Prince Charles: 100 months to save the world

Prince Charles: 100 months to save the world

The Prince of Wales is to issue a stark warning that nations have "less than 100 months to act" to save the planet from irreversible damage due to climate change.

Prince Charles will say that the need to tackle global warming is more urgent than ever before and that, even in a global recession, the world must not lose sight of the "bigger picture".

His warning will be delivered on Thursday in a keynote speech in Rio de Janeiro.

Aides believe it will echo one he gave in Sao Paulo in 1991 at the start of the last recession, when he warned that caring for the world's long term welfare must not become a "luxury".

The intervention will help to put the environment at the top of the political agenda ahead of the meeting of G20 leaders in London next month.

The Prince starts a ten-day tour of South America today during which he will be playing an elevated role as an international statesman working on behalf of the Government to support British interests on key issues.

Senior sources have revealed that Gordon Brown's Government wants to make more use on the foreign stage of Prince Charles's experience, expertise and contacts, particularly on climate change.

Government officials believe that the Prince's passion to protect the environment is hugely respected abroad and that he can play an increasing important role as he inevitably moves closer to becoming king.

Some believe he is an "asset" that has been underused in the past and they want to use him more in a role of "soft diplomacy".

In Thursday's speech, the Prince will warn that a failure to act in the next eight years will have catastrophic effects for the planet.

In the country that is home to the world's largest rainforest, Prince Charles will urge world unity to combat deforestation in the run-up to the UN conference on climate change in Copenhagen in December this year.

He will say there is not necessarily a clash between the needs of big business and the environment. He will argue that being green can be good for businesses and can create jobs.

The Prince will say that tackling deforestation in the 3.5 billion acres of rainforest on the planet is a key priority.

According to royal aides, Prince Charles will tell business leaders that he is in South America to "listen and learn" and that he believes that Brazil and other neighbouring countries must lead the way in moves to save the rainforests.

The Prince will also visit the Amazon rainforest, the world's largest rainforest, on Saturday.

The Prince's tour to Chile, Brazil and Ecuador (including the Galapagos Islands), when he will be accompanied by the Duchess of Cornwall, will see a greater emphasis than ever before on him becoming involved in talks with prime ministers, presidents and senior politicians, in a move aimed at promoting British interests abroad.

It is the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), not the Prince himself, which chooses the location for his royal tours and South America is considered the ideal platform for his views.

One Government source said: "The Prince's visit to South America is very much in tune with the priorities that we have.

"Given both the Prince's position as a future head of state and his personal commitment to protecting the environment, we believe he can have a real impact abroad"

In a possible sign of his elevated role, Prince Charles will meet Barack Obama when the new US President comes to Britain next month for the G20 London summit.

They will meet at, or even before, a Buckingham Palace reception when the Prince is expected to raise climate change issues with the President.

Royal aides have welcomed the opportunity for the Prince to expand his role on behalf of the Government. One senior official said: "It could be argued that he has already established a role as an international statesman, especially on green issues.

"This is one of the reasons why Government has asked him to go to South America. He will be conducting Government business and one of his roles is to support the UK's environmental objectives."

This is the major royal overseas tour for the first half of the year. He will be meeting the presidents and heads of governments in each of the three countries for talks.

"In Chile and Brazil, he will host a "round table" meeting for corporate leaders aimed at encouraging businesses to do more to tackle climate change.

"This is about soft diplomacy," said a senior aide. "The Prince of Wales is not a politician who sits down with a world leader and hammers out an agreement.

"But what he can do is show support and get over the message that Britain wants to stand shoulder to shoulder with these countries in the fight against climate change, and bring his own experience and knowledge to bear."

Courtiers at Clarence House dislike suggestions that the Prince of Wales, who was 60 last year, is a "shadow king" keen to take on duties from his mother, who is 82.

However, one Government source said: "There is no plan for Prince to take over specific duties from the Queen but common sense dictates that as she gets older her diary will be tailored accordingly."

The Prince is likely eventually to take on more of the long, arduous overseas tours stand in for her at more investitures.

One senior FCO official said: "We are hugely supportive of this visit. The Prince's commitment to sustainable development is very much in line with one of our main priorities.

"The Prince's visit will advance that agenda in terms of both UK interests and the engagement of other countries in pursuing it.

"The real personal commitment that Prince Charles has to environmental issues and his interest in sustainable development really resonates with people, both at Government level and ordinary individuals."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/4952918/Prince-Charles-we-have-100-months-to-save-the-world.html

Looking for Brazil's Moon Under Water

In 1946 George Orwell wrote an article in which he described his favorite pub which was called The Moon Under Water. After outlining all the features that made it perfect (including, believe it or not, that it sold loose tobacco as well as cigarettes) he ended by revealing that it did not actually exist as it was too perfect.

Well, smoky English pubs are not my scene but finding an idyllic hidey hole by the sea has been a dream since I first visited Brazil more than 20 years ago. About two years ago I finally found a place which matches a lot of my desires and I have just booked my fourth stay there for the upcoming holidays.

The place is not in some distant, isolated spot but only about 100 miles from São Paulo and is fairly well known. It is next to a small town which is barely touched by commercialism. My fear is that this will change and it will become more popular, condominiums will start being built, fancy restaurants and nightclubs will spring up, and the whole relaxed atmosphere will disappear. It will become like Ubatuba or Boiçucanga, admittedly great places but too much like São Paulo sur mer for my liking.

Like these two places, "my" beach is also on the northern coast somewhere between Santos and Rio de Janeiro. The main road bypasses it, thanks to some mangrove swamps, and the beach itself is basically a crescent-shaped cove about a half a mile long bordered on one side by the mouth of a small river backed by a steep hill and on the other side by a rocky crag.

Looking inland you see the dense Atlantic rainforest rising up into the Serra do Mar mountains which are often shrouded in an ethereal mist as if to remind you that you are in the middle of the steamy tropics. Some scattered islands a mile or so offshore complete the idyllic location and view.

It is a typical Brazilian beach in miniature, marked by the habits and schedules which define beach life here. The kids paddle on one stretch while the surfers have their favorite spot where they can flirt with the girls, the footballers appear at the same time every afternoon to play on "their" stretch and people are always strolling along the water, the joggers early in the morning and the young lovers in the evening.

There are a couple of stalls you can get a caipirinha and plate of shrimps. It is spoiled to an extent by hustlers trying to sell you things you don't want and by the noise of water skiers and motorboats but overall these are a minor inconvenience. Another big plus is that the place is safe. Outside the tourist season, it is empty and even when it gets busy there is usually enough space to stretch out far from others or hop over to one of the islands.

The mangrove swamps restrict building and there are only a couple of houses with direct access to the beach. There are some older buildings on the hills, one of which is a bar which provides a pleasant resting spot after climbing the crag and scrambling around on the huge basalt rocks marking the natural frontier with the neighboring beach.

This geographical location gives you the feeling that you are completely cut off even though the main road is only a few hundred yards away. In fact, the beaches on either side run alongside the road for miles and miles. This means that if you feel like a change you just need to cross over and will find yourself back in "civilization".

The town consists of older houses where the local people, known as caiçaras, live in and more recently built weekend getaways belonging to Paulistanos. The locals are the descendants of the mixture of Indians, Africans and Portuguese who lived here for hundreds of years before the racial mixture of São Paulo was transformed by the arrival of millions of immigrants from Europe, the Middle East and Japan about a century ago.

You occasionally even see full-blooded Indians, a very rare sight indeed in the city of São Paulo. The locals are small subsistence farmers, fishermen, laborers and many now make their living from the tourist trade. Some of their homes are little more than shacks and, despite the holiday atmosphere, there is still quite a lot of poverty.

There are a couple of good pousadas and houses with rooms to let but no hotels. There is no supermarket or bank, not even an ATM, and only a few shops and restaurants. The eating places serve up simple fish dishes, rice, potatoes, beans and salads. There is also a pizzeria and ice cream parlor and a couple of small bars used by the locals.

Oddly enough, there is no Catholic church but there is a small evangelical church which highlights how these Protestant groups are making inroads into the Catholic Church's traditional strongholds.

That's about it in a nutshell. If you live in São Paulo and are familiar with the area you may even know the place. I have tried not to exaggerate the attraction of the place and realize that this is not everyone's idea of a beach retreat. For some, it would still be too built-up and touristy while for others it would be too quiet.

However, it is perfect for someone who needs to be close to the city and it is less than 30 minutes from the more sophisticated resorts. For this reason, the price of houses and land are high. I was told that a modest house in a prime location was sold recently for about 3 million Brazilian reais (US$ 1.3 million). At first I was skeptical but later when I started checking out prices for myself I changed my mind.

I have visited beaches all over Brazil in these two decades and have had mixed experiences. However, in closing, I would like to share two special memories from opposite perspectives.

Once I visited a place where an acquaintance was building a house. It was in an isolated spot on the border of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro states near Angra dos Reis which could only be accessed by boat and we had to wade out to sea, balancing supplies on our heads. A local woman cooked the main meal for a group of us one hot night between Christmas and New Year - rice and fish, washed down by bottles of beer.

We slept - or tried to sleep - on the ground listening to the surf and covering our heads with blankets to keep the mosquitoes out. I hated every minute at the time but in retrospect, it has become a favorite memory.

Another time I stayed in a small resort about 20 miles north of Salvador in Bahia in the home of a kindly Brazilian doctor who loaned me his place for a week. One beautiful night I walked through the palms to the strand and there I really did see the moon under water as the sea reflected a great silver orb high in the heavens shining out of a cloudless sky down on Brazil, bestowing God's blessing on this wonderful land.

John Fitzpatrick is a Scottish writer and consultant with long experience of Brazil. He is based in São Paulo and runs his own company Celtic Comunicações. He can be contacted at jf@celt.com.br.YouThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it can read more by him at his site www.brazilpoliticalcomment.com.br.

Brazil Rainforest Analysis Sets Off Political Debate

Gilberto Câmara, a scientist who leads Brazil’s national space agency, is more at ease poring over satellite data of the Amazon than being thrust into the spotlight.

But since January, Dr. Câmara has been at the center of a political tug-of-war between scientists and Brazil’s powerful business interests. It started when he and his fellow engineers released a report showing that deforestation of Brazil’s portion of the rainforest seemed to have shot up again after two years of decline.

Since then, Dr. Câmara, who leads the National Institute for Space Research here, has found himself having to defend his agency’s findings against one of Brazil’s richest and most powerful men: Blairo Maggi, who is governor of the country’s largest agricultural state, Mato Grosso, and a business owner known as the “Soybean King.”

Governor Maggi was exercised enough by the report — which led to harsh measures stifling business in his state — that he asked for, and was granted, a meeting with the president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The stakes could not be higher for Mr. da Silva. Stewardship of the Amazon has always been a touchy subject, with many Brazilians fearful that world powers would try to impose their standards on the rainforest.

In recent years, the debate over the Amazon has intensified, with many outside the country seeing an intact rainforest as a key to controlling global warming. At the same time, Brazil’s economy has taken off — largely because of businesses that are claiming more of the Amazon’s land for crops and livestock, and more of its trees for logging.

Mr. da Silva has spent the last several years walking a careful line, trying to maintain his image as Brazil’s first “green” president, which has gained him international cachet, without threatening Brazil’s agriculture industry at a time of soaring grain and meat prices.

Dr. Câmara’s findings made the president’s balancing act harder and turned up the heat on what had been a long-simmering battle between businesses and environmentalists.

It did not help that the scientists’ report, released in January, relied heavily on progressive deforestation, a relatively new measure that is is widely accepted by environmentalists but that Governor Maggi contends is tantamount to lying. The space agency argues that this slower-paced deforestation, where parts of the forest are thinned out little by little rather than at once, can be just as devastating.

The criticism of the report worried scientists in and out of Brazil, including Dr. Câmara. “Science,” he said, “should not bow to authority.”

The space agency, known as INPE, reported in January that deforestation had hit an estimated 4,300 square miles between August and December of last year. If that pace continues, the yearly total for deforestation would jump; the number was approximately 6,900 square miles from August 2006 to August 2007.

The agency’s data also showed that 54 percent of the deforestation had occurred in Mato Grosso, Governor Maggi’s state, where the scientists said ranchers and loggers pushed farther into the rainforest.

Some of the deforestation is legal. Owners are allowed to clear 20 percent of their land in the rainforest.

Nonetheless, the report was a headache for the government. Mr. da Silva has received international attention in recent years for the country’s growing biofuels program and for the recent two-year drop in deforestation. Suddenly environmentalists across the world were again criticizing Brazil’s efforts to save the rainforest.

The attacks on the space agency made some environmentalists worry publicly that the president might cave in to pressure from businesses. Environmentalists became even more alarmed when Marina Silva, Brazil’s environmental minister and a respected rainforest defender, resigned this month. While leaving, she spoke of heavy pressures being exerted by industry-minded governors, including Governor Maggi, to reverse the federal crackdown on destruction of the forest.

Still, Mr. da Silva responded to the space agency’s report with tough measures, including imposing credit restrictions on those found to be involved in illegal forest-clearing and creating a Arc of Fire, a multi-agency police operation that conducts surprise raids to catch illegal loggers.

The space agency has two systems for measuring deforestation. Prodes, a yearly satellite analysis, measures deforested areas as small as about 15 acres, while Deter, a lower-resolution system, maps areas greater than about 60 acres in real-time, giving law enforcement information to act quickly to stop further destruction.

The dispute over the space agency’s figures has centered on the information provided by Deter.

In the past, Dr. Câmara said, the agency included mostly large swaths of cleared land in its analysis. But environmental researchers have been clamoring for years for satellite researchers to expand monitoring to include areas thinned by logging and surface fires, rather than just areas that have been clear cut.

The agency uses the term progressive deforestation to refer to the slower form of forest degradation that has become increasingly common in the Amazon in recent years and which Dr. Câmara said the agency began including in its analysis in 2005.

The latest deforestation alerts have shown that about one-third of newly deforested areas were from progressive degradation, of which more than 75 percent were “severely degraded,” he said.

“We had to ask ourselves what happened between forest and clear-cut,” said Dr. Câmara, 52, who has been with the agency for 26 years. “With a view that if you are going to do prevention and enforcement, you need to be there as rapidly as possible.”

In other words, if farmers, loggers and others are clearing illegally, but slowly, the government, by identifying thinned-out areas, has a better chance to catch them before a large area has been affected.

“We are satisfied with the technology we have,” Dr. Câmara said. “It is the largest use of remote sensing data for environmental protection worldwide on a systematic basis of any country.”

But for Governor Maggi, who leads the state that has become a locomotive in Brazil’s surging agriculture industry, news that Mato Grosso was once again the worst deforestation offender was difficult to accept. While he is lauded by many for pioneering Brazil’s expansion into the world soybean market, his pro-industry stance and actions as head of a soybean-growing business have made him a frequent target of environmentalists. Greenpeace gave him the Golden Chainsaw Award in 2005 for being the Brazilian who most contributed to the destruction of the rainforest.

Governor Maggi’s chief of staff, Alexander Torres Maia, did not respond to phone calls seeking comment, and he did not reply to a list of questions sent via e-mail last week.

In recent years, critics say Governor Maggi has softened his all-out defense of the rights of businesses out of political necessity. But that did not stop his administration from challenging the satellite data. Officials in Mato Grosso said that the state’s environmental agency had never heard of progressive deforestation.

“We could see this wasn’t deforestation, it was burning of fields and old deforestation,” Luis Henrique Chaves Daldegan, Mato Grosso’s environment secretary, said in an interview.

Mato Grosso’s environmental agency worked to gather evidence to prove the space agency had overreached. Technicians compared satellite images dating from 2000, went to disputed locations and shot photos of what was there today. Mr. Daldegan said the pictures proved that the space agency was declaring land that had been deforested as far back as 2000 as newly cleared.

On March 25, the state agency provided Dr. Câmara with a detailed report that included 854 photos of areas in Mato Grosso that the space agency had included in its tally. The state report contended that only 10 percent of the areas had recently been deforested.

Dr. Câmara put 10 of the 50 specialists that had produced the deforestation analysis onto the task of analyzing Mato Grosso’s photos and data. They worked intensely for six weeks, he said, sometimes time-stamping their analysis of the photos after midnight.

“There was clearly a sense of urgency,” Dr. Câmara said.

In the end, the space agency said that 96 percent of its initial assessments had been correct.

“INPE is very proud, and the internal pressures were almost stronger than the external pressures to show that science would win out,” Dr. Câmara said. He did, however, agree to try using higher-resolution satellites in the future to improve the reliability of his agency’s analysis.

Mr. Daldegan said he is still not satisfied.

“We don’t think this is the end of the story,” Dr. Câmara said. “They did not ask us to stop doing this data. So this was a step forward.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/world/americas/25amazon.html?ref=world

Can’t see forest for the trees

LLOYD’S List is the first to praise those taking steps to protect the environment and one Brazilian freight forwarder caught our eye at this year’s show. Interfreight Logistics has developed a wonderfully simple way of alleviating the environmental impact of its activities.

For each box it imports to Brazil, the company plants a tree close to the Brazilian colonial town of Paraty.

Last year, the initiative, undertaken in conjunction with the non-government organisation Verde Cidadania, was responsible for the company planting 2,000 trees at the Juatinga reafforestation project. Its customers include some of the largest companies in Brazil: Usiminas, Arcelor, Gerdau, Microsoft, Sony, Nissan and Mitsubishi.

The project aims to boost the Mata Atlantica, one of the most important stretches of rainforest in the world. While the company accepts that the project probably does not compensate totally for the carbon cost of shipping boxes from Europe and Japan to Brazil, every little bit helps.

http://www.lloydslist.com/ll/news/lastword-at-large-at-intermodal-south-america/1208969116062.htm

Brazil producing condoms from the rainforest

The Brazilian government has come up with a novel way of fighting the Aids epidemic that has gripped the country - using rubber from trees in the Amazon rainforest to produce condoms.

Brazil's health ministry said that the move will not only aid the fight against the disease but will also help preserve the world's largest rainforest.

It is also hoped that producing condoms from the rainforest will cut the South American country's reliance on imported contraceptives, which are given away free as part of a government programme to fight Aids.

A state-run factory in the north-western state of Acre will produce 100 million of the 'Natex' condoms every year.

Brazilian officials said that the factory would generate income for Amazon residents, benefiting at least 500 families and providing 150 jobs in Xapuri, a small Amazonian town with a population of around 15,000 people.

They claim that making the condoms will not put the region's wildlife under threat as the process involves using a product which is widely available and does not require workers to destroy large sections of the rainforest.

The health ministry says that the 'Natex' condoms are the only condoms in the world made of latex harvested from a tropical forest, and will reduce the country's reliance on foreign imports.

Brazil is the world's largest single buyer of condoms, with the government purchasing more than a billion of the contraceptives in recent years as part of the country's national programme to combat Aids.

Catholic bishops have been critical of the government's programme, saying that it encourages promiscuity.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/08/wcondoms108.xml

Rainforest: Five reasons to get excited about football in Brazil

While England were losing to France in Paris last night, the Brazilian national team were treating the Emirates Arsenal stadium to a preview of what football fans can expect at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil with a 1-0 win over old rivals Sweden. Preparation for the World Cup is already well under way.

Maracanã, the stadium HQ of top Rio de Janeiro clubs Flamengo, Vasco, Fluminense and Botafogo is being completely refurbished in time for 2014, but its Football Museum remains open, housing mementoes from legendary matches, such as the ball and net from Pelé’s 1,000th goal, and the boots worn by Garrincha (the “little bird”), considered to be the best dribbler in footballing history.

The beach city of Natal is already going football crazy – David Beckham is building his World of Sport Academy here to provide future football stars with top-flight facilities, as well as a luxury hotel resort for guests to enjoy .

As well as footballing prowess, Brazil prides itself on fantastic hospitality. Thirsty football fans will especially enjoy a cold beer in Belo Horizonte after watching games at the renovated 74,000-seater Minerão stadium, as the city is said to boast over 12,000 bars, more per capita than anywhere else in the country. In fact, the motto of Brazil’s third largest city and the capital of beautiful, landlocked Minas Gerais state, is “nao tem mares, tem bares”, which loosely translates as “There are no seas, there are bars.”

The Brazilians have proposed a record 18 different cities to host matches, from all corners of its 8 million square km territory, making 2014 likely to be the most geographically diverse World Cup ever. It will even take football fans from all over the world deep into the heart of the Amazon rainforest to the cities of Manaus and Rio Branco.

Brazilians take the World Cup more seriously than any other nation, having won the cup a total of five times on foreign soil. However, the last time the country hosted the tournament, back in 1950, the national side lost to neighbours Uruguay in a humiliating defeat that is said to have provided the inspiration for subsequent Brazilian teams, who began their winning streak in 1958.

http://www.easier.com/view/Travel/Travel_Guides/article-170619.html

Young Vic explores the rainforests

Their last international collaboration took them to South Africa - and now London's Young Vic theatre is looking to the Brazilian rainforest for inspiration.

The theatre has just started work on a year-long season of shows exploring the popular culture of Brazil's Amazon region, and the life and legacy of the environmental activist Chico Mendes.

The season, which includes shows both in Brazil and at the Young Vic, will culminate in a Christmas production co-written by Brazilian comedian and TV star Pedro Cardoso.

"This is a way to work with people in other countries and traditions who do something very different," says the theatre's artistic director, David Lan.

"There's an element of gamble, but you just have to jump off the cliff. We're trying to see just how adventurous we can be."

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/theatre/news/story/0,,2266436,00.html

First coca find in Brazil Amazon

Coca is usually grown in countries neighbouring Brazil

Coca plantations and a fully-equipped laboratory for making cocaine have been found for the first time in a Brazilian part of the Amazon rainforest.

A senior army officer said the find might mean drug traffickers were trying to find new locations to grow coca.

The authorities would need to stay on alert, he said.

The leaf, a key ingredient of cocaine, is normally grown in mountainous regions in some of Brazil's neighbours such as Bolivia, Peru and Colombia.

The authorities in Brazil say it was satellite images of a large area of Amazon rainforest that had been cleared which first attracted their attention.

In total, four plantations were discovered covering an area of between 100 and 150 hectares, according to the government news agency Agencia Brasil.

The army and police used small boats and three helicopters to reach the area, which is near to the north western city of Tabatinga, close to the border with Peru and Colombia.

The coca, which was almost ready for harvest, was found along with a fully equipped laboratory prepared to manufacture cocaine.

No-one was arrested, but the coca was destroyed.

The army says it is the first time that plantations like this have been discovered in the Brazilian Amazon, where the climate was not thought to favour coca fields.

A different plant known as epadu, which can also be used to produce cocaine, is more common in the area, but is much less productive.

The army believes drug traffickers may be trying to adapt or genetically modify the coca leaf and find new locations for plantations.

A senior officer warned that if there was not an immediate crackdown, it might even become a new source of deforestation.

Walter Maierovitch, who used to lead Brazil's effort to combat drugs, has described the discovery as "worrying", and a possible indication that some Colombian drug cartels were changing their strategy.

Soldiers are remaining in the area to try to find those behind the plantations, and to check for other possible locations which might have been used by the drug traffickers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7299964.stm

Acai: The Super Antioxidant From Brazil

Acai is an Amazonian palm tree, and possesses small purple

fruits that the Amazonian natives of Brazil have used since time

immemorial as food and as a remedy for certain health conditions

that are now known to be associated with the activity on free

radicals on body cells.

The active constituents of acai are powerful polyphenols and

anthocyanin antioxidants that protect your body cells from

oxidation by free radicals. In fact the plant has been referred

to as `the super antioxidant from Brazil’ by many medical

writers who have recognized its right to be termed as such. To

understand that, you first have to understand what an

antioxidant is and how it works. The chemical names of the

active substances it contains will be meaningless without that

background knowledge.

Oxidation occurs in your body even before you are born. What is

does in general terms is to destroy your body cells, and the

more it progresses the more your body is prone to cancers and

cardiovascular diseases, and the more visible becomes the aging

process. Chemically, oxidation is the loss of one or more

electrons by an atom or molecule. Oxidation within your body is

highly associated with what are known as free radicals. To

explain these we have to consider the chemistry of electron

pairs and free radicals, though this is not too technical so

read on.

Normally electrons exist in pairs of opposite spin: in simple

terms each pair makes up a single negative charge. Take

hydrogen: its atomic structure contains one proton and one

electron. However, the hydrogen atom cannot exist by itself

since the most stable configuration is that electrons exist in

pairs with a net zero spin, so the hydrogen molecule consists of

two hydrogen atoms with their own protons sharing an electron

pair. This is true of all covalently bonded molecules.

However, certain influences, such as pollution through tobacco

smoke, pesticides, engine exhausts and the excess UV radiation

of sunlight can cause a molecule to lose an electron. This

creates what is known as a free radical: a molecule without an

electrical charge but with an unpaired electron. Since the most

stable configuration for it is to have a paired electron, the

molecule will steal an electron from the most suitable candidate

it finds.

In practise this will be a body cell, and the cell that loses

the electron gets destroyed causing aging of the skin and many

other undesirable effects, including cancers. This stealing of

an electron is chemically referred to as oxidation. Antioxidants

prevent this occurring to your body cells by being reactive

themselves and preferentially mopping up these free electrons.

Polyphenols and anthocyanins are powerful antioxidants, and

that is why the people of the Amazon rainforests have used acai

not only as a food, but also for their health. It is only

relatively recently that, as with many of the ancient health

remedies, the scientific basis behind its use has been proved.

The early Brazilian natives may not have understood biochemistry

or what free radicals were, but they sure knew what was good for

them.

As with many other foodstuffs containing powerful antioxidants,

it is likely that it was the highly colored berries that first

attracted them. That does not suggest that all brightly colored

foods are good for you, but the brightly colored pigments and

dyestuffs contained within them also tend to act as antioxidants

due the same electron configuration that provides them with

their color. Many of these chemicals are also use as food dyes,

and have been used so since before their chemistry and

antioxidant effects were known. The color comes from the same

electron activity that makes them destroy free radicals. That is

why most highly colored foods contain significant quantities of

phytochemicals.

The deep purple color of the acai fruit led chemists to

determine its content of polyphenols, such as anthocyanins, that

are common in other highly colored foods such blueberries,

peppers and aubergines. High concentrations of anthocyanins such

as cyandin-3-glucoside and the rutinoside analogue were found,

together with flavonoids such as orientin, deoxyhexose and

scoparin. A total of twelve flavonoids were discovered that

explains the highly antioxidant properties of the fruits.

Laboratory and other tests have indicated that over 80% of the

antioxidant effect of acai is due to polyphenols other than the

anthocyanins. It is likely that these are the twelve flavonoids

identified to date and any others that have still to be

detected.

However, it is not only for its antioxidant properties that

acai is such a healthy fruit, since it contains many other

nutritional components. It contains fatty acids, including

linoleic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid and also beta-sitosterol

that are believed to reduce the level of LDL cholesterol in the

blood. The fruit also contains a high level of amino acids,

essential for the synthesis of proteins and DNA.

So what exactly does this mean for you in real terms?

Antioxidants can do different things for different people, and

the acai berry is said to have more than thirty times the

antioxidant power of red wine. When you consider that many

doctors believe one glass of red wine to provide sufficient

antioxidant for the average person, you are getting a very high

dose with acai berries, so what does it do for you?

Due its effect in destroying the free radicals caused by

pollution, acai and similar powerful sources of antioxidants are

becoming increasingly important to our diets. What was a

sufficient antioxidant intake even twenty years ago is not

longer sufficient. Acai can help to combat early aging by

reducing the rate at which your body cells are destroyed by free

radicals. It also reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease,

and the associated high risk of strokes or heart attacks.

Acai juice itself has an unusually high fiber content, and

helps maintain the health of your digestive system. An

associated benefit of this is that you are less liable to

contract colon cancer than if you did not consume it. Due to a

reduction in the rate of destruction of body cells, including

brain cells, elderly people benefit through maintenance of their

brain function, and a lower likelihood of degenerating cognitive

ability. It helps you to maintain concentration and memory, and

can also reduce the risk of you getting cataracts.

Antioxidants are also known to help maintain the immune system,

and act as anti-inflammatories, and it is believed that acai

juice can help to reduce the symptoms of arthritis. If you use

acai berries as part of a daily diet, you should receive the

benefits that it provides, although a more measured dosage in

the form of a supplement will enable you to control your intake

of acai, and if one thing is certain it is that you will be far

healthy with a regular dose of the superantioxidant from Brazil

than without.

http://www.fitness-blog.personal-trainers.com/acai-the-super-antioxidant-from-brazil/

Does good skin come in a tablet?

Great skin just got another wrinkle.

Cosmetic treatments are no longer just about creams and emollients — the latest trend is about working from the inside out. "Ingestibles" are supplements such as omega-3 oils, alpha lipoic acid, grape seed, pomegranate extract and many other nutritional-sounding words you never used to hear at the cosmetics counter.

While supplements have long been a staple at health-food stores, many credit Nicholas Perricone, the New York dermatologist-to-the-stars, as fueling the beauty-biz trend with his best-selling books, such as "The Perricone Prescription." He recommends eating a lot of salmon, among other foods high in omega-3 oils. Perricone's line of supplements is sold at stores such as Sephora; a multipack is $130.

Here's a closer look at beauty ingestibles, which hope to capture a significant share of the $45-billion-a-year cosmetic and skin-care market.

The science

Since skin is our body's largest organ, it reflects our health. So, as Harvard-trained dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon Carolyn Jacob says, "The creams and lotions and potions you put on top of your face mean nothing if you're not eating well."

Foods with antioxidants as well as foods with anti-inflammatory properties are the key to preserving a youthful appearance, says Jacob. Refined sugar and flour and trans-fats are all examples of inflammatory foods.

"Inflammation and oxidation can both assist in the breakdown of tissue and cell destruction, leading to wrinkles and other skin problems."

The foods

A sampling of books by doctors, dermatologists and dietitians (including such respected names as Dr. Andrew Weil, Dr. Michael Roizen and Dr. Mehmet Oz, with their latest best-seller "You: Staying Young") lists some of the top antioxidant foods as acai berries, celery hearts, onions, spinach, kale, cocoa beans, blueberries, cranberries, kidney beans, red beans and hazelnuts.

Some of the foods high in anti-inflammatory properties are lemons, salmon, seaweed, green tea, flax seed oil, cinnamon, ginger, raw almonds, walnuts and the spice turmeric.

So why add supplements?

Doctors and nutritionists say even people who make a point of eating a diet rich in healthy, unprocessed foods don't get all the nutrients they need. Whether it's food processing, a time lag from harvesting to getting produce to the table or the environment we live in, doctors say it's easy to miss out on vitamins. Vitamins and supplements, write Oz and Roizen, "are an insurance policy for an imperfect diet."

Some ingredients that have been proven to help with skin include alpha lipoic acid; pine bark extract; grape seed extract; omega-3 fatty acids; vitamins A, C, E and D; calcium; magnesium; copper; selenium; and biotin, Dr. Jacob says. You can find all of them in the vitamin and supplement aisle of grocery, drug- and health-food stores.

Do ingestibles work?

Medical experts seem to agree that supplements aren't harmful in recommended doses. But do they actually work?

"We know that things we ingest can have a positive or negative effect on our bodies and skin, and antioxidants or anti-inflammatory foods have a positive effect," says Dr. Michael Reep, a dermatologist in Westlake, Ohio. "But supplements per se haven't thoroughly been studied, so we don't know if they'd have the same effect. The FDA hasn't examined this, we don't know exactly what's in the supplements and so on.

"Theoretically, they might help, but for now you have to keep it as theoretical."

That said, Reep himself buys supplements that he thinks are good for his skin, but he gets them at GNC: CoenzymeQ10, green tea and grape seed extract, and vitamins C and E.

"If people want to spend the extra money on supplements, they can do that," he says.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2004193769_ingestibles24.html

First flight for coconut-powered plane

The first commercial airliner to fly using biofuel took off yesterday in what was hailed as a breakthrough in the search for alternatives to oil.

The Virgin Atlantic Jumbo jet flew from Heathrow to Amsterdam with one of its engines partly powered by a mixture of coconut oil and oil from babassu trees found in Brazilian rainforests.

Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson said the flight proved the possibility of an alternative to fossil fuel and could lead to a cut in CO2 emissions.

Environmentalists dismissed the launch as a gimmick which would do little to halt climate change. They say biofuels push up food prices and hasten deforestation.

Sir Richard said: 'This pioneering flight will enable those of us who are serious about reducing our carbon emissions to develop the fuels of the future which will power our aircraft through sustained oils, such as algae.'

He admitted coconut oil was 'not the answer' but the project would act as a catalyst to develop plant fuels which could eventually replace the kerosene used today.

Boeing, which worked with Virgin on the project, said all 15,000 of its planes could run on biofuels.

However, Greenpeace dismissed the flight as a publicity stunt and said a cap on the number of flights was the only way to cut emissions.

But will it really take off?

As oil supplies dwindle and consumption grows, the pressure is on to find a viable alternative.

The fuel which helped power the Boeing 747 came from coconut plantations in the Philippines and wild babassu trees in Brazil.

Typically, one acre of coconuts or babassu trees produces about 250 gallons of oil a year.

With the air industry using 5million barrels of oil every day, an area of land more than twice the size of France would need to be given over to coconut plantations to provide enough fuel.

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=103576&in_page_id=34

The new climate science: Governments gamble with our survival

Almost universally, governments are refusing to recognise the scope and urgency of the changes demanded by global warming. The menace, however, is real, and the time available for concerted action to combat it is frighteningly brief.

There is something counter-intuitive here, when most of us are still experiencing climate change only as near-imperceptible shifts in average temperatures. But nature is gradualist only up to a point. The smooth curves that describe “linear” processes can suddenly turn jagged.

Startling new phenomena emerge, often with bewildering abruptness. At certain points, even small quantitative changes can become huge changes of quality. If ocean water heats up beyond 27.7̊C, the weather systems that form over it can include not just local storms, but hurricanes hundreds of kilometres across.

This is non-linear change, in which gradual processes push elements of the material world past natural “tipping points” or “trigger mechanisms”, after which new and unfamiliar processes take over.

The Earth’s climate, especially if viewed over long periods, is full of non-linear processes. Renowned climate scientist James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Space Research Institute, speaks of the Earth being “whipsawed between climate states” as the amount of energy entering and leaving the atmosphere undergoes seemingly minor shifts — in the language of climate science, “forcings”.

The Earth’s climate, Hansen observes, is “remarkably sensitive to global forcings”. This, he explains, is because of a predominance of “positive feedbacks”. Gradual warming or cooling brings natural systems to the point where new processes cut in and multiply an earlier trend. Climate change then becomes self-accelerating.

The human-induced rise in global temperatures due to the burning of fossil fuels is an exceptionally large forcing, much stronger than the changes that set off and ended the ice ages of the past million years or so. Over a few decades, the burning of fossil fuels promises to thrust the Earth’s biosphere past a series of tipping points, into a climate state hotter than any since modern human beings evolved.

Albedo flip

The term “albedo” refers to the propensity of the Earth’s surface to reflect radiation from the sun back out into space. Ice and snow reflect about 80% of the sun’s heat, while for open ocean the figure can be as little as 10%.

Even minor shifts in global temperatures can produce marked changes in the extent of snow-covered ground and sea ice. These changes then multiply or reduce the amount of the sun’s radiation that remains to heat the Earth. Repeatedly in the past, dramatic changes in albedo — referred to as albedo flip — have been crucial for helping to transform slight changes in the Earth’s orbit and angle of rotation into ice ages and interglacial warm periods.

During 2007, the world’s climate scientists came to realise that albedo flip was underway again. The area of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean during the northern summer was nearly 23% smaller than the previous record. Moreover, this ice was unusually thin; NASA satellite data indicated that the volume of the ice at the end of the summer was just half what it had been four years earlier. Surface temperatures in the Arctic Ocean were the highest on record, in some places 4.5̊C above normal.

Scientists studying the icecaps of Greenland and West Antarctica — to the south of South America — were making analogous findings. Melting was found to be accelerating at alarming rates. Instead of lying thousands of years in the future, Hansen warned, the disintegration of these icecaps might be a prospect for the end of the century.

Prehistoric peat

The warming of the Arctic Ocean has affected nearby land masses, with recent annual temperatures in northern and western Siberia as much as 3̊C above average. Snow cover comes later and departs sooner. Capturing large additional amounts of heat from the sun, the albedo flip threatens to act as a trigger for other non-linear warming processes. The materials for a number of such processes are on hand in the form of vast quantities of carbon contained in Arctic and sub-Arctic peat bogs.

According to researcher Chris Freeman of the University of Wales, a third of the carbon stored on land — a quantity approaching the entire amount of carbon in the atmosphere — is locked up in peat — that is, partly decomposed vegetable matter prevented by low temperatures and acidic conditions from decaying fully. Another estimate, quoted by the New Scientist in 2004, calculates that the bogs of Europe, Siberia and North America hold the equivalent of 70 years of global industrial emissions.

Now, warmer temperatures mean that this carbon is starting to return to the atmosphere.

Warmer conditions in the Arctic are bringing about the widespread melting during summer of permafrost — that is, once-permanently frozen soil and swamps, frequently containing large amounts of peat. Countless new thaw lakes have appeared, and from the lake margins ominous quantities of greenhouse gases are now bubbling, as the peat begins to break down.

The decay of peat follows a range of chemical pathways. In oxygen-poor conditions, anaerobic bacteria produce the gas methane (CH4). Studying thaw lakes in northern Siberia, the journal Nature reported in September 2006, researchers from the University of Alaska found that methane flux from thaw lakes was as much as five times higher than previously estimated.

Much of the methane was ancient, formed during previous warm periods and stored as bubbles in permafrost for scores of thousands of years. The exceptionally rapid warming of recent times thus promises to release far more methane than would be created by the year-on-year breakdown of plant matter.

Methane in the atmosphere is relatively short-lived, persisting for only a few decades compared with several hundred years for carbon dioxide. But while methane is present, its greenhouse impact exceeds that of carbon dioxide by at least 20 times. A massive burst of methane in coming decades could sharply accelerate global warming, and act as a trigger for other non-linear processes.

Carbonated rivers

Carbon from peat bogs enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide as well as methane. If the bogs dry out in warm weather, the peat readily combines with oxygen from the air. On occasion, it even catches fire.

Even if the peat remains saturated, the conditions of the new era of climate change are well able to turn it into carbon dioxide. According to New Scientist in 2004, researchers have found that quantities of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) are rising at as much as 6% per year in rivers that flow through peatlands. Once the DOC is in the rivers, bacteria rapidly convert it into carbon dioxide that bubbles to the surface.

The melting of Arctic permafrost will dramatically increase the area of peatlands where this effect applies. Once the bogs have melted, research by Chris Freeman indicates, the main reason for the growing DOC levels is not so much higher temperatures as the increased amounts of carbon dioxide and nitrogen compounds already in the atmosphere. Accumulating in the soil moisture, these appear to feed bacteria that break down the peat. “The peat bogs are going into solution”, New Scientist remarked.

By the middle of the century, Freeman told New Scientist, DOC emissions from peat bogs and rivers could be as big a source of atmospheric carbon dioxide as the burning of fossil fuels.

Despoiling the forests

Lesser but still perilous amounts of carbon seem destined to enter the atmosphere through the effects of deforestation. Brazil and Indonesia are among the top four greenhouse polluters, primarily because of the logging and burning of their forests. According to the London Independent in January, one-fifth of the Amazon basin has been stripped of its trees in recent years. In December, the World Wildlife Fund published research suggesting the Amazon forests could disappear by 2030.

Even where the chainsaws have not penetrated, forests can suffer drastically if there is widespread logging in nearby regions. Cleared rainforests regenerate slowly at best, and soil degradation often makes their regrowth impossible. The savannas or crop culture that mostly succeed the forests allow far more sunlight to reach the earth, resulting in higher regional air temperatures and lower humidity. Droughts become more frequent, and in the drier conditions forests become susceptible to burning. Rainforest plants are ill-adapted to fire, and are quickly killed. With the foliage gone, temperatures rise, and yet more forest dries out.

What the loggers have begun, global warming seems set to exacerbate. Quite independently of human assaults on the rainforest, modelling of rainfall in the future greenhouse world indicates a trend to drier conditions both in the eastern Amazon, and with more frequent El Nino events, in Indonesia. A paper in 2000 by the Hadley Centre of the British Meteorological Office speaks of the near-total collapse of the Amazon rainforest unless global temperature rises are kept to the now-difficult level of 2̊C. Models describe an Amazon climate in 2100 with almost no rainfall, and average temperatures of 38̊C.

According to British writer George Monbiot in his 2006 book Heat, the Amazon basin alone has the potential to release 730 million tonnes of carbon per year, about 10% of today’s human-induced emissions, for the next 75 years.

Greenhouse soils

While the ravaging of the Earth’s tropical forests promises to be the first, most visible catastrophe of the era of global warming, a climate disaster of even greater scope could be developing in the soil beneath our feet.

Scientists have known for many years that with extra carbon dioxide, plants grow more vigorously. In six years of experiments in Florida, a Northern Arizona University team hoped to find that the amounts of carbon fixed in soils would increase as well.

The reverse turned out to be true. Reporting in 2007, the researchers explained that as carbon dioxide levels in the air increased, soil carbon was actually lost back into the atmosphere. The reason, the scientists concluded, was increased activity by soil fungi.

Observations from nature confirmed the experimental findings. In 2005 the British Guardian reported that a 25-year study of soils in England and Wales had discovered carbon losses “consistently, everywhere … and therefore probably everywhere in the temperate world”. The richer the soils, the scientists observed, the higher the rate of loss.

The carbon contained in English and Welsh soils was migrating to the atmosphere, the scientists calculated, at an average rate of 0.6% per year. Across Britain, the extra carbon dioxide was enough to cancel out all the emissions savings Britain was due to make under its Kyoto Protocol obligations.

Worldwide, the soil carbon reservoir is reckoned at more than double the carbon content of the atmosphere. Without prompt, drastic curbs on fossil fuel emissions, the mobilising of soil carbon could overtake all efforts to restrict global warming.

Vanishing sinks

Of more than 7 billion tonnes of carbon that reaches the atmosphere each year as a result of human activity, the Earth’s natural systems absorb about 4 billion tonnes. Obviously, any process that reduces this natural absorption adds to global warming. The clearing of forests represents a major reduction in the Earth’s carbon “sinks”.

Now another such reduction, also massive, has been identified. This involves changes to the chemistry of one of the Earth’s oceans.

Historically, the oceans have absorbed about 2 billion tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere each year. But in May 2007, New Scientist reported that the Southern Ocean — previously one of the biggest sinks —, had in effect stopped soaking up carbon dioxide.

For 24 years, scientists at the University of East Anglia in Britain had been monitoring oceanic carbon around the globe. During this time, they found that the Southern Ocean carbon reservoir remained virtually constant.

“This is surprising”, researcher Corinne Le Quere told New Scientist, “because during the same time CO2 emissions increased by 40 per cent. As the sources of CO2 go up we would expect the reservoir to increase too.”

The explanation appears to relate to the fact that deep ocean water normally contains higher levels of dissolved carbon dioxide than water higher up. Near the surface, vast quantities of tiny organisms use sunlight, along with carbon dioxide absorbed from the air, to carry out photosynthesis. When marine organisms die, their remains sink to lower levels, taking their carbon content with them. In time, this organic matter oxidises and enters solution.

With global warming, the Southern Ocean in recent decades has become noticeably windier. The increased windiness causes additional churning of the waters, bringing water from greater depths to the surface. With it comes the stored carbon, enough to ensure that the net flow of carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and the surface waters is roughly zero.

Gambles we must not allow

Like other non-linear phenomena, changes in the oceanic carbon sink are difficult to quantify and predict. Who yet knows whether, or how fast, the effect seen in the Southern Ocean will develop in other ocean regions? Consequently, the scientists who prepare global climate models have often been reluctant to try to incorporate non-linear effects into their work, at least until more complete data become available.

One result of this reluctance is that “official” climate reports, though often disturbing, have not been nearly as frightening as they ought to be. This is the case with the Fourth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), presented late in 2007. This report had a cut-off date for citations of May 2005, meaning that much new evidence on non-linear phenomena was not taken into account at all.

The IPCC’s report presents generally conservative findings, hedging them with warnings that the actual reality could turn out to be much worse. Predictably, governments and corporations have cited the IPCC’s cautious baseline figures, while essentially ignoring the caveats.

The uncertainties in the science, however, do not permit this irresponsibility. Particular tipping points may turn out to be more remote than expected, and positive feedbacks less potent. But there are many non-linear processes, and we will not be lucky in every case. If governments will not take the lead in preventing disaster, populations must seize the initiative instead, and enforce the transformations required.

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/740/38310

Cane ethanol is an alternative fuel that could benefit Florida

There are many misconceptions about ethanol and Brazil. The letter to the editor, "Cutting down rainforests to grow biofuels may be self-defeating" (Feb. 8), decrying the "hoopla" in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's excellent Feb. 5 feature, takes the mainstream America view of world environmental problems: that they are caused by selfish foreign countries, while we Americans are the guardians of the globe.

To link ethanol to the rainforest is inaccurate. The Amazon basin is one-half of Brazil's territory. Sugar cane for ethanol is not grown there, but in the savannah (cerrado), which constitutes most of the remaining half. The savannah, not the Amazon, is Brazil's agricultural powerhouse, but only half of it is under cultivation. Without even considering the Amazon, Brazil has the land to feed itself and much of the rest of the world and still produce biofuels.

"Rainforest" has become an American code word for dodging our own responsibility for the globe's environmental woes. We speak of the forest as "the lungs of the world," the global filter for greenhouse gases. But where do those gases come from? Not much from Brazil, not when compared to the United States. One state alone, California, emits more than all of Brazil. Is Brazil obligated to maintain its forest, at its own expense, as a filter system for the fallout from American consumerism, especially when the United States rejects international environmental initiatives, such as Kyoto?

When we are so arrogant, we cannot claim the tropical forests as "ours." The only rainforest that is "ours" is the Pacific Northwest, the world's largest temperate rainforest, which has long been given over to logging interests. Forgetting the "rain" part, we began leveling our eastern forests centuries ago. But that was then and this is now, and Brazil is being asked to do as we say, not as we did.

Brazil is in fact doing a great deal to preserve the Amazon. But it is an area equal to most of the western United States. How would we do if we had to patrol all of our western mountains, deserts and forests for poachers and squatters, even with satellites, infrared images and aircraft, as Brazil does? It's not so easy, and Brazil deserves support for what it is doing, not criticism.

Americans who follow the "rainforest" line when it comes to biofuels are buying into the "hoopla" of the American petroleum and corn industries, which have long shown themselves to be no friends of the environment. Domestic corn ethanol is a zero-sum game. Corn ethanol yields almost no net energy gain over the energy required to produce it, almost all of which comes from petroleum. Petroleum is simply being converted into ethanol, which is profitable only because of the 54-cent-per-gallon taxpayer-financed subsidy and the 51-cent-per-gallon import tariff. Brazilian cane ethanol, on the other hand, yields eight times the net energy of corn and requires only one-half the planted area.

Cane ethanol is a clean, renewable alternative fuel that could greatly benefit Florida, the United States and the globe. To share in the benefits, however, we must import it, as shown in the Sun-Sentinel's feature. Furthermore, under Gov. Charlie Crist's proposals, Florida could greatly benefit by becoming the ethanol import hub.

We Americans are blinded in our headlong rush to consume ever more and to bend the rest of the world to our "needs." We should slow down, face reality and employ all available means, principally reduction of consumption but also measures such as alternative fuels, to lessen our aggression against the globe.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-forum18ethanolsbfeb18,0,3858998.story

Focus - Soft drinks makers reap superfruit dividend

Growing consumer interest in the health-enhancing properties of previously unknown fruits has proved a significant boon for the soft drinks industry. Most of these superfruits end up in juice form, writes Shane Starling, providing soft drinks producers with a constant stream of new product opportunities at premium price points.

The term 'superfruit' is relatively novel, describing as it does the stream of new fruits now flooding western markets. Yet the first commercially successful 'superjuice' was a cranberry/apple blend offered by Ocean Spray way back in 1963.

Cranberry juice has now become mainstream and is the third highest selling juice behind orange and apple in many markets including North America, many parts of Europe and elsewhere. And cranberry is showing no signs of age fatigue, as sales continue to grow in most markets where it has an established presence. Indeed, cranberry sales are being boosted by the increased interest in superjuices generated by the new wave of antioxidant and nutrient-rich superfruits. Moreover, market researchers and industry pundits are forecasting that superfruits and superjuices will attract an increasingly broader audience in the coming year and beyond.

"Superfruits haven't been defined scientifically, but it's generally agreed that they're valued in their native country for their medicinal or health-enhancing properties and that they have a high antioxidant content - usually double, triple or more than that of other fruits - as defined by their ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) score," notes Dr Wayne Geilman, a senior research officer at Utah-based Pure Food Technologies.

With an international public more interested in healthy foods and beverages than ever before, the exotic, nutrient-boosted cachet of superfruits is highly appealing, so much so that they can command significant price premiums. Superfruits from all over the world have poured into the market in recent years with most of them ending up in juice form.

The appeal of perceived health benefits also appears to outweigh environmental concerns such as food miles, in the eyes of consumers, say researchers.

Explicit health claims are not yet ratified in most jurisdictions but the healthy press antioxidants have garnered in the past ten years has created a strong link in consumer minds with heart health and free radical control.

But claims abuse remains a concern as some Australian juice makers discovered when marketing was highlighted by the consumer watchdog there recently. "It is a breach of the Food Standards Code to make health and therapeutic claims for food, but it is clear from marketing hype around superfruits that these regulations are not being effectively enforced," the watchdog, Choice, stated.

Açai, pomegranate, blueberry, goji, mangosteen, noni, tamarind, gac-chi and lychee are just some of the 'superfruits' beverage makers large and small have incorporated into various juice, soda, water, dairy and other products. More 'regular' fruits such as plum, watermelon and blueberry are also benefiting from the trend.

The unique thing about superfruits is that they are almost exclusively consumed in a processed format. In their whole state, there is usually little demand for them as they tend to taste bitter or can be fiddly and difficult to eat. As Karl Crawford, food business development leader at New Zealand-based fruit science company HortResearch, notes, pomegranate was an obscure fruit before its juice-based ascendance into the superfruit limelight. "There are five key criteria for superfruit success: novelty, health benefits, convenience, controlled supply and promotion," Crawford adds.

Research suggests these attributes appeal to under-50s, among whom fresh fruit sales are falling in many developed markets.

"Superfruits are the product of a strategy, not produce you find growing on a tree," writes Julian Mellentin, business editor of New Nutrition, in his Report, 'Ten Key Trends in Food, Health and Nutrition 2008'. "They are the result of a bringing together of science and marketing in order to create a new, value-added niche in the nutrition market. Crucially, a successful superfruit strategy is about creating niche, very low volume, very high-value brands. It is a salutary fact that in the US market, to take one example, sales of three brands of superfruit juices - mangosteen, goji and pomegranate - between them account for a massive 45% of the sales value of the mainstream brand Tropicana Orange Juice by selling just 1.5% of its volume."

Brands such as US-based PomWonderful (pomegranate), UK-based PomeGreat (pomegranate) and US-based Sambazon (acai) have quickly established healthy sales that are growing at often double-digit rates. PomWonderful has pushed through the $100m mark in swift time, selling at $8.60 a litre, while US-based mangosteen specialist, Xango, has achieved sales of about $300m and sells at $50 a litre, about 25 times the price of chilled orange juice.

US-based Brandstorm's Himalayan Goji Juice has yearly sales of about $60m, mainly through multi-level marketing. It has also launched the US's first not-from-concentrate organic goji juice, called Gojilania, which has achieved nationwide retail distribution.

Mainstream beverage giants like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola have climbed onboard with acquisitions of fruit juice startups and launches of juice lines and line extensions.

PepsiCo has been particularly active in the area, with acquisitions such as California-based Naked Juice at the end of 2006. At around the same time, it launched a new brand, Fuelosophy, which includes a pomegranate/berry blend. Pepsi-owned Tropicana has launched a pomegranate-blueberry juice in the US and Dole Sparklers, a sparkling juice range including a Blueberry Pomegranate flavour.

Coca-Cola released an energy_drink in Australia called Mother, which contains açai, and recently acquired Fuze Beverages in the US. The Fuze range is infused with a weight management ingredient from an Asian berry called garcinia cambogia. Coke also launched a line of pomegranate-based juices called PomeGrand under its Odwalla brand in the US. Cadbury_Schweppes also recently launched Pomegranate Pear under its Nantucket Nectars brand in the US.

UK retailer Marks & Spencer has an own-label pomegranate drink retailing for about GBP2.65 (US$5.17) while other UK supermarkets, such as Tesco and Sainsbury's, have launched smoothies, juices and other products incorporating superfruits.

This is all good news for superfruit suppliers. As Jon Wisniewski, managing director of New Zealand-based açai supplier and product maker, Nu Fruits, notes: "The fact that the bigger drinks companies are showing an interest in açai indicates it could make it through to the mainstream. Things are going well. There are a large number of new products coming out and a lot of NPD pipeline work being done."

Sceptics remain, however, such as Arizona-based beverage specialist Jim Tonkin, who wonders if the antioxidant sell may begin to fatigue consumers. "People are buying them now because they are new and they are intrigued," Tonkin says, "but time will tell how many of these products stay the distance, especially as science, health-claim and formulation issues remain problematic."

http://www.just-drinks.com/article.aspx?id=92940

British Airways announces new green initiative

British Airways has launched a new carbon offset scheme initiative this week which will see the airline backing deforestation prevention in Brazil and research into the effects of aircraft’s non-carbon emissions. The carrier’s new initiative is UN certified and will help to finance clean energy projects in developing countries.

Monetary funds offered by customers off setting flight emissions will be supporting a new windfarm in one of the poorest regions of China, as well as river run hydro electric plants in China and Brazil.

British Airways’ offset scheme will also soon be accompanied by further projects to reduce carbon emissions, including projects to help protect the Brazilian rainforest and working with Cambridge University which will aim to establish scientific understanding of the non-C02 effects of aviation by 2012.

“We were the first airline to offer carbon offsets, and we intend to remain at the forefront in this area,” said Silla Maizey, head of corporate responsibility.

“We need a broad response to climate change: controlling our emissions with cleaner aircraft, the inclusion of aviation in emissions trading and the setting of tough international emissions targets...Offsetting is closely related to emissions trading. It is valuable in itself and improves general understanding of how carbon trading works.”

http://www.etravelblackboard.com/index.asp?id=73731&nav=130