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Saturday, May 30, 2009

Giant underwater volcano found off Indonesia

05/30/2009 | 04:58 PM

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Scientists scouring the ocean floor to study the nature of tsunamis discovered a massive underwater volcano off Indonesia's western coast.

The 15,000-foot- (4,600-meter-) high mountain spans 30 miles (50 kilometers) at its base, Yusuf Surachman Djajadihardja, a marine geologist with the government's Agency for Assessment and Application Technology, said Friday. Its discovery was "completely unexpected," he said.

It was not immediately clear if the volcano is active, but he said if it were and it erupted, it would be "very, very dangerous."

An international team of scientists discovered the volcano 205 miles (330 kilometers) west of Sumatra island while carrying out a survey of the Indian Ocean floor earlier this month, Djajadihardja said. The tip of the volcano is 1,380 meters (1,260 yards) below the water's surface.

The goal of their research was to better understand the cause of disasters like the 2004 Asian tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations, more than half of them in Indonesia, which was closest to the epicenter.

Indonesia straddles a chain of fault lines and volcanoes known as the Pacific "Ring of Fire" and is prone to seismic activity. – AP

From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.

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Giant underwater volcano found off Indonesia

05/30/2009 | 04:58 PM

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Scientists scouring the ocean floor to study the nature of tsunamis discovered a massive underwater volcano off Indonesia's western coast.

The 15,000-foot- (4,600-meter-) high mountain spans 30 miles (50 kilometers) at its base, Yusuf Surachman Djajadihardja, a marine geologist with the government's Agency for Assessment and Application Technology, said Friday. Its discovery was "completely unexpected," he said.

It was not immediately clear if the volcano is active, but he said if it were and it erupted, it would be "very, very dangerous."

An international team of scientists discovered the volcano 205 miles (330 kilometers) west of Sumatra island while carrying out a survey of the Indian Ocean floor earlier this month, Djajadihardja said. The tip of the volcano is 1,380 meters (1,260 yards) below the water's surface.

The goal of their research was to better understand the cause of disasters like the 2004 Asian tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations, more than half of them in Indonesia, which was closest to the epicenter.

Indonesia straddles a chain of fault lines and volcanoes known as the Pacific "Ring of Fire" and is prone to seismic activity. – AP

From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.

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Russian 'Jungle Book' girl adapting to daily life

AFP - Friday, May 29

090529-JungleBookGirl A Russian girl inside an apartment building in Moscow on April 19, 2009. A five-year-old girl Russian who was shut away with dogs and cats is adapting to normal life after being rescued and transferred to a clinic, doctors said Thursday.

MOSCOW (AFP) - - A five-year-old girl Russian who was shut away with dogs and cats is adapting to normal life after being rescued and transferred to a clinic, doctors said Thursday.

The girl had apparently not been allowed outside the filthy apartment in Eastern Siberia where she had been found living with the animals, sparking comparisons with the character Mowgli from the "Jungle Book".

"Everything is fine. Other medical tests will be carried out but she is in good health," the director of the rehabilitation centre Tatyana Missnik told the RIA Novosti news agency.

"The one problem is that at five years old she doesn't speak. We don't know why."

Television pictures showed the dilapidated apartment where the girl, identified only as Natasha, lived on the outskirts of the Siberian city of Chita.

The battered door of the flat had a sign reading "Warning: She Bites", presumably referring to one of the dogs.

Police announced Wednesday that child protection officers had taken the girl into care at the "Nadezhda" (Hope) children's rehabilitation centre.

Doctors said the girl pushed aside a spoon offered for eating, preferring instead to lap up food.

Interfax news agency quoted a source at the centre as saying she was already adapting to a normal environment.

"She only behaves like a cat or dog from time to time. She can show how to put a pan on a stove and turn on the gas. You shouldn't call her 'Mowgli'," the source said.

Meanwhile police said her father -- with whom Natasha had lived -- had been briefly detained and could face a criminal investigation.

"The father was detained, questioned and released. It is now being decided whether to open a criminal investigation for neglecting duties in the bringing up of a child," a police source told RIA Novosti news agency.

Police had heard different versions of events from the father and the mother, who went to the authorities herself on Wednesday, the source added.

"The mother says that the father stole the girl from her. The father said that the grandmother of his wife suggested he bring up the girl himself, which he did."

Police dubbed the girl "Mowgli" in their statement Wednesday, after the character who grew up among wolves in the children's book by the Anglo-Indian writer Rudyard Kipling.

In March, President Dmitry Medvedev urged action on child abuse, saying 760,000 children were living in "socially hazardous conditions".

From Yahoo! News; see the source article here.

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Russian 'Jungle Book' girl adapting to daily life

AFP - Friday, May 29

090529-JungleBookGirl A Russian girl inside an apartment building in Moscow on April 19, 2009. A five-year-old girl Russian who was shut away with dogs and cats is adapting to normal life after being rescued and transferred to a clinic, doctors said Thursday.

MOSCOW (AFP) - - A five-year-old girl Russian who was shut away with dogs and cats is adapting to normal life after being rescued and transferred to a clinic, doctors said Thursday.

The girl had apparently not been allowed outside the filthy apartment in Eastern Siberia where she had been found living with the animals, sparking comparisons with the character Mowgli from the "Jungle Book".

"Everything is fine. Other medical tests will be carried out but she is in good health," the director of the rehabilitation centre Tatyana Missnik told the RIA Novosti news agency.

"The one problem is that at five years old she doesn't speak. We don't know why."

Television pictures showed the dilapidated apartment where the girl, identified only as Natasha, lived on the outskirts of the Siberian city of Chita.

The battered door of the flat had a sign reading "Warning: She Bites", presumably referring to one of the dogs.

Police announced Wednesday that child protection officers had taken the girl into care at the "Nadezhda" (Hope) children's rehabilitation centre.

Doctors said the girl pushed aside a spoon offered for eating, preferring instead to lap up food.

Interfax news agency quoted a source at the centre as saying she was already adapting to a normal environment.

"She only behaves like a cat or dog from time to time. She can show how to put a pan on a stove and turn on the gas. You shouldn't call her 'Mowgli'," the source said.

Meanwhile police said her father -- with whom Natasha had lived -- had been briefly detained and could face a criminal investigation.

"The father was detained, questioned and released. It is now being decided whether to open a criminal investigation for neglecting duties in the bringing up of a child," a police source told RIA Novosti news agency.

Police had heard different versions of events from the father and the mother, who went to the authorities herself on Wednesday, the source added.

"The mother says that the father stole the girl from her. The father said that the grandmother of his wife suggested he bring up the girl himself, which he did."

Police dubbed the girl "Mowgli" in their statement Wednesday, after the character who grew up among wolves in the children's book by the Anglo-Indian writer Rudyard Kipling.

In March, President Dmitry Medvedev urged action on child abuse, saying 760,000 children were living in "socially hazardous conditions".

From Yahoo! News; see the source article here.

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Budding neurosurgeon from Kansas is top speller

JOSEPH WHITE, AP

05/30/2009 | 04:59 PM

WASHINGTON — It's safe to say the best is yet to come for the new national spelling champion. She's only just become a teenager. She'll probably keep her competitive juices flowing by entering the International Brain Bee, the perfect contest for an aspiring neurosurgeon.

"But I don't think anything can replace spelling," Kavya Shivashankar said. "Spelling has been such a big part of my life."

On her fourth and final try, the Kansas girl who flashed a sweet smile with every word won the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night, outlasting 10 other finalists to take home more than $40,000 in cash and prizes and, of course, the huge champion's trophy.

"The competitiveness is in her, but she doesn't show that," said her father, Mirle Shivashankar. "She still has that smile. That's her quality."

Kavya became the seventh Indian-American in 11 years to claim the title, including back-to-back winners who want to be neurosurgeons. Her role model is the one who started the run: 1999 winner Nupur Lala, who was featured in the documentary "Spellbound" and is now a research assistant in the brain and cognitive sciences lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Kavya, from Olathe, Kansas., was an obvious favorite, having finished 10th, eighth and fourth in her three previous appearances. Her winning word was the proper adjective "Laodicean," which means lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics. As with all her words, Kavya wrote the letters in the palm of her hand with her finger as she called them out.

"This is the moment we've been waiting for; it's a dream come true," Mirle Shivashankar said. "We haven't skipped meals, we haven't lost sleep, but we've skipped a lot of social time."

One way the family plans to make up for it will be a belated celebration of Kavya's birthday. She was too busy preparing for the bee to make a fuss over turning 13 last week.

Second place went to the only finalist yet to become a teenager. Twelve-year-old Tim Ruiter of Centreville, Virginia, matched Kavya word-for-word until he misspelled "Maecenas," which means a cultural benefactor.

"I had absolutely no clue about that word," Tim said. "I was just racking my brain for anything possible that could help me. I'll probably be spelling it in my sleep tonight."

Aishwarya Pastapur, 13, from Springfield, Illinois, finished third after misspelling "menhir," a type of monolith.

The 82nd annual bee attracted a record 293 participants, with the champion determined on network television in prime time for the fourth consecutive year. This year there was a new humorous twist: Organizers turned the sentences read by pronouncer Jacques Bailly into jokes.

"While Lena's geusioleptic cooking wowed her boyfriend, what really melted his heart was that she won the National Spelling Bee," Bailly said while helping explain a word that describes flavorful food.

Then there was this gem, explaining a room in an ancient Greek bath: "It was always a challenge to tell whose toga was whose in the apodyterium."

But the laughter turned to shock when the speller, Sidharth Chand of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., flubbed the word, spelling it "apodeiterium." Sidharth was last year's runner-up and a favorite to take the title this year. He buried his head in his hands for about a minute after he took his seat next to his parents, while the audience and other spellers gave him a rare mid-round standing ovation.

Among the spectators was Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, who kicked off the championship rounds by telling of a bout with nerves that caused her to drop out of a sixth-grade spelling contest.

"I know that confidence is the most important thing you can give a child," she told the audience. – AP

From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.

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Budding neurosurgeon from Kansas is top speller

JOSEPH WHITE, AP

05/30/2009 | 04:59 PM

WASHINGTON — It's safe to say the best is yet to come for the new national spelling champion. She's only just become a teenager. She'll probably keep her competitive juices flowing by entering the International Brain Bee, the perfect contest for an aspiring neurosurgeon.

"But I don't think anything can replace spelling," Kavya Shivashankar said. "Spelling has been such a big part of my life."

On her fourth and final try, the Kansas girl who flashed a sweet smile with every word won the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night, outlasting 10 other finalists to take home more than $40,000 in cash and prizes and, of course, the huge champion's trophy.

"The competitiveness is in her, but she doesn't show that," said her father, Mirle Shivashankar. "She still has that smile. That's her quality."

Kavya became the seventh Indian-American in 11 years to claim the title, including back-to-back winners who want to be neurosurgeons. Her role model is the one who started the run: 1999 winner Nupur Lala, who was featured in the documentary "Spellbound" and is now a research assistant in the brain and cognitive sciences lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Kavya, from Olathe, Kansas., was an obvious favorite, having finished 10th, eighth and fourth in her three previous appearances. Her winning word was the proper adjective "Laodicean," which means lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics. As with all her words, Kavya wrote the letters in the palm of her hand with her finger as she called them out.

"This is the moment we've been waiting for; it's a dream come true," Mirle Shivashankar said. "We haven't skipped meals, we haven't lost sleep, but we've skipped a lot of social time."

One way the family plans to make up for it will be a belated celebration of Kavya's birthday. She was too busy preparing for the bee to make a fuss over turning 13 last week.

Second place went to the only finalist yet to become a teenager. Twelve-year-old Tim Ruiter of Centreville, Virginia, matched Kavya word-for-word until he misspelled "Maecenas," which means a cultural benefactor.

"I had absolutely no clue about that word," Tim said. "I was just racking my brain for anything possible that could help me. I'll probably be spelling it in my sleep tonight."

Aishwarya Pastapur, 13, from Springfield, Illinois, finished third after misspelling "menhir," a type of monolith.

The 82nd annual bee attracted a record 293 participants, with the champion determined on network television in prime time for the fourth consecutive year. This year there was a new humorous twist: Organizers turned the sentences read by pronouncer Jacques Bailly into jokes.

"While Lena's geusioleptic cooking wowed her boyfriend, what really melted his heart was that she won the National Spelling Bee," Bailly said while helping explain a word that describes flavorful food.

Then there was this gem, explaining a room in an ancient Greek bath: "It was always a challenge to tell whose toga was whose in the apodyterium."

But the laughter turned to shock when the speller, Sidharth Chand of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., flubbed the word, spelling it "apodeiterium." Sidharth was last year's runner-up and a favorite to take the title this year. He buried his head in his hands for about a minute after he took his seat next to his parents, while the audience and other spellers gave him a rare mid-round standing ovation.

Among the spectators was Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, who kicked off the championship rounds by telling of a bout with nerves that caused her to drop out of a sixth-grade spelling contest.

"I know that confidence is the most important thing you can give a child," she told the audience. – AP

From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.

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Friday, May 29, 2009

Ancient eruption 'killed off world's sea life'

AFP - Friday, May 29

090529-AncientEruption The Tungurahua Volcano is seen from Palitahua, Ecuador, 135km south of Quito erupts in 2008. A huge volcanic eruption in China some 260 million years ago led to the sudden extermination of marine life clear around the world, British paleontologists announced Thursday, in a report being published this week in the journal Science.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - - A huge volcanic eruption in China some 260 million years ago led to the sudden extermination of marine life clear around the world, British paleontologists announced, in a report being published this week in the journal Science.

The researchers were able to pinpoint the exact timing of the massive eruption thanks to a layer of fossilized rock which showed mass extinction of different life forms -- clearly linking the volcanic blasts to a major environmental catastrophe.

"The abrupt extinction of marine life we can clearly see in the fossil record firmly links giant volcanic eruptions with global environmental catastrophe," said Paul Wignall, a professor and palaeontologist at the University of Leeds, who was the lead author of the research paper in the May 29 edition of Science.

The eruption in southwest China unleashed about a half million cubic kilometers of lava, covering an area five times the size of Wales, according to the research by scientists at the British university.

The mass extinction of ocean life came about because of the collision of fast flowing lava with shallow sea water, which caused a violent explosion at the start of the eruptions and threw huge quantities of sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere.

"When fast flowing, low viscosity magma meets shallow sea ... there's spectacular explosion producing gigantic clouds of steam," Wignall said.

From Yahoo! News; see the source article here.

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Ancient eruption 'killed off world's sea life'

AFP - Friday, May 29

090529-AncientEruption The Tungurahua Volcano is seen from Palitahua, Ecuador, 135km south of Quito erupts in 2008. A huge volcanic eruption in China some 260 million years ago led to the sudden extermination of marine life clear around the world, British paleontologists announced Thursday, in a report being published this week in the journal Science.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - - A huge volcanic eruption in China some 260 million years ago led to the sudden extermination of marine life clear around the world, British paleontologists announced, in a report being published this week in the journal Science.

The researchers were able to pinpoint the exact timing of the massive eruption thanks to a layer of fossilized rock which showed mass extinction of different life forms -- clearly linking the volcanic blasts to a major environmental catastrophe.

"The abrupt extinction of marine life we can clearly see in the fossil record firmly links giant volcanic eruptions with global environmental catastrophe," said Paul Wignall, a professor and palaeontologist at the University of Leeds, who was the lead author of the research paper in the May 29 edition of Science.

The eruption in southwest China unleashed about a half million cubic kilometers of lava, covering an area five times the size of Wales, according to the research by scientists at the British university.

The mass extinction of ocean life came about because of the collision of fast flowing lava with shallow sea water, which caused a violent explosion at the start of the eruptions and threw huge quantities of sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere.

"When fast flowing, low viscosity magma meets shallow sea ... there's spectacular explosion producing gigantic clouds of steam," Wignall said.

From Yahoo! News; see the source article here.

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At National Bee, kids vie to be US best speller

Time is GMT + 8 hours

Posted: 29-May-2009 16:39 hrs

Tim Ruiter from Reston, Virginia reacts after a misspell at the end of the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee competition in Washington DC. More than half of the spellers were boys, but the eventual winner after a long night of brain-wracking, emotion and rather obscure words was Kavya Shivashankar from Kansas

A Breton word, "menhir," meaning an upright monumental stone, stumped one of the final three, Aishwarya Pastapur from Illinois. She got the "h" and the "i" in the wrong order.

The youngest finalist, 12-year-old Tim Ruiter from Virginia, who was also the only home-schooled youngster in the finals, had prepared for the competition by studying some 10,000 index cards on which he had printed out words that he knew he had to work on, his father John told AFP.

He was stumped by "maecenas," a generous sponsor or patron who was arguably less than generous with Ruiter.

But the boy for whom second grade teachers used to prepare a separate list of vocabulary words because he already knew all the words his peers were just learning, vowed to be back next year for the 83rd Scripps National Spelling Bee, a competition which remains as popular in the age of spell checkers as it was when it first began in 1925. — AFP

From TODAYOnline.com, Top Stories; see the source article here.

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At National Bee, kids vie to be US best speller

Time is GMT + 8 hours

Posted: 29-May-2009 16:39 hrs

Tim Ruiter from Reston, Virginia reacts after a misspell at the end of the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee competition in Washington DC. More than half of the spellers were boys, but the eventual winner after a long night of brain-wracking, emotion and rather obscure words was Kavya Shivashankar from Kansas

A Breton word, "menhir," meaning an upright monumental stone, stumped one of the final three, Aishwarya Pastapur from Illinois. She got the "h" and the "i" in the wrong order.

The youngest finalist, 12-year-old Tim Ruiter from Virginia, who was also the only home-schooled youngster in the finals, had prepared for the competition by studying some 10,000 index cards on which he had printed out words that he knew he had to work on, his father John told AFP.

He was stumped by "maecenas," a generous sponsor or patron who was arguably less than generous with Ruiter.

But the boy for whom second grade teachers used to prepare a separate list of vocabulary words because he already knew all the words his peers were just learning, vowed to be back next year for the 83rd Scripps National Spelling Bee, a competition which remains as popular in the age of spell checkers as it was when it first began in 1925. — AFP

From TODAYOnline.com, Top Stories; see the source article here.

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Thursday, May 28, 2009

Survey: Arctic may hold twice the oil previously found there

updated 1 hour, 39 minutes ago

Story Highlights

  • The Arctic could hold almost double the amount of oil previously found in the region
  • U.S. Geological Survey did the first-ever broad assessment of the region's reserves
  • Arctic may be home to 30 percent of the planet's undiscovered natural gas reserves
  • Conservationists say oil and gas extraction could have dire effects on the ecosystem

By Azadeh Ansari

CNN

A new survey finds the Arctic could hold almost double the amount of oil previously found in the region.

(CNN) -- Continental shelves beneath the retreating polar ice caps of the Arctic may hold almost double the amount of oil previously found in the region, scientists say.

In new findings, the U.S. Geological Survey estimates the Arctic may be home to 30 percent of the planet's undiscovered natural gas reserves and 13 percent of its undiscovered oil.

A team of scientists at the USGS collaborated with international researchers to conduct the first-ever comprehensive assessment of undiscovered oil and gas reserves within the Arctic Circle.

"We tried to put some boundaries on the range of possibilities and resources available in the Arctic," said geologist Donald Gautier, lead author of the survey, which is published this week in the journal Science.

Using geological analysis and probability modeling, researchers mapped out sedimentary rock deposits to estimate the amount of undiscovered oil and gas beneath undersea continental shelves. This survey, the first of its kind, could help oil and gas companies locate new troves of fossil fuels.

Researchers say that deep ocean basins have relatively low petroleum potential, but the Arctic is one of the world's largest remaining areas where oil and gas are accessible. Most of the reserves are projected to be in less than 500 meters of water -- roughly a third of a mile deep.

Undiscovered oil in the Arctic may account for almost 4 percent of the world's remaining conventionally recoverable oil resources, USGS scientists say.

"It would not mean that there would be any kind of a significant shift in global oil balance," Gautier said. "But this is especially significant for the Arctic nations."

Nations whose borders lie within the Arctic Circle are Canada, Greenland/Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States. Although it's closer to North America, Greenland is considered part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

If significant quantities of oil were found off the coast of northeast Greenland, for example, that could mean the difference between Greenland becoming independent from Denmark or not, Gautier said.

"Based on our study, there are 40 [billion] to 160 billion barrels of oil north of the Arctic Circle," said Gautier. The USGS had previously estimated the Arctic is home to 90 billion barrels of oil.

The Energy Information Administration, a division of the Department of Energy, estimates that the world currently uses 30 billion barrels of oil a year.

Offshore oil exploration in the Arctic is still in its infancy, but ExxonMobil and other oil companies already have staked their claim and started drilling in the Mackenzie Delta, the Barents Sea, the Sverdrup Basin, and offshore Alaska.

"It makes sense to diversify sources of oil and gas, given that the U.S. is one of the biggest consumers of oil and gas," said Alan Jeffers, a spokesperson for ExxonMobil.

"We support public policy efforts that provide greater access to these resources. We think that the energy is needed for the country's needs, and would help improve energy security and supplies," he added.

But conservationists say more oil and gas extraction could have dire effects on the Arctic's fragile ecosystems, especially since many of the resources are controlled by countries and exempt from international environmental laws.

Drilling for oil in some areas of the Arctic could cause toxins such as arsenic, mercury and lead to be released into ocean waters, said Lisa Speer, Director of the International Oceans Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"We need uniform, mandatory standards governing offshore oil and gas activity in the Arctic because activity in one country has the potential to affect the environment of the Arctic far beyond the country of origin," Speer said.

The assessment also projects that the Arctic's vast natural gas reserves will strengthen Russia's status as the world's largest producer of natural gas, Gautier said.

The USGS survey does not address the economic risks or technological challenges of extracting the Arctic's oil and gas.

"As new data become apparent, our understanding of the resources in the Arctic can change," said Gautier.

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

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Survey: Arctic may hold twice the oil previously found there

updated 1 hour, 39 minutes ago

Story Highlights

  • The Arctic could hold almost double the amount of oil previously found in the region
  • U.S. Geological Survey did the first-ever broad assessment of the region's reserves
  • Arctic may be home to 30 percent of the planet's undiscovered natural gas reserves
  • Conservationists say oil and gas extraction could have dire effects on the ecosystem

By Azadeh Ansari

CNN

A new survey finds the Arctic could hold almost double the amount of oil previously found in the region.

(CNN) -- Continental shelves beneath the retreating polar ice caps of the Arctic may hold almost double the amount of oil previously found in the region, scientists say.

In new findings, the U.S. Geological Survey estimates the Arctic may be home to 30 percent of the planet's undiscovered natural gas reserves and 13 percent of its undiscovered oil.

A team of scientists at the USGS collaborated with international researchers to conduct the first-ever comprehensive assessment of undiscovered oil and gas reserves within the Arctic Circle.

"We tried to put some boundaries on the range of possibilities and resources available in the Arctic," said geologist Donald Gautier, lead author of the survey, which is published this week in the journal Science.

Using geological analysis and probability modeling, researchers mapped out sedimentary rock deposits to estimate the amount of undiscovered oil and gas beneath undersea continental shelves. This survey, the first of its kind, could help oil and gas companies locate new troves of fossil fuels.

Researchers say that deep ocean basins have relatively low petroleum potential, but the Arctic is one of the world's largest remaining areas where oil and gas are accessible. Most of the reserves are projected to be in less than 500 meters of water -- roughly a third of a mile deep.

Undiscovered oil in the Arctic may account for almost 4 percent of the world's remaining conventionally recoverable oil resources, USGS scientists say.

"It would not mean that there would be any kind of a significant shift in global oil balance," Gautier said. "But this is especially significant for the Arctic nations."

Nations whose borders lie within the Arctic Circle are Canada, Greenland/Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States. Although it's closer to North America, Greenland is considered part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

If significant quantities of oil were found off the coast of northeast Greenland, for example, that could mean the difference between Greenland becoming independent from Denmark or not, Gautier said.

"Based on our study, there are 40 [billion] to 160 billion barrels of oil north of the Arctic Circle," said Gautier. The USGS had previously estimated the Arctic is home to 90 billion barrels of oil.

The Energy Information Administration, a division of the Department of Energy, estimates that the world currently uses 30 billion barrels of oil a year.

Offshore oil exploration in the Arctic is still in its infancy, but ExxonMobil and other oil companies already have staked their claim and started drilling in the Mackenzie Delta, the Barents Sea, the Sverdrup Basin, and offshore Alaska.

"It makes sense to diversify sources of oil and gas, given that the U.S. is one of the biggest consumers of oil and gas," said Alan Jeffers, a spokesperson for ExxonMobil.

"We support public policy efforts that provide greater access to these resources. We think that the energy is needed for the country's needs, and would help improve energy security and supplies," he added.

But conservationists say more oil and gas extraction could have dire effects on the Arctic's fragile ecosystems, especially since many of the resources are controlled by countries and exempt from international environmental laws.

Drilling for oil in some areas of the Arctic could cause toxins such as arsenic, mercury and lead to be released into ocean waters, said Lisa Speer, Director of the International Oceans Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"We need uniform, mandatory standards governing offshore oil and gas activity in the Arctic because activity in one country has the potential to affect the environment of the Arctic far beyond the country of origin," Speer said.

The assessment also projects that the Arctic's vast natural gas reserves will strengthen Russia's status as the world's largest producer of natural gas, Gautier said.

The USGS survey does not address the economic risks or technological challenges of extracting the Arctic's oil and gas.

"As new data become apparent, our understanding of the resources in the Arctic can change," said Gautier.

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

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China to go solar

ENERGY POLICY

BEIJING — China is to throw its economic might behind a national solar power plan that could result in it becoming one of the world's biggest harvesters of the sun's energy.

The government body responsible for overseeing energy policy has finalised a proposal for billions of dollars of incentives for solar farms and rooftop panels. Once approved, it is expected to give a boost to the domestic solar power market, which has lagged behind China's wind, nuclear and hydroelectric power investments.

China is the world's leading manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) panels, which turn sunlight into electricity. But 95 per cent of these are exported. However, the increasing concerns about climate change and energy security have changed attitudes.

Since last year, a glut in supply of PV panels has pushed prices down by more than 30 per cent. To widen China's energy base, the plan is expected to include the biggest boost for solar power ever, along with extra spending and policy support for nuclear, wind and biomass power.

By 2020, the government is committed to raising the share of renewable energy (excluding hydroelectric power) in the mix to 6 per cent, from the current 1.5 per cent.

Mr Julian Wong, a Washington-based energy analyst, said 2009 was shaping up to be the year of solar power in China. "The unique confluence of lower productions costs and decreased overseas demand means the cost of going solar is lower than ever and makes it an opportune time to make a policy push for domestic solar deployment," he noted.

China is still expected to remain dependent on coal for about 70 per cent of its energy needs for at least the next two decades, meaning it will remain the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide. The Guardian

From TODAYOnline.com, World News – Thursday, 28-May-2009; see the source article here.

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China to go solar

ENERGY POLICY

BEIJING — China is to throw its economic might behind a national solar power plan that could result in it becoming one of the world's biggest harvesters of the sun's energy.

The government body responsible for overseeing energy policy has finalised a proposal for billions of dollars of incentives for solar farms and rooftop panels. Once approved, it is expected to give a boost to the domestic solar power market, which has lagged behind China's wind, nuclear and hydroelectric power investments.

China is the world's leading manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) panels, which turn sunlight into electricity. But 95 per cent of these are exported. However, the increasing concerns about climate change and energy security have changed attitudes.

Since last year, a glut in supply of PV panels has pushed prices down by more than 30 per cent. To widen China's energy base, the plan is expected to include the biggest boost for solar power ever, along with extra spending and policy support for nuclear, wind and biomass power.

By 2020, the government is committed to raising the share of renewable energy (excluding hydroelectric power) in the mix to 6 per cent, from the current 1.5 per cent.

Mr Julian Wong, a Washington-based energy analyst, said 2009 was shaping up to be the year of solar power in China. "The unique confluence of lower productions costs and decreased overseas demand means the cost of going solar is lower than ever and makes it an opportune time to make a policy push for domestic solar deployment," he noted.

China is still expected to remain dependent on coal for about 70 per cent of its energy needs for at least the next two decades, meaning it will remain the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide. The Guardian

From TODAYOnline.com, World News – Thursday, 28-May-2009; see the source article here.

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