New wind farm zones are announced

BBC News,

More offshore wind turbines could soon be seen around the UK

Successful bids for nine new offshore wind farm zone licences within UK waters have been announced.

A consortium including Npower and Norway's Statkraft won the licence for the biggest zone, in Dogger Bank, which could produce nine gigawatts of energy.

Turbines in the nine zones could generate up to 32 gigawatts of power, a quarter of the UK's electricity needs.

The winners have signed exclusive agreements with the Crown Estate, which owns the UK seabed.

Proposals for the wind farms will now go through planning and consent stages.

It will create one of the biggest infrastructure projects for wind energy in the world, with construction beginning in 2014 at the earliest.

The second largest zone, with a potential energy yield of 7.2 gigawatts, is at Norfolk Bank. The wind farm licence there has been won by a consortium of Scottish Power Renewables and Sweden's Vattenfall Vindkraft.

Speaking on behalf of the joint venture, Keith Anderson said the companies were "delighted" to have been awarded the development rights.

"It will be a major engineering challenge, but the combined experience of both partners acquired over decades in the energy business will help us deliver a project that will deliver enough green power to meet the equivalent annual electricity demand of more than five million homes in the UK," he said.

This is the third time companies have had a chance to bid for zones.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the government's policies to support offshore wind energy had put the UK ahead of other countries.

"This new round of licences provides a substantial new platform for investing in UK industrial capacity," he added.

"The offshore wind industry is at the heart of the UK economy's shift to low carbon and could be worth £75bn and support up to 70,000 jobs by 2020," he said.

The turbines will be erected in water depths of up to 60m, compared with 25m for previous rounds. They will be positioned up to 205km off the coast, compared with 25km currently.

Methane release 'looks stronger'

By Michael Fitzpatrick, Science reporter, BBC News

Frozen depositories are giving up methane to the sea

Scientists have uncovered what appears to be a further dramatic increase in the leakage of methane gas that is seeping from the Arctic seabed.

Methane is about 20 times more potent than CO2 in trapping solar heat.

The findings come from measurements of carbon fluxes around the north of Russia, led by Igor Semiletov from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.

"Methane release from the East Siberian Shelf is underway and it looks stronger than it was supposed [to be]," he said.

Professor Semiletov has been studying methane seepage in the region for the last few decades, and leads the International Siberian Shelf Study (ISSS), which has launched multiple expeditions to the Arctic Ocean.

The preliminary findings of ISSS 2009 are now being prepared for publication, he told BBC News.

Methane seepage recorded last summer was already the highest ever measured in the Arctic Ocean.

High seepage

Acting as a giant frozen depository of carbon such as CO2 and methane (often stored as compacted solid gas hydrates), Siberia's shallow shelf areas are increasingly subjected to warming and are now giving up greater amounts of methane to the sea and to the atmosphere than recorded in the past.

This undersea permafrost was until recently considered to be stable.

But now scientists think the release of such a powerful greenhouse gas may accelerate global warming.

Higher concentrations of atmospheric methane are contributing to global temperature rise; this in turn is projected to cause further permafrost melting and the release of yet more methane in a feedback loop.

A worst-case scenario is one where the feedback passes a tipping point and billions of tonnes of methane are released suddenly, as has occurred at least once in the Earth's past.

Such sudden releases have been linked to rapid increases in global temperatures and could have been a factor in the mass extinction of species.

According to a report by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), the springtime air temperature across the region in the period 2000-2007 was an average of 4C higher than during 1970-1999.

That is the fastest temperature rise on the planet, claims the university.

The recent thaw over the last decade means that some of the large reserve of carbon from organic material such as dead animals and plants in sediments is now being released into the sea and into our atmosphere.

Trapped below that is the methane hydrate now warming and leaking through holes in the defrosting sediments.

1. Methane hydrate is stable at high pressure and low temperature
2. Nearer the surface, where water pressure is lower, hydrates break down earlier than at greater depth as temperatures rise
3. Gas rises from the sea-bed in plumes of bubbles - some of it dissolves before it reaches the surface
4. The ISSS team says it has detected methane breaking the ocean surface

Previously it was thought much of this gas was absorbed into the sea.

But according to a recent report that Professor Semiletov and his team compiled for the environmental group WWF, the shallow depth of arctic shelves means that methane is reaching the atmosphere without reacting to become CO2 dissolved in the ocean.

Professor Semiletov's fellow researcher aboard the Russian icebreaker that carries the ISSS team each year is Professor Orjan Gustafsson from Stockholm University in Sweden.

He said that methane measured in the atmosphere around the region is 100 times higher than normal background levels, and in some cases 1,000 times higher.

'No alarm'

Despite the high readings, Professor Gustafsson said that so far there was no cause for alarm, and stressed that further studies were still necessary to determine the exact cause of the methane seepage.

"It is important now to understand how fast it is being released and how much is being released," he said.

However, there is a real fear that global warming may cause Siberia's subsea permafrost to thaw.

Some estimates put the amount of carbon trapped in shelf permafrost at 1,600 billion tonnes - roughly twice as much carbon as in the atmosphere now.

The release of this once captive carbon from destabilised ocean sediments and permafrost would have catastrophic effect on our climate and life on Earth, warn the scientists.

Climate change far worse than thought before

IANS 3 January 2010, 12:09pm IST

NEW DELHI: Global alarm over climate change and its effects has risen manifold after the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change (IPCC). Since then, many of the 2,500-odd IPCC scientists have found climate change is progressing faster than the worst-case scenario they had predicted.

Their studies will be considered for the next IPCC report, but since that will come out only in 2013, the University of New South Wales in Sydney has just put together the main findings in the last three years. Most are by previous IPCC lead authors "familiar with the rigour and completeness required for a scientific assessment of this nature", a university spokesperson said.|

The most significant recent findings are:

• Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels in 2008 were 40 percent higher than in 1990. The recent Copenhagen Accord said warming should be contained within two degrees, but every year of delayed action increases the chances of exceeding the two-degree warming mark.
  Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas (GHG) warming the atmosphere.
  
  
• To keep within the two-degree limit, global GHG emissions need to peak between 2015 and 2020 and then decline rapidly. To stabilise climate, near-zero emissions of carbon dioxide and other long-lived GHG should be reached well within this century.
  
  More specifically, the average annual per-capita emissions will have to shrink to well under one tonne carbon dioxide by 2050. This is 80-95 percent below the per-capita emissions in developed nations in 2000.
  
  
• Over the past 25 years temperatures have increased at a rate of 0.19 degree Celsius per decade. The trend has continued over the last 10 years despite a decrease in radiation from the sun.
  
  
• The studies show extreme hot temperature events have increased, extreme cold temperature events have decreased, heavy rain or snow has become heavier, while there has been increase in drought as well.
  
  They also show that the intensity of cyclones has increased in the past three decades in line with rising tropical ocean temperatures.
  
  
• Satellites show recent global average sea level rise (3.4 mm/year over the past 15 years) to be about 80 percent above IPCC predictions. This acceleration is consistent with a doubling in contribution from melting of glaciers, ice caps, and the Greenland and West-Antarctic ice sheets.
  
  New estimates of ocean heat uptake are 50 percent higher than previous calculations. Global ocean surface temperature reached the warmest ever recorded in June, July and August 2009. Ocean acidification and ocean de-oxygenation due to global warming have been identified as potentially devastating for large parts of the marine ecosystem.
  
  
• By 2100, global sea level is likely to rise at least twice as much as projected by the IPCC in 2007; if emissions are unmitigated the rise may well exceed one metre.
  
  The sea level will continue to rise for centuries after global temperatures have been stabilised, and several metres of sea level rise must be expected over the next few centuries.
  
  
• A wide array of satellite and ice measurements demonstrate that both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are melting at an increasing rate. Melting of glaciers and ice-caps in other parts of the world has also accelerated since 1990.
  
  The contribution of glaciers and ice-caps to global sea level rise has increased from 0.8 mm per year in the 1990s to 1.2 mm per year today. The adjustment of glaciers and ice caps to present climate alone is expected to raise sea level by about 18 cm. Under warming conditions they may contribute as much as around 55 cm by 2100.
  
  The net loss of ice from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated since the mid-1990s and is now contributing 0.7 mm per year to sea level rise due to both increased melting and accelerated ice flow. Antarctica is also losing ice mass at an increasing rate, mostly from the West Antarctic ice sheet due to increased ice flow. Antarctica is currently contributing to sea level rise at a rate nearly equal to Greenland.
  
  
• Summer-time melting of Arctic sea-ice has accelerated far beyond the expectations of climate models. The area of summertime sea-ice 2007-09 was about 40 percent less than the average prediction from IPCC climate models in the 2007 report.
  
  
• The studies say avoiding tropical deforestation could prevent up to 20 percent of carbon dioxide emissions.
  
  
• New ice-core records confirm the importance of GHG for temperatures on earth, and show that carbon dioxide levels are higher now than they have been during the last 800,000 years.
  
  

Top secret free energy scientist enters contract with Greer's Orion Project

Pure Energy Systems, December 29, 2009

On Christmas day, Steven Greer announced that the 'top secret' inventor they've talked about has been released early from military seclusion, and has contracted with them to bring a Tesla-related free energy technology to the world.

On Christmas day, as "a Christmas present to the world," Steven Greer, M.D., and his science advisor, Ted Loder, Ph.D., from the Orion Project, announced on the World Puja Network that the "top secret" inventor they've talked about over the past year has been released early from military seclusion, and has contracted with them to begin bringing various technologies he has developed (at taxpayer expense) to the world, beginning with a free energy technology in the tradition of Nikola Tesla.

They expect that the technology will be ready to bring to the public by April, capable of several kilowatts of continuous output. Greer said that the Orion Project signed a contract with this top secret scientist some ten days prior to the Dec. 25 announcement.

Both Doctors Greer and Loder have been involved for years in combing the world for a technology like this that could break our addiction to polluting fossil fuels and the control paradigm associated with them; providing instead a cheap, clean, reliable energy technology capable of being scaled to power everything in a distributed manner, from cars to homes and individual appliances. In this pursuit, Loder said "there have been some bad trails and bad directions at times; it's been a frustrating process at times. Now, finally, we're ready to jump."

"This scientist, by far, is the most knowledgeable and skilled -- and genius -- inventor and physicist that I've ever met; and I've met a lot of interesting people", said Greer. The inventor, who will be unnamed for security purposes, has top clearances in the U.S. military.

Loder said, "This is just what we've been searching for all these years. What he's bringing to the table is his thorough mathematical understanding of electronics and physics; [adding] modern technologies to optimize the process."

Greer and Loder reminisced about the first time they went to visit this inventor's lab about 4.5 years ago, and how they were stunned at what he had, and how they wished he could be part of their operation. Now, thanks to the help of a lot of people's donations and other support, the Orion Project has been able to secure a contract with this inventor.

Their purpose in making this announcement was both to bring in additional support for the project, as well as to increase the education of people to the alternatives and the hope that they bring for a better world coming. They are counting on the shield of protection provided from the community through this exposure so that this technology can make it to the world without being sequestered. They will need financial resources and moral support.

They plan to build a research laboratory to support this top secret inventor so that he can have both the tools and personnel needed to accelerate the development of the technology for public use. During this phase, they plan to bring in half a dozen scientists and engineers.

Loder said the energy technology is based on concepts and prototypes and patents first put forth more than 100 years ago by Nikola Tesla and implemented by many scientists and inventors since then to various extents.

Greer said it has been replicated and verified by a senior scientist in the U.S. Department of Defense who has direct access to the Secretary of Defense. "Independent replication is the sin quin non of science", said Greer.

Apparently, there's a lot more where this came from, and once that energy technology has been delivered to the public, the inventor has other technologies that the Orion Project will begin to develop and bring forward. Greer said, "We're dealing with someone who has a track record of thirty years of building these technologies; and being under contract with top secret programs; and has actually built things to the level of things dematerializing, teleporting, and space-time alteration. We're talking really advanced stuff." Greer says that in the military secret ops, such projects are referred to as WSFM which stands for "Weird Science and Freakin' Magic."

The purpose of starting with the Tesla-based technology would be prove to the world that free energy can be had from the environment 24/7/365 via a device that is affordable even in the developing world, subsidized at first from sales of the device in the developed world.

"Let's walk before we levitate – get our civilization out of the dust bin of coal, and oil and sludge and mess. As civilization stabilizes; and we put in the means to ensure that these technologies are only used for peaceful means and are not militarized or weaponized; then these more advanced concepts can come forward." – Greer

More than a year ago, the Orion Project had thought they were going to be able to move forward with this inventor, but then he was spirited away into a top secret military operation and was incommunicado. They were told that it would be at least a year and a half before he would be available again.

Greer speculates that the many people petitioning the government for his release may have been instrumental in his early release so that they could resume their business relationship with him, which was cemented on around Dec. 15.

Last January, Greer chose to compose a briefing for President Obama about various free energy technologies in general and about this inventor in particular, asking that the Orion Project be allowed to work with inventor to bring his technologies forward in a sort of "peaceful Manhattan Project". That briefing was then published on TheOrionProject.org website on Oct. 24.

Greer points out that the technologies developed by this top secret scientist were done at taxpayer expense, "yet you never hear the department of energy talking about them. It's about time these technologies got into the hands of the public who paid for them", Greer said.

Now the technology is being taken forward by a private organization, though apparently not necessarily with the full cooperation of the U.S. government. Greer posits that if the 100s of billions and even trillions of government spending for energy solutions were put into this technology, each person could have their own generator at home.

About a year and a half ago, the Orion Project launched a fund drive to raise $3 million for the purpose of developing and/or finding such a technology. They've not yet raised that amount, and are asking their supporters to chip in to help raise the additional several $100k they'll need to build their research facility in Charlottesville, Virginian, not far from the historic Thomas Jefferson Monticello property. "We'll have to create a whole new scientific process," said Greer.

Of the moneys raised so far, Greer said that neither he nor Loder have used any of it for themselves, but they have been doing this on a purely voluntary basis. Greer, who used to be an Emergency Room doctor recently gave up that career in order to pursue the quest for a free energy solution full time. His associate, Dr. Jan Bravo, likewise recently left her practice in California for the same objective.

In the future, "if there should be any profits from the sale of this technology, it should go toward helping impoverished people getting these technologies for free", said Greer; and he said "the inventor feels the same way."

Speaking of history-making, Greer said:

"This is one of the most significant undertakings in the history of our country, as we try to bring forward, very boldly, and decisively, the sciences and technologies that would get our country off of oil and gas and coal and nuclear power; and into clean, free energy; so that every home and business and facility in America and the world may be running on this type of energy, without any costs, once you have the device in place; and without any pollution or impact on the environment."

As the one who launched the Disclosure Project, getting 100+ top military, government and airline leaders to come forward on the record with their knowledge regarding "UFO"s and other extraterrestrial-related interactions; it is fitting that Greer would see his long-sought-after free energy technology come from a military insider who developed the technology at taxpayer expense, which has been sequestered until now, but which now is apparently going to be brought forward for civilian use.

I've added this technology to the top position of my short list of technologies I'll be drawing from next week in my presentation about the Top 10 Exotic Free Energy Technologies a the Earth Transformation conference.

As for destiny, Greer said: "The fuse is lit; this rocket is taking off."

Relevant Links

www.theorionproject.org

www.worldpuja.org - Greer-Loder announcement, Dec. 25, 2009

China urged to rein in wind turbine prod`n capacity expansion

Antara News, Friday, January 1, 2010 16:08 WIB

Beijing (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - China must strictly control the expansion of wind power equipment manufacturing and strengthen its testing and certification work to maintain the healthy development of its wind turbine manufacturing industry, said Shi Lishan, an official with the National Energy Administration, on Wednesday.

Over the past years, China's wind turbine production sector has been posting rapid growth and a complete industry chain is already taking shape. China is currently capable of producing 1.5-MW wind turbines in large scale, and has already put into operation self-developed 3-MW wind turbines.

However, volatile wind power and severe weather in northern China is threatening the existing power grid and hampering wind power's development.

Source:
Business in Asia Today - Jan 1, 2010
published by Asia Pulse

'Back to nature' cuts flood risks

By Mark Kinver, Science and environment reporter, BBC News|

The annual cost of flooding is rising
in the US, the study says

Reconnecting flood-plains to rivers will help reduce the risk of future flooding, suggest US scientists.

A study by US researchers said allowing these areas to be submerged during storms would reduce the risk of flood damage in nearby urban areas.

Pressure to build new homes has led to many flood-prone areas being developed.

Writing in Science, they said the risks of flooding were likely to increase in the future as a result of climate change and shifts in land use.

"We are advocating very large-scale shifts in land use, "said co-author Jeffrey Opperman, a member of The Nature Conservancy's Global Freshwater Team.

"There is simply no way economically or politically that this could be accomplished by turning large areas of flood-plains into parks," he told the Science podcast.

"What we are proposing in this paper is a way that this strategy can be compatible, and even supportive, with vibrant agricultural economies and private land ownership."

The Nature Conservancy

For example, the authors explained, the flood season and growing season in California did not occur at the same time.

This meant that allowing the land to be submerged by floodwater would not result in a permanent loss of farmland or crops being destroyed.

In their paper, they said that man-made flood management systems, such as levees, also had an ecological impact.

"Control infrastructure prevents high flows from entering flood-plains, thus diminishing both natural flood storage capacity and the processes that sustain healthy riverside forests and wetlands," they observed.

"As a result, flood-plains are among the planet's most threatened ecosystems."

'Ecosystem services'

The reconnection programmes would deliver three benefits, they added:

• Reduce the risk of flooding
• Increase in flood-plain goods and services
• Greater resilience to potential climate change impacts

In other parts of the world, Dr Opperman said that there was a range of agricultural strategies for private landowners that would be compatible with allowing areas to be flooded.

"There are emerging markets for ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration and nutrient sequestration," he explained.

"These are services that flood-plains do provide, so with various climate policies there will be a price for carbon."

The researchers cited the Yolo By-pass, in California, US, in their paper as a successful demonstration of the idea they were advocating.

The scheme absorbed 80% of floodwater during heavy storms, they said, protecting the nearby city of Sacramento.

"During a March 1986 flood, the by-pass conveyed [about] 12.5bn cubic metres of water, more than three times the total flood-control storage volume in all Sacramento basin reservoirs.

"Without the by-pass flood-plain, California would need to build massive additional flood-control infrastructure," they observed.

The Yolo by-pass was created back in the 1930s, when a 24,000 hectare flood-plain was reconnected to the Sacramento River.

The scheme was introduced when it became apparent that a "levees only" approach would not offer the required flood protection.

"It's connected in an engineered way, which mean that when the river reaches a certain volume it flows over a weir and enters the flood-plain," Dr Opperman explained.

He added that the scheme also had numerous additional ecological benefits: "In recent decades, people began to notice that this area was a phenomenal habitat for birds.

"In the past 10 years, people recognised that native fish were moving from the river on to the flood-plain, and deriving all of the benefits that fish get from natural flood-plains.

"It was an excellent place for fish to spawn, and for juvenile fish to be reared."

China defends Wen Jiabao's role in Copenhagen talks

Reuters, Beijng, Fri Dec 25, 2009 2:44am EST

BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Friday defended the role played by premier Wen Jiabao at climate change talks in Copenhagen this month after a barrage of international criticism blaming China for obstructing negotiations.

The Copenhagen meeting ended with a broad political agreement but left specifics to be ironed out in 2010, angering many of the poorest nations as well as Western groups who had hoped for a more ambitious commitment.

China insisted that firm targets agreed to by European nations not be included in the final deal, and Wen himself was absent from a final round of direct negotiations between national leaders. British climate minister Ed Miliband said China and its allies had "hijacked" talks, according to the Guardian newspaper.

In a long account of the Copenhagen meeting, Xinhua gave Wen credit for "the last minute attempt to exchange ideas and reach consensus" despite his belief that it was "impossible" to reach a legally binding agreement.

"China showed the greatest sincerity, tried its best and played a constructive role," Xinhua said.

Issues of verification of emissions cut pledges plagued the meeting, with rich nations saying China's efforts to slow greenhouse gas growth should be subject to international verification to ensure that Beijing is keeping its word. China has said such checks would violate its sovereignty.

"On the transparency issue in self-mitigation actions, Wen said China was willing to conduct talks and cooperation," Xinhua said.

China has made its own pledges to reduce carbon intensity, or the amount of emissions produced per unit of GDP, but blocked European countries from including their commitment to cut absolute emissions by 80 percent by 2050, as well as commitments to specific dates when emissions would peak.

Other Reuters sources had also said China blocked the inclusion of specific targets.

Xinhua acknowledged Wen's absence from the late night meetings on Dec 17, saying that Wen had not been informed, and had learned the Chinese delegation was included in the meeting list from another, unidentified foreign leader.

"Premier Wen felt quite astonished and was vigilant," Xinhua said, adding that China sent a vice foreign minister instead.

The U.S. administration has played up President Barack Obama's role in breaking through a deadlock by arriving unannounced at a meeting of the heads of China, Brazil, India and South Africa, all powerful developing countries concerned that emissions concessions could impede growth.

Xinhua said that meeting -- which occurred as the U.S. sought a meeting with China and was rebuffed from meeting the others -- represented Wen's efforts to reach consensus before bringing a final deal to the Western nations and poorest developing nations.

(Reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by David Fox)

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Islam-inspired green initiatives deserve Western support

The West should co-opt Islam in the fight for a better environment, says Evert Faber van der Meulen

NRC International, by Evert Faber van der Meulen, 22 December 2009 16:54, Opinion

A Danish imam reads the Koran in his mosque. (Photo AP)

Despite the disappointing agreement reached at the climate conference in Copenhagen, the US seems to have joined the EU in its commitment to binding carbon dioxide reduction schemes. This guarantees climate change will remain at the top of the agenda in the Western world in the coming years.

In the Islamic world, however, this is not the case. Hardly any country has put climate change on the agenda at all. This is made all the more tragic because Islamic countries will face the brunt of a changing climate. Desertification is a major threat in North Africa and the Middle East, and rising sea levels are expected to have dire consequences for the worlds’ poor in countries like Bangladesh and Indonesia.

The 1.2 billion Muslims of this world currently produce a relatively small amount of carbon dioxide emissions. Islamic countries are roughly responsible for ten percent of global carbon dioxide output, whilst 300 million US citizens alone produce more than 20 percent. But over the last ten years both energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions have risen by 4.5 percent annually in the Islamic world.

It is only a matter of time before the carbon dioxide output of Islamic countries will become a major problem, and the sooner these countries can be involved in global climate policy, the better.

One of the lessons learnt from the Western world is that it took time before climate change moved from the scientific to the political agenda. Individuals and NGOs played an important part in this process by bringing the existing scientific evidence to the fore. But what to do in countries where freedom of speech is limited and Western-style NGOs don’t exist?

We can look to the grassroots organisation that is able to reach the population at large in these countries: Islam. Born in the deserts of Arabia, where means of livelihood were scarce, early Islam already pleaded for modesty and humility, especially at a material level. Moreover, Islam sees humanity as the pinnacle of creation and therefore charged with the responsibility to safeguard this world.

Islam and the climate movement also have something in common, the colour green. Green is the colour of the prophet and represents paradise, because the desert people of early Islam imagined paradise to be a fertile green oasis.

Islamic ‘green’ initiatives are rare. Many Muslim countries are poor, and one cannot really blame the population that climate change is not its first priority. Of course, oil and gas are mostly found in Islamic countries, which gives them a vested interest in the non-sustainable energy mix. But equally important is that Islamic countries see climate policy as simply the next initiative produced by a Western neo-colonial mentality.

In the short term the West can do two relatively simple things. First, it should support the global Islamic initiatives that are taking place. For instance, in July of this year, the Muslim Association for Climate Change (MACCA) was founded by a number of influential Muslims, including several influential Islamic spiritual leaders. Western governments and NGOs could work together with such an organisation and supply funding and knowledge for concrete initiatives. A first initiative could involve supplying green power to all mosques worldwide, for instance.

Secondly, our own European Muslim minority could fulfil an important role as mediator between the West and the Islamic world. Especially in the UK, a number of Islamic organisations is already trying to enhance ecological awareness amongst Muslims in their own country and abroad.

As an example we can look at the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences (IFEES). One of their most interesting projects involved the introduction of sustainable fishing methods in Zanzibar. During the 1990s, the World Wildlife Foundation had started a campaign in order to discourage local fishermen from using dynamite as their preferred method of fishing. The situation started to improve only when IFEES was asked for help in 2000. Via an Islamic educational program IFEES explained to the local populace that this fishing method was against Islamic values. As a result the population has now declared the area to be a ‘Hima’ (an Islamic reservation).

Finally, there is another reason why Islam should be involved in the debate on climate change. Generally western politicians and NGOs have terse discussions with Islamic countries on topics such as democracy, human rights and freedom of speech. Islamic leaders often interpret these discussions as veiled attempts to undermine Islamic values. However, the challenge posed by climate change is a global problem that affects both Islam and the West equally. In that sense climate change is not only a major problem, but also a golden opportunity to show that the world does have to sink into a ‘clash of civilisations’.

Evert Faber van der Meulen reads Islamic Studies and History (M.Phil) at Oxford University

White Christmas? It's green Christmas this year: Minister

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 12/22/2009 9:12 PM

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will distribute coconut tree and rain tree seedlings during the national Christmas celebration at the Jakarta Convention Center on Dec. 27 in a bid to encourage Christians to actively protect the environment.

Chairman of the event's organizing committee E.E. Mangindaan said Tuesday environment conservation would be the theme of the celebration.

“Green will be the dominant color of the stage decoration. It will be a green Christmas, not a white Christmas,” Mangindaan, who is the administrative reforms minister, was quoted by Antara.

The celebration comes on the heels of the UN climate conference in Copenhagen last week, in which Yudhoyono was among 110 world leaders in attendance.

First lady Ani Yudhoyono, Vice President Boediono and his wife Herawati Boediono, Cabinet ministers and other state officials are scheduled to join 6,000 people from across the country who will attend the celebration.

World’s Largest Solar Energy Office Building Opens in China

Inhabitat, by Yuka Yoneda, 12/14/09

A vast fan-shaped compound in China has officially taken the title of “largest solar-powered office building in the world“. Located in Dezhou in the Shangdong Province in northwest China, the 75,000 square meter structure is a multi-use building and features exhibition centers, scientific research facilities, meeting and training facilities, and a hotel – all of which run on solar power.

The design of the new building is based on the sun dial and “underlines the urgency of seeking renewable energy sources to replace fossil fuels.” Aside from the obvious sustainable nature of the solar panel – clad exterior, other green features include advanced roof and wall insulation practices resulting in an energy savings of 30% more than the national standard. In addition, the external structure of the building used a mere 1% of the amount of steel used to construct the Bird’s Nest.

The solar-powered building will be the main venue for the 4th World Solar City Congress.