Sunday October 11, 2009

El Nino may force Indonesia to shelve rice exports plan

This article belongs to the Global food crisis story arc.

bloomberg.com :

Indonesia may shelve plans for the country's biggest rice exports in half a century next year if dry weather caused by El Nino causes production to miss forecasts. The world's third-biggest grower had planned to ship up to 2 million metric tons of milled rice next year, based on a production forecast of 40 million tons this year. El Nino can prolong the dry season in parts of Asia, delaying rains, leading to lower agricultural output. Global rice production may fall 3% to 668 million tons this year, the UN FAO reported.

Rice, the staple food for half the world's population, surged to a record $25.07 per 100 pounds in April 2008 in Chicago as global inventories declined, sparking a global food crisis that prompted exporters including India and Vietnam to curb shipments to secure domestic supplies and cool inflation. Rice futures prices have plunged by almost half since then as growers rushed to expand production. Rough rice for Nov 2009 delivery was recently trading at $13.125 on the Chicago Board of Trade [CBOT].

- Right, it's not the first time that Indonesia is going to limit its rice exports, but couple that with the huge flood in the Philippines that destroyed a portion of their rice crop, throw in rising crude oil prices and all-time record high gold prices and we just might end up with a recipe for rice supply issues and price inflation. I'd say it's probably best for us to stock up on a couple extra bags of rice. You know. Just in case.

See also :

1. Soaring rice prices hurting Asia's neediest nations
2. High food prices seen leading to strikes, protests in Asia
3. Global food crisis looms as Asia's rice bowl empties and world price soars
4. Thai rice price at new record high of US$1000 a tonne as Asian food crisis worsens
5. Large swathes of Myanmar completely flooded after cyclone, rice exports to be affected

(2009-10-11 22:17:30 SGT) [Env] Permalink

Thursday August 27, 2009

Palm oil : RSPO group pushes for environment-friendly standards

features.csmonitor.com :

Palm oil : companies can't get enough of the "golden plant" grown in Indonesia and Malaysia to keep up with demand. So plantations are burning and clearing rain forests - often illegally - to plant more palm trees. Clearing the jungle belches carbon into the air and is pushing orangutans to extinction. Now, a Malaysian-based network is pushing to end the destruction by adopting more eco-friendly standards. The RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) has signed up corporations such as Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Nestle, Colgate-Palmolive, Cargill, The Body Shop, and Cadbury. The RSPO certified its first "green" batches a year ago, and now accounts for 1.4 million tons, or 3% of the world supply of crude palm oil.

It represents a first step in a very long journey for the prized vegetable oil that appears all over supermarket shelves - in detergent, soap, cooking oil, bread, candy bars, cosmetics - and, increasingly, in biofuels. There are plenty of gaps in enforcement of the new standards, however. Sustainable plantations don't produce much yet. The global appetite is so voracious that some brands mix "good" palm oil with "bad." A single chocolate bar, for instance, might contain oil from a compliant plantation and one that's not.

- Palm oil. Peakoilers are well aware that it is an incredibly useful substance, and yet at the same time it is an increasing problem : Haze and burnt forests. Questionable EROEI (Energy Return on Energy Invested). Food vs fuel.

This RSPO thing. It sounds like a good idea, and I'm glad that they at least try.

But we need to do a bit more than that.

We need to recognize that biodiesels as a whole, with energy return ratios barely over the breakeven point of 1.00, and arguably many of them don't even make 1.00, aren't a terribly bright idea. We need to recognize that food for people should take precedence over fuel for cars. We need to recognize that, the energy we use worldwide every year is equivalent to over 400 years of total worldwide plant and animal growth. We need to recognize that, well, we need to find a better way. Biofuels are not the answer. They never have been the answer.

See also :

1. So much for biodiesel
2. Malaysia wants to be world's biggest biodiesel producer
3. Hazy days and palm oil
4. Scientists weigh downside of palm oil
5. Climate deals turn up heat in Indonesia's dark peatlands

(2009-08-27 21:38:59 SGT) [Env] Permalink

Wednesday June 24, 2009

Synthetic trees aim to capture CO2 from the air

edition.cnn.com :

Scientists in the US are developing synthetic trees capable of collecting carbon around 1,000 times faster than the real thing. As the wind blows though plastic "leaves," the carbon is trapped in a chamber, compressed and stored as liquid carbon dioxide. The technology is similar to the carbon capture methods at coal power plants, however the "synthetic tree" can catch carbon anywhere. Professor Klaus Lackner of Columbia University says it is highly efficient for its size compared to a wind turbine. Lackner and his colleagues have developed a sorbent that uses a relatively small amount of energy to release the CO2 and is not prohibitively expensive.

Lackner's colleague Professor Wally Broecker says most people still don't recognize the magnitude of the task the world faces in reducing global carbon emissions, and it was likely that one day urgent action would need to be taken. "Each unit would take out a ton of CO2 a day - which would be the amount of CO2 produced by 20 average automobiles in the U.S.A. And the cost of each unit would be about the cost of a Toyota."

- Amongst the various CO2 capture techniques that have been proposed, this looks like an interesting approach. Whether it scales or not (or if it gets Richard Branson's stamp of approval) will have to be seen, particularly regarding the issue of carbon storage. I'm a little leery about the CO2 storage part however, whether in liquid form or whatever it may be. It would make more sense if some economic use could be found for it, for example as CO2 injections to increase oil well pressure with the tertiary oil recovery method. With that, we're back to the old "find the nearest oil field" game once again.

Virgin CEO Richard Branson was talking about scrubbing a billion tons of carbon dioxide a year. A billion tons. Compared to that, the scale of nuclear waste, especially with reprocessing, looks positively miniscule, which is great, except for the political posturing part. Well, it's time to look past political posturing. The world needs all the solutions it can get, whether it's a transition to an electric car fleet, renewable energy, nuclear energy, carbon capture and storage. Anything and everything that can work, we've got to look into it.

See also :

1. Climate expert urges dropping clean coal
2. China overtakes US as world's biggest CO2 emitter
3. BP, Rio Tinto cancel $2 billion Australian clean coal power plant
4. Slow Down For Peak Oil : Airplanes, ships, cars ease off throttle to save fuel

(2009-06-24 13:21:44 SGT) [Env] Permalink Comments [1]

Sunday May 17, 2009

Canada publishes first comprehensive atlas, maps geological riches of Arctic mineral resources

This article belongs to the Polar melting, Arctic mining and mineral resources story arc.

ottawacitizen.com :

Canada has published the first comprehensive atlas of Arctic geology - everything from continental plates to rock types that signal where to hunt for gold, diamonds, gas and oil. The atlas contains $1-billion worth of data from polar countries, and carries enormous implications for contentious Arctic sovereignty claims - based partly on formations under the ocean - and for mining and earthquake forecasting. The map is available electronically and in a poster from Natural Resources Canada, showing the world north of the Arctic Circle.

Already, mining companies are eager for a look, said Marc St-Onge, a Geological Survey of Canada senior scientist. Canada, Russia, the United States, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden all contributed data. The $1-billion figure represents years of field work by these countries combined : icebreakers, helicopter flights, seismic profiles, and geologists trekking on foot. It shows not only the surface, but also deeper layers in 3D "data cubes." He noted that with the economic slowdown, the mining industry has time to digest what the atlas shows, without pressure to rush out and drill right away.

- The irony of all this has already been noted a couple of years ago and it goes like this :

1. Humans burn fossil fuels to release the buried solar energy stored therein
2. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rise and the natural "greenhouse effect" is amplified
3. The oceans warm and ice melts
4. Melting ice opens up new prospective oil & gas provinces for exploration & production
5. Humans burn more fossil fuels ... and back to (2)

The above passage really does point out the absurdity of the situation. But there is nothing particularly funny about it if you also consider the potential global sea level rise, with 7 meters (23 feet) due to Greenland melting and, it has also been said, up to 60 meters (197 feet) if Antarctica were to also melt.

We need to break this cycle of burning fossil fuels. We need to implement solar energy, we need to implement wind energy, and at the same time we also should not rule out nuclear energy - whatever alternative energy sources that are workable and that are deployable. The alternative is for the countries of the world to start fighting resource wars - and there are those who argue that these resource wars have started already. There could be increasingly nasty conflicts over increasingly scarce resources. The Great Arctic Endgame is just one of them.

See also :

1. Arctic meltdown = oil, shipping & fish
2. Arctic dreams
3. Arctic sea ice melting at faster rate than projected
4. Canada flexes its muscles in scramble for the Arctic
5. Russia mulls potentially oil-rich Arctic seabed

(2009-05-17 11:08:27 SGT) [Env] Permalink

Thursday April 30, 2009

Swine flu map roundup

Been looking around to see if people have put up swine flu maps.
Apparently there are quite a few. Here's a roundup of 3 of them :

1. H1N1 Swine Flu on Google Maps - this might be the first swine flu map put up
2. HealthMap Global Disease Alert Map - entire world at a glance
3. 2009 H1N1 Flu Outbreak Map - this indicates the number of people on the map markers

See also :

1. Mexico to shut down economy as WHO says swine flu pandemic imminent

(2009-04-30 23:57:31 SGT) [Env] Permalink

Wednesday April 22, 2009

Earth Day 2009 : So what have you done for the environment today?

earthday.net :

Earth Day 2009, April 22, will mark the beginning of The Green Generation Campaign which will also be the focus of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day in 2010. With negotiations for a new global climate agreement coming up in December, Earth Day 2009 must be a day of action and civic participation, to defend The Green Generation's core principles:

* A carbon-free future based on renewable energy that will end our common dependency on fossil fuels, including coal.
* An individual's commitment to responsible, sustainable consumption.
* Creation of a new green economy that lifts people out of poverty by creating millions of quality green jobs and transforms the global education system into a green one.

- It has been 4 years since I have last mentioned Earth Day on this blog. Looking back, here's what I have done for the environment in the meantime:

1. Compared to 3 years back, reduced home electricity usage by 37%.
2. Upgraded the car from a conventional Honda Civic to a Honda Civic Hybrid.
3. Continued to track the latest developments in hybrid and electric vehicle technology.
4. Continued to promote the ideas of solar, wind and geothermal power as renewable energy sources,
5. At the same time, recognizing that nuclear and future space-based solar for baseload power also need to be looked at.
6. Tracked, promoted and took part in recycling - excluding food waste, over 80% of our household waste is now recycled.

So. What have you done for the environment today?
I will continue to do what I can and have so far, and try to do more.
I hope more people can do the same, or even better.
After all, it's the only Earth we have.

See also :

1. Earth Day 2005
2. Green business strategy
3. Digital waste worth more than gold, copper ore
4. Scientists predict floods in New York from global warming
5. Global warming scenarios (San Francisco, Indonesia, Bangladesh)

(2009-04-22 10:01:36 SGT) [Env] Permalink

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