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
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
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/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)