Best of our wild blogs: 28 May 08

Cyrene Impressions
shared by winner of the "I Want to Go Cyrene" blogging contest, on the glorious birds blog

East Coast: Bodies of Evidence
extrapolations on the lazy lizard blog

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Getai goes to Pulau Ubin

For the first time, an outdoor concert will be held on the island tonight to celebrate deity Tua Pek Kong's birthday
Sandra Leong, Straits Times 23 May 08;

THE Chinese Seventh Month festival may be a while away but if you are hankering for some getai action, hop on a bumboat to Pulau Ubin tonight.

Er, Pulau where?

Yes, the sleepy north-eastern island, well-known to Singaporean daytrippers for its nature trails and kampung-style seafood - is for the first time hosting a three-hour getai show at its town square in celebration of Chinese deity Tua Pek Kong's birthday.

The event's organisers, most of whom are committee members of Ubin's Tua Pek Kong temple, are offering free bumboat rides to entice mainlanders to make the crossing. The one-way fare from Changi Point Ferry Terminal to Pulau Ubin is usually $2.50.

The show, called A Night With Tua Pek Kong, is the culmination of week-long festivities that began on Sunday. Every year, the programme has included a nightly Teochew opera show.

One of the organisers, Mr Vincent Chew, 39, a long-time Ubin resident who runs the Chew Teck Seng provision shop, says the committee decided to buck tradition this year by introducing a getai show on the final night.

He jokes: 'When we have Teochew opera, only Pek Kong is watching. The getai will bring in more people, especially youngsters.'

Tua Pek Kong is the Taoist god of prosperity and his devotees pray to him for good luck.

Committee members raised about $12,000 from friends and supporters of the Tua Pek Kong temple to put on the show, which will be headlined by popular getai emcees: former jailbird Zhong Yaonan, more popularly known as Ah Nan; and Taiwanese compere Hsu Chiung-Fang.

Mr Chew is hoping about 500 people will turn up and has deployed some Ubin residents to help with crowd control. Restaurants around the getai stage will also stay open till late to cater to the crowd.

Says Ah Nan in Mandarin: 'I haven't thought of a programme yet because if I do, it won't be funny at all. But it will be like going back to the kampung.'

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Sir David calls it a day: and comments on Singapore

Acclaimed naturalist David Attenborough ends his five-decade-long career with a series on reptiles and amphibians
Tara Tan, Straits Times 23 May 08;

BEADY eyes stare. A forked tongue tastes the air. Then, as quick as lightning, the mangrove snake coils around a startled crab and rips off its limbs one by one.

All this drama took place in swamps right here in Singapore.

And it was captured on camera as part of Life In Cold Blood, the latest - and last ever - documentary series by renowned naturalist Sir David Attenborough, and which will be shown on Arts Central from Nov 26.

At 81, Sir David has decided to call it quits on his globe-trotting TV activities that have captivated millions.

As for his visit to Singapore, Sir David, one of the world's most acclaimed natural history presenters, says it left him impressed with some of the environmental work done here.

He says in a phone interview from his home in London: 'There are some very active people in Singapore who look after the Singapore natural history with enormous success.

'With those around working hard to protect the areas, you do have some very precious parts in the few remaining areas where there is wildlife in Singapore.'

His career spans five decades and includes landmark documentaries The Living Planet (1984) and Planet Earth (2006).

It comes as no surprise that no effort was spared for Life In Cold Blood, which had a team of 17 cameramen filming over 100 species of amphibians and reptiles in 18 countries, including Madagascar, Brazil, Australia and Japan.

For his final project, Sir David turned to a species he had kept as a child. He recalls: 'As a boy, I used to keep chameleons and I have actually watched the birthing process.'

He adds with a laugh: 'They are not poisonous, which helps.'

One of the most exciting things he saw during the filming of his latest series was pygmy chameleons in Madagascar.

'The tiny pygmy chameleon is only the size of my little finger nail, but has all the organs of a larger lizard - eyes and stomach and brain and hands and so on - and lives on tiny little fruit flies,' he says excitedly, his voice taking on that familiar tinge of passion and wonderment.

'I was absolutely knocked out. I thought they were marvellous.'

His career has taken him to most places on earth and he has witnessed some of nature's most extraordinary sights.

However, he is happy to take a backseat from now on: 'I am now coming up to my 82nd birthday and I don't feel the urge to climb trees before breakfast as I used to do.'

If he hadn't become a naturalist, he would most probably have been a palaeontologist (an expert in fossils). He says: 'I adore fossils and fossils were my first love. I get a great thrill from them, they are wonderful and romantic, beautiful things.'

His elder brother, Academy Award-winning Lord Richard Attenborough, acted in Jurassic Park as eccentric developer John Hammond in 1993. And fossil-fanatic Sir David notes: 'He made a mistake; he didn't understand some of the names.'

Of all the nature he has seen, he would choose to relive watching birds of paradise in the mountains of New Guinea: 'That is just one of the extraordinary, amazing, rare, beautiful, real unforgettable sights in my lifetime.'

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Best of our wild blogs: 27 May 08

Where are the button shells?
on the cj project blog

Chek Jawa check up
after four months, on the wonderful creations blog

Marine construction on our shores
rock-filling operations continue off Cyrene, Labrador and Sentosa, while there is dredging at Sungei Serangoon off Pulau Ubin, from MPA notices, on the wildfilms blog

Bearded fish and other low tide highlights
on the singapore celebrates our reefs blog

Naked at Chek Jawa
another exciting boardwalk tour on the adventures with the naked hermit crabs blog, with wonderful thoughts shared by the visitors

Singapore pleasure craft rules changed
can we look forward to bringing more people to our shores? on the wildfilms blog

Peach-faced Lovebird found on Vesak Day eve
on the bird ecology blog

Yellow-bellied Prinia
on the bird ecology blog

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KL govt told: Make sure two other islands don't fall to Singapore

Straits Times 27 May 08;

SEVERAL Malaysian politicians have asked the government to keep a close eye on two Malaysian islands to ensure they will not be lost to Singapore, like Pedra Branca was.

One of the Malaysian-owned islands is Pulau Pisang, on which Singapore operates a lighthouse. The other is Pulau Merambong off Tuas.

Umno-owned mass-selling newspaper Utusan Malaysia yesterday reported on its Page 1 the comments by a Johor MP who said the government must quickly draw up a programme to develop Pulau Pisang to ensure Malaysian sovereignty would not be lost.

The daily also published a big file picture of Pulau Pisang which showed the lighthouse at its centre.

The lighthouse on Pulau Pisang is managed by Singapore under an agreement in 1885 between the ruler of Johor and the governor of the Straits Settlements.

The MP for Pontian, a Johor constituency that includes the island, Mr Ahmad Maslan, said the Pulau Pisang lighthouse has a history 'similar' to Pulau Batu Puteh, the Malaysian name for Pedra Branca.

'Taking a leaf from the bitter experience of Johoreans when Batu Puteh fell under the ownership of Singapore, it is not right for Pulau Pisang to receive the same fate if ownership claims were to be made one day,' he said.

Mr Hamim Samuri, an Umno MP from Johor, said in Parliament yesterday that the government must learn from the Pedra Branca experience and keep an eye on Singapore's activities near Malaysia.

'We have to carefully watch Pulau Merambong which is near Tuas,' he said.

Referring to Pulau Pisang, he said the government must ensure that it is not lost to Singapore as well.

'The Singaporeans fly their flag on the lighthouse there. It gives the impression that they have sovereignty over the island,' he said.

Malaysian MPs slam govt for losing Pedra Branca
Parliament debate shows island issue could become a political hot potato
Carolyn Hong, Straits Times 27 May 08;

KUALA LUMPUR - THE 'loss' of Pedra Branca to Singapore became a topic of debate in Parliament yesterday as several MPs expressed unhappiness at the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The debate was led by several Johor Members of Parliament, as well as opposition leaders.

The vocal Datuk Puad Zarkashi, an Umno MP from Johor, said Malaysia lost because it failed to archive its historical documents properly.

He lambasted the government for failing to locate a crucial letter from the British colonial government seeking the Johor sultan's permission to build a lighthouse on the island which he described as a key piece of evidence.

'As a Johorean, I am disappointed. We lost, simple as that. I don't believe in the win-win situation as claimed by the government,' he said.

The debate in Parliament came after a weekend of measured response from politicians and the media, and is an indication that the loss of the island could become a political hot potato.

The MPs had been briefed in advance of the ICJ verdict last Friday as the government attempted to moderate the response to the decision, but strong sentiments are beginning to surface.

The opposition has also jumped onto the bandwagon to blame the government for its poor handling of the case.

The opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) in Johor yesterday lodged a police report against former foreign minister Syed Hamid Albar for having been 'careless' in the handling of the case.

'They did not do anything against Singapore when it constructed buildings and a light house on the island,' Johor PAS information chief Mazlan Alimin said.

The party is also planning to table a motion in Parliament today to debate the matter.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim wrote in his blog yesterday that the ICJ decision was a bitter pill, and attacked the Malaysian government for its weak case.

'Malaysians should express their anger and regret at the carelessness, and protest to the Umno and BN-led government, and Attorney-General,' he said.

His wife, Wan Azizah Ismail, an MP from Penang, said in Parliament that Malaysians were saddened by the decision, against which there was no appeal.

Mr Mahfuz Omar, a PAS MP from Kedah, blamed the Attorney-General for failing to advise the government adequately.

Independent MP Ibrahim Ali urged the government to be wary of Singapore, pointing out that the Republic has a water treatment plant in Pulai which was manned by its personnel.

'I have been made to understand that it is big, and if it was to overflow, half of Johor will be flooded,' he said.

Meanwhile, Malaysian analyst Datuk Dr Cheah See Kian was quoted in the Nanyang Siang Pau yesterday as saying that the ICJ decision could have military and strategic significance for Singapore.

He said Pedra Branca was a strategic spot from the military point of view, and that it could even be used as a new naval base.

'Although we are not certain whether there are oilfields around Pedra Branca, Singapore has achieved a historical breakthrough with the verdict,' he said.

Win-win? It’s more like win-lose
Malaysian politicians upset over ICJ ruling
Today Online 27 May 08;

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian politicians have stepped up their “republic-bashing” — as the Malaysian media puts it — following the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) decision on Pedra Branca last Friday.

In Parliament yesterday, there was no support for the official position that the ICJ’s decision was a win-win for Singapore and Malaysia, reported news portal The Malaysian Insider.

Johor Members of Parliament (MPs), especially, had much to say about the loss of the outcrop of rocks to Singapore.

Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi said that sovereignty fell to the Republic as a result of Malaysia failing to keep a proper record of its historical documents.

The government, he noted, could not locate a letter from the British seeking permission from the Johor governmentto build a lighthouse on the island.

The letter was a piece of “valuable evidence” which could have swung the case in Malaysia’s favour, he added.

Another MP, Hamim Samuri, said: “We must watch Singapore’s activities on our territory. We have to monitor Pulau Merambung which is near Tuas in Singapore.”

He added that Malaysia had to ensure that Pulau Pisang remains in Malaysian hands.

“Singapore being awarded the island will certainly bring a lot of hardship for our fishermen in Johor waters,” Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) vice-president Nasharuddin Mat Isa was quoted as saying by :The Star: newspaper.

PAS is set to table a motion in Parliament today to debate the ICJ’s ruling.

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River sludge cleared,and PUB will continue to monitor the situation

Breathe easy, for now
River sludge cleared,and PUB will continue to monitor the situation
Jinny Koh, Today Online 27 May 08;

THE air along Robertson Quay has finally been cleared. And the source of the offending stench — a 1m-thick layer of sludge lining the bed of the Singapore River — has been removed, giving the area a breath of fresh air.

The years of muck that lined a 50m stretch of riverbed could have been due to dead leaves, litter and silt discharged from nearby worksites, especially after rain, said a PUB officer during a media briefing at the quayside yesterday.

The sludge fronting the Red House at The Quayside had been assailing the nostrils of visitors, patrons and tenants for the last three months. And while the PUB assured that the air is clean again, the agency would :“continue to monitor the situation”.:

Today: had reported last week that visitors to the pubs and restaurants located along the bend at Robertson Quay had complained of a pungent smell.

Mr William Yeo, PUB’s assistant director of catchment and waterways, said the agency conducts a major dredging exercise along the river once every few years.

Whenever they are notified about a stench, they will carry out localised dredging — the last one at Robertson Quay was done in 2001.The latest dredging exercise was completed yesterday, the third such this year. Patrol boats also make daily rounds, scooping up dead leaves, plastics and cans.:

“The river is very large so we need help from the public and businesses to give feedback to us,” said Mr Yeo. He added that they will continue make their rounds but if there is no smell, they will not disturb the riverbed.

Restaurant staff along the river told :Today: that they are finally getting a breath of fresh air. The managing partner of the Brussels Sprouts, Ms Monique Kwok, 40, said that she is looking forward to more business. She said that customers had previously associated the foul smell with the restaurant lining the river.

“Business is definitely going to improve because more people will probably visit the area and hang out by the river now that the smell is gone,” she said.

Related links

Stench from Singapore River affecting business
Robertson Quay restaurants raise a stink
Jinny Koh, Today Online 20 May 08;

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iPaq a real 'iPal' in HortPark

Straits Times 27 May 08;

STEPHANIE GWEE visits HortPark and is entertained and educated by an HP iPaq
WHILE kids were dashing about in the playground and couples were strolling along the bougainvillea patches, I was busy memorising the health benefits of lemongrass.

Who knew that the temperate spice is often used as a tea in African and Latin-American countries?

Just by playing a simple (some might say, simplistic) game on the HP iPaq 612 Business Navigator, information about the different plants and trees in HortPark were at my fingertips.

Welcome to HortPark, which opened in December last year and which just got geeky.

Using a global positioning system (GPS), the game screened different content when I stopped at various locations in the park such as the Herb and Spice Garden and the Silver Garden.

For instance, when I walked past the herbs and spices section, the iPaq prompted me to identify specific herbs found there.

Once I had correctly identified each herb, information about it popped up on the screen - great for students who want to learn more about plants or for men who want to impress their plant-loving sweethearts.

Although I wasn't too keen on the animation, I'm sure kids would dig them. A cutesy rabbit on the gadget's screen asked me to identify plants or instructed me to walk 500m to get to the next game location.

When I showed the animation to a seven-year-old girl who was at the park, she giggled in amusement.

The GPS function also helps the geographically challenged (that is, yours truly) to figure out which direction they should be heading in.

The device not only screens a map of the park, but it also tells you exactly where you are, letting you know how much longer you need to walk to reach your next location.

This was particularly useful when I realised that I had to trod another 500m to reach the next game station. Needless to say, I made a sharp U-turn.

One thing that marred the user experience was the intermittent GPS signals.

Although the handset accurately received relevant content the moment I stepped into various hotspots, the GPS signals failed to trigger my handset when I was at the Herb and Spice Garden. I had to walk in and out of the garden to receive the signals.

Not only was this inconvenient, but walking aimlessly in the heat of the 3pm sun was also not my idea of fun.

The signals at the Silver Garden were also rather weak. Though I could log on to play the interactive game, I was repeatedly logged out and I had to restart the game twice.

Call it a tech park too
Straits Times 27 May 08;

Did you know that the roselle plant is used to cure coughs? With HP's tie-up with NParks, such information can be at your fingertips. STEPHANIE GWEE reports
INTERACTIVE digital media rules the greens at HortPark.

As part of a joint initiative between Hewlett-Packard (HP) and the National Parks Board (NParks), students can use HP smartphones to engage in real-time interactive games.

Targeted at upper primary and lower secondary students, the games aim to provide information about plants in a fun way.

The idea is to 'create memorable recreational experiences' for visitors to the park, says Ng Lang, CEO of NParks.

Launched on May 10, the game is based on a fairy tale entitled The Enchanted Kingdom. It was specially scripted by HP for this service.

Designed to appeal to children, the game revolves around a witch who has stolen the Five Elements, causing the garden to become barren. The user's mission is to engage in a series of activities to find these elements and restore the flora and fauna of the park.

Using a global positioning system (GPS), the game screens different content when the user stops at various locations.

For instance, the phone will beep a welcome message and information about HortPark once the user steps into the park's Visitor Entrance.

Walk into the HortPark's Herb and Spice Garden and the handset will stream data about the different herbs in the garden.

The sponsorship is valued at about $190,000 for the entire trail and will cover 26 hotspots, although the service currently covers only four areas.

The four spots are the Visitor Entrance, the Herb and Spice Garden, the Silver Garden and the Bamboo Labyrinth.

HP says the remaining 22 hotspots will be up and running by September this year.

The games are targeted at students but adults are also welcome to use the handsets. Just call HortPark on 6471-5601 to reserve the iPaq handsets and collect them from the receptionist at the Visitor Entrance.

Engineer Lim Beng Yew, 46, who was trying out the service with his nine-year-old daughter, found it 'engaging' and a different way of teaching kids about flora and nature.

According to HP, the service is part of its latest attempts to enhance the user experience in the interactive digital media (IDM) space.

Said Tan Yen Yen, vice-president and managing director of HP Singapore: 'IDM is the next pillar of growth in Singapore. HP is trying to build a whole ecosystem to fuel the growth of this sector.'

The IDM sector is projected to add $10 billion to the local media industry and create 10,000 new jobs by 2015.

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Singapore's footprint: Going green

Letter from Ying Shan Lau (Miss), Straits Times Forum 27 May 08;

I REFER to Saturday's article, 'Beware of doom merchants' by Mr Robert Skidelsky.

Lord Skidelsky rightly criticises alarmism in today's global warming debate. He cautions against the misreporting of science which can lead to unsubstantiated doomsday scenarios being conjured up. Instead, he encourages that a degree of scepticism be employed when evaluating claims about global warming. I agree with Lord Skidelsky that the search for sustainable solutions requires calm and reason, and it is hardly helped by an environment of fear and panic.

However, I find that Lord Skidelsky's criticisms of climate scientists are a tad too harsh. He says that some scientists 'see themselves as captains in the salvationist army, dedicated to purging the world of evil habits'. This claim is surely too strong.

I am far from being a scientist, but I can confidently say that most scientists practise a healthy degree of scepticism, hence they would refrain from comparing themselves to messiahs. Many a geologist would readily acknowledge that the climate has been changing throughout Earth's history, but they would definitely qualify themselves when making the claim that global warming today is entirely anthropogenic. On the other hand, it should be celebrated that scientists at the forefront of their respective fields are making the effort to communicate their findings to society. They are scientists who retain the human touch, scientists who do not disconnect science from its linkages to society. If we laud nuclear scientists who speak out against the use of nuclear weapons, and if we praise genetic researchers who caution against 'playing God', surely we should also give credit to climate scientists who have decided to speak out based on the data which they have access to.

Moreover, it seems only natural that for global warming to make the news, it should be given a doomsday nature. Regardless of whether it is the media that paints the doomsday picture to attract public interest, or whether it is a method used by science communicators to draw the attention of the media, this is how attention is drawn to a highly complex and pressing issue. In Singapore, there was little public awareness about global warming less than just two years ago. It was an almost alien concept to most Singaporeans then, and it was certainly very difficult to generate any public interest in this issue. If not for the doomsday scenarios, public awareness about global warming will still be quite low. However, like what Lord Skidelsky recommends, we should not unquestioningly jump onto the doomsday bandwagon and adopt apocalyptic language. Advocacy is one thing - religious zeal is another. 'Climate change is a fact,' but Lord Skidelsky also cautions against irrationally putting all our stakes on the climate change issues and neglecting other issues, such as intra-generational equity and justice, as a consequence.

However, unless the public is willing to accept that returning to the primitive way of living is an option, I doubt that an 'apocalyptic virus' leading to 'the meltdown of our economies' is truly imminent. In my opinion, the growing awareness about climate change is also creating a wave of environmental concern which can be healthy for our economies.

This wave is not something which we should reject just because some aspects of it have been associated with irrational apocalyptic forecasts. Instead, it is an invitation to the public to understand the fine inter-dependence between human society and nature, and to search for more sustainable solutions to environmental problems. When adequate, solutions to environmental problems will lead to breakthroughs in social equity.

Back home, Singaporeans should take advantage of this wave, as Singapore is well-equipped to be at the forefront of sustainability in tropical climates. For example, sustainable, cradle-to-cradle designs are as yet poorly developed in tropical regions.

More research can be conducted to take stock of Singapore's geography and its unique tropical biodiversity, and to evaluate the ecological footprint of an average Singaporean. With the application of proper knowledge, we can rationally address fundamental problems in our relationship with nature, and transform our island-state into a truly green city, a bastion of environmental sustainability in the South-east Asian region.


SCIENCE AND RELIGION
Beware of doom merchants
Robert Skidelsky, Straits Times 24 May 08;

IT WAS only to be expected that former US vice-president Al Gore would give this month's cyclone in Myanmar an apocalyptic twist.

'Last year,' he said, 'a catastrophic storm hit Bangladesh. The year before, the strongest cyclone in more than 50 years hit China...

We're seeing the consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continual global warming'.

Mr Gore's not-so-subliminal message: These natural catastrophes foreshadow the end of the world.

Apocalyptic beliefs have always been part of the Christian tradition. They express the yearning for heaven on earth, when evil is destroyed and the good are saved.

In their religious form, such beliefs rely on signs and omens, such as earthquakes and sunspots, which can be interpreted, by reference to Biblical passages, as portending a great cataclysm and cleansing. Apocalyptic moments are products of a sense of crisis: They can be triggered by wars and natural disasters.

Apocalyptic thinking is alive and well, especially in America, where it feeds on Protestant fundamentalism and is mass-marketed with all the resources of modern media. Circles close to the Bush administration, it is rumoured, take current distempers like terrorism as confirmation of Biblical prophecies.

In secularised, pseudo-scientific form, apocalyptic thinking has been at the core of revolutionary politics. In his book Black Mass, philosopher John Gray writes of how political doctrines like Marxism colonised the apocalyptic vision in prophesying capitalism's destruction as the prelude to a socialist utopia.

But political messianism was an offshoot of 19th-century optimism. With the collapse of optimism, contemporary apocalyptic belief lays more stress on catastrophe and less on utopia.

For example, in his book Flat Earth News, investigative journalist Nick Davies reminds us of the millennium bug panic. Newspapers carried stories predicting that computer systems would crash on Jan 1, 2000, causing much of the world to shut down. The subtext was familiar: Those who live by technology will die by it.

Misreporting of science is now so routine we hardly notice it. Much more serious is when science itself becomes infected by the apocalyptic spirit. Faith-based science seems a contradiction in terms, because the scientific worldview emerged as a challenge to religious superstition. But important scientific beliefs can now be said to be held religiously, rather than scientifically.

This brings us back to Mr Gore and climate change. There is no doubt Earth became warmer over the 20th century - by 0.7 deg C. Most climate scientists attribute this largely to human carbon dioxide emissions. If nothing is done to restrict such emissions, global temperature will rise by 1.8 to 4 deg C over the next century. At some 'tipping point', the world will be subject to floods and pestilence in classic apocalyptic fashion.

This is the second doomsday scenario in recent decades, the first being the Club of Rome's prediction in 1972 that the world would soon run out of natural resources. Both are 'scientific', but their structure is the same as that of the Biblical story of the Flood: Human wickedness - in today's case, unbridled materialism - triggers the disastrous sequence, which may already be too late to avert.

Like Biblical prophecy, scientific doomsday stories seem impervious to refutation, and are constantly being repackaged to feed the hunger for catastrophe.

Scientists argue that the media and politicians are responsible for exaggerating their findings as promises of salvation or warnings of retribution. But scientists themselves are partly responsible, because they have hardened uncertainties into probabilities, treated disputable propositions as matters of fact and attacked dissent as heresy.

Scientists are notoriously loath to jettison conclusions reached by approved scientific methods, however faulty. But their intolerance of dissent is hugely magnified when they see themselves as captains in the salvationist army, dedicated to purging the world of evil habits.

Today it is the West that foists an apocalyptic imagination on the rest of the world. Perhaps we should be looking to China and India for answers about how to address environmental damage, instead of using climate change as a pretext to deprive them of what we already have.

How do the Chinese feel about their newfound materialism? Do they have an intellectual structure with which to make sense of it?

The best antidote to the doom merchants is scepticism. We must be willing to take uncertainty seriously. Climate change is a fact. But apocalyptic thinking distorts the scientific debate and makes it harder to explain the causes and consequences of this fact, which in turn makes it harder to know how to deal with it.

The danger is that we become so infected with the apocalyptic virus we end up creating a real catastrophe - the meltdown of our economies - to avoid an imaginary one.

In short, while a religious attitude of mind deserves the highest respect, we should resist the re-conquest by religion of matters that should be the concern of science.

The writer, a member of the British House of Lords, is professor emeritus of political economy at Warwick University.

Copyright: Project Syndicate

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Kobe showcase of new Japanese green technologies

Want an eco-friendly game of Othello?
Game a product at Kobe showcase of new Japanese green technologies
Kwan Weng Kin, Straits Times 27 May 08;

TOKYO - AN OTHELLO board game made from coffee beans was among the many eco-friendly products unveiled at a fair showcasing new Japanese technologies to save the environment.

The fair was held on the sidelines of a Group of Eight environment ministers' meeting which ended in the western city of Kobe yesterday.

The environment ministers urged their leaders, who will meet in Hokkaido, to embrace a Japanese initiative calling for the halving of global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

But G-8 nations - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States - still have not agreed on medium-term targets. Nor have emerging economies like China and India agreed to limit their carbon dioxide emissions.

At the upcoming G-8 summit in July, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda plans to make global warming a top issue.

Japan plans to be a global leader in this regard.

The Japanese have been focusing their research and development on the environment for many years now, and stand to gain a major share of a potentially huge global market for such technologies in the coming years.

The key theme of the exhibition, involving some 80 firms, universities and agencies, was new technologies that could slash greenhouse emissions and save the earth from global warming.

In the case of the Eco-Othello game, 60 per cent of the material used to make the game board and pieces is 'silver skin', the thin membrane surrounding the coffee bean that is removed during processing.

The silver skin is supplied by Key Coffee, a leading coffeemaker in Japan whose plant near Tokyo produces 14 tonnes of it a month.

Until recently, silver skin was mostly used for animal feed and fertiliser, or in recycled paper. Key Coffee managed to process silver skin into biomass chips, enabling the material to be used more widely in manufacturing.

Biomass refers to living or dead biological material that can be used as fuel or for industrial production.

Meanwhile, the use of solar energy is set to take off in a big way with a new type of solar cell that is light, flexible and durable.

Traditional solar cells made from silicon tend to be rigid and heavy. But a prototype leaf-shaped organic solar cell module exhibited at Kobe can be incorporated into building materials used for walls and windows of homes. It is also expected to find wide applications in apparel, household goods, leisure and outdoor equipment, and even toys.

The cell was jointly developed by Japan's Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tokki Corporation and Mitsubishi Corporation.

Another exhibitor, Kobe Steel, is able to slash carbon dioxide production with a steel-making process that vastly reduces energy requirements.

It also manufactures lighter and stronger steel and aluminium parts that improve car fuel consumption.

The four-day fair also featured products that will soon be commercially available, like a fuel cell system able to supply a major part of a household's energy needs.

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'Silent tsunami' sends shockwaves over Asia

An Asian solution is needed to address 'agflation' and food security issues in the region
Mshahidul Islam, Business Times 27 May 08;

AGRICULTURAL commodity prices have reached nosebleed levels in recent months. The impact of the ongoing 'agflation' across the world, especially on the low and fixed income groups, is so severe that the World Food Programme has described the phenomenon as a 'silent tsunami'. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) reckons that one billion people in Asia are seriously affected by surging global food prices.

The rising demand from emerging markets, the sliding US dollar, higher energy prices, excessively loose monetary conditions, commodity speculation, weather woes and development of biofuels, among other things, are the drivers of the current 'agflation'.

Further, adding fuel the fire, some Asian countries, including China, India and Vietnam, have banned or restricted several key cereal exports that have created food shortages in many parts of Asia.

In the last four decades, cereal production more than doubled, largely owing to the Green Revolution in the late 1960s. After maintaining equilibrium in the food grain market for a long period, some important factors have emerged in the global food supply-demand scene in recent years.

Firstly, there has been a sudden shift from a demand-constraint to supply-constraint environment in the agriculture market. Since 2007, higher demand has led to an increase in food prices and supply is not able to cope.

Secondly, the growth of China and other emerging economies has lifted millions of people from poverty and thus the demand for high-protein diets has increased. Consequently, a significant portion of cereals has been diverted towards meat production.

Thirdly, climate change concerns have promoted the development of alternative fuels. The road to biofuel is paved with good intentions. But the result - diversion of food to fuel - is doing more harm than good.

Finally, the world is depleting resources much faster than they are being replaced.

Agriculture portfolio has changed

Asia accounts for 42 per cent of global cereal (91 per cent of global rice) production and 39 per cent of global meat production. China and India are the two largest homes to agriculture. In the current decade, the portfolio of Asia's agriculture, particularly the Chinese, has changed significantly. The share of cereal in total agriculture products has declined both in China and India compared to the period of 1999-2000. Meat, vegetables, fruits and fish production have witnessed a tremendous growth in China.

Agriculture diversification in China, coupled with higher demand for protein meal, has forced the country to slash its food exports steadily. Its share in the global food export market declined from 13 per cent in 1990 to 3 per cent in 2006.

India's agriculture sector grew 1.66 per cent annually from 1996-97 to 2004-05, compared to 3.29 per cent growth from 1980-81 to 1989-90. Consequently, the share of agriculture in total gross domestic product (GDP) has decreased without a commensurate decline in the number of agricultural workers in the country.

As the recent growth in the Indian agriculture sector has been below its population growth, the country has lost its position as a food surplus country. India's share in global food export market has declined from 16 per cent in 1990 to 9 per cent in 2005.

The recent decline in cereal production in China and India has not been fully compensated by a production increase in other parts of Asia, particularly in Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand.

There is a little reason to hope that food prices will return to their long-term trend soon unless there is a sea-change in the agriculture sector. Even if all factors work for the agriculture sector favourably, in the short run, it is a daunting task to shift the agriculture supply curve rightward.

So, higher food prices are likely to stay for the next few years. After that, a greater involvement of market and state could augment cereal production and other food items.

Agriculture has been neglected both by the state and multilateral organisations for a long period. For example, the World Bank's lending to agriculture totalled US$1.75 billion in 2006, just 7 per cent of total bank lending, compared with more than 30 per cent in 1982.

A meagre 4 per cent of official development assistance goes to agriculture sector in developing countries.

Intensive research and development in the agriculture and more investment in irrigation, fertiliser, seeds, among others, could increase agriculture productivity, even if there is a constraint to expand the sector horizontally.

For instance, it is estimated that 85 per cent of increases needed in global food production must come from agricultural land already under cultivation. Technology and economic forces can spur solutions. But all these developments will take substantial time to have an impact.

But there is a flip side too. The current export ban on key agricultural commodities by many agriculture commodity producing countries is sending the wrong signal to the farmers to judge actual demand.

Further, climate change could emerge as an important barrier to increasing food production both vertically and horizontally, especially in Asia. Water shortage is another huge challenge in this regard.

Moreover, as many Asian economies rapidly industrialise, the wage level is rising both in farms as well as off-farms. As a result, the cost of producing food and other agricultural products is set to increase.

Cheap food is a double-edged sword. High food prices are essentially a regressive tax on the poor, especially those who are net food buyers. At the same time, any attempt to keep food prices low will do more harm than good, as farmers should be properly compensated for their hard work and increasing uncertainties in food production.

There is a need for both short and long-term solutions to address food security in Asia. Food aid can help to avoid hunger and starvation in the short run. But higher cereal and other food production are the ultimate solutions in stabilising prices in the medium to long run.

The chances of world leaders reaching a consensus over key issues concerning agriculture soon are not good. Moreover, neither the United States nor the European Union has shown any sign that they would revise their current biofuel policies that are driving up the food prices across the world. It is energy that affects developed countries' consumer price inflation greatly, not food.

So, an Asian solution is the need of the hour. Thailand's recent attempt to form an Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) style cartel with some of its South-east Asian neighbours will create further distortion in the grain market. Such an oligopolistic structure is not viable in the long run, as unlike oil, rice is a renewable commodity and it has close substitutes.

Policymakers in this part of the world should instead address issues such as research and development in agriculture, technology sharing, water sharing, market access and potential free flow of agriculture commodities within the region, among others.

Asia needs to act now - any further delay could exacerbate the current food crisis and it would lead to great economic and political uncertainty, if not conflict, in Asia.

The writer is a research associate at the Institute of South Asian Studies, an autonomous research institute within the National University of Singapore

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