Author: Sarah.chappel

Greenwire: Japan’s whaling industry is pointing to harassment by the anti-whaling marine conservation group Sea Shepherd as the reason for its small catch this year.

The whaling fleet’s leading ship, the Nisshin Maru, returned to Tokyo harbor yesterday from its five-month hunt in the Southern Ocean with 507 whales — a little over half its target catch of 935, according to the fisheries agency.

That haul represented a drop of 173 whales since last year’s five-month season. Whaling leader Shigetoshi Nishiwaki said he was “furious” with Sea Shepherd for preventing the fleet from reaching its target catch.

The whalers said Sea Shepherd’s annual efforts to stop the hunt had sabotaged them, causing them to lose 31 days of the season.

The whalers and the conservation group engage in a marine-based confrontation each year over the whalers’ operations. This year the whale wars led to the use of a water cannon and a sonic crowd control device to keep the anti-whalers at bay, while Sea Shepherd members responded by throwing rancid-butter bombs. The fight climaxed with the sinking of Sea Shephard’s high-tech powerboat after a collision with the Shonan Maru 2 harpoon boat.

The controversial whale slaughters are allowed under a provision for “scientific research,” according to a clause in the International Whaling Commission’s 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling (Justin McCurry, London Guardian, April 13). – DFM

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Greenwire: Coalbed methane discharges pose no threat to southeastern Montana’s farms or crops, according to new findings from a seven-year study examining the process.

The findings of the state study are being hailed by some regulators as evidence that the state’s cautious approach to mining its coalbed methane is paying off. But other regulators and area farmers point out that the work did not fully consider one specific type of soil affected by the discharges.

The work compared the sodium levels of the Tongue River, soils irrigated with water from that river and the salinity of plants grown on irrigated farms, finding there has been “no apparent change in Tongue River sodium levels.”

“There is not enough [coalbed methane] water going into the Tongue to have any impacts,” said Neal Fehringer, president of Fehringer Agricultural Consulting and an agronomist who has worked on the study since 2003. The study was originally led by industry, before shifting to state control.

Richard Opper, director of Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality, said he is proud of the state for its strict environmental standards, which prevent it from discharging untreated coalbed water to the surface. But he cautioned, “I’m not sure I would agree that there have been no impacts.”

Farmer Roger Muggli is quick to question the findings as well. In addition to failing to consider a very specific kind of clay common to soils in the area that is more sensitive to salinity and sodium, he said salinity levels in the Tongue River are higher than they were before coalbed methane development.

“How do you explain that just today the [electric conductivity, a measurement of dissolved salt in water] on the Tongue is measuring 1,170? This time of year we used to have EC readings anywhere from 300 to 450,” he said. “They can’t stand there and tell me there’s no change” (Jennifer McKee, Billings Gazette, April 12). – DFM

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Greenwire: It could take two decades for marine life to recover from the damage left by a Chinese coal carrier that ran aground on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and left a trail of leaked oil and paint, the reef’s chief scientist said today.

The Shen Neng 1 cut into large parts of the shoal, leaving a 2-mile-long scar and smearing paint that may severely affect marine life even if severe toxic contamination is not found at the site, said scientist David Wachenfeld.

“There is more damage to this reef than I have ever seen in any previous Great Barrier Reef groundings,” Wachenfeld said of the April 3 accident that left the 755-foot shipping vessel run aground on the reef. The ship was successfully removed yesterday after crews spent three days lightening the load by pumping fuel from the ship.

The damage to the reef was particularly harsh because the vessel was repeatedly pushed up against the reef by the tides and currents, he said, noting that it completely flattened the structure of the shoal in some places and crushed and smeared potentially toxic paint onto coral and plants, as well.

In some areas, “all marine life has been completely flattened and the structure of the shoal has been pulverized by the weight of the vessel,” Wachenfeld said.

Scientists with the reef authority are planning to analyze paint left by the ship to see if it contains heavy metals. If it does, Wachenfeld said, it could also prevent new life from colonizing there.

The Great Barrier Reef is a World Heritage site. The accident occurred in the southern tip of the reef, which is not the main tourism spot (Kristen Gelineau, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, April 13). – DFM

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Greenwire: If the Las Vegas area builds up all 27,000 acres currently zoned for development, even the strictest conservation measures would not be enough to provide new residents with water, according to a new report by the Sonoran Institute, an Arizona-based think tank that focuses on development in the West.

The report, funded by the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada and the regional chapter of the Sierra Club, probes the question now facing Las Vegas after decades of unchecked growth: whether to restrict development to discourage people from moving to the resource-strapped region, or to build expensive new infrastructure to make it possible.

Pat Mulroy, executive director of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, has pushed for a pipeline that would carry water to about 250,000 homes at a cost of between $2 billion and $3.5 billion. The two-decade-old project was set back in January when the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that the pipeline’s approval did not follow permitting rules (Greenwire, Jan. 29).

Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani, who agrees with the conclusion that Las Vegas development is unsustainable, said planning managers currently lack the authority to oversee a unified development plan for southern Nevada. She said the region needs to restructure its oversight bodies to produce a master plan that includes energy needs, water use, environmental impacts, industrial diversification and transportation infrastructure.

“That, I think, is the best way to approach this,” Giunchigliani said. “I think there’s an opportunity here. I don’t think we’ll see the type of resistance here that you would have seen when everyone was depending on growth” (Stephanie Tavares, Las Vegas Sun, April 12). – GN

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Greenwire: The deadly accident last Monday at Massey Energy Co.’s Upper Big Branch coal mine in Montcoal, W.Va., has drawn attention to weaknesses in federal mine-safety oversight at a time when the Obama administration hopes to expand the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s powers.

The 35-year-old agency can close mines that it considers unsafe or shut down repeat offenders, but it rarely takes those steps. Its fines are relatively small, and the agency often struggles for years to collect them. Federal mine-safety investigators are not formally law enforcement officers, unlike their counterparts at agencies such as U.S. EPA, and they lack subpoena power — a basic tool afforded to many federal enforcement officials.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, whose agency oversees MSHA, said in an interview that she was concerned by the agency’s apparent weaknesses.

“We know that there are some areas of the law that probably could be strengthened, and so we’re going to be reviewing those areas — for example, looking at powers to subpoena,” Solis said. “We don’t have the authority to shut down a mine as easily and as quickly as the public might think, and I think those are the loopholes that we want to close.”

In response to tougher mine-safety regulations implemented in 2006, mining companies have begun contesting more of their citations. The rate of appeals has roughly tripled since then, according to a recent analysis (Greenwire, April 7).

Though MSHA warned Massey that the Upper Big Branch mine’s safety record was weak enough for the agency to declare a “pattern of violations,” the agency could not take action because Massey contested the violations. The company paid a total of $168,393 last year for violations at the Upper Big Branch mine.

“Every place I’ve ever worked, safety has been a distant second to production,” said Billy Brannon, a 30-year-old Harlan, Ky., resident with nine years of mining experience. “If you take 30 minutes out of the day doing it right, that takes a lot out of the tonnage of the mine” (Cooper/Harris/Lipton, New York Times, April 10). – GN

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ClimateWire: As water shortages and severe droughts threaten the nation, comparisons are being drawn to the Dust Bowl, a series of dust storms in the 1930s that destroyed farms across the southern Great Plains. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has warned that a period of “relocation” is possible, just as thousands migrated to California in the Dust Bowl.

“As we see the effects of climate change … we’re going to have to become even more cognizant of our relationship with land, water and wildlife,” said Salazar.

Gary McManus, a climatologist in Oklahoma, worries that global warming could be “catastrophic” for parts of Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma, the same areas that suffered during the Dust Bowl. He says that the typically dry regions could face severe dust storms with rising temperatures and the constant shifts in weather patterns make droughts more likely. What’s more, the surrounding urban areas and commercial farms are drying up water supplies.

While many residents aren’t worried about global warming, water conservation is a must in the region. For example, Jude Smith of the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge in Texas is filling ditches with hay, hoping to block the flow of dirt in water that can erode the land. Other farmers are just cutting back on water use.

Some worry that the impact of the recession will force farmers to cut back on their land maintenance efforts and ignore lessons from the Dust Bowl. But James Wedel, a 90-year-old retired farmer that lived through the Dust Bowl, says he doubts a catastrophe on that scale could happen again.

“I don’t think we’ll ever see a time like [the Dust Bowl] again,” Wedel says. “We’ve got better farming techniques and we know what we’re up against” (Brian Winter, USA Today, April 9). – JP

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Greenwire: The Christmas Mountains in Big Bend area of Texas won’t be transferred to the National Park Service, the state’s land boss said yesterday.

Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson has long resisted giving the land to the Park Service, in part because they would ban guns and hunting on the property. Instead, Patterson said he will sell to a private bidder or lease the land for hunting.

In February, Congress removed the ban on guns in national parks, but the commissioner is still leaning toward a private owner. Selling the land has been a controversial proposal because of concerns the public could be shut out of the mountains or the area would be developed for commercial use.

The wilderness was donated to Texas in 1991 and debate over what to do with it has been going on ever since. Texas businessman John Poindexter bid on the land three years ago and may still be interested, although he said the land has no economic value. He estimates it would cost nearly $1 million to clear invasive plants, fence it and restore the roads to make it fully accessible and added he might repopulate the area with elk and buffalo.

Big Bend National Park superintendent, William Wellman, also has a management proposal for the mountains and said he did not know the Park Service was out of the running for the land (Ramit Plushnick-Masti, Dallas Morning News, April 9). – JP

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Greenwire: Connecticut may become the first state to lower the amount of electricity it mandates must come from renewable sources.

A bill that has passed through committee in the current legislative session, which is slated to end May 5, would cut the state’s renewable portfolio standard by nearly half.

Currently the state has an ambitious goal of obtaining a fifth of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. When Connecticut first crafted the goal a few years ago, it became the leader in the renewable energy push, though Colorado and California have since instituted their own 30 percent goals.

But supporters of the rollback initiative say meeting the goal has meant state utilities mostly purchase renewable energy from outside the state, since the region’s climate and lack of land make it a poor site for solar and wind installations. And a 2003 plan to construct a 150-megawatt project that would have included 13 plants that are mostly fuel cells and biomass has been stalled by a lack of financing.

Environmental groups are pushing back against the proposed legislation. “This would mark Connecticut as the only state in the nation moving backward,” said Christopher Phelps, program director for Environment Connecticut, an environmental advocacy group.

If a national renewable energy standard is approved by Congress — an idea that has been backed by Obama — it would put the state at a disadvantage, Phelps said. There is also a concern that a lowered renewable energy goal will lead to a drop in investments in renewable projects altogether.

The bill would funnel the money that utilities would have spent to achieve the standard and use it to fund no-interest loans for consumers to purchase renewable and energy-efficient products.

Thirty-one states have renewable portfolio standards (Jan Ellen Spiegel, New York Times, April 8). – DFM

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Greenwire: Closing two Chicago-area navigational locks to prevent the spread of Asian carp would cause $4.7 billion in economic damage over the next 20 years, more than three times as much as estimated by a previous study, according to a new Illinois-commissioned report.

Michigan, which has filed a Supreme Court lawsuit against Illinois over the spread of invasive species through Chicago’s waterways, commissioned the previous study to bolster its argument that closing the locks would not destroy Chicago’s economy. Its study concluded that the lock closures would cost about $1.4 billion over 20 years.

Illinois’ study factors in additional effects on recreational boaters and tour boats, which would no longer be able to move between the Great Lakes and the Chicago river system, as well as flood prevention infrastructure.

“You start looking at the combined effects of tourism and economic development and you start to understand why the city is concerned about the prospects of closing the locks,” said Joseph Schwieterman, a public policy analyst at DePaul University who conducted the study.

John Sellek, a spokesman for Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox (R), said Schwieterman’s study overstates the economic effects of closing the locks because Michigan has not asked that the locks remain closed during floods.

“They are trying to raise the price tag, and people’s fears, with the threat of flooding,” Sellek said. “However, our lawsuit already addresses that issue, and they know it” (Joel Hood, Chicago Tribune, April 7). – GN

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Greenwire: Biologists celebrated the successful hatch of a California condor chick in a federal park, a sign of the slow recovery of the species. The March 24 hatch at Pinnacles National Monument in central California was the first in more than a century.

However, the celebration was muted because the egg did not belong to any of the adult birds in the park. It came from a pair of condors in the San Diego Wildlife Park captive breeding program. Attempts to mate two condors within the park were unsuccessful; the embryo of an egg conceived in March died seven days into development.

The egg-sitting process was the first to be viewed by the public since the condor recovery program began. Biologists had to be careful to watch the eggs, which can be accidentally destroyed by the condors and their 10-foot wingspans. The scientists also wanted to ensure that the birds did not get discouraged by an unsuccessful mating attempt, since they are hoping to rebuild the population.

In 1982, scientists placed the last 22 California condors in breeding programs. The population now stands at 350, but the birds are threatened by hunters and lead poisoning from bullets left in carcasses. Young condors are often captured and raised in breeding programs because the wild birds can come too close to humans.

Biologists will perform tests on the hatchling over the next week to determine its sex. It will live with its parents for a year, and the adults will wait another two years before producing a new egg (Tracie Cone, Associated Press, April 7). – JP

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Greenwire: California and General Electric Co. have signed cooperation agreements to use Chinese technology and equipment for the construction of high-speed rail lines in California. The preliminary agreements are a step forward for China, which intends to become one of the world’s leading exporters of high-speed rail technology.

“We are the most advanced in many fields, and we are willing to share with the United States,” said Zheng Jian, chief planner and high-speed rail director at China’s railway ministry.

Other countries that have approached California’s High Speed Rail Authority include Japan, Germany, South Korea, Spain, France and Italy. Though other countries have been in the game longer and are better-known for high technology, China has caught up quickly, experts say.

“These guys are engineering driven — they know how to build fast, build cheaply and do a good job,” said John Scales, lead transport specialist in the World Bank’s Beijing office.

Though the California agency has not formally chosen its technology provider, there were no apparent problems with China’s offer, said David Crane, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s special adviser for jobs and economic growth. The Republican governor wants to visit China this year to discuss high-speed rail development, Crane said.

Under the terms of the agreement, China would license its technology to GE, which would oversee some U.S. manufacturing operations. At least 80 percent of certain components would be required to come from American suppliers, and American workers would do final assembly in the United States. China may also provide financing for the project.

“They’ve got a lot of capital, and they’re willing to provide a lot of capital,” Crane said (Keith Bradsher, New York Times, April 7). – GN

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Greenwire: Scientists have confirmed that a large fruit-eating lizard in the northern Philippines island of Luzon is a new species. The tree-dwelling forest monitor lizard is noted for its ability to hide from humans, its main predators, explaining why it has gone undetected for so long.

The lizard can grow more than 6 feet in length, but weighs about 22 pounds. It is hunted for its flesh, which can be eaten. Scientists from the University of Kansas say it is only the third known fruit-eating lizard species.

Discovering a new, large vertebrate is rare. Photographs of the brightly colored lizard first starting appearing in 2001, and there was no scientific identification for it. Stories of the lizard spread over the next few years until graduate students on a 2009 expedition gathering evidence managed to catch an adult male.

Tests confirmed it was a new species and that there was a great genetic difference between the new lizard and the Gray’s monitor lizard, the closest relative. The findings were published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters (Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters, April 7). – JP

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Greenwire: A San Francisco program that taps 20 tons of solid human waste from the city’s sewage each year to be transformed into backyard compost is being vehemently opposed by a national environmental group that says the initiative is leading to toxic dumps in people’s backyards.

At issue is a program spearheaded by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission that provides free biosolid compost — drawn from a portion of the city’s 82,000 tons of solid sewage waste — to gardeners, school groups and homeowners. The commission says the compost is heat-treated fertilizer and that it is as good as any store-sold counterpart.

But the Organic Consumers Association, which opposes the program, says children and others who touch the compost might swallow or absorb chemicals into their bloodstreams. They also are concerned that food grown in the human waste-based fertilizer could be contaminated.

“The problem with sewage sludge or the euphemistic term ‘biosolids’ that they use is that all of this is hazardous material that potentially contains thousands and thousands of contaminants,” said John Stauber, a member of the Organic Consumers Association’s advisory board and the author of several articles and a book on sewage sludge.

The commission maintains that the levels of toxins found in the compost do not exceed federal and state standards. “It has been tested for metals and pathogens and is basically sterile,” said Tyrone Jue, spokesman for the commission. But U.S. EPA mandates the compost be tested for nine pollutants — 1 percent of the hazardous materials that can be found in sewage — and does not require it be tested for dioxins, flame retardants and PCBs.

Stauber said tests conducted by his organization found dioxins, flame retardants and other chemicals in the compost, but his group has not released those results.

The three-year-old program has fueled public controversy, and the consumers association, alongside the nonprofit group the Center for Food Safety, dumped some of the compost on the steps of City Hall last month in protest. The groups also sent a letter to Mayor Gavin Newsom demanding he stop the biosolid handouts. And last week the group picketed Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley for allegedly ignoring the problem, targeting it since its founder Alice Waters is also a PUC commissioner.

Experts including EPA waste management official Hugh Kaufman have said people should not grow food in the sewage sludge, but one EPA expert said there is no evidence that city residents are in any kind of danger if they use the compost.

Scientists from the agency are conducting studies to discern whether other chemicals should be tested in the compost (Peter Fimrite, San Francisco Chronicle, April 7). – DFM

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Greenwire: When a massive Chinese coal carrier ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef on Saturday after traveling miles outside its designated shipping lane, it raised questions about what sort of guidances these ships are required to have.

The Australian government does not require trained marine pilots to assist ships in avoiding hazards such as the reef, but most large ships are banned from the area, officials say. Yet more than 600 accidents occurred in the area around the reef between 1987 and 1995, including “groundings, collisions, sinkings and minor oil-spill pollution events,” according to a study by the Queensland marine park authority. Groundings accounted for almost half of all shipping accidents — 45 percent — and there were 230 reported oil spills.

The Queensland maritime authority says the pilot of the Shen Neng 1 may have tried Saturday to shorten transit time and ignored the fact that he was outside the shipping lanes. The incident is under investigation.

Since the ship crashed, it has leaked a 2-mile oil slick, 100 yards wide. “Fortunately, there have been no reports of continuing oil loss, and the quantity spilled to date does not pose a significant threat to marine life,” said Russell Reichelt, chairman of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. The ship is slated to be pumped dry to head off further leaks.

But Shenzhen Energy Group, which owns the ship and is a subsidiary of COSCO Oceania Pty. Ltd. — China’s largest shipping operator — could face $920,000 in fines.

“From where I see it, it is outrageous that any vessel could find itself [seven miles] off course, it seems, in the Great Barrier Reef,” Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said yesterday after flying over the accident site.

The harbor master at the Queensland state port where the Chinese vessel had docked before departure said the ship was taking a “recognized route” through the reef. About 3,000 ships a year leave that Gladstone port carrying coal and other commodities to Asia (Bennett/Glionna, Los Angeles Times, April 6). – DFM

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Greenwire: Conservationists in Wyoming say they have found a way to lessen the effects of natural gas drilling on sage grouse: reducing tanker truck traffic.

Oil and gas operators are already expanding their network of pipelines in the Pinedale Anticline, and an ongoing study shows that doing so will reduce tanker truck traffic in the area, ultimately protecting more of the birds.

Wyoming Wildlife Consultants released a progress report on a five-year study of sage grouse in the area. It is one of a series of studies commissioned by operators Shell Rocky Mountain Production, Questar Exploration and Production Co. and Ultra Resources to determine the impact of natural gas development on mule deer, antelope, sage grouse and the local ecosystem.

Questar first installed a liquids pipeline network in the field, eliminating 75,000 truck trips between November 2005 and December 2009. Shell and Ultra Resources are adding their own pipelines. Field operators think they can reduce overall traffic by 165,000 trips per year.

Senior ecologist Matt Holloran said that while sage grouse are avoiding all aspects of the drilling, there seems to be a link between truck traffic and the areas sage grouse will visit. He cautioned the results are still preliminary and the overall effects will not be known for years (Dustin Bleizeffer, Casper [Wyo.] Star-Tribune, April 6). – JP

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Greenwire: A warmer climate and planting on previously logged pieces of land could be causing more Douglas fir trees in Oregon and Washington to fall victim to a fungal disease, according to a new study by Oregon State University researchers.

The disease, Swiss needle cast, which originated in Europe and has spread throughout the Pacific Northwest since 1996, typically stunts the trees’ growth, causing them to become discolored and lose their needles. Now affecting more than 300,000 acres in the region, Swiss needle cast could eventually become prevalent in up to 2 million acres of forests along the Oregon coast, researchers said, costing the timber industry tens of millions of dollars per year.

The study, published in Forest Ecology and Management, suggests commercial forestry practices may be contributing to the spread of the disease. While coastal forests historically included trees of various ages and species, Douglas fir forests are often planted simultaneously, allowing buildup of the fungus among similarly aged groups of trees, researchers say.

Fungicides have been impractical because of cost and environmental concerns. A better solution, researchers say, would be to plant fewer Douglas firs, instead mixing in trees such as the western hemlock and red alder (Scott Learn, Portland Oregonian, April 5). – GN

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Greenwire: As rising sea temperatures and ocean acidification threaten the future of the world’s coral reefs, governments worldwide are concerned about political instability resulting from the loss of fish that feed hundreds of millions of people.

About 19 percent of the world’s coral reefs have already been lost — including about half the reefs in the Caribbean — and another 15 percent could die within two decades, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. If the current pace of global warming continues, all coral could disappear within a century, said Kent Carpenter, an Old Dominion University professor who leads a worldwide census of marine species.

“You could argue that a complete collapse of the marine ecosystem would be one of the consequences of losing corals,” Carpenter said. “You’re going to have a tremendous cascade effect for all life in the oceans.”

Losing fish habitats could add to a growing food crisis, turning current staples into a “luxury good,” said Cassandra de Young, a fishery planning analyst at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

“You already have a billion people who are facing hunger, and this is just going to aggravate the situation,” she said. “We will not be able to maintain food security around the world” (Brian Skoloff, AP/ABC News, March 25). – GN

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Greenwire: A Canadian satellite has discovered a direct route for Asian pollution to enter the upper atmosphere: monsoons.

Monsoons that frequently hit Asia have created a pathway for black carbon, nitrogen oxides and other harmful pollution to get into the stratosphere, according to findings reported yesterday in the journal Science.

Once pollution reaches the stratosphere, it circles the globe for several years before falling back to the lower atmosphere or disintegrating. The researchers from the University of Waterloo and the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research warn that such pollution can alter the composition of the stratosphere and affect the ozone layer.

“The monsoon influence on the stratosphere is expected to become increasingly important given the ongoing growth of Asian emissions, with large continued increases over the next decades expected for SO2 (sulfur dioxide) and NOx (nitric oxides),” the report says.

The study is based on measurements from a satellite, part of the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment from the Canadian Space Agency. The instrument is so sensitive that it can detect parts per billion of hydrogen cyanide, a pollutant generated by fire and plentiful over Asia. Measurements between 2004 and 2009 show an increase in hydrogen cyanide in the stratosphere during the monsoons, which create a vortex over Asia in the summers.

The study’s authors say more time is needed to research the impact of the pathway, but they add that the pathway can alter the makeup of other gases in the stratosphere, like water vapor, and it can affect how much solar heat reaches the planet (Margaret Munro, Canwest News Service, March 25). – JP

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Greenwire: In a bid to end an energy crisis, Ethiopia is building a series of megadams on its plentiful rivers, hoping to increase its power generation 15-fold by 2020 and become an energy exporter to the region.

With the help of Italian and Chinese construction firms, Ethiopia is building dams hundreds of feet high to capitalize on hydropower from rivers coming down from the highlands.

“For a developing country like ours, the dams are a must,” said Abdulhakim Mohammed, head of generation construction at the Ethiopia Electric Power Corp. “Power is everything.”

In rural areas of the country, 2 percent of households have access to electricity, while the capital city of Addis Ababa has been beset by blackouts. The fast-growing economy and population has caused demand for electricity to rise by 25 percent annually with no matching growth in production. That led planners to look to the the rivers cascading from Lake Tana, which provides 85 percent of the water for the Blue Nile.

Several new plants will be built in the next few years, joining the dams that are already on line or near completion. But the scale of the projects is alarming environmental groups. A coalition of global environmental groups started an online petition to stop the dams, particularly the 797-foot Gibe III. The groups warn that the dam could cause environmental damage as well as social and economic effects on the tribes that live downstream.

The dam will end the Omo River’s natural flood cycle, which could affect herders and farmers and reduce the water level in nearby Lake Turkana. International Rivers, one of the groups that launched the petition, says Gibe III should be stopped and that other dams can meet the country’s power needs. But the government is dismissing those concerns, looking to China to secure financing to continue the project (Xan Rice, London Guardian, March 25). – JP

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