Thursday, October 14, 2010

Freeport Didesak Perluas Jangkauan Program LPMAK

JAYAPURA—Ketua Umum Sinode Gereja Kristen Injili (GKI) di tanah Papua, Pdt Jemima Mirino Krey ,S.Th mendesak PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) - sebuah perusahaan tambang tembaga dan emas terbesar di dunia yang beroperasi di wilayah Kabupaten Mimika agar memperluas jangkauan program kerja membantu rakyat Papua. Hal itu disampaikan Pdt Jemima kepada ANTARA di Jayapura, Kamis setelah dirinya mengikuti acara diskusi terarah bertemakan "Kepemilikan saham Freeport bagi Pemerintah Pusat dan Daerah" yang berlangsung di Aula FKIP Universitas Negeri Cenderawasih (Uncen) Jayapura (2/9).

"Kalau kita mengatakan, Freeport belum memberikan perhatian kepada orang asli Papua, itu kurang tepat. Perusahaan ini sudah memberikan perhatiannya namun belum maksimal sehingga kita minta lembaga nirlaba bentukan PTFI yakni Lembaga Pengembangan masyarakat Amungme dan Kamoro atau LPMAK perluas jangkauan programnya untuk seluruh rakyat Papua," katanya.

Dia mengakui kalau Freeport memberikan dana yang cukup banyak melalui LPMAK untuk pemberdayaan orang asli Papua namun program pemberdayaan itu baru sebatas suku-suku pemilik hak ulayat areal tambang PTFI. LPMAK, lanjut Pdt.Jemima selama ini masih melaksanakan program di sekitar Kabupaten Mimika, sebaliknya belum meluas sampai ke kabupaten-kabupaten lainnya di tanah Papua padahal, Freeport itu hadir di tanah Papua.

 Persoalan sering muncul di perusahaan itu antara lain juga karena perhatian terhadap PTFI melalui LPMAK masih sangat terbatas sehingga wajar saja kalau warga masyarakat asli Papua lainnya merasa dipinggirkan oleh Freeport. Selain itu, kada Pdt Jemima, persoalan sering muncul di areal operasional PTFI di bidang kesejahteraan, bukan karena perusahaan ini belum memberikan perhatian melainkan karena masyarakat penerima bantuan dari PTFI melalui LPMAK tidak maksimal dan tidak optimal memanfaatkan dana bantuan tersebut. "Kita harus bersikap realistic dalam menilai suatu persoalan atau sebuah lembaga.Jika benar maka kita katakana benar tetapi apabila salah,kita pun harus berani memberikan koreksi," katanya.

Apabila, PTFI belum memberikan perhatian maksimal kepada banyak warga asli Papua di Provinsi papua dan Papua Barat maka kita wajib mengatakan hal itu. Namun,kata Jemima, apabila PTFI sudah memberikan perhatian kepada orang asli Papua melalui LPMAK atau lembaga nirlaba lainnya namun perhatian tersebut disalahgunakan oleh penerima bantuan maka kita pun wajib mengkritik diri sendiri.

 "Begitu pula,jika dalam operasionalnya Freeport rerbukti secara ilmiah dan meyakinkan telah merusak lingkungan akibat kegiatan pertambangan maka kita pun secara moral wajib menyampaikan hal tersebut agar perusahaan ini segera memperbaiki lingkungan yang sudah rusak itu," katanya. Jemima meminta setiap warga agar berani memberikan koreksi terhadap PTFI berdasarkan kasih bukan berlandaskan sikap tidak senang, membenci dan menduga-duga. "Katakan salah jika memang sesuatu tindakan itu terbukti salah sebaliknya katakana benar apabila suatu tindakan terbukti benar," tegas Jemima.

 PTFI telah membentu lembaga nirlaba LPMAK sebagai wujud komitmen perusahaan tambang tembaga,perak dan emas ini untuk menyediakan peluang di bidang pengembangan sosial, pendidikan dan ekonomi namun masih sebatas warga masyarakat di wilayah operasional PTFI. Komitmen PTFI untuk menghormati masyarakat adapt Papua dan budayanya sudah terlaksana namun jangkauan program untuk hal ini masih sangat terbatas.(ant)

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Only glacier in the Pacific could disappear in five years | WORLD News

Only glacier in the Pacific could disappear in five years | WORLD News

The only glacier on the island of New Guinea and the western Pacific could disappear in less then five years, the AFP is reporting.

A US scientist from the Ohio State University, who completed a mission to extract ice cores from the glacier on Punjak Jaya, says the glacier is dying.

Lonnie Thompson is one of the world's leading experts on glaciers and says that the Punjak Jaya glacier was literally melting under his tent, the water flowing underneath the ice, being clearly heard.

Puncak Jaya is the highest mountain in Indonesia, the highest on the island of New Guinea and the highest in Oceania.

It is also the highest point between the Himalayas and the Andes and the highest island peak anywhere in the world.

The first European to sight the glaciers on the peak was Dutch explorer Jan Carstensz in 1623.

He was ridiculed back in Europe when he said he saw snow near the equator, but was proven right later.

The peak was named Carstensz Pyramid, after the explorer, a name still used among mountaineers.

AFP: US scientist in race to learn from Indonesia's dying glacier

AFP: US scientist in race to learn from Indonesia's dying glacier

(AFP) – 4 days ago

JAKARTA — The only glacier in the western Pacific could disappear in less than five years, taking with it vital clues about the earth's changing climate, a US scientist said Friday.

Ohio State University Professor Lonnie Thompson has just completed what he calls a "salvage mission" to extract ice cores from the glacier on Punjak Jaya, which soars above the tropical, reef-fringed waters of eastern Indonesia.

The ice core samples he collected after his 13-day trip to the Papuan central highlands are set to be shipped back to Chicago on Wednesday for further analysis.

But Thompson said one thing is clear: the glacier is dying.

"This is the only ice in the western end of the Pacific warm pool, which is the warmest water on earth. When it melts that history (from ice cores) is lost forever and there's no way we can recapture it," he told AFP.

"My biggest concern is that we may be too late to capture that history. Some is already missing from the top and from the bottom. How much of that history do we still have?"

Thompson estimated the glacier is disappearing at a rate of seven metres (22 feet) a year. As it is only about 32 metres deep, it could be gone in four or five years.

"Looking at the loss of ice that's been occurring since the 1830s we thought that we were looking at decades (before the Punjak Jaya ice disappeared)," he said.

"But I've never been to a glacier anywhere else in the world where it rains every day... If it rains on a glacier then that's the death of the glacier."

One of the world's leading experts, Thompson has visited glaciers from Kenya to Peru. But he said he had never seen anything like what he experienced in Papua, where the ice was visibly melting under his tent.

"It's the first glacier that I've visited where you can hear the water flowing underneath the ice," he said.

The 88 metres of ice samples from his expedition will be added to the Ohio State University's valuable archive of tropical ice cores, where it will remain available for researchers years after the glacier itself may have gone.

The study of glacier ice reveals evidence of past climate fluctuations, which can then be referenced with samples from other parts of the planet to get a better understanding of current climate change.

"We hope to be able to reconstruct past temperatures, look at the history of the ice here and compare that with ice from around the world, particularly with ice from the other side of the Pacific Ocean," Thompson said.

He said he hoped to publish his findings early next year.

Last Indonesian Glacier Under Threat - Science News - redOrbit

Last Indonesian Glacier Under Threat - Science News - redOrbit: "Last Indonesian Glacier Under Threat"

American glaciologist Lonnie Thompson has spent decades on glaciers drilling ice cores and has never come across a situation that is now occurring on top of Puncak Jaya -- a three-mile high glacier located in the Sudirman Range in the western central highlands of Papua province, Indonesia.

Thompson had hoped to chronicle the affect of global warming on the last remaining glacier in the Pacific. But what he found has worried him even more. As he set up camp he could hear the ice melting beneath him.

The glacier was pounded by rain every afternoon during the 13-day trip. The nights were spent listening to water gushing below him.

In the two weeks he spent on the glacier, ice had melted around their sheltered campsite a shocking 12 inches.

“These glaciers are dying,” Thompson, one of the world's most accomplished glaciologists, told the Associated Press (AP). “Before I was thinking they had a few decades, but now I'd say we're looking at years.”

Thompson has led more than 55 such expeditions to 16 countries around the globe, from China to Peru. But the Papuan glaciers, because they lie among the fringe of the world’s warmest ocean and could provide clues about regional weather patterns, were considered an unexplored “missing link.”

It is this region that generates El Nino disturbances and influences climate from India to the Amazon.

Glaciers around the world are retreating, with major losses already seen across Alaska, the Alps, the Andes and other ranges. But, because so little is known about the Puncak Jaya glacier and how it may affect weather patterns, it is very important to study it now.

Research permits are difficult to secure in Papua, mainly because Indonesia’s government is hugely sensitive to the region’s long-lasting insurgency. The country prohibits foreign journalists and humanitarian groups are restricted.

Along with the team was four tons of equipment, including winches, cables, monitoring equipment, camping gear and boxes to preserve ice core samples, which will eventually join more than 200,000 feet of tropical cores being kept in cold storage in Columbus, Ohio.

There, glaciologists study the ice layer by layer. They are able to count down through the years by measuring flecks of dust that fall seasonally and adhere to the ice. Oxygen isotopes, in small air bubbles trapped in the ice, vary with temperature helping researchers understand how ancient weather shifted.

“I just hope we weren’t too late,” Thompson told AP, adding that in addition to melting from the top, water likely seeped in to the base of the glacier, tampering with history and leaving them with limited records from a period of time.

Thompson of Ohio State University, who co-coordinated the expedition with Dwi Susanto of Columbia University, said they do think they will be able to salvage at least some climate history, though, since the ice cores did have “horizontal layers all the way through.”

The team expects to find records of past volcano eruptions, soot from wildfires, plant debris and possibly even some animals frozen in time.

Satellite images have shown the glacier in rapid retreat over a long period. The mountain has lost nearly 80 percent of its ice since 1936. Nearly two-thirds of that vanished since the last expedition to the mountain in the early 70s.

Thompson says temperatures could be rising twice as fast in the higher altitudes as at the earth’s surface. If this is true, then it could have dire implications on people who depend on glaciers for water during the dry season, such as in the Himalayas.

During the 1971 expedition to Puncak Jaya, Geoffrey Hope, a professor at Australian National University had a much different experience on the glacier.

“The roof of our tent fell in on many evenings due to the weight of the snow,” he recalled, “and all water coming from the glacier would freeze by 8 p.m. each night.”

Although, he noted that Papua has the wettest mountain region in the world, and the high precipitation levels that Thompson’s expedition encountered didn’t come as a great surprise.

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Image Caption: This meltwater lake has formed on the surface of the glacier—a possible portent of quickening destruction. For one thing, liquid water tends to absorb more heat than does snow or ice, which reflect energy. Once a pond forms, it can become a hot spot that eats away everything around it--and indeed, you can see how this one has drilled down through layers of ice. Eventually it will hit the rock bed of the glacier. There the water may flow into and lubricate the bed causing the glacier to slide downhill faster. The water may then find its way to the glacier’s edge, forming a drain of running water that will help consume the ice from the bottom. (Paul Warren calls this picture “the ice jacuzzi.”). Credit: The Earth Institute, Columbia University

Monday, July 5, 2010

Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold, Indonesia

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