Kenya's heart stops pumping

Kenya's heart stops pumping Mau forest Dry lake In pictures 'My land' Conflict fears

By James Morgan BBC News, Kenya At the edges of Kenya's Lake Nakuru, Paul Opiyo picks up a dead flamingo and warns some eager tourists not to touch it, just in case. He points down to his feet - the brown earth is speckled with brittle white feather shafts. "We should be underwater, standing here," says the deputy warden of Lake Nakuru national park. "This isn't the lake shore. This is the lake floor." The disappearing lake To reach the water's edge, we have driven hundreds of metres out across the former lake bed - now a barren moonscape of tyre tracks and bones. The pelicans and the flamingos are surviving on treated sewage Paul Opiyo, Deputy warden, Lake Nakuru In pictures: Mau forest "Twenty years ago, this lake was 2.6 metres deep," says Mr Opiyo, of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). "Last month, it was 1.4 metres. "One point four metres," he says again. "It is a lake you can literally walk across." Lake Nakuru is disappearing. And with it, around 1.5 million flamingoes - the icon of the Rift Valley - are under threat. The pink ribbon round the lakeshore is a marvel which attracts 1,000 people a day to Nakuru, the most visited of all Kenya's national parks. "They come to be baptised in the birdwatchers' paradise," says Mr Opiyo. "We have marabou stork, pelicans, yellow billed stork, Egyptian geese..." Trouble in paradise But this year, there is not enough water to be "baptised" in. All three of the rivers that feed Nakuru are bone dry. The rivers flow from Mau forest. We climb down into a dusty brown ditch - the remains of the Njoro, the main river flowing into Lake Nakuru. The River Njoro - in the rainy season This is the rainy season - the water should be over our heads. But the measuring gauges are redundant. "This used to be a permanent river - even in the dry season there was always some water flowing," says Bernard Kuloba, a KWS ecologist. "Now it's becoming a seasonal river. And the dry period is increasing. "One reason is climate change. But the other is land use change - upstream in Mau forest. If Lake Nakuru dies, many smaller parks in Kenya will be at great risk Paul Udoto, Kenya Wildlife Service "Settlement and agriculture have increased. The water entering at the top does not reach the bottom." Down at the lakeside, the animals are thirsty - and not only the flamingoes. The park is home to black rhino, water buffalo, hippos and tree-climbing lions. All these animals need fresh river water for drinking because the lake itself is saline - like many in Rift Valley. With the rivers empty, the marabou storks are now drinking instead from a stagnant pool of greasy grey gloop. "This is sewage from the nearby town," says Mr Opiyo. "The smell is a sign that it was not completely treated. "The pelicans, the flamingoes... this is what they have to survive on - treated sewage." Desperate strategy To keep the wildlife alive, the Kenya Wildlife Service has adopted a slightly desperate strategy. Each month, they use 12,000 litres of diesel and spend 100,000 shillings pumping water from deep underground boreholes into drinking troughs. These boreholes are sustaining the animals - so far. Already, one of the boreholes we dug in the park is dry Bernard Kuloba, Ecologist, Kenya Wildlife Service But the trouble, says Mr Kuloba, is that the underground reservoir is fast drying up. The water in the aquifer is not being replenished because of the damage to the forest ecosystem. "Already, one of the boreholes we dug in the park is dry - we are not able to pump," says the ecologist. "The aquifer is low. If we had a consistent drought, it would dry out." He points to a pile of bones - the remains of a buffalo that has desiccated in the heat. "It came here to drink and then it died. If the droughts continue, this will become an annual ritual." The Kenya Wildlife Service knows the park cannot depend on boreholes forever. The boreholes dug in the park were not enough to save this buffalo In the neighbouring towns of Nakuru and Njoro, hundreds of thousands of people are also suffering from water shortages. To compensate, they rely on boreholes - which drain from the same aquifer as the animals in the park. "A situation is arising where humans and wildlife are competing. And when that happens, people will switch off water for wildlife so we can get some for ourselves," says Mr Kuloba. "I see that happening very soon. I see conflict coming. The next thing we might see is vandalism of the park fences." Lake Nakuru is the flagship of Kenya's 36 national parks and reserves. Once the Mau recovers, you can be sure the rivers will flow Paul Opiyo, Deputy warden, Lake Nakuru The park took 513 million shillings ($6.8m; £4m) in 2007 - money which is essential to keep the smaller parks alive. "Parks like Sibiloi and Kakamega - the revenue from Nakuru is what keeps them afloat," says Paul Udoto, a KWS spokesman. "If Lake Nakuru dies, those parks will be at great risk". From the roan antelope in Ruma to the turtles at Malindi, one way or another, they all drink from Lake Nakuru. Which is why the Kenya Wildlife Service has become a major player in the operation to restore the Mau forest ecosystem. Their rangers patrol the park in search of illegal loggers - and they will oversee the removal of settlers. "Once the Mau recovers, you can be sure the rivers will flow," says Paul Opiyo. "The sun will rise over Nakuru again". Lake Nakuru - slowly disappearing

EU approves cervical cancer jab

EU approves cervical cancer jabhttp://www.richimag.co.uk/rich%20life/

Cancerous cervical cells are detected through smear tests

The European Union has approved the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil, which could prevent nearly 3,000 cancers each year in the UK alone.

An independent expert advisory committee to the Department of Health will now decide whether it should be made available on the NHS.

Gardasil, made by Merck and Sanofi Pasteur, is designed to be given to girls and women aged nine to 26.

It works against human papillomavirus, which can lead to cervical cancer.

Gardasil protects against cervical cancer caused by HPV strains 6, 11, 16 and 18, and also against genital warts.

The vaccine has been in fierce competition with a rival from UK-based GlaxoSmithKline, called Cervarix, which is still a year off the European approval stage.

HPV

Around 80% of sexually active women can expect to have an HPV infection at some point in their lives.

The vaccines have caused controversy over plans to give it to girls as young as nine, before they become sexually active.

Boys could also be vaccinated in the hope of eventually eradicating HPV.

Cervical cancer kills 274,000 women worldwide every year, including 1,120 in the UK.

No decisions will be taken until the main JCVI present their recommendations to ministers for consideration A Department of Health spokeswoman

Trials suggest vaccinating all 12-year-old girls against HPV could cut deaths from the disease by 75%.

Women will soon be able to go along to clinics and request the jab at a cost of around £65 per dose. Three doses are usually given over six months.

But it is not yet clear whether the vaccine will be available on the NHS.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "We are currently seeking expert advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation on the efficacy, safety and benefits that these new vaccines may offer."

She said that a JCVI subgroup had met in May 2006 to review all available information on HPV vaccines and would hold further meetings during 2006, reporting to the main JCVI committee once they have all the relevant information.

"No decisions will be taken until the main JCVI present their recommendations to ministers for consideration," she added.

Smear tests still necessary

Doctors stress that the vast majority of HPV cases do not go on to cause cervical cancer.

Women can protect themselves against HPV by not having unprotected sex and not smoking. They are also advised to have regular smears to check for the virus.

Professor Alex Markham of Cancer Research UK said: "If a national vaccination programme is introduced it will be vital that women continue to attend for cervical smears.

"We don't yet know if the vaccines are effective in women who may already have been infected with HPV, nor how long the immunity given by the vaccines lasts."

Gardasil has already been approved for use in the US, Mexico, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

A spokesman from GSK said: "It's good news that the European authorities have approved it. This is the first of two vaccines that will be targeting cervical cancer. We hope to have a similar approval some time in the first half of 2007."

Death of cancer-jab girl probed

Other girls at the school reported mild symptoms like dizziness and nausea

http://www.richimag.co.uk/rich%20life/ chiefs have launched a "full and urgent" investigation into the death of a 14-year-old girl after she was given a cervical cancer vaccine at school.

Post-mortem tests into the exact cause are understood to be held on Tuesday.

The girl, named locally as Natalie Morton, died in hospital on Monday after receiving the Cervarix jab at the Blue Coat CofE School in Coventry.

The batch of the vaccine used has been placed into quarantine as a "precautionary measure".

Dizziness and nausea

The local NHS also confirmed the vaccination programme would continue, but after a "short pause".

Dr Caron Grainger, joint director of public health for NHS Coventry and Coventry City Council, said their sympathies were with the girl's family and friends.

She said: "The incident happened shortly after the girl had received her HPV vaccine in the school. No link can be made between the death and the vaccine until all the facts are known and a post-mortem takes place.

"We are conducting an urgent and full investigation into the events surrounding this tragedy."

It is important we have the results of further investigations as soon as possible to establish the cause of this sad event Department of Health Q&A: The cervical cancer vaccine

The teenager died at the city's University Hospital on Monday lunchtime.

A small number of girls at the school had also reported mild symptoms such as dizziness and nausea but were not admitted to hospital.

In a statement posted on the school's website, headteacher Dr Julie Roberts said during the immunisation, "one of the girls suffered a rare, but extreme reaction to the vaccine".

"A number of other girls also reported being unwell and some were sent home," she said.

"If your daughter has received a vaccine today we ask that you are extra vigilant regarding any signs or symptoms."

She listed possible reactions as mild to moderate short-lasting pain at the injection site, headache, muscle pain, fatigue and a low-grade fever.

Different vaccine

The injection - part of a national immunisation programme - protects against the human papilloma virus (HPV), a sexually transmitted disease linked to most cervical cancers.

A routine programme of vaccinating 12 and 13-year-old girls started in September 2008 across the UK using the Cervarix vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline. A catch-up campaign is now under way for older girls.

It is thought about a million girls have already safely received the jab.

When the national immunisation project was announced, there was some controversy about the selection of Cervarix over Gardasil, which is used by the majority of vaccination programmes worldwide.

Dr Pim Kon, medical director at GlaxoSmithKline UK, which makes Cervarix, said: "Our deepest sympathies are with the family and friends of the young girl.

"We are working with the Department of Health and MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) to better understand this case, as at this stage the exact cause of this tragic death is unknown."

We are conducting an urgent and full investigation into the events surrounding this tragedy Dr Caron Grainger

The global pharmaceutical company added that the vast majority of suspected adverse reactions have related either to the symptoms of recognised side effects or were due to the injection process and not the vaccine itself.

Public Health Minister Gillian Merron said: "Our deepest sympathies are with the family. It is important we have the results of further investigations as soon as possible to establish the cause of this sad event."

In the UK, about 3,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year and about 1,000 die from it.

The department said Cervarix had a strong safety record.

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said the tragedy needed to be investigated "as a matter of urgency".

He said: "This again raises the question which we have asked for some time, as to why the government won't publish the assessments it made of the relative merits of the two HPV vaccines and why we therefore use a different vaccine to most other comparable countries."

There are more than 100 types of HPV but only 13 of them are known to cause cancer.

Cervarix protects against two strains of HPV that cause more than 70% of cases of cervical cancer in women.

Vaccination is not compulsory and consent is required before it is administered to the under-16s

Quick guide: Biofuels

Quick guide: Biofuels

What are biofuels?

Biofuels are any kind of fuel made from living things, or from the waste they produce.

This is a very long and diverse list, including:

• wood, wood chippings and straw
• pellets or liquids made from wood
• biogas (methane) from animals' excrement
• ethanol, diesel or other liquid fuels made from processing plant material or waste oil

In recent years, the term "biofuel" has come to mean the last category - ethanol and diesel, made from crops including corn, sugarcane and rapeseed.

Rudolph Diesel: biofuel pioneer

Bio-ethanol, an alcohol, is usually mixed with petrol, while biodiesel is either used on its own or in a mixture.

Pioneers such as Henry Ford and Rudolph Diesel designed cars and engines to run on biofuels. Before World War II, the UK and Germany both sold biofuels mixed with petrol or diesel made from crude oil; the availability of cheap oil later ensured market dominance.

Ethanol for fuel is made through fermentation, the same process which produces it in wine and beer. Biodiesel is made through a variety of chemical processes.

There is interest in trying biobutanol, another alcohol, in aviation fuel.

Are biofuels climate-friendly?

In principle, biofuels are a way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional transport fuels.

WHAT IS A QUICK GUIDE? Quick guides are concise explanations of topics or issues in the news. More Quick Guides

Burning the fuels releases carbon dioxide; but growing the plants absorbs a comparable amount of the gas from the atmosphere.

However, energy is used in farming and processing the crops, and this can make biofuels as polluting as petroleum-based fuels, depending on what is grown and how it is treated.

A recent UK government publication declared that biofuels reduced emissions "by 50-60% compared to fossil fuels".

Where are biofuels used?

Production of ethanol doubled globally between 2000 and 2005, with biodiesel output quadrupling.

Biofuels: the next batch

Brazil leads the world in production and use, making about 16 billion litres per year of ethanol from its sugarcane industry.

Sixty percent of new cars can run on a fuel mix which includes 85% ethanol.

The European Union has a target for 2010 that 5.75% of transport fuels should come from biological sources, but the target is unlikely to be met.

The British government's Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation requires 5% of the fuel sold at the pump by 2010 to be biofuel.

In the US, the Renewable Fuels Standard aims to double the use of biofuels in transport by 2012.

What are the downsides?

From the environmental point of the view, the big issue is biodiversity.

With much of the western world's farmland already consisting of identikit fields of monocultured crops, the fear is that a major adoption of biofuels will reduce habitat for animals and wild plants still further.

Asian countries may be tempted to replace rainforest with more palm oil plantations, critics say.

No hunger from biofuels Green energy or grim reaper?

If increased proportions of food crops such as corn or soy are used for fuel, that may push prices up, affecting food supplies for less prosperous citizens.

The mixed picture regarding the climate benefit of biofuels leads some observers to say that the priority should be reducing energy use; initiatives on biofuels detract attention from this, they say, and are more of a financial help to politically important farming lobbies than a serious attempt to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

There are few problems technically; engines can generally cope with the new fuels.

But current technologies limit production, because only certain parts of specific plants can be used.

The big hope is the so-called second-generation of biofuels, which will process the cellulose found in many plants. This should lead to far more efficient production using a much greater range of plants and plant waste.

Copenhagen

Copenhagen negotiating text: 200 pages to save the world?

Draft agreement being discussed ahead of December's crucial Copenhagen summit is long, confusing and contradictory

Interactive: Beginner's guide to the negotiating text

The draft document includes sections on the traditional sticking points that have delayed progress on climate change to date. Photograph: John Giles/PA

It is a blueprint to save the world. And yet it is long, confusing and contradictory. Negotiators have released a draft version of a new global agreement on climate change, which is widely billed as the last chance to save the planet from the ravages of global warming.

Running to some 200 pages, the draft agreement is being discussed for the first time this week as officials from 190 countries gather in Bangkok for the latest round of UN talks. There is only one short meeting after this before they meet in Copenhagen aiming to hammer out a final version.

The draft text consolidates and reorders hundreds of changes demanded by countries to the previous version, which saw it balloon to an unmanageable 300 pages. It has no official status yet, and must be formally approved before negotiators can start to whittle it down. Here, we present key, edited sections from the text and attempt to decipher what the words mean.

The text includes sections on the traditional sticking points that have delayed progress on climate change for a decade or longer.

• How much are rich countries willing to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, and by when?

• Will large developing nations such as China make an effort to put at least a dent in their soaring levels of pollution?

• How much money must flow from the developed world to developing countries to grease the wheels and secure their approval? How much to compensate for the impact of past emissions, and how much to help prevent future emissions?

According to the UN rules, for a new treaty to be agreed, every country must sign up – a challenging requirement. The new treaty is designed to follow the Kyoto protocol, the world's existing treaty to regulate greenhouse gases, the first phase of which expires in 2012. Because the US did not ratify Kyoto, the climate talks have been forced on to awkward parallel tracks, with one set of negotiations, from which the US is excluded, debating how the treaty could be extended past 2012. This new text comes from the second track, which lays out a plan to include all countries in long-term co-operative action.

Behind the scenes, pessimism about the Copenhagen talks is rising. Despite references in the text to a global goal and collective emission cuts of 25-40% by 2020 for rich countries, many observers believe there is little chance such an approach will succeed.

Stuart Eizenstat, who negotiated Kyoto for the US, said: "Copenhagen is more likely to be a way station to a final agreement, where each country posts the best that it can do... The key thing is let's not go into Copenhagen with all the same kind of guns blazing like we did in Kyoto."

A top European official told the Guardian: "We've moved on from the idea that we can negotiate on targets. That's naive and just not the way the deal will be done. The best we can get is that countries will put in what they want to commit to."

Once all the carbon offsets – buying pollution credits instead of cutting emissions – and "fudges" are taken into account, the outcome is likely to be that emissions in 2020 from rich countries will be broadly similar to those in 1990, he said. "That's really scary stuff."

Newport City Council has refused a biofuel

City casts out palm oil power plant bid

http://www.richimag.co.uk/biofools/ , Planning, 18 September 2009

Newport City Council has refused a biofuel power plant that would have run on so-called sustainable palm oil.

The authority came to the decision over health fears and the environmental impacts of the scheme, to the delight of its opponents. The plant at Newport's South Dock would have used palm..

Policy News

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We will learn from local councils, say Tories

Shadow chancellor George Obsorne has spoken about how a conservative administration would learn from local government.

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Trouble With Biofuels

The Trouble With Biofuels

By BRYAN WALSH Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008

The cornfield at Didier Farms in Prairie View, Illinois.

Tim Boyle / Getty

Related

Audio

Bryan Walsh talks to Nature Conservancy scientist Joe Fargione about his research, which argues that many biofuels may be worse for the climate than the fossil fuels they are meant to replace

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But according to a pair of studies published in the journal Science recently, biofuels may not fulfill that promise — and in fact, may be worse for the climate than the fossil fuels they're meant to supplement. According to researchers at Princeton University and the Nature Conservancy, almost all the biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels, if the full environmental cost of producing them is factored in. As virgin land is converted for growing biofuels, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere; at the same time, biofuel crops themselves are much less effective at absorbing carbon than the natural forests or grasslands they may be replacing. "When land is converted from natural ecosystems it releases carbon," says Joseph Fargione, a lead author of one of the papers and a scientist at the Nature Conservancy. "Any climate change policy that doesn't take this fact into account doesn't work."

Many environmentalists have been making the case against biofuels for some time, arguing that biofuel production takes valuable agricultural land away from food, driving up the price of staple crops like corn. But the Science papers make a more sweeping argument. In their paper, Fargione's team calculated the "carbon debt" created by raising biofuel crops — the amount of carbon released in the process of converting natural landscapes into cropland. They found that corn ethanol produced in the U.S. had a carbon debt of 93 years, meaning it would take nearly a century for ethanol, which does produce fewer greenhouse gases when burned than fossil fuels, to make up for the carbon released in that initial landscape conversion. Palm tree biodiesel in Indonesia and Malaysia — one of the most controversial biofuels currently in use, because of its connection to tropical deforestation in those countries — has a carbon debt of 86 years. Soybean biodiesel in the Amazonian rainforest has a debt of 320 years. "People don't realize there is three times as much carbon in plants and soil than there is in the air," says Fargione. "Cut down forests, burn them, churn the soil, and you release all the carbon that's been stored."

Worse, as demand for biofuels go up — the European Union alone targets 5.75% of all its transport fuel to come from biofuel by the end of the year — the price of crops rises. That in turn encourages farmers to clear virgin land and plant more crops, releasing even more carbon in a vicious cycle. For instance, as the U.S. uses more biodiesel, much of which is made from soybeans or palm oil, farmers in Brazil or Indonesia will clear more land to raise soybeans to replace those used for fuel. "When we ask the world's farmers to feed 6 billion people and ask them to produce fuel, that requires them to use additional land," says Fargione. "That land has to come from somewhere."

Industry groups like the Renewable Fuels Association criticized the studies for being too simplistic, and failing to put biofuels in context. And it's true that the switch to biofuels can have benefits that go beyond climate change. Biofuels tend to produce less local pollution than fossil fuels, one reason why Brazil — which gets 30% of its automobile fuel from sugar-cane ethanol — has managed to reduce once stifling air pollution. In the U.S., switching to domestically produced biofuels helps cut dependence on foreign oil, and boosts income for farmers. But in all of these cases, the benefits now seem to pale next to the climate change deficits. Fargione points out that if the U.S. managed to use 15 billion gallons of ethanol by 2015 — as is mandated in last year's energy bill — it would still only offset 7% of projected energy demand. That won't put Venezuela or Iran out of business.

This is all depressing news, especially if you're a corn farmer. Biofuels are one of the few alternative fuels that are actually available right now, but the evidence suggests we be better off not relying on them. But even Fargione doesn't argue that we should ditch biofuels altogether. Biofuels using waste matter — like wood chips, or the leftover sections of corn stalks — or from perennial plants like switchgrass, effectively amount to free fuel, because they don't require clearing additional land. "There's no carbon debt," notes Fargione. Unfortunately, the technology for yielding fuel from those sources — like cellulosic biofuels — is still in its infancy, though it is improving fast. In the end, the right kind of biofuel won't be a silver bullet, but just one more tool in the growing arsenal against climate change

climate change the truth is coming out

New study to force ministers to review climate change plan

Official review admits biofuel role in food crisis

Britain and Europe will be forced to fundamentally rethink a central part of their environment strategy after a government report found that the rush to develop biofuels has played a "significant" role in the dramatic rise in global food prices, which has left 100 million more people without enough to eat.

The Gallagher report, due to be published next week, will trigger a review of British and EU targets for the use of plant-derived fuels in place of petrol and diesel, the Guardian has learned.

The study marks a dramatic reversal in the role of biofuels in the fight against global warming. As recently as last year, corn ethanol and biodiesel derived from vegetable oil were widely seen as important weapons in that fight - and a central plank of Gordon Brown's green strategy. Now even their environmental benefits are in question.

A panel of government experts, chaired by Professor Ed Gallagher, head of the Renewable Fuels Agency, has said that far more research is needed into the indirect impact of biofuels on land use and food production before the government sets targets for their use in transport.

The first such target is already in place. Since April, all petrol and diesel in Britain has had to contain 2.5% of biofuels, a stepping stone towards a 2010 target of 5%. The EU is contemplating a 10% target by 2020. The new report means all those goals will have to be reconsidered.

A government official familiar with the Gallagher review said: "Simply setting a target without stipulating what kind of biofuel is to be used in what circumstances can have all sorts of unintended consequences."

John Vidal on a report that says biofuels have caused world food shortage Link to this audio
Another official said: "The review has thrown up the likelihood of significant impacts. UK and EU targets will have to be addressed."

The report says there is a place for biofuels, both as an alternative to fossil fuels and as a source of income for poor farmers with marginal lands. But it says a distinction must be drawn between "first-generation" biofuels, which use food crops such as corn, rapeseed, palm and soya, and experimental "second-generation" fuels based on fibrous non-food plants which could theoretically be grown without displacing other crops and raising food prices. Criteria to guide fuel policy would consequently have to be drawn up.

It was unclear yesterday whether Britain had left it too late to influence EU biofuel targets, after the government failed to raise objections in a succession of votes in European environment and industry committees. British officials believe the issue can still be revisited in Brussels.

The transport secretary, Ruth Kelly, ordered the review in February, at the height of the food price crisis, but the panel only began work in March and was asked to deliver its conclusions three months later. "There was so little time, I expected it would just be a review of the literature, but it has gone much further than I expected. It has substantive things to say," said a government official involved in drafting the report.

The role of biofuels, which pits concerns over climate change against the need for food security for vulnerable populations, was the most controversial issue at a summit on the food crisis earlier this month in Rome. The US and Brazil, both large-scale biofuel producers, argued fiercely against any hint of criticism of their cultivation in the conference's final statement, which called only for "in-depth studies".

An American claim that biofuels contributed less than 3% to food price rises was widely derided. The IMF estimates their impact as 20-30%, and other estimates are even higher. Over a third of US corn is used to produce ethanol, while about half of EU vegetable oils go towards the production of biodiesel.

After the Rome summit, a British government team involved in the Gallagher review visited the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to consult specialists who had drawn up UN recommendations on biofuel use. They emerged saying their views were "identical". The FAO recommendations advised against a moratorium on biofuel use or the continuation of "business as usual" under existing policies, calling instead for a set of international standards to ensure plant-derived ethanol and biodiesel did not harm the food supply. Keith Wiebe, a senior agricultural economist at the FAO, said: "There is a push towards the development of these liquid biofuels that is in advance of our understanding of their impact. We need to know more about those impacts, before pushing too hard."

The UN's World Food Programme has called the food crisis a "silent tsunami" which is pushing more than 100 million people worldwide into hunger.

· This article was amended on Monday June 23 2008. We should have said that the EU is contemplating a target of 10% for the proportion of biofuels to be contained in diesel and petrol by 2020, rather than 2010. This has been corrected.

whalemeat trade

Iceland plans big whalemeat trade

Hvalur's catcher boats pulled in 125 fin whales this year

The company behind Iceland's fin whaling industry is planning a huge export of whalemeat to Japan.

This summer, Hvalur hf caught 125 fins - a huge expansion on previous years.
The company's owner says he will export as much as 1,500 tonnes to Japan. This would substantially increase the amount of whalemeat in the Japanese market.
The export would be legal because these nations are exempt from the global ban on trading whalemeat, but conservation groups doubt its commercial viability.
Last year, Hvalur hf exported about 65 tonnes of whalemeat to Japan, a consignment that owner Kristjan Loftsson described as a "loss-leader".
But following this year's huge catch, he believes the next one can make money.

This is our best year yet - we're very happy about that Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson Icelandic minke whaler

"We'll get a good price - we're intending to make a profit, that's for sure," he told BBC News.
Mr Loftsson said he had now suspended fin whaling for this season, having caught 125 from a quota of 150.
The remaining 25 can be carried over into next year's hunting season.
This compares with a total of seven caught in the previous three years.
The fin is globally listed as an endangered species, though Icelandic marine scientists maintain stocks are big enough locally to sustain a hunt of this size.
EU centre
New quotas were controversially set by the government of Geir Haarde just before it left office in January.
The new left-green coalition government has promised to review the situation, but has so far chosen not to revoke the five-year quotas set by its predecessor.

Johanna Sigurdardottir's government is to review whaling policy

The government has formally applied to join the EU, and it is entirely possible that the EU would demand an end to whaling as a condition of Iceland's entry.
The application still has to be endorsed in a referendum - and some conservationists believe Mr Loftsson is using whaling as a way to lobby against EU membership.
"I think he is holding Icelandic politicians hostages to fortune," said Arni Finnsson of the Iceland Nature Conservation Association (INCA).
"He's saying that 'unless I can do this, you would be denying Iceland $40m in export income' - and how can you argue against that if you're a politician?"
The $40m figure was cited by the Fisheries Ministry under Mr Haarde's government, said Mr Finnsson, as being the size of the potential annual export market.
Election issue?
Along with other conservation organisations, INCA is adamantly opposed to trading in whalemeat, which they see as something with the potential to increase hunting in various parts of the world.
The trade is generally banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

THE LEGALITIES OF WHALING Objection - A country formally objects to the IWC moratorium, declaring itself exempt. Example: Norway Scientific - A nation issues unilateral 'scientific permits'; any IWC member can do this. Example: Japan Aboriginal - IWC grants permits to indigenous groups for subsistence food. Example: Alaskan Inupiat

But Iceland and Japan - along with a handful of other countries - lodged reservations, as the treaty permits, and so are exempt.
Conservation groups doubt that such a huge export of meat to Japan can be profitable.
A consignment of anything approaching 1,500 tonnes would mark a major expansion of the amount of meat available on the Japanese market each year.
The exact tonnage caught by Japan's whale and dolphin hunts varies each year, but 4,000 tonnes would be a reasonable ballpark figure.
Conservationists have raised the possibility that Japan's new government will re-address its whaling policies.
But Yukio Hatoyama's pre-election position appears close to that of his predecessor, holding scientific whaling to be a sovereign right and promoting the resumption of commercial whaling on abundant stocks.
Fresh supplies
Hunting for the much smaller minke whales in Icelandic waters, meanwhile, will probably end next week, with 80 caught so far.
"This is our best year yet - we're very happy about that," said Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson, head of the minke whalers' association.
"We didn't start freezing any meat before around 15th/20th August - we sold it all fresh - now we're just freezing so we have something for restaurants and stores over the winter."
Mr Jonsson said the minke whalers were also interested in exporting if the fin whale consignment proved successful

Dramatic rise in C. diff deaths

rise in C. diff deaths

Tackling hospital infections is a top government priority

The number of deaths linked to hospital bug Clostridium difficile has soared in England and Wales, figures from the Office for National Statistics show.

Between 2005 and 2006 the number of death certificates which mentioned the infection rose by 72% to 6,480, most of which were elderly people.

In over half of cases, it was listed as the underlying cause of death.

It is thought that some of the increase may be due to more complete reporting on death certificates.

How numbers have changed

Deaths involving C. difficile increased by 77% in men, and 66% in women between 2005 and 2006.

Since 2006 we have taken significant steps to tackle infections Professor Brian Duerden, Department of Health

Rates in both sexes have gone up dramatically since 2001, when there were only 1,200 mentions of the infection on death certificates.

The ONS figures also showed deaths involving MRSA remained roughly the same between 2005 and 2006 - at around 1,650.

C. difficile usually affects the elderly, and can prove fatal if antibiotic treatment fails to kill all the spores in the gut, and they take hold again before the patient's own gut bacteria have had chance to mount a resistance.

It is also very difficult to eradicate from the ward environment, which means it is easy for other patients to become infected.

MRSA figures

Professor Brian Duerden, chief microbiologist at the Department of Health, said in July 2005 they called for more accurate reporting of infections such as MRSA and C. difficile on death certificates.

"These statistics from 2006 show that this move has worked and our figures are now in line with other developed countries.

"Since 2006 we have taken significant steps to tackle infections.

"These include stringent hand-washing guidance for the NHS, a bare below the elbows dress code, putting matrons back in charge of cleanliness on their wards and an ongoing deep clean of every ward."

And he added hospital infection rates were now falling.

The Health Protection Agency reported in November 2007 that rates of C. difficile infection may be levelling off with the number of new cases down 7% to 13,660, while MRSA cases are falling.

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said: "These figures beg the question of why it took so long for the government to realise the seriousness of deadly infections such as C. difficile.

"Recent successes in keeping infection rates down are down to the hard work of NHS staff, who are up against enormous pressure to hit targets while keeping their wards infection-free."

Shadow health secretary, Andrew Lansley, said: "Almost three times as many people are now killed by hospital infections as are killed on the roads each year.

"The overall scale of infection is unacceptable and the need for a comprehensive infection control strategy, including improved antibiotic prescribing and access to isolation facilities, hand hygiene and cleanliness is paramount."

He added: "An expert told the Department of Health last week that it was the government's failure to implement guidelines since as far back as 1994 that has contributed to the recent rise."

C. diff rise due to 'gene switch'

Most deaths from C. difficile occur in the over 65s

The rise in Clostridium difficile infections in recent years is due to genetic changes rather than dirty hospitals, say UK researchers.

Comparison of an historic strain and a strain from the outbreak at Stoke Mandeville hospital in 2003 found it had evolved to be more virulent.

It can spread more easily and cause more severe symptoms, the team reports in Genome Biology journal.

NHS trusts have a target to cut C. difficile infections by 30% by 2010/11.

The bacteria are present in the gut of as many as 3% of healthy adults and 66% of infants.

It rarely causes problems in healthy people but can lead to illness when the normal balance of bacteria in the gut is disrupted, for example with use of certain antibiotics, and it is the leading cause of hospital-acquired diarrhoea.

The deep clean programme was never going to work against this organism in the long term Professor Brendan Wren

In the past five years, a new group of highly virulent C. difficile strains has emerged - PCR-ribotype 027 - which cause more severe diarrhoea and a higher rate of deaths.

Analysis of the full genome of the "hyper-virulent" strains and an older strain showed the bacteria have acquired genes which enable them to survive better in the environment, spread more easily and make patients more severely ill.

In all, five different genetic regions appear to have accumulated in the bacteria in past couple of decades, the team reported in Genome Biology.

Fighting back

The number of cases of C. difficile has risen dramatically since the 1990s, although latest figures show cases are now consistently falling.

Stoke Mandeville Hospital saw two major outbreaks of C. difficile between 2003 and 2006 that caused 35 deaths.

Study leader Professor Brendan Wren, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the study would help scientists understand how C. difficile became so aggressive.

"These strains came from nowhere and the sudden rise in C. difficile was due to their spread.

"The bugs are fighting back and the one clear thing that comes out of this study is it is not down to cleaning but that the strain has evolved with new chunks of DNA.

"The deep clean programme was never going to work against this organism in the long term."

Hygiene measures are still needed to keep the infection under control, he added.

A spokeswoman for the Health Protection Agency said it closely monitored the evolution of C. difficile strains.

"All strains of C. difficile require intervention and control - the intervention involved when dealing with the 027 strain is no different than how any other strain is treated.

"All C. difficile requires treatment and vigilant infection control procedures in order to reduce rates of infection."

Legends of the Beetroot

THE BEET GENERATION

Legends of the Beetroot
- by Chas Saunders and Peter Ramsey

BEETROOT has a hard time. It's unfashionable, it's boring, and no-one really likes it much. But all that's set to change with our amazing beetroot research. We've discovered that the humble beet has some amazing properties and may just change your life!

It all started when we came across Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins (see below). A gripping, hilarious novel about the quest for immortality, this book is so full of beetroot references that reading a page feels like consuming a vast bowl of borscht. Always alert to the mythology of everyday life, we thought Tom might be onto something and decided to investigate...

Two hearts beet as one

APHRODITE, the Greek Goddess of Love, was exquisitely beautiful. She was sexy, snugglesome and could melt hearts with the flick of a holy eyelid. And to what did she attribute her romantic powers? It wasn't lipstick, perfume or a little black dress. It was beetroot. She couldn't get enough of the stuff.

In fact, beetroot has a legendary connection to affairs of the heart. With APHRODITE as patron and unofficial Beet Goddess, the word spread that beetroots could enhance beauty and provide aphrodisiac properties. (APHRODITE's beauty is universally acknowledged but we haven't tested the beet's erotic properties under lab conditions yet.) The Oracle at Delphi claimed that beetroots are worth their weight in silver, second only to horseradish in mystic potency. And the Oracle certainly knew a thing or two.

The belief persists to this day that if a man and a woman eat from the same beetroot, they will fall in love. (With each other, presumably.) That's something many of you can take advantage of, and we wish you every happiness. These beliefs may simply be from association with APHRODITE, but we have a better theory. The beetroot is roughly the same colour and shape as the organ of love, the heart. And that raises the humble beet from a boring vegetable to a Symbol.

So when women of the early Celt cultures used powdered beetroot as rouge and lipstick, they weren't just making themselves red in the face. They were taking on the romantic aura of the hearty beet. Beetroots were even featured on early Valentine cards, such as the one by E. Curtis pictured here. Some of the puns on 'beetroot' were truly appalling.

Beetroot appears in several Talmud ceremonies to ward off disease and obtain God's favour. The Hebrew word for beetroot appears to resemble the word for 'banish'. It's probable that the blood-red colour also has some health/military significance. If you have healthy beet-powered blood, you'll quickly dispatch your enemies. Particularly if their unrighteous blood is turnip-colored.

Beetroots were also used in some cultures to colour hard-boiled eggs, making them bright red. These were eaten as symbols of the Sun God to give prosperity, health and other benefits.

Finally, check out KVASIR, the Norse God of Inspiration. There's a strong beetroot connection here as Kvas, the staple drink of the Slav and Nordic peoples, is made from fermented beet juice and comes straight out of the mythology. KVASIR can be found in our Top Gods department here.

A whiff of Immortality

Beetroot seems to have inspired Tom Robbins, author of Jitterbug Perfume, a very entertaining read. This should be a scratch'n'sniff book for adults but the cost would no doubt be prohibitive. Even without, the words fizz and bubble off the page.

This is a book that bounces to a beetroot beat with a boofy base. The God PAN makes an entrance and wails on the wild side to a Bandaloop bounce. It travels through time and around it from Tibet to New Orleans and beyond.

The thread that binds it together is the quest for immortality by Alobar, the ruler of a Bohemian tribe. He is sentenced to extermination for having grey hairs in his beard, as this is the sign for replacement by someone younger. Being still full of vigour he is not at all ready to go and manages to outwit the system by a feigned death, enabling him to escape and flee the area but then having to live on his wits.

Realising in time the world is so much larger than he envisaged and finding it to be 'Roundo' he sets off to round up ways to increase his life span and live life to the full.

Beetroots crop up constantly in his ever-lengthening life and jasmine wafts its way through the pages with great regularity. Along the way the secrets of Life, Death, Love and Happiness are revealed... Jitterbug Perfume is touching, blitheringly funny and as profound as you want to make it.

We can't tell you more as we have foolishly lent out our copy, and it is not the sort of book to come back. You will have to buy your own. Thankfully Jitterbug Perfume is still very much in print.

Dinosaurs had 'earliest feathers'

By Jonathan Amos Science reporter, BBC

An artist's impression of how these creatures may have looked

Exceptionally well preserved dinosaur fossils uncovered in north-eastern China display the earliest known feathers.

The creatures are all more than 150 million years old.

The new finds are indisputably older than Archaeopteryx, the "oldest bird" recognised by science.

Professor Xu Xing and colleagues tell the journal Nature that this represents the final proof that dinosaurs were ancestral to birds.

The theory that birds evolved from dinosaurs has always been troubled by the absence of feathers more ancient than those on the famous Archaeopteryx.

All over the skeleton, you see feathers Xu Xing

This has given critics room to question the idea.

But the new fossils, which come from two separate locations, are in most cases about 10 million years older than the primitive Archaeopteryx discovered in the late 19th Century.

One of the new dinosaur specimens, named Anchiornis huxleyi, is spectacular in its preservation.

It has extensive plumage covering its arms and tail, and also its feet - a "four-winged" arrangement, says Professor Xu from the Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing.

'Immensely exciting'

"The first specimen we discovered earlier this year was incomplete," he told BBC News.

"Based on that specimen, we named it Anchiornis; and we thought it was a close relative of birds. But then we got a second specimen, which was very complete - beautifully preserved.

The privative Archaeopteryx marks the transition between birds and dinos

"All over the skeleton, you see feathers.

"Based on this second specimen, we realised that this was a much more important species, and definitely one of the most important species for our understanding of the origin of birds and of their flight."

Professor Xu believes the four-winged shape may have been a very important stage in the evolutionary transition from dinosaurs to birds.

Details of the latest discoveries have been presented this week at the annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontologists, being held this year at the University of Bristol, UK.

The renowned Bristol palaeontologist Michael Benton said the announcement was immensely exciting.

"Drawing the tree of life, it's fairly obvious that feathers arose before Archaeopteryx appears in the fossil record," he told BBC News.

"Now these fantastic new discoveries by Professor Xu Xing prove that once and for all.

"These new discoveries are maybe 10 million years older than Archaeopteryx."

Some of the fossils are exceptionally well preserved