Operation Musashi – Designed for Controversy
Commentary by Captain Paul Watson
Founder and President of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
I knew that when I chose the name for our next Antarctic campaign to defend the whales that it would be controversial. That was the point.
Some critics have suggested that I have foolishly named our next campaign to Antarctica as Operation Musashi without understanding who Musashi was.
They are wrong!
Apparently some people seem to think that I was ignorant of the legend of Miyamoto Musashi, and specifically of the famous woodcut depicting him slaying a whale with his sword.
Why would I choose a whale killer as a symbol for our campaign to protect and defend whales?
I will tell you why.
First I have read the biographies of Miyamoto Musashi and I used his Book of Five Rings, along with Sun Tzu’s Art of War in writing my book Earthforce! – The Earth Warrior’s Guide to Strategy.
Musashi may very well be depicted as slaying a whale with his sword but there is no evidence that he actually slew a whale. Musashi is the greatest legendary warrior in Japanese history and legends have a tendency to be embellished. St. Patrick did not in actual fact drive the snakes out of Ireland – they were never there to be driven out. St. George did not literally slay a dragon, and William Wallace despite Mel Gibson’s efforts never met either Robert the Bruce or the Princess of Wales.
The woodcut of Musashi killing a whale was created by the artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861) over four hundred years after the death of the legendary Samurai warrior.
The work was done sometime between 1847 and 1852.
This is quite interesting because it coincides with the publication of Moby Dick by Herman Melville in 1851.
In the woodcut, Musashi appears like Ahab.
I have always felt that Ahab was the most sympathetic character in Moby Dick because he was the one man who considered the whale to be equal to man and thus his rage was directed at Moby Dick motivated by desire for revenge at the loss of his leg. Starbuck by contrast dismisses Moby Dick as a dumb beast. Ahab knew better.
That was why in 1976, the Greenpeace campaign to protect whales was named Project Ahab by Robert Hunter. I sailed on that voyage as 1st Officer and Hunter often referred to us as Ahab’s Children. Hunter understood that we had a duty to reverse the bad karma of our ancestors for killing whales by saving them in the present.
But more interesting yet is the fact that Moby Dick was based on the legend of Mocha Dick, a real whale who lived in the early part of the 19th Century and who had slain numerous whalers. His name was feared throughout the Pacific Ocean and the stories of this great warrior whale had indeed reached Japan through the trade routes with the Dutch.
It would be reasonable to assume that a Japanese artist like Kuniyoshi would have resurrected Musashi the hero to subdue this new “monster.” Legends are like modern comic book heroes and heroes are often used in a revisionist manner to entertain and to dramatize current events.    
Whaling was not a part of Musashi’s reality while he lived and I highly doubt that he ever ate whale meat because he was a vegetarian.
Musashi was a man of simple tastes. He was not an eater of meat. He grew his own food and writes of his efforts to do so claiming that the challenges of farming required the discipline of a warrior.
Could Musashi have slain a whale with his sword? Not likely in a culture and a time where few were inclined nor permitted by law to venture onto the sea. Could he have jumped upon a swimming whale and stabbed it repeatedly with his sword? Again not likely and why would he have done so?
If Musashi did slay a whale then he would have done so out of compassion and such a killing would have been a mercy slaying of a beached and dying whale. From what I know of Musashi, he would have indeed allowed his sword to be used to relieve suffering.
Musashi did not kill thoughtlessly nor needlessly and he did not participate in the destruction of nature’s beauty.  And the one thing that Musashi distained more than anything else were the politicians and the bureaucrats of his day.
It must be remembered that Miyamoto Musashi was an outlaw, the Robin Hood and the Jesse James of his era and his country.
As an Outlaw his approach was that of a pirate and as a man who had no use for materialism, he was a pirate warrior for truth and self awareness and his enemy was – the system. He always chose the underdog and notably he fought on the losing side – he opposed the Tokugawa dynasty. He was no lap dog to the Shogun. He was his own man.
I choose Musashi because of his specific strategy of the two-fold way of pen and sword. In other words, victory in the campaign to end Japanese whaling can be found in a combination of high seas dramatic confrontations and media exposure of these confrontations that expose the crimes of the whalers to the international public.
I also choose Musashi because he is someone most Japanese are familiar with. He is also the most anti-Japanese, Japanese hero in Japanese history. Musashi thought for himself and was an individual non-conformist in a culture of rigid conformity. He was a seeker of truth and knowledge. He rejected the position of sword-master to the Shogun of Japan because he was not a servant to any man but was a servant to both nature and to the discipline of his arts.
In choosing Musashi I selected a name that would reflect respect upon Japanese culture and thus would expose the contradictions of the bureaucrats who seek to use nationalism to justify their illegal international crimes.
Musashi represented the true characteristics of the Japanese people when not controlled by government and bureaucracy – the virtues of compassion, the search for truth, and respect for nature.
I believe that Musashi would be on our ship if he were here today just as “Yoko” was on our last campaign.
“Yoko” had come from Japan because she was repulsed by the horror of the Japanese slaughter of the whales and the dolphins. It took great courage to join our crew in our campaign against the Japanese whaling fleet. It took courage for her to speak to the Japanese media about the truth of whaling – she was a true daughter of the spirit of Musashi.
She masked her identity to protect her family from harassment in Japan and we called her Yoko Musashi.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is not anti-Japanese. We share some very similar values with the tradition of the Samurai.
Samurai means to serve. We, the warriors of Sea Shepherd serve the cause of the whales. The way of the Samurai is the resolute acceptance of death and in this there is no doubt that Sea Shepherd campaigns have seen crewmembers take awesome risks to protect marine species.
My crew demonstrates the courage of the Samurai and they respect the fact that our duty is to serve our clients first and foremost and we serve the whales in this campaign.
And in this approach we are students of Miyamoto Musashi and I believe that Musashi’s strategies are part of the key towards attaining victory over the enemies of the whale, the enemies of nature and the enemies of our future.
As the legendary Lakota warrior Crazy Horse would have said, “hoka hey.”
Operation Musashi will be the most aggressive and most effective campaign against illegal Japanese whaling ever and we intend to sink the Japanese fleet economically and we intend to save the lives of as many whales as we can and we intend to do it with the sword of compassion meaning we will cause no harm in our efforts to prevent harm.

Japan to suspend humpback hunt until 2009

Bush to Congress: Embrace energy exploration now

By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - With gasoline topping $4 a gallon, President Bush urged Congress on Wednesday to lift its long-standing ban on offshore oil and gas drilling, saying the United States needs to increase its energy production. Democrats quickly rejected the idea.
"There is no excuse for delay," the president said in a statement in the Rose Garden. With the presidential election just months away, Bush made a pointed attack on Democrats, accusing them of obstructing his energy proposals and blaming them for high gasoline costs. His proposal echoed a call by Republican presidential candidate John McCain to open the Continental Shelf for exploration
"Families across the country are looking to Washington for a response," Bush said.
Congressional Democrats were quick to reject the push for lifting the drilling moratorium, saying oil companies already have 68 million acres offshore waters under lease that are not being developed.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Bush's proposals "another page from (an)... energy policy that was literally written by the oil industry — give away more public resources."
Sen. Barack Obama, the Democrats' presumptive presidential nominee, rejected lifting the drilling moratorium that has been supported by a succession of presidents for nearly two decades.
"This is not something that's going to give consumers short-term relief and it is not a long-term solution to our problems with fossil fuels generally and oil in particular," said Obama. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, lumping Bush with McCain, accused them of staging a "cynical campaign ploy" that won't help lower energy prices.
"Despite what President Bush, John McCain and their friends in the oil industry claim, we cannot drill our way out of this problem," Reid said. "The math is simple: America has just three percent of the world's oil reserves, but Americans use a quarter of its oil."
Bush said offshore drilling could yield up to 18 billion barrels of oil over time, although it would take years for production to start. Bush also said offshore drilling would take pressure off prices over time.
There are two prohibitions on offshore drilling, one imposed by Congress and another by executive order signed by Bush's father in 1990. Bush's brother, Jeb, fiercely opposed offshore drilling when he was governor of Florida. What the president now proposes would rescind his father's decision — but the president took the position that Congress has to act first and then he would follow behind.
Asked why Bush doesn't act first and lift the ban, Keith Hennessey, the director of the president's economic council, said: "He thinks that probably the most productive way to work with this Congress is to try to do it in tandem."
Before Bush spoke, the House Appropriations Committee postponed a vote it had scheduled for Wednesday on legislation doing the opposite of what the president asked — extending Congress' ban on offshore drilling. Lawmakers said they wanted to focus on a disaster relief bill for the battered Midwest.
Bush also proposed opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling, lifting restrictions on oil shale leasing in the Green River Basin of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming and easing the regulatory process to expand oil refining capacity.
With Americans deeply pessimistic about the economy, Bush tried to put on the onus on Congress. He acknowledged that his new proposals would take years to have a full effect, hardly the type of news that will help drivers at the gas stations now. The White House says no quick fix exists.
Still, Bush said Congress was obstructing progress — and directly contributing to consumers' pain at the pump.
"I know the Democratic leaders have opposed some of these policies in the past," Bush said. "Now that their opposition has helped drive gas prices to record levels, I ask them to reconsider their positions."
Bush said that if congressional leaders head home for their July 4 recess without taking action, they will need to explain why "$4 a gallon gasoline is not enough incentive for them to act. And Americans will rightly ask how high gas prices have to rise before the Democratic-controlled Congress will do something about it."
Bush said restrictions on offshore drilling have become "outdated and counterproductive."
In a nod to the environmental arguments against drilling, Bush said technology has come a long way. These days, he said, oil exploration off the coastline can be done in a way that "is out of sight, protects coral reefs and habitats, and protects against oil spills."
Congressional Democrats, joined by some GOP lawmakers from coastal states, have opposed lifting the prohibition that has barred energy companies from waters along both the East and West coasts and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico for 27 years.
On Monday, McCain made lifting the federal ban on offshore oil and gas development a key part of his energy plan. McCain said states should be allowed to pursue energy exploration in waters near their coasts and get some of the royalty revenue.
Obama retorted that the Arizona senator had flip-flopped on that issue.

Mississippi River levees break, more at risk

No sign of floods receding

An aerial image of downtown shows flood-affected areas.
Photo: AFP
June 14, 2008

Rising flood waters swamped the central US river city today, forcing residents to flee their homes and officials to abandon city hall amid a wider crisis that has left 20 dead.
"We've been in a major flood fight for about 10 days now," Bret Voorhees, spokesman for the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management, told AFP.
"Nine of our major rivers are at record or new record levels. We're designating it a 500-year flood."
The state capital Des Moines, population 200,000, urged residents living within the "500-year flood zone" to evacuate as the Des Moines River was expected to rise to near the top of the levee.
A total of 15 lives have been lost in Iowa and thousands were left homeless, Voorhees said, while 10 counties are under evacuation orders and 83 of the state's 99 counties have been declared disaster areas.
Two people were killed by floodwaters in Indiana and two delivery people drowned Sunday when their car fell off a washed out road into a flooded creek, the National Weather Service said.
Another person was killed Wednesday when a tornado ripped through the town of Chapman, Kansas.
The disaster began when a major tornado struck on May 25. It was followed by heavy rains, with more thunderstorms expected this weekend, and on Wednesday another twister touched ground in western Iowa, killing four boy scouts.
Serious flooding has hit the entire region, including parts of South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas and was expected to continue through next week.
At least 53 locations in those states were expected to see "major flooding" in the next two days, the National Weather Service said.
The river in Cedar Rapids crested at 9.5 metres and was not expected to return to its previous record depth of six metres until later next week, it said. Meanwhile, more rain was forecast for the weekend.
"We're trapped with nowhere to go," said Gloria Hines, who lives about a dozen blocks from where the river spilled over in Cedar Rapids.
The floodwaters had not reached her home yet, but the street was made impassable by water gushing out of storm drains. A few small fish spilled out of the contaminated sewage ways.
Torrential rains yesterday left downriver towns preparing for the worst and the National Guard called in to help an army of volunteers with sandbagging and rescue efforts.
"Our predictions of a 100-year flood, or greater, are really coming to pass," said Iowa City Mayor Regenia Bailey. "The flows will continue to increase."
A boat ride through Cedar Rapid's water-logged downtown saw every organ of government crippled by the floods.
The library, the federal building and city hall were all filled with water, which rippled through basements and pulled files and furniture out through the windows.
Inmates in the county jail were evacuated along with their mattresses.
On one building, clutching the cats that nearly cost them their lives, perched Charles Schmitt, 19, and girlfriend Kayla Lambreacht.
They had fled their nearby home when the basement filled with water. But when they stopped to take a picture, one of the cats jumped into the river, prompting Schmitt to go in after it, and his girlfriend to follow.
Clutching two storage bins that Lambreacht tossed into the water, they floated for 45 minutes before they found a building to climb into.
"We kept calling 911 but the phone went out," Schmitt said. "We were up there for two hours."
AFP

Six dead, 100 hurt as quake strikes Japan

June 14, 2008 - 11:15PM

A powerful earthquake tore up hills, fields and roads in northern Japan on Saturday, killing at least six people, injuring around 100 more and trapping guests at a levelled resort hotel.
The earthquake, which measured 7.2 on the Richter scale, also caused a small leak of radioactive water from a power plant, although the company said there was no cause for public concern.
Japan deployed nearly 800 troops to the largely agricultural region in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures, where military helicopters plucked to safety residents, many of them elderly, who were suddenly cut off from the world.
Landslides snapped highways, which abruptly turned into cliffs of falling mud and dirt, and clogged rivers to create a series of "quake lakes."
"I was driving my car when the earthquake hit," said Makoto Katsurashima, 72. "I just turned white as I saw the road disappear before my eyes a few metres (yards) away."
The quake, which struck just eight kilometres (five miles) underground, was strong enough to shake buildings in Tokyo, 350 kilometres (220 miles) to the south, and was followed by around 160 aftershocks.
Dozens of residents flocked in the evening to makeshift shelters set up in public buildings, either out of fright or because power and running water were cut off to their homes.
"The top priority is to save lives," Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said in Tokyo as he dispatched the military and his disaster minister. "We're doing our best in rescue operations."
Six people were killed and another 90 were injured, officials said, while public broadcaster NHK put the number of injured at 162.
The dead included two construction workers, aged 53 and 54, caught in a landslide, with their bodies retrieved hours afterwards.
"One of them for a while hung onto a tree, but then he fell with the tree," said an official at the construction project.
The other dead included a 60-year-old man who rushed out of his home in panic and was hit by a truck.
Twelve people remained missing including three foreigners, whose nationalities were unclear, who were out camping.
The earthquake tore to pieces a hot-spring resort, which turned into a pile of wooden rubble with access cut off by a landslide.
Five people were rescued from the Komanoyu hotel in a remote scenic forest, two of them with broken bones, but several remained missing, police said.
Ayako Inomata, whose daughter worked there, said she took a helicopter to the resort hotel and found that 31 customers and workers were safe.
"I was so relieved because today I couldn't get through on her mobile or on her landline. But my daughter and her colleagues and other customers there looked OK," Inomata said.
Kyoichi Suzuki, a 50-year-old beekeeper, said he was just 100 metres away from a landslide that buried a car.
"I escaped by a hair's breadth," he said with relief afterwards. "If I had been in that car, I would have been killed."
Japan endures about 20 percent of the world's powerful earthquakes and has built an infrastructure intended to withstand the impact of tremors.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said that 14.8 litres (3.8 gallons) of water came out of a pool in which radioactive equipment is stored at a reactor in Fukushima prefecture, but the company said there were no risks to the public.
Japan's land ministry said around five "quake lakes" were formed when landslides blocked rivers. But it said it did not expect dangers from the lakes, which posed a major risk after last month's devastating earthquake in China's Sichuan province.
Masanori Oikawa, a local official in Oshu, said that people in his town were responding calmly, even though they were in shock.
"The jolt was so strong that I couldn't stand without holding onto the wall," he said. "We saw electric poles swinging and the walls of homes were damaged."
"We're used to earthquakes, but this was really scary."

Scores dead in China mine blast

Miners wait for the news of their colleagues trapped in the Anxin Coal Mining Co. Ltd. in Xiaoyi, Shanxi.

June 14, 2008 - 12:31PM

Twenty seven workers have been found dead while seven remain trapped after an explosion at a coal mine in northern China, state media said today.
Some 100 rescuers have been searching for the workers since the blast at the mine in Shanxi province, one of China's main coal-producing areas, on yesterday morning, Xinhua news agency said.
Twenty seven bodies have since been found while efforts to find the seven others still missing were ongoing, the agency said.
Fifteen workers managed to escape by themselves after the explosion at the mine in Xiaoyi city, and nine were pulled out alive by rescuers, it said.
China's coal mines are among the most dangerous in the world, with safety standards often ignored in the quest for profits and the drive to meet sky-rocketing Chinese demand for coal.
The mine was operating with all required licences the country's work safety administration said on its website yesterday without providing further details.
Coal is the source of about 70 per cent of China's energy.
Nearly 3800 lives were lost in Chinese coal mines last year, down 20 per cent from the year before, according to official figures.
However, many independent labour groups suspect the actual death toll is much higher, saying many accidents are covered up to prevent costly shutdowns and legal action.
AFP

BBC uncovers lost Iraq billions

Waxman: "It may well turn out to be the largest war profiteering in history."

A BBC investigation estimates that around $23bn (£11.75bn) may have been lost, stolen or just not properly accounted for in Iraq.

The BBC's Panorama programme has used US and Iraqi government sources to research how much some private contractors have profited from the conflict and rebuilding.
A US gagging order is preventing discussion of the allegations.
The order applies to 70 court cases against some of the top US companies.

War profiteering
While Presdient George W Bush remains in the White House, it is unlikely the gagging orders will be lifted.
To date, no major US contractor faces trial for fraud or mismanagement in Iraq.
The president's Democratic opponents are keeping up the pressure over war profiteering in Iraq.
Henry Waxman, who chairs the House committee on oversight and government reform, said: "The money that's gone into waste, fraud and abuse under these contracts is just so outrageous, it's egregious.
"It may well turn out to be the largest war profiteering in history."
In the run-up to the invasion, one of the most senior officials in charge of procurement in the Pentagon objected to a contract potentially worth $7bn that was given to Halliburton, a Texan company which used to be run by Dick Cheney before he became vice-president.
Unusually only Halliburton got to bid - and won.

Missing billions
The search for the missing billions also led the programme to a house in Acton in west London where Hazem Shalaan lived until he was appointed to the new Iraqi government as minister of defence in 2004.

Judge Radhi al Radhi: "I believe these people are criminals."

He and his associates siphoned an estimated $1.2bn out of the ministry. They bought old military equipment from Poland but claimed for top-class weapons.
Meanwhile they diverted money into their own accounts.
Judge Radhi al-Radhi of Iraq's Commission for Public Integrity investigated.
He said: "I believe these people are criminals.
"They failed to rebuild the Ministry of Defence, and as a result the violence and the bloodshed went on and on - the murder of Iraqis and foreigners continues and they bear responsibility."
Mr Shalaan was sentenced to two jail terms but he fled the country.
He said he was innocent and that it was all a plot against him by pro-Iranian MPs in the government.
There is an Interpol arrest warrant out for him but he is on the run - using a private jet to move around the globe.
He stills owns commercial properties in the Marble Arch area of London.

Panorama: Daylight Robbery will be on BBC One at 9pm on Tuesday 10 June 2008.

Floodwaters wash away homes as freak storms Hit

A home near Lake Delton in Wisconsin collapses as flood waters breach the bank on Monday. Three houses were washed away.
Photo: AP

June 10, 2008 - 10:01AM

Floodwater washed away three houses and threatened dams in Wisconsin as military crews joined desperate sandbagging operations to hold back Indiana streams surging toward record levels.
The East Coast simmered through temperatures climbing toward the century mark.
Ten deaths were blamed on stormy weekend weather, most in the Midwest.
Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle declared an emergency for 29 counties and President Bush on Sunday declared a major disaster in 29 Indiana counties.
Iowa Governor Chet Culver said nearly a third of his state's 99 counties need federal help.
Rivers in several parts of the Midwest swelled with the runoff from heavy weekend rainfall, topped by the 11 inches that fell Saturday in Indiana.
Water was pouring over the top of Wisconsin's Dell Creek Dam on Lake Delton in Sauk County, and had swept away three houses, county emergency management director Jeff Jelinek said. He was not sure whether there were any injuries, but said people had been told to evacuate the area, which is about 50 miles north of Madison.
A couple of thousand people in Columbia County, about 30 miles north of Madison, were urged to evacuate below the Wyocena and Pardeeville dams, said Pat Beghin, a spokesman for the county's emergency management.
The Wyocena Dam's spillway had washed out, and workers were sandbagging to try to save the dam, Beghin said. The Pardeeville dam was overflowing, creating a risk for the nearly 10,000 people downstream in Portage, he said.
The Upper Spring Dam in Palmyra was failing, state emergency management officials said. But only one house in the rural area was in danger, Palmyra town chairman Stewart Calkins said.
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources engineers were being sent across the state to survey other dams.
Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle had declared states of emergency for 30 counties. At least 130 inmates from the Department of Corrections were helping sandbag in nine areas, according to the state emergency management. The Red Cross had 11 shelters open across the state and was preparing a 12th, officials said.
A new storm system was headed toward the Ohio Valley from the southern Plains on Monday and the weather service posted a tornado warning for south-central Illinois and a severe thunderstorm warning for Indiana.
While the Midwest fought to cope with flooding, the East was locked in a sauna. Heat advisories were posted Monday from the Carolinas to Connecticut, with temperatures expected to hit 100 from Georgia to New York, the National Weather Service said. Raleigh-Durham, N.C., hit a record 101 on Sunday.
"It's just crazy. ... It's really, really hot," said New York City street worker Jessica Pena as she swept a midtown Manhattan street at around 8:15 a.m. The temperature already was in the upper 80s.
AP

Aftershocks threaten swollen China 'quake lake'

June 10, 2008 - 8:17AM
Powerful aftershocks continued to threaten the stability of a swollen "quake lake" in southwest China Monday, amid urgent efforts to drain its rising waters to prevent a flood downstream.
A 5.0-magnitude aftershock rattled the area of quake-devastated Sichuan province where the lake is located on Monday, US seismologists reported. An aftershock of the same strength struck the region on Sunday.
A local official in the city of Mianyang, not far from the Tangjiashan lake, said the aftershocks had so far not affected the unstable body of water.
But state-run Xinhua news agency said Sunday's tremor had caused "massive landslides" on nearby mountains, and state television said Monday that the situation remained "highly dangerous," with hundreds of thousands of people living downstream.
The lake has become one of the most pressing issues in the aftermath of the May 12 quake that struck mountainous Sichuan, killing 69,142 and leaving 17,551 others missing, according to the latest toll issued Monday.
Millions more have been left homeless by the 8.0-magnitude quake, which triggered huge landslides that blocked rivers and created more than 30 unstable "quake lakes," including the Tangjiashan one on the Jianjiang river.
Soldiers were rushing Monday to clear a third channel to drain water from the lake, the state-run China Daily reported, in a race against time to reduce the risk that it might burst its banks.
Troops began draining water through one hastily dug channel on Saturday to stop the lake from emptying all at once.
"Yesterday's (Sunday) rain and aftershock disrupted our work, but we are working against time to make up for it," Xu Qiangguo, an officer with the police's hydropower force, was quoted by Xinhua as saying.
The water resources ministry said Monday the water level had risen by nearly one metre (three feet) in a 24-hour period -- double the rate of the water flowing out through the drainage channels.
About 6,900 cubic metres of water -- the equivalent of nearly three Olympic-sized swimming pools -- were flowing into the lake every minute, the ministry said.
Troops working at the lake triggered 10 explosions on Monday to accelerate drainage, but only 3,000 cubic metres of water were now flowing out every minute, Xinhua reported.
Torrential rain was forecast for much of southern China over the next few days, but was not expected to affect quake-hit areas of Sichuan, the country's meteorological centre said.
The quake zone was however due to see searing hot temperatures -- unwelcome news for the millions of displaced people living in tents.
Heatstroke and related ailments are bringing increasing numbers of people from the makeshift refugee camps to a field hospital in quake-ravaged Dujiangyan.
"This could be a very big problem as the weather gets hotter," said Zou Hejian, who heads the medical staff at the temporary facility.
Premier Wen Jiabao warned Monday there could be no let up as epidemic prevention work remained a tough task in the quake zone, Xinhua reported.
At a quake relief meeting in Beijing, Wen also urged greater efforts to treat the injured to minimise fatalities and disability, it said.
The government also urged coal mines to "take effective measures" to increase output, Xinhua said Monday, as parts of the country run low following the quake. It said mines forced to close for safety should strive to resume operations as soon as possible.
China's coal industry has been under stress due to shortages this year, a situation worsened by the May 12 quake, which damaged a "considerable" number of hydropower stations, Xinhua said.
Meanwhile, 15 local officials in Sichuan have been dismissed from their posts because they engaged in malpractice in quake relief efforts, Xinhua said late Monday.
The officials were blamed for malfeasance related to the relief efforts, as well as for responding slowly to the disaster, Xinhua said, citing the organisation department of the Communist Party of China's provincial committee.
© 2008 AFP

Dolphins die in UK mass stranding

At least 21 dolphins have died after becoming stranded in a river in southwest England.

Rescuers believe a pod of about 15 striped dolphins swam up the Percuil River in Cornwall and were beached, and that other dolphins responded to their distress cries.

Rescuers managed to save seven of the stranded mammals and the last two were taken out to sea in stretchers attached to boats. Other dolphins in the pod were prevented from swimming up the river.

While such strandings are relatively common in Australia, they are rare in Britain.

Tony Woodley of British Divers Marine Life Rescue said it was the biggest mass stranding of marine life in Britain for 27 years.

"We haven't seen a stranding anywhere near this scale since 1981, when pilot whales were beached on the east coast. This is extremely rare," he said.

Woodley said the striped dolphins normally did not swim near coasts, but perhaps they had moved in to feed on fish attracted to a large algae bloom.

"Logistically a rescue like this is a minefield. It is very difficult to manage," Woodley said. "You have to get all the dolphins together. If one or two leave, the river system they will just come back to rejoin the main social group."

© 2008 AP

NASA Office Is Criticized on Climate Reports

Bid to uncover secrets of pygmy right whale

May 10, 2008

An international team of scientists is trying to unlock some of the secrets of the pygmy right whale at a New Zealand museum.
Very little is known about the creatures because sightings in the wild are unusual, Australian team member Catherine Kemper, of the South Australian Museum, says.

A pygmy whale found beached in the north of New Zealand a year ago is allowing the scientists from Australia, New Zealand and the United States a chance to dissect the species.

Dissection was a good way to learn more about them, Dr Kemper said at Wellington's Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

She said pygmy right whales were probably not rare, but it was unusual for specimens to be available for dissection.

"The muscles and bones can tell you a lot about how the animals live," she said.

Scientists have been keen to determine where the animal fits into whale evolution, as it is not thought to be closely related to the right whale.

"One peculiarity is the number of ribs the species has - more numerous than other whale species, some of which are flattened and overlap," said a statement from the museum.

Pygmy right whales are most often found around New Zealand and southern Australia.

They only grow to about 6.5 metres long, making them the smallest baleen (great) whale, and far smaller than right whales, which grow up to 18 metres and can weigh more than 100 tonnes.

AAP

Whaling action against Japan still possible

Justin Norrie in Tokyo
May 9, 2008
Australia and New Zealand have denied ditching the possibility of legal action to stop Japanese whaling.
Rejecting a report that New Zealand had abandoned the legal route to stop the annual Southern Ocean cull of almost 1000 whales, the countries said it remained an option, although a diplomatic solution remained the preferred course of action.
The New Zealand Conservation Minister, Steve Chadwick, said New Zealand had "examined legal options for taking a case against Japan with great care".
"In the past we have identified obstacles to legal action. That said, New Zealand continues to be open minded about the possibility of taking a case against Japanese whaling," Ms Chadwick said.
On a visit to Tokyo yesterday, the Australian Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith, said the Government would continue to build a case to take Japan to the International Court of Justice in The Hague over its research whaling program.
But he re-affirmed an undertaking he gave the Japanese Foreign Minister, Masahiko Koumura, that Australia would not "announce or initiate or undertake legal action without letting the Japanese government know that that's the conclusion we've come to".
A Japanese government official said that "a decision to drop this case would be in the interests of all countries involved. It's a groundless case."
The $1 million legal campaign to gather evidence against Japan's scientific whaling program generated considerable friction between the two nations during Japan's annual hunt.
In February footage captured by Australian customs vessel Oceanic Viking, which trailed the Japanese whaling fleet for several weeks, challenged Japan's claims that its whaling methods were humane and efficient.
The Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, stirred resentment in Tokyo when he said he felt sick at seeing photographs of the "indiscriminate killing" of a mother minke whale and its calf.
In response, the director general of the Institute of Cetacean Research in Tokyo, Minoru Morimoto, said the whales were not related and accused the Australian Government of "emotional propaganda".
As tensions mounted thousands of Australians and Japanese traded angry remarks beneath a YouTube video made in Japan, which accused Australia of racism and hypocrisy.
Relations between Canberra and Tokyo were eroded by the efforts of activists aboard environmental ship Sea Shepherd, who hounded Japanese whalers for weeks and on one occasion threw "acid" at whalers aboard Japanese ship the Nisshin Maru. Whalers detained two of the activists for days after they boarded the Japanese ship.
As a result of the harassment the whaling fleet only caught 551 minke whales, compared with the planned catch of 850, and failed to catch any fin whales, despite setting a target of 50.
In an effort to ease tensions, Mr Smith insisted again yesterday that Australia would press on with efforts to reach a "diplomatic solution to this issue" before resorting to legal action. So far Tokyo had given no sign that it intended to make concessions to its annual whaling targets.
The trip to Tokyo, which is the second by Mr Smith this year, is in part an attempt to smooth the way for a hastily-arranged visit by the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, next month. Mr Rudd was pressured into making the trip after criticism, mostly from Australia, that he had snubbed his counter part Yasuo Fukuda by choosing not to include Japan in a 17-day world trip last month.
with AAP

Stevens: Smoking pot akin to drinking during prohibition

In his dissent on a recent free-speech case, Justice John Paul Stevens wades into the war-on-drugs debate, comparing modern-day pot smokers with "otherwise law-abiding patrons of bootleggers and speakeasies," during the prohibition era.
Stevens, who the Washington Post notes turned 87 on April 20, said the current climate surrounding the war on drugs "is reminiscent of the opinion that supported the nationwide ban on alcohol consumption when I was a student."
The Supreme Court this week ruled against an Alaska student who displayed a "BONG HiTS 4 JESUS" sign at an event outside his high school, and Stevens wrote the dissent for the four justices who believed the student's free-speech rights should be protected.
"Today the actions of literally millions of otherwise law-abiding users of marijuana, and of the majority of voters in each of the several States that tolerate medicinal uses of the product, lead me to wonder whether the fear of disapproval by those in the majority in silencing opponents of the war on drugs," Stevens wrote.
Most debate over the efficacy of the war on drugs focuses on government crackdowns on users of medical marijuana, for whom the drug eases chronic pain. But in comparing pot smoking to social drinking, Stevens suggests that the drug could be legalized in all cases.
In his opinion, Stevens insists "no one seriously maintains that drug advocacy ... can be prohibited because of its feared consequences." Later, Stevens observes the shift in Americans' views on alcohol since the 1920s and 30s.
"While alcoholic beverages are now regarded as ordinary articles of commerce, their use was then condemned with the same moral fervor that now supports the war on drugs," Stevens writes.
In a 2005 case, Stevens wrote for the court's 6-3 majority that upheld the federal government's right to prosecute medical marijuana patients in states that have legalized medical use of the drug.
But his opinion was based strictly on Congress's ability to regulate interstate commerce, and that opinion included mention that credible research showing marijuana could be medically effective would "cast serious doubt" on the government's classification of the drug as a Schedule I narcotic. And he all but encouraged the advocates to take their argument directly to Congress.

'Interference' saves 434 whales from the harpoon

Andrew Darby in Hobart
April 15, 2008

JAPAN'S whalers blamed "relentless interference" from environmentalists and Australia's official surveillance as they detailed the poor results of their Antarctic hunt.
On the eve of the fleet's return to Tokyo today, the whalers confirmed that out of a maximum quota of 935 minke whales they killed 551, and of 50 giant fin whales they took none at all.
The whalers said they lost 31 days in the Antarctic to the harassment of Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd and were "constrained" by 22 days of surveillance by the Australian patrol ship Oceanic Viking.
Nevertheless the fleet's "scientific research" took it deep into the waters of the Australian Antarctic whale sanctuary, a statement by the Institute of Cetacean Research shows.
The fleet dropped plans to take humpback whales after protests led by Australia last December. Their failure to take any endangered fin whales was blamed on the relatively fewer sightings of this species compared to last year.
According to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, it showed the logistical problems of killing and processing these 20-metre, 60-tonne animals were too great.
"I suspect that this may be partly the result of the greater scrutiny under which the fleet found itself this year, including from the Australian Government, and questions raised about the welfare issues associated with killing these huge whales," a society biologist, Philippa Brakes, said.
A map with the institute's statement gives a snapshot of the fleet's movements close to the Antarctic coast in the Davis Sea, far south- west of Perth, where dozens of minkes were harpooned.
This showed the whalers breached a Federal Court order restraining the fleet from killing or harming whales inside the Australian whale sanctuary, according to Humane Society International.
Japan does not recognise the Australian Antarctic claim, nor the sanctuary. But the Humane Society campaigns manager, Nicola Beynon, said it was the Rudd Government's responsibility to enforce the court order and ensure the whalers did not make the sanctuary their hunting ground again.
With the fleet's return, the Japanese Coast Guard and police will investigate possible charges including assault and obstruction of business through threats. Authorities expected to have a hard time identifying suspects, Kyodo news agency said.
Meanwhile in the International Whaling Commission, anti-whaling nations are believed to have picked up a new ally with Romania's decision to join European neighbours in the finely balanced organisation.
Romania's membership is the first to be posted on the commission website before the its annual meeting, when both sides seek control.

Seal hunt: protests reach Melbourne

Documenting seal hunt ... Merryn Redenbach was detained, then released, by Canadian authorities.
Photo: Sky News

Arjun Ramachandran
April 14, 2008 - 1:29PM

Two Australians are among the crew of the Sea Shepherd vessel detained over anti-sealing protests in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Anger at the arrest of anti-sealing activists by the Canadian Government has reached the Canadian Consulate in Melbourne.
About 30 anti-sealing protesters at the consulate today demanded authorities drop charges against the captain and first-officer of anti-sealing ship Farley Mowat, which was seized over the weekend.
Two Australians - Merryn Redenbach, 32, and her partner Sky Christensen - were also aboard the seized ship, but were released earlier today. However, they remained on a hunger strike to protest the detention of the ship's captain.
The ship, owned by US-based group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, was documenting Canada's annual seal hunt. It had repeatedly and illegally entered Canadian waters, the Canadian Government said.
Crew members were detained by Canadian authorities after refusing to fill in immigration papers to enter Canada, Sea Shepherd spokeswoman Allison Lance said.
"Six crew members refused to sign it [because] they didn't want to come into Canada. They were over 12 miles off Canada," she said.
Ms Redenbach, from Victoria, was one of the six, she said.
This morning [Australian time], Canadian authorities released all members of the crew, except for ship captain Alex Cornelissen and first officer Peter Hammarstedt, she said.
"But the crew are all on a hunger strike until the other two men have been released," Ms Lance said.
Dr Redenbach's mother, Elva, said she last spoke to her daughter on Friday and had not been able to contact her since. Her daughter was the volunteer ship's doctor and her partner was also a crew member, she said.
Ms Redenbach said the couple joined the ship in Bermuda in March.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade would not release the names of Australians involved, but confirmed a 33 year-old man and 32 year-old woman, both from Victoria, had been onboard the seized vessel.
Both were free to depart Canada and had been given money and temporary accommodation by Canadian authorities, a spokeswoman said. The Australian high commission in Ottawa was attempting to contact the pair to provide any further assistance, she said.
Animal rights activists believe the seal hunt is cruel and poorly monitored. The Farley Mowat had been documenting the hunt, but had been warned against going too close - a charge it denied, Ms Lance said.
"[The arrest of the crew] stems from a March 30 charge ... going too close to document the slaughter of seals. It's OK to kill a seal but not OK to video it," she said.
The activists and the Canadian Government differed over whether the ship had been seized in international or Canadian waters.
Dr Redenbach, a pediatrician at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital, told ABC Radio: "We were arrested originally yesterday on charges of violations of the Marine Mammals Act but later released without charge having been arrested in international waters."
Ms Lance said: "They [Canadian authorities] boarded illegally, at gun point. They slammed one of the crew into the ground leaving a bump on her head ... and handcuffed the crew to railings and made them stand outside in the cold to intimidate them."
The two Farley Mowat members still under arrest were expected to be released on bail, ahead of a hearing on May 1, Ms Lance said.
Authorities had seized crew members' personal belongings - including video equipment, cameras and toiletries - Ms Lance said. Another Australian had also been on the vessel, but left before it was seized by Canadian authorities, she said.
Sealers and the Canadian fisheries department say seal hunting is sustainable, humane and provides income for isolated fishing communities. Fishermen sell seal pelts mostly to the fashion industry in Norway, Russia and China, as well as blubber for oil.
The United States has banned Canadian seal products since 1972.
- with AAP

Chimps are more like us than we think: Goodall

April 14, 2008

Jane Goodall gets a kiss from one-year old orphaned chimpanzee Pola, during a visit to the Municipal Zoo in Budapest in 2004.
Photo: AP
Jane Goodall is famous for studying chimpanzees in Africa and as an advocate for the environment.
She talks about her work and the secret life of chimpanzees.
Q: In your years of studying chimpanzees, what has surprised you the most?
A: The fact that they were capable of violence and a kind of primitive war was an unpleasant surprise. They were more like us than I thought. I was very sad, and shocked, because in some cases there were chimpanzees killing others who they had previously been quite close associates with. It was brutal and shocking.
Q: Since your initial work in the 1960s, how has our understanding of chimpanzee behaviour changed?
A: We know a whole lot more about paternity because you can do genetic profiling from faecal samples, so we know who some of the fathers are. Since chimpanzees can live to be over 60, we really are building up case histories, finding out more about personality, how skills of the mother can affect the child over time, different techniques by which males get to be No.1. It's a very long-term study.
Q: Of the criticisms sometimes levelled at your work - not enough emotional distance, research designs that might have distorted animal behaviour, and so on - which do you feel had the most substance?
A: Basically by offering bananas we brought together individuals who might have only seen each other occasionally. Chimpanzees wander around in small, constantly changing groups. Possibly we created friendships which wouldn't otherwise have happened, or we created some hostilities that might not have happened. But by and large, a recent study [at her centre in Africa] found that very little had changed.
Q: What is the most important thing you would like everyone to know about chimpanzees?
A: They're far more like us than everybody ever used to think. There isn't a sharp line dividing us from the rest of the animal kingdom. Once you realise that we're not the only beings with personalities, minds and, above all, emotions, then you start getting ethical concerns about the way we're using so many beings, in medical research or intensive farming, which is worse, because it's involving millions and millions of sentient beings and keeping them in absolutely horrendous conditions.
Q: What prompted you to move away from extensive field work in Africa in the 1980s?
A: Realising that chimpanzees were becoming extinct - the forests were going - and realising that the environmental and social problems of Africa could often be laid at the door of the elite communities around the world.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: We are trying to conserve chimpanzees across Africa basically by working with the local people, improving their lives and creating partners instead of potential poachers. Our youth program, Roots & Shoots, is now in nearly 100 countries. The youth program is encouraging groups of young people from preschool to university and beyond to take action to make the world a better place for people, for animals and for the environment, with a theme of learning to live in peace and harmony with each other and between nations, between cultures, between religions and between us and the natural world.
Q: You're just coming from a conference on fundraising - what can you share with us about the nitty-gritty of raising money?
A: It's very hard work. It's really important for some aspects of what we're doing to raise an endowment so it will go on in perpetuity after I'm gone. I have to do lectures that pay a lot rather than go and lecture to the people who might need it more. I try to do both, but there's a limit to what one person can do, even if you are on the road 300 days a year.
Q: If you could encourage everyone you encounter to do just one thing, what would it be?
A: Start to think about the effect on the environment and society of the small choices you make each day. What we eat, what we wear, where it has come from, how it's prepared, was it ethically made. Once you start thinking about that, then you make little changes, and in fact, a lot of people start gradually making bigger changes. That is the most important thing.
MCT

Melting glacier empties lake in Chile

April 11, 2008 - 6:07AM

Melting ice in southern Chile caused a glacial lake to swell and then empty suddenly, sending a "tsunami" rolling through a river, a scientist said. No one was injured in the remote region.

Glacier scientist Gino Casassa said the melting of the Colonia glacier, which he blamed on rising world temperatures, filled the Cachet Lake and increased pressure on the ice sheet.

The water bored an eight kilometre tunnel through the glacier and finally emptied into the Baker River on April 6.

"The remarkable thing is that the mass of water moved against the current of the river," Casassa said. "It was a real river tsunami."

The lake was nearly full again by late yesterday, he said.

Casassa said temperatures were unusually high during the recent southern hemisphere summer.

"This is a phenomenon that occurs periodically during the summer season, caused by the melting of large masses of ice that swell some lakes," he said. "The basic cause is global warming."

The Tempano lake in Chile's Bernardo O'Higgins National Park abruptly disappeared last year and has since recovered just some of its former volume.

AP

Migratory and resident bird populations collapse

April 10, 2008

Almost three-quarters of Australia's migratory and resident shore birds have disappeared over the past 25 years, a study has revealed.
About 2 million migratory birds, from 36 species, are gathering around Broome in Western Australia before making a 10,000-kilometre annual journey to their northern hemisphere breeding grounds.
A large-scale aerial survey of eastern Australia by researchers from the University of NSW shows migratory shorebird populations were once much larger and have plunged by 73 per cent between 1983 and 2006.
During that same period, the populations of Australia's 15 resident shorebird species have dropped by 81 per cent, according to the study, published in the scientific journal Biological Conservation.
Richard Kingsford, author of the report, said the bird populations were in decline because their habitats were disappearing in Australia, South-East Asia, China and Russia.
"The wetlands and resting places that they rely on for food and recuperation are shrinking virtually all the way along their migration path," Professor Kingsford said in a statement.
Ten wetland areas in Australia, eight inland and two coastal, are identified in the report as supporting the highest number of shorebirds.
Roebuck Bay (around Broome), Port Phillip Bay (Melbourne), the Hunter River estuary (NSW) and Hervey Bay (Queensland) are the best known coastal wetlands.
"Loss of wetlands due to river regulation is one of the more significant contributors to this drastic decline," Professor Kingsford said.
"But it appears such a threat is largely unrecognised in Australia's conservation plans and international agreements."
Australia had migratory bird agreements with Korea, Japan and China but they did not appear to help in stopping the birds' long-term decline, Professor Kingsford said.
Key staging areas for the birds are the shores of the Yellow Sea, between China and Korea, which are inhabited by 600 million people.
Agriculture and industry continue to encroach on the tidal feeding grounds of the Yellow Sea, where migratory birds build up their body reserves before embarking on the next part of their annual journey.
Professor Kingsford said Australia must lead by example in its international obligations to protect key wetlands.
"We must try to meet our side of the bargain for their conservation if we are to influence other countries to protect their breeding and staging grounds."
AAP

Two Australians are among the crew of the Sea Shepherd vessel detained over anti-sealing protests in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Sea Shepherd and coast guard ships collide

A Canadian Coast Guard ship and the Farley Mowat collide.
Photo: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
April 1, 2008
A coast guard icebreaker and a ship owned by an activist conservation group have collided in the Gulf of St Lawrence as tensions mount over the annual Canadian seal hunt.
A spokesman for Canada's federal Fisheries Department said on Monday the icebreaker was "grazed" twice yesterday by the Farley Mowat, a 54-metre vessel owned by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
But the conservation group countered that its ship was rammed twice by the 98-metre icebreaker Des Groseilliers about 65 kilometres north of Cape Breton.
"It rammed the stern end of the Farley Mowat and when the Farley Mowat was stopped, it came back and hit them again," Paul Watson, head of the society, said from Los Angeles.
"It was twice, so it was intentional," said Watson, who also recently led the Sea Shepherd Coalition's intervention campaign against the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean.
The collision came just days after four seal hunters were killed when their small boat capsized as they were being towed by the coast guard icebreaker, Sir William Alexander.
Witnesses have said the crew aboard the Alexander were not monitoring the tow as they ploughed through thick ice floes north of Cape Breton.
Several agencies have said they will investigate the accident that killed the sealers.
Alex Cornelissen, captain of the Farley Mowat, said in a statement his vessel was "twice rammed" in the port stern after he ignored warnings not to approach sealers on the third day of Canada's annual hunt.

"They are ramming ships in dangerous ice conditions," Cornelissen said.

"This is unbelievable. It's like the Coast Guard has declared war on seal defenders."

Cornelissen said the Coast Guard's  "incompetence" cost the lives of the four sealers and now it "has demonstrated extreme recklessness" by bumping into the Farley Mowat.

"It appears that Canada is prepared to use violence to cover up the truth of this slaughter," Watson said. "Our duty is to resist their violence and continue to document the truth."

He added that the crew "have already seen enough evidence to understand that the Canadian Government's pretence that the slaughter is humane has no basis in reality - in other words it's a state-sponsored lie".
 
Fisheries and Oceans department spokesman Phil Jenkins denounced the claims, calling them "absolutely false" and part of a strategy to discredit the coast guard.
"The allegations that the Des Groseilliers rammed the Farley Mowat are complete nonsense. That's a piece of fiction," he said.
There was no damage done and no injuries were reported, Jenkins said.
"It's despicable that the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society would use the death of Canadian sealers to try and advance its campaign of misinformation against the seal hunt," he said.

"This is really a new low and it's extremely distasteful."
 
Ottawa maintains the hunt poses no threat to the harp seal population, and insists the commercial cull is humane and an economic mainstay of its Atlantic Coast communities.

The seal hunting industry finds itself under pressure from animals rights activists who believe the hunt is cruel and badly monitored. Sealers and the fisheries department defend it as sustainable, humane and well-managed, and say it provides supplemental income for isolated fishing communities that have been hurt by the decline in cod stocks.

AP, AFP

EU considering protest against Canadian seal hunt

March 27, 2008 - 4:48PM

The European Union is considering measures against Canada to protest against its annual seal hunt set to start later this week off its Atlantic coast.
EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas is "looking into the nature of the inhumane killing of seals" and is drafting a text to be presented before June, EU spokeswoman Barbara Helfferich told reporters on Wednesday.
She would not say if the measures could include an import ban on products derived from Canadian seals, or other economic or political sanctions.
Animal rights campaigners and MPs are putting increasing pressure on the EU's executive office to take a tougher stand against the annual hunt, which has been criticised as cruel.
Seal hunts also are carried out in Greenland, Norway, Russia, Namibia and EU-member Finland, but none has been scrutinised by European activists as much as Canada's - which has frustrated Canadian officials.
Animal rights groups often try to sway European opinion on the issue by showing photographs or film footage of cute and cuddly seal pups, and of dead and bloodied seals on ice flows.
British EU MP Neil Parish appealed to the commission to impose a ban on seal fur imports from Canada.
"As the culling season gets under way, the time has come for the commission to take action," said Mr Parish, who chairs a European Parliament animal welfare panel.
"The slaughter of seals in Canada, including seals that are just a few weeks old, is barbaric and the EU should not condone it. The methods used, cudgelling with a 'hakapik' or shooting, have too often not killed the seal outright, and I am not satisfied with Canadian assertions that seals are not still being skinned alive."
The European Parliament last year called on the EU to impose a fur import ban.
However, this year's Canadian hunt will be conducted under new rules meant to appease European concerns, with extra steps added to make sure the animals are dead before they are skinned - a recommendation made in an EU report released in December. That report was inconclusive on recommending a full EU ban.
Canadian authorities have set this year's total allowable catch at 275,000 seals, up from 270,000 last year. Seventy per cent of the seals will be taken in an area off Newfoundland's north coast known as the Front, while 30 per cent will be taken in the Gulf of St Lawrence - the first stage of the hunt.
Animal rights groups say Canada's seal hunt is difficult to monitor, ravages the seal population and does not provide a lot of money for sealers.
But sealers and the Canadian Government have defended the hunt as sustainable, humane, well-managed and a necessary source of income for hunters. Many of them live in isolated fishing communities and rely on the seal hunt because their cod fishing died out years ago.
The slaughter of some 335,000 seals in 2006 brought about $US25 million ($27 million).
AP

Murray-Darling buys water to save

30,000 ibis chicks

Daniel Lewis Regional Reporter
March 25, 2008
THE Murray-Darling Basin Commission bought 11,000 megalitres of water over Easter weekend to help save the biggest ibis breeding event on the river system since 2000.
It is hoped the extra water will stop up to 30,000 chicks from being abandoned by their parents at the Narran Lakes colony in north-western NSW.
An estimated 30,000 breeding pairs - mostly straw-necked ibises - have arrived at Narran since mid-January thanks to heavy rain.
However, in recent weeks the water level has been dropping and it was feared the adult birds could start to flee by the end of this month unless there were more inflows to the wetlands.
The lakes are an internationally recognised bird breeding site, but drought and the development of the cotton industry upstream in Queensland have greatly reduced flows in the Narran River. There has been no major bird breeding at the lakes for nearly a decade.
The commission's chief executive, Wendy Craik, said the water had been bought from Queensland for $180 a megalitre, or $1.98 million.
It is the first time the commission has bought water for a one-off environmental event. "We moved quickly to take advantage of nature's window of opportunity to supplement recent natural flows into the area," Dr Craik said.
"We are pleased to have reached a commercial arrangement with a seller to secure the water, which began to flow on Easter Saturday and will continue to be delivered over the next six weeks."
Richard Kingsford, a rivers, waterbird and wetlands expert at the University of NSW, welcomed the purchase but said it raised serious questions about the environmental sustainability of water management in Queensland.
"Clearly their water planning has failed in terms of providing adequate water [for a major breeding event in Narran Lakes]," Professor Kingsford said.
Water from flooding summer rains in western Queensland attracted about 15,000 breeding pairs of ibises in mid-January. Another 15,000 arrived in mid-February.
Each pair usually establishes a nest with two eggs. The 30,000 chicks of the first arrivals are now fledglings, but those of the later arrivals will not be able to fly until the end of next month.
The NSW Government said Queensland had allowed extra water to flow across the border to help the Narran Lakes breeding event, but not enough arrived to guarantee the last 30,000 chicks would make it to fledglings.
Professor Kingsford said that 48,000 megalitres had flowed into the Narran Lakes since December, but modelling showed there had been a 75 per cent decline in natural median flows into the lakes due to development upstream.

Google unveils 'white space' airwaves plans

March 25, 2008 - 1:30PM
Google has unveiled plans for a new generation of wireless devices to operate on soon-to-be-vacant television airwaves, and sought to alleviate fears that this might interfere with TV broadcasts or wireless microphones.
In comments filed with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the internet leader outlined plans for low-power devices that use local wireless airwaves to access the "white space" between television channels. A Google executive called the plan "Wi-Fi 2.0 or Wi-Fi on steroids".
"The airwaves can provide huge economic and social gains if used more efficiently ...," Google said in the comments.
Rick Whitt, Google's Washington telecom and media counsel, said this class of Wi-Fi devices could eventually offer data transmission speeds of billions of bits per second - far faster than the millions of bits per second available on most current broadband networks. Consumers could watch movies on wireless devices and do other things that are currently difficult on slower networks.
The white-space airwaves could become available in February 2009, when American TV broadcasters switch from analog to digital signals. Whitt said he expects devices using white-space spectrum could be available by the end of 2009.
Shares of Google surged $US27.36, or 6.3 per cent, to $US460.91 amid a sharp rise in US stock markets. The Nasdaq composite index was up 3.3 per cent.
Google sees the white-space spectrum as a natural place to operate a new class of phones and wireless devices based on Android, Google's software that a variety of major equipment makers plan to use to build internet-ready phones.
The Silicon Valley company also said that, in general, it stands to benefit whenever consumers have easier access to the internet. Google's primary business is selling online ads as people perform web searches.
The FCC filing comes less than two weeks after Bill Gates, co-founder of Google rival Microsoft, urged the agency to free up the white-space spectrum so it could be used to expand access of wireless broadband.
Google and Microsoft are part of a coalition of technology companies that has been lobbying the FCC to allow unlicensed use of white-space spectrum.
The group also includes Dell, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and the north American unit of Philips Electronics.
The idea is opposed by US broadcasters and makers of wireless microphones, who fear the devices would cause interference.
The FCC currently is testing equipment to see if the white-space spectrum can be used without interfering with television broadcasts.
In a compromise designed to mollify some interest groups opposed to expanding use of white-space spectrum, Google proposed a "safe harbour" on channels 36-38 of the freed-up analog TV spectrum for exclusive use by wireless microphones, along with medical telemetry and radio astronomy devices. In effect, no white-space devices could use these channels.
Google said "spectrum-sensing technologies" could be used that would automatically check to see whether a channel was open before using it, thereby avoiding interference with other devices. It said such technology is already being used by the US military.
Google said the enhancements "will eliminate any remaining legitimate concerns about the merits of using the white space for unlicensed personal/portable devices".

Dalai Lama appeals for help

The Dalai Lama has appealed to world leaders for help in resolving the dispute over Tibet through "dialogue" with China, according to a letter released by his office.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader also asked the international community to press Beijing to show "restraint" in dealing with unrest in his Himalayan homeland.

"We remain committed to ... pursuing a process of dialogue in order to find a mutually beneficial solution to the Tibetan issue," the Dalai Lama wrote.

"I also seek the international community's support for our efforts to resolve Tibet's problems through dialogue.

"I urge them to call upon the Chinese leadership to exercise the utmost restraint in dealing with the current disturbed situation and to treat those who are being arrested properly and fairly," he wrote in the letter released today.

He repeated his accusation that China was engaged in "cultural genocide" in Tibet.

"Whether it was intended or not, I believe that a form of cultural genocide has taken place in Tibet, where the Tibetan identity has been under constant attack," he said.

"The distinctive Tibetan cultural heritage with its characteristic language, customs and traditions is fading away.

"There is no religious freedom in Tibet. Even to call for a little more freedom is to risk being labelled a separatist," he added.

The letter, issued from his base in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamshala, also repeated his call for an international probe into the unrest.

"Since the Chinese government has accused me of orchestrating these protests in Tibet, I call for a thorough investigation by a respected body, which should include Chinese representatives, to look into these allegations," he said.

"I believe the demonstrations and protests taking place in Tibet are a spontaneous outburst of public resentment built up by years of repression," he added.

AFP

Dalai Lama raises prospect of quitting

Warning … Wen Jiabao's broadcast yesterday, criticising the Dali Lama's "clique".
Photo: AP

 

Satellite debris alert

CNN reported a US warship would fire a missile to bring down the satellite safely in the northern Pacific Ocean.

The satellite was due to break into the Earth's atmosphere on March 6. Without intervention, it could crash on land and spill its 450-kilogram load of toxic fuel.

The shoot-down plan has drawn criticism from China and Russia. The Russian Defence Ministry said it looked like a veiled weapons test.

Arctic ice-cap loss twice the size of France

The Arctic ice cap has shrunk by an area twice the size of France's land mass over the last two years, the Paris-based National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) said on Wednesday.

"The year 2008 promises to be a critical year on every level," said Jean-Claude Gascard, the body's research director and coordinator of European scientific mission Damocles, which is monitoring the effects of climate change across the Arctic.

September 2007 measurements show ice covering 4.13 million square kilometres, down from 5.3 million square kilometres in 2005.

"Melting could result in the loss of another million in one (2008) summer," he added at a press conference.

"Summer 2007 was marked by a major retreat in the ice-cap, one we were not anticipating," Gascard said. "The rate of decline is also two or three times faster than (observed) beforehand."

International models used to predict retreating ice have some "catching-up" to do, he said.

Over the last 20 years, 40 per cent of the ice-cap has melted with the average thickness halved from three to 1.5 metres.

Year-round ice coverage has reduced, with summer melting also lasting longer, the centre reported.

Damocles's exploration vessel Tara has been able to cross the 5000-kilometre Arctic Ocean in just over 16 months - less than half the time taken by a late 19th-century Norwegian explorer.

Gascard said the ship had been able to travel at "twice the pace expected by organisers and three times the speed models suggested".

Disruption to the thermal layers of atmosphere stacked over Earth's far north was cited as the principal cause by Swedish researchers earlier this month, in a study published in the journal Nature.

The Tara team recorded a temperature of 10 degrees Celsius at altitudes between 500 and 1000 metres.

"The reduction in the intensity of cold (temperatures) during winter over these last 20 years corresponds to an accumulation (rise) of 1000 degrees celsius," Gascard said.

The team highlighted the role of ocean currents, namely in the northern Pacific, behind the warming of waters.

Gascard's research colleague, Gerard Ancellet, also spoke of recently-formed Arctic mist, pollution clouds which "trap" Earth's naturally emitted infrared rays thereby raising temperatures.

"Internal" Arctic pollution is the source, Ancellet said, highlighting Russian and northern Scandinavian gas and oil exploitation.

Carbon dioxide emissions among the major north American, European and South-East Asian economies was not the only other factor, he added.

Shipping traffic with additional nitrogen oxide emissions is a growing complication, given he estimated that 25 per cent of the increase in future maritime transport "will be confined to the Arctic zone".

In summer 2007, the Northwest Passage, historically an ice-jammed potential shortcut between Europe and Asia, was "fully navigable" for the first time since monitoring began in 1978, according to the European Space Agency.

It lasted five weeks, according to Canada's environment ministry, with 100 vessels getting through.

AFP

I am a huge fan of Japan, and have travelled there many times. I eat sashimi, I watch sumo, and I'm regularly mocked by my friends for pronouncing "karaoke" correctly. But there is one element of Japanese culture that leaves a sour taste in my mouth, and that's whaling. I have to admit, I've never tried whale meat – sorry, I mean, never conducted valuable primary whale research – so I don't know what I'm missing. But then again, I've never eaten human either, for similar moral reasons.

Canada's behaviour disgusting, says Beijing

Accused … Stephen Harper with the Dalai Lama.


Michel Comte in Ottawa

BEIJING: China condemned Canada's Prime Minister yesterday for "disgusting conduct" for playing host to the Dalai Lama and demanded that Ottawa stop supporting anti-Chinese activities by exiled Tibetans.
The Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, defied China on Monday by receiving Tibet's exiled spiritual leader in his office in Parliament.
The Secretary of State for Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, said: "I hope that the entire world gets the message that attacking a 72-year-old pacifist Buddhist monk who advocates nothing more than cultural autonomy for his people is counterproductive."
The two leaders met for about 40 minutes and had "a very full and frank exchange of views", Mr Kenney said. They had discussed human rights, Tibet's history and the plight of its people. The Dalai Lama also thanked Mr Harper for making him an honorary Canadian citizen.
But the Chinese were furious. "It's gross interference in China's internal affairs. The Chinese side expresses its strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition," a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, said. "This disgusting conduct has seriously hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and undermined Sino-Canadian relations," Mr Liu told a regular news briefing.
The Dalai Lama fled his predominantly Buddhist homeland in 1959 after a failed uprising against communist rule.
The Dalai Lama says he wants greater autonomy, not independence, for his homeland. But China maintains he is a separatist, underscoring the gulf between the sides. "For decades the Dalai Lama's words and deeds have demonstrated that he is a political exile who wears a religious cloak while engaging in activities splitting the motherland and sabotaging ethnic unity," Mr Liu said.
The US President, George Bush, and leaders of Congress presented the Dalai Lama with the Congressional Gold Medal in Washington last month.
China cancelled an annual human rights dialogue with Germany to show its displeasure with the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel's meeting last month with the Dalai Lama.
For his part, the Dalai Lama said his visit was "non-political".
"My main interest or my main commitment is promotion of human value, promotion of religious harmony."
Reuters, Agence France-Presse

The Dali Lama and Captain Paul Watson of the Seashepherd Society

The miners China left for dead

Deserted … cousins Meng Xianchen, left, and Meng Xianyou, who rescued themselves after a coalmine collapse.
Photo: AP

September 8, 2007
Far from APEC's fanfare, Chinese miners endure a system run on bribes and lies. John Garnaut, in Beijing, talks to two of its survivors.
THE Meng cousins joked about the price they might one day pay for hacking at a coal seam 12 hours a day, every day, in an illegal 1.2-metre tunnel propped up by tree branches.
They could join the 5000 or so miners each year who become "rou jia mo" - a meat sandwich - in a collapsed, flooded or exploded Chinese coalmine: the bodies buried beneath a spectacular coal-powered economy.
At 10pm on August 18, Meng Xianchen and Meng Xianyou were working 20 metres underground when the hillside above them collapsed and replaced their exit tunnel with a 13-metre earthen wall. For six days they survived in this tomb by chewing finger-sized pieces of coal and swallowing their own urine. They joked about whether their wives were pretty enough to find new husbands.
After interviews with more than a dozen relatives, workers and witnesses, it seems being buried alive was only half of their trouble. They were also up against a corrupt alliance of mine owners, police and district government officials. The system left them for dead.
The official rescue team did not attempt a rescue. When fellow miners tried to dig them out and they nearly succeeded they were arrested for illegal mining.
"We would have got them out within 10 hours, at most," says one would-be rescuer, who has just got out of jail with five colleagues after being locked up for10 days.
The six men were filthy, half-starved and still wearing the same tattered mining clothes. The three mine owners, meanwhile, are widely believed to have received police protection and no punishment.
China produces and burns 40 per cent of the world's coal, two tonnes a year for each of its 1.3 billion people, and its appetite is growing at 12 per cent a year. Most of the growth, and deaths, involves illegal mines.
The Government knows that accidents, pollution and global warming are out of control. But in the coal fields, with corruption rampant and prices higher than ever, lives count for little and central government edicts even less - even in the hills just west of Beijing.
The Fangshan district government is trying to lure tourists to the region's impressive cliffs, terraced farmland and once idyllic river.
But now grey-black rocks and dirt spill out from almost every rock face and even the trees are caked in grime. The river bank is one long coal depot. The road is jammed with an endless convoy of trucks over-burdened with coal and coal-smeared workers.
Up the valley at the end of the road is a village called Jingjitai where the Government's crackdown on illegal mining is proclaimed in huge red characters on a whitewashed wall. Above the village is a large state-owned coalmine, surrounded by about 20 tiny illegal ones.
The tiny entrance to the collapsed mineshaft is surrounded by a vast carpet of shiny, graphite-like anthracite coal. It is difficult to miss from the road above.
The workers who watch us from their huts are tough, muscular and caked in coal dirt. But most are too scared to talk. On a nearby hilltop, two clean-clothed men shout and wave at us in frantic disapproval.
It requires cash and connections to run an illegal mine in the midst of a high-profile crackdown. This one produced about 900 tons of coal a month, sold for 200 yuan ($32) a ton. The nine workers each received about 3000 yuan a month. The remaining 150,000 was distributed between the three mine owners and legions of officials and police.
"More than half of the profits are paid in bribes, although the appropriate level of payout depends on the depth of the relationship," says one source not directly involved with the collapsed mine.
Workers say their colleagues frequently die and their deaths are usually not reported, thanks to settlements negotiated with bereaved families.
The price of life, and silence, has increased to between 200,000 and 500,000 yuan in a state-owned mine. But it is said to be about a 10th of that in an illegal mine, assuming the owners can be found.
On the night of the accident, six workers dug through the night to get to their buried colleagues, Meng Xianchen and Meng Xianyou. The trapped cousins drew comfort from the hum of a mechanical drill, drawing ever closer. But at midday the sound stopped.
They assumed their friends must have broken for lunch or a smoke and would soon be back.
"Digging three or four more meters would have got these guys out," says a man who came from a nearby mine to help.
Instead, the police came and cordoned off the rescue site. They arrested the rescue team "for working in an illegal mine" and threw them in solitary-confinement cells. No one came to ask them about the tunnel layout and terrain, although they were the only ones who knew.
Then an official rescue team arrived from the neighboring state-owned Da'anshan mine. Two men donned oxygen tanks and peered into the tunnel opening, only to return to their seats and smoke cigarettes.
Then came a heavyweight official, identified as the deputy director of Fangshan district, Chen Yong. Someone quickly arranged a pack of mineral water for him to sit on.
"What style he had," says one observer. "He was afraid of the dust on his leather shoes, so he stuck out his feet and someone slipped a pair of sneakers on.
"He sat on the pack of mineral water, but maybe he felt it was too hard or uncomfortable. A security guard raced off and brought back a soft, comfortable 'boss' chair [from the village, a kilometre away]."
The next morning, August 20, a relative of the trapped miners arrived to find security officers warming themselves by burning the wooden planks that had been prepared for the rescue. The official rescuers were all resting or sleeping, although they claimed to be "studying" the situation.
"It was like acting in a play, hanging around there for two days without a shovel being moved," says the relative.
The official rescuers said they were waiting for an order from their commander, who was staying in the Saint Lotus resort hotel down the valley.
The relative of the trapped miners found them there drinking tea. He asked why the rescue had not begun.
"Don't you know this is an illegal mine?" said the rescue commander.
"Yes, but people are inside," said the relative. "You get them out first, then implement the law, right?"
The commander stared down the relative, and replied, "Do you know what you're asking? These incidents can cast a long shadow." In other words, a high-profile rescue could bring central government attention to illegal mining in the district.
Without another word being said, two burly lads escorted the relative out of the hotel.
About a dozen relatives arrived from Inner Mongolia's Chifang county, desperate to dig the miners out themselves. They kowtowed in front of village security men, but got nowhere.
Finally, nearly two days after the accident, a decision was made: there would be no rescue.
So, down in their tomb, Meng Xianchen and Meng Xianyou realised they would have to dig themselves out. They had been born just two months apart in a tiny village and had lived like brothers for 45 years. But they were not ready to die together.
They salvaged two iron shovels, two empty water bottles and a mobile phone. They made two heart-breaking false starts, striking boulders.
Then they decided to burrow back through the rubble.
On day three the phone battery died, leaving them in total darkness.
They began eating coal and drinking urine conserved in the plastic bottles. The coal was OK if ingested slowly, the urine made them want to vomit but they forced it down.
By day four the older cousin, Meng Xianchen, was hallucinating. Great slabs of white light would vanish when touched, or would turn into pitch dark stone. By day six they were grinding slowly towards the surface, but barely alive. They knew if they miscalculated their position they would get no second chance.
"Ge [elder brother]", said Xianyou. "There's a little speck of light."
Xianchen, stronger and taller, wedged his shovel sideways into the tunnel wall at waist height and hauled himself onto it. Xianyou dragged himself onto his cousin's shoulders.
They knew what needed to be done, but lacked any energy to do it. They tried, collapsed, rested, and tried again. And again. Xianchen harnessed one final burst of strength and pushed his cousin out.
Now, two weeks after their miraculous escape, their shredded fingertips are infected, their faces are a pale yellow and they have energy to walk only 30 metres at a time. They have received no apologies and no compensation, and have no money to call a doctor.
They fled from Fangshan's hospital because they were monitored by plainclothes police, threatened with "consequences" if they talked too much, and charged half a day's labour for two bowls of the hospital's rice gruel.
At home in Chifang county, each of the 80 families in the village has tipped in between two and five yuan totalling 300 yuan for fireworks, sunflower seeds, sweets and a two-person performance troupe. Marriage celebrations go for two days; this survival party will go for seven.
Aren't they angry at their treatment?
"We climbed out of the inferno," says Xianchen. "I feel satisfied." He adds: "Why bother complaining when nobody will take any notice?"
The cousins knew the deal. They earned more in 10 days underground than in a good year farming the family's dusty corn and sorghum patch. In exchange, their bodies were understood to be expendable.
Xianchen was working to pay for his son's wedding next year. The younger cousin, Xianyou, had dreamt of owning a two-storey house, a large colour TV and a "mobile phone with a lid".
In a corner of his village home are a two-storey house and a mobile phone made out of coloured paper, which the family ordered from the funeral shop when he was presumed dead. On the wall are large framed photos of each of them. The captions read: "We will always remember you."
What will they do now?
Xianyou says his children are still at school. He named his son Qinghua, after one of China's most prestigious universities. If Qinghua passes next year's university entry exams then the family must cover about 10,000 yuan a year in tuition fees.
To his wife, Xianyou swears he will never work underground again. But his answer lacks conviction.
"If I don't work in the mines then my children will not go to school and their lives will be just like mine," he says. "Every day that I work I know that I could die, but there is no other way.'

Climate change threatens China's food supply

Mary-Anne Toy Herald Correspondent in Beijing
August 24, 2007

GLOBAL warming will cut China's annual grain harvest by up to 10 per cent, placing extra demands on the country's shrinking farmland and threatening its notion of food security, an official has warned. This would mean China would have to find another 10 million hectares of farmland by 2030, when its population is expected to peak at 1.5 billion.
The head of the State Meteorological Administration, Zheng Guogang, told an agricultural forum in northern China that global warming would increase the cost of production because more money would be needed to fight new insects and diseases.
A onedegree rise would also exacerbate ground-water evaporation by 7 per cent in a country where drought already affects 22 of 31 provinces.
A fall in the grain harvest of up to 10 per cent would mean 30 million to 50 million tonnes less grain at a time when an extra 100 million tonnes of food would be needed to feed an additional 200 million people in 2030, Mr Zheng said.
China has 20 per cent of the world's population but just 7 per cent of its arable land.
Chinese officials have warned that the country is already nearing the "red line" for the minimum amount of arable land needed to ensure the country can meet the bulk of its food needs.
At the end of 2006, China had 121.8 million hectares of arable land, just over the 120 million hectares deemed the minimum requirement by 2010.
Part of the soaring annual growth rate has been due to rapid urbanisation - which has seen the loss of more than 8 million hectares of arable land since 1996 for factories, industrial estates and housing.
Global warming would cause more drought in already dry areas in low-lying and mid-altitude regions because rainfall would drop 10 to 30 per cent by 2030, Mr Zheng said, while wet, high-altitude areas would experience more drastic flooding.
Although climate change would have little impact on wheat production it would cause corn and rice production to fall. Though some places in north-eastern China had increased grain production because warmer winters meant rice could be grown there, most regions' grain output was falling.
Mr Zheng is one of a growing number of experts to warn against the negative impact of global warming. Last month environmental authorities said climate change was shrinking wetlands at the source of China's two greatest rivers - the Yangtze and the Yellow - and other studies found that glaciers, the source for many of Asia's rivers, in north-western China's Xinjiang region and in the Himalayas have been shrinking rapidly. Summer droughts and floods have already affected a fifth of China's arable land this year and agriculture experts have warned that a decline in the autumn harvest - which usually provides 70 per cent of grain production - could fuel inflation.
China's inflation surged to a 10-year high of 5.6 per cent last month on the back of rising grain and other food prices, prompting the Government to lift interest rates for the fourth time this year.

Toxic soup on Games menu

Mary-Anne Toy in Beijing and Ben Cubby
May 22, 2007
 
FIFTEEN months out from the Beijing Olympics, China is wallowing in the toxic by-products of its lightning economic expansion, prompting fears for athletes and tourists who will travel there, as well as the Chinese population.
Chronic water and air pollution caused by industrial toxins and pesticides mean cancer has risen to be China's leading killer, accounting for 23 per cent of all deaths, it emerged yesterday.
At the same time, it was revealed that 40 of China's top athletes fell ill because of foul air-conditioning in the country's sports headquarters in January and have been forced to withdraw from competition.
Filthy air-conditioning systems have been blamed for outbreaks of disease in hotels and apartment blocks in the capital.
Australia's Olympic committee is about to begin a program of inoculation for athletes who may be involved in the Olympics, and may issue health warnings in co-operation with the Department of Foreign Affairs as the Games draw closer.
But the committee denied last night that it had any concerns for the health of athletes and officials, saying Beijing's new Olympic Village would be clean and safe, and that the vaccinations were standard procedure for teams travelling to Asia.
Chinese authorities have promised to crack down on air-conditioning in Olympic hotels and sporting venues after a recent investigation by China's national broadcaster CCTV.
It found many air-conditioning systems were rarely cleaned because it was cheaper to risk being inspected and paying the paltry fine, just 800 yuan ($130) in Shanghai, than spend tens of thousands of yuan maintaining the systems.
In one case, two tonnes of waste, including dead rats and takeaway food left by construction workers, was collected when the ventilation system of a 19-storey Beijing office building was cleaned recently for the first time since it was built in the early 1990s.
Despite the health fears, Australian Olympic authorities said there would be no preliminary scouting of venues or hotels before the Games, and that the Olympic village, where food will be supplied by an international catering company, was considered safe.
"Other team support staff will be staying in modern hotels in the city, and we are not concerned about health standards at these hotels," an Australian Olympic Committee spokesman said. Athletes will drink bottled water and are allowed to take some packaged foods to China.
About 1000 potential team members will be offered jabs for hepatitis, typhoid, polio, tetanus, whooping cough and diptheria, measles, mumps and rubella, and influenza.
"This is simply a precautionary measure to ensure the athletes don't fall ill before or during competition," said the committee's president, John Coates.
China's Olympic organising committee has said air pollution will be its first priority before the Games.
But the use of pesticides and food additives was the main cause of the alarming rise in cancer rates, said the Chinese Health Ministry, which surveyed 30 cities and 78 counties.
"Many chemical and industrial enterprises are built along rivers so that they can dump the waste into water easily," said Chen Zhizhou, a health expert who works with the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.
"Excessive use of fertilisers and pesticides also pollute underground water. The contaminated water has directly affected soil, crops and food," Mr Chen told the China Daily, adding that pollution "is getting worse day by day".
Big contributors to the growing cancer rates were found to be air pollution that causes harmful particles to become lodged in the lungs, formaldehyde and other compounds used in building renovations and furniture, and additives used to make livestock grow faster.
After the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003, the Government legislated that all air-conditioning in public places had to be cleaned at least annually, but a Ministry of Health official told CCTV that less than 1 per cent of buildings in Shanghai and Beijing complied.
The health figures come amid a rash of related health scandals. Yesterday the Herald reported that some textiles imported from China contained up to 10 times the amount of formaldehyde permitted under international standards.
The Chinese Government moved to soothe the anxieties, saying it paid attention to consumer safety.