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Six-country, US-led pact on environment
A US-LED, six-nation pact to develop clean energy technologies and combat global warming was launched last week with its members denying it was designed to undermine the Kyoto protocol.
The new agreement, announced by the US deputy secretary of state, Robert Zoellick, at an Asia-Pacific security forum in Laos, was to provide practical solutions to excess carbon emissions, he claimed. The six club members — China, Australia, Japan, India, the US and South Korea — will cooperate on the development, transfer and sale of clean technologies, to promote the efficient use of fuels.
Technology that enables coal to be burned more efficiently and captures carbon dioxide before it reaches the atmosphere is on top of the agenda. The US, Australia and China are all big coal users and exporters.
Alongside wind, solar, hydropower and geothermal power sources, new nuclear power facilities get equal billing, which will further dismay the environmental lobby. There are no targets and timetables for the delivery of any of the pledges and no carbon dioxide reduction targets.
There is a hope that other nations will join the new club, which represents 45 per cent of the world’s population and nearly half of its energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The US alone accounts for 25 per cent of the world’s emissions.
Japan, which has a binding 6 per cent greenhouse gas reduction target under the Kyoto protocol, and China and India all emphasized their continued commitment to the treaty.
Talks on the pact have been going on in secret for 12 months but it was only at the last minute that Japan was approached and decided to join.
Across the world, reaction to the new pact included the need to preserve and also strengthen the legally binding emission reduction targets in the Kyoto protocol. While many welcomed the pact for bringing the US into a form of international action to combat climate change, others were suspicious of White House motives.
Shuttle fleet grounded
Nasa was facing fresh questions about the future of its shuttle programme after it was forced to ground the fleet because the problem with falling debris that doomed Columbia two years ago had struck again during the launch of Discovery.
Officials stressed that the current 12-day mission, and the seven astronauts on board Discovery, were not jeopardized by the incident last week, when a 33-inch chunk of foam cladding fell from the external fuel tank two minutes after lift-off.
But managers said it was a problem that must be eliminated before shuttles could be launched again. “Until we fix this, we are not ready to go fly again,” said Bill Parsons, the space shuttle programme manager.
This is a major blow to Nasa’s triumphant return to flight, and means that the scheduled launch of Atlantis in September is likely to be delayed. Further delays to a programme already curtailed by the long and expensive research prompted by the Columbia disaster will further reduce the 30-odd launches tentatively scheduled before the three shuttles are retired in 2010.
Ethical dilemma
Healthy women could be asked to donate their eggs for cloning research in a controversial bid to speed up the development of new treatments for disease, The Guardian has learned.
Prof Ian Wilmut, creator of Dolly the cloned sheep, is to seek permission from the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority to ask women to donate eggs for cloning experiments designed to shed light on the debilitating condition motor neurone disease.
Until now, cloning experts in Britain have justified their work by using only spare eggs left over from couples undergoing treatment at fertility clinics. The eggs are typically rejects of the IVF process and are routinely discarded if not used in experiments.
The issue raises ethical questions. Many scientists working in the field believe their research is severely hampered because the eggs they use are of such poor quality that they often do not grow into healthy clones. But others believe that asking women to donate eggs purely for research introduces a possible financial incentive that is morally objectionable.
Critics turned on Prof Wilmut’s proposal, claiming it turned human eggs and the women who provide them into commodities. They also warned that any woman considering donating eggs must be fully informed of the health risks before undergoing the lengthy and sometimes painful procedure.
Killer mice
On the desolate shores of Gough Island in the deep South Atlantic, a natural history horror story is unfolding. Giant mice evolved from animals aboard ships that stopped at the island in the 19th century are attacking local seabird chicks and devouring them alive.
Scientists have warned that the monster mice — up to three times heavier than those in the United Kingdom — threaten to chew rare species such as the albatross into extinction. The chicks stand about a metre high and weigh up to 10kg; even at triple the size of their British cousins, the mice are 45g in their boots.
“It is like a tabby cat attacking a hippopotamus,” says Geoff Hilton, an RSPB biologist. — Dawn/The Guardian News Service
A new planet?
A US astronomer announced last week that he had discovered what could be the tenth planet, which was larger than Pluto in the outer reaches of the solar system.
If confirmed, the discovery by Prof Mike Brown of the respected California Institute of Technology would be the first of a planet since Pluto was identified in 1930. The body is “the 10th planet of the solar system”, said Prof Brown. “It’s the farthest object ever discovered to orbit around the Sun.”
The body is made up of ice and rock that lies nearly 15 billion kilometres from Earth. The planet, the proposed name of which has not been made public, is a typical member of the Kuiper belt, but its sheer size in relation to the nine known planets means that it can only be classified as a planet, Prof Brown said.
However, he conceded that the discovery would likely rekindle debate over the definition of planet and whether Pluto should still be regarded as one. The planet was spotted with the Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory near San Diego, California. — AFP
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