700 gorillas left

Rare cooperation to save gorillas

The slaughter of mountain gorillas in 2007 shocked the world

Three countries have come together for the first time, to try to save the mountain gorillas of central Africa. Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda have launched a project to improve their security.
One of the world's most endangered species, they live at the point where the three countries meet.
There are only about 700 mountain gorillas still left in the world and they have been hit by the destruction of the forests - their natural habitat.
The volcanic Virunga mountains that straddle Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo are the heartland of these great apes.


A census carried out in 2004 estimated that 380 mountain gorillas, more than half of the world's population, lived in the Virunga national park and surrounding region.
More than 300 also live in southwest Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable Forest reserve.
Last July, five gorillas were killed - shot dead execution style - inside the Virunga national park.
More recently, rebel forces loyal to the dissident Congolese general Laurent Nkunda, took over large areas of the park, forcing out the rangers and leaving the gorillas vulnerable to poachers.

For the first time, the three countries have decided to protect the great apes which are threatened with extinction Moses Mapesa, Uganda Wildlife Authority

The BBC's Sarah Grainger in Kampala says the wildlife authorities of all three countries are well aware of how important the gorillas are as they represent an important revenue earner.
Tourists pay $500 each for a permit to track the animals, raising $5m annually for the three countries.
The 10-year conservation project, which was launched in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, is to focus on greater security and ways of discouraging local communities from destroying the region's forests.
It aims to give them a share of the money made from gorilla-trekking permits.
"For the first time, the three countries have decided to protect the great apes which are threatened with extinction and insecurity in the region," Moses Mapesa, the head of the Uganda Wildlife Authority, told a news conference at the launch of the project.
The first four years of the project are being funded by the Dutch government at a cost of $6m.

titus the gorilla

Rwanda mourns most famous gorilla

                     

Titus was said to have overcome many hardships to rise to the top of the pack

Titus - the most famous silverback in Africa known as "The Gorilla King" - has died in Rwanda at the age of 35.

He was the subject of a BBC documentary last year, and was studied by naturalists throughout his life - including US expert Dian Fossey.
Rwandan officials described him as "possibly the most remarkable gorilla ever known", referring to his long life and his rise to dominance in his group.
Titus was one of only about 700 mountain gorillas left in Africa.
The highly endangered animals are found only on the slopes of the Virunga mountains on the borders of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The plight of the mountain gorilla was brought to the attention of the world by Fossey, who lived in the Virunga until her murder in 1985.
"He was born on 24 August 1974 and has been observed closely by researchers throughout his entire life," a statement from the Rwandan national parks office said.
"Tragically, he succumbed to old age on September 14."
The life expectancy of a healthy gorilla is about 40.
The silverback's story was featured last year in a BBC documentary called Titus: The Gorilla King.
He rose to become the dominant male in his group despite losing family members and being born underdeveloped.
"Every gorilla death recorded is not only a great loss, but a major setback to conservation efforts of removing the mountain gorillas off the endangered species list," tourism officials said.
Gorilla tracking is now the mainstay of tourism in Rwanda and Uganda.

blair ran gave it to brown the clown

GORDON Brown has been urged by a grieving family to "stand up to the mark" to protect Our Boys in Afghanistan.

Relatives of Taliban blast victim Paul McAleese blame the PM for his death - and for leaving British soldiers horrendously exposed to enemy bombers.

In a devastating letter sent to Downing Street, they revealed how Rifles serjeant Paul told them - just before he and a colleague died - that he and his comrades were sitting ducks.

Letter . . . for Prime Minister

It said: "I believe they were not killed by the Taliban or the insurgents: they were killed by whoever sent them out there knowing that they did not have the equipment necessary to do it with any degree of safety."

Paul - killed by a bomb while trying to reach a soldier hit by an earlier blast - blamed a chronic shortage of manpower, surveillance kit, vehicles and helicopters.

And the 29-year-old told how the situation was so dire that British troops were powerless to stop enemy fighters planting deadly devices just YARDS away from the gates of their base.

The letter to No10 was penned by new dad Paul's furious father-in-law Stephen Minter with the support of the soldier's widow Jo, mum Kim and sister Hayley.

Wedding day . . . Paul and Jo

In an echo of The Sun's "Don't you know there's a bloody war on?" campaign, RAF fireman Mr Minter told Mr Brown:

Because of you, I now have a 26-year-old daughter with no husband, and a five-month-old grandson with no father.

As the Prime Minister, you must accept responsibility for the deployment of our troops. You have a duty to ensure they are provided with the best equipment available and the operational tactics that are used are sound and sensible.

Failing to ensure this will be seen as an act of neglect and should not be allowed to go unanswered. I plead with you to stand up to the mark. Protect our troops and stop the needless killings of our sons, husbands and fathers.

The family revealed their anger on the day TWO more British soldiers died - one from Paul's ravaged unit, the 2nd Battalion, the Rifles. Like Paul, he was killed by a hidden "home-made" Taliban bomb, known as an Improvised Explosive Device, or IED.

The other victim, from the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, succumbed to wounds five days after being blown up in a Viking armoured vehicle - which cannot withstand IED blasts.

It brings the death toll of Britons in Afghanistan to 216 since 2001. Both men will be named today.

Mum Kim, 50, told The Sun: "Paul was going to tackle his superiors about these issues when he got back home.

"Don't get me wrong, he was a 100 per cent committed soldier. But he felt he could no longer keep quiet about the things he was seeing because of his strong sense of responsibility to the guys out there with him."

Anger . . . Stephen Minter

DAVID HARTLEY

Kim spent a precious last few days with Paul and his first child Charley when the serjeant - whose dad is famous SAS siege-buster John McAleese - took leave in July. Sister Hayley, 26, wept as she said: "I want Gordon Brown to listen.

"Enough is enough. If you can't bring them home, let's make them safer and allow them to do their job properly."

Paul's unit is charged with holding the Afghan town of Sangin, a notorious Taliban stamping ground.

The MoD admitted last month commanders had to move troops AWAY from Sangin to form the attacking force for Operation Panther's Claw elsewhere in Helmand province. That left Paul's battle group dangerously exposed.

IEDs have killed 13 and wounded more than 70 soldiers from the 600-strong 2 Rifles in the last four months. Seven deaths were from Paul's small outpost, Forward Operating Base Wishtan. Military chiefs have levelled blame at Mr Brown, saying he refused an urgent request from top brass for 2,000 reinforcements before the bitter summer tour started in April.

No10 last night confirmed Mr Brown had received the letter - and would reply soon. A spokesman said he was "determined to give the troops every support". 

smog

the hysteria around climate is astounding , the science is taught at u.k. universities , a strange logic to ignore universal effeects on planet earth, solar influences , the earth is finite, It has a life , it was born and it will die.
HUMan may leave and survive,meanwhile what we do here will influence the conditions we live in , those who cry climate change ignore the over population and ignorance of Dirty people, for sure we are making a mess'the united kingdom dealt with smog ,food and waste are totally important, each human requires a package of land to support themselves, pollution will affect health, the past has allthe lessons,
1. smog due to the burning of coal in In 1306, concerns over air pollution were sufficient for Edward I to (briefly) ban coal fires in London.^[6] In 1661, John Evelyn's Fumifugium suggested burning fragrant wood instead of mineral coal, which he believed would reduce coughing. The Ballad of Gresham College the same year describes how the smoke "does our lungs and spirits choke, Our hanging spoil, and rust our iron."
Severe episodes of smog continued in the 19th and 20th centuries and were nicknamed "pea-soupers". The Great Smog of 1952 darkened the streets of London and killed approximately 4,000 people in the short time of 4 days (a further 8,000 died from its effects in the following weeks and months). Initially a flu epidemic was blamed for the loss of life. In 1956 the Clean Air Act introduced smokeless zones in the capital. Consequently, reduced sulfur dioxide levels made the intense and persistent London smog a thing of the past. It was after this the great clean-up of London began and buildings recovered their original stone façades which, during two centuries, had gradually blackened. Smog caused by traffic pollution, however, does occur in modern London.

climate supposition

Doctors warn on climate failure

By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News website

The authors believe climate change will increase rates of malnutrition

Failure to agree a new UN climate deal in December will bring a "global health catastrophe", say 18 of the world's professional medical organisations.

Writing in The Lancet and the British Medical Journal, they urge doctors to "take a lead" on the climate issue.
In a separate editorial, the journals say that people in poor tropical nations will suffer the worst impacts.
They argue that curbing climate change would have other benefits such as more healthy diets and cleaner air.
December's UN summit, to be held in Copenhagen, is due to agree a new global climate treaty to supplant the Kyoto Protocol.
But preparatory talks have been plagued by lack of agreement on how much to cut greenhouse gas emissions and how to finance climate protection for the poorest countries.

Effects of climate change on health will... put the lives and wellbeing of billions of people at increased risk Lancet/UCL report Send us your comments

"There is a real danger that politicians will be indecisive, especially in such turbulent economic times as these," according to the letter signed by leaders of 18 colleges of medicine and other medical disciplines across the world.
"Should their response be weak, the results for international health could be catastrophic."
Rising risk
Earlier in the year, The Lancet, together with University College London (UCL), published a major review on the health impacts of climate change.
Some of the headline findings were that rising temperatures are likely to increase transmission of many infectious diseases, reduce supplies of food and clean water in developing countries, and raise the number of people dying from heat-related conditions in temperate regions.

Changing fuel can improve women's lives as well as curbing emissions

But it also acknowledged some huge gaps in research - for example, that "almost no reliable data for heatwave-induced mortality exist in Africa or south Asia".
Nevertheless, the main conclusion was that in a world likely to have three billion new inhabitants by the second half of this century: "Effects of climate change on health will affect most populations in the next decades and put the lives and wellbeing of billions of people at increased risk".
The current Lancet and BMJ editorial that accompanies the letter from doctors' organisations argues that climate change strengthens the cases that health and development charities are already championing.
"Even without climate change, the case for clean power, electric cars, saving forests, energy efficiency, and new agriculture technology is strong.
"Climate change makes it unanswerable."
Written by Lord Michael Jay, who chairs the health charity Merlin, and Professor Michael Marmot of UCL, the editorial argues that there are plenty of "win-win solutions" available.
"A low-carbon economy will mean less pollution. A low carbon-diet (especially eating less meat) and more exercise will mean less cancer, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
"Opportunity, surely, not cost."

yoga diet

The basic principle of nutrition, from the yoga perspective, is to eat small quantities of high quality foods. The high quality foods are those which promote the life force of the body without producing toxins. The recommended foods are fruits, vegetables, whole grains and nuts.

Incredibly, yoga's principles of nutrition are very similar to what modern science has discovered in more recent times.

Vegetables

You should consider vegetables such as lettuce, cabbage, capsicums, broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes, corn cucumber, beetroot, pumpkin, broccoli and so on. Spirulina and other high protein green foods , such as Organic wheatgrass, Organic barleygrass and Organic Chlorella are also an excellent choice and are now considered more value than vegetables as the have higher protein, vitamin & mineral concentrations

Fruit

Fruit is considered to possess a high life force. Fruit is also very nutritious but it does contain a certain kind of sugar, so be careful with to much. It can be eaten raw which is best as unprocessed is easily digested. It provides a quick and sustained source of energy with no toxins. It is no wonder the yogis favor fruit.

Meat

The yoga advises to be cautious of eating meat. Not all yogis are vegetarians, but they all recommend eating meat in strict moderation. According to yoga, the meat, being animal flesh, has a low vibration rate and will lower the life force of the person eating it. This will cause a reduction in vitality and slow down your progress from yoga. Meat also contains toxins, especially lactic acid, which is a waste product of muscle metabolism.

We now know that meat contain fat, cholesterol and other substances that are toxic to our bodies. Thus the advise to eat meat in moderation is certainly well taken.

Fresh Food

Yoga also stresses that food should be as fresh as possible. This means we should rely more on fresh fruits and vegetables than on frozen or canned foods. Frozen food is not so bad, since the enzymes are preserved, but canned food has been preheated, which destroys a lot of the vitamins and minerals and the enzymes.

Raw Food

The yogis also state that the greater proportion of our food should be eaten raw; for example, fruits, salad, raw nuts and sprouted grains. They consider that the cooking of food causes it to lose a lot of its life force, as well as its flavor. If you must lightly stem all vegetables. Go very easy on salt and sauces which often create more problems. Certain spices are a good choice and can aid digestion. Modern science is in complete agreement with this.

Food Temperature

The yogis state that food should neither be too hot nor too cold. They claim that very hot or very cold food or drinks can cause harm to the tissue of the throat. Modern science also agrees with this and considers that food and beverages which are too hot or cold may irritate the throat sufficiently to predispose it to cancer.

Danger Sugar - We can't emphiase enough to stay away from it, as it has no value in nutrition at all and creates toxic by products. ( Sugar is Poisonous )This can be very challenging in today's in the western world. As it is in so many things. Its sole claim for desirability is its taste. Challenge your self to eat no sugar at all for one week and you will see how addicted you are. This Includes all refined white sugars, brown sugar, raw sugar organic sugar any sugars contained in foods Read the label they may be called Fructose, Glucose, Galactose, Maltose, Sorbitol, Honey, Mannitol (421), Molasses, Corn syrup, Maple syrup, Date sugar, Maltodextrin, Lactose. Keep any dried fruit such as Sultanas, Dried Apricots etc. to a minimum as they convert to sugar and also contain alot of Sulpher Dioxide ( 220). Try to avoid the fruit with this listed on the label.

VERY IMPORTANT Stay away from artifact sweeteners such as Aspartame(951) , Acesulfame-k, Saccharine(954) and Cyclamic Acid (952) as there are studies coming to light that these products are actually worse than sugar and some are very poisonous. Click here for more info. If you are looking for sweetness use a natural herb like Stevia Rebaudiana which is said to be 100 times sweeter than sugar.

Alcohol

Yogis do not touch alcohol, since they consider it to lower the vibrations of their subtle body (astral body). This defeats the purpose of yoga, which is to increase the vibrational level so they can gradually unfold their Higher Self.

Yoga also considers alcohol to have an adverse effect on the central nervous system, and in particular the brain. The integrity of the central nervous system is considered very important by the yogis, since one of the goals of yoga is to improve the health of this system, and much of the progress of yoga is achieved via this vital communication system.

Modern science agrees with yoga on this point, since alcohol is known to first stimulate and then shortly afterwards depress the central nervous system.

Alcohol also causes poor sleep. Alcohol cannot compare with the effects of yoga. Yoga produces a natural stimulation without the depressing after-effect. Yoga also produces a general feeling of elation. The increase in life force produced by practicing yoga cannot be duplicated by drugs.

Eat Slowly

The yogis place great emphasis on eating slowly. To set the scene for a meal always chew your first mouthful intill it falls down your throat with out swallowing. This is more important than on the type of food eaten. This helps the food become more alkaline and easier digested. Even nutritious food is not properly digested if eaten quickly. This means that, as well as not extracting all the nutrients from the food, you are also creating toxins in the body.

Even if you eat food which is not very nutritious, if it is eaten slowly and your digestive system is in good health from yoga exercises, your body will extract every last nutrient from the food, as well as eliminating all the toxins. Of course the intelligent way is to eat nutritious food and chew it slowly.

We are soon to be expanding the nutritional section with hundreds of pages of great information. Please sign up for updates to this section below

26,000yrs

word Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit word 'Yuj' which essentially means to join or unite. The union referred to is that of the individual self uniting with Cosmic Consciousness or the Universal Spirit. Yoga is a means to achieving this goal.

Born in India, almost 26,000 years ago, Yoga is believed to have evolved during the period of the ‘Sat Yuga’, also called the Golden age. This period became known as a time of everlasting peace and abundant blessings, filled with seekers of the Eternal Truth. That is why, probably, even today we associate yoga with sages and hermits.

It was not until the discovery of the Indus- valley civilization, the largest civilization, that knowledge about the origin of Yoga surfaced. Excavations give evidence of yoga’s existence during this period; yogi -like figures engraved on soapstone seals have been unearthed. In fact, it was the Aryans, migrating from the north- west, who were instrumental in discovering yoga.

Matching Quote

"Christianity, on the other hand, is humane, practical, and, in a large sense, radical. So many years and ages of the gods those Eastern sages sat contemplating Brahm, uttering in silence the mystic "Om," being absorbed into the essence of the Supreme Being, never going out of themselves, but subsiding farther and deeper within; so infinitely wise, yet infinitely stagnant; until, at last, in that same Asia, but in the western part of it, appeared a youth, wholly unforetold by them,—not being absorbed into Brahm, but bringing Brahm down to earth and to mankind; in whom Brahm had awakened from his long sleep, and exerted himself, and the day began,—a new avatar. The Brahman had never thought to be a brother of mankind as well as a child of God."

-Henry David Thoreau

egg returns

'Lost seabird' returns to ocean

by Matt Walker Editor, Earth News

Up to eight Fiji petrels were seen over an 11-day period

One of the world's rarest and most elusive birds has finally been seen flying in its natural habitat.

The Fiji petrel, a seabird that once "went missing" for 130 years, has been sighted flying at sea, near the island of Gua in the Pacific Ocean.
The culmination of a meticulously planned bird hunt, Birdlife International researchers sighted the birds 25 nautical miles south of Gua.
Up to eight individuals were seen and photographed over 11 days.
The 30cm tall dark-brown Fiji petrel (Pseudobulweria macgillivrayi) is one of the most elusive of all birds.

To see such a little-known bird at such close range was magical Expedition member Mr Tony Pym

Originally, the species was known from just a single immature specimen, collected in 1855 on Gau Island, Fiji.
But then the bird "went missing" with no further confirmed sightings of it for almost 130 years.
Then in 1984, an adult was caught and photographed on Gua, then released.
Since then, there have been a handful of reports of "grounded" birds that had crashed onto village roofs on the island. Most were immature birds, of which a few died.
Due to the extremely limited number of sightings, the bird is also inferred to be one of the rarest of all bird species.
It is one of 192 bird species which are list as Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Stinky lure
But while there have been ten unconfirmed reports of the bird at sea, with the latest a possible Fiji Petrel sighted around 400km north of Bougainville Island, until now there has been no confirmed sightings.
That was until in May, when scientists and volunteers working with Birdlife International and NatureFiji-MareqetiViti, a partner conservation organisation based in Fiji, set out to find the bird in its natural habitat.
The search for the elusive petrel is described in a paper in the latest Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club.
The researchers lured the bird with a specially made food, made from finely cut fish offal mixed with very dense fish oil.

The Fiji petrel once "went missing" for 130 years

These were then frozen into 10kg blocks, which persist for over an hour in the water, creating a pungent oil slick which attracts petrels from some miles away.
On the second day of the expedition, the first Fiji Petrel appeared, approaching the chum slick from downwind, slowly zigzagging over the slick, and suddenly changing direction to drop onto a floating morsel.
In all, the expedition team believe they saw eight individuals over eleven days of observations.
"Finding this bird and capturing such images was a fantastic and exhilarating experience," says ornithologist Hadoram Shirihai, who lead the search team.
In 2008, Mr Shirihai also rediscovered the Critically Endangered Beck's Petrel (Pseudobulweria becki) a bird that was also only known from two sightings in the Pacific made in the 1920s.
"To see such a little-known bird at such close range was magical," added fellow expedition member Mr Tony Pym, describing his joy at seeing the Fiji petrel flying over the waves.
More surveys in 2010 are now planned to to locate the breeding area of the Fiji Petrel, says Dick Watling of NatureFiji-MareqetiViti.
"Once we know the location, we can assess what needs to be done to turn around the fortunes of this species," he says.

'climate porn'

Media attacked for 'climate porn'

By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News website

The media excessively dramatise climate change impacts, says IPPR

Apocalyptic visions of climate change used by newspapers, environmental groups and the UK government amount to "climate porn", a think-tank says.
The report from the Labour-leaning Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) says over-use of alarming images is a "counsel of despair".
It says they make people feel helpless and says the use of cataclysmic imagery is partly commercially motivated.
However, newspapers have defended their coverage of a "crucial issue".
The IPPR report also criticises the reporting of individual climate-friendly acts as "mundane, domestic and uncompelling".

The style of climate change discourse is that we maximise the problem and minimise the solution Solitaire Townsend, Futerra

"The climate change discourse in the UK today looks confusing, contradictory and chaotic," says the report, entitled Warm Words.
"It seems likely that the overarching message for the lay public is that in fact, nobody really knows."
Alarm and rhetoric
IPPR's head of climate change Simon Retallack, who commissioned the report from communication specialists Gill Ereaut and Nat Segnit, said: "We were conscious of the fact that the amount of climate change coverage has increased significantly over the last few years, but there had been no analysis of what the coverage amounted to and what impact it might be having."
They analysed 600 newspaper and magazine articles, as well as broadcast news and adverts.
Coverage breaks down, they concluded, into several distinct areas, including:

• Alarmism, characterised by images and words of catastrophe
  
• Settlerdom, in which "common sense" is used to argue against the scientific consensus
  
• Rhetorical scepticism, which argues the science is bad and the dangers hyped
  
• Techno-optimism, the argument that technology can solve the problem

Publications said often to take a "sceptical" line included the Daily Mail and Sunday Telegraph.
Into the "alarmist" camp the authors put articles published in newspapers such as the Independent, Financial Times and Sunday Times, as well as statements from environmental groups, academics including James Lovelock and Lord May, and some government programmes.
"It is appropriate to call [what some of these groups publish] 'climate porn', because on some level it is like a disaster movie," Mr Retallack told the BBC News website.
"The public become disempowered because it's too big for them; and when it sounds like science fiction, there is an element of the unreal there."
'Horror film'
No British newspaper has taken climate change to its core agenda quite like the Independent, which regularly publishes graphic-laden front pages threatening global meltdown, with articles inside continuing the theme.

If our readers thought we put climate change on our front pages for the same reason that porn mags put naked women on their front pages, they would stop reading us Ian Birrell, The Independent

A recent leader, commenting on the heatwave then affecting Britain, said: "Climate change is an 18-rated horror film. This is its PG-rated trailer.
"The awesome truth is that we are the last generation to enjoy the kind of climate that allowed civilisation to germinate, grow and flourish since the start of settled agriculture 11,000 years ago."
Ian Birrell, the newspaper's deputy editor, said climate change was serious enough to merit this kind of linguistic treatment.
"The Independent led the way on campaigning on climate change and global warming because clearly it's a crucial issue facing the world," he said.
"You can see the success of our campaign in the way that the issue has risen up the political agenda."
Mr Retallack, however, believes some newspapers take an alarmist line on climate change through commercial motives rather than ideology.
"Every newspaper is a commercial organisation," he said, "and when you have a terrifying image on the front of the paper, you are likely to sell more copies than when you write about solutions."
Mr Birrell denied the charge. "You put on your front page what you deem important and what you think is important to your readers," he said.
"If our readers thought we put climate change on our front pages for the same reason that porn mags put naked women on their front pages, they would stop reading us.
"And I disagree that there's an implicit 'counsel of despair', because while we're campaigning on big issues such as ice caps, we also do a large amount on how people can change their own lives, through cycling, installing energy-efficient lighting, recycling, food miles; we've been equally committed on these issues."
Small is not beautiful
The IPPR report acknowledges that the media, government and NGOs do discuss individual actions which can impact greenhouse gas emissions, such as installing low-energy lightbulbs.

The image of individual climate-friendly actions could be talked up

But, it says, there is a mismatch of scale; a conclusion with which Solitaire Townsend, MD of the sustainable development communications consultancy Futerra, agrees.
"The style of climate change discourse is that we maximise the problem and minimise the solution," she said.
"So we use a loud rumbling voice to talk about the challenge, about melting ice and drought; yet we have a mouse-like voice when we talk about 'easy, cheap and simple' solutions, making them sound as tiny as possible because we think that's what makes them acceptable to the public.
"In fact it makes them seem trivial in relation to the problem."
Mr Retallack believes his report contains important lessons for the government as it attempts to engage the British public with climate change.
"The government has just put £12m into climate change communication initiatives," he said, "including teams which will work at the local level.
"It's vital that this motivates and engages the public."

climate nonsense

UK climate scepticism more common

By Sudeep Chand Science reporter

Are solar changes or greenhouse emissions driving warming?

The British public has become more sceptical about climate change over the last five years, according to a survey.

Twice as many people now agree that "claims that human activities are changing the climate are exaggerated".
Four in 10 believe that many leading experts still question the evidence. One in five are "hard-line sceptics".
The survey, by Cardiff University, shows there is still some way to go before the public's perception matches that of their elected leaders.
The results were announced at the British Science Festival in Guildford by Cardiff's Lorraine Whitmarsh.

What we have to get across is that residual uncertainty in science is normal Lorraine Whitmarsh Climate: In praise of scepticism

A questionnaire survey was filled in by 551 people, from a range of ages and backgrounds, between September and November last year.
Although the findings are similar to those of other UK surveys, this is the first to show that people may be becoming "tired" of claims surrounding climate change.
Perception gap
Dr Whitmarsh told BBC News: "It is difficult for people to perceive what is and isn't climate change.
"But I think what we have to get across is that residual uncertainty in science is normal.

WHO IS THE MOST 'SCEPTICAL'? Men more than women Rural more than urban Older people High earners Conservative voters more than Lib Dem voters; Lib Dem voters more than Labour voters Media attacked on 'climate porn'

"Unfortunately, some people latch on to this uncertainty and say 'let's carry on as we are'."
She feels that many people are not "playing their part" in reducing humanity's impact on the environment.
"In general people are showing little willingness to change their lifestyles.
"They will recycle, unplug the TV and change their light bulbs; but they won't change how they travel or how they eat.
"These are the things that are going to make the biggest difference."
Alarmist
Half of the people surveyed believed the media was too alarmist.
And a third said there was too much conflicting evidence to know what is actually happening.
Dr Whitmarsh added: "We need to make it clear to people what is due to climate change and what is not.
"It is time we made it real to people."
Other surveys have shown that people in the UK are more sceptical than those in Europe, but less than those in the US.

biomass

Time to encourage biomass growth     

  VIEWPOINT
David Williams

Biomass energy is being touted as a key player in the push to green Europe's electricity supplies, says David Williams. In this week's Green Room, he argues that although there are promising signs, more needs to be done to encourage large-scale developments.   

Utilising straw for biomass represents one of the most efficient methods of its disposal and pre-empts the need for it to be ploughed back into the land

For some time, biomass has been seen as the emerging sibling of the renewable energy industry.
Despite much of the development behind the industry's technology worldwide, the UK's position at the front of the biomass revolution has been slipping.
Developers have naturally concentrated on cheaper forms of alternative energy, chiefly onshore wind, whilst other countries have stolen a march, with the Chinese particularly active by building hundreds of stations based on UK power plant models.
In recent months, however, we have seen something of a change in the UK, with a backlash against many more established alternative energy sources.
In the transport sector, biofuels have been attacked for their effect on food prices and actual carbon reductions, while wind has been criticised for its inability to produce a consistent stream of electricity and for its cost.
Many industry experts are now suggesting that biomass has to play the primary role in helping the EU to meet its challenging target of generating 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020

relatives

Chimps imitate yawning animations

The animations were designed by copying the pattern of real chimps' yawns

Yawning is so contagious that chimpanzees can "catch" it from cartoons, according to research.

Scientists from Emory University in Atlanta, US, have discovered that an animation of a yawning chimp will stimulate real chimps to yawn.
They describe in the Royal Society journal, Proceedings B, how this could assist in the future study of empathy.
The work could also help unravel if and how computer games might cause children to imitate what they see on screen.
Previous studies have already shown contagious yawning in chimpanzees - stimulated by video-recorded footage of yawns.
"We wanted to expand on that," explained Matthew Campbell, a researcher from Emory University's Yerkes National Primate Research Center and lead author of the study.
"We're interested in using animation for presenting stimuli to animals, because we can control all the features of what we show them," he continued.

One possibility is to look at what factors in animations promote more or less imitation Matthew Campbell, Emory University

Although Dr Campbell doesn't think the chimps were "fooled" by the animations into thinking they were looking at real chimps, he explained that there was evidence that chimpanzees "process animated faces the same way they process photographs of faces".
He said: "It's not a real chimpanzee, but it kind of looks like a chimpanzee, and they're responding to that."
He and his team, including Devyn Carter who designed the animations, showed the animals the yawning sequences.
"We also had the animations doing other movements with their mouths that the chimps often do," he said.
"The chimps showed a lot more yawning during the yawn video than when the control videos were playing.
He told BBC News that the only way he and his colleagues could explain the "very strong difference" they saw was that seeing the yawns was making the animals yawn.
On screen

Chimps are social animals and respond to facial expressions

This is an introductory experiment that the researchers say has demonstrated the utility of animations in behavioural experiments.
In his future work, Dr Campbell would like to pin down exactly how these measurable behaviours are related to the more difficult to measure phenomenon of empathy.
"We'd like to know more about behaviours related to empathy, like consolation - when an individual does something nice to the victim of aggression," he told BBC News.
"So we want to see if our good contagious yawners are also good consolers."
As well as tracing the development of empathy in our primate relatives, the research could have a more direct human perspective.
"There's a lot of concern about children and what they see on TV and the video games they play, so one possibility is to look at what factors in animations promote more or less imitation in non-humans," said Dr Campbell.
"So if we make the animations more realistic, are we going to get more contagious yawning out of the chimpanzees?
"And does that imply that realism promotes mimicry? If so, that could be really useful for work with humans as well."

animal factor

Virus linked to prostate tumours

Prostate cancer is a major killer

Scientists have produced compelling evidence that a virus known to cause cancer in animals is linked to prostate cancer in humans.

The researchers from the University of Utah and Columbia University medical schools found the virus in 27% of the 200 cancerous prostates they looked at.
They say it was associated with more aggressive tumours and found in only 6% of non-cancerous prostates.
The finding raises the prospect of one day producing a vaccine.
Previous research has linked XMRV (Xenotropic murine leukaemia virus) to prostate cancer but not specifically to the aggressive form of the disease.
Retrovirus
XMRV is a retrovirus like HIV which works by inserting a copy of its own DNA into the chromosomes of a cell they infect.

We still don't know that this virus causes cancer in people, but that is an important question we are going to investigate. Dr Ila Singh, University of Utah

Where this occurs next to a gene that regulates cell growth it can disrupt the normal development of the cell.
XMRV is known to cause leukaemia and other tumours in animals.
Dr Ila Singh, who led the study from the pathology department at the University of Utah, said: "We still don't know that this virus causes cancer in people, but that is an important question we are going to investigate.
"One of the things peculiar about this virus is that it has an androgen response element - it grows better in the presence of testosterone and possibly other steroid hormones.

PROSTATE CANCER FACTS Most common cancer in men in UK 10,000 die each year Most cases are in those aged 70-74 Higher rates in most deprived populations Source: Cancer Research UK

"This is particularly interesting because if we can prove that it responds to oestrogen it could have a role in other cancers.
"We are already looking at the bodies of 100 women and 100 men, who died from other causes, to see if any other organs carry the virus."
Risk factor
Dr Helen Rippon, Head of Research Management at The Prostate Cancer Charity, said the research was intriguing but posed several key questions about the role the infection plays in prostate cancer.

It is critically important to identify key triggers of prostate cancer to improve early detection Dr Helen Rippon, Prostate Cancer Charity

She said: "Around the world, extensive work is being undertaken to identify risk factors for prostate cancer which will enable treatments and tests for the disease to be refined.
"It is critically important to identify key triggers of prostate cancer to improve early detection of the disease in men with potentially life threatening prostate cancer."
Dr Chris Parker, Cancer Research UK's prostate cancer expert at the Institute of Cancer Research said: "This exciting study raises the possibility that the virus might contribute to the development of some prostate cancers.
"In the future, if it turns out to be true, then we could speculate about the possibility of vaccination to protect against prostate cancer, similar to the approach now used to prevent cervical cancer."