Friday, March 19, 2010
Layered Graphene Could Store Hydrogen
Graphene-carbon formed into sheets a single atom thick-now appears to be a promising base material for capturing hydrogen, according to recent research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Pennsylvania. The findings suggest stacks of graphene layers could potentially store hydrogen safely for use in fuel cells and other applications.
Graphene has become something of a celebrity material in recent years due to its conductive, thermal and optical properties, which could make it useful in a range of sensors and semiconductor devices.
The material does not store hydrogen well in its original form, according to a team of scientists studying it at the NIST Center for Neutron Research.
But if oxidized graphene sheets are stacked atop one another like the decks of a multilevel parking lot, connected by molecules that both link the layers to one another and maintain space between them, the resulting graphene-oxide framework (GOF) can accumulate hydrogen in greater quantities.
Inspired to create GOFs by the metal-organic frameworks that are also under scrutiny for hydrogen storage, the team is just beginning to uncover the new structures' properties.
"No one else has ever made GOFs, to the best of our knowledge," says NIST theorist Taner Yildirim. "What we have found so far, though, indicates GOFs can hold at least a hundred times more hydrogen molecules than ordinary graphene oxide does. The easy synthesis, low cost and non-toxicity of graphene make this material a promising candidate for gas storage applications."
The GOFs can retain 1 percent of their weight in hydrogen at a temperature of 77 degrees Kelvin and ordinary atmospheric pressure-roughly comparable to the 1.2 percent that some well-studied metal-organic frameworks can hold, Yildirim says.
Another of the team's potentially useful discoveries is the unusual relationship that GOFs exhibit between temperature and hydrogen absorption. In most storage materials, the lower the temperature, the more hydrogen uptake normally occurs. However, the team discovered that GOFs behave quite differently.
Although a GOF can absorb hydrogen, it does not take in significant amounts at below 50 Kelvin (-223 degrees Celsius). Moreover, it does not release any hydrogen below this "blocking temperature"-suggesting that, with further research, GOFs might be used both to store hydrogen and to release it when it is needed, a fundamental requirement in fuel cell applications.
Some of the GOFs' capabilities are due to the linking molecules themselves. The molecules the team used are all benzene-boronic acids that interact strongly with hydrogen in their own right.
But by keeping several angstroms of space between the graphene layers-akin to the way pillars hold up a ceiling-they also increase the available surface area of each layer, giving it more spots for the hydrogen to latch on.
According to the team, GOFs will likely perform even better once the team explores their parameters in more detail. "We are going to try to optimize the performance of the GOFs and explore other linking molecules as well," says Jacob Burress, also of NIST.
"We want to explore the unusual temperature dependence of absorption kinetics, as well as whether they might be useful for capturing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and toxins like ammonia."
J. Burress, J. Simmons, J. Ford and T.Yildirim. "Gas adsorption properties of graphene-oxide-frameworks and nanoporous benzene-boronic acid polymers." To be presented at the March meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) in Portland, Ore
Graphene has become something of a celebrity material in recent years due to its conductive, thermal and optical properties, which could make it useful in a range of sensors and semiconductor devices.
The material does not store hydrogen well in its original form, according to a team of scientists studying it at the NIST Center for Neutron Research.
But if oxidized graphene sheets are stacked atop one another like the decks of a multilevel parking lot, connected by molecules that both link the layers to one another and maintain space between them, the resulting graphene-oxide framework (GOF) can accumulate hydrogen in greater quantities.
Inspired to create GOFs by the metal-organic frameworks that are also under scrutiny for hydrogen storage, the team is just beginning to uncover the new structures' properties.
"No one else has ever made GOFs, to the best of our knowledge," says NIST theorist Taner Yildirim. "What we have found so far, though, indicates GOFs can hold at least a hundred times more hydrogen molecules than ordinary graphene oxide does. The easy synthesis, low cost and non-toxicity of graphene make this material a promising candidate for gas storage applications."
The GOFs can retain 1 percent of their weight in hydrogen at a temperature of 77 degrees Kelvin and ordinary atmospheric pressure-roughly comparable to the 1.2 percent that some well-studied metal-organic frameworks can hold, Yildirim says.
Another of the team's potentially useful discoveries is the unusual relationship that GOFs exhibit between temperature and hydrogen absorption. In most storage materials, the lower the temperature, the more hydrogen uptake normally occurs. However, the team discovered that GOFs behave quite differently.
Although a GOF can absorb hydrogen, it does not take in significant amounts at below 50 Kelvin (-223 degrees Celsius). Moreover, it does not release any hydrogen below this "blocking temperature"-suggesting that, with further research, GOFs might be used both to store hydrogen and to release it when it is needed, a fundamental requirement in fuel cell applications.
Some of the GOFs' capabilities are due to the linking molecules themselves. The molecules the team used are all benzene-boronic acids that interact strongly with hydrogen in their own right.
But by keeping several angstroms of space between the graphene layers-akin to the way pillars hold up a ceiling-they also increase the available surface area of each layer, giving it more spots for the hydrogen to latch on.
According to the team, GOFs will likely perform even better once the team explores their parameters in more detail. "We are going to try to optimize the performance of the GOFs and explore other linking molecules as well," says Jacob Burress, also of NIST.
"We want to explore the unusual temperature dependence of absorption kinetics, as well as whether they might be useful for capturing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and toxins like ammonia."
J. Burress, J. Simmons, J. Ford and T.Yildirim. "Gas adsorption properties of graphene-oxide-frameworks and nanoporous benzene-boronic acid polymers." To be presented at the March meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) in Portland, Ore
UN wildlife body rejects bluefin trade ban
by Staff Writers
Doha (AFP) March 19, 2010
Japan welcomed Friday a decision by delegates at a UN wildlife trade meeting to reject a ban on cross-border commerce in rapidly declining Atlantic bluefin tuna, a sushi mainstay.
Backers of a ban, the European Commission and the United States both regretted the result, with the Commission warning the consequences could be catastrophic for the future of the species.
After aggressive lobbying by the Japanese, the controversial proposal was crushed at a meeting in Doha of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
The proposal, which had been put forward by Monaco with the backing of the United States and European Union, had needed the support of two thirds of the nations present.
In the end, there were 68 votes against the measure, 20 in favour and 30 abstentions.
"We welcome the rejection" of a ban on cross-border trade of bluefin caught in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic as well as an amendment to allow a moratorium on the ban, a Japanese foreign ministry statement said.
"We will continue our efforts to get understanding of our country's position" so that the rejection will be adopted at a general meeting on March 24-25, it added.
US Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Tom Strickland lamented the vote as "a setback for the Atlantic bluefin tuna," but vowed to "keep fighting" for the sustainable management of the fishery.
The European Commission warned that rejecting the ban threatened the species with extinction.
"If action is not taken, there is a very serious danger that the bluefin will no longer exist," said the EU's Environmental Commissioner Janez Potoznik in Brussels.
Patrick van Klaveren, head of the Monaco delegation, was even more pessimistic.
"It will not be CITES that is the ruin of professional (fisheries), it will be nature that lays down the sanction, and it will be beyond appeal," he said.
Environmental groups and experts also slammed the result.
"The abject failure of governments here to protect Atlantic bluefin tuna spells disaster for its future and sets the species on a pathway to extinction," said Oliver Knowles of Greenpeace International.
Sue Lieberman, policy director for the Pew Environment Group in Washington, called the decision "very disappointing and very irresponsible."
The bluefin's fate was now in the hands of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), the inter-governmental group responsible for managing bluefin stocks.
"This is the very body that drove the species to the disastrous state it is in now" by failing to enforce its own quotas, Liberman said.
Monaco's Van Kaveren recalled that a proposed Atlantic bluefin ban was withdrawn from CITES in 1992 after ICCAT promised stricter oversight.
"The result is that the reproductive capacity has dropped from 200,000 to 60,000 in 20 years, tunas are half as small, and illegal fishing has tripled," he said.
Former ICCAT president Masonori Miyahara, now head of Japan's delegation and the country's top fisheries official, acknowledged there had been shortcomings with ICATT in the past.
"We have heavy homework with ICCAT now," he told AFP.
"We made the commitment to ensure the recovery of the stock with specific measures and restrictions."
Last November, ICCAT agreed to cut its catch for bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean regions by 40 percent, from 22,000 tonnes in 2009 to 13,500 in 2010.
Industrial-scale harvesting on the high seas has caused bluefin stocks to plummet by up to 80 percent in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, the two regions which would have been affected by the ban.
A single 220-kilo (485-pound) fish can fetch 160,000 dollars (120,000 euros) at auction in Japan, which consumes three quarters of all bluefin caught in the world, mainly as sushi and sashimi.
Meanwhile, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warned that another expensive delicacy, caviar, had pushed sturgeon into the most threatened creature on the planet.
"Four species are now possibly extinct," it said in a report on the conference sidelines.
earlier related report
French tuna fishermen fear for livelihood
Sete, France (AFP) March 18, 2010 - Efforts to ban bluefin tuna fishing hit a hitch on Thursday, but French fishermen who make their living from the threatened species are already resigned to the end of their trade.
At a meeting in Doha, the UN body overseeing commerce in endangered wildlife, CITES, rejected a proposal to outlaw international trade in eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna, a sushi mainstay in Japan.
But in Sete, southern France, Bertrand Wendling, head of an organisation which groups the 11 tuna boats fishing in the area, has doubts about their future due to lower quotas.
The rejection of a ban "is a load off our mind, but the whole issue is not settled," he said.
"In 2005, we were fishing for 11 months out of 12, this year the season will only last a month," from May to June, he said. "There are just 17 boats at sea," compared to 28 in 2009 and 36 in 2008.
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) has slashed the quota from 22,000 tons in 2009, to 13,500 tons in 2010, of which France is allocated just over 2,000 tons.
Despite the failure of Monaco's attempt to classify bluefin tuna as under threat of extinction, those involved in the industry say that dramatically falling revenues mean fishermen can no longer make a living from the bluefin.
Raphael Scannapieco, one of the main shipowners in the Sete area, has seen turnover fall to just 500,000 euros (680,000 dollars) this year, down from three million in 2007.
In May, the newly reduced quota will mean that one of his two ships will have to remain docked at port.
Some fishermen have taken to Libyan waters where there is a more plentiful supply and where checks are less rigorous, but ICCAT has now banned fishermen from doubling up Libyan and French quotas, Wendling said.
"There is no way to adapt: the boats are too small to fish tropical tuna and too big to fish other species," he said.
The government has proposed to compensate those who permanently retire their ships with up to two million euros per vessel but many fishermen say this is insufficient. Only seven boats have been cashed in under the scheme.
Some fishermen have talked of casting their nets as far afield as the Pacific and the Indian Ocean for other fish species. Others are eyeing sardines and anchovies or seeking licences for other small-scale fishing ventures.
However, despite the alternatives, the fishing industry as a whole is under threat from "all these environmentalists", said Henri Gronzio, president of the Sete regional fishermen's committee.
The effect of new restrictions is already being felt in Sete with a 25 percent drop in the number of those directly or indirectly employed by the industry, from about 1,000 in 2006 to 750 this year, town authorities say.
"Adapting is not easy either for the owner or the crew", acknowledged Philippe Mauguin, a senior official at the farms and fisheries ministry, which has promised to help those making changes.
Tokyo (AFP) March 19, 2010 - Japan on Friday hailed the defeat of a proposed ban on trading Atlantic bluefin tuna. "We welcome the rejection" of a ban on cross-border trade of bluefin caught in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic as well as an amendment to allow a moratorium on the ban, a foreign ministry statement said. "We will continue our efforts to get understanding of our country's position" so that the rejection will be adopted at a general meeting on March 24-25, the brief statement said. The proposal, put forward by Monaco, was crushed with 68 votes against, 20 in favour and 30 abstentions at a meeting in Doha of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) on Thursday. To pass, the measure needed the support of two-thirds of the nations present. Japan lobbied fiercely in Doha and elsewhere to block the proposal that would affect supply of bluefin, a sushi mainstay in the country.
US bemoans 'setback' for tuna
Washington (AFP) March 18, 2010 - The United States on Thursday lamented the rejection of a trade ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna, calling it a "setback" to conservation efforts and urging others to do more to preserve the species. With sushi-loving Japan leading the opposition, nations at a UN-led conference in Qatar soundly defeated a proposed ban that had enjoyed strong support from the United States. "The US is strongly committed to protecting the bluefin tuna and restoring the health of the fishery for the benefit of all nations," said Tom Strickland, the assistant secretary of the interior for fish and wildlife. The vote "was a setback for the Atlantic bluefin tuna, but we will keep fighting to ensure that the fishery is managed sustainably, so that future generations may see it return to health," he said in a statement.
Japan, which eats three quarters of the worldwide bluefin catch, said the threat to tuna was overblown and had already warned it would ignore any ban by the UN-led Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). It argued that another body, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), already existed to manage the catch and monitor tuna numbers. "The US calls on all parties of CITES and those who are also members of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas to fulfill the promises made today to conserve the Atlantic bluefin tuna," US negotiator Jane Lyder said. "The responsibility is now on ICCAT to manage the fishery in a sustainable manner. The world will be watching."
source:http://www.terradaily.net
Doha (AFP) March 19, 2010
Japan welcomed Friday a decision by delegates at a UN wildlife trade meeting to reject a ban on cross-border commerce in rapidly declining Atlantic bluefin tuna, a sushi mainstay.
Backers of a ban, the European Commission and the United States both regretted the result, with the Commission warning the consequences could be catastrophic for the future of the species.
After aggressive lobbying by the Japanese, the controversial proposal was crushed at a meeting in Doha of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
The proposal, which had been put forward by Monaco with the backing of the United States and European Union, had needed the support of two thirds of the nations present.
In the end, there were 68 votes against the measure, 20 in favour and 30 abstentions.
"We welcome the rejection" of a ban on cross-border trade of bluefin caught in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic as well as an amendment to allow a moratorium on the ban, a Japanese foreign ministry statement said.
"We will continue our efforts to get understanding of our country's position" so that the rejection will be adopted at a general meeting on March 24-25, it added.
US Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Tom Strickland lamented the vote as "a setback for the Atlantic bluefin tuna," but vowed to "keep fighting" for the sustainable management of the fishery.
The European Commission warned that rejecting the ban threatened the species with extinction.
"If action is not taken, there is a very serious danger that the bluefin will no longer exist," said the EU's Environmental Commissioner Janez Potoznik in Brussels.
Patrick van Klaveren, head of the Monaco delegation, was even more pessimistic.
"It will not be CITES that is the ruin of professional (fisheries), it will be nature that lays down the sanction, and it will be beyond appeal," he said.
Environmental groups and experts also slammed the result.
"The abject failure of governments here to protect Atlantic bluefin tuna spells disaster for its future and sets the species on a pathway to extinction," said Oliver Knowles of Greenpeace International.
Sue Lieberman, policy director for the Pew Environment Group in Washington, called the decision "very disappointing and very irresponsible."
The bluefin's fate was now in the hands of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), the inter-governmental group responsible for managing bluefin stocks.
"This is the very body that drove the species to the disastrous state it is in now" by failing to enforce its own quotas, Liberman said.
Monaco's Van Kaveren recalled that a proposed Atlantic bluefin ban was withdrawn from CITES in 1992 after ICCAT promised stricter oversight.
"The result is that the reproductive capacity has dropped from 200,000 to 60,000 in 20 years, tunas are half as small, and illegal fishing has tripled," he said.
Former ICCAT president Masonori Miyahara, now head of Japan's delegation and the country's top fisheries official, acknowledged there had been shortcomings with ICATT in the past.
"We have heavy homework with ICCAT now," he told AFP.
"We made the commitment to ensure the recovery of the stock with specific measures and restrictions."
Last November, ICCAT agreed to cut its catch for bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean regions by 40 percent, from 22,000 tonnes in 2009 to 13,500 in 2010.
Industrial-scale harvesting on the high seas has caused bluefin stocks to plummet by up to 80 percent in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, the two regions which would have been affected by the ban.
A single 220-kilo (485-pound) fish can fetch 160,000 dollars (120,000 euros) at auction in Japan, which consumes three quarters of all bluefin caught in the world, mainly as sushi and sashimi.
Meanwhile, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warned that another expensive delicacy, caviar, had pushed sturgeon into the most threatened creature on the planet.
"Four species are now possibly extinct," it said in a report on the conference sidelines.
earlier related report
French tuna fishermen fear for livelihood
Sete, France (AFP) March 18, 2010 - Efforts to ban bluefin tuna fishing hit a hitch on Thursday, but French fishermen who make their living from the threatened species are already resigned to the end of their trade.
At a meeting in Doha, the UN body overseeing commerce in endangered wildlife, CITES, rejected a proposal to outlaw international trade in eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna, a sushi mainstay in Japan.
But in Sete, southern France, Bertrand Wendling, head of an organisation which groups the 11 tuna boats fishing in the area, has doubts about their future due to lower quotas.
The rejection of a ban "is a load off our mind, but the whole issue is not settled," he said.
"In 2005, we were fishing for 11 months out of 12, this year the season will only last a month," from May to June, he said. "There are just 17 boats at sea," compared to 28 in 2009 and 36 in 2008.
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) has slashed the quota from 22,000 tons in 2009, to 13,500 tons in 2010, of which France is allocated just over 2,000 tons.
Despite the failure of Monaco's attempt to classify bluefin tuna as under threat of extinction, those involved in the industry say that dramatically falling revenues mean fishermen can no longer make a living from the bluefin.
Raphael Scannapieco, one of the main shipowners in the Sete area, has seen turnover fall to just 500,000 euros (680,000 dollars) this year, down from three million in 2007.
In May, the newly reduced quota will mean that one of his two ships will have to remain docked at port.
Some fishermen have taken to Libyan waters where there is a more plentiful supply and where checks are less rigorous, but ICCAT has now banned fishermen from doubling up Libyan and French quotas, Wendling said.
"There is no way to adapt: the boats are too small to fish tropical tuna and too big to fish other species," he said.
The government has proposed to compensate those who permanently retire their ships with up to two million euros per vessel but many fishermen say this is insufficient. Only seven boats have been cashed in under the scheme.
Some fishermen have talked of casting their nets as far afield as the Pacific and the Indian Ocean for other fish species. Others are eyeing sardines and anchovies or seeking licences for other small-scale fishing ventures.
However, despite the alternatives, the fishing industry as a whole is under threat from "all these environmentalists", said Henri Gronzio, president of the Sete regional fishermen's committee.
The effect of new restrictions is already being felt in Sete with a 25 percent drop in the number of those directly or indirectly employed by the industry, from about 1,000 in 2006 to 750 this year, town authorities say.
"Adapting is not easy either for the owner or the crew", acknowledged Philippe Mauguin, a senior official at the farms and fisheries ministry, which has promised to help those making changes.
Japan hails rejection of bluefin trade ban
Tokyo (AFP) March 19, 2010 - Japan on Friday hailed the defeat of a proposed ban on trading Atlantic bluefin tuna. "We welcome the rejection" of a ban on cross-border trade of bluefin caught in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic as well as an amendment to allow a moratorium on the ban, a foreign ministry statement said. "We will continue our efforts to get understanding of our country's position" so that the rejection will be adopted at a general meeting on March 24-25, the brief statement said. The proposal, put forward by Monaco, was crushed with 68 votes against, 20 in favour and 30 abstentions at a meeting in Doha of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) on Thursday. To pass, the measure needed the support of two-thirds of the nations present. Japan lobbied fiercely in Doha and elsewhere to block the proposal that would affect supply of bluefin, a sushi mainstay in the country.
US bemoans 'setback' for tuna
Washington (AFP) March 18, 2010 - The United States on Thursday lamented the rejection of a trade ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna, calling it a "setback" to conservation efforts and urging others to do more to preserve the species. With sushi-loving Japan leading the opposition, nations at a UN-led conference in Qatar soundly defeated a proposed ban that had enjoyed strong support from the United States. "The US is strongly committed to protecting the bluefin tuna and restoring the health of the fishery for the benefit of all nations," said Tom Strickland, the assistant secretary of the interior for fish and wildlife. The vote "was a setback for the Atlantic bluefin tuna, but we will keep fighting to ensure that the fishery is managed sustainably, so that future generations may see it return to health," he said in a statement.
Japan, which eats three quarters of the worldwide bluefin catch, said the threat to tuna was overblown and had already warned it would ignore any ban by the UN-led Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). It argued that another body, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), already existed to manage the catch and monitor tuna numbers. "The US calls on all parties of CITES and those who are also members of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas to fulfill the promises made today to conserve the Atlantic bluefin tuna," US negotiator Jane Lyder said. "The responsibility is now on ICCAT to manage the fishery in a sustainable manner. The world will be watching."
source:http://www.terradaily.net
Thai tourism hit by blood-pouring protests
by Staff Writers
Bangkok (AFP) March 19, 2010
Thai tourism is taking a battering as the latest gruesome protests in Bangkok have frightened off visitors to the kingdom, better known for its white sands and smiles.
Would-be tourists considering massage, temples and spicy food in the Thai capital this week may have been put off by scenes, televised worldwide, of red-clad protesters throwing bottles of their own blood at government offices.
The so-called Red Shirts, supporters of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, are trying to force snap elections.
And although their rally has been peaceful so far, many recall the Red Shirts' protests last year that turned violent and came months after airport blockades by the rival Yellow Shirts that left tens of thousands of visitors stranded.
Thai travel agents' representative Surapol Sritrakul said the crimson protests had led to many tour cancellations, particularly in key Asian markets, estimating that tourism figures were down 20-30 percent on the yearly average.
"Blood is scary. Many people think the protests could be violent. They think the blood could come from killing. It's not a good image for Thailand," said Surapol, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents.
Thailand's tourism authority said 38 countries had issued travel warnings for Bangkok over the rally that began last weekend.
But the Red Shirts' pouring of their own blood was only the latest, though most bizarre, piece of political theatre to be seen in Thailand since a military coup in 2006 that overthrew their hero Thaksin.
The rival red and yellow protest groups have taken to the streets repeatedly, causing insecurity among tourism officials who say they see a gradual erosion of Thailand's reputation as the "Land of 1,000 Smiles".
In late 2008, the pro-establishment Yellow Shirts staged a months-long sit in at government offices and blockaded Bangkok's two airports for nine days, stranding hordes of frustrated travellers.
Last April the Reds, most from the country's poor, forced the early closure of a key Asian summit and caused riots in Bangkok that left two dead and scores injured and only ended when troops hit the streets.
"The tolerance of tourists is decreasing. They worry they will be blocked again, that they will face problems. It is always a matter of security. I think it's really negative in the long term," said the marketing director of an international hotel brand, who refused to be named.
April is the month of Songkran, a water festival that celebrates the Thai new year and usually attracts thousands of tourists to the country. But this year, bookings are down.
"We have lost 25 million baht (780,000 dollars) since March 11, but what worries me are the bookings for April... things are quiet," he said.
The picture on Thailand's stunning palm-fringed beaches is not so bleak in the short term, said Bill Barnett, a Thai media columnist on tourism who runs a consulting firm based on the southern tourist isle of Phuket.
Barnett said many people were opting to avoid Bangkok and rerouting their flights to Phuket at the last minute to catch some sun amid peace and quiet.
But longer term prospects were less rosy, he said, hit not only by political turmoil, but also health fears over the 2003 SARS outbreak and safety concerns after the Asian tsunami in 2004 that left 5,395 people dead in Thailand.
"In the long term there will be damage. Tourist figures usually follow a cyclical pattern but here it's a lot more volatile -- instead of peaks and valleys it looks like an ECG machine after a heart attack."
SOURCE http://www.terradaily.net/
Bangkok (AFP) March 19, 2010
Thai tourism is taking a battering as the latest gruesome protests in Bangkok have frightened off visitors to the kingdom, better known for its white sands and smiles.
Would-be tourists considering massage, temples and spicy food in the Thai capital this week may have been put off by scenes, televised worldwide, of red-clad protesters throwing bottles of their own blood at government offices.
The so-called Red Shirts, supporters of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, are trying to force snap elections.
And although their rally has been peaceful so far, many recall the Red Shirts' protests last year that turned violent and came months after airport blockades by the rival Yellow Shirts that left tens of thousands of visitors stranded.
Thai travel agents' representative Surapol Sritrakul said the crimson protests had led to many tour cancellations, particularly in key Asian markets, estimating that tourism figures were down 20-30 percent on the yearly average.
"Blood is scary. Many people think the protests could be violent. They think the blood could come from killing. It's not a good image for Thailand," said Surapol, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents.
Thailand's tourism authority said 38 countries had issued travel warnings for Bangkok over the rally that began last weekend.
But the Red Shirts' pouring of their own blood was only the latest, though most bizarre, piece of political theatre to be seen in Thailand since a military coup in 2006 that overthrew their hero Thaksin.
The rival red and yellow protest groups have taken to the streets repeatedly, causing insecurity among tourism officials who say they see a gradual erosion of Thailand's reputation as the "Land of 1,000 Smiles".
In late 2008, the pro-establishment Yellow Shirts staged a months-long sit in at government offices and blockaded Bangkok's two airports for nine days, stranding hordes of frustrated travellers.
Last April the Reds, most from the country's poor, forced the early closure of a key Asian summit and caused riots in Bangkok that left two dead and scores injured and only ended when troops hit the streets.
"The tolerance of tourists is decreasing. They worry they will be blocked again, that they will face problems. It is always a matter of security. I think it's really negative in the long term," said the marketing director of an international hotel brand, who refused to be named.
April is the month of Songkran, a water festival that celebrates the Thai new year and usually attracts thousands of tourists to the country. But this year, bookings are down.
"We have lost 25 million baht (780,000 dollars) since March 11, but what worries me are the bookings for April... things are quiet," he said.
The picture on Thailand's stunning palm-fringed beaches is not so bleak in the short term, said Bill Barnett, a Thai media columnist on tourism who runs a consulting firm based on the southern tourist isle of Phuket.
Barnett said many people were opting to avoid Bangkok and rerouting their flights to Phuket at the last minute to catch some sun amid peace and quiet.
But longer term prospects were less rosy, he said, hit not only by political turmoil, but also health fears over the 2003 SARS outbreak and safety concerns after the Asian tsunami in 2004 that left 5,395 people dead in Thailand.
"In the long term there will be damage. Tourist figures usually follow a cyclical pattern but here it's a lot more volatile -- instead of peaks and valleys it looks like an ECG machine after a heart attack."
SOURCE http://www.terradaily.net/
Jaws: Four Million BC
Jaws: Four Million BC
Identifying the victim of the attack was the easy part - it's an extinct species of dolphin known as Astadelphis gastaldii- working out the identity of the killer called for some serious detective work, as the only evidence to go on was the bite marks."
by Staff Writers
Pisa, Italy (SPX) Mar 19, 2010
It might sound like a mashup of monster movies, but palaeontologists have discovered evidence of how an extinct shark attacked its prey, reconstructing a killing that took place four million years ago.
Such fossil evidence of behaviour is incredibly rare, but by careful, forensic-style analysis of bite marks on an otherwise well-preserved dolphin skeleton, the research team, based in Pisa, Italy, have reconstructed the events that led to the death of the dolphin, and determined the probably identity of the killer: a 4-meter shark by the name of Cosmopolitodus hastalis.
The evidence, published in the latest issue of the journal Palaeontology, comes from the fossilised skeleton of a 2.8 m long dolphin discovered in the Piedmont region of northern Italy.
According to Giovanni Bianucci, who led the study: "the skeleton lay unstudied in a museum in Torino for more than a century, but when I examined it, as part of a larger study of fossil dolphins, I noticed the bite marks on the ribs, vertebrae and jaws.
Identifying the victim of the attack was the easy part - it's an extinct species of dolphin known as Astadelphis gastaldii- working out the identity of the killer called for some serious detective work, as the only evidence to go on was the bite marks."
The overall shape of the bite indicated a shark attack, and Bianucci called in fossil shark expert Walter Landini.
"The smoothness of the bite marks on the ribs clearly shows that the teeth of whatever did the biting were not serrated, and that immediately ruled out some possibilities. We simulated bite marks of the potential culprits and, by comparing them with the shape and size of the marks on the fossils, we narrowed it down to Cosmopolitodus hastalis."
Circumstantial evidence also supports this verdict: fossil teeth from Cosmopolitodus are common in the rock sequences that the dolphin was found in. "
"From the size of the bite, we reckon that this particular shark was about 4 m long" says Landini.
Detailed analysis of the bite pattern allowed the researchers to go even further. "The deepest and clearest incisions are on the ribs of the dolphin" says Bianucci, "indicating the shark attached from below, biting into the abdomen. Caught in the powerful bite, the dolphin would have struggled, and the shark probably detached a big amount of flesh by shaking its body from side to side.
"The bite would have caused severe damage and intense blood loss, because of the dense network of nerves, blood vessels and vital organs in this area. Then, already dead or in a state of shock, the dolphin rolled onto its back, and the shark bit again, close to the fleshy dorsal fin."
The study is significant because of the rarity of such 'fossilized behaviour'. According to Dr Kenshu Shimada, fossil shark expert at DePaul University and the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in the US, "studies like this are important because they give us a glimpse of the ecological interactions between organisms in prehistoric seas.
Shark teeth are among the most common vertebrate remains in the fossil record, yet interpreting the details of diet and feeding behaviour of extinct sharks is extremely difficult. Fossil remains of prey species with shark bite marks, like those described by Bianucci and his team, provide direct evidence of what each prehistoric shark ate and how it behaved."
Identifying the victim of the attack was the easy part - it's an extinct species of dolphin known as Astadelphis gastaldii- working out the identity of the killer called for some serious detective work, as the only evidence to go on was the bite marks."
by Staff Writers
Pisa, Italy (SPX) Mar 19, 2010
It might sound like a mashup of monster movies, but palaeontologists have discovered evidence of how an extinct shark attacked its prey, reconstructing a killing that took place four million years ago.
Such fossil evidence of behaviour is incredibly rare, but by careful, forensic-style analysis of bite marks on an otherwise well-preserved dolphin skeleton, the research team, based in Pisa, Italy, have reconstructed the events that led to the death of the dolphin, and determined the probably identity of the killer: a 4-meter shark by the name of Cosmopolitodus hastalis.
The evidence, published in the latest issue of the journal Palaeontology, comes from the fossilised skeleton of a 2.8 m long dolphin discovered in the Piedmont region of northern Italy.
According to Giovanni Bianucci, who led the study: "the skeleton lay unstudied in a museum in Torino for more than a century, but when I examined it, as part of a larger study of fossil dolphins, I noticed the bite marks on the ribs, vertebrae and jaws.
Identifying the victim of the attack was the easy part - it's an extinct species of dolphin known as Astadelphis gastaldii- working out the identity of the killer called for some serious detective work, as the only evidence to go on was the bite marks."
The overall shape of the bite indicated a shark attack, and Bianucci called in fossil shark expert Walter Landini.
"The smoothness of the bite marks on the ribs clearly shows that the teeth of whatever did the biting were not serrated, and that immediately ruled out some possibilities. We simulated bite marks of the potential culprits and, by comparing them with the shape and size of the marks on the fossils, we narrowed it down to Cosmopolitodus hastalis."
Circumstantial evidence also supports this verdict: fossil teeth from Cosmopolitodus are common in the rock sequences that the dolphin was found in. "
"From the size of the bite, we reckon that this particular shark was about 4 m long" says Landini.
Detailed analysis of the bite pattern allowed the researchers to go even further. "The deepest and clearest incisions are on the ribs of the dolphin" says Bianucci, "indicating the shark attached from below, biting into the abdomen. Caught in the powerful bite, the dolphin would have struggled, and the shark probably detached a big amount of flesh by shaking its body from side to side.
"The bite would have caused severe damage and intense blood loss, because of the dense network of nerves, blood vessels and vital organs in this area. Then, already dead or in a state of shock, the dolphin rolled onto its back, and the shark bit again, close to the fleshy dorsal fin."
The study is significant because of the rarity of such 'fossilized behaviour'. According to Dr Kenshu Shimada, fossil shark expert at DePaul University and the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in the US, "studies like this are important because they give us a glimpse of the ecological interactions between organisms in prehistoric seas.
Shark teeth are among the most common vertebrate remains in the fossil record, yet interpreting the details of diet and feeding behaviour of extinct sharks is extremely difficult. Fossil remains of prey species with shark bite marks, like those described by Bianucci and his team, provide direct evidence of what each prehistoric shark ate and how it behaved."
Identifying the victim of the attack was the easy part - it's an extinct species of dolphin known as Astadelphis gastaldii- working out the identity of the killer called for some serious detective work, as the only evidence to go on was the bite marks
Too late to avert second Haiti disaster
by Staff Writers
Port-Au-Prince (AFP) March 18, 2010
Despite billions of dollars in pledges and an unprecedented humanitarian drive, it is likely too late to avert a second disaster in quake-hit Haiti, a top US aid coordinator warned Thursday.
Tents and tarpaulins are simply not enough to protect tens of thousands of Haitians from the coming rains and hurricanes, and a new wave of quake survivors could perish in a second "catastrophe," InterAction chief Sam Worthington predicted.
"Having observed camps on very steep slopes and that you cannot simply relocate hundreds of thousands of people easily, we anticipate that the rainy season will lead, to a certain degree, to another catastrophe that despite the hard work of the international community will be hard to avoid," he told AFP.
"Deaths, landslides and so forth," he explained, adding: "What we can do is work with the UN to create shelters that people can find refuge in, but there simply isn't the time."
In Haiti for a week for meetings with top government officials, including President Rene Preval, Worthington is coordinating the massive US NGO effort but is realistic about what can be achieved.
"We're in a race against time and even though a large number of people will be moved, I do anticipate that, sadly, many will be affected by the fact that they are living in areas that are dangerous.
"One could get a tent, one could get plastic sheeting but to get people in temporary shelter in such a way that it will withstand a hurricane or rains and ultimately rebuild, we are talking about an effort that will take years."
Teams from the International Organization for Migration are laboriously trawling hundreds of camps to register the particulars of each family, while other UN agencies draw up emergency plans for flood and hurricane prevention.
Some 218,000 Haitians are deemed to be in "red camps," those considered at gravest flood risk, and the race is on to find them alternative shelter before the rain and possibly calamitous landslides.
There have already been a few nights of torrential downpours in the past week and sustained rains could spell disaster in Port-au-Prince where countless people subsist in wretched conditions perched on treacherous slopes.
"Our community is talking about a second disaster happening when the rains hit," said Worthington. "I am not sure to what extent that can be avoided."
"Unfortunately, many of the camps are in areas that have no drainage whatsoever and many of the shelters are on slopes that are 20 degrees or steeper," he told AFP after a briefing at the UN logistics base.
The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti as dusk fell on January 12 was one of the worst natural disasters of modern times, if not the worst. It left at least 220,000 people dead and affected three million Haitians.
earlier related report
All 33 children in Haiti 'orphan' drama have parents
Port-Au-Prince (AFP) March 17, 2010 - The 33 Haitian children at the center of a US abduction row were finally reunited Wednesday with their families, but the fact that not one of them turned out to be an orphan raised fresh concern.
SOS Children's Villages, the international aid group caring for the children since the drama erupted seven weeks ago, said it was only right for them to be handed back to their families.
"It has turned out that all of the 33 children have parents. SOS Children's Villages is convinced that in most cases, the best place for a child to be cared for and protected is within the family," the group said in a statement.
Laura Silsby and nine fellow Baptists from Idaho were arrested on January 29 as they tried to take the children into the neighboring Dominican Republic by bus without the necessary documentation.
The group denied wrongdoing, saying it was only trying to help orphans in the wake of Haiti's devastating January 12 earthquake that killed more than 220,000 people and left more than a million homeless.
Some parents told the judge they willingly handed over the children because they could no longer care for them following the quake that destroyed much of the Haitian capital.
Nine of the accused have since been released and returned to the United States, but Silsby, the leader of the New Life Children's Refuge group, remains in a Port-au-Prince jail facing child trafficking charges.
SOS Children's Villages spokeswoman Line Wolf Nielsen said that although it was in many cases a tearful reunion, or departure, many parents had actually been visiting for weeks.
"It wasn't as if you had parents and children running toward each other," she told AFP. "The children were dressed in their finest clothes and playing with the SOS 'mother' they had been living with."
"It was a happy event but a few tears were shared. Quite a few kids have made many friends here and they were sad to say goodbye."
The smallest of the children was only a few months old and will have spent almost half her life in the care of a "mother" assigned to her by the SOS Villages charity, which was founded in 1949 in Austria.
"We will continue to follow these children on home visits and make sure things are fine and well," said Wolf Nielsen.
The reunions followed weeks of painstaking registration work by Haitian government officials who had to make sure all the parents were bona fide.
Several of the 22 families that claimed the children -- many were siblings -- left it until the last minute, Wolf Nielsen said, explaining it was difficult for some to get there while others may have feared prosecution.
"I have made some good friends here and enjoyed playing football, but I miss my mother and now it will be nice to go home," said nine-year old Michael, quoted in the SOS Children Villages' statement.
The national director of SOS Children's Villages, Celigny Darius, suggested the high-profile case, which diverted valuable media spotlight off the massive relief effort in Haiti, had raised serious questions.
"This case has highlighted the risks of separation in emergency situations, when destitute families see no other way than to give up their children," Darius said.
"It is essential that relief efforts focus on preventing separation by ensuring that families have access to basic necessities."
The revelation that all the children have parents is bound to raise more questions about adoption procedures and how to best care for orphans in the wake of such disasters.
SOS Children's Villages, which has looked after the 33 since January 30, is now free to focus solely on almost 500 other children in its care, many of whom were simply handed to aid workers at the gates of the compound.
"We are registering the children. We have a national database operated by UNICEF. A significant percentage have families, have relatives," Wolf Nielsen said.
Cancun, Mexico (AFP) March 18, 2010 - The United States wants the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to cancel all of Haiti's debt, standing at some 447 million dollars, US Treasury sources said on Thursday. The United States also supports a "robust" increase in the bank's capital, the main issue on the agenda of its annual meeting in Cancun, Mexico, which starts on Friday, one of the sources said, without giving a figure. "What we have to work out is the manner in which Haiti's debt to this institution (IDB) in cancelled," another source said in a telephone conference with journalists, giving the figure as 447 million dollars. The US Senate last week unanimously approved a resolution calling for easing Haiti's debt burden to help with reconstruction efforts in the wake of the devastating January 12 earthquake. The IDB estimates that Haiti's reconstruction could cost up to 14 billion dollars
Port-Au-Prince (AFP) March 18, 2010
Despite billions of dollars in pledges and an unprecedented humanitarian drive, it is likely too late to avert a second disaster in quake-hit Haiti, a top US aid coordinator warned Thursday.
Tents and tarpaulins are simply not enough to protect tens of thousands of Haitians from the coming rains and hurricanes, and a new wave of quake survivors could perish in a second "catastrophe," InterAction chief Sam Worthington predicted.
"Having observed camps on very steep slopes and that you cannot simply relocate hundreds of thousands of people easily, we anticipate that the rainy season will lead, to a certain degree, to another catastrophe that despite the hard work of the international community will be hard to avoid," he told AFP.
"Deaths, landslides and so forth," he explained, adding: "What we can do is work with the UN to create shelters that people can find refuge in, but there simply isn't the time."
In Haiti for a week for meetings with top government officials, including President Rene Preval, Worthington is coordinating the massive US NGO effort but is realistic about what can be achieved.
"We're in a race against time and even though a large number of people will be moved, I do anticipate that, sadly, many will be affected by the fact that they are living in areas that are dangerous.
"One could get a tent, one could get plastic sheeting but to get people in temporary shelter in such a way that it will withstand a hurricane or rains and ultimately rebuild, we are talking about an effort that will take years."
Teams from the International Organization for Migration are laboriously trawling hundreds of camps to register the particulars of each family, while other UN agencies draw up emergency plans for flood and hurricane prevention.
Some 218,000 Haitians are deemed to be in "red camps," those considered at gravest flood risk, and the race is on to find them alternative shelter before the rain and possibly calamitous landslides.
There have already been a few nights of torrential downpours in the past week and sustained rains could spell disaster in Port-au-Prince where countless people subsist in wretched conditions perched on treacherous slopes.
"Our community is talking about a second disaster happening when the rains hit," said Worthington. "I am not sure to what extent that can be avoided."
"Unfortunately, many of the camps are in areas that have no drainage whatsoever and many of the shelters are on slopes that are 20 degrees or steeper," he told AFP after a briefing at the UN logistics base.
The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti as dusk fell on January 12 was one of the worst natural disasters of modern times, if not the worst. It left at least 220,000 people dead and affected three million Haitians.
earlier related report
All 33 children in Haiti 'orphan' drama have parents
Port-Au-Prince (AFP) March 17, 2010 - The 33 Haitian children at the center of a US abduction row were finally reunited Wednesday with their families, but the fact that not one of them turned out to be an orphan raised fresh concern.
SOS Children's Villages, the international aid group caring for the children since the drama erupted seven weeks ago, said it was only right for them to be handed back to their families.
"It has turned out that all of the 33 children have parents. SOS Children's Villages is convinced that in most cases, the best place for a child to be cared for and protected is within the family," the group said in a statement.
Laura Silsby and nine fellow Baptists from Idaho were arrested on January 29 as they tried to take the children into the neighboring Dominican Republic by bus without the necessary documentation.
The group denied wrongdoing, saying it was only trying to help orphans in the wake of Haiti's devastating January 12 earthquake that killed more than 220,000 people and left more than a million homeless.
Some parents told the judge they willingly handed over the children because they could no longer care for them following the quake that destroyed much of the Haitian capital.
Nine of the accused have since been released and returned to the United States, but Silsby, the leader of the New Life Children's Refuge group, remains in a Port-au-Prince jail facing child trafficking charges.
SOS Children's Villages spokeswoman Line Wolf Nielsen said that although it was in many cases a tearful reunion, or departure, many parents had actually been visiting for weeks.
"It wasn't as if you had parents and children running toward each other," she told AFP. "The children were dressed in their finest clothes and playing with the SOS 'mother' they had been living with."
"It was a happy event but a few tears were shared. Quite a few kids have made many friends here and they were sad to say goodbye."
The smallest of the children was only a few months old and will have spent almost half her life in the care of a "mother" assigned to her by the SOS Villages charity, which was founded in 1949 in Austria.
"We will continue to follow these children on home visits and make sure things are fine and well," said Wolf Nielsen.
The reunions followed weeks of painstaking registration work by Haitian government officials who had to make sure all the parents were bona fide.
Several of the 22 families that claimed the children -- many were siblings -- left it until the last minute, Wolf Nielsen said, explaining it was difficult for some to get there while others may have feared prosecution.
"I have made some good friends here and enjoyed playing football, but I miss my mother and now it will be nice to go home," said nine-year old Michael, quoted in the SOS Children Villages' statement.
The national director of SOS Children's Villages, Celigny Darius, suggested the high-profile case, which diverted valuable media spotlight off the massive relief effort in Haiti, had raised serious questions.
"This case has highlighted the risks of separation in emergency situations, when destitute families see no other way than to give up their children," Darius said.
"It is essential that relief efforts focus on preventing separation by ensuring that families have access to basic necessities."
The revelation that all the children have parents is bound to raise more questions about adoption procedures and how to best care for orphans in the wake of such disasters.
SOS Children's Villages, which has looked after the 33 since January 30, is now free to focus solely on almost 500 other children in its care, many of whom were simply handed to aid workers at the gates of the compound.
"We are registering the children. We have a national database operated by UNICEF. A significant percentage have families, have relatives," Wolf Nielsen said.
US seeks to cancel Haiti's 447 million dollar debt to IDB
Cancun, Mexico (AFP) March 18, 2010 - The United States wants the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to cancel all of Haiti's debt, standing at some 447 million dollars, US Treasury sources said on Thursday. The United States also supports a "robust" increase in the bank's capital, the main issue on the agenda of its annual meeting in Cancun, Mexico, which starts on Friday, one of the sources said, without giving a figure. "What we have to work out is the manner in which Haiti's debt to this institution (IDB) in cancelled," another source said in a telephone conference with journalists, giving the figure as 447 million dollars. The US Senate last week unanimously approved a resolution calling for easing Haiti's debt burden to help with reconstruction efforts in the wake of the devastating January 12 earthquake. The IDB estimates that Haiti's reconstruction could cost up to 14 billion dollars
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