Total oil threatens Congo national park

This video is called Mountain Gorillas in Virunga National Park in Congo.

From WWF:

WWF has called on French oil company Total to refrain from exploration in Virunga National Park. At a meeting of Total shareholders and investors Friday, WWF hosted a demonstration and published an open letter to the company president.

Total has been granted an oil concession that includes a portion of the World Heritage Site, which is recognized as a treasure of biodiversity. WWF is asking Total to declare Virunga and all World Heritage Sites off limits for oil development.

WWF is concerned that oil exploration could have negative impacts on communities that depend on the park for their livelihoods and on endangered species that live in the park, such as mountain gorillas.

To illustrate to Total investors the threat oil development could have on mountain gorillas, volunteers marked off a symbolic crime scene at the company’s annual meeting and launched an online petition.

Open letter: Mr. de Margerie, the future of the oldest African national park is in your hands

To the attention of Mr. Christophe de Margerie,
President and CEO of Total

Dear Sir,

Virunga National Park, located eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, was the first national park to be created on the African continent over 85 years ago.

With its exceptional ecosystems, it also is especially known for hosting over 200 species of mammals including the rare okapi, protected since 1933, but also the mountain and lowland gorillas, two species in critical danger of extinction.

It is thanks to this unique ecological value than Virunga National Park was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979.

For WWF and its members, the preservation of Virunga National Park is of paramount importance as it is written into the history and identity of our international network which was created in 1961.

This irreplaceable jewel is now under threat.

Sir, you are aware that one of the oil concessions that overlaps the park area is in the hands of Total.

Therefore, we take the opportunity of this annual general meeting to publicly alert you and your shareholders on the dangers posed by your company to the Virunga park and its treasures.

We cannot believe that an industrial group like yours, which upholds the value of sustainable development, can be insensitive to the risks that oil exploration would pose to this area.

That is why WWF asks you to state publicly that the current boundaries of the Virunga park and all the World Heritage Sites are a “no go” for your company.

Yours and our planet,

Isabelle Autissier, President of WWF-France

Serge Orru, Director General of WWF-France

A collective of the world’s leading conservation groups are supporting a statement made yesterday calling for the halting of all petroleum exploration in Virunga National Park: here.

British oil company SOCO International, which has already begun activities in Virunga, was criticized in the State of Conservation report on Virunga as being “hostile to the park”. The committee said SOCO’s permits did not conform to Democratic Republic of the Congo’s international commitments: here.

June 2013. The international body that oversees World Heritage Sites today requested the cancelation of oil exploration permits in Virunga National Park, some of which are currently held by international petroleum conglomerates, including UK-based Soco International PLC and French oil giant Total SA: here.

‘Oil threat’ to DR Congo’s Virunga National Park: here.

Virunga: August 2013. Africa’s oldest national park could be worth US$1.1 billion per year if developed sustainably, rather than being given over to potentially-damaging oil extraction, a report released by WWF today has found: here.

October 2013. WWF has filed a complaint alleging that British oil company Soco International PLC has breached international corporate social responsibility standards. WWF contends that, in the course of Soco’s oil exploration activities in and around Virunga National Park, the company has violated environmental and human rights provisions of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises: here.

We believe Soco’s oil exploration in & around Virunga has violated human rights provisions of OECD guidelines: here.

October 2012. Flying hundreds of kilometres above the Earth, satellites rarely see the human suffering from war and poverty. But decades of unrest have left a very visible impact on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC): here.

The DRC contains half of Africa’s tropical forest and the second largest continuous tropical forest in the world. Because of unrest and economic instability, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has mostly escaped the industrial-scale deforestation that has taken place in other tropical countries such as Brazil and Indonesia. The exception is near the country’s eastern border, around Virunga National Park: here.

Keep oil company Soco out of Africa’s oldest national park. Add your name to our petition today: here.

Related articles

• Congo’s rare mountain gorillas could become victims of oil exploration (theguardian.com)
• Africa’s Oldest National Park may be Put at Risk by Oil Exploration (natureworldnews.com)
• Virunga National Park, D.R.C. Africa ( & Oil ! ) (darranrees.wordpress.com)
• Keep Oil Exploration Out of Virunga National Park (sunsetdaily.wordpress.com)
• Soco oil corporation planning to devastate Congo gorilla reserve (dgrnewsservice.org)
• WILDLIFE: Congo gorillas and oil exploration (environmentaleducationuk.wordpress.com)
• African gorillas are under threat from oil survey (theguardian.com)
• Virunga Under Threat: Gorillas, Oil and the Congo (achangingwildworld.wordpress.com)
• British oil company endangering Africa’s most biodiverse area: WWF (rawstory.com)
• Another hill to climb for mountain gorillas (smh.com.au)

German voters defeat Angela Merkel

Today there were elections in the most populous state in Germany, North Rhineland-Westphalia.

As expected, it was a defeat for the Rightist national government coalition of Ms Angela Merkel.

The two parties of Merkel’s coalition, her own CDU party and the FDP party, got only a third of the vote.

The state president of the CDU, Norbert Röttgen (who had been parachuted especially for the election to North Rhine-Westphalia by Ms Merkel herself), resigned after hearing about the election disaster.

The winners were the local Social Democrats, whom Ms Merkel had attacked for not being sufficiently pro-austerity.

Voters in North Rhine-Westphalia inflicted a heavy blow on Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday and strengthened the Social Democrat-Green regional government: here. And here.

Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a massive defeat in the election in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) on Sunday. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) lost 8.3 percent and recorded its worst-ever result, 26.3 percent, in Germany’s most populous state: here.

Israelis say Netanyahu, resign

This video is called #M12 Occupy Israel 20000 People at Rabin Squere Tel Aviv May 12 2012.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Activists call for Netanyahu to resign

Sunday 13 May 2012

by Our Foreign Desk

Six thousand Israeli citizens marched through Tel Aviv yesterday to demonstrate against the high cost of living and social inequality.

Protesters marched from three working-class neighbourhoods to Rabin Square while smaller demonstrations took place in Jerusalem, Haifa, Kiryat Shmona in the north, Eilat in the south and several other cities.

Participants held up placards reading, “The people demand social justice” and “we want social justice, not charity.”

Many identified with the anarchic Indignant movement in Europe and insisted that the event was not political.

Nevertheless, around 1,000 protesters marched on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence in east Jerusalem to demand his resignation in light of soaring food costs, low wages and education budget cuts, while at least nine people were arrested for blocking roads.

The turnout was much lower than last year, when hundreds of thousands marched and protest camps popped up in city centres.

The government responded to those mass demonstrations by setting up a committee tasked with providing solutions.

National Student Union chairman Itzik Shmuli said: “The cosmetic response provided by the government to the problems raised by the social protest does not satisfy us.

“We’ll renew the protest in full force should the government continue its foot-dragging.”

One participant in yesterday’s rally who gave his name as Yotam said: “I was at the protests last summer and nothing changed.

“The place where change happens is in the Knesset and we aren’t represented there.

“There is power in the streets but it needs to be used.”

Unlike last summer, the “Occupy Israel” social protest Saturday night included explicit anti-government messages and universal human rights language. Could this be the start of a civil rebellion? Here.

Spaniards enraged by politicians’ failure to reverse economic policies that have left one in two young people out of work took to the streets in force over the weekend: here.

Mass Anti-Austerity Protests Sweep Through Spain. Staff, RT News: “At least 100,000 protesters angered by the country’s grim economic prospects turned out for street demonstrations in 80 cities across Spain. In the capital Madrid, thousands of protesters chanted and beat drums as they marched from different directions to converge on the central Puerta del Sol Square. Marches were also held in Barcelona, Bilbao, Malaga and Seville. The four day-long demonstration marks the one-year anniversary of the ‘Indignants’ protest movement, as Spain’s economic woes deepen by the day”: here.

Spain is slashing health and education budgets – but there’s plenty of cash left for bankers: here.

Eleven anti-capitalist protesters were arrested this weekend in central London amid allegations of heavy-handed policing after a rally through the capital: here.

Taiwan religious releases kill animals

This video is called National FongHuangGu Bird Park (國立鳳凰谷鳥園), NanTou, Taiwan, 12/20/2010.

From the Buddhist Channel:

Taiwan‘s Buddhist rites “killing millions” of animals

Channel News Asia, 13 May 2012

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Tens of millions of animals, mostly fish and birds, are dying every year in Taiwan because of so-called “mercy releases” by Buddhists trying to improve their karma, according to animal welfare activists.

The government is now planning to ban the practice, saying it damages the environment and that a large proportion of the 200 million or so creatures released each year die or are injured due to a lack of food and habitat.

Around 750 such ceremonies are carried out in Taiwan each year, according to the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan.

Negotiations have seen some groups agreeing to halt the practice, but others have yet to accept a ban, Lin Kuo-chang, an official from the government’s Council of Agriculture, told AFP on Sunday.

Proposed amendments to current wildlife protection laws would see offenders facing up to two years in jail or fined up to 2.5 million Taiwan dollars (US$85,000) for such unauthorised releases, he said.

he Environment and Animal Society Taiwan said some native species are under threat because of foreign species released into the wild by religious groups: here.

Eared grebe and reed warbler

Yesterday, Saturday 12 May 2012, I had planned to go to the beautiful Groene Jonker nature reserve. However, illness prevented me from going.

Fortunately, someone who was able to go to the Groene Jonker gave me these photos for my blog.

Close to the reserve entrance, one of many sedge warblers. Most reedbed birds are rather difficult to see. Sedge warblers are a bit easier than most species, as they often sit on reed stem tops and have song flights.

A blue tit landed close to the sedge warbler. It caught an insect and flew away.

Spoonbills flying. A common sandpiper. Mallards with ducklings.

A bit further, a reed warbler singing. Reed warblers are often more difficult to see and photograph than sedge warblers, as they tend to hide in the lower regions of reedbeds.

A great crested grebe family: two parents, four chicks. The parents try to feed the chicks a fish. Though it is not a big fish, it is still too big for the chicks.

Then, a smaller relative of the great crested grebes: an eared grebe (see also here).

Finally, just before the reserve exit, another reedbed bird, often very difficult to see: a singing Savi’s warbler.

Phylogeography of a Habitat Specialist with High Dispersal Capability: The Savi’s Warbler Locustella luscinioides: here.

Saturn’s strange radio waves

This video is called 5.6k Saturn Cassini Photographic Animation.

From the Daily Galaxy:

May 12, 2012

Weekend Feature: “Saturn‘s Strange Voice” — Radio Waves Vary at Its North and South Hemispheres

Data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft show that the variation in radio waves controlled by the planet’s rotation is different in the northern and southern hemispheres. Moreover, the northern and southern rotational variations also appear to change with the Saturnian seasons, and the hemispheres have actually swapped rates.

Click to hear Saturn‘s Eerie Voice.

“The rain of electrons into the atmosphere that produces the auroras also produces the radio emissions and affects the magnetic field, so scientists think that all these variations we see are related to the sun’s changing influence on the planet,” said Stanley Cowley, co-investigator on Cassini‘s magnetometer instrument.

“These data just go to show how weird Saturn is,” said Don Gurnett, Cassini’s radio and plasma wave science instrument team leader, and professor of physics at the University of Iowa, Iowa City. “We thought we understood these radio wave patterns at gas giants, since Jupiter was so straightforward. Without Cassini’s long stay, scientists wouldn’t have understood that the radio emissions from Saturn are so different.”

Saturn emits radio waves known as Saturn Kilometric Radiation, or SKR for short that sound like bursts of a spinning air raid siren, since the radio waves vary with each rotation of the planet. This kind of radio wave pattern had been previously used at Jupiter to measure the planet’s rotation rate, but at Saturn, as is the case with teenagers, the situation turned out to be much more complicated.

When NASA’s Voyager spacecraft visited Saturn in the early 1980s, the radiation emissions indicated the length of Saturn’s day was about 10.66 hours. But as its clocking continued by a flyby of the joint ESA-NASA Ulysses spacecraft and Cassini, the radio burst varied by seconds to minutes. A paper in Geophysical Research Letters in 2009 analyzing Cassini data showed that the Saturn Kilometric Radiation was not even a solo, but a duet, with two singers out of sync. Radio waves emanating from near the north pole had a period of around 10.6 hours; radio waves near the south pole had a period of around 10.8 hours.

A new paper led by Gurnett shows that, in Cassini data, the southern and northern SKR periods crossed over around March 2010, about seven months after equinox, when the sun shines directly over a planet’s equator.

The southern SKR period decreased from about 10.8 hours on Jan. 1, 2008 and crossed with the northern SKR period around March 1, 2010, at around 10.67 hours. The northern period increased from about 10.58 hours to that convergence point.

Seeing this kind of crossover led the Cassini scientists to go back into data from previous Saturnian visits. With a new eye, they saw that NASA’s Voyager data taken in 1980, about a year after Saturn’s 1979 equinox, showed different warbles from Saturn’s northern and southern poles. They also saw a similar kind of effect in the Ulysses radio data between 1993 and 2000. The northern and southern periods detected by Ulysses converged and crossed over around August 1996, about nine months after the previous Saturnian equinox.

Cassini scientists don’t think the differences in the radio wave periods had to do with hemispheres actually rotating at different rates, but more likely came from variations in high-altitude winds in the northern and southern hemispheres.

Two other papers involving Cassini investigators were published in December, with results complementary to the radio and plasma wave science instrument – one by Jon Nichols, University of Leicester, and the other led by David Andrews, also of University of Leicester.

In the Nichols paper, data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope showed the northern and southern auroras on Saturn wobbled back and forth in latitude in a pattern matching the radio wave variations, from January to March 2009, just before equinox. The radio signal and aurora data are complementary because they are both related to the behavior of the magnetic bubble around Saturn, known as the magnetosphere.

The paper by Andrews, a Cassini magnetometer team associate, showed that from mid-2004 to mid-2009, Saturn’s magnetic field over the two poles wobbled at the same separate periods as the radio waves and the aurora.

As the sun continues to climb towards the north pole of Saturn, Gurnett’s group has continued to see the crossover trend in radio signals through Jan.1, 2011. The period of the southern radio signals continued to decrease to about 10.54 hours, while the period of the northern radio signals increased to 10.71 hours.

“These papers are important in helping to explain the complicated dance between the sun and Saturn’s magnetic bubble, something normally invisible to the human eye and imperceptible to the human ear,” said Marcia Burton, a Cassini fields and particles scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

‘Magic island’ appears out of nowhere on Titan, Saturn’s biggest moon, then quickly disappears: here.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced a €1.1 billion unmanned mission to the ice moons of the planet Jupiter. A robotic spacecraft, named the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE), is set to launch in 2022 and arrive at Jupiter in 2030. It will study Europa, Callisto and Ganymede, three of the four “Galilean satellites,” named after the Galileo Galilei, who first observed them in 1610: here.

Jupiter moon spouts “curtains of fire” in crazed series of eruptions: here.

Voyager spacecraft approaching interstellar space—35 years after launch: here.

NGC 4178 enjoyed the single life. Even though the flat, disc-shaped galaxy was getting on a bit, it had a svelte spiral figure to be proud of. Its central black hole was perfect: not too small, not too large. It had never been involved in a major merger with another galaxy, and wanted to keep it that way. None of the unsightly bulges and warps associated with too much socialising for NGC 4178: here.

Voyager 1 is going, going, but not quite gone from the Solar System: here.

In a historic scientific and technical accomplishment, NASA astronomers operating the Voyager 1 spacecraft confirmed on September 12 [2013] that after 36 years and 19 billion kilometers, humanity’s most distant object has entered interstellar space. Moreover, the findings of Voyager 1’s research team show that the probe left the solar system more than a year before: here.

Related articles

• Mysterious ‘Spokes’ in Saturn’s Rings Are Still There
• Saturn Is the Real Lord of the Rings
• The mysterious case of the Hexagon and Saturn’s rotation period
• Saturn ‘Hexagon’ Video Spotlights Planet’s Vast Six-Sided Jet Stream
• Saturn’s Northern Lights Glow Luminous Blue In New Hubble Photos
• Weird Saturn Radio Signals Puzzle Astronomers

• Saturn Storm: NASA’s Cassini Observations Show ‘Almost Unbelievable’ Temperature Spike (huffingtonpost.com)
• NASA spacecraft sees huge burp at Saturn after large storm (esciencenews.com)
• Saturn Storm Creates Largest and Hottest Vortex Ever Seen in Solar System (wired.com)

Maid’s suicide attempt in Kuwait

This video is called Sri Lankan maid claims Kuwaiti torture.

From the Arab Times in Kuwait:

Maid in suicide bid: An Asian housemaid tried in vain to commit suicide at her sponsor’s house in Tai’ma by consuming insecticide.

She has been referred to the Intensive Care Unit of Jahra Hospital since her condition is critical.

A case has been registered and investigations are being carried out to find the cause of the suicide.

Article detailing abuse facing Nepalese workers in the Gulf, where many return home in coffins: here.

Watch what you tweet in Kuwait, lest you end up in jail, or worse: here.

Kuwait: Three Netizens Sentenced to Prison: here.

THE Joseph Rowntree Foundation has carried out a comprehensive investigation into migrant workers’ experiences of forced labour and exploitation in the UK food industry across England and Scotland: here.

Dutch honey buzzard research

This video is about a honey buzzard excavating a wasps’ nest.

A new report on honey buzzards in the Netherlands has been published on the Internet.

It is about honey buzzard ecology in the Veluwe region, and in the area around Lochem, 2008-2010.

The report says about their research on food for young honey buzzards:

A total of 503 prey animals were collected, by far most of them in or below the nests. Approximately 4% of the prey were birds (nestlings or recent fledglings only), frogs and slow worms were something more than 1% and (nests of) bumblebees almost 2%.

The rest, 92% of the prey, consisted of wasp honeycombs (Table 7). The annual variation was particularly small: the proportion of wasps ranged from 90.8% in 2008 to 92.7 in 2009.

Bahrainis condemn US arms for dictatorship

From New York Times blogger Matt Flegenheimer in the USA:

May 12, 2012, 2:58 pm

Protests Over Arms Sales to Bahrain

One day after the State Department said the United States would resume some arms sales to Bahrain — despite what the United States acknowledges as “unresolved human rights issues” among the country’s leadership — activists on Saturday denounced the measure, as demonstrators descended on the country’s capital city to protest the government’s detention of political prisoners.

Maryam Alkhawaja, an activist with the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, chided the United States in a Twitter message for not doing more to pressure Bahraini officials about releasing the prisoners. Instead, she wrote, “#USA rewards them with weapons.”

Ala’a Shehabi, a British-Bahraini activist, posted a picture of protesters, mostly women, gathering in Manama on Saturday, tagging the post with “#ManamaMarch.”

She added that riot police were patrolling the area, “brandishing weapons,” as crowds of migrant workers looked on.

Ms. Shehabi is a founding member of Bahrain Watch, a Web site that has compiled an overview of the foreign weapons used by Bahrain’s security forces. …

Last month, as my colleagues Souad Mekhennet and Rick Gladstone reported, thousands of opposition protesters marched in Manama to protest the kingdom’s decision to proceed with the Formula One Grand Prix despite a crackdown on dissent in the country and a hunger strike by a jailed activist. In an interview with The Lede at the time, Ms. Shehabi, who was born and raised in Britain, said Bahrain’s protest movement had changed her life. Last June, her husband was sentenced to three years in jail for attending a protest.

This video is called Ala’a Shehabi on Bahrain’s Formula One Protests.

“I see no other cause more worthy than the one I’m living through,” Ms. Shehabi said. “In that sense, it’s been very dramatic and very enriching, despite the pain and the misery and the grief that we’ve had to endure, along with thousands of other Bahrainis.”

Activists Criticize US Resumption of Arms Sales to Bahrain: here.

US resumes arms sales to Bahrain. Activists feel abandoned: here.

U.S. Defense Secretary, Bahraini Crown Prince Meet at Pentagon: here.

The Monarchy of Bahrain: An enemy of the Internet: here.

While the fear of arrest is an important concern for many activists using social media, there are other factors at work that might deter people from criticising the Bahraini regime. One of these is trolling, an aggressive form of online behaviour directed at other web-users. It usually comes from anonymous accounts, and its severity can range from death threats and threats of rape, to spiteful comments and personal abuse. It is particularly common on Twitter: here.

Bahrain Live Coverage: Why Did Saudis Pour Cold Water on “Union”? Here.

In Bahrain, the spark behind Pearl Revolution still glows: here.

Bahrain Feature: A Very British System of Repression: here.

Bahrain Live Coverage: “Union” with Saudi Arabia? Here.

Of all the Arab Spring uprisings, Bahrain probably gets the least attention in the U.S. press. There are perhaps some good arguments why; it could be the fact that the United States is on the side of the monarchy violently suppressing the democratic aspirations of its people: here.

A Bahraini doctor arrested and allegedly brutalized for treating an injured protester said he and other medical workers were targeted because of what they saw: here.