Climate change lessons in Indonesia

By Lucy Williamson, BBC News, Jakarta

Every morning, at first light, Java's rice fields come alive. One by one, farmers appear among the bright green plants, their wide-brimmed hats dotted across the fields.

This is the way Indonesia's rice has been farmed for generations; the basic rhythms of its paddies undisturbed by war or economic crisis

But now, something strange is happening. Parto is one of the first in the rice fields every morning. Carrying a can of pesticide, he swings the spray backwards and forwards over the crop.

"The harvests have become irregular," he said. "Normally we harvest two to three times a year, but it depends on the weather. We need to wait for the right conditions, but now that's become unpredictable."

Many small-scale farmers still plant and harvest their crops according to the stars, or the first few drops of rain.

But this year's heavy rains washed away many crops and caused major flooding.

Scientists cannot agree how much of this is down to climate change.

But then that debate means nothing to many of those affected - they do not even know what climate change is.

"We weren't told about climate change," one man told me, "and the only news we received from local officials is that a flood like this will happen every five years. I don't understand climate change, but I do know that a big flood will come every five years."

"Climate change is caused by global warming," said his neighbour, "and the thinning of the ozone layer. I think that caused the shift of weather patterns on earth."

A local woman joined in: "People here don't talk about climate change. I have read it somewhere in a book or in a newspaper, but I don't really know what it means."

With 17,000 islands and a biodiversity second only to Brazil, Indonesia stands to lose a great deal from rising sea levels and changing climate.

So why don't more people here understand it?

Educational opportunity

At a popular seaside resort outside the capital, Agus Purnomo, senior adviser to the Indonesian environment minister, looks out across the Java sea and the unseen changes happening in the vast waters that surround his country.

He told me the government here has some catching up to do.

"The climate change issue is more perceived as an international issue rather than a domestic issue," he explained.

"We need to start with the decision makers, the planners and also those who can approve the budgets - including the parliament - because we need to address this awareness campaign big time. And that will require substantial allocations of the national budget."

It is already clear that the effects of climate change in Indonesia could be devastating.

Many communities in Jakarta were hit by the floods earlier this year.

Even now, walking around the areas that were affected, many houses have been completely destroyed or still carry high water marks on the upper floors.

But some environmentalists, like Kuki Soejachmoen, head of the think-tank Pelangi, see disasters like this as a strange kind of opportunity - to educate people about climate change.

"Since this happened, people have started to realise that this is not only the product of the local environmental impact, but it's something that's happening over the long term," she told me.

And that is quite a change for Indonesia's poor majority.

"Most of the people here - and in other developing countries I should say - are forced to live on a day-to-day basis so [have] a very short term perspective," she said.

Floods might engage the victims of climate change, but what about those who cause it?

Indonesia straddles both ends of the global warming debate.

Forest fires have made it one of the world's worst polluters. Many fires are started by poor, remote communities, either as a way of clearing their own land for planting or on behalf of big companies.

In order to stop these blazes, communities will have to be convinced to think beyond their daily lives.

Changing Indonesia's attitudes and behaviour might start with the politicians, but they cannot do much without the co-operation of the country's vast population.

Algae farming

Bali’s fishing community adapts to looming climate change.

The Star online

By ANNE CHAON

AS COUNTRIES from around the world met in Bali, Indonesia recently to thrash out a new framework on fighting global warming, the fishing community there is adapting to the looming impact of climate change.

Many are turning away from fishing to a small but innovative scheme aimed at reviving the tropical island’s coral reef, which is threatened by rising temperatures and over-exploitation.

The scheme, run by environment group WWF, encourages people to give up damaging fishing practices and turn instead to the more sustainable – and lucrative – practice of seaweed farming.

Sustainable practice: A woman harvesting seaweed at her farm in Nusa Dua, Bali.

The algae farms, launched in 2001 in the village of Sumber Kima and the surrounding coast, support 200 households. This year, the fishermen will harvest 29 tonnes of seaweed, mostly to be sold to the United States and Japan.

WWF coral expert Lida Pet-Soede said the project was aimed at “reducing human pressure on this reef, which is so rich in biodiversity and in its variety of fish.”

“The local population who live here on fishing and tourism can continue to benefit from it in the future while at the same time being less dependent,” she said.

Many of the tiny bouquets of brownish algae being harvested from the reef come from the nets of fishermen who, in the past, used grenades to blast fish to the surface or captured fish for the lucrative foreign trade in tropical aquariums. Both practices have been hugely destructive on both the coral and populations of rare fish species.

Ria Fitriana, who runs the programme for the WWF, said the scheme offered fishermen the chance to earn about 750,000 rupiah (RM300) a month, almost double what they made before.

“For the first time I have enough money for my family. One day I’ll send my children on to higher education,” said Khairiyah, a 30-year-old woman who is part of the project and whose husband has now given up fishing.

“He had to go off for longer distances and longer times and petrol is getting more and more costly,” she said.

A warming of the seas caused by a severe El Nino in 1998 ravaged Bali’s coral reef. Some 16% of the ornate undersea flora was killed off and the remainder is still suffering a decade later. Scientists anticipate that temperatures are rising in Indonesia by 0.3°C per decade, raising fears that the reef’s rich biodiversity will be wrecked for future generations.

Women in particular have cashed in on the new business, using the protein-rich seaweed to make sweets, chips and crackers that they can sell.

The project receives small amounts of funding from the local government and from Australia, which contributed about US$2,000 (RM6,800). – AFP

Five Years and Counting: New Book Warns of a Polar Shift on December 21, 2012

Do we have five years left before a major earth shift happens? December 21, 2012 is the date many prophets forecast for an apocalypse. Taking a look at the future as forecast by ancient civilizations described in the newly released book, "Worse Than Global Warming: Wave Technology," we find a definite consistency. Astronomical indications confirm our planet will be in a time of peril from asteroids and gravitational pulls. Our polar slot is widening exacerbating global warming. Is our technology causing this?

Sheffield, MA (PRWEB) December 23, 2007 -- Do we have five years left before a major earth shift happens? December 21, 2012 is the date many prophets forecast for an apocalypse. Taking a look at the future as forecast by ancient civilizations described in the newly released book, "Worse Than Global Warming: Wave Technology," we find a definite consistency.

The Mayans ended their calendar in the year 2012. Varied interpretations of the meaning for this date stem from doomsday catastrophes to metaphysical awakenings and dimensional shifts. The Hindus tell that 2012 is the close of the Kaliyuga, age of darkness and the beginning of the Golden Age of peace and harmony. Egyptologists claim we are in a period of decline and warn of an impending apocalypse in 2012 that will destroy much, but not all of Earth's peoples. The Bible Code interpretations and verbiage from the New Testament foretell earthquakes and fire hail coming from the heavens, which could be construed as comets or asteroids impaling the planet's surface. The Hopi Indians claim that all of their prophecies have come true and the final one is soon to arrive. This states that the Blue Star Kachina will appear and fall with a great crash destroying the Hopi civilization. Again, we could see this as a comet or asteroid. It would seem that these prophets all came up with similar warnings for future humans, even though they were from various parts of the globe.

From an astronomical viewpoint, they may have had the uncanny ability to see where our planet would be positioned in the cosmos in 2012. From the decoded Egyptian glyphs, the story of Osiris (Orion) relates mathematical calculations from the year 10,000 B.C. that predicted a former cataclysm in 21,312 B.C. and had forecast the "coming" cataclysm to be July 27, 9792 B.C., which is when the Atlantean civilization was thought to be destroyed. The Mayans also mathematically calculated that on December 21-23, 2012 the same astronomical conditions would exist to create the potential for another pole shift and cataclysm.

Mythological texts constantly refer to "the sun fell into the sea" and "the sky is coming down." This would be indicative of a rotational reversal where the sun previously set over land in the east is now setting over the ocean in the west. Support of this theory comes from scientists who have found fossils of sea creatures high in today's mountainous regions and skeletons of sea mammals and animals indigenous to warm climates discovered in the inland arctic areas. In 2012 our sun will align our solar system with the galactic equator. In addition we will move into the central bulge along this equator that is called the dark rift, an area suspected to contain much space debris, asteroids and dust. Our transition across this area began in 1998 and should exit in 2018. The text in "Worse Than Global Warming: Wave Technology" suggests that many of the prophets could have had knowledge of this fact, and that their predictions would be consistent with an increased risk of asteroid hits during this time that could have triggered a polar shift.

Sunspot activity at the time of the last major Earth changes could have weakened the planetary stability enough to upset the planet's balance creating a polar shift. We do know that there was a rapid temperature instability on the planet 10,000 years ago initiated by a chain of events from highly charged material in interstellar space breaking into our solar system. A similar trend is seen today and it may be causing global warming. The author of "Worse Than Global Warming: Wave Technology" says, "Polar slots in the magnetosphere (area around the Earth controlled by its magnetic field) have widened from a norm of six degrees to 25-46 degrees. This allows more matter and energy to enter the Polar Regions causing the Earth's crust, the oceans and the ice caps to warm. Is this accelerating global warming? Is our advance in technology (microwaves, powerline harmonics, ionospheric heaters, cell towers emissions) corrupting the planet's harmonic frequency and exacerbated this polar slot? Will we, like the suspected Ancients, cause the 2012 prophecies to come true five years from now?"

-"Worse Than Global Warming: Wave Technology", available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and www.safegoodspub.com

Author Nina Anderson is a corporate jet pilot and author of 17 books including an environmental novel, 2012 Airborne Prophesy. Her experience flying at high altitude triggered her keen interest in atmospheric changes and frequency-based systems of communications and weaponry. She has spent well over ten years researching the information that is presented in this book.

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“Time to Say Goodbye” - Sarah Brightman & Andrea Bocelli - New (21-12-2012)

"TIME TO SAY GOOD-BYE" - The Last 18 years – Dec 8, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Who is Kryon, God, Love, Great Central Sun, (Old) Soul, Benevolent Design, 1987 - Harmonic Convergence (11:11), 36 years galactic window (Precession), 26.000 years cycle, Mayan Calendar, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, “TIME TO SAY GOOD-BYE”  song – Composer, Human Consciousness, Conceptional Thinking, Old and New energy, Middle East, Protest against the new leader in Egypt because he is of an old energy, Syria is a Nightmare, Libya, People of Iran, Israel, Higher Self, You did it !, Change of Paradigm, 2012,  US/Russia, Global Unity, ... etc.)

"THE NEXT 18 YEARS"–  Dec 2, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: You are looking  at a Quantum event, clearing a filter - Portal pineal , Higher self to step forward and communicate to You, Still remains in 3D but exposure to multi dimensions, Evolution of humanity, Intent, Mayan Calendar, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, 26.000 Years, Milky Way, Nostradamus, 1987, Beginning to a New Time, Channellers/Teachers, Center of Galaxy – Black hole, Bridge of Swords, Pleiadians, Children, Inventions – The discoveries (e.g. : Airplanes - Medicines – Radio .. ): These new Discoveries were given all over the planet when Human consciousness was ready for it. New Inventions are coming, the timing depends on how the middle East problems are solved, Biology reaction of quantum energy; new radio of the future, seeing quantum energy, when it is revealed all science books will have to be rewritten, This will be an AHA moment – be possible to communicate with the rest of Galaxy, NASA, Church/Religion will be effected the most by these discoveries, The quantum discovery will see the grid, life, gardens and will redefine life, DNA (3 billion pieces) evolving piece DNA are chancing, Gaia/Humanity are linked, new instruments will start to reveal the DNA variance, Evolution revealed: Autistic children have born with the removal of their 3D structure in the brain, Gaia/Spirit are testing these quantum beings  (Evolved DNA), Universe central clock = Rifs,  Globally there will be only 5 currencies, Wars on earth will be declared barbaric, Middle East, Global Unity, .. etc.)


"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)


"Demystifying the future" + "Physics in the next 500 years"(#) - May 16-17, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (#) New major Discoveries 
(This channel will become a historical channel in the future, prove that Kryon is a real communication from the Creative Source/God to Humanity - "Our Family") - (Text version - "Physics in the next 500 years")

1 To see and measure multi-dimensional/quantum physics, instrument (super-cooling quantum plasma lens)

2 Two more laws of multi-dimensional physics revealed: explanation of dark matter & acknowledgement of free energy (controlling mass)

3 God in the atom. God has - provable - part in physics. Intelligent/benevolent design. (Will bring religion and science together.)

4 Human Consciousness is an attribute of physics. (Pleiadians - Humans ancestors / Humans free choice only planet in the Milky Way Galaxy. Other galaxies have their own spiritual systems and physics)

5.Coherent DNA. Multidimensional DNA coherent between dimensions will give Enhanced DNA

"Earth, the only planet with free choice in the Milky Way Galaxy"

"The Big Picture - You Are Not Alone" - Feb 2012 (a message from Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - (Text Version)

"The Quantum Factor" – Apr 10, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Galaxies, Universe, Intelligent design, Benevolent design, Aliens, Nikola Tesla (Quantum energy), Inter-Planetary Travel, DNA, Genes, Stem Cells, Cells, Rejuvenation, Shift of Human Consciousness, Spontaneous Remission, Religion, Dictators, Africa, China, Nuclear Power, Sustainable Development, Animals, Global Unity.. etc.) - (Text Version)


"Recalibration of the Universe"– Jan 25, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text Version)

“… The entire galaxy revolves as one plate, in a very counter-intuitive way. The stars and the constellations do not orbit within the rules of Newtonian physics that you are used to seeing all around you in your own solar system. For the stars and clusters in your galaxy, distance from the center does not matter. All the stars rotate as one. This is because the galaxy is entangled with the middle of itself. In that state, there is no time or distance. The change of consciousness on this planet has changed the center of the galaxy. This is because what happens here, dear one, is "known" by the center.

It's interesting to us what your reaction to all this is scientifically. You saw that the "creative event" of your Universe is missing some energy in order for it to have formed as it did. In addition, the unusual way the galaxy rotates, as I just stated, was also noted. So you have calculated that for all this to be in place, there has to be missing 3D matter, and you have given it a name - dark matter. How funny! Did you ever think that there could be a multidimensional effect going on that you now can observe and calculate - that has immense power, but can't be seen? It's not "matter" at all and it's not 3D. It's quantum energy.

Let me tell you something about physics. Yet again, I'll make it simple. Everything your scientists have seen in physics happens in pairs. At the moment, there are four laws of physics in your three-dimensional paradigm. They represent two pairs of energy types. Eventually, there will be six. At the center of your galaxy is what you call a black hole, but it is not a single thing. It is a duality. There is no such thing as "singularity". You might say it's one energy with two parts - a weak and a strong quantum force. And the strangest thing is it knows who you are. It is the creator engine. It's different in other galaxies than this one. It's unique.

The very physics of your galaxy is postured by what you do here. The astronomers can look into the cosmos and they will discover different physics in different galaxies. Could it be that there's something going on in the other galaxies like this one? I'm not going to answer that. … “

"The Physics of Consciousness - The Future Revealed" - June 29, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

Will Your Future Car Become a Power Plant?

OpEdNews.com, by Mark Goldes

A revolutionary breakthrough by Magnetic Power Inc., called GENIE™ (Generating Electricity by Nondestructive Interference of Energy) will make possible the elimination of the need for batteries of every variety. GENIE generators are expected to replace the need to plug-in a plug-in hybrid. 2 kW is all the power that can be taken from a typical wall socket. A pair of 1 kW GENIE generators are expected to demonstrate a compact, inexpensive, capability to end the need to plug-in, prior to the end of 2008.

If the development of GENIE generators is put on a 24/7 footing, it may be possible to provide 100 kW systems that will fit in the space of a typical gas tank, on a prototype basis in perhaps two years. If that occurs, since no fuel or battery recharge is required, automobile manufacturers may conclude that engines are likely to become obsolete. Consumer purchasing patterns could begin to reflect a new reality, with the market deciding most future cars must be totally electric, since they will never need any variety of fuel.

The economics are likely to prove compelling. Until now, car ownership has been an expense. Vehicle to Grid power has been explored in a modest way for hybrids. Plug-in hybrids, equipped with a two way plug, can feed power to the local utility while parked, which is 95% of the time for the average vehicle. Professor Willet Kempton, at the University of Delaware, has stated the car’s owner could earn up to $4,000 every year.

GENIE powered cars are expected to be capable of generating at least 75 kW and perhaps 100 kW in the volume of a typical fuel tank. In the case of luxury cars, trucks and buses, it seems 150 kW will prove practical. Technology already exists that, using inductive electronics, can wirelessly couple up to 150 kW to the grid from parked vehicles. No plug connection will be required.

A large plug installed in a hybrid car can allow 240 volts to be accommodated. A 240 volt range connection cable can carry 50 amperes. That would provide a maximum of 12 kW to the utility. If that 12 kW can annually pay the vehicle owner $4,000, imagine what the income might be with an inductively coupled 75 kW or larger GENIE generator. If the price per kW is the same as that used in the University of Delaware analysis, we could be considering payments totaling $25,000, or more, per year.

When a substantial number of vehicles powered by GENIE generators fill a parking garage, it will have become a multi-megawatt power plant.

Doubtless, when millions of cars and trucks are selling power to the grid, the price per kilowatt paid will gradually decline. However, it still seems likely that the cost of many vehicles might be paid for by utilities, as they purchase power whenever needed. The parked cars, trucks and buses, each become decentralized power plants - a rapid, cost-effective alternative to the many tough and costly environmental challenges of constructing new coal burning and nuclear power generation facilities.

You might inform your local power company as well as vehicle manufacturers that they have a unique opportunity to lead the nation and the world into a dramatic reduction in the need for oil. Future wars over energy supply might be avoided.

Lastly, by demonstrating leadership, the emission of greenhouse gases can be reversed by citizen action. GENIE is an extremely tasty carrot. It can sharply reduce any need to seek sticks.

www.magneticpowerinc.com Contact: Mark Goldes magneticpower@gmail.com Phone: 707 829-9391

Mark Goldes is Chairman & CEO of Magnetic Power Inc. in Sebastopol, California. Earlier, he founded SunWind Ltd. and began the non-profit Aesop Institute. He previously was CEO of a financial and economic consulting firm. Once a student of Electrical Engineering, he earned BA and MA degrees at San Francisco State University, and later served two years on active duty with the USAF, culminating as a Senior Director of the Berlin Corridor control radar in Germany. Afterwards, from 1956 thru 1958, he was a Fellow in the Graduate Program in the History of Ideas, at Brandeis University. In 1960, he founded Emerson College of the Monterey Peninsula, and later initiated the free university movement, which spread to at least 600 locations worldwide.

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Related Info:

From the www.magmeticpowerinc.com website:

Computer Museum of America Hall of Fame in 1998. On April 3^rd, 2007, Lee received the Editor’s Choice ACE Award by Electronic Engineering Times magazine. In this short video interview, he talks about our breakthrough (without mentioning MPI, which has permission to use the clip below).

Watch Now: http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=379134&fr=yvmtf

Shell to build facility to grow algae for biofuel

Royal Dutch Shell plc and HR Biopetroleum announced Wednesday the construction of a pilot facility in Hawaii to grow marine algae and produce vegetable oil for conversion into biofuel.

By EnerPub, Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Royal Dutch Shell plc and HR Biopetroleum announced Wednesday the construction of a pilot facility in Hawaii to grow marine algae and produce vegetable oil for conversion into biofuel.

The announcement is a further step in Shell's ongoing effort to develop a new generation of biofuels using sustainable, non-food raw materials. Algae hold great promise because they grow very rapidly, are rich in vegetable oil and can be cultivated in ponds of seawater, minimising the use of fertile land and fresh water.

Shell and HR Biopetroleum have formed a joint venture company, called Cellana, to develop this project, with Shell taking the majority share. Construction of the demonstration facility on the Kona coast of Hawaii Island will begin immediately. The site, leased from the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA), is near existing commercial algae enterprises, primarily serving the pharmaceutical and nutrition industries.


The facility will grow only non-modified, marine microalgae species in open-air ponds using proprietary technology. Algae strains used will be indigenous to Hawaii or approved by the Hawaii Department of Agriculture. Protection of the local environment and marine ecosystem has been central to facility design. Once the algae are harvested, the vegetable oil will be extracted. The facility's small production volumes will be used for testing.

An academic research programme will support the project, screening natural microalgae species to determine which ones produce the highest yields and the most vegetable oil. The programme will include scientists from the Universities of Hawaii, Southern Mississippi and Dalhousie, in Nova Scotia, Canada.

An advantage of algae is their rapid growth. They can double their mass several times a day and produce at least 15 times more oil per hectare than alternatives such as rape, palm soya or jatropha. Moreover, facilities can be built on coastal land unsuitable for conventional agriculture. Over the long term, algae cultivation facilities also have the potential to absorb or 'capture' waste CO2 directly from industrial facilities such as power plants. The Cellana demonstration will use bottled CO2 to explore this potential.

"Algae have great potential as a sustainable feedstock for production of diesel-type fuels with a very small CO2 footprint," said Graeme Sweeney, Shell Executive Vice President Future Fuels and CO2. "This demonstration will be an important test of the technology and, critically, of commercial viability".

"HR Biopetroleum's proven technology provides a solid platform for commercial development and potential deployment worldwide," Mark Huntley, HR Biopetroleum Chief Science Officer said. "Shell's expertise and commitment to next generation biofuels complements our own strengths, and makes this a truly collaborative partnership."

China urges US to play more positive role in tackling climate change

The Jakarta Post

BEIJING (AP): The United States should take a more positive role in tackling climate change while developing nations improve their own domestic energy efficiency, China's chief climate change negotiator said Thursday.

China is satisfied with the result of the recent Bali climate change negotiations and will cooperate in international talks while working to improve its energy efficiency, Yu Qingtai, China's special representative for climate change negotiations, told a news briefing.

"When it comes to climate change, developing countries have a basic common position," Yu said, adding that the countries would have "different responsibilities" in handling the issue.

A contentious U.N. climate conference on the Indonesian resort island of Bali ended with the United States, facing angry criticism from other delegations, relenting in its opposition to a request from developing nations for more technological help fighting climate change.

Yu welcomed the move by the U.S., saying the country "should play a more positive and constructive role in dealing with climate change, and should make its own contributions against the common challenge."

The Bali roadmap is intended to lead to a more inclusive, effective successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which commits 37 industrialized nations to cut greenhouse gases by an average of 5 percent between 2008 and 2012.

"The agreement is indeed hard-earned," Yu said. "The roadmap is only a beginning, which has shown the direction and planning for the coming two years. (But) a large amount of substantive work will depend on these two years of tough negotiations."

Developing countries such as China and India agree that developed countries possess the technology that can help developing countries reduce emissions, Yu said.

China, which some believe has surpassed the U.S. as the world's top emitter of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases, has questioned the fairness of binding cuts when its per capita emissions are about 33 percent of developed countries.

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Transforming waste into energy at Suwung Garbage dump

Prodita Sabarini, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar

The foul smell of piling garbage at the largest landfill in Bali, the Suwung landfill, has been a source of disgust for the Balinese.

Thanks to technology, however, people on the island-province can now look forward to making use of their waste.

Home to household waste from four areas of Bali - Denpasar, Badung, Gianyar and Tabanan - the landfill receives as much as 800 tons of waste per day.

As two third of the waste is organic, it releases methane gas -- the source of the "foul smell" and is one of the greenhouse gasses that contributes to global warming - to the atmosphere.

The Bali administration, working with PT Navigat Organic Energy Indonesia (NOEI), set up an integrated waste management system at Suwung by building its first biogas plant.

The plant would capture methane gasses and turn it into energy in the form of electricity. The plant will also help rehabilitate the landfill site.

"By August 2008 the facility would be able to produce two megawatts for public use," PT NOEI spokesperson Bernt Bakken said Sunday.

The facility was launched by the Bali Governor Made Dewa Beratha on Dec. 13, sporting the momentum of the United Nations Climate Change Conference that ended on Dec. 15.

It is the first project in Bali carried out under the United Nation's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) -- a carbon trade scheme that enables a group of developed countries and countries in transition, which are binding for emission cuts to earn emission reduction credits by promoting sustainable development in developing countries.

Indonesia has 11 projects under the carbon trade scheme registered at the CDM executive board so far, with only two of them approved by the board.

The biogas plant project would reduce around 123,423 tons per year of the amount of methane gasses released to the atmosphere, cutting the greenhouse gasses that contribute to global warming.

Bakken said from 2010, the facility would produce 10 Megawatts of electricity.

State Electricity Company (PLN) has signed an agreement to buy power from the biogas plant.

PT NOEI uses a Jenbacher machine, distributed by GE Energy. GE Energy country executive Gatot Prawiro said waste-to-energy conversion was a good solution to provide energy in areas that has no access to the national power grid.

Bali is still dependent on Java for power supply, with 130 Megawatts of the 439 Megawatts needed to power Bali comes from the Paiton Power Plant in East Java.

Global warming pact set for 2009

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali

Bali gave birth Saturday to a landmark road map to create a new deal to fight global climate change, but only after nerve-wracking negotiations -- and persistent challenges from the United States.

Under heavy pressure from the rest of the delegates and possible international isolation, the U.S. dropped its last-ditch objections and joined the consensus hammered out at the conclusion of the two-week UN climate conference. "We want to be part of the road map ... and let me say to you that we will go forward and join the consensus," U.S. head of delegation Paula Dobriansky said, to cheers and a standing ovation from delegates representing some 190 countries.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had both appealed to the participants to come up with an agreed conclusion as the negotiations were earlier plunged into stalemate. "The magic moment came after both President Yudhoyono and the UN secretary-general delivered their incredible speeches, which changed the mood of the conference," UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) executive secretary Yvo de Boer said.

Although some still pointed to the failure of the conference to include any specific carbon emission reduction targets in the road map so as to accommodate the U.S.'s concerns, many immediately praised the agreement as it managed to combine the interests of developing and developed countries.

The road map sets out a clear agenda for key issues to be negotiated up to 2009, including action for adapting to the negative consequences of climate change, such as droughts and floods, ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and ways to widely promote climate-friendly technologies and financing for both adaptation and mitigation measures.

Concluding the negotiations in 2009 will ensure that the new deal can come into force by 2013, following the expiry of the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol. "This is a real breakthrough, a real opportunity for the international community to successfully fight climate change.

Parties have recognized the urgency for action on climate change and have now provided the political response to what scientists have been telling us is needed," said conference president Rachmat Witoelar, who is the Indonesian environment minister. However, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including WWF, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, were quick to express their disappointment at the exclusion of clear carbon emission cut targets of 25 to 40 percent as mandated by the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to keep the earth's temperature rise below 2 degree Celsius.

The agreed long-term cooperative action recognizes the IPCC's findings and only stipulates that deep cuts in global emissions will be required to achieve the ultimate objective of the Convention. The absence of targets was apparently aimed at persuading the U.S. to get on board.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda had insisted from the beginning that the negotiations should be inclusive. "We want to include the U.S. in the negotiations to make the international efforts to respond to climate change work. I met Paula (Dobriansky), and tried to understand the U.S. concerns. I think the key words are patience, compromise and flexibility," Hassan said at the conclusion of the conference.

Apart from Hassan, Indonesian negotiators, including former foreign minister Ali Alatas, former Indonesian Ambassador to Japan Soemadi Brotodiningrat, and Director General for Multilateral Affairs Reslan Izhar Djenie, Director for Economic and Environmental Affairs Salman Al Farisi, and Ngurah Swajaya, the director for political affairs at ASEAN, had worked around the clock to persuade others to come on board.

They managed to bridge the gap between the EU and developing countries that insisted that the inclusion of carbon-emission-cut targets for developed countries were crucial to guiding the next two rounds of negotiations in Poland in 2008 and Denmark in 2009, in which future commitments will be concluded, and the U.S., which feared it would be economically disadvantaged by the rise of China and India should it commit to fixed targets.

Related Articles:

UN Conference finally adopt Bali Roadmap
US sets terms for climate talks

Climate Plan Looks Beyond Bush’s Tenure

By THOMAS FULLER and ANDREW C. REVKIN,

The New York Times, Published: December 16, 2007

NUSA DUA, Indonesia — The world’s faltering effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions got a new lease on life on Saturday, as delegates from 187 countries agreed to negotiate a new accord over the next two years — pushing the crucial debates about United States participation into the administration of a new American president.

Many officials and environmental campaigners said American negotiators had remained obstructionist until the final hour of the two-week convention and had changed their stance only after public rebukes that included boos and hisses from other delegates.

The resulting “Bali Action Plan” contains no binding commitments, which European countries had sought and the United States fended off. The plan concludes that “deep cuts in global emissions will be required” and provides a timetable for two years of talks to shape the first formal addendum to the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change treaty since the Kyoto Protocol 10 years ago.

“The next presidential election takes place at the halfway point in these treaty talks,” David D. Doniger, who directs climate policy for the Natural Resources Defense Council and served in the Clinton administration, said on his Web log on Saturday. “So the U.S. will field a new team in the second half. And there are good odds that the next president will get serious on global warming.”

But the White House, while calling the negotiating plan “quite positive” in a printed statement, said the problem lay elsewhere. It described “serious concerns” about the limited steps taken by emerging economic powers.

Without citing China and India by name, it clearly singled them out, saying: “The negotiations must proceed on the view that the problem of climate change cannot be adequately addressed through commitments for emissions cuts by developed countries alone. Major developing economies must likewise act.”

In the talks, China and other emerging powers did inch forward, agreeing for the first time to seek ways to make “measurable, reportable and verifiable” emissions cuts. But those countries showed no signs of agreeing to any mandatory restrictions any time soon, saying their priority remained growing out of poverty.

Yvo de Boer, left, and Rachmat Witoelar, leaders of the climate change
conference in Bali, Indonesia, shook hands Saturday (Murdani Usman/Reuters)

The finish to the negotiations came after a last-minute standoff in the public plenary at the end of a day of high emotions, with the co-organizer of the conference, Yvo de Boer, fleeing the podium at one point as he held back tears.

The standoff started when developing countries demanded that the United States agree that the eventual pact measure not only poorer countries’ steps, but also the effectiveness of financial and technological assistance from wealthier ones.

The United States capitulated in that open session, which many observers and delegates said included more public acrimony than any of the treaty conferences since the 1992 framework.

The concession, though, came after a more profound shift by the Bush administration, which agreed during the two-week conference to pursue a new pact fulfilling the unmet goals of the original treaty; the pact would take effect in 2012 when the Kyoto Protocol expires.

While many observers described the United States change as a U-turn, it was the culmination of months of movement by the Bush administration, which had for years insisted that the 1992 treaty was enough to avoid dangerous human interference with the climate.

In 2005 talks in Montreal, for example, the American negotiating team walked out of one session, rejecting any talk of formal negotiations to improve on that pact.

Since then, the Bush administration has been confronted by new scientific data on climate change and by growing political pressure both internationally and domestically.

Still, while accepting on Saturday the need for a new agreement, the United States retained the flexibility that it had sought at the outset, fending off European attempts to set binding commitments on emission reductions. American negotiators said that was vital to gain global consensus.

The targets sought by Europe and others remain in the action plan — including the need for rich countries to cut emissions by 2020 up to 40 percent below 1990 levels, and a 50 percent cut in emissions globally by 2050. But they are now a footnote to the nonbinding preamble, not a main feature of the plan.

Read More ....

It’s Too Late for Later

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, New York Times, Published: December 16, 2007

The negotiators at the United Nations climate conference here in Bali came from almost 200 countries and spoke almost as many languages, but driving them all to find a better way to address climate change was one widely shared, if unspoken, sentiment: that “later” is over for our generation.

“Later” was a luxury for previous generations and civilizations. It meant that you could paint the same landscape, see the same animals, eat the same fruit, climb the same trees, fish the same rivers, enjoy the same weather or rescue the same endangered species that you did when you were a kid — but just do it later, whenever you got around to it.

If there is one change in global consciousness that seems to have settled in over just the past couple of years, it is the notion that later is over. Later is no longer when you get to do all those same things — just on your time schedule. Later is now when they’re gone — when you won’t get to do any of them ever again, unless there is some radical collective action to mitigate climate change, and maybe even if there is.

There are many reasons that later is over. The fact that global warming is now having such an observable effect on pillars of our ecosystem — like the frozen sea ice within the Arctic Circle, which a new study says could disappear entirely during summers by 2040 — is certainly one big factor. But the other is the voracious power of today’s global economy, which has created a situation in which the world is not just getting hot, it’s getting raped.

Throughout human history there was always some new part of the ocean to plunder, some new forest to devour, some new farmlands to exploit, noted Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, who came to observe the Bali conference. But “now that economic development has become the prerogative of every country,” he said, we’ve run out of virgin oceans and lands “for new rising economic powers to exploit.” So, too many countries are now chasing too few fish, trees and water resources, and are either devouring their own or plundering those of neighbors at alarming rates.

Read More ....

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Before It Disappears

Marubeni plans carbon projects in Indonesia

Tokyo (ANTARA News) - Marubeni Corp, Japan's fifth-biggest trading company, plans to launch five to 10 carbon credit projects in Indonesia next year, reaping 3 million credits by 2012, a company source said on Friday.

Marubeni, jointly with the country's University of Lampung, plans to capture greenhouse gas methane generated from palm oil and sugar cane plants in South Sumatra for use in power generation, the company told Reuters.

Under the Kyoto protocol, countries can offset their carbon dioxide emissions by purchasing carbon credits in CO2-reducing projects in developing countries.

Japan is struggling to meet its target of cutting its emissions to 6 percent below 1990 levels, generating further need to buy credits.

Pitt Unveils Sustainable Designs for New Orleans

By Alec Appelbaum, Architectural Records

Brad Pitt commissioned 14 busy architects to complete distinct designs in two months, told them to aim for a reusability standard so tough that only a handful of products meet it, and then demanded that all firms modify their plans however the client wants—if the client chooses their plans at all. A Hollywood brat ordering a new chateau? Not quite. This is how Pitt is helping rebuild a flood-ravaged New Orleans neighborhood with his “Make It Right” project, which last week unveiled 13 design models for replacing 150 houses in the Lower Ninth Ward destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

Pitt inaugurated Make It Right in September and foundation employees have been working with 150 deed-holders, each of whom will pick a design and order modifications in the next several months. Architects include Adjaye Associates, BNIM, Constructs, Graft, KieranTimberlake, Morphosis, MRVDV, Pugh + Scarpa, and Shigeru Ban. Five local firms—Billes Architects, Concordia, Eskew Dumez Ripple, Trahan Architects, and John Williams Architects, which serves as executive architect for the whole project—also prepared plans.

All designs emphasize open porches, solar heat and light, and water resistance, but they differ in how they stack porches, detail roofs, and establish circulation patterns. That’s part of the goal, says Pitt spokesperson Virginia Miller: “The architects got a good sense of what was important. I heard a (deed-holder) say ‘I want my bedroom away from the front, for safety,’ but so many people wanted porches.” Among the individual prototypes’ unique features, Morphosis’ house can float while Adjaye’s stacks a porch, with carved walkways, atop a ground floor.

Make It Right hopes to start construction by spring 2008 and complete all 150 houses by autumn. The average cost of residences will be $150,000 and the foundation will coordinate no-interest loans to ensure that this price tag is capped at 30 percent of a deed-holder’s income. To subsidize construction, Pitt and film producer Steve Bing have promised to match up to $10 million in donations. The pair is also seeking sponsorship of materials or houses via the Web site makeitrightnola.org.

McDonough + Partners, whose “cradle-to-cradle” affiliates seek materials that biodegrade or offer eternal reuse, will help the foundation decide which donated materials offer the most economic and sustainable value. But William McDonough emphasizes that the goal with this project is to get people into durable houses rather than deliver a flawless prototype. “We’re looking at the full range, from stick-built through structural insulated panel,” he explains. “Designs will be reviewed through a cradle-to-cradle lens, but we’re trying to be realistic and humble about what we can do.”

Since the residences must be elevated five feet from the ground, to guard against floods, McDonough sees their ability to house future generations as a key measure of their success. “Part of the evaluation is the issue of social engagement,” he says of the designs’ porches, lawns, and close spacing.

This same model could work in communities elsewhere. To that end, James Timberlake, a principal of KieranTimberlake, says that he hopes Pitt shares the flexible designs with residents throughout the devastated Gulf Coast. “Our plans, along with several others, are a framework for personalization,” he says.

Is Jatropha The New Wonder Feedstock For Biodiesel? New White Paper Reveals All.

PR-USA.net

The JatrophaWorld 2008 Conference to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia on 23-24 January 2008, is being organized by Centre for Management Technology (CMT). In line with JatrophaWorld 2008, KnowGenix, a Knowledge Partner of CMT, has released a position paper called 'Sustainable Biodiesel Feedstock. Jatropha: Strategic Option' (http://www.futureenergyevents.com/jatrophapaper/).

Author of the position paper, Dr. R. Rajagopal of KnowGenix, explains "the biofuel business is a complex web continuously reacting to the traditional oil business, as rising oil prices spur demand for biofuels." The focus is now on non food crops with Jatropha (http://www.futureenergyevents.com/jatrophapaper) rediscovering itself as the new pin up boy of alternative energy industry proponents. Contemporary trends across the world indicate a pronounced shift towards Jatropha as a more viable and sustainable feedstock for biodiesel compared to other food based crops.

"The worldwide development of biofuels has raised a myriad of issues by stakeholders. Complex trade-offs are demanded by the production, distribution, and utilization of biofuels and its feedstocks. Besides, the biofuel economics has become so location specific for its sustainability that it rules out the possibility of common approaches," said Dr Rajagopal.

The position paper attempts to answer several questions about Jatropha (http://www.futureenergyevents.com/jatrophapaper). These include:

• Is Jatropha really the best among energy crops and does it leave the least environmental footprint?
  
  
• What are the impacts of large scale Jatropha plantations being planned in developing nations to feed the energy demands of the western world?
  
  
• How does the Jatropha economics work for the developing nations?
  
  
• To what extent is it more conducive in reducing GHG emissions?
  
  
• Is Jatropha cultivation and propagation sustainable globally to feed the needed market demand?
  
  
• Is biotechnology the answer to optimize Jatropha cultivation?
  
  
  

Those interested in Jatropha and biofuels are encouraged to download a complimentary copy of 'Sustainable Biodiesel Feedstock. Jatropha: Strategic Option' at http://www.futureenergyevents.com/jatrophapaper

The questions the paper endeavors to answer and other questions will be expanded on at JatrophaWorld 2008.

The JatrophaWorld 2008 (http://www.futureenergyevents.com/jatropha) organizer, Centre for Management Technology (CMT), has brought together the best expertise and brightest brains to discuss and analyze the present and future dynamics of Jatropha. The companies represented include Germany's Fraunhofer Institute of Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology, Singapore's Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, Malaysia's Asiatic Centre for Genomic Technologies Sdn. Bhd., the Indonesian Center for Estate Crops Research & Development (ICERD) as well as India's Naturol Bioenergy Limited and Labland Biodiesel Private Limited. Delegates will be able to expand their knowledge about Jatropha and alternative energy and also network with the crиme de la crиme of the Jatropha industry.

JatrophaWorld 2008 is going to be the most important conference of 2008 for those who want to keep abreast of the latest developments in the agriculture, processing, socio-economics and financing of Jatropha as an alternative energy source. Those wanting more information or who are vitally interested in Jatropha as a feedstock for Biodiesel and alternative energy must visit http://www.futureenergyevents.com/jatropha While there, they can register for this essential conference.

About Centre for Management Technology

CMT is dedicated to the provision of the latest global technology and business information in the chemical industry through high profile conferences focusing on renewable, liquid energy sources. CMT has organized industry specific conferences on Liquid Natural Gas, and LPG, ground breaking summit on technologies like Coal to Liquids, Gas to Liquids, and Bio-mass to Liquid, and alternative energy or future fuels forums like Biodiesel, Biofuels and Ethanol. This has established CMT as the market leader in promoting this nascent industry as an alternative global powerhouse.

About KnowGenix

KnowGenix a growth strategy service firm with Chemicals, Materials and Energy practices is a Knowledge Partner of CMT. The firm researches business and technology trends in petrochemicals, fine, specialty and life science chemicals value chain as well as in materials and energy. It assists clients with growth strategy services through customized, competitive and timely solutions covering Asia, M.E., EU and US geographies in collaboration with its global partners. To learn more please visit www.knowgenix.com.

RI to bring up marine resources` carbon-absorbing capacity at UNFCCC

Nusa Dua (ANTARA News) - Marine resources are believed to have a potential carbon-absorbing capacity many times the capacity of forests and therefore the Indonesian delegation to the United Nations climate change conference here will draw the conference`s attention to the matter so that it can be taken up in discussions on efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

"The sea has a carbon-absorbing capacity many times the capacity of forests. With the amount of biomass phytoplankton on earth reaching only 0.05 percent compared to all plants on land, the sea has the same carbon-absorbing capacity as forests," Jana T Anggadiredja, chairman of the climate change conference`s Working Group on Technology Transfer, who is also a member of the Indonesian delegation, said here on Saturday.

Marine resources such as algae, coral reefs and mangrove trees need nutrition in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2) to grow, he said.

Actually, the Indonesian delegation had already discussed the matter with at least 12 other countries taking part in the 12-day conference and would try to get it included in the agenda of the Conference of Parties (CoP), he said.

The countries to initiate the inclusion of the issue in the agenda of the CoP to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) included Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, China, India, Australia and New Zealand.

He said marine resource scientists were in the middle of preparing a methodology for calculating the capacity of marine resources to absorb carbon.

"In our rough scheme, global forests have a capacity of absorbing 5 billion tons of carbon and marine resources at least 6 billion tons of carbon per year. Meanwhile, fossil fuels emit up to 23 billion tons of carbon per year," he said.

Increased employment could be climate change's silver lining – UN

UN News Centre

6 December 2007 – Despite the detrimental effects brought on by climate change, new industries to combat global warming could spur employment, the head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said today.

“Millions of new jobs are among the many silver, if not indeed gold-plated linings on the cloud of climate change,” said Achim Steiner, UNEP’s Executive Director.

He pointed out that research shows that these are not just ‘green collar’ jobs targeted at the middle classes, but that opportunities abound for workers in areas ranging from construction, sustainable forestry and agriculture, engineering and transportation.

“Talk of environmental sustainability and climate change often emphasizes the costs, but downplays the significant employment opportunities from the transition to a global economy that is not only resource efficient and without the huge emissions of greenhouse gases, but one that also restores environmental and social values,” Mr. Steiner said.

The research is part of a draft report entitled “Green Jobs: Can the Transition to Environmental Sustainability Spur New Kinds and Higher Levels of Employment?” that was commissioned by UNEP.

It found that the United States environmental industry in 2005 generated over 5.3 million jobs, ten times the number in the country’s pharmaceutical industry.

Delhi, it noted, is introducing new eco-friendly compressed natural gas buses that will create 18,000 new jobs, while Brazil’s ethanol programme has lead to half a million new jobs.

Meanwhile, the top UN climate change official today said that greater efforts are necessary to extend the benefits of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) – which allows projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries and contribute to sustainable development to earn certified emission reduction credits (CERs) – to Africa.

“There are 850 clean development mechanism projects in 49 developing countries, but only 23 of those projects are in Africa,” said Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). “It’s time that the benefits of this important Kyoto Protocol mechanism were expanded in Africa.”

Last November, former Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched the Nairobi Framework aimed at spreading the spreading the benefits of the CDM.

Since then, several projects have been launched in Africa, but the total number of CDM initiatives on the continent comprise only 2.6 per cent of the some 800 registered projects.

Young leaders initiate regional network on climate issue

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Bogor, West Java

The Asian Young Leaders Climate Forum (AYLCF) in Bogor ended Friday with the 35 participants from 14 countries producing an action plan and a shared, strong commitment toward building a network in the Asia-Pacific to address climate change issues.

Their commitment is set out in a communique, to be presented during a session of the ongoing United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference in Nusa Dua, Bali, scheduled for Tuesday.

The communique is the result of a five-day workshop facilitated by the British Council, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF).

The workshop, which ran from Dec. 5-8 in Bogor, was attended by representatives from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Although it is an "Asian forum" due to the importance of the issue, among the participants also were young people from Australia, New Zealand and United Kingdom.

"They share a strong commitment to work together for climate security. They have a lot of ideas, but what brings them together is the idea to work together to make changes in the region," said Christopher Palmer, assistant director for learning and creativity at the British Council.

"Through this forum, these young people have told us what to do and what we can do to help," Palmer added.

He emphasized that the communique would be a starting point for Asia-Pacific youths to become involved in promoting awareness on climate issues. The British Council has pledged financial support for youth and climate programs in the region for the three-year project.

The young leaders of the AYLCF will implement their strategic action plan in their respective countries, with the support of the British Council.

Apart from discussions held indoors, the participants also had an opportunity to look at the diversity of the tropical forest surrounding the CIFOR campus. They also planted trees on a roadside in Dermaga, Bogor, as part of the week-long forum.

"The only way to effectively mitigate the risks of climate change is to act together now," said Ibnu Najib, an Indonesian participant.

Aside from promoting common understanding on climate change and global warming, the forum also created an important step towards establishing a strong regional network.

During the forum, it was revealed that participants generally wanted to do something to help the planet survive climate change, but many of them did not know how.

"I have always said I would wait until I graduate, and then I would try to make a difference. But now I've become frustrated with my own inaction. So I tried to think of what I possible skills I might have that I could use to make changes," said Larissa Brown of Australia. "I realized that I was an expert in being a frustrated young person who passionately wanted to make a better world, but didn't know how."

Carrying the theme Tomorrow Together Now, the AYLCF provides a platform for young leaders to show the world that they are not merely concerned about climate security, but also are ready to take an active role in dealing with the global issue.