New Zealand to create massive marine sanctuary

Yahoo – AFP, 29 Sep 2015

A spotted black grouper is seen in the waters of the Kermadec Islands, off of 

New Zealand's northeast coast (AFP Photo/Malcom Francis)

Wellington (AFP) - New Zealand has unveiled plans to create a South Pacific marine sanctuary the size of France, saying it would protect one of the world's most pristine ocean environments.

Prime Minister John Key said the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary would cover an area of 620,000 square kilometres (240,000 square miles) about 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) off New Zealand's northeast coast.

Announcing the plans at the United Nations in New York on Monday, Key said the Kermadec area was home to thousands of important species, including whales, dolphins, seabirds and endangered turtles.

"(It) is one of the most geographically and geologically diverse areas in the world," he said in a statement.

Conservation efforts are underway in 

the Pacific to create a network of 

marine parks across the region

(AFP Photo/Todd Essick)

"It contains the world's longest underwater volcanic arc and the second deepest ocean trench at 10 kilometres deep."

The sanctuary will prevent fishing and mineral exploitation in an area where scientists regularly discover new marine species.

Conservation groups applauded the move, saying it added to a network of protected areas in the Pacific that now covered more than 3.5 million square kilometres.

"We congratulate the government for taking decisive action to protect this incredibly special area from mining and fishing," World Wildlife Fund New Zealand chief executive Chris Howe said.

"This decision puts New Zealand back at the forefront of marine protection on the global stage."

Globally important

Scientists also applauded the decision to ban all forms of resource extraction from the marine zone, which is remote and largely unsurveyed or scientifically sampled.

"The Kermadec region is an exceptional place and is very much in need of protection before large-scale exploitation really commences," said Jonathan Gardner from Victoria University's school of biological sciences in Wellington.

"As a contribution to large scale marine conservation the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary is globally important."

The variation in the area, which spans from tropical to sub-tropical waters, means it boasts a high diversity of habitat types including active undersea volcanoes, ridges and the Kermadec Trench itself, said Malcolm Clark from New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

Some organisms are only found in that part of the world while others, such as whales, include it in their migration routes, he said.

"We are just beginning to understand the abundance of life there," said Bronwen Golder from the Pew environmental organisation.

"But we know that creating this marine sanctuary will safeguard rare habitats and species critical for healthy ecosystems throughout the South Pacific."

New Zealand's Environment Minister Nick Smith said oceans were the new frontier for environmental protection, making up 72 percent of the globe and home to half of the world's species, but with only two percent protected despite pressures from over-fishing, mining and pollution.

Conservation efforts are underway in the Pacific to create a network of marine parks across the region to ensure one of the world's last pristine ocean ecosystems is managed sustainably.

In 2012 the Cook Islands unveiled a 1,065 million square kilometre marine park while Kiribati and Tokelau have also declared huge protected zones.

New Zealand said it hoped to have legislation enacted in parliament to ensure the sanctuary in place by October 2016.

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Shell scraps oil exploration in Arctic off Alaska over costs

The oil giant is to halt drilling at the Burger J well in the US Arctic, saying it can't justify the expense due to low oil prices. Shell only won the controversial permission to explore the icy waters last month.

Deutsche Welle, 28 Sep 2015

Shell oil rig in Alaska

Drilling efforts are to end for the "foreseeable future," Royal Dutch Shell said in a statement on Monday, blaming the "high costs associated with the project."

The surprise move came just a month after it won a new permit to explore the Arctic waters off Alaska in the Burger J well in the Chukchi Sea, despite opposition from environmental groups and disagreement among some Democrat party leaders.

Read Shell's statement in full

Shell halted drilling in the area three years ago after a rig ran aground, leading to a temporary ban on exploration activities in the Arctic.

But the company had appeared eager to restart the drilling, saying in August that it would complete a first well before the end of the summer.

The Anglo-Dutch oil giant said on Monday it did not find sufficient amounts of oil and gas in the well, located 240 kilometers (150 miles) from the city of Barrow, to warrant further exploration. Barrow is the US's northernmost city .

Eco-activists relieved

Analysts said Shell was taken aback by the outpouring of support for Greenpeace's Save The Arctic movement, which campaigned to stop the controversial drilling.

The company also blamed the federal regulatory environment in offshore Alaska, and is expected to take a write-down of 3.5 billion euros ($4.1 billion.)

"The area is likely to ultimately be of strategic importance to Alaska and the US. However, this is a clearly disappointing exploration outcome for this part of the basin," Shell added in a statement.

The Arctic is estimated to hold about 22 per cent of the world's remaining oil and gas reserves underground and underwater, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Shell has spent 6.2 billion euros ($7 billion) hunting for offshore oil wells, according to the Washington Post.

Environmental groups say drilling in the far north of Alaska is dangerous and the harsh conditions increased the potentials for accidents. In July, Greenpeace staged an unusual protest against exploration in the Arctic, by dangling themselves off a bridge in Portland, Oregon.

Campaigners have called on US President Barack Obama to ban all drilling in the American Arctic.

mm/rg (AP, dpa, Reuters)

Dutch company launches plan for recycled plastic roads

DutchNews, September 17, 2015

An artist's impression of how the plastic roads would work

Dutch company KWS Infra is developing a new sort of road made from recycled plastic. This, the company says, will not only cut down on plastic waste but reduce CO2 output from road building and usage, and make roads more sustainable and safer. Esther O’Toole reports. 

An estimated eight billion tons of plastic is floating around in the oceans and 55% of our plastic waste is still incinerated. Innovative Dutch companies have been busy looking at feasible ways of fishing the plastic out of the sea and shipping it to shore. Now KWS Infra, part of the VolkerWessels construction group and the biggest road builder in the Netherlands, has come up with a plan to turn that kind of plastic waste into roads. 

The roads themselves would be made from prefab sections prepared offsite from 100% recycled plastic and brought en masse to the building site, with road markings and guard rails already in place. Being light weight and easy to transport they could take months off construction times. 

The fabric is thought to be more durable than asphalt and needs little or no maintenance, being weather proof and impervious to weeds. The other major advantage is that they are hollow allowing space for piping, electric cables and – another hot topic for VolkerWessels – internet connections. 

Internet 

VolkerWessels is now investing in multiple projects for urban renewal and connected city innovation, including placing internet receivers along roads, be they antennas and masts or embedded in street lights and wind turbines. Plastic roads fit into this picture perfectly. If the space inside the decking could also be used to house net connectors, losing reception in a tunnel would become a thing of the past. 

Driverless cars, cheap and affordable ones too, will be on the open market as early as next year. What benefits will be reaped from these innovative technologies when they begin to converge? With uninterrupted mobile internet connections along all main highways, a long commute could be set to become the most productive part of the day. 

No wonder then that VolkerWessels is not having trouble garnering interest for their projects. Rotterdam city council was the first to show interest in piloting the PlasticRoad, in early July. 

Interest 

Since then the company has had interest from cities all over the world and are looking to finalise partnerships with plastics and recycling experts soon, spokesman Anne Koudstaal told DutchNews.nl. The aim is to have a team in place by December and to run a feasibility pilot within three years.

‘We are feeling very positive about it,’ he said. ‘All the good reactions [to July’s announcement] are a huge boost for us and the idea. It makes it all seem so much more realisable.’ 

If all goes to plan, the roads themselves may in turn be recyclable. This would bring PlasticRoad completely in line with the ‘cradle to cradle’ notions of the circular economy being implemented by other innovative ideas such as The Ocean Clean Up Project and the Plastic Madonna art project. 

The Netherlands, despite being one of the smallest countries in the developed world by land mass, has one of the highest carbon footprints per capita; especially in relation to fossil fuel use and cement production. Cutting emissions related to road usage and building would seriously reduce that footprint. Especially when one considers that the road network in the country covers approximately 135,470 km and most of it is tarmacked.

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An impression of how the system might look. Photo: Ocean Cleanup

EU backs military action against Med people smugglers

Yahoo – AFP, 14 Sep 2015

Libyan coast guards escort a boatload of migrants, who had hoped to set off to

Europe with the help of people smugglers from the coastal town of Garabulli, on 

June 6, 2015 (AFP Photo/Mahmud Turkia)

Brussels (AFP) - EU member states approved on Monday plans for military action against people smugglers in the Mediterranean, seizing and if necessary destroying boats to break up the networks operating out of Libya.

"This important transition will enable the EU naval operation against human smugglers and traffickers in the Mediterranean to conduct boarding, search, seizure and diversion (of vessels)," the EU's council of ministers said in a statement.

The European Union launched a first, intelligence gathering phase of its EU NavFor Med operation in July and with that objective met, ministers agreed it was time to move on to the next step, the statement added.

The decision comes as EU interior ministers meet in Brussels to try and agree quotas for the redistribution of the massive flood of migrants fleeing war and upheaval across the Middle East and North Africa.

Many member states were reluctant to step up action against the traffickers for fear of getting embroiled in Libya, where rival factions have been fighting it out for control since the overthrow of longtime strongman Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

EU leaders agreed however that there had to be a much tougher response, including the use of force, after more than 700 migrants drowned off southern Italy in April.

The second phase of the operation approved Monday still restricts EU NavFor Med to action in international waters.

A third phase involves military action against people smugglers inside Libyan territorial waters, aiming to destroy their boats and networks before they set sail.

This step is more controversial given the increased risks and requires at a minimum a UN Security Council resolution and preferably Libyan government agreement.

A French Navy patrol ship rescues migrants aboard a fishing boat in the

Mediterranean Sea, on May 20, 2015 (AFP Photo)

EU efforts to help establish a national unity government in Libya which could grant such approval have so far failed but special UN envoy Bernardino Leon reported at the weekend that progress was being made.

Russia, current president of the UN Security Council, has said a resolution could be adopted this month but it would only apply to action on the high seas.

More than 350,000 people have risked their lives crossing the Mediterranean this year, according to the International Organization for Migration, with nearly 3,000 losing their lives.

EU NavFor Med currently comprises four ships -- one Italian, one British and two German -- and sources said it will likely need several more vessels for the enlarged mission which is expected to begin next month.

The EU, which has no central armed force of its own, has taken part in a whole series of peacekeeping and civilian emergency missions, among them anti-piracy operations off the Horn of Africa, and military training in Somalia and Mali.

Season's first dolphins killed in annual Japan hunt

Yahoo – AFP, September 11, 2015

During the six-month hunt, people from the southwestern town of Taiji corral 

hundreds of dolphins into a secluded bay and butcher them, turning the water

crimson red (AFP Photo/Toshifumi Kitamura)

Japanese fishermen on Friday killed the first dolphins of the season in a controversial annual hunt that attracted global attention after it was featured in the Oscar-winning 2009 documentary "The Cove".

An official with the local fishing union in the small town of Taiji said boats left early Friday morning and trapped a dozen dolphins.

"They have already been killed," he added.

During the six-month hunt, people from the southwestern town corral hundreds of the mammals into a secluded bay and butcher them, turning the water crimson red.

Two Risso's dolphins being herded by fishing 

boats near the village of Taiji, in Wakayama

 prefecture, western Japan (AFP Photo/Ryan

Nakashima)

The scene was featured in the documentary, drawing unwanted attention to the little coastal community.

Environmental campaigners visit the town every year to watch the gruesome event and authorities have boosted their presence to prevent any clashes between locals and activists.

But the Taiji officials said only about half a dozen activists were there to see the killing and there were no altercations.

"It was quiet this year," he added.

Activists from the group Sea Shepherd criticised the hunt online.

"Now in Taiji, Japan: a pod of 10-15 Risso's dolphins is being slaughtered in the cove," the group said on its Facebook page.

The town kicked off its hunt last week, but bad weather hampered efforts to trap the dolphins, officials said earlier.

Defenders of the hunt say it is a tradition and point out that the animals are not endangered, a position echoed by the Japanese government.

Some of the dolphins are sold to aquariums.

Increasing the pressure on Japan, the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) suspended its Japanese chapter in April for using dolphins caught in Taiji.

The Japanese chapter later decided to stop buying dolphins from Taiji.

Last week, Taiji's official website was hacked into, leaving it temporarily inaccessible.

Anonymous, a loosely connected hacking collective, has listed 21 Japanese government websites as targets for cyber-attacks as part of a bid to end the annual hunt.

But police said they have yet to connect the group to the attack on the Taiji website.

.

Tasmania, China agree to work together on Antarctic expeditions

Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-09-12

The MV Xue Long, a Chinese icebreaking research vessel, at the Port of Hobart
in Tasmania, Nov. 14, 2014. (File photo/Xinhua)

Tasmania will provide technical support for future Chinese Antarctic expeditions after delegates from the small Australian state reached an accord with Chinese officials on Sept. 10.

Tasmanian ambassadors signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Tasmanian Polar Network and the Polar Research Institute of China as part of an eight-day trade mission.

The bilateral agreement will mean Tasmania will provide repair and maintenance, spare parts and technical support for equipment used as part of China's expeditions to Antarctica.

Tasmania's minister for state growth Matthew Groom, who is leading the party of around 50 delegates, said Tasmania had the resources to hold up its end of the bargain.

"We have got a great network of businesses and expertise that can help service China's Antarctic research expedition and we're very keen through these discussions to find practical ways to work together," Groom told the Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC) on Thursday.

Groom said Tasmania's relative proximity to the icy continent could be useful for Chinese explorers.

"The concentration of Antarctic expertise is unique to our state and this MOU is a significant step forward in this important collaboration between Tasmania and China, reinforcing our gateway status to service China's rapidly growing Antarctic expedition," Groom said.

"One thing in particular we're keen to do is to ensure we've got good infrastructure to support China's Antarctic expedition and research needs."

As part of the trade mission, Tasmania featured its renowned local produce before 300 people at a Chinese premium food market on Wednesday night.

French agent apologises for 1985 sinking of the Rainbow Warrior

Yahoo – AFP, Guy Jackson, 6 Sep 2015

The Greenpeace boat "Rainbow Warrior" lies half sunk following an attack by the

French secret service in Auckland, August 14, 1985 (AFP Photo/Patrick Riviere)

Paris (AFP) - The French secret service frogman who attached the mines which sank the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand 30 years ago apologised for his actions in an interview Sunday with investigative website Mediapart.

Jean-Luc Kister, whose face was not covered in the hour-long video interview, said he believed it was now the right time to say sorry to the family of Portuguese photographer Fernando Pereira, who was killed in the explosion, to Greenpeace and to the people of New Zealand.

"Thirty years after the event, now that emotions have subsided and also with the distance I now have from my professional life, I thought it was the right time for me to express both my deepest regret and my apologies," Kister said.

The bombed hull of the Greenpeace 

flagship Rainbow Warrior, following its 

sabotage by the French secret service

 is shown in Auckland port on August 1,

1985 (AFP Photo/Ross White)

On July 10, 1985, the Rainbow Warrior was docked in Auckland on its way to protest against French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll, about 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) southeast of Tahiti.

Kister was working for France's spy agency, the DGSE, which carried out an unprecedented mission to stop Greenpeace by bombing a peaceful protest ship without warning in the waters of a friendly nation.

He was part of the so-called "third team", whose mission was to attach two large limpet mines to the hull of the converted trawler, working with fellow frogman Jean Camas.

A third member of the team, Gerard Royal, a brother of France's current environment minister and former presidential candidate Segolene Royal, picked up the two men in a dinghy after the covert operation.

"I have the blood of an innocent man on my conscience, and that weighs on me," a visibly emotional Kister said in the interview. "We are not cold-blooded killers. My conscience led me to apologise and explain myself."

He said the mission that the 12-strong unit were ordered to carry out by then French defence minister Charles Hernu was "disproportionate" and he claimed that other less drastic ways of damaging the ship, such as breaking the propeller shaft to prevent it from taking to sea, were rejected by the government.

Name was leaked

"There was a willingness at a high level to say: this has to end once and for all, we need to take radical measures. We were told we had to sink it. Well, it's simple to sink a boat, you have to put a hole in it."

Kister's name was leaked to the media soon after the bombing, albeit with a spelling mistake as Kyster. He said he considered his unmasking to be an act of "high treason".

"I'm not angry at the journalists, it's the political powers I blame. If it had been in the United States, other heads would have rolled."

Two days after the bombing, two of the agents who took part -- Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur, who had posed as a couple of Swiss tourists -- were arrested by New Zealand police and their identities revealed. Hernu, the defence minister, was forced to resign two months later.

The Zodiac used by French Secret Services

 in the sinking of the Greenpeace boat

"Rainbow Warrior, in July 1985 (AFP Photo)

Mafart and Prieur were charged with murder, eventually pleading guilty to manslaughter and receiving 10-year jail terms, but they were freed within months under a deal that sparked almost as much anger in New Zealand as the bombing, involving France threatening to block trade access to European markets unless Wellington handed over the agents.

France has since made an official apology for the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior and paid damages. In 1996 it halted the nuclear testing that had prompted the Greenpeace protest.

The interview was carried out by French journalist and Mediapart founder Edwy Plenel, who in September 1985 revealed in a Le Monde newspaper report the involvement of the DGSE frogman in planting the explosives.

Plenel says one aspect of the infamous bombing remains unexplained to this day -- how much then president Francois Mitterrand knew about the operation.

Although Mitterrand was aware that it was going to take place, "at which point did he know the operation was going to be so violent?", Plenel asked.

A huge dome is shown in 1980 covering a crater left by one of the 43

nuclear blasts on Runit Island, in the Marshall Islands, the fallout from

which is expected to last 25,000 years (US Defence Nuclear Agency/AFP)

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Netherlands, South Korea in Charge of Jakarta Sea Wall Study

Jakarta Globe, Dion Bisara, September 04, 2015

The Jakarta sea wall will create a huge reservoir in the north coast of Jakarta,
acting as a flood control system and a water source for the surrounding population.
(ID Photo/Zabur Karuru)

Jakarta. The Netherlands and South Korea have pledged a total of $19 million in grant funding to help Indonesia conduct a study for the second and third phase of its sea wall project off the coast of Jakarta.

South Korea is setting aside $9.5 million for research on undersea currents and soil structure for the project, dubbed National Capital Integrated Coastal Development (NCICD).

The Dutch, meanwhile, have allocated 8.5 million euros ($9.5 million) for a follow-up study, Indonesia's Public Works and Housing Ministry said in a statement released on Thursday.

Officials from the three countries signed a letter of intent for the joint study on Thursday.

The South Koreans are set to begin their part by the end of this month, said Lucky Eko Wuryanto, deputy for infrastructure at the Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs.

The study is expected to reach conclusion by 2017, before the government has to decide whether to continue the sea wall project.

The second and third phase of the  massive endeavor will create a huge reservoir in the north coast of Jakarta, acting as a flood control system and water source for the surrounding population.

The Indonesian government, with help from the Netherlands, started construction to strengthen existing retaining walls on the coast last October as part of the first phase of NCICD.

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Obama climbs glacier for climate change message

President Obama trekked up Exit Glacier in Alaska to make a dramatic statement about world climate. He has called the melting glacier "a signpost" of what the US faces as global warming threatens natural resources.

Deutsche Welle, 2 Sep 2015

Speaking from Kenai Fjords National Park in the US' largest state on Tuesday, President Barack Obama called attention to the beauty of Exit Glacier, which has been receding at the alarming rate of 43 feet (13 meters) a year.

"This is as good of a signpost of what we're dealing with when it comes to climate change as just about anything," Obama said with the iconic glacier at his back.

"We want to make sure that our grandkids can see this," he added, calling the glacier "spectacular."

Counting on Alaska's impressive but deteriorating natural landscape to capture the sense of urgency in his call to combat climate change and his plan to reduce US carbon emissions by 28 percent over the next 10 years, he presented a doomsday scenario about what could follow unrestrained global warming: flooding, abandoned cities, and a world engulfed in conflict.

Obama's three-day visit will include the first presidential trip to the Alaskan Arctic in history and a taping of the reality show "Running Wild with Bear Grylls," in which the president will put his survival skills to the test alongside British adventurer Grylls.

Russian competition

Another important factor for the visit was to protect American interests in the Arctic from increasing Russian influence in the area.

He has asked Congress to speed up the process of acquiring new heavy icebreakers as the quickly melting ice has allowed for increased maritime traffic in the far north and the United States has fallen woefully behind Russian resources.

es/kms (AP, AFP, Reuters)

Barack Obama tient un saumon, lors d'une visite à des pêcheurs en Alaska mercredi pic.twitter.com/GY8LbWshlR

— AFP USA (@AFPusa) 2 september 2015

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Tallest mountain in North America renamed: White House

Yahoo –AFP, 31 Aug 2015

This NASA photo shows Alaskan mountains seen from high altitude aboard the
 NASA P-3B during a flight from Thule to Fairbanks on March 21, 2013 (AFP
Photo/Christy Hansen)

Washington (AFP) - Mount McKinley, the tallest of North America's mountains, is officially being renamed Denali, the White House said Sunday, on the eve of President Barack Obama's historic visit to Alaska.

The mountain had been named in 1896 for a future US president, William McKinley, but local authorities had worked on the change for years, restoring an Alaska Native name with deep cultural significance.

"Finalizing a process initiated by the State of Alaska in 1975, President Obama is announcing that the Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell used her authority to rename the mountain as 'Denali,'" a White House statement said.

"Generally believed to be central to the Athabascan creation story, Denali is a site of significant cultural importance to many Alaska Natives. The name 'Denali' has been used for many years and is widely used across the state today," it added.

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a Republican, led the effort to make the change official.

"I'd like to thank the president for working with us to achieve this significant change to show honor respect and gratitude to the Athabascan people of Alaska," said Murkowski, referring to Alaska Natives.

The mountain rises about 20,000 feet (6,000 meters) above sea level.

Obama will spend three days in Alaska from Monday and become the first sitting US president to visit the Alaskan Arctic, the setting of the most spectacular impacts of climate change.

Just three months ahead of the UN climate conference in Paris, the US president wants to shore up public support to tackle what he calls "one of the greatest challenges we face this century."

After landing in Anchorage on Monday, Obama's visit to the largest and most sparsely populated US state will include a meeting with fishermen in the town of Dillingham, a tour of the Northwest Arctic city of Kotzebue, a visit to glaciers and the GLACIER international conference on the Arctic in Anchorage.