January 17, 2009
Wind Farm Off Cape Cod Clears Hurdle
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
nytimes.com BOSTON — A federal agency said Friday that the nation’s first offshore wind farm, proposed for the waters off Cape Cod, posed no serious environmental threat, bringing it a major step closer to fruition. Homeowners and boaters on the cape, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, have fought the project for eight years, saying it would hurt wildlife, fishing and tourism and spoil the beauty of Nantucket Sound. Opponents have sued to stop the project, known as Cape Wind, and more challenges are certain, keeping the path to construction bumpy despite what supporters on Friday called a crucial victory. The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, a group formed to fight the project, suggested that the Bush administration had unscrupulously rushed to approve it before President-elect Barack Obama takes office next week. “They wanted some kind of a legacy,” said Audra Parker, the group’s executive director. “Cape Wind is far from a done deal, despite this favorable report.” The federal agency that released the final environmental impact statement on Friday, the Minerals Management Service, is a division of the Department of Interior. The wind farm would cover 24 square miles — roughly the size of Manhattan — five miles off Cape Cod. From the shore, the 130 turbines, each 440 feet tall, will be visible half an inch above the horizon on clear days, according to Energy Management Inc., the company planning the project. Jim Gordon, the company’s president, said that optimistically, construction could begin late this year, and that the wind farm could be producing electricity by the end of 2011. The project would cost more than $1 billion, Mr. Gordon said, adding that he has spent $40 million since proposing the wind farm in 2001. “This has been a long, hard road,” Mr. Gordon said in a news conference at his Boston offices. “We think,” he said, “this wind farm is going to be embraced by the Cape Cod community, it’s going to be embraced by the nation and, most important, it has already encouraged other states to look at developing their own coastal wind resources.” With Friday’s release of the environmental impact statement by the Minerals Management Service, the new administration must wait 30 days before issuing a decision. If the decision favors Cape Wind, the federal government can then lease a section of Nantucket Sound to Mr. Gordon’s company, according to the Minerals Management Service. But Cape Wind would still need to wait for several permits, as well as a decision by the Federal Aviation Administration on whether the wind farm would interfere with airplane radar. Past studies by the F.A.A. found no serious threat, but Jim Peters, an agency spokesman, said that F.A.A. officials visiting the site last summer found evidence of possible electromagnetic interference. Also yet to come are a final statement from the Coast Guard on whether the project would hinder marine radar, and the results of an investigation by the inspector general for the Department of Interior, requested by Cape Cod residents, into the environmental review process. Mr. Kennedy, whose family compound in Hyannis Port looks out on the proposed wind farm site, has consistently opposed the project on the grounds that it would hurt navigation, the local economy and the environment. “I do not believe that this action by the Interior Department will be sustained,” Mr. Kennedy said in a statement. “By taking this action, the Interior Department has virtually assured years of continued public conflict and contentious litigation.” Aides to Mr. Kennedy made a point of saying Friday that an obstructed view was not among the senator’s concerns. Mr. Kennedy and other critics pointed out that the Minerals Management Service had not yet issued general rules for building offshore wind projects and that their absence continued to make Cape Wind legally vulnerable. Even the American Wind Energy Association, which supports wind projects, said the lack of guiding rules was problematic. “It continues to be a big concern of ours,” said Laurie Jodziewicz, the association’s manager of siting policy, adding that the delay in publishing rules “holds up a lot of the projects under consideration right now.” Cape Wind supporters say the project would ultimately supply 75 percent of the electricity for Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. But others have cautioned that users’ electricity rates will probably rise sharply. Representative Bill Delahunt, a Democrat from Cape Cod who is against the project, said in a statement that it could potentially double power costs for the region. Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat who supports Cape Wind, wants Massachusetts to be a leader in creating alternative energy sources. This week, he set a goal of developing 2,000 megawatts of wind power capacity — enough to power 800,000 homes, Mr. Patrick said — by 2020. The state currently has only nine large wind turbines capable of producing 6.6 megawatts.
January 17, 2009
A County in China Sees Its Fortunes in Tea Leaves Until a Bubble Bursts
By ANDREW JACOBS
MENGHAI, China — Saudi Arabia has its oil. South Africa has its diamonds. And here in China’s temperate southwest, prosperity has come from the scrubby green tea trees that blanket the mountains of fabled Menghai County.
Over the past decade, as the nation went wild for the region’s brand of tea, known as Pu’er, farmers bought minivans, manufacturers became millionaires and Chinese citizens plowed their savings into black bricks of compacted Pu’er. But that was before the collapse of the tea market turned thousands of farmers and dealers into paupers and provided the nation with a very pungent lesson about gullibility, greed and the perils of the speculative bubble. “Most of us are ruined,” said Fu Wei, 43, one of the few tea traders to survive the implosion of the Pu’er market. “A lot of people behaved like idiots.” A pleasantly aromatic beverage that promoters claim reduces cholesterol and cures hangovers, Pu’er became the darling of the sipping classes in recent years as this nation’s nouveaux riches embraced a distinctly Chinese way to display their wealth, and invest their savings. From 1999 to 2007, the price of Pu’er, a fermented brew invented by Tang Dynasty traders, increased tenfold, to a high of $150 a pound for the finest aged Pu’er, before tumbling far below its preboom levels. For tens of thousands of wholesalers, farmers and other Chinese citizens who poured their money into compressed disks of tea leaves, the crash of the Pu’er market has been nothing short of disastrous. Many investors were led to believe that Pu’er prices could only go up. “The saying around here was ‘It’s better to save Pu’er than to save money,’ ” said Wang Ruoyu, a longtime dealer in Xishuangbanna, the lush, tea-growing region of Yunnan Province that abuts the Burmese border. “Everyone thought they were going to get rich.” Fermented tea was hardly the only caffeinated investment frenzy that swept China during its boom years. The urban middle class speculated mainly in stock and real estate, pushing prices to stratospheric levels before exports slumped, growth slowed and hundreds of billions of dollars in paper profits disappeared over the past year. In the mountainous Pu’er belt of Yunnan, a cabal of manipulative buyers cornered the tea market and drove prices to record levels, giving some farmers and county traders a taste of the country’s bubble — and its bitter aftermath. At least a third of the 3,000 tea manufacturers and merchants have called it quits in recent months. Farmers have begun replacing newly planted tea trees with more nourishing — and now, more lucrative — staples like corn and rice. Here in Menghai, the newly opened six-story emporium built to house hundreds of buyers and bundlers is a very lonely place. “Very few of us survived,” said Mr. Fu, 43, among the few tea traders brave enough to open a business in the complex, which is nearly empty. He sat in the concrete hull of his shop, which he cannot afford to complete, and cobwebs covered his shelf of treasured Pu’er cakes. All around him, sitting on unsold sacks of tea, were idled farmers and merchants who bided their time playing cards, chain smoking and, of course, drinking endless cups of tea. The rise and fall of Pu’er partly reflects the lack of investment opportunities and government oversight in rural Yunnan, as well as the abundance of cash among connoisseurs in the big cities. Wu Xiduan, secretary general of the China Tea Marketing Association, said many naïve investors had been taken in by the frenzied atmosphere, largely whipped up by out-of-town wholesalers who promoted Pu’er as drinkable gold and then bought up as much as they could, sometimes paying up to 30 percent more than in the previous year. He said that as farmers planted more tea, production doubled from 2006 to 2007, to 100,000 tons. In the final free-for-all months, some producers shipped their tea to Yunnan from other provinces, labeled it Pu’er, and then enjoyed huge markups. When values hit absurd levels last spring, the buyers unloaded their stocks and disappeared. “The market was sensationalized on purpose,” Mr. Wu said, speaking in a telephone interview from Beijing. With its near-mythic aura, Pu’er is well suited for hucksterism. A favorite of emperors and imbued with vague medicinal powers, Pu’er was supposedly invented by eighth-century horseback traders who compressed the tea leaves into cakes for easier transport. Unlike other types of tea, which are consumed not long after harvest, Pu’er tastes better with age. Prized vintages from the 19th century have sold for thousands of dollars a wedge. Over the past decade, the industry has been shaped in ways that mirror the Western fetishization of wine. Sellers charge a premium for batches picked from older plants or, even better, from “wild tea” trees that have survived the deforestation that scars much of the region. Enthusiasts talk about oxidation levels, loose-leaf versus compacted and whether the tea was harvested in the spring or the summer. (Spring tea, many believe, is more flavorful.) But with no empirical way to establish a tea’s provenance, many buyers are easily duped. “If you study Pu’er your whole life, you still can’t recognize the differences in the teas,” said Mr. Wang, the tea buyer. “I tell people to just buy what tastes good and don’t worry about anything else.” Among those most bruised by the crash are the farmers of Menghai County. Many had never experienced the kind of prosperity common in China’s cities. Villagers built two-story brick homes, equipped them with televisions and refrigerators and sent their children to schools in the district capital. Flush with cash, scores of elderly residents made their first trips to Beijing. “Everyone was wearing designer labels,” said Zhelu, 22, a farmer who is a member of the region’s Hani minority and uses only one name. “A lot of people bought cars, but now we can’t afford gas so we just park them.” Last week, dozens of vibrantly dressed women from Xinlu sat on the side of the highway hawking their excess tea. There were few takers. The going rate, about $3 a pound for medium-grade Pu’er, was less than a tenth of the peak price. The women said that during the boom years, tea traders from Guangdong Province would come to their village and buy up everyone’s harvest. But last year, they simply stopped showing up. Back at Menghai’s forlorn “tea city,” Chen Li was surrounded by what he said was $580,000 worth of product he bought before the crash. As he served an amber-hued seven-year-old variety, he described the manic days before Pu’er went bust. Out-of-towners packed hotels and restaurants. Local banks, besieged by customers, were forced to halve the maximum withdrawal limit. “People had to stand in line for four or five hours to get the money from the bank, and you could often see people quarreling,” he said. “Even pedicab drivers were carrying tea samples and looking for clients on the street.” A trader who jumped into the business three years ago, Mr. Chen survives by offsetting his losses with profits from a restaurant his family owns in Alabama. He also happens to be one of the few optimists in town. Now that so many farmers have stopped picking tea, he is confident that prices will eventually rebound. As for the mounds of unsold tea that nearly enveloped him? “The best thing about Pu’er,” he said with a showman’s smile, “is that the longer you keep it, the more valuable it gets.” His life cut short, young adventurer still inspires
By Tricia Escobedo
CNN (CNN) -- Rob Gauntlett's life was cut short at the age of 21 during a mountain expedition in France last weekend, but the young Briton is being remembered as a legend by his colleagues and friends. "Every time I wake up, or do something that [takes] me a long time, or messed up my body, I think of Rob and say, 'Oh come on, this is nothing,' " Diego Gonzalez Joven told CNN. "He could have probably walked around the moon 20 times solo and he would have had the same impact on everyone. ... "He has done so much more than many people have done in many lifetimes." Gauntlett became the youngest Briton to summit Mount Everest -- the world's highest peak -- in 2006, just days after his 19th birthday. He accomplished that feat along with James Hooper, his friend and former classmate. Gauntlett died in a climbing accident along with fellow mountaineer James Atkinson in the French Alps, the British Foreign Office confirmed Sunday. Both were 21. Their bodies were found by another group of climbers on Saturday in the Mont Blanc area, according to British media reports. It is unclear exactly how they died. Hooper was on the same expedition in the French Alps, but told the British media he decided not to take the same route because he "didn't like the look of the weather." Gonzalez, 26, trekked through sandstorms and dodged traffic with Gauntlett and James Hooper during part of their 26,000-mile journey from one of Earth's magnetic poles to the other. National Geographic Adventure magazine awarded Gauntlett and Hooper the 2008 Adventurers of the Year award for that feat, in which they used only skis, sleds, sails and bicycles. The magazine described the pole-to-pole expedition, which began in March 2007 and ended in April 2008, as "the most madcap adventure we saw all year." Fellow British adventurer Ben Saunders posted the news of Gauntlett's death on his blog, which prompted several responses. "I met Rob at a charity event in London late last year and was struck by how personable and self-effacing he was," wrote Saunders, who holds the record for the longest solo Arctic journey by a Briton, according to his Web site. "His passing has come as a huge shock." "Rob did a talk at my school not too long ago and I can't believe he's now gone," wrote Jessica Strickson. "I live at the school Rob went to as my dad is a teacher here and Rob is known as a legend around the place," according to a post by a person identified only as James. "An inspiration," he wrote. Gonzalez said during the seven months he spent with the two British adventurers on their journey to the South Pole, Gauntlett was "the pack leader" who rose at the crack of dawn and had everything organized before the rest of the team woke. He recalled a bicycle trek through the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, during a sandstorm: "The sand would hit you so hard on your cheek, you would have to cycle with one eye open," Gonzalez said. "[Rob] would never never stop. It was such a rush. We would camp and he would be the first one up. He would set up the table, have breakfast ready, everything. "You would hear the pots and pans making sounds and that was pretty much the alarm." Gauntlett would always handle the massive amount of paperwork required when the team crossed international borders, Gonzalez recalled. "One time I remember we crossed [into] El Salvador from Guatamala. He had a gastrointestinal infection. ... He was pale and sweaty and but he kept cycling," Gonzalez said. "Everyone would tell him, 'You should take a break.' " Gonzalez spoke to CNN from Mexico City, where he just finished a bicycle trip from Austin, Texas, with his blind roommate. His next adventure is a 600-mile swim from Veracruz, Mexico, to Key West, Florida. Asked if Gauntlett's death gave him any pause, Gonzalez said he took more inspiration from the way Gauntlett lived his life. "By just listening to him ... he would say, 'Man, I hope I can make an impact on this world' ... and I guess that God has decided there are some some tougher mountains in heaven and he took him to try them out."
Methane discovery could mean life on Mars
By Azadeh Ansari
CNN
(CNN) -- Scientists have discovered methane in Mars' atmosphere, raising the possibility that life might exist on the planet. The methane could have come from past or present subsurface microorganisms, geological activity or comets striking the planet, scientists and NASA officials said. Scientists were not sure how long the methane has been on the planet. Methane -- four atoms of hydrogen bound to a carbon atom -- is the main component of natural gas on Earth. It's of interest to astrobiologists because organisms release much of Earth's methane as they digest nutrients. Other purely geological processes, like oxidation of iron, also release methane. "It's time, it's prudent that we begin to explore Mars looking for the possibility of a life form that's exhaling methane," said Lisa Pratt, professor of geological sciences at Indiana University, at a NASA news briefing Thursday. The team found methane in the Martian atmosphere by carefully observing the planet through NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility and the W.M. Keck telescope, both at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Using spectrometers on the telescopes to spread the light into its component colors, the team detected three spectral features, called absorption lines, that together are definitive fingerprints of methane. "Microbes that produced methane from hydrogen and carbon dioxide were one of the earliest forms of life on Earth," said Carl Pilcher, director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, which partially supported the research. "If life ever existed on Mars, it's reasonable to think that its metabolism might have involved making methane from Martian atmospheric carbon dioxide." NASA's most recent Mars project -- the Phoenix Mars Lander mission -- came to an end in November after the solar-powered vehicle's batteries ran down as the result of a dust storm and the onset of Martian winter. Robotic instruments on the spacecraft collected and analyzed soil samples, looking for organic compounds that would indicate Mars is or was able to support life. NASA officials had landed the vehicle on an arctic plain after satellite observations indicated there were vast quantities of frozen water in that area, most likely in the form of permafrost. Scientists were able to verify the presence of water-ice in the Martian subsurface, find small concentrations of salts that could be nutrients for life, and observe snow descending from the clouds. The lander also discovered a chemical in soil near Mars' north pole that is toxic to humans but conceivably could be used as an energy source by certain microbes. The lander's findings did not rule out the possibility that life once existed or even exists now, perhaps in a deep underground aquifer, NASA officials said. NASA's next mission to the planet is the Mars Science Laboratory, a large, nuclear-powered rover with a suite of onboard scientific instruments. It is scheduled to launch in 2011 as part of NASA's long-term effort to study the early environmental history of Mars and assess whether the planet has ever been -- or still is -- able to sustain life.
Page last updated at 19:01 GMT, Thursday, 15 January 2009
New light on Mars methane mystery
bbc.co.uk
Large quantities of methane gas have been detected on Mars, Nasa scientists have announced in Science journal. The gas could be produced either by geological activity or by life. Methane was detected in the Martian atmosphere five years ago; scientists have found it is more abundant over particular parts of the planet. It should last for only a short time in the atmosphere until it is destroyed by sunlight, and so its continued presence means it is being replenished. This suggests the methane is made by an ongoing process. But the ultimate origin of the methane could either be an ancient or a modern one, say the researchers. "The fact that we have found three discrete regions where Mars is releasing methane at this time means we have a window into processes occurring under the surface of the planet," said co-author Michael Mumma, a senior planetary scientist at Nasa's Goddard Spaceflight Center in Maryland, US. "The production (of methane) is likely due to only one of two possibilities. The first is geochemistry, the second is biology. That raises much interest on which one is the dominant production mechanism." If the methane is produced by geological activity, it could either originate from active Martian volcanoes or from a process called serpentinisation. The latter process occurs at low temperatures and occurs when rocks rich in the minerals olivine and pyroxene react chemically with water, releasing methane. Seasonal release "It could be occurring on Mars. In that case, we might expect the methane to be released only under regions that are volcanic districts," said Dr Mumma. "On the other hand, there could be biology that's going on either very near the surface or deep below the permafrost layer. "Then in order to release captured gases to the atmosphere one needs to access those sub-permafrost regions." Some scientists consider it possible that microbes could have survived for aeons below the Martian permafrost layer, where water changes from ice into liquid. In deep canyons, or the walls of yawning craters, ice might plug fissures or pores connecting these sub-permafrost regions to the atmosphere. But the ice could disappear during spring and summer, Dr Mumma speculated. The team used a technique called infrared spectroscopy at three different Earth-based telescopes to monitor about 90% of the planet's surface for seven years (equivalent to three Martian years). They identified "plumes" of methane on Mars during 2003; at one point in their study, the primary plume of methane contained an estimated 19,000 tonnes of the gas. Future exploration This implies the gas was released from discrete regions on the planet. However, these regions do not move the researchers significantly towards one theory of methane production more than another. "We've demonstrated there are regions of active (methane) release," said Dr Mumma. "What we'd really like to do is map the entire planet identifying all such regions of release and validating that some are reproducible from year to year. "In addition, we'd like to map the gases being released to establish which of those are more likely biological in origin versus others that may be geochemical in origin. "On this basis we could target several interesting sites for lander missions." Andrew Coates, from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory in Surrey, UK, said: "The observation of short-lived, seasonally varying clouds of methane from specific regions on Mars is a tantalising result. It shows there must be an underground source, past or present." Dr Coates, who is not involved with the latest research, added: "Seasonal effects may open up fissures to allow increased escape into the atmosphere. But this could be a sign of either geology or biology. "Both are exciting; we will not be sure which it is until we can analyse the methane in-situ at the surface." Nasa's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, due to launch to the Red Planet in 2011, will carry instruments that have the potential to distinguish between carbon in gases produced by biological activity and those with a geochemical origin. Scientists: True love can last a lifetime
(CNN) -- Love's first blush fading? Lost that loving feeling? Love is not all around? Sick of cliches? Take heart, scientists have discovered that people can have a love that lasts a lifetime. Using brain scans, researchers at Stony Brook University in New York have discovered a small number of couples respond with as much passion after 20 years together as most people only do during the early throes of romance, Britain's Sunday Times newspaper reported. The researchers scanned the brains of couples together for 20 years and compared them with results from new lovers, the Sunday Times said. About 10 percent of the mature couples had the same chemical reactions when shown photographs of their loved ones as those just starting out. Previous research has suggested that the first stages of romantic love fade within 15 months and after 10 years it has gone completely, the newspaper said. "The findings go against the traditional view of romance -- that it drops off sharply in the first decade -- but we are sure it's real," said Arthur Aron, a psychologist at Stony Brook, told the Sunday Times. June 30, 2008, 8:50 am
The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating Maybe you should be eating more beets, left, or chopped cabbage. (Credit: Evan Sung for The New York Times, left
(This post was originally published on June 30, 2008, and recently appeared on The New York Times’s list of most-viewed stories for 2008.) Nutritionist and author Jonny Bowden has created several lists of healthful foods people should be eating but aren’t. But some of his favorites, like purslane, guava and goji berries, aren’t always available at regular grocery stores. I asked Dr. Bowden, author of “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth,” to update his list with some favorite foods that are easy to find but don’t always find their way into our shopping carts. Here’s his advice. Beets: Think of beets as red spinach, Dr. Bowden said, because they are a rich source of folate as well as natural red pigments that may be cancer fighters.
How to eat: Fresh, raw and grated to make a salad. Heating decreases the antioxidant power.
Cabbage: Loaded with nutrients like sulforaphane, a chemical said to boost cancer-fighting enzymes.
How to eat: Asian-style slaw or as a crunchy topping on burgers and sandwiches.
Swiss chard: A leafy green vegetable packed with carotenoids that protect aging eyes.
How to eat it: Chop and saute in olive oil.
Cinnamon: May help control blood sugar and cholesterol.
How to eat it: Sprinkle on coffee or oatmeal.
Pomegranate juice: Appears to lower blood pressure and loaded with antioxidants.
How to eat: Just drink it.
Dried plums: Okay, so they are really prunes, but they are packed with antioxidants.
How to eat: Wrapped in prosciutto and baked.
Pumpkin seeds: The most nutritious part of the pumpkin and packed with magnesium; high levels of the mineral are associated with lower risk for early death.
How to eat: Roasted as a snack, or sprinkled on salad.
Sardines: Dr. Bowden calls them “health food in a can.” They are high in omega-3’s, contain virtually no mercury and are loaded with calcium. They also contain iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper and manganese as well as a full complement of B vitamins.
How to eat: Choose sardines packed in olive or sardine oil. Eat plain, mixed with salad, on toast, or mashed with dijon mustard and onions as a spread.
Turmeric: The “superstar of spices,” it may have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties.
How to eat: Mix with scrambled eggs or in any vegetable dish.
Frozen blueberries: Even though freezing can degrade some of the nutrients in fruits and vegetables, frozen blueberries are available year-round and don’t spoil; associated with better memory in animal studies.
How to eat: Blended with yogurt or chocolate soy milk and sprinkled with crushed almonds.
Canned pumpkin: A low-calorie vegetable that is high in fiber and immune-stimulating vitamin A; fills you up on very few calories.
How to eat: Mix with a little butter, cinnamon and nutmeg.
You can find more details and recipes on the Men’s Health Web site, which published the original version of the list last year. In my own house, I only have two of these items — pumpkin seeds, which I often roast and put on salads, and frozen blueberries, which I mix with milk, yogurt and other fruits for morning smoothies. How about you? Have any of these foods found their way into your shopping cart?
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