Canada dismissed the Kyoto Protocol on climate change on Monday

Canada dismissed the Kyoto Protocol on climate change on Monday as a thing of
the past, but declined to confirm a media report it will formally pull out of
the international treaty before the end of this year.
Although the right-of-center Conservative government walked away from its
Kyoto obligations years ago, a formal withdrawal would deal a symbolic blow to
global talks to save the agreement, which opened in South Africa on
Monday.
Canada says it backs a new international deal to cut global emissions of
greenhouses bases but insists it has to cover all nations, including China and India, which are not
bound by Kyoto's current targets.
Although Japan and Russia share Canada's
view, and the United States never ratified Kyoto, no nation has yet formally
renounced the treaty.

Related articles

• Canada to withdraw from Kyoto Protocol (macleans.ca)
• Kyoto in rearview mirror as Canada enters climate talks (ctv.ca)

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Kenyan authorities have seized a container loaded with 87 elephant tusks

Image via Wikipedia

Kenyan authorities have seized a container loaded with 87 elephant tusks and
disguised as soapstone carvings destined for Hong Kong, a customs official
said.
The 20-foot container was impounded at a depot in Nairobi. As it was being
inspected for clearance for shipment, officials scanning its contents became
suspicious.
"It was declared as assorted handicrafts destined for Hong Kong. Upon
scanning, our customs officers discovered that the images were suspect and a
decision was made to subject the container to a 100 percent verification," said
Ezekiel Maru, communications and marketing officer at the Kenya
Revenue.
"We found 11 wooden crates containing 25 pieces of elephant tusks and 15
cartons containing 61 pieces of tusks. The other cartons that had been used to
camouflage had assorted soapstone and wood carvings. Some had tiles and other
stuffings," he said, as other officers unpacked the container in the
background.
Maru, speaking to reporters on Friday, said a total of 87 tusks were
recovered. He did not say where the tusks came from or if any arrests had been
made. Television footage showed one man holding a tusk taller than he
was.
Poaching has declined significantly in Kenya from the 1980s and 1990s when
gangs decimated its elephants and hunted its rhinos almost to extinction, the
Kenya Wildlife Service says.
Ivory from African elephants is typically smuggled to Asia where it is carved
into ornaments, while rhino horn is used in traditional Chinese
medicines.
Kenya opposes any lifting of a nine-year ban on ivory sales agreed in 2007
under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
Authorities fear such a move would revive the market for ivory and lead to
increased poaching.

Related articles

• Vietnam confiscates 1 ton of elephant tusks (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Vietnam Confiscates 1 Ton of Elephant Tusks (abcnews.go.com)

Water in the Northwest Territories is at risk of being contaminated by run-off from Alberta's

Water in the Northwest Territories is at risk of being contaminated by run-off from Alberta's oilsands, according to a new report.
The report, "Canada's Great Basin: Presumed Abundance and Revealed Neglect in
the Mackenzie Watershed," by the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation, was
released Friday. It says the territory has no control over what's coming
downstream and there's not enough information to ensure the oilsands aren't
polluting northern waters.

Image via Wikipedia

The report recommends that world-class water monitoring be set up in the
Mackenzie Basin, and that the federal government help the N.W.T. and aboriginal
governments implement the territory's Water Stewardship Strategy.
The Mackenzie Basin is a watershed one-fifth the size of Canada, and its
borders extend into three provinces —Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C. — and the
three territories.

Related articles

• N.W.T.'s water could be at risk from oilsands (cbc.ca)
• Alberta study disputes oilsands corrosion claims (calgaryherald.com)
• Oilsands threaten whooping cranes (cbc.ca)

Brazil's government suspended Chevron Corp's drilling rights

Image via Wikipedia

Brazil's government suspended Chevron Corp's drilling rights until Chevron
clarifies the causes of an offshore oil spill, the latest twist in a political
firestorm threatening the U.S. company's role in Brazil's oil
bonanza.
The decision on Wednesday came as the head of Chevron's Brazilian unit
testified before Brazil's Congress, where he apologized for the November 8 spill
that leaked about 2,400 barrels of oil into the ocean off the coast of Rio de
Janeiro.
Brazil's National Petroleum Agency said it decided to halt Chevron's drilling
rights after determining there was evidence that the company had been
"negligent" in its study of data needed to drill and in contingency planning for
abandoning the well in the event of accident.
The agency, known as ANP, also rejected a request from Chevron made before
the leak to drill wells in the deeper subsalt areas in the Frade field where the
spill occurred. The field is located in the oil-rich Campos Basin and is the
only block in Brazil where Chevron produces
oil as the operator.
The Campos Basin is currently the source of more than 80 percent of Brazil's
oil output.
While Chevron said late on Wednesday it had not received formal notice of the
drilling halt, the company announced an indefinite voluntary suspension of all
current and future drilling off Brazil, apart from plug and abandonment work.

Related articles

• Brazil halts drilling by Chevron subsidiary (marketwatch.com)
• Brazil suspends Chevron's drilling permission (seattlepi.com)

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Canada's energy industry cannot relax efforts to improve its environmental

Image via Wikipedia

The U.S.-imposed delay of TransCanada Corp's Keystone XL oil pipeline shows
Canada's energy industry cannot relax efforts to improve its environmental
record, a former top minister in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government said
on Monday.
The U.S. move has also helped build consensus that the oil industry must
lessen its near-total export reliance on the U.S. market, said Jim Prentice, who
left the Conservative government last year to become vice-chairman of Canadian
Imperial Bank of Commerce.
As environment minister in 2010, Prentice stirred some controversy in his
home base of Calgary by telling an industry audience that the national and
international perception of northern Alberta's oil sands was "profoundly
negative" and that companies developing the resource, the world's third-biggest
reserve of crude oil, must boost efforts to improve environmental
performance.
"I think there's been substantial progress made, but I think as events have
unfolded, both in the United States on Keystone and on other issues, it
highlights how important it is that Canada be not only a producer of energy, but
an environmentally responsible producer of energy," he said in an interview.
"That has to be the space that we occupy."
That will require constant investment in improving technology to reduce the
oil sands' impact on air, land and water, he said.

Related articles

• From oil sands to gas pump: Alberta looks to its energy future (theglobeandmail.com)
• Obama's Pipe Dream Could Grease China's Energy Skids (fool.com)

U.S. oil company Chevron promised to fully clean-up a spill off Brazil's coast

Image via Wikipedia

U.S. oil company Chevron promised to fully clean-up a spill off Brazil's coast,
the CEO of the local subsidiary, George Buck, said on Sunday, taking
responsibility for an accident that has become a major test for one of the
world's fastest-growing oil frontiers.
The leak from the undersea well, owned in partnership with Brazil's
state-controlled Petrobras and a Japanese consortium, has been plugged and the
residual oil flow from undersea rock is now "more than 10 barrels," but "less
than hundreds of barrels" per day, Buck said.
"Chevron takes full responsibility for this incident," Buck told reporters in
Rio de Janeiro. "We will share the lessons learned here in the hope that this
sort of incident won't happen again in Brazil or anywhere else in the
world."
The spill, one of the largest to hit Brazil's growing offshore oil industry
has raised questions about its safety and ability to respond to accidents. Oil
companies in Brazil are testing the limits of drilling as they seek oil at
depths as much as 7 kilometers (4.4 miles) below the ocean surface, putting
equipment and people under strains often compared with those for space
flight.
The stakes are large. Brazilian oil companies expect to produce about 7
million barrels of oil per day by 2020, most of offshore near Rio de Janeiro, an
amount that would make Brazil the third largest oil producer after Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Related articles

• Up to 8,000 Barrels of Oil Leak Offshore Brazil, Chevron Takes "Full Responsibility" (gcaptain.com)
• Chevron takes blame for Brazil oil spill (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

ship that could be the future flagship of the UK

The design is as bold as it is breathtaking.
From a distance, this ship might resemble the spectacular square-rigged star of
a saltwater period drama like Hornblower or The Onedin Line.

But the closer you look, the more you realise
that this is quite unlike anything else that has ever graced the high seas before.

After all, how many square-riggers are
designed to accommodate a mini-submarine, a helicopter, two buses, 100 bicycles,
an underwater laboratory — and a sovereign?

Here, for the first time, is an artist's
impression of the ship that could be the future flagship of the UK. Following on
from where the beloved Britannia left off, this masterpiece — still unnamed —
would fulfil all the functions of the late Royal Yacht and many more besides.

Two weeks ago, the Daily Mail announced a new
campaign to build a 21st-century successor to Britannia — not only in
recognition of our magnificent monarch and her Diamond Jubilee, but also in
keeping with Britain's historic role as a great maritime nation.

This would need to be more than just an
ocean-going embassy and royal residence. It would have a thriving commercial,
educational and scientific role — and pay its way. And it is an idea which is
already gathering plenty of momentum.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2060561/A-yacht-rule-waves-Two-weeks-ago-Mail-launched-campaign-new-Royal-Yacht-Here-unveil-truly-majestic-blueprint.html#ixzz1eDL6wkGT

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PayPal launched a new Facebook app called Send Money

PayPal launched a new Facebook app called Send Money that makes it easier to send payments to your Facebook friends. PayPal has been experimenting with all kinds of payment technologies recently, especially across mobile and social markets, and this recent one is no-brainer.
Facebook has more than 800 million active users and a large percentage of them likely have active PayPal accounts. It thus follows that PayPal should make it possible for let them to easily send cash to and from each other.
The app is as straightforward to use as its name implies. All you have to do is choose an ecard (optional), a friend to send it to, and then select how much money to send.
Because Send Money offers peer-to-peer payments, there is no transaction, although PayPal’s international fees and standard limitations still apply. We’ll see soon enough if Facebook users start sending money over the social network rather than by e-mail.
“The PayPal and Facebook infrastructure have now merged,” PayPal’s Anuj Nayar told Mashable. “This is another way to personalize the act of giving money.”

Major pornography companies have filed a lawsuit against ICANN over adult TLD .XXX.

Major pornography companies have filed a lawsuit against ICANN over adult TLD .XXX.

The company behind major porn sites including YouPorn, PornHub, Brazzers, Xtube and Playboy.com have been joined by adult industry powerhouse Digital Playground to file an anti-monopoly lawsuit against ICANN over the dot-XXX TLD.
Luxembourg-based Manwin and Digital Playground are suing both ICANN and the company that created and manages dot-XXX, ICM Registry. ICANN is the non-profit that, among other things, oversees the management of the top-level domain name space.
Manwin and Digital Playground want an injunction to stop the .XXX TLD and require its re-opening with competition and “reasonable price constraints.”
Aside from that, if their allegations against ICANN are anywhere near true, I think this case could impact the entire domain name system and how it is run.
The lawsuit was filed yesterday, November 16 in the U.S. District Court of California stating that both ICANN and ICM Registry have engaged in,

(…) monopolistic conduct, price gouging, and anti-competitive and unfair practices.

Related articles

• Major Porn Sites Sue ICANN Over .XXX (zdnet.com)
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The Conservatives strongly back the pipeline.

Image via Wikipedia

In a sign of the strain the Canadian government is feeling over development of
the tar sands, Environment Minister Peter Kent said on Wednesday that opposition
legislators who campaigned in Washington against the idea were
treacherous.
The right-of-center Conservative government was taken aback last week when
the U.S. administration delayed approval of TransCanada Corp's proposed Keystone
XL pipeline designed to carry crude from the vast Alberta oil sands to
refineries in Texas.
The Conservatives strongly back the pipeline. Opponents say development tar
sands oil is particularly dirty, producing high amounts of greenhouse gases.
They also say the pipeline could cause an environmental catastrophe if it
ruptured.
Much to Kent's anger, two members of Parliament from the opposition New
Democrats went to Washington this week to argue the pipeline should not go ahead
until Canada has come up with a better plan to combat climate change.

Related articles

• Looking at Keystone XL: What's in the Pipe? (indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com)

New Solar Hybrid Supertanker Impresses

We know this might not apply to us as sailors, but it is always great to see innovations that will make our oceans and world less polluted.
Sauter Carbon Offset Design presents Deliverance, a DynaWing solar hybrid supertanker that qualifies as the largest and by far the greenest post-Panamax vessel to be built, and as such the most economical form of crude oil transport to and from any part of the globe.
To reduce fuel consumption and GHG emissions by up to 75%, the supertanker obtains half of her power from LNG and the other half from the latest advances in solar and wind power technology.
Deliverance is a 2 million barrel, 330,000DWT Supertanker designed specifically for the newly enlarged locks of the Panama Canal, which will accommodate vessels that have a maximum length of 1,395 ft, a beam of 176 ft, and a draft 59 ft.
Being longer, narrower and having less draft than previous 2 million barrel VLCC’s, the hull of Deliverance produces less drag, which in conjunction with twin CRP Hybrid Propulsion Pods reduces fuel consumption and GHG emissions by 35%. An additional 20 to 30% reduction is achieved with her 500,000 sq. meter DynaWing boom furling sails and another 15 to 20% reduction by her Solbian Solar power generating array. The realization of a 75% reduction is made possible by Mitsubishi’s Bubble Hull and Wartsila’s Coded LNG hybrid power system.
Generally speaking, the total diesel engine power requirement for a conventional 330,000DWT Supertanker is 30MWs. By comparison, the total power requirement for the advanced 330,000DWT Emax Solar Hybrid Supertanker is 20MWs; 10MWs from LNG, 10MWs from the sun and wind.
As a major certified carbon offset project, the reduction in GHG emissions achieved by Deliverance is 110,000 tons of CO2 per year or roughly a reduction 3 million tons of CO2 over the supertanker’s 25-year service life.
The Cost of Deliverance is approximately 15% above the cost of a conventional 330,000DWT Supertanker.
For more information, go to www.sautercarbonoffsetdesign.com.

Related articles

• Deliverance is here, an oil tanker reducing 75 percent of green house gasses (venturebeat.com)

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Some iPhone users are still reporting battery-life issues

Some iPhone users are still reporting battery-life issues, a day after Apple pushed through an iOS update designed to
fix “bugs” related to the issue.
A portion of those users are venting their
anger online, complaining that their iPhones with the new iOS 5.0.1 update
continue to drain battery power at a faster-than-expected rate.
“I’ve had the same problem on my iPhone
4S,” one commenter wrote on Apple’s discussion boards. “After updating to ios 5.0.1,
battery life is [worse] than ios 5.0.”
“Same here as with others,” wrote another.
“My 4S has worse battery life now with 5.0.1 than the original 5. Drains about 1
[percent] per 15 minutes without any use.”
Apple issued a Nov. 11 statement to AllThingsD, suggesting the matter was under

Image via CrunchBase

examination. “The recent iOS software update addressed many of the battery
issues that some customers experienced on their iOS 5 devices,” it read. “We continue to investigate a few
remaining issues.”
The iOS 5.0.1 update was advertised as a
fix for what Apple described as “bugs” affecting battery life. It also added
multitasking gestures to the first addition of the iPad, tweaked some issues
with Documents in the Cloud, and improved “voice recognition for Australian
users using dictation,” according to the update screen accompanying the software
push.
Reports of battery issues with iOS 5
originally erupted on the Web near the end of October, with a discussion thread on Apple’s Website quickly
filling with users irate over their iPhone 4S battery life. “I checked and all
my settings are similar to my iPhone 4 (i.e., Bluetooth and ping off, brightness
pretty low, etc.),” one wrote. “Seems to lose 1 percent every 3-4 minutes, even
when locked/asleep.” Others on the thread reported battery drain approaching
15-20 percent per hour.

EDF fined for hacking Greenpeace

Image via WikipediaFrench nuclear giant EDF was fined 1.5 million euros by a Paris court on Thursday for hacking into the computers of environmental group Greenpeace in 2006.
Two of the group's security chiefs were also sentenced to prison for their role in the affair, which involved the theft of confidential documents from the computer of the former head of Greenpeace France, Yannick Jadot.

Greenpeace has consistently campaigned against nuclear power and is opposed to EDF's construction of a European Pressurized Reactor (EPR), a new generation of reactors, at Flamanville. State-controlled EDF is the world's biggest nuclear producer and operates 58 nuclear reactors in France.

"This is a triple zero for EDF. Nuclear energy is industrially bankrupt, financially bankrupt and clearly morally bankrupt," Jadot told Reuters following the announcement of the decision by a court in Nanterre, just outside Paris.

Jadot now works as spokesman for Eva Joly, presidential candidate for the Green Party which is pushing for France to abandon nuclear energy.

Judge Isabelle Prevost-Desprez said she found it hard to believe that former policeman Pierre-Paul Francois and former rear admiral Pascal Durieux, who were both in charge of EDF's security, had been acting on their own as EDF has claimed.

Finding both men guilty, she sentenced Francois to three years in prison, while Durieux was condemned for one year on top of a 10,000 euro fine.

Related articles

• EDF found guilty of spying on Greenpeace France (telegraph.co.uk)

Logitech is halting production of its Google TV Revue set-top boxes

Image via CrunchBaseLogitech is halting production of its Google TV Revue set-top boxes, acknowledging that the whole affair was a financial disaster for the company.
At an Analyst and Investor Day hosted by Logitech on Wednesday, CEO Guerrino De Luca confessed that the Revue was a "mistake of implementation of a gigantic nature." In his presentation, DeLuca in part pointed the finger at Google TV, referring to it as a "beta" product, according to The Verge.
De Luca told investors that Logitech lost more than $100 million in operating profits on the Revue after bringing it to the market almost a year ago. As a result, the company will simply let existing inventory of the Revue run out this quarter and will not make another set-top box to replace it.
The CEO intimated that Google TV simply wasn't ready to launch when it did and that Logitech mistakenly thought the search giant's product was revolutionary, The Verge reported. DeLuca also blamed his company's own "operational miscues in EMEA [Europe, Middle East, and Africa]" for the Revue's failure to ignite the market.
"To make the long story short, we thought we had invented [sliced] bread and we just made them," DeLuca said. The company made a commitment to "just build a lot because we expected everybody to line up for Christmasand buy these boxes [at] $300...that was a big mistake."

Related articles

• Logitech pulls plug on Revue set-top box, blames Google TV (news.cnet.com)
• Revue this: Logitech is done with Google TV after $100M loss (venturebeat.com)

reported oil leak located near Chevron's Frade field

Image via WikipediaImage via WikipediaBrazil's oil regulator ANP and Chevron's local subsidiary said on Thursday they
would look into a reported oil leak located near Chevron's Frade field.
The ANP said the oil on the ocean's surface was located about one kilometer
from Chevron's Frade field.
Chevron spokesman Scott Walker said the company was aware of the oil sheen
between its Frade field and one of Brazil's biggest producing fields, the
Roncador, operated by the state-run oil company Petrobras.
"Chevron is investigating the source of the oil sheen. All the appropriate
actions to respond are being taken. As soon as we have further information we
will notify," Walker told Reuters by email.
The spill is in the Campos Basin that accounts for the bulk of Brazil's oil
output off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state.

Related articles

• Chevron Claims its Toxic Waste Dump in Ecuador's Amazon Did Not Harm Tribes (indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com)
• U.S. Court Orders Chevron to Pay Fines to Ecuadoreans (indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com)

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There were more than 49 million Americans living in poverty in 2010

Image via WikipediaThere were more than 49 million Americans living in poverty in 2010, under an alternative measure released by the Census Bureau Monday.
That's 16% of the nation, higher than the official poverty rate of 15.2%. The official rate, released in September, showed 46.6 million people living in poverty.
The Census Bureau's first supplemental poverty measure includes various government benefits and expenses not captured by the official poverty rate, which will continue to be used to determine eligibility for public assistance and federal funding distribution. The alternative calculation also takes into account geographic differences in prices.
Acting on recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences, the Census Bureau designed the new measure to capture the impact of many forms of non-cash public assistance, such as food stamps, housing subsidies and energy assistance.
"The main driving force behind this measure was to give policy makers a handle of the effectiveness of poverty [programs]," said Kathleen Short, an economist with the Census Bureau.
Non-cash government aid, as well as the earned income tax credit, lowered the poverty rate for recipients by as much as 2 percentage points.
Six temporary safety net programs that originated in the 2009 stimulus act helped keep 7 million people out of poverty, said Arloc Sherman, a senior researcher at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, citing the new Census report. These include three new or expanded tax credits, two enhancements of unemployment insurance, and expanded food stamp benefits.

China getting rid of incandescent light bulbs

Image via WikipediaChina, following similar action by the United States and Europe, announced it will eliminate incandescent light bulbs over the next five years. It’s a move that will not only help cut greenhouse gas emissions in the polluted nation, but could have a dramatic effect on the global energy efficiency lighting market as well.
The government will ban imports and sales of 100-watt and higher incandescent bulbs beginning Oct. 1, 2012, the Associated Press reported. The ban will be extended to 60-watt and higher bulbs beginning Oct. 1, 2014 and to 15-watt and higher bulbs in 2016.
China is one of the largest producers of incandescent light bulbs in the world, one-third of which are used domestically. And lighting is estimated to account for some 12 percent of China’s total electricity use. Meaning, by the cutting out incandescent light bulbs, China will save 48 billion kilowatt hours of power a year and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 48 million tons, according to the AP.
Of course, there’s the market impact as well. Chinese households will have to buy energy efficiency bulbs, meaning a huge opportunity for lighting companies, especially those that already have manufacturing facilities there.

Related articles

• (Incandescent) lights to go out in China (msnbc.msn.com)
• China to phase out energy-inefficient light bulbs (telegraph.co.uk)

Gaopeng said on Monday it had sold counterfeit luxury watches

Image via WikipediaGroupon's Chinese daily deals business Gaopeng said on Monday it had sold counterfeit luxury watches by accident and will compensate its irate buyers in its latest struggle in expanding in the potentially lucrative market.
The joint venture between Groupon and China's top Internet firm, Tencent Holdings, said counterfeit Tissot watches, a brand owned by the world's largest watch maker Swatch Group, were sold on its website last month for 690 yuan ($109), less than one-fourth of its original price of more than 3,000 yuan.

"After an investigation into the Tissot watch incident, Gaopeng found the merchant...had given us fake agent qualification documents," Gaopeng said in a statement.

"We are outraged and we have begun legal proceedings. We hope to protect the interests of consumers and Gaopeng through legal methods."

Hundreds of people had bought the watches through the deal, local media reported, but complaints soon arose when buyers found the watch and its accessories to be of poor quality. Gaopeng declined to comment the details of the deal.

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• Groupon's China JV says sold fake Tissot watches (reuters.com)
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Exxon spill $135 million

Image by misternaxal via FlickrExxon Mobil's response to a July oil spill into the Yellowstone River in
Montana will cost a total of $135 million, the company said on
Friday.
Exxon Mobil said it has reached compensation agreements with over 95 percent
of property owners who were affected by the spill, which released some 1,000
barrels of crude oil into the river.
The leak occurred on July 1 on the Silvertip pipeline, in a section that ran
under the Yellowstone River and carried crude oil to refineries in Billings,
Montana.
The spill was handled by the Exxon Mobil Corp division Exxon Mobil Pipeline
Co, which was responsible for the line.

Related articles

• Yellowstone River spill to cost Exxon Mobil $135M (content.usatoday.com)
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