[tt] [x-risk] FW: ETC Group: News Release: German Geo-engineers Show Iron Will to Defy Global UN Moratorium

Thu Jan 8 22:43:54 CET 2009

----- Forwarded message from "Hughes, James J." <James.Hughes at trincoll.edu> -----

From: "Hughes, James J." <James.Hughes at trincoll.edu>
Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 16:37:45 -0500
To: For discussion of existential risks <existential at transhumanism.org>
Subject: [x-risk] FW: ETC Group: News Release: German Geo-engineers Show
	Iron Will to Defy Global UN Moratorium
Reply-To: For discussion of existential risks <existential at transhumanism.org>

ETC Group
News Release
January 8, 2009
www.etcgroup.org

German Geo-engineers Show Iron Will to Defy Global UN Moratorium

A controversial climate-engineering expedition -  flying the German  
flag -  set sail from South Africa,  in defiance of a United Nations  
agreement signed by 191 nations and brokered by Germany last May. In  
response, civil society groups are calling on governments and the UN  
to take action.

The RV Polarstern, a German research vessel owned by the Alfred  
Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research of Bremerhaven,  
Germany, left Cape Town on 7th January 2009 to begin a large scale geo- 
engineering experiment known as LOHAFEX. The LOHAFEX voyage, approved  
by the Indian and German governments according to Dr. Victor Smetacek,  
co-Chief Scientist of the expedition, proposes to dump iron sulphate  
particles over 300 square kilometres of open ocean in the Scotia Sea  
close to Antarctica. The team aims to provoke a plankton bloom so  
massive it will be visible from space. The hope is that "fertilizing"  
the ocean with iron will result in carbon sequestration, and prove to  
be a quick fix for climate change. Earlier experiments with ocean  
fertilization have not shown this to be the case.

In 2008, both the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the  
London Convention of the International Maritime Organisation - the  
treaty that governs the dumping of wastes at sea - enacted a global  
moratorium on ocean fertilization activities because of the ecological  
risks to the oceans and climate. Civil society groups are now calling  
on the German and Indian governments to respect the international  
moratorium on ocean fertilization and to recall LOHAFEX, the third  
Antarctic iron dumping expedition led by Germany's Alfred Wegener  
Institute since 2000.

"If the LOHAFEX iron dump goes ahead, it will be a clear defiance of  
the UN Convention on Biological Diversity," warns Jim Thomas of ETC  
Group, an international advocacy organisation that played a key role  
in securing that moratorium. "It is particularly shocking that  
Germany, the current chair of that convention, should be the country  
breaking the agreement. The artificial plankton bloom may be visible  
from space, but it seems it's not visible from Berlin!"

In May 2008, German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel brokered the  
final text as chair of the global negotiations. Parties to the  
Convention - which includes South Africa, India and Germany - agreed  
that no ocean fertilization activities would proceed until there was  
"an adequate scientific basis on which to justify such activities,  
including assessing associated risks," and until "a global,  
transparent and effective control and regulatory mechanism is in place  
for these activities." There is so far no such mechanism. The German  
Minister has praised the decision taken at the CBD, adding: "It's a  
very strange idea that technology can solve everything. It's very  
risky and shows what humans are ready to do. I'm glad we came to a de  
facto moratorium."

Although the CBD moratorium did include a provision for "small scale  
experiments within coastal waters," the proposed experiment is  
targeted for the high seas. Furthermore, the parties to the London  
Convention and Protocol recently strengthened the moratorium by  
adopting a resolution prohibiting all ocean fertilization activities,  
at whatever scale, until a strict set of rules is established. The  
first meeting towards establishing those rules is to be held in  
February 2009. Civil society groups are now contacting these national  
governments, as well as the Secretariat of the Convention on  
Biological Diversity, asking them to respect the moratorium and  
prevent LOHAFEX from going forward.

"We do not believe our country should be aiding and abetting these  
controversial geo-engineers in breaking the global moratorium,"  
explains Mariam Mayet, an environmental lawyer with the South African  
Center for Biosafety. "We have formally asked our Environment Ministry  
to compel the ship to return to port and offload its cargo of iron."

This is the third ocean fertilisation expedition ETC Group and its  
partners have opposed in the last two years. In 2007, two private  
companies, Ocean Nourishment Corporation of Australia and Planktos,  
Inc. of USA, were prevented from carrying out ocean fertilization  
activities in the Sulu Sea (Philippines) and near the Galapagos  
Islands (Ecuador). In the wake of the global moratoria established in  
2008, LOHAFEX would be the first operation of this kind to openly defy  
agreements made by the international community. Ocean fertilization is  
just one of a suite of extreme climate-fix solutions, referred to  
generally as geo-engineering, now being proposed in response to  
climate change.

For more information contact:

Jim Thomas - ETC Group (Montreal,Canada) jim at etcgroup.org
Phone: +1 514 6674932 Cell: +1 514 5165759

Pat Mooney - ETC Group (Ottawa, Canada) etc at etcgroup.org
Phone: +1 613 2412267 Cell: +1 613 2610688

Kathy Jo Wetter - ETC Group (Durham, NC, USA) kjo at etcgroup.org
Phone: +1 919 688 7302

Mariam Mayet - African Center for Biosafety (Johannesburg)
mariammayet at mweb.co.za
Phone: +27 (0) 83 269 4309

Notes to Editors:

1) For details of the LOHAFEX expedition see the webpages of India's  
National Institute of
Oceanography:http://www.nio.org/projects/narvekar/narvekar_NWAP2.jsp

2) See ETC News Release, Friday, May 30, 2008, "The World Torpedoes  
Ocean Fertilization: End of Round One on Geo-Engineering - 191  
countries agree to a landmark moratorium on ocean CO2 sequestration."  
Available online
athttp://www.etcgroup.org/en/materials/publications.html?pub_id=694

3) Madeline Chambers, "U.N. talks halt plans for oceans absorb CO2,"  
Fri. May 30, 2008. Available online
athttp://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL2981194420080530

ETC Group is an international civil society organization based in  
Ottawa, Canada. We conduct research, education and advocacy on issues  
related to the social and economic impacts of new technologies on  
marginalized peoples - especially in the global South. We look at  
issues from a human rights perspective but also address global  
governance and corporate concentration. All ETC Group publications are  
available free of charge on our website:
www.etcgroup.org
_______________________________________________
ETC Group mailing list
http://lists.etcgroup.org/mailman/listinfo/etcgroup

_______________________________________________
existential mailing list
existential at transhumanism.org
http://www.transhumanism.org/mailman/listinfo/existential

----- End forwarded message -----
-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
______________________________________________________________
ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org
8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A  7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE