Source: Science Daily
Accessed on January 7, 2008
URL: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080103144404.htm

ScienceDaily (Jan. 7, 2008) — Biofuels reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in comparison to fossil fuels. Smithsonian researchers highlight a new study that factors in environmental costs of biofuel production. Corn, soy and sugarcane come up short. The authors urge governments to be far more selective about which biofuels they support, as not all are more environmentally friendly than fossil fuels.

Because fossil fuels contribute to global warming and supplies are dwindling, more eco-friendly alternatives are required. However, biofuels may not be superior if their production results in environmental destruction, pollution and damage to human health, argue postdoctoral fellow Jörn Scharlemann and William Laurance, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

A new study by Zah et al., commissioned by the Swiss government, calculates the relative merits of 26 biofuels based on relative reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions and an environmental-impact index, which includes damages to human health and ecosystems and natural resource depletion.

The Swiss study identifies striking differences in the environmental costs of different biofuels. Fuels made from U.S. corn, Brazilian soy and Malaysian palm oil may be worse overall than fossil fuels. The best alternatives include biofuels from residual products, such as recycled cooking oil and ethanol from grass or wood.

The Zah et al. study falls short in that it fails to consider secondary consequences of biofuels, such as rising food costs, but it is a big step forward in providing a way to compare the environmental benefits and costs of dozens of different biofuels.

"Different biofuels vary enormously in how eco-friendly they are," said Laurance. "We need to be smart and promote the right biofuels, or we won't be helping the environment much at all."

Journal article: Scharlemann, JPW and Laurance, WF (2008); "How Green are Biofuels?" Science 319: 52-53

This Day (Lagos)
7 January 2008
Posted to the web 7 January 2008
URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200801070008.html

By Fidelia Okwonu
Lagos

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has linked the Niger Delta crisis to rising crude oil prices, despite denials by Nigerian officials.

The latest rise in price had coincided with renewed violence in the Niger Delta on New Year's Day in which 16 people were killed following attacks in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

OPEC has also warned that the high price of oil would continue until the end of March 2008.

OPEC President and Algerian Energy and Mines Minister, Chakib Khelil, said at the weekend that the steady rise in prices was due to "escalating violence in Nigeria".

Khelil also said two other factors were responsible - tension in Pakistan following the assassination of former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, and a fall in oil inventories in the United States.

Algerian state news agency, APS, quoted Khelil as saying the world had sufficient oil supplies for now and no decision could be made to increase production before the next OPEC meeting in February.

"The surge in price will probably endure until the end of the first quarter of 2008, before stabilising during the second quarter," Khelil said on the sidelines of a conference on the security of hydrocarbon pipelines in the Algerian capital.

Khelil said a second quarter stabilisation was "probable".

On Wednesday, the price of a barrel of crude reached $100.09 in New York, before retreating at the close $99.18.

Khelil estimated that the oil market is currently "sufficiently supplied" but did not rule out an increase in production by the cartel at its next meeting in February.

That meeting will take place in Vienna on February 1. It will closely study predictions for world economic growth, notably in the US, which has been seriously affected by the credit squeeze from the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

"If a US economic recession takes hold, OPEC is not going to increase its current offering only to be called upon, later, to reduce it," he said.

OPEC, which currently produces 27.2 million barrels per day, accounts for about 40 per cent of world oil output, the rest coming from producers who are not part of the organisation.

At the last OPEC meeting, at Abu Dhabi on December 5, OPEC decided to leave its current level of production unchanged.

Meanwhile, the Saudi Oil Minister, Ali al-Naimi, said yesterday that the rise in oil prices to a record high had been determined by market forces.

"The market fixes the price of oil," Naimi told reporters at an energy conference in Riyadh when asked to comment on oil's surge to a record above $100 last week.

Naimi declined further comment on the price or what the OPEC would decide at its next meeting. Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil exporter and the most influential voice in OPEC.

High energy costs have caused concern among some members of OPEC about the potential impact on the global economy. But ministers say there is little they can do to tame the price, which is driven by political tension and speculators and not supply and demand fundamentals.

Libya's top oil official, Shokri Ghanem, said last week that the producer group could do little about $100 oil as most members were already pumping flat out.

Source: IRIN News

NAIROBI, 4 January 2008 (IRIN) - Two large orange-coloured zones indicate where the worst of Kenya's rural post-election violence has occurred in a new UN map created by focusing civilian satellite cameras onto some of the country's clash-hit areas and revealing the number of fires burning.

The UNOSAT map shows two hotspots of trouble in Kenya's Rift Valley Province - around the town of Eldoret, and a smaller one around the town of Timboroa to the south, along the main road leading to Nairobi.

Other scattered locations in the province are shaded yellow, indicating a lesser but noticeable number of fires.
 

For the full article and image please visit: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76102