ambitious climate change deal done in 2015. Obama in his second term clearly wants to act on this and there has been a fantastic and dramatic change in America’s position. Taken together with China’s change, the tectonic plates of global climate change negotiations are really shifting.

Claire Thompson is an editorial assistant at Grist.

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Healing Secrets of the Native Americans – Porter Shimer

by Myrna Posted on April 27, 2013

READ GREEN WITH E-BOOKS

Healing Secrets of the Native Americans

Herbs, Remedies, and Practices That Restore the Body, Refresh the Mind, and Rebuild the Spirit

Porter Shimer

Genre: Health & Fitness

Price: $1.99

Publish Date: September 1, 2004

Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers

Seller: Workman Publishing Co., Inc.


In the tradition of Black Dog & Leventhal's successful Chinese Natural Cures , Healing Secrets of the Native Americans brings the age-old knowledge and trusted techniques of Native-American healing to a wider audience. From this clear, reliable, and beautifully packaged book, learn how Native Americans have used the bountiful gifts of nature to heal the mind, the body, and the spirit. Discover how the Native-American tradition uses plants and herbs, heat, movement and sound, visualization, and spirituality to heal dozens of everyday ailments and illnesses–from back pain to insect bites to flu and sore throat and much more. Broken into sections, the book covers such topics as "The Healing Spirit" (including dream therapy, spirituality, and prayer), "The Native American Spa" (healing with heat, massage, sound and movement, and nutrition), "The Native American Pharmacy" (including more than 40 herbs and plants, how to obtain them, and how to use them), plus remedies for more than 40 ailments from acne to wrinkles.

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Healing Secrets of the Native Americans – Porter Shimer

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River full of dead, diseased pigs is just another food safety nightmare for China

by sssaa Posted on March 13, 2013

River full of dead, diseased pigs is just another food safety nightmare for China

By Susie Cagle

The Chinese are pissed, and if I were them I would be too.

One week after local residents first spotted them by a water treatment center, Chinese officials are still fishing dead pigs out of the Huangpu river. To date, they’ve used a dozen barges to pull 5,916 pigs out of the water. The pigs are believed to have originated from upriver farms after a series of investigations revealed illegal trade of meat harvested from diseased pigs. But don’t worry, the government says: The water’s fine!

REUTERS / Stringer China

The Guardian reports:

While the cause of the incident is still under investigation, water quality tests along the river have identified traces of porcine circovirus, a virus that can affect pigs but not humans. …

China’s toxic smog, rubbish-strewn rivers and contaminated soil have emerged as a source of widespread anger over the past few weeks, as profit-minded officials jostle with aggrieved internet users over how to balance the country’s economic development with its environmental concerns.

Experts say the groundwater in half of all Chinese cities is contaminated, most of it severely, and that soil pollution could be widespread in 15 of the country’s 33 provinces.

If China’s trying to go green and quell community anxiety and anger over environmental pollution, it best get all those pigs out of the drink right quick.

This certainly puts U.S. factory farm pollution in perspective! But whether or not this should be a wake-up call for China doesn’t mean the country will actually take the incident to heart. This was day eight of “pig-gate,” but, well, so what? From Bloomberg:

There are worse things than learning, as the residents of Shanghai did this week, that the source of the water for your morning shower and tea was contaminated by at least 5,916 dead pigs. You might find out that lamb you ate for dinner was duck soaked in toxic chemicals. That those dumplings you had as a late-night snack were fried in oil recovered from a gutter running beside an open sewer. Or worse yet, that the baby formula you’ve fed your newborn is laced with a plasticizer that damages kidneys.

For Shanghai’s 20 million residents, and indeed for China’s entire population, these recurring food-safety nightmares form the backdrop to their daily lives.

Like I said: If I were the Chinese, I’d be pissed.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

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Big military guy more scared of climate change than enemy guns

by kx0bq6uuw Posted on March 11, 2013

Big military guy more scared of climate change than enemy guns

By Susie Cagle

Navy Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III, chief of U.S. Pacific Command, doesn’t look like your usual proponent of climate action. Spencer Ackerman writes at Wired that Locklear “is no smelly hippie,” but the guy does believe there will be terrible security threats on a warming planet, which might make him a smelly hippie in the eyes of many American military boosters.

Commander U.S. 7th Fleet

Everyone wants him to be worried about North Korean nukes and Chinese missiles, but in an interview with The Boston Globe, Locklear said that societal upheaval due to climate change “is probably the most likely thing that is going to happen … that will cripple the security environment, probably more likely than the other scenarios we all often talk about.’’

“People are surprised sometimes,” he added, describing the reaction to his assessment. “You have the real potential here in the not-too-distant future of nations displaced by rising sea level. Certainly weather patterns are more severe than they have been in the past. We are on super typhoon 27 or 28 this year in the Western Pacific. The average is about 17.”

Locklear said his Hawaii-based headquarters — which is … responsible for operations from California to India — is working with Asian nations to stockpile supplies in strategic locations and planning a major exercise for May with nearly two dozen countries to practice the “what-ifs.”

Locklear isn’t alone in his climate fears. A recent article by Julia Whitty takes an in-depth look at what the military is doing to deal with climate change. A 2008 report by U.S. intelligence agencies warned about national security challenges posed by global warming, as have later reports from the Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. New Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel understands the threat, too. People may be surprised sometimes, Adm. Locklear, but they really shouldn’t be!

Will not-a-dirty-hippie Locklear’s words help to further mainstream the idea that climate change is a serious security problem? And what all has the good admiral got planned for this emergency sea-rising drill in May?

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