RECENT events are now resulting in more people questioning the validity of the science behind climate change. Could this be the beginning of a meltdown in public opinion on global warming?
The recent period of freezing temperatures and the failure of the Copenhagen climate summit to agree legally binding greenhouse gas targets provided the backdrop for two events that have threatened the creditability of climate change science.
The “Climategate” fiasco saw the contents of emails stolen from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit leading to accusations that a number of researchers had manipulated data.
Meanwhile, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the leading body for the assessment of the scientific evidence of climate change, admitted it had got it wrong on predicting Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035.
Taken all together, it is not surprising that the general public is beginning to question whether climate change is really happening. A recent BBC Poll suggests that scepticism about climate change is on the rise. Of the 1,001 adults polled, 25 per cent did not think global warming was happening.
This is a 10 per cent increase on a similar poll that was conducted last year. Those who said climate change was real had fallen from 83 to 75 per cent. Only 26 per cent believed that climate change was happening and was largely the result of human activities.
Climate change is unlike any other environmental issue. For some, it is seen as a new religion with those sceptical of the evidence labelled “deniers” as if they were questioning the existence of a divine being. Unless you live on a small island state such as Tuvalu, near Fiji, which is slowly sinking due to the rising sea level, it is easy to think climate change is a myth.
There is also public confusion over the difference between weather – atmospheric conditions over hours or days – and climate – changes in the atmosphere over years. This has led some people to think that the recent heavy snowfall and sub-zero temperatures are sufficient evidence that global warming is not real.
How climate change is communicated plays a powerful role in influencing public attitudes and determining whether people are willing to reduce their carbon footprint. The alarmist language used by the media to describe the potential impact of climate change has been referred to as “climate porn” – offering a thrilling spectacle but ultimately distancing the public from the problem. The use of apocalyptic media images of receding glaciers, scorched land, flooded metropolises and polar bears grappling for survival all foster public apathy.
It is no wonder the public feels disempowered. The issue is portrayed as being so big and multifaceted that it seems unreal and more like science fiction rather than science fact.
Climate sceptics are quick to claim that Climategate and the “Glaciergate” are evidence of “dodgy” climate science. While a few points in the IPCC report may be incorrect, this does not invalidate the last four assessments of the basic science of climate change. There is overwhelming evidence to suggest that global warming is due to human activity.
The reality is that climate science is still developing as new evidence comes to light. We are still trying to understand the complexity of the global climate system and the effect and speed of different feedback mechanisms.
For example, a scientific survey of Siberian tundra coastlines has reported methane levels are roughly 100 times above normal. Methane is a greenhouse gas 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.
More than 10 times the annual global greenhouse emissions are thought to be trapped in tundra across the world. As the tundra thaws will it become a “Methane Bomb”?
Health damaging particles in polluting gases emitted by industry, traffic and domestic heating have a “cooling” effect on the climate. In reducing local air pollution are we lowering this cooling effect and inadvertently accelerating global warming?
Many questions such as these require further scientific investigation.
It is too easy to dismiss the whole climate change issue as mass hysteria. Prevention is always much better than cure. It is right that we take action now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to predicted climate change and move to a low carbon economy.
We need to become more efficient in our energy use and develop renewable energy sources. After all, whether climate change happens or not, we still have to face up to the fact of dwindling oil reserves and our over-consumption of natural resources.
Whatever doubt we may have about climate science, or whether climate change is really happening, a fundamental question remains – are we willing to gamble with our children’s future on this planet?
Sunday, March 14, 2010
'Green' plastics may be worse for environment
A type of degradable plastic bag that was supposed to be better for the environment may not be completely biodegradable, a Government-commissioned study has found. The bag is made with metal salts that are supposed to accelerate degradation, but scientists found the material was not fully biodegradable and might contaminate the way plastics are recycled.
Hundreds of millions of plastic bags and packaging items have been produced by the process, and they are widely used by some of the leading British retailers, including Waitrose, Ocado, JD Sports, Accessorize, River Island and Tesco.
Plastics with the additives are meant to break down quickly and fully in the presence of light and air by a process called oxidative degradation. But the term biodegradable is "virtually meaningless" said the Loughborough University scientists who ran the study. "The bags cannot be composted and there are concerns about the effects of the plastic in recycling facilities," said the scientists, who added that the best way of disposal was incineration or landfill.
Hundreds of millions of plastic bags and packaging items have been produced by the process, and they are widely used by some of the leading British retailers, including Waitrose, Ocado, JD Sports, Accessorize, River Island and Tesco.
Plastics with the additives are meant to break down quickly and fully in the presence of light and air by a process called oxidative degradation. But the term biodegradable is "virtually meaningless" said the Loughborough University scientists who ran the study. "The bags cannot be composted and there are concerns about the effects of the plastic in recycling facilities," said the scientists, who added that the best way of disposal was incineration or landfill.
UN Appeal for Haitian Quake Relief Only Half Funded
Two months after the ruinous January 12 earthquake in Haiti, the United Nations' $1.44 billion revised humanitarian appeal for the country is only 49 percent funded, UN officials said today.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, says humanitarian work is picking up speed, but emergency shelter and sanitation are still urgently needed ahead of the rainy season. Steady rains could come as soon as the end of March, and hurricane season starts in June.
More than 212,000 people died as a result of the 7.0-magnitude quake and nearly 300,000 others were injured. The number of displaced people amounts to about 1.2 million, according to Haitian government figures.
Displaced mothers at a camp in Port-au-Prince wait to vaccinate their children against diphtheria and tetanus. Vaccinations are provided by the World Health Organization and administered by Cuban doctors. February 16, 2010. (Photo by Sophia Paris courtesy UN)
OCHA reports that more than 4.3 million people have received food assistance, 1.2 million people are receiving daily water distributions, and more than 300,000 children and adults have been vaccinated against a range of infectious diseases, including measles, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough.
Emergency shelter materials have been distributed to more than 650,000 people, about 56 percent of those left homeless by the quake, which claimed the lives of more than a quarter of a million people.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will make a one-day visit to Haiti on Sunday, his second to the Caribbean country since the earthquake, his spokesperson Martin Nesirky told reporters at UN headquarters in New York today.
While in the capital, Port-au-Prince, Ban will meet with President Rene Preval and Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, as well as with the leadership of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti and UN agencies working on the ground.
Yoo Soon-taek, wife of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, mourns at a memorial for the 101 UN staff members who died in Haiti's earthquake. March 9, 2010. (Photo courtesy UN)
The Secretary-General will visit a camp housing some of the people displaced by the earthquake.
Preparations are now starting on two sites identified by the Haitian government for the relocation of internally displaced persons from high-risk settlement sites. The first site for relocation will have its official inauguration tomorrow.
The earthquake disaster is compounded by the lack of trees in Haiti, which has one of the worst rates of deforestation in the world.
Only two percent of Haiti's original forests remain and Haitian deforestion makes it impossible to source timber for transitional shelters from within the island nation. Timber to create transitional shelter for up to 500,000 people for two years will have to be imported with support from the international community, UN officials say.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization is asking people to help children in Haiti by donating a fruit tree that they can plant in school yards across the country.
FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf will launch the Fruit Trees for Haiti initiative at a symbolic tree-planting at a school in the town of Croix des Bouquets, outside of Port-au-Prince. While untouched by the earthquake, the school now is hosting tens of thousands of refugees from the capital.
Schoolchildren in Haiti rely on tents. (Photo courtesy FAO)
Diouf is on a three day mission to Haiti to raise awareness about the need for international support to agriculture in Haiti.
He says a $5 donation to the initiative buys an avocado or mango tree for a Haitian school garden, and covers fertilizer and other inputs as well as educational material about the value of trees. For instance, buildings surrounded by trees are better protected from the flooding that can occur in the Haitian rainy season.
The FAO and the nonprofit aid agency CARE have issued a joint alert over a national food crisis in Haiti.
Rapid assessments undertaken by FAO and its partners have shown that "host families" caring for displaced people are spending their meager savings to feed new arrivals and consuming food stocks. In many cases, they are resorting to eating the seeds they have stored for the next season and eating or selling their livestock.
The main planting season, which accounts for over 60 percent of annual production, has now begun, but Jean-Dominique Bodard, CARE's emergency food security specialist, warns, "If the host families have no means to buy seeds or other ways to obtain quality seeds, this will be a disaster for them."
"And there is another aspect to this vicious circle: due to lack of cash, many host farmers will not be able to hire day laborers for the planting," he said. "As an effect, the laborers will not earn money to feed their families and the planting will not be carried out to the extent it could be if the workforce were available."
FAO has kick-started a small cash-for-work program cleaning out irrigation canals in Leogane and CARE will work to scale it up in the coming days from 600 to 4,000 people.
Haitian woman employed by the UNDP cash-for-work program. (Photo courtesy UNDP)
A larger cash-for-work program is being run by the UN Development Programme. As of March 5, more than 70,000 Haitians were employed under this program, and UNDP has set the goal of reaching more than 400,000 people by December 2010, indirectly benefiting two million Haitians. Each worker is paid 180 gourdes, or about US$4.5, for six hours of labor.
The work includes removing building rubble from the streets, crushing and sorting reusable material, disposal of debris, and restoring essential public facilities to lay the foundations for mid-term recovery and development. Haitians are also clearing sites for safe re-settlement, repairing surface water drainage and improving road access to and through affected areas.
On sanitation, 3,673 latrines of the required 13,000 latrines have been installed, but there are space problems due to millions of tons of debris in the streets, according to the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, which is leading the sanitation effort.
Haiti's traditional system of separating trash by hand has raised concerns about contamination from healthcare waste given the burst in medical activity.
"It is estimated that the volume of healthcare waste had tripled," Andrew Morton, UNEP programme manager in Haiti, told a news conference in Geneva. UNEP has brought in a large number of containers for segregation of waste, and purchased additional fuel for trash incineration.
Some 50,000 displaced Haitians are camped out in tents on the grounds of a Port-au-Prince golf club. (Photo by Sophia Paris courtesy UN)
The World Health Organization has warned about the increased risk of water-borne diseases when the rainy season begins. Malaria cases have already started to increase, WHO spokesperson Paul Garwood told reporters at the Geneva briefing.
Aid officials are also worried about an expected increase in malnourished children. An estimated 500,000 children under five years and some 200,000 women who are pregnant or with infants have been affected by the earthquake, according to UNICEF.
The agency is working with WHO and other partners to send mobile psychosocial teams to speak with families in settlements throughout the region. The therapeutic activities include the traditional Haitian concept of "lakou," a place where families gather and chat.
In addition to counselling, aid officials hope that going to school will help normalize the lives of some children. Some 1,400 tents are being set up for some 200,000 children to start attending school in shifts starting on April 1.
"The international response has been very generous, including from a number of developing countries," said Jordan Ryan, director of UNDP's Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery. "But Haiti needs continued donor support to build strong democratic institutions, put in place effective disaster preparedness measures and reduce extreme poverty. Now is the time for even more support for the people of Haiti."
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, says humanitarian work is picking up speed, but emergency shelter and sanitation are still urgently needed ahead of the rainy season. Steady rains could come as soon as the end of March, and hurricane season starts in June.
More than 212,000 people died as a result of the 7.0-magnitude quake and nearly 300,000 others were injured. The number of displaced people amounts to about 1.2 million, according to Haitian government figures.
Displaced mothers at a camp in Port-au-Prince wait to vaccinate their children against diphtheria and tetanus. Vaccinations are provided by the World Health Organization and administered by Cuban doctors. February 16, 2010. (Photo by Sophia Paris courtesy UN)
OCHA reports that more than 4.3 million people have received food assistance, 1.2 million people are receiving daily water distributions, and more than 300,000 children and adults have been vaccinated against a range of infectious diseases, including measles, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough.
Emergency shelter materials have been distributed to more than 650,000 people, about 56 percent of those left homeless by the quake, which claimed the lives of more than a quarter of a million people.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will make a one-day visit to Haiti on Sunday, his second to the Caribbean country since the earthquake, his spokesperson Martin Nesirky told reporters at UN headquarters in New York today.
While in the capital, Port-au-Prince, Ban will meet with President Rene Preval and Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, as well as with the leadership of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti and UN agencies working on the ground.
Yoo Soon-taek, wife of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, mourns at a memorial for the 101 UN staff members who died in Haiti's earthquake. March 9, 2010. (Photo courtesy UN)
The Secretary-General will visit a camp housing some of the people displaced by the earthquake.
Preparations are now starting on two sites identified by the Haitian government for the relocation of internally displaced persons from high-risk settlement sites. The first site for relocation will have its official inauguration tomorrow.
The earthquake disaster is compounded by the lack of trees in Haiti, which has one of the worst rates of deforestation in the world.
Only two percent of Haiti's original forests remain and Haitian deforestion makes it impossible to source timber for transitional shelters from within the island nation. Timber to create transitional shelter for up to 500,000 people for two years will have to be imported with support from the international community, UN officials say.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization is asking people to help children in Haiti by donating a fruit tree that they can plant in school yards across the country.
FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf will launch the Fruit Trees for Haiti initiative at a symbolic tree-planting at a school in the town of Croix des Bouquets, outside of Port-au-Prince. While untouched by the earthquake, the school now is hosting tens of thousands of refugees from the capital.
Schoolchildren in Haiti rely on tents. (Photo courtesy FAO)
Diouf is on a three day mission to Haiti to raise awareness about the need for international support to agriculture in Haiti.
He says a $5 donation to the initiative buys an avocado or mango tree for a Haitian school garden, and covers fertilizer and other inputs as well as educational material about the value of trees. For instance, buildings surrounded by trees are better protected from the flooding that can occur in the Haitian rainy season.
The FAO and the nonprofit aid agency CARE have issued a joint alert over a national food crisis in Haiti.
Rapid assessments undertaken by FAO and its partners have shown that "host families" caring for displaced people are spending their meager savings to feed new arrivals and consuming food stocks. In many cases, they are resorting to eating the seeds they have stored for the next season and eating or selling their livestock.
The main planting season, which accounts for over 60 percent of annual production, has now begun, but Jean-Dominique Bodard, CARE's emergency food security specialist, warns, "If the host families have no means to buy seeds or other ways to obtain quality seeds, this will be a disaster for them."
"And there is another aspect to this vicious circle: due to lack of cash, many host farmers will not be able to hire day laborers for the planting," he said. "As an effect, the laborers will not earn money to feed their families and the planting will not be carried out to the extent it could be if the workforce were available."
FAO has kick-started a small cash-for-work program cleaning out irrigation canals in Leogane and CARE will work to scale it up in the coming days from 600 to 4,000 people.
Haitian woman employed by the UNDP cash-for-work program. (Photo courtesy UNDP)
A larger cash-for-work program is being run by the UN Development Programme. As of March 5, more than 70,000 Haitians were employed under this program, and UNDP has set the goal of reaching more than 400,000 people by December 2010, indirectly benefiting two million Haitians. Each worker is paid 180 gourdes, or about US$4.5, for six hours of labor.
The work includes removing building rubble from the streets, crushing and sorting reusable material, disposal of debris, and restoring essential public facilities to lay the foundations for mid-term recovery and development. Haitians are also clearing sites for safe re-settlement, repairing surface water drainage and improving road access to and through affected areas.
On sanitation, 3,673 latrines of the required 13,000 latrines have been installed, but there are space problems due to millions of tons of debris in the streets, according to the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, which is leading the sanitation effort.
Haiti's traditional system of separating trash by hand has raised concerns about contamination from healthcare waste given the burst in medical activity.
"It is estimated that the volume of healthcare waste had tripled," Andrew Morton, UNEP programme manager in Haiti, told a news conference in Geneva. UNEP has brought in a large number of containers for segregation of waste, and purchased additional fuel for trash incineration.
Some 50,000 displaced Haitians are camped out in tents on the grounds of a Port-au-Prince golf club. (Photo by Sophia Paris courtesy UN)
The World Health Organization has warned about the increased risk of water-borne diseases when the rainy season begins. Malaria cases have already started to increase, WHO spokesperson Paul Garwood told reporters at the Geneva briefing.
Aid officials are also worried about an expected increase in malnourished children. An estimated 500,000 children under five years and some 200,000 women who are pregnant or with infants have been affected by the earthquake, according to UNICEF.
The agency is working with WHO and other partners to send mobile psychosocial teams to speak with families in settlements throughout the region. The therapeutic activities include the traditional Haitian concept of "lakou," a place where families gather and chat.
In addition to counselling, aid officials hope that going to school will help normalize the lives of some children. Some 1,400 tents are being set up for some 200,000 children to start attending school in shifts starting on April 1.
"The international response has been very generous, including from a number of developing countries," said Jordan Ryan, director of UNDP's Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery. "But Haiti needs continued donor support to build strong democratic institutions, put in place effective disaster preparedness measures and reduce extreme poverty. Now is the time for even more support for the people of Haiti."
Biodiversity Technology in Africa
Ten years ago while working in Laikipia, Hassan Sachedina met Peter Ragg who was flying for the Laikipia Predator Project. After Laikipia, Peter piloted his Cessna 182 to Gabon and worked for Wildlife Conservation Society for some years before joining well-known WCS scientist, Dr. Mike Fay on the 'MegaFlyOver'. The MegaFlyOver was an ambitious project to fly across Africa photographing the wildest areas from the air every 10 or so seconds. At a presentation in Arusha in the mid 2000's, Mike Fay, in shorts and Teva sandals, explained to an assembled crowd at the Arusha Hotel the technology and thinking behind the FlyOver. It had grown out of Fay's well-known 'Mega-Transect' where his adventurous walk across Central Africa's densest forests was documented by National Geographic. The Mega-Transect ended up in Gabon where Fay's lobbying efforts helped to create 13 National Parks - 10% of Gabon's surface area- in one fell swoop.
All photos credit: Peter Ragg
Building the MegaFlyOver experiences, Peter and his associates formed Conservation Air Patrol to provide cutting edge technology and multi-media data from an aerial platform to support decision making. Peter and I reconnected in 2006 to discuss collaboration on Conservation Air Patrol (CAP). CAP takes wildlife and resource surveys to the next level and now operates a fleet of survey modified C-182's (and soon twin engine aircraft) strategically deployed around Africa. CAP's distinctly red-painted aircraft are equipped with 14 megapixel digital frame cameras that produce ground resolutions between 10 and 80 centimeters. In other words, these platforms produce higher resolution images than high-resolution satellite imagery, delivered in less time and cheaper than sat imagery.
All photos credit: Peter Ragg
Building the MegaFlyOver experiences, Peter and his associates formed Conservation Air Patrol to provide cutting edge technology and multi-media data from an aerial platform to support decision making. Peter and I reconnected in 2006 to discuss collaboration on Conservation Air Patrol (CAP). CAP takes wildlife and resource surveys to the next level and now operates a fleet of survey modified C-182's (and soon twin engine aircraft) strategically deployed around Africa. CAP's distinctly red-painted aircraft are equipped with 14 megapixel digital frame cameras that produce ground resolutions between 10 and 80 centimeters. In other words, these platforms produce higher resolution images than high-resolution satellite imagery, delivered in less time and cheaper than sat imagery.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
MASSIVE EARTHQUAKE IN CHILIE
CNN 
More than 2 million affected by earthquake, Chile's president says
February 28, 2010 -- Updated 0042 GMT (0842 HKT)
Chilean port heavily damaged
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: More than 2 million affected by quake, Chile's president says
- At least least 214 people were killed in the quake and the resulting tsunami
- President Michelle Bachelet: Town of Chillan was one of the worst affected
- Larry King discusses the disaster on Larry King Live" Saturday at 9 p.m. ET
At least least 214 people were killed in the quake and the resulting tsunami, which ravaged parts of the Chilean coast and fanned out across the Pacific Ocean.
A large wave killed three people and 10 were missing on the island of Juan Fernandez, 400 miles (643 km) off the coast of Chile, said Provincial Governor Ivan De La Maza.
On mainland Chile, the task of trying to save survivors and recover the dead was fully under way. Buildings lay in rubble, bridges and highway overpasses were toppled and roads buckled like rumpled paper. Mangled cars were strewn on several highways, many of the vehicles coming to rest on their roofs.
iReport.com: Did you feel it? Share information, images with CNN
"This is a major event. This happened near some very populated areas," said Randy Baldwin, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. "With an 8.8 you expect damage to the population in the area."
As the day unfolded, desperate relatives searched for missing loved ones. Many of the survivors took to the Internet to ask for help in locating relatives.
Video: 'Let's be strong, Chile' 
Video: 'Absolutely terrifying' 
Video: 'U.S. stands ready to assist' 
Earthquake locator map RELATED TOPICS
The quake struck at 3:34 a.m. (1:34 a.m. ET) off the Pacific coast at a depth of nearly 22 miles (35 km) and about 60 miles (100 km) northwest of Chillan, Chile, the USGS said. Santiago, the capital, is 200 miles (325 km) northeast of the epicenter.
At least 33 aftershocks were reported, including a 6.3-magnitude in Argentina.
"There are really aftershocks like every hour," said Felipe Baytelman, speaking to CNN from Santiago.
Chilean officials took to the airwaves to try to control any jitters.
"We are asking everyone to stay calm, to be patient," Chilean President Michelle Bachelet told reporters after inspecting some of the damaged areas. "We assure everyone that emergency crews are working to resolve these issues."
Bachelet declared areas of catastrophe, similar to a state of emergency, which will allow her to rush in aid. She said the town of Chillan -- which was destroyed by a killer quake in 1939 -- was one of the worst affected.
Check out the world's biggest earthquakes since 1900
Bachelet noted that two of the largest hospitals had suffered structural damage and patients were taken to other facilities. Other public institutions also were affected.
The military was coordinating the transfer of patients to hospitals, said Undersecretary of Public Health Jeanette Vega. "All patients are being cared for," she told reporters in the city of Concepcion.
But she pleaded for anyone who did not need immediate medical care not to seek treatment. "This is a time when we need to be in solidarity with the people who need it most," she said, also asking for any health workers able to pitch in to do so.
Four field hospitals were being set up and tanker trucks full of fresh water were already circulating in areas that had lost access to clean water, she said.
Other public institutions also were affected. "There were reports of riots at one of the jails," Bachelet said. "The jails have, of course, received significant damage. The justice department is looking into the situation, evaluating the damage. We are looking into possibly moving some of these inmates."
The president also asked Chileans to help each other.
"We are looking into shelters," she said. "We are looking into other people providing room in their homes."
In Washington, Chilean ambassador Jose Goni said Chile could manage the catastrophe.
"Eventually, after deeper examination, the government may decide it needs support in some areas," he told CNN.
The United States has resources positioned to assist if Chile requests help, President Obama said in a midafternoon address to the nation.
Obama also warned residents in Hawaii and other areas that could be affected by a tsunami to heed safety instructions from state and local officials.
A tsunami warning for Hawaii was lifted Saturday afternoon. Waves of 3 feet were recorded at the city of Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii, but were lower than expected, and no damage was reported.
Meanwhile, tsunami activity was reported on the island of Tasmania, according to officials in Australia.
Saturday's temblor comes about six weeks after an 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated parts of Haiti and killed more than 220,000 people. The Chilean quake, at magnitude 8.8, was 700 to 800 times stronger.
Coastal Chile has a history of deadly earthquakes, with 13 quakes of magnitude 7.0 or higher since 1973, the USGS said. As a result, experts noted that newer buildings are constructed to help withstand the shocks.
President-elect Sebastian Pinera, who will take office in March, also was monitoring the situation and warned, "The number of victims could get higher."
The capital lost electricity and basic services, including water and telephones. Bachelet said regional hospitals had suffered damage; some were evacuated. A major bridge connecting northern and southern Chile was rendered inoperable, and the Santiago airport was shut down for at least the next 24 hours.
Chilean television showed buildings in tatters in Concepcion, in coastal central Chile. Whole sides of buildings were torn off, and at least two structures were engulfed in flames. Video showed roads that were destroyed and impassable.
The earth's rumbling was felt by millions in Chile and in parts of Argentina as well. Some buildings were evacuated in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, which is 690 miles (1,111 kilometers) away from Santiago.
In Hawaii, the U.S. Coast Guard closed all commercial ports in the Hawaiian islands to incoming traffic and was encouraging vessels to evacuate to sea. All recreational boaters were asked to take immediate precautions and avoid the water.
In addition, four of 10 U.S. military ships in port in Hawaii were heading out to sea. One ship in San Diego got under way because of high seas.
California and Alaska were under a tsunami advisory.
Follow tsunami warning information
But evacuations of coastal areas began at 6 a.m. (11 a.m. ET). Outdoor siren systems in each Hawaiian county sounded simultaneously to alert residents and visitors to evacuate coastal areas, and U.S. Air Force planes equipped with loudspeakers flew over more remote areas to issue warnings.
CNN Chile, CNN's partner network, suffered damage to its broadcast facilities but continued operating.
Eduardo de Canto, the head of airport operations in Santiago, told Chile's TVN that the terminal in the airport is severely damaged although he said runways were operational.
Santiago resident Leo Perioto jumped out of his bed in his apartment at the top of a six-story building.
"The whole building was shaking," he said. "The windows were wobbling a lot. We could feel the walls moving from side to side."
Glass shattered at the Santiago Marriott Hotel, but there appeared to be no structural damage, said Alessandro Perez.
Anita Herrera at the Hotel Kennedy in Santiago said electricity was out and guests were nervous.
"Our hotel is built for this," she said. "In Chile, this happens many times."
The U.S. State Department said all but two U.S. Embassy personnel in Chile were accounted for.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she will proceed Sunday with her planned trip to five Latin American countries, including Chile.
Saturday's epicenter was just a few miles north of the largest earthquake recorded in the world: a magnitude 9.5 quake in May 1960 that killed 1,655 and unleashed a tsunami that crossed the Pacific.
CNN's Rolando Santos, Brian Byrnes and Patty Lane contributed to this report.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Weather model shows where California will burn
THIS year, southern California will burn - you can count on it. But we may now be able to predict which areas will be worst hit, thanks to this map. It was compiled by Max Moritz's team at the University of California, Berkeley, and is the first to take into account fire-friendly weather.
Wild fires cause millions of dollars of damage each year in California and elsewhere. Fire researchers typically identify risk areas by looking for flammable vegetation and features like canyons that can funnel fires. There is a third factor, however, that stokes many of the worst infernos: hot, dry winds, like the Santa Ana winds of southern California and the sirocco around the Mediterranean.
Moritz and his colleagues used a computer model of fine-scale weather patterns to predict temperature, wind speed and humidity at 6-kilometre intervals across southern California during Santa Ana wind events, then calculated the fire risk at each point. When they compared their map with historical fire records, the researchers found that the areas they had identified as being at high and low risk were equally as likely to burn, but the impact of fire was greatest in a high-risk area (Geophysical Review Letters, DOI: 10.1029/2009GL041735, in press).
Moritz's map may help planners guide housing development away from the riskiest areas. The approach could also be used in other fire-prone regions like South Africa and western Australia, he says.
GM seeking more U.S. ethanol fueling stations
General Motors Co's growing output of vehicles capable of running on ethanol-gasoline blends won't help cut polluting emissions or U.S. dependence on foreign oil until a slim network of stations dispensing ethanol is greatly expanded, GM Vice Chairman Tom Stevens said.
Half of GM's vehicle lineup will be able to run on a mix of 15 percent gasoline and 85 percent ethanol, called E85, by the 2012 model year, said Stevens, GM's vice chairman for global product operations.
"GM is spending about $100 million a year adding flex-fuel capability to our vehicles. We can't afford to leave this capital stranded," Stevens is to tell attendees in a speech on Tuesday at the Renewable Fuels Association conference.
A copy of the speech was provided to reporters on Monday.
Adding the capability to run on E85 costs adds as much as $70 to the production cost of each vehicle, Stevens said.
GM has produced 4 million of the 7.5 million flex-fuel vehicles on U.S. roads now, said Coleman Jones, GM biofuel implementation manager.
Stevens said GM has worked with the National Governor's Association and ethanol producers and dispensers to add 350 more ethanol-blend pumps in the United States. He said GM would welcome federal government assistance to finance expansion of that network, but he offered no specifics on how that would work.
"Today's there's 2,200 (ethanol fuel stations) that are out there but that's not enough," said Stevens.
"Two-thirds of the pumps are concentrated in 10 states and those 10 states have only about 19 percent of the flex-fuel vehicles that we have on the road," said Stevens. "That's a big problem for us."
Those 10 states are all in the U.S. Midwest, heart of corn production in the United States. Corn is the dominant source of U.S.-produced ethanol.
Stevens said there are about 160,000 U.S. gasoline stations, and there need to be 12,000 or more ethanol stations "to have ethanol fuel available for every one of our customers within about two miles of where they live. So, we've got some work to do there to get the additional 10,000 pumps in." Ethanol-gasoline blends emit less polluting carbon dioxide than conventional gasoline, and is mainly produced domestically.
Energy legislation passed by the U.S. Congress in 2007 set binding targets for fuel blending each year. Ethanol use is to rise to about 20.5 billion gallons by 2015 and 35 billion gallons by 2022 from 4 billion gallons in 2006 and almost 13 billion gallons in 2009.
One gallon of liquid equals a liter.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said that ethanol-gasoline blends must increase the ethanol portion to much higher than the current limit of 10 percent, and increase use of other sources of ethanol than corn, such as switchgrass and landfill and farm waste.
Half of GM's vehicle lineup will be able to run on a mix of 15 percent gasoline and 85 percent ethanol, called E85, by the 2012 model year, said Stevens, GM's vice chairman for global product operations.
"GM is spending about $100 million a year adding flex-fuel capability to our vehicles. We can't afford to leave this capital stranded," Stevens is to tell attendees in a speech on Tuesday at the Renewable Fuels Association conference.
A copy of the speech was provided to reporters on Monday.
Adding the capability to run on E85 costs adds as much as $70 to the production cost of each vehicle, Stevens said.
GM has produced 4 million of the 7.5 million flex-fuel vehicles on U.S. roads now, said Coleman Jones, GM biofuel implementation manager.
Stevens said GM has worked with the National Governor's Association and ethanol producers and dispensers to add 350 more ethanol-blend pumps in the United States. He said GM would welcome federal government assistance to finance expansion of that network, but he offered no specifics on how that would work.
"Today's there's 2,200 (ethanol fuel stations) that are out there but that's not enough," said Stevens.
"Two-thirds of the pumps are concentrated in 10 states and those 10 states have only about 19 percent of the flex-fuel vehicles that we have on the road," said Stevens. "That's a big problem for us."
Those 10 states are all in the U.S. Midwest, heart of corn production in the United States. Corn is the dominant source of U.S.-produced ethanol.
Stevens said there are about 160,000 U.S. gasoline stations, and there need to be 12,000 or more ethanol stations "to have ethanol fuel available for every one of our customers within about two miles of where they live. So, we've got some work to do there to get the additional 10,000 pumps in." Ethanol-gasoline blends emit less polluting carbon dioxide than conventional gasoline, and is mainly produced domestically.
Energy legislation passed by the U.S. Congress in 2007 set binding targets for fuel blending each year. Ethanol use is to rise to about 20.5 billion gallons by 2015 and 35 billion gallons by 2022 from 4 billion gallons in 2006 and almost 13 billion gallons in 2009.
One gallon of liquid equals a liter.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said that ethanol-gasoline blends must increase the ethanol portion to much higher than the current limit of 10 percent, and increase use of other sources of ethanol than corn, such as switchgrass and landfill and farm waste.
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