20120520 BBC_Arctic melt releasing ancient methane

Scientists have identified thousands of sites in the Arctic where methane that has been stored for many millennia is bubbling into the atmosphere.

The methane has been trapped by ice, but is able to escape as the ice melts.

Writing in the journal Nature Geoscience, the researchers say this ancient gas could have a significant impact on climate change.

Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas after CO2 and levels are rising after a few years of stability.

There are many sources of the gas around the world, some natural and some man-made, such as landfill waste disposal sites and farm animals.

"If this relationship holds true for other regions where sedimentary basins are at present capped by permafrost, glaciers and ice sheets, such as northern West Siberia, rich in natural gas and partially underlain by thin permafrost predicted to degrade substantially by 2100, a very strong increase in methane carbon cycling will result, with potential implications for climate warming feedbacks."

"The Arctic is the fastest warming region on the planet, and has many methane sources that will increase as the temperature rises," commented Prof Euan Nisbet from Royal Holloway, University of London, who is also involved in Arctic methane research.

"This is yet another serious concern: the warming will feed the warming."

How serious and how immediate a threat this feedback mechanism presents is a controversial area, with some scientists believing that the impacts will not be seen for many decades, and others pointing out the possibility of a rapid release that could swiftly accelerate global warming.

Many of the sites were bubbling methane that has been stored for millennia

Atmospheric methane concentration is rising again after a plateau of a few years

20120516 China Daily_China starts fishing ban in South Sea

A two-and-a half month fishing ban will start at noon Wednesday in most part of theSouth China Sea to rehabilitate marine resources, according to fishery authorities.

The Hainan provincial marine and fishing department said all 8,994 locally-registered fishingvessels are all moored, affecting 35,611 people.

The annual fishing ban reinforced since 1999 will last from May 16 to August 1 this year,covering areas north of the 12th parallel of north latitude, including Huangyan Island butexcluding most of the Nansha Islands.

The fishing ban is also applicable to foreign ships.

A spokesman from the South China Fishery Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculturesaid earlier this week that fishing activity of foreign ships in the banned areas will be seen as a"blatant encroachment on China's fishery resources."

A fisherman harvests the last batch of fish before a two-and-ahalf month fishing ban take into effect [Photo/Xinhua]

Fishing boats anchor off Shantou, South China's Guangdong province  [Photo/Xinhua]

Vessels anchor at a port in Haikou, the capital of South China's Hainan province [Photo/Xinhua]

20120507 AGHK_香港南極 - 蒲台 遍地龕花

蒲台島位處香港最南，被譽港境南極。蒲台島的地質以花崗岩為主，多呈粗粒至
幼粒。這裡的花崗岩源於1  億4,000  萬年前岩漿侵入地殼深處後凝固成岩的岩
體，是香港較年輕的一組侵入岩。島上最著名的是各種趣怪嶙峋的怪石和風化入
侵現象。

在2012年2月中接獲舉報，投訴有發展商在蒲台島大量建設骨灰龕場。經實
地視察，發現多幅私人農地、官地及大量樹木已被剷平成大大小小的非法龕場，
範圍之廣，有數個標準足球場之大。

這裡的地質地貌 、生態環境所受到的大肆破壞實目不忍睹。 而多條天然溪流亦被                      堵塞，影響村民依靠的天然水源。由於大量樹木已被砍伐，泥土亦變得鬆散，在                        雨季期間容易導致山泥傾瀉 ，實非常危險。

發展商的妄顧法紀，只顧一己私利，肆意破壞環境，實在令人髮指。

在事件曝光後，城市規劃委員會迅速於三月初在憲報刊登「蒲台群島發展審批地
區草圖」，把蒲台島及其鄰近群島納入法定規劃及管制，保護該區具重要科學價
值和高保育價值的鄉郊自然景致，以免受到違例發展項目和不適當地改變用途的
情況所侵擾，以及反映現有的認可鄉村和鄉郊民居的範圍。

20120507 China Daily_Severe drought drains rivers in South China

A lingering drought has dried up most of rivers in the southern Chinese county of Tianlin in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.


The county, which had suffered from severe drought over the past three years, has experienced high temperature and little rainfall over the past three months this year.


Of the total 214 rivers in the county, 200 have been drained.
The drought has left more than 23,000 residents and 12,000 heads of livestock in the county without adequate drinking water supply. The drought has also withered more than 10,000 hectares of cropland.

Local authorities have earmarked over 1 million yuan (160,000 US dollars) as a special fund to combat the drought.

Lu Jianzhen, director of the Tianhe Water Resources Bureau, said the Qiwenhe Reservoir, the drinking  water source for the county, had seen its water level drop by a half.

A villager walks through a parched paddy in Tianlin county, in the GuangxiZhuang autonomous region, on Saturday. [Photo/Xinhua]

"If there is still no rainfall, the reservoir could only provide 40 days of water for the county," he said.

Read more: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-05/07/content_15220415.htm

20120502 TIME_Harley Davidson Swept Away by Japan Tsunami Surfaces in Canada

One of the first pieces of debris to surface after Japan's tsunami last year, the motorcycle swam 4,000 miles to safety.


Riding his ATV across the beach on British Columbia’s isolated Graham Island, Peter Mark noticed a large container bobbing in the waves. Yielding to his curiosity, Mark peeked inside, only to find a Harley Davidson with Japanese license plates, along with some golf clubs and camping gear, Reuters reports.


Over the next two years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts 1.5 million tons of debris will find its way to beaches along the North American coast. Some items have already started to surface on U.S. beaches last month, when a beachcomber found a volleyball and a soccer ball floating off of Alaska’s Middleton Island. 

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/05/02/harley-davidson-swept-away-by-japan-tsunami-surfaces-in-canada/?xid=newsletter-asia-weekly#ixzz1uAsQHRhL 

20120430 TIME_‘Made’ in China: The Millennials Look East for Jobs

Lauren McPhate first arrived in Asia in 2009 after losing her job as a risk analyst at an energy company. She daydreamed about moving to tropical Thailand to start over. The 27-year-old instead landed in Seoul, where an attractive salary teaching English provided an escape from the discouraging economic landscape back home. 


McPhate is one of many young foreigners forging a career in East Asia. Raised in the relative affluence of the 1990s, the so-called millennial generation graduated in one of the worst recessions since World War II. As these young people from some of the world’s richest countries struggle to find jobs, Asian nations are filling some of the gap. “The shifting balance of global growth is making emerging economies more attractive,” explains Madeleine Sumption, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. “It is turning them into receiving countries, when traditionally they’ve been sending countries.”

Receiving countries stand to benefit from the influx of millennial migrants. In China, the world’s most populous nation, population growth is slowing, says Ronald Skeldon, a migration and geography professor at the University of Sussex. The annual population growth from 2000 to ’10 was 0.57%, or just over half of what it was in the decade prior, according to preliminary Chinese 2010 census results. Meanwhile, the population is aging. In 2010 the share of people over the age of 60 in China was 13.3% — a jump from 10.4% in 2000.


Recognizing this shift, China is beginning to loosen its migrations rules in order to compete for migrant workers and fill the gaps in its labor market. As a part of an effort to attract high-skilled migrants, China created the Thousand-People Plan in 2008, offering competitive salaries, fast-track entry, residence rights and sometimes naturalization for overseas talent.

An American teacher gives English lessons to South Korean students at the Seoul English Village

 Last year, the government extended the plan with the Thousand Foreign Experts program, designed to attract up to 1,000 non-Chinese academics and entrepreneurs over the next 10 years. Aimed at improving innovation and research in China, the program focuses on importing academics from top-tier foreign universities.

However, not everyone embraces an open-door policy. Singapore’s government in recent years has faced a backlash of antiforeigner sentiment. Singaporeans complain that an influx of foreigners creates more competition in jobs, education, housing and medical care. In South Korea, where an estimated 25,000 foreign English teachers reside, xenophobia is often a topic of debate. 

Read more: http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2012/04/30/made-in-china-the-millennials-look-east-for-jobs/?xid=newsletter-asia-weekly#ixzz1uAqfeido 

20120505 BBC_Tomari shutdown leaves Japan without nuclear power

Japan is switching off its last working nuclear reactor, as part of the safety drive since the March 2011 tsunami triggered a meltdown at the Fukushima plant.

The third reactor at the Tomari plant, in Hokkaido prefecture, is shutting down for routine maintenance.

Hundreds of people marched through Tokyo, waving banners to celebrate what they hope will be the end of nuclear power in Japan.

It leaves Japan without energy from atomic power for the first time for more than 40 years. 

Until last year, Japan got 30% of its power from nuclear energy.

Japan will then be without nuclear power for the first time since 1970.Businesses have warned of severe consequences for manufacturing if no nuclear plants are allowed to re-start.

In the meantime, Japan has increased its fossil fuel imports, with electricity companies pressing old power plants into service.

If the country can get through the steamy summer without blackouts, calls to make the nuclear shutdown permanent will get louder, our correspondent says.

The six-reactor Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was badly damaged by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Blasts occurred at four of the reactors after the cooling systems went offline, triggering radiation leaks and forcing the evacuation of thousands of people. A 20km (12m) exclusion zone remains in place around the plant.