Disinfectants may promote growth of superbugs

Using disinfectants could cause bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics as well as the disinfectant itself, according to new research. The findings could have important implications for how the spread of infection is managed in hospital settings.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm

Lighting can influence how wine tastes

Researchers demonstrate that the color of ambient lighting can have an effect on how a wine is judged.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm

Molecular chaperone keeps bacterial proteins from slow-dancing to destruction

Just like teenagers at a prom, proteins are tended by chaperones whose job it is to prevent unwanted interactions among immature clients. And at the molecular level, just as at the high school gym level, it's a job that usually requires a lot of energy.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm

How calorie-restricted diets fight obesity and extend life span

Scientists searching for the secrets of how calorie-restricted diets increase longevity are reporting discovery of proteins in the fat cells of human volunteers that change as pounds drop off. The proteins could become markers for monitoring or boosting the effectiveness of calorie-restricted diets -- the only scientifically proven way of extending life span in animals.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm

First molars provide insight into evolution of great apes, humans

Scientists have gained new insights into the timing of molar emergence and its relation to growth and reproduction in apes. "We can use the same techniques to calculate ages at first molar emergence from the fossils of early hominids that just happened to die while their first molars were erupting," researchers report.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm

Exposure to tobacco smoke in childhood home associated with early emphysema in adulthood

Children regularly exposed to tobacco smoke at home were more likely to develop early emphysema in adulthood. The finding suggests that the lungs may not recover completely from the effects of early-life exposures to tobacco smoke.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm

Superatoms mimic elements: Research gives new perspective on periodic table

Researchers have shown that certain combinations of elemental atoms have electronic signatures that mimic the electronic signatures of other elements. The findings could lead to much cheaper materials for widespread applications such as new sources of energy, methods of pollution abatement, and catalysts on which industrial nations depend heavily for chemical processing.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am

Mystery solved: How fine particulates are formed in the air

Particulates make us ill, and particulates affect the climate. The direct combustion of wood and other fuels is only partially responsible for producing fine particulates – the rest evolve from a variety of substances, within the atmosphere itself.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am

'Fountain of youth' for stem cells?

Stems cells used for transplantation in the nervous system to provide neural regeneration are fragile, but can be kept "forever young" during implantation through the use of self-assembling nanofiber scaffolds (SAPNS), a nanotechnology application for implanting young cells. By manipulating cell density and SAPNS concentration, researchers used SAPNS as templates and guides to slow cell growth, differentiation and proliferation, thereby creating a protective nanoenvironment for a variety of neural cells destined for implantation.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am

Enzyme necessary for development of healthy immune system

Mice without the deoxycytidine kinase enzyme have defects in their adaptive immune system, producing very low levels of both T and B lymphocytes, the major players involved in immune response, according to a new study.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 29 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am

The nation's weather (AP)

AP - A quiet weather day was expected for most of the U.S. on Tuesday. A strong low pressure system was forecast to continue pushing northeastward and exit the Northeastern U.S. by nightfall. Light and scattered snowfall associated with the system was expected to persist throughout the day but with accumulation much less than Monday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Dec 2009 | 2:48 am

Putin accuses Ukraine of 'abuse' on oil transit deal (AFP)

AFP - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine Tuesday of "abuse" of Russian oil transits via its territory but expressed hope both sides would abide by contractual obligations to keep supply flowing to Europe.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Dec 2009 | 1:15 am

New Horizons Crosses Halfway Point To Pluto

It's been nothing less than the fastest ever sprint across the solar system. The half-ton NASA New Horizons probe -- the fasted manmade object ever built -- today crosses the halfway mark on its nearly decade-long odyssey to the dwarf ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 29 Dec 2009 | 12:38 am

Voyager Discovers Magnetized Fluff

Voyager traverses the heliosheath, the outermost reaches of the solar system. The Local Fluff magnetic field is highlighted by yellow lines (The American Museum of Natural History) Interstellar space is fluffy. This is true. What's more, the veteran Voyager probes ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 28 Dec 2009 | 11:09 pm

Health Tip: Protect Yourself From Air Pollution (HealthDay)

HealthDay - (HealthDay News) -- Air pollution can aggravate asthma symptoms, and make problems with the heart and lungs worse.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Dec 2009 | 9:49 pm

Sublime Sand: Desert Dunes Seen From Space

Deserts are known for being desolate and lifeless, but they are also quite striking and beautiful, especially when seen from above. Different types of sand, topography, wind and climate combine to form a tremendous variety of landscapes. Shifting dunes are carved into an endless number of constantly changing shapes.

The images in this gallery, taken by orbiting astronauts and satellites, show some of the most beautiful, most haunting, biggest, rarest and most stunning desert vistas on Earth.

Algeria’s Sand Sea

The Issaouane Erg covers almost 15,000 square miles in eastern Algeria. This sea of sand in the central Sahara desert has three different scales of dunes. Mega-dunes, also known as draas or whalebacks, form over hundreds of thousands of years and can be several hundred miles long. Mesoscale dunes form on top of the mega-dunes, and move on decade time scales. Smaller dunes form on and around the larger dunes. They are sculpted into different shapes by the wind, and are constantly shifting.

In the image above, captured by astronauts on the International Space Station in 2005, mesoscale dunes have been shaped into star dunes that look a bit like starfish and crescent dunes. In the image below, taken by astronauts on the ISS in 2006, the large, rolling shapes are mega-dunes. The smallest dunes show up as wrinkles alongside larger dunes.

Click on any of the gallery images for high-resolution versions.

Images: NASA

Source: Wired Science | 28 Dec 2009 | 6:00 pm

Music therapy for tinnitus hope

Personalised music therapy may help cut noise levels experienced by people who suffer from tinnitus, say researchers.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Dec 2009 | 5:01 pm

Collar Tech Tracks Wolf’s North Pole Treks

During the 24-hour darkness of an arctic winter, a wolf pack’s tough life continues. Battling temperatures that reach 70 degrees below zero, a pack travels hundreds of miles across the landscape. A collar affixed to a wolf named Brutus beams back their coordinates to U.S. Geological Survey researchers.

It would be impossible for humans to track the wolves in the brutal conditions, but the new satellite collar, which can communicate with GPS and Arcos satellites, is passing its first field test with flying colors.

“This year, we made a huge technological jump from notebook and pens to satellite collars because we wanted to find out what these arctic wolves do in winter,” USGS biologist David Mech said in a press release. “How far must they travel to obtain enough food to make it to the Arctic spring, which doesn’t happen until the next June?”

The data being returned by the collar is unprecedented. No one has ever collared a wolf within 1,000 miles of the Brutus’ pack, Mech told Wired.com.

As it turns out, the wolves are covering a lot of ground, as can be seen in the map above. Now, the fjords visible in the summer image above have frozen and can be crossed on foot. In one trip, the wolf and his pack traveled 80 miles from Ellesmere Island to Axel Heiberg Island and back in just 84 hours. Just through November 30, Brutus has traveled 1,683 miles.

And that’s just counting the point-to-point distance between locations they receive from the collar’s transmitter. They only get the wolf’s coordinates every 12 hours, so it’s highly probable that the wolf has taken far more circuitous, longer paths through the snow.

“With the locations coming at 12-hour intervals we can’t precisely say what Brutus was doing, but no doubt he was hunting and likely resting at times too,” wrote Northwest Territories biologist Dean Cluff, who is working on the project with Mech, on the project’s blog.

The wolves travel to find prey like muskoxen and Arctic hares, so the researchers expected them to be on the move, but they didn’t know exactly how far they’d go or where. During the summer months, the pups can’t travel with the pack, so the older wolves’ movements are limited. They figured that as the babies grew up, they would be able to make longer treks and the pack’s range would grow.

Now they know they were right, thanks to the wolf pack locations that periodically show up in Mech’s inbox. The information satisfies his lifelong desire to solve the mystery of how these wolves survive when he can’t be in the Arctic charting their movements.

“I’ve studied them for 25 years, 25 summers, but I’ve never known what they’ve done after I leave,” Mech said in a podcast [mp3].

You can follow Brutus’ travels through the USGS blog on the Arctic Wolves of Ellesmere Island and see photographs of the animals.

Images: USGS.

See Also:

• Darwin’s Wolf Mystery Solved
• Pink Iguana That Darwin Missed Holds Evolutionary Surprise
• Black Wolves the Result of Interbreeding With Dogs
• Evidence for Bone-Crushing Wolves Discovered
• Creationism in the Classroom: Florida and Texas, Then the Nation …

WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal’s Twitter, Google Reader feed, and green tech history research site; Wired Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Source: Wired Science | 28 Dec 2009 | 4:50 pm

The 9 Strangest News Stories of 2009

Weirdness takes many forms, and 2009 had its share of weird events.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Dec 2009 | 4:05 pm

Partial Lunar Eclipse and Blue Moon New Year's Eve (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - Eclipses of the moon occur twice a year, on average. Each eclipse is visible only on the half of the Earth turned towards the moon at the time the Earth's shadow falls on the moon.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Dec 2009 | 2:45 pm

Tiger Woods' Affairs Cost Billions in Stock Market (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - Tiger Woods' extramarital affairs could cost you if you hold stock in a company he sponsors or a mutual fund that holds stock in those companies.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Dec 2009 | 2:41 pm

Wild horse roundup to begin in Nevada amid protest (AP)

AP - A two-month capture of about 2,500 wild horses from public and private lands in northern Nevada began Monday amid protests that the roundups are unnecessary and inhumane.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Dec 2009 | 2:28 pm

U.S. loans to boost nuclear industry seen soon (Reuters)

Reuters - The Obama administration is poised to announce loan guarantees to help kick-start the country's nuclear power industry, which hasn't built a new plant in more than three decades.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Dec 2009 | 1:55 pm

Tiger Woods' Affairs Cost Billions in Stock Market

The market value lost to companies that had Tiger Woods as a sponsor is $12 billion.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Dec 2009 | 1:40 pm

Calif. man pleads not guilty in sea lion shooting (AP)

AP - A Sacramento fisherman accused of shooting a sea lion in the head has pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of cruelty to animals.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Dec 2009 | 1:39 pm

Ancient Legendary Ruler's Tomb Found

Shuo Cao Cao, Cao Cao jiu dao, says a Chinese proverb. It means: "Speak of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao will be there." It's the equivalent of the English phrase "speak of the devil." More than 1,700 years after his ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 28 Dec 2009 | 1:34 pm

Famous San Francisco Sea Lions Abandon Their Pier 39 Post

The blubbery sea lions at Pier 39, one of San Francisco’s smelliest and most famous tourist attractions, are gone. During the last week of November, they left the wooden docks on which they’ve spent the last 20 years and no one knows if they’ll be coming back.

“We have no idea where they moved on to or why,” said Shelbi Stoudt, who manages a team that helps stranded animals in the San Francisco Bay from the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California.

The sea lions’ disappearance is as strange as their initial colonization of the pier about 20 years ago, in late 1989. They just started showing up one day and as their numbers increased, their traditional hang out, Seal Rocks, became less populated. There are all sorts of theories about why the pier became a favorite haul-out spot for the sea lions, but no one knows for sure why the animals’ behavior changed.

Stoudt averred that the officials at the Marine Mammal Center weren’t worried about the animals’ disappearance from their standard location. The sea lions are migratory animals, after all, and it’s natural for them to move around.

So, even though no one has found them, “there really isn’t a reason to be looking for them,” Stoudt said.

The disappearance is unusual, though. The animals’ numbers usually peak in late fall and many stick around during the winter months before heading south for the summer. According to the Marine Mammal Center’s FAQ on the animals, “from late summer to late spring, 150 to 300 sea lions haul out here,” though their numbers can run much higher.

This year saw a massive influx of sea lions. In fact, a Marine Mammal Center survey conducted in the fall found 1,585 mammals hauled out on the spot, an all-time high. Some of them invaded a neighboring area, the Hyde Street Pier, where they may have been scared away by an itinerant fisherman’s dog.

Their disappearance drew the attention of San Franciscans like local blogger Gary Soup, who posted the photo above of the deserted docks on Twitter. The animals had become a major tourist and education locus on the otherwise highly commercial strip known as Fisherman’s Wharf. The Marine Mammal Center sends docents to the area to answer questions about the creatures.

On the other hand, fishermen and others who work the waters of the Port of San Francisco have far less friendly relations with the animals. One recently told a local radio station, “They’re cute when they’re in here lying on the docks by Pier 39, but they’re not too cute out in the ocean when they’re stealing your livelihood.”

It doesn’t appear that local weather conditions could have influenced the animals. The weather in San Francisco has been normal, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Rick Canaepa. “It’s pretty typical winter conditions,” Canaepa said.

This is an El Niño year, but the local impacts of that warming of the Pacific have been moderate. “I don’t know if that would be enough to make them change their minds and leave the area,” he said.

The Mammal Center’s Stoudt said they hadn’t detected signs of something unusual going on with the fauna of the Bay, either.

While it’s appealing to think that the animals may have just returned to their previous home at Seal Rocks, locals contacted by Wired.com didn’t think there had been much of a change in the sea lion population there.

“Nothing unusual has happened,” said Jennifer Valencia, who takes reservations at the Cliff House, which overlooks the Rocks.

So, for now, no one knows where they’ve gone or whether they’ll ever head back to their perch amid the clam chowder shops and street performers.

Image Composite: Left: flickr/wallyg. Right: Twitter/@GarySoup.

See Also:

• A MASH Unit for Ailing Sea Mammals
• Gallery: Robotic Sub Installs Deep-Sea Webcam
• World’s Freakiest Worm Gets Expanded Family Tree
• Scientists Stream Human-Free Antarctic Soundscape
• A New Push to Turn Off the Lights in 2009

WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal’s Twitter, Google Reader feed, and green tech history research site; Wired Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Source: Wired Science | 28 Dec 2009 | 1:31 pm

Ukraine wants change in Russia oil transit deal: officials (AFP)

AFP - Ukraine said Monday it wanted to change the terms of the deal under which Russia ships oil through Ukrainian territory to the EU, but officials downplayed any threat of another New Year's energy crisis.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Dec 2009 | 12:42 pm

Airport Security: Why It Failed

Expect more delays and more widespread use of a new full-body screening method in response to the recent airplane bombing attempt.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Dec 2009 | 11:38 am

Forensic DNA Identifies Wolf Serial Killer Suspect

A CSI-like investigation of a necklace made of wolf teeth leads to the arrest of a suspected poacher.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 28 Dec 2009 | 11:30 am

Ancient Legendary Ruler's Tomb Found

Archaeologists believe they have found a nearly 1,800-year-old tomb of legendary ruler Cao Cao.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 28 Dec 2009 | 11:05 am

Dinosaur-Killing Firestorm Theory Questioned (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - New research challenges the idea that the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs also sparked a global firestorm.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Dec 2009 | 11:00 am

Story in Photos: DNA Identifies Wolf Serial Killer Suspect

Today at Discovery News you can learn how forensic DNA was used to identify a wolf serial killer suspect. It is the first time that DNA has helped to reveal a possible wolf killer. The suspect, a man living in ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 28 Dec 2009 | 10:54 am

Wild Horse Roundup Begins Despite Protests

The federal capture of about 2,500 wild horses from public and private lands in northern Nevada was to begin Monday amid protests the roundups are unnecessary and inhumane.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 28 Dec 2009 | 10:11 am

Sun & Moon Trigger Earthly Tremors

The faint tug of the sun and moon on the San Andreas Fault stimulates tremors deep underground.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Dec 2009 | 10:01 am

'Back to nature' cuts flood risks

Reconnecting flood-plains to rivers will help reduce the risk of future flooding, a study by US researchers suggests.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Dec 2009 | 9:41 am

Wildlife Footage from 2009 in Review by Mark Fraser

Today naturalist Mark Fraser looks back on the year 2009. Mark says, "There were so many incredible wildlife adventures to reflect upon this past year and I could not wait to share these with all of you. This film is ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 28 Dec 2009 | 9:35 am

280-Million-Year-Old Reptiles' Last Meal Preserved

Scientists have just found insect parts stuck between the teeth of two Paleozoic reptiles. This strongly suggests that the pre-Dinosaur Era equivalent of today's lizards feasted on insects, and it's the first known evidence for this behavior among vertebrates. The ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 28 Dec 2009 | 9:21 am

Warming Heats Up Insect Breeding

Extra generations of insects are turning up as temperatures increase.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 28 Dec 2009 | 9:15 am

Robot Helps Grandma Shop

Robovie monitors your Grandma's health and even suggests specific dishes to improve health.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Dec 2009 | 9:12 am

High-Tech Glitter to Create Flexible Solar Panels

Scientists have created highly efficient, glitter-sized solar cells that could fit virtually any object and be woven into clothing.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Dec 2009 | 8:03 am

Golden ratio shows maths and art come from the same place in our minds

The beauty of the golden ratio, surely, lies in the discovery of harmony in imbalance – that is, it's not a symmetrical division, it's not 1+1, but a bit more interesting and lively. In architecture, the piers and windows of Durham Cathedral seem to apply it as assiduously as in the Parthenon in Athens. But why such mystique?

The ancient Greek thinker Pythagoras was moved to find that a string only produces perfect musical notes when divided by exact mathematical fractions. He saw this as a revelation of divine beauty. This attitude to number (that it is the key to the secret harmony of the universe) survived in the middle ages in Muslim and Christian architecture.

In the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci took it to new extremes, analysing the perfect proportions of a horse and a human and finding number at the heart of nature. In 1504 he was designing fortifications for an Italian town. While researching this for a forthcoming book, I puzzled over diagrams of pyramids that keep interrupting plans for towers – until I understood that Leonardo believed so passionately in the power of proportion that he thought it could make a castle invulnerable. He illustrated his friend Fra Luca Pacioli's book The Divine Proportion, which praises the golden ratio, and so helped to create one of the most persistent cults in maths and art.

Whether or not the golden ratio really has any special significance in human psychology, it has been given that status by artists like Leonardo. Another is surely the great 15th-century painter Piero della Francesca, whose geometrically pleasing art is rooted in mathematics. The persistent pursuit of this proportion right down to Le Corbusier proves that mathematics and art come from the same beautiful place in our minds.

So how do you find this special proportion? Divide a straight line in two so that the ratio of the whole length to the larger part is the same as the ratio of the larger part to the smaller part. The result (roughly 1.62 to 1) is the golden ratio.

Jonathan Jones's book about Leonardo da Vinci will be published by Simon and Schuster in April 2010.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 28 Dec 2009 | 8:01 am

Body of Sea Urchin is One Big Eye

Sea urchins may use the whole surface of their bodies as eyes, scientists now suggest.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Dec 2009 | 7:47 am

Disinfectants Cause Some Bacteria to Adapt, Thrive

A bacterial species can adapt to resist antibiotics without being exposed to them.
Source: Livescience.com | 28 Dec 2009 | 7:37 am

Why the golden ratio pleases the human eye

Many artists have proportioned work in shapes that facilitate scanning of images to brain, says professor

From Leonardo da Vinci to Le Corbusier, the golden ratio is believed to have guided artists and architects over the centuries.

Leonardo is thought to have used the golden ratio, a geometric proportion regarded as the key to creating aesthetically pleasing art, when painting the Mona Lisa. The Dutch painter Mondrian used it in his abstract compositions, as did Salvador Dali in his masterpiece The Sacrament of the Last Supper.

Now a US academic believes he has discovered the reason why it pleases the eye. According to Adrian Bejan, professor of mechanical engineering at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina, the human eye is capable of interpreting an image featuring the golden ratio faster than any other.

Bejan argues that an animal's world – whether you are a human being in an art gallery or an antelope on the savannah – is orientated on the horizontal. For the antelope scanning the horizon, danger primarily comes from the sides or from behind, not from below or above, so the scope of its vision evolved accordingly. As vision developed, he argues, animals got "smarter" and safer by seeing better and moving faster as a result.

"It is well known that the eyes take in information more efficiently when they scan side to side, as opposed to up and down. When you look at what so many people have been drawing and building, you see these proportions everywhere."

Many artists since the Renaissance have proportioned their work in accordance with the golden ratio or "divine proportion", particularly in the form of the golden rectangle, which has informed Leonardo's work. It describes a rectangle with a length roughly one and a half times its width.

Works most usually associated with it are the Mona Lisa and the Parthenon in Athens, although Swiss architect Le Corbusier relied on it for his Modulor system for the scale of architectural proportion and Dali explicitly used it in The Sacrament of the Last Supper. The Parthenon's facade is said to be circumscribed by golden rectangles, though some scholars argue that this is a coincidence.

According to Bejan, these arguments are academic. Whether intentional or not, the ratio represents the best proportions to transfer to the brain. "This is the best flowing configuration for images from plane to brain and it manifests itself frequently in human-made shapes that give the impression they were 'designed' according to the golden ratio," said Bejan.

"We really want to get on, we don't want to get headaches while we are scanning and recording and understanding things," he said. "Shapes that resemble the golden ratio facilitate the scanning of images and their transmission through vision organs to the brain. Animals are wired to feel better and better when they are helped and so they feel pleasure when they find food or shelter or a mate. When we see the proportions in the golden ratio, we are helped. We feel pleasure and we call it beauty."

Bejan, an award-winning engineer who developed a new law of physics governing the design of matter as it moves through air and water in 1996, believes this "constructal law" governs systems that evolve in time, from cars in traffic to blood in the circulation, to how vision develops.

Vision and cognition evolved together, he said. "Cognition is the name of the constructal evolution of the brain's architecture, every minute and every moment," Bejan said. "This is the phenomenon of thinking, knowing, and then thinking again more efficiently. Getting smarter is the constructal law in action."

Earlier this year, in a paper published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, Bejan demonstrated how this law was behind his theory of how elite athletes had got taller, bigger and thus faster in the past 100 years. His latest application of constructal law to explain the golden ratio is published online in the International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 28 Dec 2009 | 7:21 am

In pictures: Wasps thrive, but other UK species struggle in 2009

Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Dec 2009 | 6:37 am

Blame Denmark for Copenhagen failure

The decision to override the multilateral process and hold a secret meeting of select nations ruined any chance of success

It's been several days since the chaotic end to the Copenhagen climate conference but the aftershocks from its failure are still reverberating. As John Prescott points out in his letter to the Guardian, the pointing of fingers in the blame game does not help the regaining of trust needed for the positive resumption of talks early next year and to complete them by December 2010, the new deadline agreed to in Copenhagen.

First, the misinformation put out in the past few days has to be corrected. The UK climate secretary, Ed Miliband, backed by individuals such as Mark Lynas (both writing in the Guardian) have turned on China as the villain that "hijacked" the conference. The main "evidence" they gave was that China vetoed an "agreement" on a 50% reduction in global emissions by 2050 and an 80% reduction by developed countries, in the small meeting of 26 leaders on Copenhagen's final day.

There was indeed a "hijack" in Copenhagen, but it was not by China. The hijack was organised by the host government, Denmark, whose prime minister convened a meeting of 26 leaders in the last two days of the conference, in an attempt to override the painstaking negotiations taking place among 193 countries throughout the two weeks and in fact in the past two to four years.

That exclusive meeting was not mandated by the UN climate convention. Indeed, the developing countries had warned the Danish prime minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, not to come up with his own "Danish text" to be negotiated by a small group that he himself would select, as this would violate the multilateral treaty-based process, and would replace the documents carefully negotiated by all countries with one unilaterally issued by the host country.

Despite this, the Danish government produced just such a document, and it convened exactly the kind of exclusive group that would undermine the UN climate convention's multilateral and democratic process. Under that process, the 193 countries had been collectively working on coming to a conclusion on the many aspects of the climate deal.

Weeks before, it had become clear that Copenhagen could not adopt a full agreement because many basic differences remained. Copenhagen should have been designed as a stepping stone to a future successful outcome accepted by all. Unfortunately, the host country Denmark selected a small number of the 110 top leaders who came, to meet in secret, without the mandate or even knowledge of the convention's membership.

The selected leaders were given a draft Danish document that mainly represented the developed countries' positions, thereby marginalising the developing countries' views tabled at the two-year negotiations.

Meanwhile, most of the thousands of delegates were working for two weeks on producing two reports representing the latest state of play, indicating areas of agreement and those where final decisions still had to be taken.

These reports were finally adopted by the conference. They should have been announced as the real outcome of Copenhagen, together with a decision to resume and complete work next year. It would not have been a resounding success, but it would have been an honest ending that would not have been termed a failure.

Instead, the Copenhagen accord was criticised by the final plenary of members and not adopted. The unwise attempt by the Danish presidency to impose a non-legitimate meeting to override the legitimate multilateral process was the reason why Copenhagen will be considered a disaster.

The accord itself is weak mainly because it does not contain any commitments by the developed countries to cut their emissions in the medium term. Perhaps the reason for this most glaring omission is that the national pledges so far announced amount to only a 11-19% overall reduction by the developed countries by 2020 (compared to 1990), a far cry from the over 40% target demanded by the developing countries and recent science.

To deflect from this great failure on their part, the developed countries tried to inject long-term emission-reduction goals of 50% for the world and 80% for themselves, by 2050 compared to 1990. When this failed to get through the 26-country meeting, some countries, especially the UK, began to blame China for the failure of Copenhagen.

In fact, these targets, especially taken together, have been highly contentious during the two years of discussions, and for good reasons. They would result in a highly inequitable outcome where developed countries get off from their responsibilities and push the burden of adjustment onto the developing countries.

Together, they imply that developing countries would have to cut their emissions overall by about 20% in absolute terms and at least 60% in per capita terms. By 2050, developed countries with high per capita emissions – such as the US – would be allowed to have two to five times higher per capita emission levels than developing countries. The latter would have to severely curb not only their emissions but also their economic growth, especially since there is, up to now, no credible plans let alone commitments for financial and technology transfers to help them shift to a low-emissions development path.

The developed countries have already completed their industrialisation on the basis of cheap carbon-based energy and can afford to take on an 80% goal for 2050, especially since they now have the technological and organisational capacity and infrastructure. For a minimally equitable deal, they should commit to cuts of at least 200-400%, or move into negative emission territory, with net re-absorption of greenhouse gases, to enable developing countries the atmospheric space to develop.

The acceptance of the two targets would also have locked in a most unfair sharing of the remaining global carbon budget as it would have allowed the developed countries to get off free from their historical responsibility and their carbon debt. They would have been allocated the rights to a large amount of "carbon space", historically and in the future, without being given the obligation and responsibility to undertake adequate emission cuts nor to make adequate financial and technology transfers to developing countries.

Fortunately these targets are absent from the accord. The imperative for the negotiations next year is to agree on what science says is necessary for the world to do (in terms of limits to temperature rise or in global emissions cut) but also on what is a just and equitable formula for sharing the costs and burdens of adjustment, and to decide on both simultaneously. By asking for agreement on only a global goal and a very low commitment figure for their own obligatory cut, the developed countries were attempting to fix a global carbon budget distribution that enables them to get away with the hijacking of atmospheric space, a resource worth many trillions of dollars.

Learning from Copenhagen's mistakes, the countries should return to the multilateral track and resume negotiations in the climate convention's two working groups as early as possible.

They can start with the two reports passed at Copenhagen as reference points. There should not be more attempts to hijack this multilateral process, which represents our best hope to achieve final results.

The bottom-up democratic process is slower but also steadier, compared to the top-down attempt to impose a solution by a few powers that will always lack legitimacy in decision-making and success or sustainability in implementation.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 28 Dec 2009 | 5:11 am

Indian sand Santa sculptures spread green message

Well-known Indian sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik creates 100 Santa Clauses on a beach in the tourist town of Puri.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Dec 2009 | 1:57 am