How to be a predator-friendly carnivore and other news briefs
September 30, 2008
Posted in Green News
Guide to leopard-friendly farming: Sharing is caring, but when it comes to livestock farming, we humans tend to prefer not to share our sheep and cows with other meat-lovers like leopards, caracals, jackals, eagles and vultures. In fact, farmers have been known to use pretty brutal ways to keep these other predators off their property, like gin traps and poison. The Landmark Foundation has been working to rescue, rehabilitate and release predators, particularly leopards, in the Eastern Cape. It has also been implementing more holistic, non-lethal predator control on farms. Now retail chain Woolworths has sponsored, through its Woolworths Trust, the publication of a comprehensive set of guidelines for predator-friendly livestock farming compiled by Dr Bool Smuts, director of the Landmark Foundation, called “Predators on Livestock Farms: A Practical Manual for Non-Lethal, Holistic, Ecologically Acceptable and Ethical Management”. The manual will be introduced to farmers at a series of one-day workshops and will be introduced to Woolworths suppliers on a one-to-one basis. Perhaps soon we’ll see predator-friendly labels on meat products in Woolworths stores. [Via: Supermarket.co.za]
Wealth from waste: The department of trade and industry is looking at ways to develop the local recycling industry and has commissioned a study to identify challenges and possible solutions, the Engineering News reports. The industry could provide 350,000 unskilled jobs, a government official said. But the infrastructure for recycling needs to be put in place so people no longer have to depend on reclaiming waste from landfill sites.
Xolobeni mining just delayed: The mining licence granted to Transworld Energy and Minerals, the local partner of Australian company MRC, to mine the coastal dunes for titanium in the Xolobeni area of the Wild Coast still stands, the director-general of the department of minerals and energy told Business Day. The signing of the licence, which was originally scheduled for October 31, has merely been delayed so the minister of minerals and energy can receive representations from community members who had launched a legal appeal to suspend the mining and consult the appropriate traditional leaders.
Solar cars line up in Pretoria for start of first race around SA
September 26, 2008
Posted in Transport
On Sunday, six solar cars will set off from Pretoria on an epic, two-week race around South Africa. The competitors in this Solar Challenge, which include teams from India, Japan, and South Africa, have built their own cars and designed their own engineering systems. They’re now ready to test them on some of the most demanding terrain that solar cars have ever known, say the race organisers.
The six weird yet wonderful vehicles will make their way from Pretoria to Cape Town, then drive along the coast to Durban, before climbing the steep Drakensburg Mountains on their way back to Pretoria and the finish line at the Innovation HUB on October 8.
“This event brings together the technologies students and the public need to understand when building and using electric cars and alternative energy solutions,” say the organiser. They are feats of engineering that combine technologies like electric motors, batteries, solar energy and hydrogen fuel cells. Read more
Scientists prove that chocolate is good for you
September 26, 2008
Posted in Food
Italian scientists have found that eating moderate amounts of dark chocolate regularly reduces the risk of cardio-vascular disease – by as much as a third in women and a quarter in men. But only dark chocolate has this effect. The milk in milk chocolate has been shown to interfere with the absorption of polyphenols, according to one of the researchers. And when they say moderate amounts, they’re not kidding. The best effects are obtained from 6.7 grams of chocolate a day – which is one small square two or three times a week. And you can’t sneak a bit more because if do you, you’re likely to forfeit the beneficial effects. The amounts of chocolate consumed are critical, the researchers say. That means you can indulge in half a 100g slab a week – for health reasons – which is certainly better than nothing.
Via :: Science Daily
UN launches plan to save tropical forests
September 26, 2008
Posted in Conservation
The United Nations launched a programme this week to help nine developing countries – among them three African states, Zambia, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo – to establish systems to monitor, assess and report their forest cover. The programme could lay the foundation for a system whereby poor countries could earn tradable carbon credits for protecting their forests. Indonesia, for example, has the potential to be compensated $1-billion a year for reducing its rate of deforestation, the UN estimates.
Deforestation accounts for 20 percent of global carbon emissions, say scientists. If the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Programme, or UN-REDD, were to be incorporated into a post-Kyoto climate deal it would be a way rich countries would pay poor ones to slow climate change. Other countries in the programme are Bolivia, Indonesia, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay and Viet Nam.
Answers could be blowing in the solar wind
September 25, 2008
Posted in Green News
Scientists have a unique opportunity to study the effects of the solar wind on Earth’s climate, ScienceNow Daily reports. Data from the 18-year-old joint European/Nasa Ulysses mission show that at present the solar wind is blowing at the lowest intensity in the past 50 years.
This finding comes just a month before Nasa launches a new Instellar Boundary Explorer mission (IBEX), which will be able to see the effect of the weakened solar wind on the heliopause, the zone just beyond Pluto where the solar wind meets cosmic rays coming in from outside the solar system, the report says.
There have long been questions about the influence solar activity has on the Earth’s climate, particularly on cloud formation and cold spells. The Maunder Minimum, for example, was a 40-year period in the late 1600s and early 1700s when extreme cold weather in Europe was linked with a low number of observed sunspots.
The sun has a 22-year magnetic cycle and an 11-year sunspot cycle, so fluctuations in the solar wind are normal, but researchers say that the current dip is “the longest prolonged low pressure” that they have observed.
Sources: ScienceNow Daily News, National Geographic, Nasa,
Commercial wave farm a world first for Portugal
September 25, 2008
Posted in Renewable energy
The world’s first commercial wave farm started operating off the coast of Portugal at Agucadoura on Tuesday. It comprises three red “articulated sea snakes”, each about 140 metres long and 3.5 metres in diameter, which generate about 2.25MW of electricity – enough to power 1,500 homes.
Scottish firm Pelamis Wave Power made the wave converters. They are moored to the seabed about 5km offshore using a special system that allows the machine to float head-on into incoming waves. Each machine has a number of segments linked with hinged joints. As the machine moves with the waves, it extracts power from the motion of the joints. Each joint contains a hydraulic pump, which pumps high-pressure liquid through motors that drive power generators. (There’s a video of how it works on the Guardian’s website).
The energy is then transmitted to a substation on shore at Agucadoura by undersea cables. This energy is then supplied to homes via the national electricity grid.
Portugal has big plans for wave power. Another 22 “sea snakes” will be added to the Agucadoura project in the next few years, bringing its generating capacity to 21MW. This is enough for about 15,000 homes. “Portugal could be for wave power what Denmark was for wind,” a spokesman for Babcock and Brown, the company that built and commissioned the project, was quoted as saying.
As yet, wave power is too expensive to be competitive, reports say. The Agucadoura project’s first three wave converters reportedly cost 8.5-million euros. But the project was made possible in part by the Portugese government agreeing to a feed-in tariff which pays a premium for the wave-generated electricity. The developers envisage that in 15 years wave power should be as competitive as wind power is now.
Sources: Reuters, Power Technology.com, Guardian
Glimmer of hope for Xolobeni
September 25, 2008
Posted in Conservation
The mining licence to extract titanium from the coastal dunes of the Xolobeni area of the Wild Coast will not come into effect on October 31 as originally scheduled, the Sunday Tribune (subscription) reports. The minister of minerals and energy Buyelwa Sonjica, sent a letter to that effect to the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), which is representing the Amadiba Crisis Committee, a group of local residents opposed to the mining.
The minister reportedly wants to consult King Mpondo-mbini Sigcau, Queen MaSobhuza and Chief Ndabazakhe Baleni, and hold hearings where the LRC will make submissions on why she should withdraw the decision to allow the mining.
Earlier this month the minister admitted that the consultation process for the mining had been flawed.
The LRC had sent an ultimatum to Sonjica telling her that if the mining licence, granted to Australian firm MRC and its South African partner Transworld Energy and Minerals, was not suspended by October 1, it was prepared to go to court.
Range Rover goes electric
September 24, 2008
Posted in Transport
Range Rover, the fuel-hungry SUV that is parked on the pavements of the most exclusive Jo’burg shopping malls, is going green. I can hear the excited rattle of ethical jewellery already. The prototype Liberty electric Range Rover will be unveiled next year, reports the Telegraph. It won’t be cheap, though – probably somewhere between R1.4-million and R1.9-million – but it’ll do about 320km on a single charge and the manufacturer says that it’ll cost 80 percent less to run than a petrol equivalent. It will also have solar panels mounted on the roof that can charge the battery. The Liberty could be on sale next year, the Telegraph reports.
New battery touted as breakthrough for electric cars
September 22, 2008
Posted in Transport
Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries are set to dominate the market for electric cars and bikes, according to Metaefficient. They are apparently the least environmentally toxic of all the battery types, plus they have greater range, power and safety – and faster charging times. There’s a graph comparing the energy density of various battery types in the Metaefficient post as well as a list of the advantages of LiFePO4 batteries. The batteries are apparently widely used in Asia.
Even common birds are in trouble, says BirdLife report
September 22, 2008
Posted in Conservation
Around the world, the numbers of once common birds are falling, providing evidence of a rapid deterioration in the global environment, says BirdLife International in a new publication, State of the World’s Birds, and website, which were launched today.
“Birds provide an accurate and easy-to-read environmental barometer, allowing us to see clearly the pressures our current way of life are putting on the world’s biodiversity”, said Dr Mike Rands, BirdLife’s CEO. Read more
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