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#13 of 18 Posted 3/30/05 3:48 PM

From Gerard <Sysop> Posts 82654 Last 3/19/09
To Gerard <Sysop> [Msg # 193705.13 193705.1 ] (Unread)

   Ballard Announces Fuel Cell Timetable

APO 30/03/2005 05:59

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
The information contained in this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of the Associated Press.
   By KEN THOMAS
Associated Press Writer
   WASHINGTON (AP) -- A leading developer of hydrogen fuel cells for automobiles announced a timetable Tuesday for making the technology more feasible by 2010.
   Canadian-based Ballard Power Systems Inc. said it would demonstrate a commercially viable fuel cell "stack," which uses hydrogen fuel to generate electricity in vehicles, in five years.
   By 2010, Ballard said its fuel cell stack would be more durable, cost-effective and better able to start in freezing conditions.
   The company said its "road map" would follow targets set by the U.S. Energy Department and help automakers chart the development of the technology.
   "We're showing through our actions and not just words that this technology is real and by 2010 we'll be able to demonstrate its commercial viability," said Dennis Campbell, Ballard's president and chief executive.
   Fuel cells convert hydrogen and oxygen into water to produce electricity. Unlike batteries that go dead after the reactive chemicals are used up, fuel cells can be replenished with hydrogen and oxygen. The technology has been used in experimental vehicles and as a power supply for some buildings.
   President Bush has pushed a $1.7 billion research program to develop hydrogen as America's next energy source and predicted Americans will drive cars operated by hydrogen-powered fuel cells in two decades.
   Most major automakers are developing fuel cells but say the cost of the vehicles and a lack of fueling stations make them unmarketable at this time.
   Ballard's announcement, made to coincide with the National Hydrogen Association's annual conference in Washington, was aimed at skeptics who question whether the technology will be practical and economical in the future.
   Critics note that some hydrogen is produced from natural gas and other fossil fuels, and they stress the need for the development of a safe and cost-effective way to store and distribute hydrogen, a highly flammable gas.
   Nick Cappa, a DaimlerChrysler AG spokesman on advanced technology, said several steps would need to be taken before the technology could become widely used. DaimlerChrysler has more than 100 fuel-cell vehicles, the auto industry's largest fleet.
   "Although it may be feasible for fuel-cell technology to make that leap in 2010, that does not necessarily mean the market is ready for it," Cappa said. "It does not necessarily mean the infrastructure will be there."
   General Motors Corp. spokesman Scott Fosgard said the company has spent more than $1 billion on fuel-cell technology and has said it could be commercially viable by 2010.
   "It's great that more than one company is saying this now, and I think what you're seeing is a growing industry will to make this happen," Fosgard said.
   Ford Motor Co. called the timetable "pretty optimistic."
   "We believe that fuel cell vehicles may begin to be viable in the next 10 to 15 years," said Ford spokesman Ed Lewis. "However, it's impossible to predict when we'll begin to see huge numbers of vehicles on the roads."
   David Friedman, research director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' Clean Vehicles Program, said Ballard was announcing "important goals" but said the availability of the fuel would be a major obstacle.
   "If they can achieve it, it will definitely help bring fuel-cell vehicles to the roads," Friedman said. "The big problem is, where's the hydrogen?"
   The Burnaby, British Columbia-based company is partially owned by DaimlerChrysler and Ford, but Campbell said the technology would be "available to all comers" in the auto industry.
   ------
   On the Net:
   Ballard Power Systems: http://www.ballard.com/

#14 of 18 Posted 3/30/05 3:48 PM

From Gerard <Sysop> Posts 82654 Last 3/19/09
To Gerard <Sysop> [Msg # 193705.14 193705.1 ] (Unread)

      Human Damage to Earth Worsening Fast -Report

RTos 30/03/2005 05:38

Copyright 2005 Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved.
The following news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Reuters Ltd.

    By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
     OSLO (Reuters) - Humans are damaging the planet at an unprecedented rate and raising risks of abrupt collapses in nature that could spur disease, deforestation or "dead zones" in the seas, an international report said on Wednesday.
     The study, by 1,360 experts in 95 nations, said a rising human population had polluted or over-exploited two-thirds of the ecological systems on which life depends, ranging from clean air to fresh water, in the past 50 years.
     "At the heart of this assessment is a stark warning," said the 45-member board of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.
     "Human activity is putting such strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted," it said.
     Ten to 30 percent of mammal, bird and amphibian species were already threatened with extinction, according to the assessment, the biggest review of the planet's life support systems.
     "Over the past 50 years, humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable time in human history, largely to meet rapidly growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fiber and fuel," the report said.
     "This has resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible loss in the diversity of life on earth," it added. More land was changed to cropland since 1945, for instance, than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined.

     GETTING WORSE
     "The harmful consequences of this degradation could grow significantly worse in the next 50 years," it said. The report was compiled by experts, including from U.N. agencies and international scientific and development organizations.
     U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the study "shows how human activities are causing environmental damage on a massive scale throughout the world, and how biodiversity -- the very basis for life on earth -- is declining at an alarming rate."
     The report said there was evidence that strains on nature could trigger abrupt changes like the collapse of cod fisheries off Newfoundland in Canada in 1992 after years of over-fishing.
     Future changes could bring sudden outbreaks of disease. Warming of the Great Lakes in Africa due to climate change, for instance, could create conditions for a spread of cholera.
     And a build-up of nitrogen from fertilizers washed off farmland into seas could spur abrupt blooms of algae that choke fish or create oxygen-depleted "dead zones" along coasts.
     It said deforestation often led to less rainfall. And at some point, lack of rain could suddenly undermine growing conditions for remaining forests in a region.
     "We're seeing an increasing risk of abrupt changes in many ecosystems," Walt Reid, executive director of the assessment, told Reuters.
     The report said that in 100 years, global warming widely blamed on burning of fossil fuels in cars, factories and power plants, might take over as the main source of damage. The report mainly looks at other, shorter-term risks.
     The study, to be handed to governments, said big changes in consumption, better education, new technology and higher prices for exploiting ecosystems could brake damage.
     "Governments should recognize that natural services have costs," A.H. Zakri of the U.N. University and a co-chair of the report told Reuters. "Protection of natural services is unlikely to be a priority for those who see them as free and limitless."

#15 of 18 Posted 3/30/05 3:49 PM

From Gerard <Sysop> Posts 82654 Last 3/19/09
To Gerard <Sysop> [Msg # 193705.15 193705.1 ] (Unread)

Tiny HK Falling Foul of Electronic Waste -Greenpeace

RTos 29/03/2005 23:53

Copyright 2005 Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved.
The following news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Reuters Ltd.

    HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong has become a dumping ground for electronic waste from the United States, Europe and Japan and soil tests have uncovered excessive lead levels in the soil, according to Greenpeace.
     Nearly 100 large, open fields in the city's New Territories are covered in a sea of old computers, televisions, printers and printed circuit boards.
     The semi-rural New Territories, near the border with mainland China, has become a receiving and sorting station for the waste before disassembled parts are sent across the border for recycling.
     "Up till 2003, we had only old local computers in small shops in Hong Kong, but what's happened now is the waste has moved into large rural areas, and these are imports from outside -- the U.S., Europe and Japan," said Edward Chan of Greenpeace in Hong Kong.
     The spillover into Hong Kong came after Beijing banned the import of electronic waste in 2000.
     Traders quickly worked around that by sending containers of waste into Hong Kong, where computers and other electronic goods are disassembled before being trucked into other parts of southern China.
     "The traders just label these containers as second-hand goods and there is nothing the Hong Kong authorities can do. It has no laws against imports of electronic waste," Chan said.
     "Workers disassemble them into smaller parts here and then sell them into China where there are traders who buy different parts for recycling ... If we don't stop this, we will further dirty this place, and become an entrepot for electronic waste."
     Chan said there were now at least 91 fields in the New Territories holding electronic waste. Some were as large as a standard football pitch and these can store over 100 tonnes of such waste at any one time. Smaller fields hold half as much.
     "We have 2,000 tonnes of rubbish at any one time," he said.
     Tests on soil samples collected at these blackspots were found to contain up to 10 times as much lead than uncontaminated soil, which typically have lead levels of below 10-30mg/kg.
     Lead is harmful to the human nervous system, blood circulation and organs.
     The Hong Kong government was not immediately available for comment.

#16 of 18 Posted 3/30/05 3:50 PM

From Gerard <Sysop> Posts 82654 Last 3/19/09
To Gerard <Sysop> [Msg # 193705.16 193705.1 ] (Unread)

       Arkansas Arsenal Begins Destroying Weapons

APO 29/03/2005 23:47

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
The information contained in this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of the Associated Press.
   By DAVID HAMMER
Associated Press Writer
   LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- The Pine Bluff Arsenal began destroying its stockpile of 3,850 tons of chemical weapons Tuesday, incinerating two rockets laced with sarin nerve gas.
   "We are making chemical weapons history by destroying weapons stored here more than 60 years," said Dale Ormond, deputy assistant secretary of the Army.
   Another 28 rockets were scheduled to be destroyed Wednesday.
   The arsenal showed video of the automated process inside the disposal facility. The rockets were punctured with three holes and drained. The chemical agent flowed into an incineration furnace.
   Meanwhile, the rocket tubes were sliced into eight pieces and fed into a separate furnace, where they were "safely and irreversibly destroyed," said Randy Long, Pine Bluff Arsenal's site project manager.
   Twelve percent of the nation's chemical weapons are stored at the Pine Bluff Arsenal, and the military plans to incinerate all of them by 2010 to comply with an international treaty that says countries must destroy their stockpiles by 2012. Chemical weapons have also been incinerated at other military depots.
   M-55 rockets are loaded with sarin nerve gas and have propellants and rocket motors.
   Opponents fearful of some kind accident have not had much success in recruiting members in Arkansas, where the community has welcomed the arsenal's jobs and federal funding.
   At Anniston, Ala., where disposal of a smaller stockpile started in 2003, authorities distributed gas masks to surrounding communities, but Pine Bluff Arsenal officials determined that was not necessary.
   The rockets have been stored at the Pine Bluff Arsenal, about 40 miles south of Little Rock, since the early 1960s.
   ------
   On the Net:
   Pine Bluff Arsenal: http://www.pba.army.mil

#17 of 18 Posted 3/30/05 3:51 PM

From Gerard <Sysop> Posts 82654 Last 3/19/09
To Gerard <Sysop> [Msg # 193705.17 193705.1 ] (Unread)

           Dinosaur Dung Display a Big Hit at Museum

APO 29/03/2005 22:31

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
The information contained in this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of the Associated Press.

   CENTRAL POINT, Ore. (AP) -- A display of dinosaur dung is turning out to be the big draw at a local museum. Frank Callahan, the past president of the Roxy Ann Gem & Mineral Society which owns and operates the Crater Rock Museum housing the fossilized feces, suggests it be labeled "coprolite."
   "That's the polite way of saying dinosaur dung," he said as he bent over to pick up a specimen.
   With last week's revelation that scientists have recovered soft tissue from a 70-million-year-old fossilized bone of a Tyrannosaurus rex found in a sandstone formation in Montana, dinosaurs are back in the news.
   While the nonprofit museum, which was founded in 1954, also has dinosaur eggs and dinosaur bones, its the "dino plops" that invariably bring a smile to visitors.
   "The first thing adults do is smell it," he said. "Of course, there is no smell.

#18 of 18 Posted 3/30/05 3:51 PM

From Gerard <Sysop> Posts 82654 Last 3/19/09
To Gerard <Sysop> [Msg # 193705.18 193705.1 ] (Unread)

      China Says Environment Spending Falls Short

RTos 29/03/2005 20:38

Copyright 2005 Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved.
The following news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Reuters Ltd.

    BEIJING (Reuters) - China's spending on pollution control and environmental protection will fall at least 30 percent short of targets for 2001 to 2005 despite two decades of industrialization that have left the country with some of the smoggiest cities in the world, the China Daily said on Wednesday.
     Current plans called for China to spend nearly $85 billion in those five years to clean up notoriously smoggy cities and fouled waterways, the newspaper said.
     But actual spending would only hit 70 percent of that target, Chen Bin, vice head of the State Environmental Protection Administration's planning and finance department, was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
     Although officials have voiced increasing concern over pollution, environmental controls have mostly taken a back seat to efforts to develop the economy.
     Plans being drafted for the five years starting in 2006 would earmark some $157 billion for environmental spending, Chen said.
     That spending would account for about 1.5 percent of gross domestic product, but Chen said that proportion needed to rise to about 3 percent before noticeable improvements could be made in the environment.
     China was focusing its environmental protection efforts on treating hazardous waste, sewage and garbage, and on cleaning up the many coal-fired power plants that provide most of the country's energy, Chen said.

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2008 World News Archive

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