Wal-Mart grows 'green' strategies
 
BENTONVILLE, Ark. - Andrew Ruben, vice president of strategic planning for the world's biggest retailer, leans across the table and pleads, passionately, for consumers to embrace the compact fluorescent light bulb. Though a CFL bulb costs more, it uses 75 percent less energy and lasts 10 times longer than a regular bulb.

"Tell everyone to buy this light bulb!" he says, his voice trembling just a bit. "If we could get every American to change "a single light bulb", we'd be doing the world a world of good."

What's sparking Ruben's fervor is a new mission at Wal-Mart: embrace the Earth. advertisement 
 
 

The $312.4 billion retailing giant has launched an aggressive program to encourage "sustainability" of the world's fisheries, forests and farmlands, to slash energy use and reduce waste, to push its 60,000 suppliers to produce goods that don't harm the environment, and to urge consumers to buy green. This week for the first time, Wal-Mart will report on its carbon dioxide emissions - the "greenhouse" gases that cause global warming.

"We asked ourselves: If we had known 10 years ago what challenges we would face today, what would we have done different?" says CEO Lee Scott. "What struck us was: This world is much more fragile than any of us would have thought years ago."

Already, Wal-Mart has become the world's largest buyer of organic cotton. It introduced "fair trade" coffee at its Sam's Clubs. It began selling some organic foods in the spring and will introduce others this fall. And it is pushing suppliers to use smaller packages to cut waste.

Critics like WakeUpWalmart call the efforts "green-washing." They say the efforts are an attempt to polish a corporate image tarnished by controversies over low pay and limited health care benefits for its employees and "anti-big box" feelings in some towns.

Environmentalists ecstatic
But many environmentalists are ecstatic. Wal-Mart is a very big rock to throw into the pro-environment pond, and its ripples, they say, will be felt across the globe.

"Wal-Mart is a huge player, and they have enormous clout," says Scott Burns of the World Wildlife Fund, which has 10 employees working with Wal-Mart on several projects, including sustainability of fisheries. "They're sending a very powerful signal that already is having effects on the way people produce products for them."

Wal-Mart says it will:

•  Slash gasoline use by its trucking fleet, one of the largest in the nation, and use more hybrid trucks to increase efficiency by 25 percent over the next three years and double it within 10 years. That will save $310 million a year by 2015, the company says.

•  Buy 100 percent of its wild-caught salmon and frozen fish for the North American market only from fisheries that are certified as "sustainable" by the non-profit Marine Stewardship Council within three to five years. That designation means areas of the ocean aren't fished in ways that decimate fish populations.

•  Cut energy use at its more than 7,000 stores worldwide by 30 percent and cut greenhouse-gas emissions at existing stores by 20 percent in seven years. Wal-Mart is the largest electricity user in the United States.

•  Reduce solid waste from U.S. stores by 25 percent within three years.

The company, second-largest in revenue in the world behind ExxonMobil, has vowed to invest $500 million a year in energy-saving technologies.

It has built test lab stores in Aurora, Colo., and McKinney, Texas, where it is experimenting with everything from wind power to permeable asphalt that lets rainwater seep through parking lots to help refill groundwater aquifers. It wants to build stores that produce 30 percent fewer greenhouse emissions in the next four years.

And it has reached out to environmental groups, many of which were once highly critical of the company; Wal-Mart has made them part of its in-house planning.

On Climate Change Day in mid-July, it hosted former vice president Al Gore at its corporate headquarters here. "We know that Wal-Mart is not necessarily an easy place to come to," Scott admits. Yet after Gore showed his global-warming film, "An Inconvenient Truth," he got a standing ovation from a crowded Wal-Mart auditorium.

"A lot of organizations in that room had campaigned against Wal-Mart. We were kind of skeptical," says Paul Rice, founding president and CEO of TransFair USA, the nation's only group that certifies products such as coffee as "fair trade," meaning they are bought from groups that pay growers fair wages. "But no one is anymore."

Wal-Mart isn't pushing sustainability solely out of the goodness of its heart. It has realized that it can make money by selling products that are environmentally friendly. It can make millions selling recycled trash or save hundreds of millions by cutting transportation costs.

It even is actively supporting the idea of a system for companies to "trade" carbon dioxide credits. Wal-Mart believes it can earn lots of credits by saving energy, and it can sell them for millions of dollars to companies that can't. All of those savings will go into keeping prices on its products low, it says.

Wal-Mart also says it is worried about having enough products, primarily fish and other foods, to sell to consumers in the future.

"We set out to do (sustainability) as an obligation, a good-works effort," says CEO Scott. "But we discovered the truth: The real reason to do this is for the business itself."

Wal-Mart has formed 14 sustainable value networks made up of employees, suppliers and environmentalists. The groups get together regularly in person or on conference calls to brainstorm how products that don't hurt the environment can be made or bought.

The networks work with Wal-Mart's buyers and suppliers, and the suppliers of its suppliers, to push change all the way down the business chain. "We've never worked this way before," says Matt Kistler, vice president of product and packaging innovation.

They're mapping whole product lines to find out where the environment is hurt along the way and how to stop that.

"When you hear your words coming out of their mouths, it's amazing," says Suzanne Apple of the World Wildlife Fund. "These are issues we've been working on for years."

Fishing for profits
Manish Kumar supplies frozen fish to Wal-Mart.

Like many of the company's 60,000 suppliers across the globe, Wal-Mart is his biggest customer. In the four years since he landed the business, he's become the retailer's largest supplier of frozen fish in the United States. That's tens of millions of pounds of fish a year.

The way he does business today is radically different than just eight months ago, when he and other fish suppliers were called to Bentonville for a meeting on buying fish only from sustainable fisheries.

"We didn't even know what the Marine Stewardship Council was. Now, it's all we do. The speed with which things are happening is incredible," says Kumar, CEO of The Fishin' Co., based in Pittsburgh. Now, he works with 18 fish-processing plants that use only fish accredited by the MSC.

Wal-Mart, the world's largest buyer of fish depending on the species, now sells 10 fish products with the blue MSC label, including wild salmon and pollock.

 

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Will She Be An Aerospace Engineer Or Astrophysicist? How Can We Inspire Girls To Shoot For The Stars In Math And Science?
 
 
 
 

Last year, comments made by Harvard¡¯s then-president, Larry Summers, fanned the flames of a debate that has raged for many years: Why are women underrepresented in science and math professions? Although researchers have repeatedly demonstrated that females are equal to their male counterparts in math and science ability, somewhere down the educational path girls seem to turn their backs on mathematics, engineering and physics as potential career choices. What can we do to encourage girls to pursue careers in these fields?

Columbus, Ohio (PRWEB) September 26, 2006 ¨C- Researchers and pundits have postulated a variety of explanations for the under representation of women in math and science. While these experts disagree on the cause, they generally agree that the problem manifests in childhood and becomes noticeable in middle school as puberty sets in. ¡°Experts at Harvard hotly debated this issue last year. They agreed that at all ages girls are just as capable as boys in both math and science. They also agreed that it was likely that some combination of biology and gender bias turn girls away from these subjects around the time they enter junior high school,¡± notes Maria Spencer, co-founder of Ion Development (www.ion-development.com), a company dedicated to encouraging children to explore math and science. ¡°Whatever the cause, we believe that our society will benefit from encouraging girls to pursue their interests in these fields.¡±

Ion Development challenges the perception that science is a ¡°boy subject¡± by offering science kits that appeal directly to girls. ¡°Many girls still seem to view math and science as masculine subjects. At Ion Development we believe that this perception was reinforced by the traditional science kits that focused on making things go fast or go ¡®boom,¡¯¡± said Ms. Spencer. These days manufacturers produce a vast array of science kits that capture the same core science concepts as traditional kits but package them in ways that appeal to both boys and girls. They also produce kits intended to appeal especially to girls. For example, Ion Development¡¯s online catalog includes the full line of Scientific Explorer¡¯s spa science kits for girls 8 and up and perfume and cosmetic science kits by Thames & Kosmos¡¯ for girls 11 and up.

¡°Our own experience suggests that girls are interested in all sorts of science kits ¨C not merely those that are designed to appeal to their unique interests,¡± Ms. Spencer asserted. Nonetheless parents and other gift-buyers often focus on these girl-only kits when making purchases for the girls in their lives. ¡°These girl-only kits are a great way to spark a girl¡¯s interest in science, but once sparked those girls may find that they are more interested in building a fuel cell car or detector radio. Ultimately it's up to parents to ensure their daughters are given the opportunity to explore all aspects of science without limiting them by societal perceptions of what interests girls.¡±

 

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In London, a lovely cuppa

Lord Stanley's beloved bowl returns home for a ceremony and double-decker bus tour
 
DOUG SAUNDERS

E-mail Doug Saunders | Read Bio | Latest Columns
LONDON -- The hefty cylinder of battle-worn silver, familiar to any Canadian old enough to wear a pair of skates, was hoisted atop a pillar across the Thames from Big Ben at one point yesterday, to give the guy carrying it a bit of a rest.

"What in heavens is going on?" one older Englishman, visiting from the north for the day, asked as a number of TV cameras and a scrum of hangers-on formed to gaze at the bottom-heavy cup.

"It's Antiques Road Show," his wife was quick to answer. "They do this sort of thing all the time."

It was indeed a kind of antiques road show, though they don't really do it all the time. Not here in London, anyway.

The last time the Stanley Cup saw these shores was 1892, when the Right Honourable Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, spotted a suitably large silver bowl in a silversmith's shop on Regent Street and snapped it up for 10 guineas.

Lord Stanley was soon to end his leisurely term as Governor-General of Canada, and decided to leave his mark on the ragtag winter sport he'd come to fancy. He shipped the punch bowl over to Canada, where it took on a life of its own.

At some point early yesterday morning, Lord Stanley's mug -- or rather one of its various road-tour replicas -- returned to its country of origin and was given a strange tour of London aboard a double-decker bus. Today it will undergo a rather contrived ceremony in which one of Lord Stanley's successors will welcome it back.

In a season when the NHL is rather light on household-name stars, the cup itself is serving as a celebrity in a vain effort to interest Britons in a sport that is as incomprehensible to most of them as cricket is to most Canadians, and whose playoff games start in the early hours of the morning.

For the numerous Canadian tourists who had come to gaggle at the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace, the unannounced arrival of a playoff-season apparition induced shouts of "Jeez, honey" and gapes of bewilderment: It was as if they had discovered that Harrods takes Canadian Tire money.

"It's giving me a hell of a lot of exercise," said Mike Bolt, 37, as he slipped on his white cotton gloves and heaved the 16-kilogram silver monolith across a large park toward the London Eye Ferris wheel. "It's a pretty weird sight for a lot of people, but I'm surprised at how many kids here know what it is."

Mr. Bolt, a Hockey Hall of Fame employee who carries the title of Keeper of the Cup, spends much of the year hauling the shiny trophy around the world. But until yesterday it had never been back to the United Kingdom for a reason that might embarrass the Brits if they were even vaguely aware of it.

He is the upholder of the 11-year-old tradition in which the cup is taken to the hometown of each player on the winning NHL team for a few days of partying and publicity. This has given it innumerable visits to Finland, Sweden, Russia, and much of Central and Eastern Europe. But none of the Hockey Hall of Fame staff here yesterday could remember the last time a British citizen had his name on the cup.

For the Brits who stopped to watch the strange cavalcade of excited Canadians, jersey-wearing onlookers, foreign journalists and white-gloved officials, it didn't seem as if this would change any time soon.

"I really don't know what it is," one man informed his wife after stepping forward to examine the strange silver artifact as it crawled through the queue for the Ferris wheel, "but I'm completely sure it has nothing to do with football."

 

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China's Economy Grows 8.5 Pct. in 1Q
Thursday April 13, 1:13 am ET 
Report: China's Economy Grows Estimated 8.5 Percent in First Quarter of 2006

SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- China's sizzling economic growth slowed to an estimated 8.5 percent in the first three months of this year and will gradually slow to 7.5 percent by the end of the year, a government report said Thursday.
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Government controls on spending and lending for real estate and some industrial projects are likely to bring growth to below 8 percent, said the report by the government's main planning agency, published in the newspaper China Securities News.

China's gross domestic product rose 9.9 percent year-on-year in 2005, as strong export demand and investment growth foiled efforts to bring growth down to what officials say would be a more manageable level.

The report by the National Development and Reform Commission's investment research institute said that spending on construction and factory equipment, a measure known as "fixed-asset investment," rose 26.4 percent in the first quarter compared with the same period a year earlier.

Fixed-asset investment is expected to slow to 25.4 percent for the year, it said. It rose 25.7 percent in 2005.

Official figures for first quarter growth are due to be announced by the National Bureau of Statistics next week.

The estimates for 2006 are still above those set out in the five-year blueprint for economic policy issued last month.

That plan calls for economic growth to end at 7.5 percent for the year, with fixed-asset investment rising only 18 percent.

However, officials have said those targets will surely be overrun because of excess spending in certain sectors, such as steel and aluminum.

 

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Chen Shui-bian Proves to Be Troublemaker
 
¡¡¡¡A State Council official says the recent remarks about "Taiwan independence" by Taiwan¡®s "leader" and his stubborn adherence to secessionist stance prove again that he is the troublemaker and saboteur of the cross-Straits relations, and peace and stability of the Asian Pacific region.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡Li Weiyi, the spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council made the remarks in Beijing Wednesday at a regularly scheduled news conference.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡Over the last year thanks to joint efforts of compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Straits, the cross-straits relations have developed toward stability and peace, Li said, adding the compatriots on the two sides were encouraged by the good momentum, which has also gratified the international community.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡"However, the Taiwan leader ran counter to this momentum," Li stressed, saying "after his provocative New Year speech, the leader made "Taiwan Independence" remarks again while compatriots on the two sides were celebrating the Spring Festival.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡Chen Shui-bian proposed on Jan. 29 in his Lunar New Year speech the termination of the "National Unification Council (NUC)" and the "National Unification Guidelines," formulation of a "new constitution" and "the application for United Nations membership under the name of Taiwan." In this speech, he also broke his former promises and challenged the one-China principle which is commonly abided by the international community.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡On May. 20, 2000, Chen promised to not declare Taiwan independence, incorporate the "two states" idea into its constitution, change the so-called country¡®s name or to hold a referendum on Taiwan independence, and not to abolish the "NUC" and the "National Unification Guidelines."
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡Chen advocated to speed up his so-called "constitutional reform", in an attempt to realize "Taiwan¡®s de jure independence," Li said.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡"Our stance on developing cross-Straits relations is consistent, firm and clear," Li stressed, adding "we will unswervingly adhere to the one-China principle, never give up efforts of peaceful reunification, nor change the principle of pinning hope on the Taiwan people and never compromise on opposition to secessionist activities."
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡"Taiwan compatriots are our brothers and sisters and we will not change our solemn promise made to them because of the deliberate provocation made by the Taiwan authority leader," Li said.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡"We will try our utmost efforts to do every thing which is conducive to the interests of Taiwan compatriots, cross-Straits exchanges, peace across the Taiwan Straits, and peaceful reunification of the motherland," Li said.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡"We hope that Taiwan compatriots can make joint efforts with us to propel peaceful and smooth development of cross-Straits relations," he said.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡On another development, Chinese mainland decided to resume the export of fishery labor services to Taiwan in the upcoming fishing season after four-year-long suspension, announced by an official with the Ministry of Commerce Wednesday in Beijing.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡Tang Wei, director of the Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Department under the Ministry of Commerce, told the news conference that fishing trade organizations from across the Straits will soon sign agreements on the issue.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡Beijing banned fishermen from working for Taiwan companies in December 2001 to protest against the island¡®s discrimination against mainland fishermen hired by Taiwan fishing firms, which once employed 45,000 mainland workers.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡(Xinhua News Agency February 9, 2006)
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡
 
china.org.cn 
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Anti-UN riots enter 4th day in Cote d'Ivoire
 
      Street violence rattled Cote d'Ivoire for a fourth day on Thursday as many protesters continued to man roadblocks in the main city Abidjan, demanding UN peacekeepers be punished for killing four protesters in a firefight.
 
Thousands of youths took to streets from Monday to protest against international mediators' call to dissolve the parliament.
    Around 500 youths were still protesting outside the UN headquarters in the city, but they were fewer than in previous days and had so far resisted from breaking into the building as had been attempted earlier this week.

    In downtown Abidjan, many protesters continued to stop traffic with roadblocks constructed from debris.

    Most shops, schools and banks remained closed in the city center although life began returning to normal in some outlying areas after President Laurent Gbagbo appealed to his supporters to leave the streets and return to their jobs on Wednesday.

    Hundreds of Gbagbo loyalists asking UN and French peacekeeping troops to leave the country have attacked UN bases, residences and vehicles across the government-controlled south since Monday.

    Four Ivorians were killed on Wednesday when they clashed with Bangladeshi troops in the western town of Guiglo, UN officials said. The state media said five were killed.

    The violence erupted after foreign mediators recommended that the mandate of the parliament which expired on Dec. 16 not be renewed. Angry Gbagbo supporters denounced this as foreign meddling since the parliament is filled with the president's allies.

 
Thousands of youths took to streets from Monday to protest against international mediators' call to dissolve the parliament.
    Cote d'Ivoire has been split into a government-controlled south and rebel-controlled north since civil war in 2002.

    A string of peace deals have failed to unite the West African country and the presidential and parliamentary elections due last October were postponed.

    The new violence has threatened the fragile ceasefire, maintained by nearly 7,000 UN peacekeepers and 4,000 French soldiers since 2003.

    There have been no reports of riots from the rebel-held north so far.
 

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Rene Lau issues her 3rd book  
 

 
Taiwan singer-actress Rene Lau
 
    BEIJING, Jan. 10 -- Taiwan singer and actress Rene Lau appeared in the Beijing Spring Book Show on Sunday with her new book "I Want to Go with You."

    Rene Lau is a singer and actress who also spends almost one third of her time writing, earning her recognition as an "intellectual beauty". When answering questions at the press conference for her new book, Rene Lau spoke like a poet and literarily moved the audience.

    "I've never imagined myself as a star, and in the book I didn't talk about a life of gaiety, nor teach how to do make up, cooking, lose weight or wear clothes. In my opinion, characters should be respected and I consider each a literary work to create."

    "I Want to Go with You" is Rene Lau's third publication. In this book, she tells elements of her past love stories and this drew much interest from readers.

    When talking about her views on love, Rene Lau said the most romantic love was that which would happen but hadn't happened while the most painful love was that which shouldn't end but had already finished.

    Rene Lau's two previously issued books, "Fall in Love Downstairs" and "One Person's KTV".

    After the show, Rene Lau revealed that after busy last year of concerts and new albums, she would now be focusing on movies and TV plays.

    Her new TV drama will start shooting on Tuesday, and she will also star in a thriller film "A Ghost in the Heart," co-starring Hong Kong actor Leon Lai.

    (Source: CRIENGLISH.com)

 

 

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"Same Song" to show in US & Canada 
 
     "Same song", a top entertainment program in China, will be shown in America and Canada during this coming Spring Festival.

    "Same song" has had a great influence domestically and boasts a high viewing rate. After a successful show in America last year, overseas Chinese have invited the program to go abroad again in the Year of Dog.

    After a series of careful investigations for choosing the venue, it was decided the performance would be held in Toronto's Rogers Center in Canada this Sunday and at New York's Broadway Radio City on January 23rd. The concert will not only have splendid design on stage but also advanced lighting and sets. Audiences will surely have a grand banquet of music in store.

    There are more than 30 popular singers participating in the show, such as Taiwan singers Chyichin, Leehom Wang, Julie, Leong Chui Peng, and Hong Kong "sing king" Alan Tam. In addition, some famous singers from the mainland will also attend the show, including Liu Huan, Mao Amin and Sun Nan.

    Zhang Guoli, the well-known actor, has been specially invited to host the concert together with Ni Ping, a famous hostess in China, and David Wu, Ke Lan and Bowie.

    The music includes hot hits as well as traditional Chinese songs. These old songs are especially touching and popular with most middle-aged overseas Chinese. Li Guyi will sing "My Motherland and I" and "Unforgettable Night" with some overseas compatriots. Mao Amin will perform "Miss" to speak about expatriate Chinese' deep love for the native land. ¡¡

    Moreover, a wonderful ShaoLin Kung Fu show and traditional Lion Dance will be included in the performance. These traditional New Year activities will spread the lively, happy atmosphere of the Spring Festival to Chinese all over the world.     

    The show will be broadcast on CCTV1, 3, 4 and 9 during the Spring Festival Vacation. It will be a big gift for Chinese people, bringing good wishes to all of them.

    (Source: CRIENGLISH.com)

 

 

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Top environment official inspects pollution in NE China 
 
    JIAMUSI, Dec. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- China's newly appointed top environment official on Monday reviewed the lesson from the recent Songhua River pollution in northeast China, saying it was a "pain like cutting flesh."

    Zhou Shengxian, director of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), made the remark while inspecting the draining of waste water by the businesses along the Songhua River in the downstream city of Jiamusi in Heilongjiang Province.

    "The pollution of the Songhua River water is a pain like cutting flesh that shocked the world," Zhou said.

    "The Songhua River is the mother river for local residents. We must protect it and make good use of it," he added.

    The SEPA reported on Monday that the tail end of the chemical spill in the Songhua River will soon pass Jiamusi, some 244 km from the city of Tongjiang downstream, where the river joins the Heilongjiang River and flows into Russia.

    The nitrobenzene density has been falling as the slick flows downstream due to evaporation and settling, the SEPA said.

    The chemical spill is the result of an explosion at an upstream petrochemical plant last month. The SEPA has established 30 monitoring posts along the river.

    Zhou urged local businesses to work to develop into resources-saving and environment-friendly enterprises, saying, "It's an obligation for everyone to protect the environment and achieve sustainable development."

    "Businesses shouldn't make development and environmental protection opposite to each other," he stressed.

    The newly appointed SEPA director who replaced Xie Zhenhua earlier this month also called on environmental authorities to strengthen law enforcement.

    "Where does the authority of the environmental protection department come from? It comes from strict environmental law enforcement," he said.
 

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China to shut down 4,000 mines by Dec. 31 
 
    BEIJING, Dec. 13 -- In the wake of a series of recent fatal colliery accidents, China's work safety authorities vowed yesterday to adopt a package of "iron-handed" measures to improve the problematic workplace safety situation.

    The State Council will dispatch several overhaul panels into eight major coal-producing provinces, including Shanxi, Hebei, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Liaoning and Shaanxi in the upcoming fortnight, said Li Yizhong, head of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), during a televised conference.

    Supervision efforts on colliery work safety will focus on a number of aspects, according to Li.

    To conduct a thorough safety check-up on possible dangers and enhance supervision on collieries that were asked to stop production for improvements;

    To shut down at least 4,000 coal mines that could not meet work safety standards even after improvements by December 31;

    To crack down on illicit mining activities as well as suspend the approval of new projects in the name of technological innovation and expansion;

    To further implement measures on gas control and curb over-production that surpasses limitations;

    To pursue people who misuse their rights or violate work safety regulations.

    Recently released figures from SAWS indicate that 116,027 people had been killed in 677,379 workplace accidents by December 11 this year. The figures are 9,618 and 72,845 lower than 2004 respectively.

    Workplace accident figures include traffic accidents.

    As for the coal mining industry, 5,491 miners died in 2,939 colliery accidents, 206 more than last year.

    One week ago, a gas blast in a privately-owned coal mine in Tangshan, Hebei Province killed 91 people and left 17 others still missing, according to the latest statistics.

    Under the demand of the State Council, a special investigation panel was set up on Saturday to find out the causes of the accident and punish those responsible.

    Initial investigations indicated that illicit production, loopholes in management and lack of work safety training may have led to the accident, he said.

    Seven suspects were detained by local police on charges of being responsible for the accident, reports said. Enditem

    (Source: China Daily)
 
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