WASHINGTON — The United States is leading an effort by a handful of antiwhaling nations to broker an agreement that would limit and ultimately end whale hunting by Japan, Norway and Iceland, according to people involved with the negotiations.
The compromise deal, which has generated intense controversy within the 88-nation International Whaling Commission and among antiwhaling activists, would allow the three whaling countries to continue hunting whales for the next 10 years, although in reduced numbers.
In exchange, the whaling nations — which have long exploited loopholes in an international treaty that aims to preserve the marine mammals — would agree to stricter monitoring of their operations, including the placing of tracking devices and international monitors on all whaling ships and participation in a whale DNA registry to track global trade in whale products.
Officials involved in the negotiations expressed tentative hope that they could reach an agreement in coming weeks. But ratification by the overall group remains uncertain.
“This is one of the toughest negotiations I’ve been involved in in 38 years,” said Cristián Maquieira, the veteran Chilean diplomat who is the chairman of the commission. “If this initiative fails now, it means going back to years of acrimony.”
Some pro-whale activists say the deal would grant international approval for the continued slaughter of thousands of minke, sei and Bryde’s whales. They also say that the agreement does not prevent Japan and the other nations from resuming unlimited whaling once the 10-year period is up.
“From our point of view, it’s a whaler’s wish list,” said Patrick R. Ramage, global whale program director at the International Fund for Animal Welfare. “It would overturn the ’86 moratorium, eviscerate the South Ocean Whale Sanctuary, subordinate science and I.W.C. precedent to reward countries that have refused to comply by allocating quotas to those three countries.”
“Rather than negotiate a treaty that brings commercial whaling to an end,” he concluded, “they have created a system under which it will continue.”
But Monica Medina, the No. 2 official at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the American delegate to the whaling body, said that Mr. Ramage and other critics were demanding a complete halt to whaling, an impossible goal, at least today.
“We can’t stop it; we can only try to control it,” Ms. Medina said in an interview.
“If we can prevent thousands of whales from being hunted and killed, that’s a real conservation benefit. This proposal would not only help whales, we hope, but also introduce rigorous oversight, halt the illegal trade in whale meat and bring respect for international law back to the I.W.C.,” she added. “Are we there yet? We’re not, and we have hard negotiations to go yet.”
Despite a 1986 international moratorium on commercial whaling, the numbers of whales killed annually has been rising steadily, to nearly 1,700 last year from 300 in 1990, as the three whaling nations have either opted out of the treaty or claimed to be taking whales only for legitimate scientific study. Most of the meat from the slaughtered whales is consumed in those three countries, although there appears to be a growing international black market in whale products.
Some officials warn that if this effort at compromise fails, the commission’s efforts to police whale hunting, long crippled by irreconcilable political divisions, will collapse.
“The I.W.C. is a mess. It’s a dysfunctional international organization,” said Sir Geoffrey Palmer, a former prime minister of New Zealand and chairman of the I.W.C. group trying to negotiate a deal. “I think this is probably the last chance the I.W.C. has to cure itself.”
Representatives to the whaling commission from more than a dozen nations — including the three whaling countries and New Zealand, Australia, Chile and other nations backing the compromise proposal — are in Washington this week to negotiate terms of the agreement, which would protect as many as 5,000 whales from hunting over the next decade, officials said. They said they hoped that the reduced hunt would give whale stocks time to recover and give negotiators time to write a new treaty that would bring an effective international ban on all commercial whaling.
The group plans to release a new draft of the compromise proposal next week, but it still must win the approval of three-quarters of the members of the whaling commission at its annual meeting in Agadir, Morocco, in late June.
The Japanese, who killed 1,001 whales last year, are the linchpin of any deal. Although the Japanese taste for whale meat is steadily declining, the Japanese see their ability to continue to hunt whales, not only in their coastal waters but in the open ocean around Antarctica, as a question of sovereignty. Critics say that the practice survives only with heavy government subsidies. But a single whale can bring as much as $100,000 in Japanese fish markets. Japan is driving a hard bargain to demonstrate strength at home and perhaps to use as leverage in other international negotiations, officials involved in the talks said.
Joji Morishita, a senior official of the Japan Fisheries Agency and Tokyo’s representative to the whaling talks, said in a brief telephone interview that he was not authorized to discuss his country’s negotiating position. But he confirmed that Japan was at least willing to talk about a new whaling program that may result in a substantial reduction in its whale harvest over the next decade.
“We are fully engaged in this process,” he said.
Populations of some whale species have been growing since the moratorium ended decades of uncontrolled hunting, but whales around the world remain under threat, not only from hunting but also from ship strikes, pollution, habitat loss, climate change and entanglement in fishing nets.
Under terms of the compromise deal, which is being negotiated behind closed doors and remains subject to major changes, the three whaling nations agree to cut roughly in half their annual whale harvest. That would result in the saving of more than 5,000 whales over the next 10 years, compared with continued whaling at current levels.
The deal also proposes that no new countries be permitted to take whales, whale-watching ships would be monitored by the whaling commission and all international trade in whale products be banned.
In addition, whalers would have to report the time of death and means of killing of all whales and provide DNA samples to a central registry to help track the end use of the dead animals.
Limited subsistence whaling by indigenous peoples in the United States, Greenland, Russia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines would be allowed to continue.
“Our goal is a significant reduction in the number of whales killed, but some limited whaling will be authorized as a price for that,” said Mr. Maquieira, the whaling commission chairman. “This is highly controversial and very difficult. I would prefer something different, but there is nothing out there.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/science/earth/15whale.html?ref=science
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Embracing a Life of Solitude
FOR the last 16 years, Nick Fahey has been living on an island in the San Juan archipelago north of Puget Sound, in Washington state, where his only full-time companion is a 26-year-old quarter horse called Ig. Mr. Fahey, 67, lives in a cabin on 100 wooded acres that has been in his family since 1930; it has no refrigerator, but there is electricity generated by solar panels, so he has light and can charge his cellphone.
There are few amenities of the material kind, but his days are his own. Time, he said, is “one of the real luxuries of living out here.” With the exception of cutting wood for fuel and to support himself — occasionally he makes a trek to neighboring islands or the mainland, to sell the wood or buy groceries — he is free to do as he pleases. Most days are spent rambling around the rocky island and drinking coffee, his favorite French Market brand with chicory.
“I don’t worry about whether I am clothed or not,” Mr. Fahey said. “But the weather is such that it’s a good idea to wear some clothes.”
Getting away from it all: it’s a common fantasy. But for some people, fantasizing isn’t enough. For whatever reason — the desire for peace and quiet in an increasingly frenetic world, an attempt to escape the intrusiveness of technology or the need for an isolated place to recover from heartbreak — they feel compelled to act out the fantasy, seeking the kind of solitude found only in the remotest locations.
The compulsion to live in isolation can be attributed to any number of factors, said Elaine N. Aron, a psychologist and the author of “The Undervalued Self” and “The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You.”
Some people might “really need their downtime,” Dr. Aron said, and seek out “isolation that avoids all social intercourse.” Others may have developed an “avoidant attachment style” in childhood, resulting in “a need to prove to themselves that they don’t need anybody,” she said.
For many people, though, the desire for extreme solitude may have simpler roots, she noted: “It could be because they want a mystical experience. You can’t pathologize that.”
When it comes to striking out alone in the wilderness, however, men may be more inclined to do that than women, said John T. Cacioppo, director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago. “In our culture, there is this mythic individualism that we cherish,” said Dr. Cacioppo, who studies the biological and cognitive effects of isolation. “That’s particularly true for men — they are supposed to be an island unto themselves. They take that myth more seriously and try to pursue it.”
For some, he added, a divorce later in life or another equally jarring event may trigger that impulse. “Losing connections during that period of your life becomes very traumatizing,” he said. “One way to deal with that is to prove that you don’t need anyone.”
In Mr. Fahey’s case, he moved to the island full time in 1994, several years after he divorced, not because he was traumatized, he said, but because he liked the “feeling of freedom when you’re by yourself. You don’t have to answer to anybody.”
His daughter, Anna, 36, now visits about once a month, and his son, Joe, 39, who lives in France, comes once a year. There are a handful of other residents on the other side of the island, but Mr. Fahey prefers not to socialize with them.
“I’m not a misanthropic recluse sort of guy,” he said. “I just know that I’d rather be here by myself.”
Once a week, though, he does venture to Anacortes, a town on the mainland, 10 miles away by boat, to visit his 99-year-old father in an assisted-living home and to see his girlfriend, Deborah Martin, whom he has been dating for 15 years.
Ms. Martin, 56, explained: “We are both pretty independent, and I imagine that’s partly why it works. We don’t have the same expectations that other couples might, like, ‘I need you to be here every night.’ ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/garden/15alone.html?hp&hp
There are few amenities of the material kind, but his days are his own. Time, he said, is “one of the real luxuries of living out here.” With the exception of cutting wood for fuel and to support himself — occasionally he makes a trek to neighboring islands or the mainland, to sell the wood or buy groceries — he is free to do as he pleases. Most days are spent rambling around the rocky island and drinking coffee, his favorite French Market brand with chicory.
“I don’t worry about whether I am clothed or not,” Mr. Fahey said. “But the weather is such that it’s a good idea to wear some clothes.”
Getting away from it all: it’s a common fantasy. But for some people, fantasizing isn’t enough. For whatever reason — the desire for peace and quiet in an increasingly frenetic world, an attempt to escape the intrusiveness of technology or the need for an isolated place to recover from heartbreak — they feel compelled to act out the fantasy, seeking the kind of solitude found only in the remotest locations.
The compulsion to live in isolation can be attributed to any number of factors, said Elaine N. Aron, a psychologist and the author of “The Undervalued Self” and “The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You.”
Some people might “really need their downtime,” Dr. Aron said, and seek out “isolation that avoids all social intercourse.” Others may have developed an “avoidant attachment style” in childhood, resulting in “a need to prove to themselves that they don’t need anybody,” she said.
For many people, though, the desire for extreme solitude may have simpler roots, she noted: “It could be because they want a mystical experience. You can’t pathologize that.”
When it comes to striking out alone in the wilderness, however, men may be more inclined to do that than women, said John T. Cacioppo, director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago. “In our culture, there is this mythic individualism that we cherish,” said Dr. Cacioppo, who studies the biological and cognitive effects of isolation. “That’s particularly true for men — they are supposed to be an island unto themselves. They take that myth more seriously and try to pursue it.”
For some, he added, a divorce later in life or another equally jarring event may trigger that impulse. “Losing connections during that period of your life becomes very traumatizing,” he said. “One way to deal with that is to prove that you don’t need anyone.”
In Mr. Fahey’s case, he moved to the island full time in 1994, several years after he divorced, not because he was traumatized, he said, but because he liked the “feeling of freedom when you’re by yourself. You don’t have to answer to anybody.”
His daughter, Anna, 36, now visits about once a month, and his son, Joe, 39, who lives in France, comes once a year. There are a handful of other residents on the other side of the island, but Mr. Fahey prefers not to socialize with them.
“I’m not a misanthropic recluse sort of guy,” he said. “I just know that I’d rather be here by myself.”
Once a week, though, he does venture to Anacortes, a town on the mainland, 10 miles away by boat, to visit his 99-year-old father in an assisted-living home and to see his girlfriend, Deborah Martin, whom he has been dating for 15 years.
Ms. Martin, 56, explained: “We are both pretty independent, and I imagine that’s partly why it works. We don’t have the same expectations that other couples might, like, ‘I need you to be here every night.’ ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/garden/15alone.html?hp&hp
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Freighter on Great Barrier Reef Has Punctured Fuel Tank
HONG KONG —
A Chinese coal freighter aground on the Great Barrier Reef has at least one punctured fuel tank, prompting a delicate effort to transfer oil within the ship to tanks that are still intact, Australian officials announced on Wednesday.
Very little oil has leaked yet because sea water has surged through the underwater puncture and the oil has floated up on the water inside at least one tank, officials said. Two tugboats are trying to stabilize the vessel, the Shen Neng 1, as it grinds up and down on a shoal in ocean swells and as salvage experts transfer the fuel between tanks.
“This is actually a delicate operation, and we won’t be rushing it,” said Patrick Quirk, the general manager for maritime safety for Queensland, the Australian state where the vessel ran aground. He added that a specialized salvage vessel would start trying to unload fuel from the vessel on Thursday or Friday.
The vessel went aground with 1,075 tons of thick engine fuel. Officials declined to estimate how much was in danger of leaking.
Anger about the grounding of the vessel is still rising in Australia, with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd offering some blunt language. On Tuesday, he flew over the stricken vessel, which had strayed more than seven miles outside the authorized shipping channel, and promised a full investigation to identify and punish those responsible.
Mr. Rudd noted that the captain could be subject to up to three years in prison if found negligent and that the vessel’s owners could be liable for a fine exceeding $5 million.
“From where I sit, it is outrageous that any vessel could find itself 12 kilometers off course, it seems, in the Great Barrier Reef,” he told Australian news organizations after the flyover. Mr. Rudd also said that Australia would review the adequacy of its marine safety regulations.
The vessel ran aground late Saturday at full speed near the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef.
Bob Brown, a senator who is also the leader of Australia’s Greens Party, has used the incident to accuse the country’s main political parties of failing to protect the environment or defend Australia. He beat Mr. Rudd to the wreck, flying over it on Monday.
Mr. Brown said in a statement afterward that the vessel was “an environmental time bomb.” He compared it to a threat of terrorism, saying that from the air, “It’s like looking down on an unclaimed bag in a subway.”
The Chinese government and the ship’s owner, Cosco, a Chinese state-controlled giant, have been silent in response to the grounding of the Shen Neng 1, which occurred in a section of the reef designated as a marine park and subject to extra environmental protection.
The official Xinhua news agency has reported the grounding of the vessel and that it is Chinese. But Xinhua has focused on possible legal penalties for the incident while avoiding mention of stronger criticisms leveled by Australian politicians and environmentalists.
Australian news organizations and environmentalists have accused the ship’s crew of taking a shortcut between reefs after taking on 72,000 tons of coal in Gladstone, a town near the center of Australia’s eastern coast, instead of staying farther out to sea.
Australia is a leading coal and iron ore exporter and a major supplier to Asian economies, particularly China’s. Australia’s environmental movement has long been uncomfortable with the country’s prominent role in supplying the mineral and energy needs of other countries.
Environmentalists have seized on the Shen Neng 1 — battered and perched on a shoal in shallow, azure water with a small, inky stain of leaking oil undulating into the water — as a symbol of what they portray as the exploitation of Australia by foreign powers.
The grounding of the Shen Neng 1 also coincides with unhappiness in Australia over the long prison sentences imposed last week by a Chinese court on four managers from Rio Tinto, an Australian mining giant, on bribery charges.
The Australian authorities have said that the vessel would be difficult to refloat and that it is vulnerable to any storms. But weather forecasts are for mostly clear skies through Friday and scattered thunderstorms next week.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/world/asia/08reef.html?ref=science
A Chinese coal freighter aground on the Great Barrier Reef has at least one punctured fuel tank, prompting a delicate effort to transfer oil within the ship to tanks that are still intact, Australian officials announced on Wednesday.
Very little oil has leaked yet because sea water has surged through the underwater puncture and the oil has floated up on the water inside at least one tank, officials said. Two tugboats are trying to stabilize the vessel, the Shen Neng 1, as it grinds up and down on a shoal in ocean swells and as salvage experts transfer the fuel between tanks.
“This is actually a delicate operation, and we won’t be rushing it,” said Patrick Quirk, the general manager for maritime safety for Queensland, the Australian state where the vessel ran aground. He added that a specialized salvage vessel would start trying to unload fuel from the vessel on Thursday or Friday.
The vessel went aground with 1,075 tons of thick engine fuel. Officials declined to estimate how much was in danger of leaking.
Anger about the grounding of the vessel is still rising in Australia, with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd offering some blunt language. On Tuesday, he flew over the stricken vessel, which had strayed more than seven miles outside the authorized shipping channel, and promised a full investigation to identify and punish those responsible.
Mr. Rudd noted that the captain could be subject to up to three years in prison if found negligent and that the vessel’s owners could be liable for a fine exceeding $5 million.
“From where I sit, it is outrageous that any vessel could find itself 12 kilometers off course, it seems, in the Great Barrier Reef,” he told Australian news organizations after the flyover. Mr. Rudd also said that Australia would review the adequacy of its marine safety regulations.
The vessel ran aground late Saturday at full speed near the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef.
Bob Brown, a senator who is also the leader of Australia’s Greens Party, has used the incident to accuse the country’s main political parties of failing to protect the environment or defend Australia. He beat Mr. Rudd to the wreck, flying over it on Monday.
Mr. Brown said in a statement afterward that the vessel was “an environmental time bomb.” He compared it to a threat of terrorism, saying that from the air, “It’s like looking down on an unclaimed bag in a subway.”
The Chinese government and the ship’s owner, Cosco, a Chinese state-controlled giant, have been silent in response to the grounding of the Shen Neng 1, which occurred in a section of the reef designated as a marine park and subject to extra environmental protection.
The official Xinhua news agency has reported the grounding of the vessel and that it is Chinese. But Xinhua has focused on possible legal penalties for the incident while avoiding mention of stronger criticisms leveled by Australian politicians and environmentalists.
Australian news organizations and environmentalists have accused the ship’s crew of taking a shortcut between reefs after taking on 72,000 tons of coal in Gladstone, a town near the center of Australia’s eastern coast, instead of staying farther out to sea.
Australia is a leading coal and iron ore exporter and a major supplier to Asian economies, particularly China’s. Australia’s environmental movement has long been uncomfortable with the country’s prominent role in supplying the mineral and energy needs of other countries.
Environmentalists have seized on the Shen Neng 1 — battered and perched on a shoal in shallow, azure water with a small, inky stain of leaking oil undulating into the water — as a symbol of what they portray as the exploitation of Australia by foreign powers.
The grounding of the Shen Neng 1 also coincides with unhappiness in Australia over the long prison sentences imposed last week by a Chinese court on four managers from Rio Tinto, an Australian mining giant, on bribery charges.
The Australian authorities have said that the vessel would be difficult to refloat and that it is vulnerable to any storms. But weather forecasts are for mostly clear skies through Friday and scattered thunderstorms next week.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/world/asia/08reef.html?ref=science
Adirondack Extreme
Adirondack Extreme: http://www.adirondackextreme.com/home
Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-32CAfHcpFM
Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-32CAfHcpFM
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
U.N. Group Rejects Shark Protections
By DAVID JOLLY
Published: March 23, 2010
PARIS — Delegates to a United Nations conference on endangered species voted down three of four proposals to protect sharks on Tuesday, handing another victory to Japan, China and countries opposed to the involvement of the international authorities in regulation of ocean fish.
Dot Earth: More on Shark ConservationThe nations gathered in Doha, Qatar, for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, rejected proposals that would have required countries to strictly regulate — but not ban — trade in several species of scalloped hammerhead, oceanic whitetip and spiny dogfish sharks.
The hammerhead and whitetip proposals, introduced by the United States and the tiny Micronesian island of Palau, received majority backing. But the treaty behind the conference, abbreviated as Cites, requires that measures be approved by two-thirds of the delegates who are voting.
A proposal from the European Union and Palau to protect porbeagle sharks squeaked by with a vote of 86 to 42, with 8 abstentions — a winning margin of a single vote. All of the votes were by secret ballot.
“We will continue to pursue our efforts to protect sharks from eradication by the decadent and cruel process of shark-finning,” Stuart Beck, Palau’s ambassador to the United Nations, said in a statement. “I am sure that, properly prepared, bald eagle is delicious. But, as civilized people, we simply do not eat it.”
China, by far the world’s largest consumer of the cartilaginous fish, for sharkfin soup, and Japan, which has battled to keep the convention from being extended to any marine species, led the opposition.
“This is not about trade issues, but fisheries enforcement,” Masanori Miyahara, Japan’s top fisheries negotiator, was quoted by The Associated Press as telling delegates. “Poaching is a big problem.”
Juan Carlos Vásquez, a spokesman for the United Nations convention, said that the votes on the hammerhead and the porbeagle — a close relative of the great white shark that is prized for its meat — could be reopened on Thursday and possibly overturned at the final session of the conference because the margin of passage was so narrow.
Most of the other conference votes would be likely to stand without challenge, he said.
Tom Strickland, the head of the United States delegation, said in a statement that Tuesday’s votes were “a major loss for marine conservation.”
On Monday, delegates voted to uphold a 21-year ban on international trade in ivory, rejecting efforts by Tanzania and Zambia to sell part of their stocks. Last week, the conference opposed an outright ban on international trade in bluefin tuna. A proposal to extend trade controls to red and pink corals was also voted down.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/science/earth/24shark.html?ref=science
Published: March 23, 2010
PARIS — Delegates to a United Nations conference on endangered species voted down three of four proposals to protect sharks on Tuesday, handing another victory to Japan, China and countries opposed to the involvement of the international authorities in regulation of ocean fish.
Dot Earth: More on Shark ConservationThe nations gathered in Doha, Qatar, for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, rejected proposals that would have required countries to strictly regulate — but not ban — trade in several species of scalloped hammerhead, oceanic whitetip and spiny dogfish sharks.
The hammerhead and whitetip proposals, introduced by the United States and the tiny Micronesian island of Palau, received majority backing. But the treaty behind the conference, abbreviated as Cites, requires that measures be approved by two-thirds of the delegates who are voting.
A proposal from the European Union and Palau to protect porbeagle sharks squeaked by with a vote of 86 to 42, with 8 abstentions — a winning margin of a single vote. All of the votes were by secret ballot.
“We will continue to pursue our efforts to protect sharks from eradication by the decadent and cruel process of shark-finning,” Stuart Beck, Palau’s ambassador to the United Nations, said in a statement. “I am sure that, properly prepared, bald eagle is delicious. But, as civilized people, we simply do not eat it.”
China, by far the world’s largest consumer of the cartilaginous fish, for sharkfin soup, and Japan, which has battled to keep the convention from being extended to any marine species, led the opposition.
“This is not about trade issues, but fisheries enforcement,” Masanori Miyahara, Japan’s top fisheries negotiator, was quoted by The Associated Press as telling delegates. “Poaching is a big problem.”
Juan Carlos Vásquez, a spokesman for the United Nations convention, said that the votes on the hammerhead and the porbeagle — a close relative of the great white shark that is prized for its meat — could be reopened on Thursday and possibly overturned at the final session of the conference because the margin of passage was so narrow.
Most of the other conference votes would be likely to stand without challenge, he said.
Tom Strickland, the head of the United States delegation, said in a statement that Tuesday’s votes were “a major loss for marine conservation.”
On Monday, delegates voted to uphold a 21-year ban on international trade in ivory, rejecting efforts by Tanzania and Zambia to sell part of their stocks. Last week, the conference opposed an outright ban on international trade in bluefin tuna. A proposal to extend trade controls to red and pink corals was also voted down.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/science/earth/24shark.html?ref=science
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Largest Solar Powered
February 26, 2010
PlanetSolar, a 31 meter long catamaran, was unveiled yesterday in Kiel, Germany, and its deck just so happens to be completely covered with photovoltaic panels, making it the world’s largest solar powered boat. While not quite ready to launch yet, the PV-bedazzled boat will debut at Hamburg port’s 821st anniversary celebrations in May, and then undergo testing during the summer before starting on a world-wide voyage to promote solar energy. The makers of the boat say, “PlanetSolar wants to show that we can change, that solutions exist and that it isn’t too late. Future generations are looking to us; our choices will mark the future of humanity.”
Built at the Knierim Yacht Club in Kiel in northern Germany, the PlanetSolar is a 31 by 15 meter catamaran that can expand to 35 by 23 meters when the flaps at the stern and the sides are extended. The deck is completely covered in 500 sq. meters of solar panels with the cockpit sticking out from the top, meaning that there won’t be any bathing beauties lounging on top when they sail into port, but they will be rolling in sans emissions. Manned by two crew members, the catamaran can accommodate up to 50 people on their world voyage. The makers are expecting the boat to get a top speed of 15 knots and an average of 8 knots.
The 40,000 km world voyage will start April 2011 and take an estimated 140 days based on the average speed of 8 knots. To maximize the solar power generated, the crew will stick to a more equatorial route in order to get the most sun. They plan on crossing the Atlantic from Europe through the Panama Canal, crossing the Pacific to the Indian Ocean, and then through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Ocean. Along the way they will stop in New York, San Francisco, Darwin in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Marseille in southern France. Now that the boat is built, they trip should be cheap since they don’t have to pay for fuel along the way.
Search: ArchitectureInteriorsProductsTechnologyEnergyTransportationFashionArtKidsContestsInhabitat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
World’s Largest Solar Powered Boat Unveiled
by Bridgette Meinhold, 02/26/10
PlanetSolar, a 31 meter long catamaran, was unveiled yesterday in Kiel, Germany, and its deck just so happens to be completely covered with photovoltaic panels, making it the world’s largest solar powered boat. While not quite ready to launch yet, the PV-bedazzled boat will debut at Hamburg port’s 821st anniversary celebrations in May, and then undergo testing during the summer before starting on a world-wide voyage to promote solar energy. The makers of the boat say, “PlanetSolar wants to show that we can change, that solutions exist and that it isn’t too late. Future generations are looking to us; our choices will mark the future of humanity.”
http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/02/26/worlds-largest-solar-powered-boat-unveiled/
PlanetSolar, a 31 meter long catamaran, was unveiled yesterday in Kiel, Germany, and its deck just so happens to be completely covered with photovoltaic panels, making it the world’s largest solar powered boat. While not quite ready to launch yet, the PV-bedazzled boat will debut at Hamburg port’s 821st anniversary celebrations in May, and then undergo testing during the summer before starting on a world-wide voyage to promote solar energy. The makers of the boat say, “PlanetSolar wants to show that we can change, that solutions exist and that it isn’t too late. Future generations are looking to us; our choices will mark the future of humanity.”
Built at the Knierim Yacht Club in Kiel in northern Germany, the PlanetSolar is a 31 by 15 meter catamaran that can expand to 35 by 23 meters when the flaps at the stern and the sides are extended. The deck is completely covered in 500 sq. meters of solar panels with the cockpit sticking out from the top, meaning that there won’t be any bathing beauties lounging on top when they sail into port, but they will be rolling in sans emissions. Manned by two crew members, the catamaran can accommodate up to 50 people on their world voyage. The makers are expecting the boat to get a top speed of 15 knots and an average of 8 knots.
The 40,000 km world voyage will start April 2011 and take an estimated 140 days based on the average speed of 8 knots. To maximize the solar power generated, the crew will stick to a more equatorial route in order to get the most sun. They plan on crossing the Atlantic from Europe through the Panama Canal, crossing the Pacific to the Indian Ocean, and then through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Ocean. Along the way they will stop in New York, San Francisco, Darwin in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Marseille in southern France. Now that the boat is built, they trip should be cheap since they don’t have to pay for fuel along the way.
Search: ArchitectureInteriorsProductsTechnologyEnergyTransportationFashionArtKidsContestsInhabitat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
World’s Largest Solar Powered Boat Unveiled
by Bridgette Meinhold, 02/26/10
PlanetSolar, a 31 meter long catamaran, was unveiled yesterday in Kiel, Germany, and its deck just so happens to be completely covered with photovoltaic panels, making it the world’s largest solar powered boat. While not quite ready to launch yet, the PV-bedazzled boat will debut at Hamburg port’s 821st anniversary celebrations in May, and then undergo testing during the summer before starting on a world-wide voyage to promote solar energy. The makers of the boat say, “PlanetSolar wants to show that we can change, that solutions exist and that it isn’t too late. Future generations are looking to us; our choices will mark the future of humanity.”
http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/02/26/worlds-largest-solar-powered-boat-unveiled/
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Whale Meat on the Menu, in California?
March 9, 2010, 11:06 am
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
One definition of chutzpah: The day after a team of activist filmmakers garner an Academy Award for “ The Cove,” the documentary showing in wrenching detail the slaughter of hundreds of dolphins in a Japanese town, they disclose a sting operation they conducted with law enforcement officials at one of the hottest sushi bars in Santa Monica, Calif. — in which they say they confirmed that Sei whale meat was on the menu. Read the details in Jennifer Steinhauer’s Times story. Here’s a snippet:
Their work, undertaken in large part here last week as the filmmakers gathered for the Academy Awards ceremony, was coordinated with law enforcement officials, who said Monday that they were likely to bring charges against the restaurant, the Hump, for violating federal laws against selling marine mammals.
“We’re moving forward rapidly,” said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the United States attorney for the Central District of California. Mr. Mrozek declined to say what charges could be brought against the restaurant, but said they could come as early as this week.
In the clash of two Southern California cultures — sushi aficionados and hard-core animal lovers — the animal lovers have thrown a hard punch.
Elsewhere in the world, the appetites and indulgences of wealthy consumers are sustaining the flow of gorilla hands and other bush meat from African forests to swelling cities and the flow of exotic, endangered species to medicinal products companies and restaurants in Asia. Is it jarring, or not, to see such activity here?
The disclosure in California comes as the International Whaling Commission considers a compromise that would end the longstanding moratorium on commercial whaling in return for Japan and other whaling countries reducing* their independent whale hunts. On his Facebook page, Carl Safina, the author and ocean campaigner, put up a link to the Times article on the sushi find and said: “This is why whale hunting must be crushed once and for all — not expanded.”
[1:15 p.m. | Updated: *The marine biologist Sidney Holt wrote in to correct my original description of this proposal (that Japan Iceland and Norway would stop their independent whaling). As he explains: "They would at most agree to reduce their catches somewhat, below present levels. The proposal is an absolute disaster for 50 years of effort to bring whaling under control, if not to end it, mostly led by the U.S.A. And a huge disgrace to this Administration for supporting the dreadful 'deal'."]
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/whale-meat-on-the-menu-in-california/
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
One definition of chutzpah: The day after a team of activist filmmakers garner an Academy Award for “ The Cove,” the documentary showing in wrenching detail the slaughter of hundreds of dolphins in a Japanese town, they disclose a sting operation they conducted with law enforcement officials at one of the hottest sushi bars in Santa Monica, Calif. — in which they say they confirmed that Sei whale meat was on the menu. Read the details in Jennifer Steinhauer’s Times story. Here’s a snippet:
Their work, undertaken in large part here last week as the filmmakers gathered for the Academy Awards ceremony, was coordinated with law enforcement officials, who said Monday that they were likely to bring charges against the restaurant, the Hump, for violating federal laws against selling marine mammals.
“We’re moving forward rapidly,” said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the United States attorney for the Central District of California. Mr. Mrozek declined to say what charges could be brought against the restaurant, but said they could come as early as this week.
In the clash of two Southern California cultures — sushi aficionados and hard-core animal lovers — the animal lovers have thrown a hard punch.
Elsewhere in the world, the appetites and indulgences of wealthy consumers are sustaining the flow of gorilla hands and other bush meat from African forests to swelling cities and the flow of exotic, endangered species to medicinal products companies and restaurants in Asia. Is it jarring, or not, to see such activity here?
The disclosure in California comes as the International Whaling Commission considers a compromise that would end the longstanding moratorium on commercial whaling in return for Japan and other whaling countries reducing* their independent whale hunts. On his Facebook page, Carl Safina, the author and ocean campaigner, put up a link to the Times article on the sushi find and said: “This is why whale hunting must be crushed once and for all — not expanded.”
[1:15 p.m. | Updated: *The marine biologist Sidney Holt wrote in to correct my original description of this proposal (that Japan Iceland and Norway would stop their independent whaling). As he explains: "They would at most agree to reduce their catches somewhat, below present levels. The proposal is an absolute disaster for 50 years of effort to bring whaling under control, if not to end it, mostly led by the U.S.A. And a huge disgrace to this Administration for supporting the dreadful 'deal'."]
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/whale-meat-on-the-menu-in-california/
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