Indonesia’s largest palm oil and pulp group, Sinar Mas, is continuing to destroy rainforests and peatland despite promises to end the practice.

A major supplier of palm oil and pulp (paper) to multinationals, including food giant Cargill, has been caught clearing orang-utan habitats and carbon-rich peatlands.

The Sinar Mas group, which has supplied palm oil to Nestlé, Kraft and Unilever, had previously promised to clean up its act and claims it doesn't touch peatland or forests of ‘high conservation value’.

However, a Greenpeace investigation has photographed plant operators clearing rainforest in peatland areas (illegal in Indonesia since 2007) and in a known orang-utan habitat.

Confidential documents obtained by the NGO also reveal that the company has ambitions to expand further into rainforest and peatland areas, which store vast amounts of carbon that is released into the atmosphere when they are burnt in preparation for plantations.

Sinar Mas has one of the largest land banks in the world, with 1.3 million hectares available for plantation expansion. Greenpeace says any expansion will come at the cost of forest ecosystems, and is calling on the palm and pulp giant to release maps detailing all of its landholdings to enable analysis of which areas are critically important for biodiversity and climate protection.

‘We’ve caught Sinar Mas red-handed destroying valuable rainforests and breaching the limited promises it has made to clean up its act,’ said Bustar Maitar, Greenpeace forest campaigner. ‘This is typical of a group that has an appalling record of environmental destruction. Sinar Mas has to be reigned in if there is to be a future for what’s left of Indonesia’s rainforests.’



Nestlé has previously responded to criticism of Sinar Mas by promising to cancel its direct contracts with the company. However, Greenpeace says Nestlé and others still source palm oil from the group through third party suppliers.


Source:

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/550481/palm_oil_giant_accused_of_rainforest_destruction_caught_redhanded.html

Natural Disaster and Displacement is an ongoing story in South Asia

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s government on Tuesday wrestled with a natural disaster that seemed to grow by the hour as new storm warnings threatened to deepen the worst floods in 80 years.

Multimedia

Floods Displace More Than a Million Pakistanis

Residents of Nowshera whose homes were destroyed. A provincial official said 1.4 million people had lost their homes.

Estimates of the dead and displaced have been steadily growing since the flooding began last week. The United Nations Childrens Fund, an aid organization usually known as Unicef, said 3 million people in the country had been affected by the floods, including 1 million children in need of emergency assistance. Unicef also said the floodwaters had claimed 1,400 lives..
The government issued new flood warnings on Tuesday as monsoon rains resumed, forcing the suspension of relief activities in several northwestern parts of the country and raising fears the high water levels would threaten Pakistan’s third-biggest dam.
The latest warning about Warsak Dam, roughly 20 miles, or 30 kilometers northwest of Peshawar, the provincial capital, spread panic among residents of the city and its neighboring areas.
“If needed, forced evacuation will be started”, Adnan Khan, a spokesman for the Disaster Management Authority of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa province was quoted as saying by The Associated Press.
Local news media reported that people had fled from three villages near the dam.
A special session of the federal cabinet will convene on Wednesday to discuss the flood situation, said Babar Awan, the country’s law minister.
Several days after the disaster, the government was still trying to chart out a strategy to provide relief to those affected and reach the international community for aid and assistance.
President Asif Ali Zardari, meanwhile, was scheduled to arrive in London on Tuesday, continuing an overseas trip that began in France on Monday.
On Monday, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani asked the government to approach the United Nations for help in preparing a call to the international community for emergency aid.
The United States already has pledged $10 million in relief; the United Nations has offered $10 million; and China has pledged $1.5 million, according to the Xinhua state news agency.
The latest spell of rains will compound the misery of disgruntled survivors, who have complained bitterly about the slow pace of relief efforts. A temporary reprieve from the rains in the past two days had given some people opportunities to salvage their belongings from destroyed and collapsed houses.
“This spell of rain will continue for the next two to three days”, Muhammad Hanif, an official at the Meteorological Department said. He said the rains would be less intense than last week.
Residents of Nowshera and Charsadda districts in Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa province have staged rallies to protest against slow delivery of aid and relief goods.
Local news media outlets reported that 150,000 people in Kot Addu, a southern Punjab town, risked displacement as floodwaters threatened to overrun that city and adjoining villages. Officials there asked people on Tuesday to close down the main markets and move to safer locations. Local news networks broadcast images of women and children huddled on trucks and buses as they moved out of the town.
Hundreds of villages in neighboring Dera Ghazi Khan were submerged on Monday night, due to flash floods.


Source:   http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/world/asia/04pstan.html

Solar tsunami from Sun may hit Earth on Tuesday 3rd August 2010

Tue, Aug 3 11:05 AM

Washington, August 3 (ANI): The Earth is in the path to be hit by a wave of violent space weather as early as Tuesday after a massive explosion of the sun, scientists have warned.

Astronomers witnessed the huge flare above a giant sunspot the size of the Earth, the explosion aimed directly towards Earth.
It sent a "solar tsunami" racing 93 million miles across space, which is likely to hit the planet on Tuesday.
The wave of supercharged gas is likely to spark spectacular displays of the aurora or northern and southern lights.
However, a really big solar eruption could shut down global communication grids and destroy satellites, if it reaches today.
A recent warning by NASA said that Britain could be at the receiving end of widespread power blackouts for a long time after the earth is hit by a once-in-a-generation "space storm".
"It looks like the first eruption was so large that it changed the magnetic fields throughout half the Sun's visible atmosphere and provided the right conditions for the second eruption," said Dr Lucie Green, of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, Surrey.
"This means we have a very good chance of seeing major and prolonged effects, such as the northern lights at low latitudes," she added. (ANI)

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20100803/981/tsc-solar-tsunami-from-sun-may-hit-earth_1.html