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#8 of 18 Posted 3/30/05 3:43 PM

From Gerard <Sysop> Posts 82654 Last 3/19/09
To Gerard <Sysop> [Msg # 193705.8 193705.1 ] (Unread)

   GM in Fuel Cell Deal with Energy Dept.

RTos 30/03/2005 08:39

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.

    DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp. (GM.N) on Wednesday said it signed an $88 million deal with the U.S. Department of Energy to build a fleet of 40 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and further develop the technology.
     Under the five-year program, the world's largest automaker will spend $44 million to deploy fuel cell demonstration vehicles in Washington D.C., New York, California and Michigan.
     The Department of Energy will contribute the other half of the investment in the program, under an agreement that expires in September 2009.
     In a separate commercial agreement, Shell Hydrogen, LLC will support GM by setting up five hydrogen refueling stations in Washington, D.C., New York City, between Washington D.C. and New York and in California.
     Other program partners include the U.S. Army at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, and Quantum Technologies in Lake Forest, California. Both will provide facilities for GM to store and maintain fuel cell vehicles.
     GM said it is also collaborating with the U.S. Department of Defense and would release news on that relationship later this week.

#9 of 18 Posted 3/30/05 3:45 PM

From Gerard <Sysop> Posts 82654 Last 3/19/09
To Gerard <Sysop> [Msg # 193705.9 193705.1 ] (Unread)

    Study: Salmon From Farms Breed Sea Lice

APO 30/03/2005 07:15

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The information contained in this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of the Associated Press.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 JOHN HEILPRIN
Associated Press Writer
   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Salmon farms help stock supermarkets but also breed parasitic sea lice that infect young wild salmon and could endanger other important ocean species such as herring, scientists said Tuesday.
   Even a single farm can have far-reaching effects, Canadian researchers Martin Krkosek, Mark Lewis and John Volpe found. The study adds fuel to the clamor over farmed versus wild salmon, a debate that extends along Pacific Northwest coastlines.
   "We know that the lice do infect other species," said Krkosek, a University of Alberta mathematical biologist. "The transmission from farmed fish to wild fish is much larger than what was previously believed."
   Adult salmon can survive such infections, but the younger salmon are more vulnerable. "Normally, juvenile salmon have time to build resistance and put on body mass before they encounter these parasites," Krkosek said.
   The Canadian government has found that salmon farms effectively control sea lice. But citing concerns over declining populations of native juvenile salmon off northern Vancouver Island, the government announced plans last week to do more research on the matter.
   The study, being published Wednesday in the London-based Proceedings of the Royal Society B, contradicts the government's conclusion on the danger posed by sea lice from salmon farms.
   It drew mixed reactions.
   Ransom A. Myers, a marine biology professor at Dalhousie University in Canada, called it "a very thorough analysis" that relies on an enormous data set. But Robert Scott McKinley, a University of British Columbia professor of aquaculture, was unconvinced. "I think it hints of fear-mongering," he said.
   In the published study, the researchers looked at 5,514 juvenile pink and chum salmon as they swam up two narrow fjords in British Columbia, past a salmon farm.
   The study found that as the fish migrated past the farm -- about one-eighth of a mile long -- clouds of lice infected the juvenile wild salmon at unnaturally high rates for nearly 19 miles around the farm. Normally, sea lice are rarely found on wild juvenile salmon.
   "Conservatively, this means that the parasite footprint of the farm is 150 times larger than the farm itself," said Volpe, a University of Victoria marine ecologist.
   The study also found that the lice bred as they infected the migrating juvenile salmon, allowing them to re-infect the fish and potentially endanger other marine species.
   Some European countries, where salmon farming is popular, use chemicals to control the parasites and dye to turn the salmon flesh pink. The use of those chemicals has led some environmentalists to hold demonstrations run ads urging consumers to boycott farmed salmon. Some grocery stores carry labels saying farmed fish contain dye. And a major study in the journal Science last year found more cancer-causing PCBs in farmed fish over wild fish.
   ------
   On the Net:
   The Royal Society: http://www.pubs.royalsoc.ac.uk
   Salmon Farmers: http://www.salmonfarmers.org

#10 of 18 Posted 3/30/05 3:45 PM

From Gerard <Sysop> Posts 82654 Last 3/19/09
To Gerard <Sysop> [Msg # 193705.10 193705.1 ] (Unread)

   Lawmaker Urges NASA on Hubble Mission

APO 30/03/2005 07:15

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 STEPHEN MANNING
Associated Press Writer
   GREENBELT, Md. (AP) -- Maryland Congressman Steny Hoyer called on NASA Tuesday to go ahead with plans to send a robot to service the Hubble Space Telescope while officials from the space agency said such a mission likely won't happen due to proposed budget cuts.
   Hubble, which is operated out of Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, is scheduled for maintenance in late 2007 or 2008. NASA had once planned to repair worn out parts with either a manned space mission or using a robotic arm that would attach itself to the telescope.
   However, President Bush eliminated funding for a repair mission in his 2006 budget and only set aside money to send Hubble into a death swoon into the Earth's atmosphere.
   Hoyer, a Democrat whose district includes Goddard and many of the 700 NASA employees and private contractors who work on Hubble, said the president's budget overlooked the contributions that the space-borne telescope has made to astronomy. He said funding should be restored for an additional mission.
   "This is a very important mission for us to continue and complete," he said during a tour of the Hubble lab, which holds the robotic arm that could be used to fix the telescope.
   But Al Diaz, NASA's Associate Administrator for Science who was on the same tour, said the agency has no plans to send a mission, manned or robotic, to repair Hubble.
   "We don't intend on servicing it, that's where we are," Diaz said.
   Launched in 1990 and orbiting the Earth, Hubble initially suffered numerous problems. But it has since provided scientists with glimpses deep into space and the universe's past. Hubble has detected some of the most distant objects ever recorded.
   Space shuttle astronauts have made four trips to Hubble to fix it, but the prospect of another manned mission dimmed after the 2003 Columbia accident that put a halt temporary halt to future shuttle launches.
   Goddard scientists have adapted robotic technology developed for the orbiting space station to use on a repair mission to Hubble. The plan calls for an unmanned spacecraft to dock with Hubble and extend a robotic arm controlled by technicians on Earth that would perform tasks.
   Late last year a National Academy of Sciences panel recommended one more mission to Hubble. Without further repairs, Goddard officials say Hubble could still be useful to scientists for at least two more years. It would eventually fall out of orbit sometime around 2013, according to Preston Burch, Hubble's program manager.
   Even if the repair mission is canceled, NASA officials said the robotic technology can still be used for other purposes.
   "If the mission never happens, we've still learned so much about the technology," said Frank Cepollina, the deputy associate director of Hubble.

#11 of 18 Posted 3/30/05 3:46 PM

From Gerard <Sysop> Posts 82654 Last 3/19/09
To Gerard <Sysop> [Msg # 193705.11 193705.1 ] (Unread)

       Latest Earthquakes Surprise Seismologists

APO 30/03/2005 07:14

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 RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
Associated Press Writer
   WASHINGTON (AP) -- The latest deadly earthquake off the coast of Indonesia wasn't unexpected but may have arrived earlier than experts anticipated.
   After the December 26 quake that sent out a devastating tsunami, every seismologist knew that the earthquake potential of nearby faults had increased, Yale University seismologist Jeffrey Park said in a telephone interview.
   "But I don't think any one of us would have predicted it would have occurred in three months, at this magnitude," he said.
   Dave Oppenheimer, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., noted that the December quake, to the north, released a lot of stress, but also increased the stress on nearby fault zones.
   The area of Monday's quake had a major tremor in 1861 and had been storing up tension since then, he said, so the December quake dumped stress onto an area that was ready to go.
   Another section, southeast of Monday's quake, last shook in 1833, Oppenheimer added. "Will it go tomorrow, will it go in two months, two years, two decades ... we don't know, but it will occur," he said.
   Aftershocks are common following large quakes. Oppenheimer said, and he called Monday's tremor a large aftershock from the December quake. But Park declined to call it an aftershock, since it wasn't located in the same fault section.
   "That doesn't mean that the two aren't connected; they very likely are connected," he said.
   But what seismologists don't understand is the time lag, he said, noting that in the Anatolian fault zone in Turkey and in California, the time scale can be decades.
   A 1971 quake in California loaded extra stress on a nearby fault that ruptured in the 1994 Northridge quake, Park said.
   "So the correlation is pretty clear but the cause, in terms of knowing the cause well enough to predict when the next one is going to occur, that's still mysterious," he said.
   Asked about the likelihood of another powerful Indonesian quake, he responded: "If you would ask me what the odds are in the next three months, I'd say they are low. In the next 15 years I'd say there is reason to be concerned. I'd say let's get that tsunami warning system out there," he said.
   Indeed, a new tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean was scheduled to begin service on Friday, but got an initial tryout Monday, relaying warnings from Japan and the United States that the quake had the potential to cause another great wave.
   Ultimately, no serious tsunami was reported, but one could arrive with any future quake, and Oppenheimer noted that there may have been a tsunami that knocked out communications in rural areas and the damage will only be discovered later. The full Indian Ocean tsunami warning system is expected to go into service by 2006.
   Why the December quake generated a devastating tsunami and Monday's didn't isn't yet understood, but there are several possibilities, he said.
   To generate those great waves, there has to be vertical movement of the sea floor, he said, and Monday's quake was deeper in the Earth than December's, so there may have been less direct effect on the ocean bottom. Also, he said, it occurred beneath an island, reducing the sea floor effects.
   In addition, the quake orientation was different. In December the quake energy went east and west, toward Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia. Monday the orientation was south-southeast, directing the energy into open ocean and Antarctica.
   Park said in some ways the Sumatra quakes are a wake-up call after a long period of relative seismic quiet following a series of major quakes in the 1950s and 1960s.
   "There's probably nothing ominous or portentous in that, by itself," he said. "The largest quakes are relatively rare."
   Indeed, Monday's 8.7 quake was the second most powerful since 1964, he said, following the December Sumatra quake which had a magnitude estimated at 9.0 or more.
   The December quake was unusual, he added, noting that it persisted for a relatively long time, 400 to 500 seconds -- roughly 6 1/2 to 8 1/2 minutes.
   In the 20th century there were only about a half-dozen quakes as large as Monday's and four occurred along one boundary where the giant plates that make up the surface of the planet grind together. That boundary stretches from Russia's Kamchatka peninsula along the Aleutian Islands to Alaska.
   ------
   On the Net:
   U.S. Geological Survey: http://www.usgs.gov

#12 of 18 Posted 3/30/05 3:47 PM

From Gerard <Sysop> Posts 82654 Last 3/19/09
To Gerard <Sysop> [Msg # 193705.12 193705.1 ] (Unread)

       Tsunami Warning System Helped Spread Word

APO 30/03/2005 07:14

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 ALISA TANG
Associated Press Writer
   BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Within minutes of the earthquake, the word went out: Radio and television stations repeated government warnings, workers at beachfront hotels pounded on doors to awaken guests, and police used loudspeakers to urge residents away from the sea.
   This time, there was no tsunami. But after Monday's quake, it was clear most people -- and governments -- learned from the Dec. 26 tsunami that left more than 280,000 dead or missing, a toll that reflected the near-total lack of warning systems.
   The United Nations said a fledgling Indian Ocean tsunami warning system helped spread the alarm. John Harding of the U.N. International Strategy for Disaster Reduction said many governments had provided contact information, making it possible to quickly relay news about the quake and later sound the all clear.
   "There are still some gaps and weaknesses, but overall the government is satisfied with what we did last night," said Suranand Vejjajiva, a Thai Cabinet minister.
   Within minutes of the quake, the U.S. Geological Survey and Japan's Meteorological Agency reported a major temblor. Soon afterward, government officials, the media and residents began responding:
   -- In Thailand, radio stations repeated government warnings that the quake could set off another tsunami, and workers in seaside hotels went door to door to wake up guests.
   -- Along India's Tamil Nadu coast, police used loudspeakers to tell residents to move to higher ground away from the sea.
   -- In Sri Lanka, officials alerted the media, and police and the military took up loudspeakers to warn coastal residents to get away from the water. Buddhist monasteries played prayers over loudspeakers, awakening those living nearby.
   "One of our neighbors knocked at our door and told us the tsunami was coming, so we ran," said M. Chandralatha, a 64-year-old Sri Lankan clutching her 6-year-old grandson.
   The cobbled-together system seemed to work reasonably well in most areas.
   "I am quite satisfied with the response time," said R. Santhanam, the top disaster response official in Tamil Nadu state. Although the quake occurred after 11 p.m., officials were able to contact district administrators and police "and everybody swung into action."
   Saiju, a telephone operator at the Hotel Sea Horse in Nagappatinam, the hardest-hit town in Tamil Nadu three months ago, said police warned residents over loudspeakers.
   "I first heard it from the police" about an hour after the quake, he said. Three months ago, the tsunami took three hours to strike the area.
   Higher up the chain of command, the Indian official in charge of national disaster management said he received nearly simultaneous calls from the Indian Meteorological Department and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii. Both came within a half hour of the quake.
   S.K. Swamy said he quickly called top relief coordinators and told them to warn coastal areas. "We told them you can't take chances," Swamy said.
   Things went less smoothly on Indonesia's Sumatra island, near both Monday's quake and the one that set off the devastating tsunami three months ago.
   There, nature provided the warning. People were shaken awake by powerful tremors in Banda Aceh, where hundreds of thousands live in refugee camps set up after the tsunami. Thousands of panicked refugees headed for high ground, leaving in pickup trucks, on motorbikes or on foot.
   Residents said the first official announcement came several hours later, when police announced no tsunami appeared to be approaching.
   But the Banda Aceh police chief, Lt. Col. Eko Daniyanto, said his men used loudspeakers to urge calm after officers at the beach reported no change in the sea.
   "We did not downplay the threat," he said. "We tried to calm down panicking residents an hour after the earthquake when we knew already that the water had not risen.
   "We asked them not leave their houses longer because we were worried about looting," he said.
   Some Indonesians were furious at the official response.
   "No government called us or warned us," said Usman, a chief in the village of Kahju, who uses one name.
   "We just ran away in panic last night," he said. "When there was nothing from the beach and water did not rise last night, then I just came back home to sleep again."
   ------
   Associated Press writers Irwan Firdaus in Banda Aceh; Dilip Ganguly in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Rajesh Mahapatra in New Delhi, Alexander G. Higgins in Geneva and Daniel Lovering in Bangkok contributed to this report.

#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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