China Solar Says Three Directors Detained in Fraud Probe

China Solar Energy Holdings Ltd. (155), the solar panel maker that’s lost 93 percent of its market value since 2007, said its chairman and two directors have been detained by Chinese authorities on allegations of fraud.
Chairman Yeung Ngo, Yang Yuchun and non-executive director Hao Guojun were arrested and have been held since Aug. 26, China Solar Energy said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Oct. 18, citing its legal advisers. The company has been unable to contact them since August and is assessing the impact of the investigation on its financial performance, it said.

The disappearance of China Solar Energy’s directors and the fraud probe underscore investor concern that the business environment on the mainland is opaque and prone to corruption. Transparency International last week ranked Chinese firms lowest in a survey of public reporting practices in emerging markets, while short-sellers have targeted companies including Prince Frog International Holdings Ltd. (1259) and China Minzhong Food Corp.

“This is just another case of poor governance quality that is characteristic of this market,” David Webb, a former exchange director who founded local governance watchdog Webb-site.com, said by telephone. “Why has it taken nearly two months for the company to figure out they couldn’t contact two of their directors and their chairman?”

China Solar Energy fell 11 percent to HK$0.18 on Aug. 16 before it asked for trading in the shares to be halted pending the release of an announcement about recent movement in the price. The company is valued at HK$277 million ($36 million), down from HK$3.7 billion at its 2007 peak. The shares will remain suspended, the company said in the Oct. 18 statement.

Chevron granted access to environmental activists' email accounts

http://hayatirazaka.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-2.html

Oil giant Chevron has been granted access to "more than 100 email accounts, including environmental activists, journalists, and attorneys" involved in a long-running dispute involving damage "caused by oil drilling" in Ecuador, reports the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) which, with EarthRights International (ERI), is opposing the New York court's decision says:

After years of litigation, an Ecuadorian court last year imposed a judgment of over $17 billion on Chevron for dumping toxic waste into Amazon waterways and causing massive harm to the rainforest. Instead of paying, Chevron sued more than 50 people who were involved in the Ecuador lawsuit, claiming they were part of a conspiracy to defraud the oil giant. None of the individuals represented by EFF and ERI has been sued by Chevron or accused of wrongdoing.

Both EFF and ERI have warned that Chevron's subpoenas will have a "chilling effect" on people who would speak out against the oil company's activities in Ecuador and elsewhere.

The background to the case was reported by Common Dreams staff writer Lauren McCauley:

Both EFF and ERI have warned that Chevron's subpoenas will have a "chilling effect" on people who would speak out against the oil company's activities in Ecuador and elsewhere.

The background to the case was reported by Common Dreams staff writer Lauren McCauley:

The oil giant is demanding the records in an attempt to cull together a lawsuit which alleges that the company was the victim of a conspiracy in the $18.2 billion judgment against it for dumping 18.5 billion gallons of oil waste in the Ecuadorean Amazon, causing untold damage to the rainforest.

scam watch solutions-We can learn from Sweden's low-carbon cities

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2013/7/8/smart-energy/we-can-learn-swedens-low-carbon-cities

The Conversation

While governments ad nations are deadlocked in negotiations to reduce carbon emissions and prevent catastrophic warming, some cities are quietly turning over to renewable energy.

Sydney was the first Australian city to claim carbon neutrality in 2008, using offsets and Green Power. It aims to source all its energy from renewable sources by 2030. So, when it comes to cutting carbon, are cities the place to start?

There have been calls for Australian local government to promote low-carbon cities, especially since global levels of CO2 passed 400 ppm.

There are good reasons for aiming carbon-reduction at cities and local government. Local government can deal directly with households and small businesses in ways the state and federal government can’t. Local government has also proved to be an important source of program innovation.

But engaging Australia’s local governments is easier said than done. Our councils are uncoordinated, underfunded and often lack the necessary expertise when it comes to environmental protection.

Perhaps we can look elsewhere for inspiration. Recent achievements by Swedish cities show how Australian cities could adopt low-carbon initiatives.

crown jakarta capital environmental-28 Years Of Environmental Destruction

http://luigimaurier.livejournal.com/1249.html

We lament about killing the planet and wax poetic about saving it. We talk about making big changes and taking small actions. We warn and caution and threaten that our actions today are ruining the planet for future generations. It hasn’t done much good, but maybe that’s because we’re visual learners, and it’s hard to actually see the impact of our choices.

In just a few seconds, Engine Earth, a new offering from Google, will change that. The tool brings together the world’s satellite imagery — trillions of scientific measurements dating back almost 40 years — and speeds it up. Suddenly, changes that were undetectable before become visible in real time. And it isn’t pretty.

“We started working with the USGS in 2009 to make this historic archive of earth imagery available online,” writes Rebecca Moore, Engineering Manager, Google Earth Engine & Earth Outreach, on the company’s official blog. “Using Google Earth Engine technology, we sifted through 2,068,467 images—a total of 909 terabytes of data—to find the highest-quality pixels (e.g., those without clouds), for every year since 1984 and for every spot on Earth. We then compiled these into enormous planetary images, 1.78 terapixels each, one for each year.”

Using Landsat images from 1984 until 2012, Google Engine was created as an online with tools for scientists, independent researchers, and nations to detect changes, map trends and quantify differences on the Earth’s surface. But there’s no denying that, even for the layperson, it’s a powerful visual representation of what our rampant consumption and development has done to the planet.

In the time-lapse images, we see glaciers retreat, reservoirs dry up, cities expand out into the ocean, and forests disappear. Such dramatic changes in what is a relatively tiny chunk of time are almost sickening.

At the same time, it’s possible to imagine these images moving in reverse, if only we are willing and able to halt the destruction and move in a different direction. Think of a time lapse of solar panels being installed, or wind turbines being erected. Trees being planted or wetlands being restored. This too is possible, in just as short of a period of time, but only if we’re willing to alter our course and invest in the future.

Jakarta Crown Eco Management Brazil's Forests Profit From Destruction

http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/article19.php?id=2131

The murder in 2011 of José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and Maria do Espírito Santo hit international headlines. Both were environmental activists in the northern Brazilian state of Pará. Their deaths drew comparisons with other prominent campaigners who were killed in the Amazon basin, including Dorothy Stagg in 2005 and Brazilian trade unionist and environmental campaigner Chico Mendes (Francisco Alves Mendes Filho) in 1988.

Da Silva and Santo had been supporting three families occupying primary forest that had been bought by José Rodrigues Moreira with the intention of turning it into cattle pastures. The two hired killers recently received sentences of more than 40 years each. Moreira, standing trial for ordering the killings, was released.

Da Silva had been cited by human rights groups as at risk of assassination since 2008, and predicted his death six months before the event. Despite repeated death threats made to da Silva, no police protection was granted.

In 2011, 32 environmentalists were killed in Brazil, according to the Guardian. In Pará, predominantly comprised of Amazonian forest, 231 were killed between 1996 and 2010, according to Brazilian NGO, the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT). “Violence is the instrument of local capitalism. They [landowners] are proud to kill and they’re seen by some as local heroes for defending their property with blood”, said Brazilian commentator Filipe Milanez.

The Brazilian government has taken no real action to stop the ‘wild west’ agricultural capitalists in Pará. The Guardian reports that many of these, alongside speculators, are moving in to different states, such as Amazonas. According to the CPT, 918 environmentalists have been killed between 1985 and April 2011, but trials were only held in 27 instances. Chico Mendes’s killer had sent him death threats, and another state had an arrest warrant out on him for murder. Mendes informed the police of this. They took no action.

The Amazon ecological system, or biome, covers 6.7 million square kilometres, and plays an immensely important role. It makes up half the planet’s remaining rainforests, and 10% of the world’s known species, many of which are not found elsewhere. There is an estimated population of 2.7 million indigenous people, making up around 350 ethnic groups. The biome is spread over nine countries. However, 60% is in Brazil.

The Amazon basin is a large part of the carbon cycle. From the 1980s to 2004, it absorbed 1.5-2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2 – a major greenhouse gas) a year, making it an important carbon sink. In contrast, roughly three quarters of Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation through burning and rotting. The biome has a key effect on regional and global weather systems and is, in turn, impacted by changes elsewhere.

2013 ENVIRONMENTAL EXCELLENCE AWARD WINNER IN TECHNOLOGY/CONSERVATION CATEGORY

http://www.southerngas.org/sga-blog/2013/05/16/2013-environmental-excellence-award-winner-in-technologyconservation-category/

Here’s a brief excerpt from the submission for the award:

In the spring of 2011, [Kinder Morgan] attended an American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) professional safety meeting at which Eric Rowland of Rowland Safety and Supply demonstrated the effectiveness of gloves used in various applications to prevent serious injury. During that presentation, Eric spoke of his company’s work with recycling gloves and other materials that were oil soaked. The application for gloves was impressive because ‘Mechanix Gloves’ are expensive and most workers think the only recourse when they become oil soaked is to discard them. Eric’s company refurbishes those types of gloves and sanitizes them as well. As Eric spoke of the environmental advantages to doing this, as well as reclaiming and recycling the oil, [Kinder Morgan] was intrigued and wondered why [they] had never heard of a company that was this diligent in recycling used oil.

There were two reasons that [Kinder Morgan] invited Eric to speak to our Central Division leadership team. The first was to demonstrate the proper selection and use of gloves to prevent employee injury. The second was to discuss the possibility of reclaiming the used oil that our compressor stations produced due to leaks in our engines. After his presentation, the Central Division leadership team decided to begin a pilot project to see if reclaiming and recycling the used oil would be a prudent approach.

Awards will be presented at this year’s Environmental, Safety & Health, and Training Conference in St. Louis, MO on June 4th.

About Kinder Morgan:

Kinder Morgan is the largest midstream and the third largest energy company (based on combined enterprise value) in North America. We own an interest in or operate approximately 80,000 miles of pipelines and 180 terminals. Our pipelines transport natural gas, refined petroleum products, crude oil, carbon dioxide (CO2) and more. We also store or handle a variety of products and materials at our terminals such as gasoline, jet fuel, ethanol, coal, petroleum coke and steel.

In most of our businesses we operate like a giant toll road and receive a fee for our services, generally avoiding commodity price risk. Our customers include major oil companies, energy producers and shippers, local distribution companies and businesses across many industries. We invest billions of dollars each year to build new energy infrastructure and expand existing assets, as well as on integrity management programs to operate our assets safely.

The Kinder Morgan family of companies has four publicly traded entities:

Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE: KMI), Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. (NYSE: KMP) (one of the largest publicly traded pipeline master limited partnerships in America), Kinder Morgan Management, LLC (NYSE: KMR) and El Paso Pipeline Partners (NYSE: EPB). Combined, the Kinder Morgan companies have an enterprise value of approximately $115 billion.