Technology, Science, Environment & Health.

[TsarSamuil]

Vid,
rt.com/Business/2010-03-19/russian-silicon-valley-built.html

ROAR: Tycoon Vekselberg to build Russia’s “Silicon Valley”

Sergey Borisov, RT
Russian Opinion and Analytics Review
24 March, 2010, 14:36

President Dmitry Medvedev has appointed Viktor Vekselberg, chairman of the board of directors of the Renova Group, as the manager of Skolkovo, a high-tech research and production hub project.

The business tycoon will coordinate the creation of “the Russian Silicon Valley” in Skolkovo, near Moscow. Medvedev wants the Russian private sector to actively develop the research center, which will focus on energy, information technology, communication, biomedical research and nuclear technology.

The president announced the project in February as part of his policy of the country’s modernization. The legal status of the Skolkovo project will be defined shortly. It is expected to attract prominent Russian and foreign scientists and businessmen.

Vekselberg, who is estimated to be Russia’s 23rd richest man, believes that this ambitious project will be successful if international companies participate in it. The task to create a self-sufficient hi-tech research and production center “will take us 5-7 years,” he stressed.

The Renova head will be the main coordinator of the Russian part of the project, Vedomosti daily said. “The president did not specify why Vekselberg was the most appropriate candidate, but he noted that certain consultations had been held,” the paper said.

The businessman himself says that he learned about his appointment only on March 22, and did not reveal the details either, the daily noted. The reason behind the president’s decision “might be that the Renova group has been paying serious attention to nanoindustry and investment projects,” the paper quoted him as saying. “We genuinely believe in this, and we have relevant base and knowledge,” he said.

Renova has several ideas concerning creating research centers in Russia, including one on solar energy, Vedomosti said, adding that it is unclear now which projects will be taken by Skolkovo.

One of the main tasks for Vekselberg as the chief of the Russian version of the Silicon Valley will be choosing a foreign co-chairman. It should be a man who “shares the ideas of creating the valley, a like-minded person,” the paper quoted Vekselberg as saying.

He personally wants the foreign candidate to be “a successful businessman.” In any case, the final decision will be taken by the government and the presidential administration.

The Russian “Silicon Valley” will be constructed on 370 hectares near the Skolkovo business school, the paper noted. It is expected that the volume of the state’s financing of the project will be announced in April at a meeting of the presidential commission on modernization, it added.

As the state allocates money, private companies should step in, and not only Russian ones, Gazeta.ru online newspaper said. According to Dmitry Abzalov, analyst of the Center for Political Conjuncture, Vekselberg will be responsible for finding such companies.

Then the chief of the Skolkovo project will have to build an effective mechanism for selecting and working with innovation projects and link the research with the production, the analyst told the paper.

“If Vekselberg manages to solve these tasks affectively, Skolkovo may start working as an autonomous body without the participation of the state,” Abzalov said. “We will see the first results of his work by the summer or autumn 2010.”

The media ask why another tycoon, Mikhail Prokhorov, who has also dealt with innovation technologies for a long time, has not become the chief of the project. But Abzalov believes that the candidate for the Russian answer to the US’s Silicon Valley was chosen long ago.

Vekselberg’s business is well diversified, and “he has managed to settle practically all the serious conflicts, the analyst explains. At the same time a source close to Vekselberg told Gazeta.ru that Prokhorov might be more involved in his new projects in business and sports.

Igor Yurgens, executive chairman of the Institute of Contemporary Development (INSOR), where Medvedev chairs the Board of Trustees, described Vekselberg as an appropriate figure to head the new project. He has great experience in business and preparing personnel for his numerous assets and will be able to accomplish this task, Yurgens told Ekho Moskvy radio. However, he stressed that the choice of the tycoon was not connected with his money.

The Russian president believes that the personality of the general manager of the new research and production center “should be proportionate” to its scale, the first deputy chief of the presidential administration, Vladislav Surkov, said.

“On the other hand, it’s desirable that he represents private business, for I believe that bureaucrats should not be vested with such a task, Surkov told Vesti television channel. “Since the president is putting the question this way, this is going to be someone from Russia’s big business.”

Surkov’s opinion that a businessman should head the project rather than an official is “absolutely logical,” said Dmitry Orlov, general director of the Agency of Political and Economic Communications.

“Businessmen have different views, experience and values,” he said in a commentary for the United Russia party’s website. “The Western and our experience show that it is better if a businessman develops an innovation business,” he added.

“After Surkov’s interview the conception of innovation development proposed by the federal authorities starts to acquire specific details,” Orlov said. “I think it is important that the innovation course does not only involve one project.”

The analyst said the attraction of qualified and well-known Western specialists was justified, and this factor had brought success to Silicon Valley and other such projects.

Skolkovo should be headed by a businessman with the experience of big projects with huge investment, agrees Iosif Diskin, co-chairman of the Council on National Strategy. As for employees of the new center, we need specialists who are able to see in fundamental research the image of a future product, and Nobel Prize winners are not necessary for this, he told Actualcomment.ru website.

The main task of the Russian Silicon Valley is not “to destroy the raw material industry, but to be able to create new, breakthrough things that other countries do not have,” believes Konstantin Simonov, director of the National Energy Security Fund. “And it does not matter which industry these breakthroughs will concern,” he told the same source.

People involved in innovations “should be admired in this country,” and Skolkovo should demonstrate that the state is ready to create special conditions for them, he said.

[TsarSamuil]

Russia to lure hi-tech innovators with tax breaks.

RussiaToday.com
29 April, 2010, 21:13

Companies coming to Russia's would-be Silicon Valley will get the best tax breaks and incentives in the country, Finance Minister Aleksey Kudrin told RT.

In order to put some flesh on the bones of the giant new Silicon Valley on the outskirts of Moscow, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has invited some of the richest businessmen and top politicians to a meeting of the Russian modernization committee in Obninsk, south of Moscow.

In the course of the meeting, the president promised a set of quite attractive terms to lure foreign companies into the country and to make them create high-tech innovative products.

Medvedev proposed to introduce a 10-year tax holiday in the area – that is, zero tax on profits, property and land over 10 years which can really make a difference to companies’ bottom line and allows them to focus on going ahead with innovative products.

The proposal comes as part of Moscow’s efforts to create a high-tech innovative economy on the basis of ones in California, Israel, Japan and South Korea.

However, Medvedev added that the final step of approval still must come from Kudrin, Russia’s powerful finance minister.

For his part, Kudrin said that before getting access to these low tax rates, the companies will first need to prove they are capable of creating world-class innovative products.

“We’re searching for companies that produce something new, innovative, unique that would be later implemented in other parts of Russia for industrial use,” Kudrin told RT. “In fact, we already have similar benefits for companies that work in technology promotion zones. There are five such zones in Russia. In the case of Skolkovo, we will even provide some extra benefits, such as another tax break that uses the revenue as a benchmark.”

Russian businessmen have welcomed the Skolkovo initiative, even though they believe the country’s economy may need some more reforms.

“I think it’s very useful to try and incentivize the creation of high-tech industry, but the most important thing for government to do is decrease the amount of red tape in the economy, make it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises to get along,” the head of the research department at Renaissance Capital, Ronald Nash, told RT. “I don’t think Russia should underestimate its home brands. If there’s a brand that’s unable to compete in its home market, it probably should think about restructuring anyway. Russia’s gone through one of the biggest transformations in history over the last 20 years. It’s not only survived, it’s prospering. Big companies should do the same. They should allow the competition to make the change in all Russian companies. Russia needs to pull the government away from the economy, not get it more involved.”

[TsarSamuil]

Vid,
rt.com/Top_News/2010-05-21/russian-collider-dubna.html

LHC’s little brother to beam near Moscow.

RussiaToday.com
21 May, 2010, 09:16

Russian scientists now have their very own atom collider just outside Moscow. And although it is much smaller than Switzerland's Large Hadron Collider, the ambitions of those involved are grand.

Russia's very own collider is going to be put together within the next five years. It took decades to launch the gigantic European collider, but Russian scientists say the technology and experience they already have will significantly save them time.

The future collider will involve several accelerating rings which have already been functioning in a lab near Moscow for decades.

The collider itself will be a hundred times smaller than the Large Hadron Collider in Europe, but to reach its goal it does not need the super-high speeds and energy that the LHC does.

The Large European collider is looking for the last undiscovered element of the universe – the Higgs Boson – while the Russian collider is going to be exploring that intermediate state, right after the atoms collide and before smaller particles are formed.

Looking into that transition state right after the collision could lead mankind to an alternative source of energy. Scientists say when new particles are formed a great deal of energy breaks out: if people learn more about the process they can recreate it.

“It's more powerful than all the energy sources now known to man,” says Grigory Trubnikov from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research.

Now the share of renewable energy sources in Russia is less than one per cent, but if the scientists succeed, the situation may change.

“The application of the collider experiments is very wide, from medical science to energetics. What is even more interesting about such projects is that scientists often stumble upon discoveries they never expected to find,” explains Professor Aleksey Sissakian from the
Union for the Development of Science.

But it is not just a new energy source Russian scientists are looking for. They say the collider might also give some answers as to how the universe began.

The collider is going to cost around $200 million, many times cheaper than its European brother, but the discoveries it may bring could be of no less value.

[TsarSamuil]

ARNIE!

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Vid,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR-xqOs8Brw

Russia hopes to catch techno wave in California.

RussiaToday.com
23 June, 2010, 14:17



President Dmitry Medvedev has begun his US tour in the state of California where he will be paying a visit to Silicon Valley in an effort to boost US-Russian economic relations.

Over 200 years ago, the Russian-American Company, Russia’s first joint stock company, was establishing trade posts along the Pacific Coast as economic opportunities with the young American country were beginning to show signs of promise.

The southernmost Russian establishment was called Fort Ross, which the United States recognizes today as a National Historic Landmark. This scenic park situated in Sonoma County represents an intriguing piece of shared history between the two countries. And it speaks volumes about the enduring nature of the US-Russian relationship that Dmitry Medvedev chose to begin his US tour by helping to keep this financially strapped park afloat.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who personally welcomed Medvedev on his arrival to America’s most populated state, decided earlier to slash funding of Californian national and historical parks due to an acute budget crisis.

Schwarzenegger and Renova Group CEO Viktor Vekselberg signed in the presence of President Dmitry Medvedev an agreement that will help to preserve Fort Ross from insolvency.

At least one million dollars annually will be needed to keep the Fort Ross in a proper state, Vekselberg told reporters after a singing ceremony of the memorandum.

The Californian governor thanked Vekselberg and Renova Group for their generosity.
From sleepy state park to sleek Silicon Valley

But the real purpose of Medvedev’s California visit is to promote economic relations between America’s most dynamic economic state and Russia, which is looking to overhaul its manufacturing base and diversify its oil-dependent economy in favor of sleek, cutting-edge technologies.

Schwarzenegger stressed his enthusiasm for working side-by-side Russia, especially at a time when some economists recently compared California with Greece, which was forced to go begging for money from the International Monetary Fund in order to avoid full-blown bankruptcy.

At the end of last year, California had accumulated $83.5 billion in long-term bond debt, with about three-fourths of that amount in the form of general obligation notes, which are financed by the state's general fund.

But despite California’s questionable bill of health, the vibrant state remains a magnet to hundreds of hi-tech companies that are helping to power the American economy through its worst economic recession since the Great Depression.

“I have never been to this state, but I heard a lot,” Medvedev commented to his host. “I know that California is the most developed state economically in the United States and its economic developments determine its fate.”

Schwarzenegger expressed his desire in promoting cooperation between his state and the Russian Federation.

“We are more than interested to create a trade, put together a trade delegation and organize a trade mission to Russia and to help in anyway possible in order to improve and to build on an already fast growing economy in Russia,” the California governor told his Russian guest. “I think this will be very, very beneficial for both the state of California and also for Russia.”

On Wednesday, Medvedev plans to visit Silicon Valley where he will meet with the founders of Twitter, which defines itself as a “micro-blogging” service, as well as Google, the popular search engine portal, before meeting with the US Chamber of Commerce.

Medvedev stressed that his trip would not be an “excursion,” but rather an opportunity for forging relations with America’s leading technology companies and executives.

“I would like to see how everything functions there. It will not be an excursion. I would like to establish fully-fledged relations as a result of this trip,” he said.

Silicon Valley, located near San Jose, California, is a name that has been given to the region due to the prevalence of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers. Today it is a world leading high-tech hub.

The Russian president is also scheduled to give a speech at Stanford University.
Russia on the fast track

Following the precipitous collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia watched from the sidelines as many of its brightest minds bolted for the emergency exits in search of fatter paychecks and career opportunities.

But today, with the country posed for a dramatic economic revival thanks in part to robust oil reserves, as well as a modern approach to doing business, Russia hopes to entice some of its talented emigrants back home, while providing attractive incentives for keeping its technological wunderkinds gainfully employed at home.

Medvedev, 44, has displayed a personal affinity for social media as a way of reaching out to Russia’s 142 million-strong population. He maintains an Internet video blog and holds regular Q&A sessions through the use of email and video-conferencing technologies.

During the Russian president’s state of the nation address to the Federal Assembly, Medvedev mentioned the importance of Russia establishing a research and technological center similar to Silicon Valley.

“We need to complete work on proposals to form a powerful center for research and development, which would focus on the support of all priority spheres,” Medvedev said. “This will offer conditions to attract leading scientists, engineers, constructors, programmers, managers and financial workers.”

Russia already has several intellectual centers comparable to Silicon Valley. The best-known is Akademgorodok (Academy Town), which is located about 20 km from the city of Novosibirsk. The town was founded in 1950 under the auspices of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Today, it remains a bustling intellectual hub that hosts about 35 research institutes, including the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics and the Institute of Cytology and Genetics.

The Siberian science city even managed to attract the attention of The Wall Street Journal.

“Today, the number of high-tech companies in Akademgorodok is growing by 15% a year,” the US business daily reported (Russia’s Siberian Hi-tech haven, March 19, 2007). “The Kremlin is keen to capitalize further on the high-tech talent, and has pledged to invest $100 million in the town’s infrastructure. The area is home to companies like Screen Photo Electronic Instruments, which produces night-vision devices for a San Francisco firm… and Axmor, a partner of IBM and spinoff of Novosoft.”

Russia is also investing heavily in Skolkovo, a modern technology campus situated just outside Moscow. With budget allocations in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the project has attracted the interest of entrepreneurs and scientists. Last week in St. Petersburg, Russia secured a pledge from Silicon Valley's Cisco Systems Inc. to participate in the ambitious venture.

After visiting California, Medvedev will fly to Washington to meet with US President Barack Obama.

The two leaders will then travel to Canada for the G8 and G20 summits.

Robert Bridge, RT

[TsarSamuil]

UNESCO to call on Russia to protect Lake Baikal from pollution.

The United Nations cultural watchdog plans to request the Russian government to protect Lake Baikal from pollution, a UNESCO official said on Wednesday.

UNESCO is concerned over the Russian government's decision to reopen the Baikal Pulp Plant located on the shores of the world's largest freshwater lake, despite large-scale public and environmental protests.

"The work of the plant in the open cycle contradicts UNESCO's Cultural and Natural Heritage Convention," said Assistant Director-General for Culture of UNESCO Francesco Bandarin.

Representatives of the For Baikal coalition, uniting dozens of Russian public and environmental organizations, sent on Wednesday an address to the UNESCO headquarters in Paris to protect Lake Baikal.

The address, signed by 125,000 people from 52 countries, will be discussed at the session of the organization's world heritage committee, which will open next month, the official said.

"We will inform the Russian government of our opinion and hope that Russia as a conscientious state and signatory of the Convention will take measures so that Lake Baikal does not lose its world value as a result of being polluted by the plant," Bandarin said.

In mid-January, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed a resolution excluding the production of pulp, paper and cardboard from the list of operations banned in protected areas around Lake Baikal, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In July, the plant, which has been testing its equipment after a year-old down time cycle, may restart industrial-scale operations, a deputy director general of the plant's managing company, Andrei Prokopov, said.

MOSCOW, June 30 (RIA Novosti)

Nice pic!
media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/84/6184-004-43D1CE0D.gif

[TsarSamuil]

Arctic to be ice-free in summer by 2050 - meteorologist.

The Arctic will have no ice during the summer by the mid-21st century, the head of the Russian Meteorological Centre said on Tuesday.

"In 30-40 years, the Arctic may have no ice in the summertime, including the North Pole," Alexander Frolov said, quoting data from an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.

Frolov said levels of ice reduction in 2010 could exceed the record levels of 2007.

"The average level went long ago. [The previous] minimum was about 11 million square kilometers [of ice]. Currently satellites show around 10.8 million square kilometers," Frolov said.

MOSCOW, July 20 (RIA Novosti)

[TsarSamuil]

Brussels boosts aid to beekeepers amid mystery bee die-off.

ANDREW WILLIS
15.09.2010 @ 09:28 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Imagine a world without strawberries or courgettes or leeks. The global decline in bee numbers - vital pollinators for many of our favourite fruits and vegetables - could threaten such a scenario.

As part of its response to the growing and mysterious drop-off in the world's bee population, the EU on Tuesday (14 September) announced it will bump up its planned aid to Europe's beekeeping sector, upping annual support from ˆ26 million over the period 2008-2010 to ˆ32 million from 2011-2013.

Domesticated honey bees are among Europe's most important pollinators, but the black and yellow insects have been hit by a plague of problems over the last decade, including habitat loss, climate change and the parasitic varroa mite.

However, while identifying a number of issues, scientists still do not know what is causing the mass die-off, which has earned the moniker 'colony collapse disorder', or CCD, which first hit North American in 2006 and has since spread to Europe.

Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, have been hit particularly hard, with similar reports of problems in Switzerland and Germany, although not to the same degree.

CCD is worrying both financially and in terms of food security, as many agricultural crops around the world are pollinated by bees.

Announcing the increased aid which will be channeled though national programmes in the EU's 27 member states, EU environment commissioner Janez Potocnik warned that more will need to be done.

"About 30 percent of our food comes from plants pollinated by bees so it is clear that we will all be in big trouble if bees continue to disappear," he said.

"Saving our bee populations requires a radical change in our own life-styles. It requires also radical changes in the heart of modern agriculture," he continued, pointing to the need to reform the EU's common agricultural policy.

The situation of Europe's declining bees has become so bad that beekeepers are turning to increasingly innovative ways to deal with the problem.

In Ireland, where the varroa mite is believed to have arrived in the 1990s, some beekeepers are sprinkling their honeybees with caster sugar to combat the problem.

The sugar causes great excitement in the hive as the bees attempt to lick their companions, with the increased vibrations causing the blood-sucking parasite to fall off.

The increased money from Brussels will go towards national research projects dedicated to discovering other such methods for controlling the varroa mite and other threats faced by bees.

Climate change

As well as the global decline in bee numbers, new research published last week suggests that climate change is also hampering the vital pollinating role played by the insects.

Scientists in the University of Toronto say the synchronised timing of flower opening and bee emergence from hibernation is being disrupted by changes in the Earth's weather patterns.

The study, which was limited to only looking at the wild lily in Colorado, has raised the debate on the negative effects of climate change on pollination, even in relatively pristine habitats.

[TsarSamuil]

Lol Arnie saying "Putin"

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Vid,
en.rian.ru/video/20101011/160909409.html

Arnold Schwarzenegger ” Medvedev is one of those great visionaries"

California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday praised Russia as a "gold mine" for foreign investors on a trade mission intended to help expansion of Silicon Valley companies.

Vid,
rt.com/Top_News/2010-10-11/schwarzenegger-medvedev-moscow-skolkovo.html

Schwarzenegger visit to Moscow starts in Twitter.

RT.com
11 October, 2010, 11:16

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Medvedev takes Schwarzenegger to Russia's high-tech hub.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev took California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on a visit to Russia's high-tech research hub outside Moscow on Monday.

Schwarzenegger arrived in Moscow at the head of a delegation of high-tech executives and venture businessmen on Sunday.

Medvedev and the California governor set off for Skolkovo, dubbed Russia's Silicon Valley, after a meeting at the president's residence at Gorki.

Schwarzenegger, who played hard-jawed Soviet narc Ivan Danko in a 1988 film Red Heat, said he never thought he would visit the Russian capital as the governor of California.

He said he was impressed by Medvedev's enthusiasm for developing innovative and "green" technologies.

Tycoon Viktor Vekselberg, who is in charge of the Skolkovo project, played down expectations that the Kremlin and Schwarzenegger-led delegation would sign "political" contracts.

He said the visit was "another step towards boosting cooperation between the U.S. and Russian companies."

Medvedev has made modernization the focal point of his agenda and is keen to bring U.S. know-how to Skolkovo. He visited Silicon Valley during his visit to the United States in June. He also met with Schwarzenegger during the trip.

GORKI (Moscow region), October 11 (RIA Novosti)

[TsarSamuil]

MPs to be excommunicated for supporting IVF?

Thenews.pl
18.10.2010 12:35

Roman Catholic Church bishops in Poland have threatened to excommunicate MPs who support state funding for IVF.

Archbishop Henryk Hoser, head of the Episcopal Expert Team on Bioethics, said at the weekend that MPs who support IVF will be excommunicated.

The government announced last week that legislation on state funding for childless couples seeking IVF treatment will be ready soon, though there are competing bills being prepared in parliament on the extent of the funding. Poland currently has no clear laws on the procedure. The Roman Catholic Church has yet to reveal which draft bill on IVF it will support.

In May this year, the Episcopal Council for Family Affairs decided that MPs who support IVF will not be able to take communion. The decision was criticized, however, by Prof. Franciszek Longchamps de Berier, member of the Episcopal Expert Team on Bioethics.

“The destruction of embryos is the same as killing but it is not the same as abortion. Therefore, it cannot be punished in the same way as abortion. Bioethical issues are relatively new and the Church is still reflecting on them,” said Longchamps de Berier.

In June, the Episcopate issued a statement saying that people who perform in vitro cannot take communion until they do penance, but the bishops did not mention politicians who vote for state funding of IVF.

The ruling Civic Platform party has prepared two draft bills which are supposed to bring Polish legislation in line with the European Union's conventions and directives on bioethics.

One project was drafted by conservative Civic Platform MP Jaroslaw Gowin who suggests that in vitro should be available only for married couples. Another bill authored by Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska, is more liberal on the issue, expanding the amount of couples who could take advantage of the funding.

Meanwhile, the opposition Law and Justice party has drafted two bills banning in vitro completely. One of them, co-drafted by Civic Platform’s coalition partner, the Polish Peasant’s Party, suggests that doctors who perform in vitro should face prison. (pg/mg)

[TsarSamuil]

Water is the new oil.

RT.com
21 October, 2010, 18:36

Russia is considering becoming the world’s top supplier of fresh water as growing demand turns it into a strategic resource. That is if it can upgrade its own consumption to modern standards.

If you pay attention to the perils that future may bring, you probably know that the oil will run dry, the sea level will rise and drown coastal regions, and that fresh water will be such a valuable asset that even the oil price will seem low in comparison. All this provided that the world will not end in 2012 in accordance with Mayan prophecies, of course.

The future global water crisis is indeed a gloomy thing: by 2030 half of world’s population will face a fresh water deficit, according to the UN's World Water Assessment Program forecast. Thirsty nations will take up arms against their saturated neighbors. People drinking polluted water will become ill. Ecologies will die out when the rivers feeding them are depleted for the sake of human farms and factories.

Russia has world’s second-largest water reserves after Brazil (it’s hard to compete with the Amazon River, but having in your territory the world’s largest lake, Baikal, which contains 20 per cent of the world’s fresh surface water, really helps).

Could it be that in 20 years the country, in addition to being a reliable supplier of hydrocarbons (or holding EU in energy grip, if you prefer this point of view), will also be a top supplier of stuff to drink?

The problem does exist, but…

Global demand for fresh water is growing steadily. Not only is humanity itself becoming more numerous, it also consumes more water per capita than it used to. The latter happens indirectly as developing countries become hungrier for things requiring much water to produce – paper, synthetic fibers, even home appliances and cars, but first of all foods.

Agriculture is the single biggest consumer of water, accounting for some 70 per cent of the total volume we expend. And among different food products demand different volumes of water to produce. One kilo of beef “drinks” an estimated 15,000 liters, compared to 1,000 liters needed for one kilo of wheat. The new armies of cows and pigs grown to replace rice on the plates of Chinese workers make this hidden strain on rivers and groundwater.

Conflicts over water are evident, especially in regions where the resource is scarce. Water consumption is one of the stumbling blocks in the conflict between Israel and Palestine, as well as a constant source of tension between the Jewish state, Lebanon and Jordan. Turkey is in a quarrel with Syria and Iraq over the use of water from the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. Other hotspots include Central Asia and Northern Africa.

Health problems which poor water quality can cause are also hard to deny, with an estimated 80 per cent of diseases in the world linked to it in some way. For instance, world’s largest mass arsenic poisoning – which is believed to have affected up to 77 million people in Bangladesh over 40 years and account for some 20 per cent of deaths in the country – was caused by contaminated water. Ironically, the source is the numerous wells drilled with help from international organizations to provide water cleanse it of pathogens.

However, a 2006 UN report on global water deficit points out that much of the problems stir not from the physical absence of freshwater, but rather from poor governance and lack of investment into things like sewage treatment and efficient use of water. Despite arid climate, wealthy Persian Gulf countries can afford desalination and extraction of fossil water, which, combined with good consumption practices, allows providing its population. Of course, it is of little consolation for the poor folk, but leaves room for optimism nevertheless.

Water superpower – not just yet

The goal of the future is to deliver the existing water from places of abundance to those in need. But if you are picturing great pipelines running from Siberian rivers to Spain and tanker fleets carrying Baikal water to the sheikhs, you are a little bit unrealistic. It is not economically viable.

Water is much cheaper than oil or gas, which means the cost of its transportation puts a greater barrier on trade, and annual volumes consumed are much greater. For instance, Russia’s domestic water consumption is 180 times higher than that of domestic oil consumption.

The solution could be great channels, which would bring water to buyers in a natural flow, but those require extremely high capital investment. Even China, famous for cyclopean infrastructure projects, is hesitant to pay for its South–North Water Transfer Project, the system of channels which would supply the water-hungry north of the country with water from the south. Putting such investment for the sake of foreign buyers rather then your own economy would be optimistic and short-sighted at best.

Also, unlike with energy, alternative sources of fresh water are there to be used. Sea water desalination has being improving over the decades, and the most cost-efficient facilities produce water at around $0.5 per cubic meter today. There is also iceberg towage, which is done on a limited scale in Canada now, but has the potential to become a regular enterprise in a thirstier world. Optimistic estimates promise iceberg water at $0.8 per cubic meter.

A more realistic approach would be the development of domestic industries, which require much water, like agriculture or production of nuclear power, and exporting the products instead.

Finally Russia, with all its water riches, has problems providing its own population, and the fact that most of the people live in the European part of the country while water is more abundant in the east is just a small part of the problem. According to government estimates voiced at the international forum Pure Water 2010 in Moscow, less then 40 per cent of Russians drink safe water. Some 25 per cent of the people have no centralized water supply at all.

Water usage in Russia suffers from poor efficiency, which is two to three times below that in Europe. To change the situation, large-scale investment into water saving technology and public campaigning are needed. A government-sponsored modernization program currently on the table is expected to be launched next year. Prime Minister Putin said its budget will be $300 million over the first three years. The sum “is not grand, yet noticeable” he admitted.

Alexandre Antonov, RT

[TsarSamuil]

Anti-GMO petition wants better labelling.

Thenews.pl
04.11.2010 08:01

Ten thousand Poles have signed a civic petition addressed to Prime Minister Donald Tusk demanding accurate labelling of foodstuffs containing genetically modified organisms (GMO).

The signatures were collected by the independent Civic Affairs Institute, which launched the campaign “Natural Genes”, aiming is to make food producers fulfil their duty to label food products properly.

Marek Kryda, an expert from the Institute, says that foodstuffs containing more than 0.9 percent GMO should be labelled clearly. But buyers in large shopping chains in Poland can rarely obtain information from their personnel whether a given product is or is not free from GMOs.

Rafal Gorski, the Institute president, says that when 50,000 to 100,000 signatures are collected, the petition will be handed over to Poland’s lawmakers.

He adds that the Institute is preparing a letter to the European Commission asking it to place Poland before the European Tribunal of Justice for violating the EU directive on the creation of a register of GMO crops in Poland. (kk)

[TsarSamuil]

First commercial Sukhoi Superjet 100 makes maiden flight.



First commercial Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ100) SN 95007 designed for Armenian Armavia airlines made its maiden flight, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft company said.

"During the flight, a crew carried out functional test of aircraft systems and equipment, engine, confirmed flight characteristics of the aircraft in an operational range," the company said adding that the aircraft is expected to arrive in Moscow soon, where in accordance with aviation regulations, its performance on typical routes will be tested.

The Superjet 100 is a family of medium-haul passenger aircraft developed by Sukhoi in cooperation with U.S. and European aviation corporations, including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace and Honeywell.

The aircraft is capable of carrying 75-95 passengers up to 4,500 kilometers.

Currently, there are 17 SSJ 100 aircraft in production at different stages of completion.

The company plans to manufacture at least 700 Superjet 100s, and intends to sell 35% of them to North America, 25% to Europe, 10% to Latin America, and 7% to Russia and China.

Currently, Sukhoi has at least 122 firm orders for Superjet 100 airliners. The first aircraft are expected to be delivered to Armenia's national airline Armavia and Russia's flagship air carrier Aeroflot at the end of the year.

MOSCOW, November 4 (RIA Novosti)

[TsarSamuil]

'Pet' Amur tiger found in Russian Urals.

A woman in the Russian Urals city of Yekaterinburg is being investigated for illegally keeping an Amur tiger, one of Russia's most endangered species, local police said.

The owner of the big cat was keeping her unusual pet in a 4x4 meter outdoor cage. The police report said she had no license and was neglecting veterinary and hygiene requirements for keeping the animal.

Although there are only 450 Amur tigers left in the wild in Russia, the woman only faces a fine of 2,500 rubles ($80).

Amur tigers, also known as Siberian tigers, are classed as endangered by the World Conservation Union. Since 2006, poachers have killed at least 10 of the rare animals in Russia's Far East.

The tiger population has declined from 100,000 to just over 3,000 individuals over the past century. Poaching for fur and destruction of habitat have been major causes of their extinction.

YEKATERINBURG, November 10 (RIA Novosti)

[TsarSamuil]

He's a hunter going into Tiger territory, I'm not opposed to hunting (stupid boars make good steak) but if you put yourself out there, it's your own fault.

These could be poachers too..

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Striped tragedy.

RT.com
17 November, 2010, 14:08

An Amur tiger has been shot dead in Russia’s Pimorsky Region after severely injuring a man.

According to reports on Wednesday, a group of hunters stumbled upon the Amur tiger while on an expedition in one of the region’s hunting farms on November 15.

The tiger attacked one of the men, who managed a shot in return, causing fatal wound to the animal. The hunter was hospitalized with multiple injuries. The four- to six year-old male tiger was found the next day by local police and hunting regulators.

It is reported that the tiger might have been injured before the incident, and that this could be the reason the animal had been aggressive and attacked the man. Reports say that one of the versions being considered by police and hunting regulators is that the hunters were in fact poachers and were hunting the tiger. Later, the men were interrogated at the local police office. An autopsy and a ballistics expert have been arranged in order to confirm or rule out that possibility.

Amur tigers are one of the world’s most endangered species. There are an estimated 300-500 of the animals left in the wild. Their coats have great value on the black market, which makes these animals highly-prized for poachers.

[TsarSamuil]

Russian environment minister urges global effort to keep tigers from extinction.

The world's efforts to keep wild tigers from extinction are important for humans to counter the global threats of climate change and dwindling biodiversity, Russian Environmental and Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev said on Sunday.

The minister spoke at an international forum on tiger conservation that had opened in St. Petersburg on November 21, the first high-level meeting to focus on measures to save the endangered species. The forum gathered participants from 13 countries that are the last refuge for tigers.

Trutnev said that the population of tigers had plummeted by 30 times in the past 100 years. "The population of tigers is being exhausted both quantitatively and qualitatively. As many as three out of eight tiger subspecies have become extinct."

According to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) figures, tiger numbers have dwindled from about 100,000 to the current 3,200 and continue to fall.

At the same time, WWF chief James Leape told the forum that national programs for tiger conservation should play a major role in keeping the endangered species from extinction while the international community should join efforts to fight tiger poaching.

ST. PETERSBURG, November 21 (RIA Novosti)

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At Least 17 Amur Tigers Dead in Russia's Far East in 2012.

MOSCOW, February 25 (RIA Novosti) – At least 17 Amur tigers died in Russia’s far eastern territories over the past year, most of them due to human actions, local wildlife experts said on Monday.

Another eight big cats were saved from death by environmental officials and activists, the Primorye Region-based Phoenix Fund said on its website. Most of the animals were cubs orphaned by hunters.

Phoenix based its statistics on media reports about tiger-related incidents. A list of such incidents released by the fund indicated the death toll could have been as high as 25, if unconfirmed deaths were factored in that were supported by circumstantial evidence, such as abandoned cubs.

“The losses…may be irreversible, given how they deplete the [species’] gene pool,” wrote Sergei Bereznyuk, the head of Phoenix, which was founded in 2006 and is running its own tiger and leopard conservation efforts, on the fund’s website.

Tiger hunting remains a profitable business because Russia still has not outlawed trafficking of tiger derivatives, which are highly prized in Chinese traditional medicine, Bereznyuk said. A bill outlawing such trade has been pending review in the Russian parliament since last year.

The Amur tiger was on the brink of extinction in the 1940s due to over-hunting. Conservation efforts – supported recently by Russian President Vladimir Putin – allowed the population to reach some 450, though growth has slowed since the 1990s.