Best of our wild blogs: 10 Nov 07

Homeschoolers on the Rainbow Warrior
a hard-won expedition on the flying fish friends blog

Daily green action
what one monkey can do on the leafmonkey blog

Swallow this
drink up the info and photos of these superb birds on the budak blog

Ode to Grass
a celebration of the small on the manta blog

Ecology students at Kent Ridge
figs and other findings on the wonderful creations blog

Injured purple heron
on the bird ecology blog

Flower Crab!
observations on the labrador blog on the wildsingapore google reader list

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Marine Conservation Area proposed at Sungai Pulai estuary, Johor

Bernama 9 Nov 07;

PTP, MNSJ Moot Idea To Gazette Pulau Merambung

JOHOR BAHARU, Nov 9 (Bernama) -- The Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) and the Malaysian Nature Society of Johor (MNSJ) have mooted an idea to gazette Pulau Merambung, an island across the port, as a marine conservation area.

The idea was mooted as they entered into a collaboration to conserve the Sungai Pulai estuary to help preserve sea grass, dugong, seahorses and other marine inhabitants in areas around Pulau Merambung.

PTP chairman Datuk Mohd Sidik Shaik Osman said the idea was in line with the port's promotion for a sustainable development.

"I don't think we want to develop the port in a manner where we will destroy the environment. If we think the development of the area will have serious impact on the environment, then we have to adjust our plans accordingly, he told reporters after presenting a RM60,000 cheque to MNSJ to finance its research on Sungai Pulai estuary and its unique eco-system.

Under the collaboration with MNSJ, PTP will collect data on the environment in the area and learn how to conserve them as it planned for future development.

"It is possible in some areas where we do our port work that some sea grass areas are affected. We would want to relocate the sea grass to an area around Pulau Merambung so that we could preserve it," said Sidik.

MNSJ Director Assoc Prof Dr Maketab Mohamed said the society would give advice and technical support to PTP on environmental aspects so that its future development would not have negative impact on the environment.

Data collected by the society would also be used as scientific evidence to support the idea to gazette Pulau Merambung, he said.

Johor State Executive Councillor for Tourism and Environment Freddie Long, who was also present, said the state government welcomed the idea.

"Nobody can enter the island when the Johor National Parks Corporation approves the gazetting," he said.

PTP, Environ Group To Develop Sungai Pulai Into World Class Maritime
Bernama 9 Nov 07;

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 9 (Bernama) -- Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) and the Johore branch of Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) have agreed to cooperate in developing the Sungai Pulai estuary into a world class maritime centre.

In a statement here today, PTP chairman, Datuk Mohd Sidik Othman, said the decision to build a second port in Johor at the mouth of Sungai Pulai was not by chance but by choice.

"There could not have been a more strategic location to develop a mega port capable of competing with the best in the region other than at the mouth of Sungai Pulai.

"This is because the Sungai Pulai mouth is located at the southern tip of Peninsular Malaysia and the confluence of the international trade lanes which go right into one of the world's busiest route, the Straits of Malacca," he said.

Mohd Sidik said the success of the Iskandar Development Region (IDR) would depend largely on the logistics capabilities and efficiency it could provide.

"An efficient integrated logistics will be one of the pillars driving a successful IDR.

"Being one of the major components making up Johor's integrated logistics hub, not only the future development of the port, but also the development of the area surrounding the port complete with marine-related industries and supporting facilities is crucial," he said.

He said the success of PTP would not only bring revenue and value to Johor but would also contribute tremendously to IDR's success and help Malaysia achieve its vision of becoming a fully developed nation by 2020.

"The fully developed PTP will also bring about other strategic values to Johor like the setting up of new businesses, creation of more jobs and attract more skilled labour," he said.

He said the two parties would embark carry out a study on the unique bio-ecology system of the estuary.

"Only after we have known the bio-diversity of the area, we will be able to plan our conservation projects with the help and advice of our experts from MNS," he said.

PTP gets green light for terminal project
Zazali Musa, The Star 13 Nov 07;

GELANG PATAH: Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP), which has received approval from the Department of Environment for its multi-billion ringgit petroleum terminal storage centre, will begin construction next year.

Chairman Datuk Mohd Sidik Shaik Osman said the terminal, on a 2,200-acre site within the port vicinity, would take about 30 months to complete.

“The terminal will supply petroleum for vessels calling at the port and for our own usage,” Sidik told a press conference on Friday.

Development of the area surrounding the port, he said, complete with marine-related industries, would be crucial.

“The choice to build a second port in Johor at the mouth of Sungai Pulai was not by chance but by choice,” Sidik said, adding that there could not have been a more strategic location to develop a mega port capable of competing with the best in the region other than at the mouth of the river. The Sungai Pulai mouth, located at the southern tip of the peninsula, is at the confluence of international trade, which goes right into the world’s busiest strait, the Straits of Malacca.

Sidik said the success of PTP's project would not only bring revenue and value to Johor but would also contribute to the success of the Iskandar Development Region.

He said to date, PTP had managed to attract more than RM10bil in investments to Johor, specifically at the port and the surrounding areas.

Earlier, Sidik presented a RM60,000 cheque to Malaysian Nature Society Johor (MNSJ) chairman Assoc Prof Dr Maketab Mohamed.

The allocation will be used by MNSJ to collect and document data on the unique ecology of the Sungai Pulai estuary, including its flora, fauna and marine species.

Also present at the event were Johor state tourism and environment chairman Freddie Long Hoo Hin and PTP chief executive officer Harun Johari.

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Higher living costs to get airing in Parliament

Keith Lin, Straits Times 10 Nov 07;
Food prices, property payment scheme and MediShield on agenda

THE rising cost of living will be high on the agenda when Parliament sits on Monday.

Two MPs have tabled questions that reflect their concern on how fast-rising food prices are causing a dent in the Singaporean's wallet.

Wheat prices, for example, are at global historic highs owing to droughts in Australia and crop failures in the United States. They have, in turn, caused animal feed, and hence meat, to become more costly.

MP for Jurong GRC Halimah Yacob, who will ask Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang how the Government is tackling the situation, said more can be done to educate people on eating less-costly alternatives.

'For example, the price of chicken may be rising fast, but we can encourage Singaporeans to turn to alternative sources of protein, such as fish,' she told The Straits Times yesterday.

Non-Constituency MP Sylvia Lim wants to know, among other things, the impact of the hike in the goods and services tax in July on rising consumer prices.

On the property market, Madam Ho Geok Choo (West Coast GRC) will ask National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan for an update on the impact of the recent withdrawal of the deferred payment scheme.

The scheme allowed home buyers to pay upfront as little as 10 per cent of a property's price, with the rest paid only when the property is ready. The Government scrapped it last month to curb speculation.

Issues on the MediShield insurance scheme are also expected to receive an airing, with three questions filed.

One is from MP for Jalan Besar GRC Denise Phua, who wants Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan to clarify whether the new move to give children automatic MediShield cover will include those with special needs.

From next month, children will start to have such cover, which is for hospital stay. Insurance premiums will be paid from their parents' Medisave fund.

'As I understand it, those born with pre-existing illnesses are not included,' Ms Phua said yesterday. 'I hope these children can enjoy the same kind of medical coverage, just like normal Singaporean children.'

Five new Bills will be introduced, while another five introduced earlier are up for debate.

One slated for debate is the National Registry of Diseases Bill, which calls for the setting up of a national disease database to collate data on common illnesses.

Increase in prices of food items to be discussed in Parliament
Channel NewsAsia 9 Nov 07

SINGAPORE: Questions on the increase in prices of food items and the subsequent impact on Singaporeans will be raised in Parliament on Monday when the House sits.

Other issues which will be raised include the impact of the recent withdrawal of deferred payment scheme.

The Human Organ Transplant (Amendment) Bill and the Workmen's Compensation (Amendment) Bill are among the bills which will be introduced.

Five bills will also be read for the second time.

They include the National Registry of Diseases Bill and the Central Fund (Amendment No. 2) Bill.- CNA/so

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Are increases in food prices justified?

Letter from Paul Chan Poh Hoi, Straits Times Forum 10 Nov 07;

THE report, 'Grocery bills increase as prices for foodstuffs go up' (ST, Nov 5), is just the tip of the iceberg where recent price increases are concerned.

The increases could create an unexpected burden for many middle-income families, negate the effect of salary increases and dampen the spirit of the better times.

What surprises me most is the high quantum of increase that does not seem justified. Have some suppliers raised prices more than they should?

Take the 10 per cent increase in the price of a 400g loaf of Sunshine enriched soft white bread. According to Baker's Percentage, to make bread there are four basic ingredients - flour, water, salt and yeast. If the weight ratio of flour is 100, then the percentage of water is 65, salt, 2, and yeast, 2. The magic weight number for bread is at least 169.

A 400g loaf of bread contains about 231g of flour, the rest being water, salt, yeast, oil and other ingredients.

If the cost of flour is $22.50 per 25kg, then the cost of flour in a 400g loaf is only 20.8 cents.

Before the 50 per cent increase in flour price, from $15, the same dough would cost about 14 cents. The cost of water and other ingredients is insignificant as a proportion of total material costs.

With the original price of a loaf at $1.45, it is difficult to convince consumers that the increased price of $1.60 is reasonable. Does the seven-cent increase in flour price justify the 15-cent increase in selling price?

The same analysis applies to flour-related products like noodles and cakes. I am sure a bowl of noodles contains less than 20 cents' worth of flour at the current price. However, a bowl of wanton mee at food courts now costs from $3.80 to $4, when it was $3.50 previously.

There has been a slew of price increases in the past few months. Consumers should take a closer look at the difference in prices.

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Singapore can set example for ASEAN on energy use: IEA

Channel NewsAsia 9 Nov 07

SINGAPORE: Singapore can set an example for the rest of ASEAN when it comes to the use of energy, said William Ramsay, the deputy executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA). among the first to suffer from the effects of polluting the planet.

Mr Ramsay said: "Places like China and India and countries not far from the equator know they are going to be the first victims of this. They know they are going to suffer the weather irregularities, they are going to suffer the extreme rains or the extreme droughts; they know they are going to suffer migration of diseases. So intellectually and at the senior policy levels in those countries, we see recognition. The question is how well they can translate that into action."

For the first time, the report concentrates on the two economic giants, China and India.

For China, it says if the country adopts the policies that are being planned, China could cut its energy use by about 15 percent by 2030.

And for India, the country could lower its coal imports by more than half by 2030.- CNA/so


Singapore could lead by example, reducing carbon
Lin Yanqin, Today Online 10 Nov 07

THE world will need 50 per cent more energy in 30 years' time if countries do not implement policies to use resources in a sustainable way, the International Energy Agency's (IEA) said in its annual World Energy Outlook presented here on Friday.

Nearly half of the increase in energy demand will come from China and India — the two most-populated countries in the world and whose economies are expected to continue to grow rapidly, the Paris-based IEA said.

China, said IEA deputy executive director William Ramsay, is expected to overtake the United States as the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide this year, while India is predicted to become the world's third-largest emitter by 2015.

Even if countries adopted all the sustainable energy policies being discussed today, global carbon dioxide emissions will still exceed current levels by one quarter in 2030, he said.

Governments can help alleviate this worrying trend by investing more to develop renewable energy and pushing for greater energy efficiency.

Stressing the need to educate consumers that their daily actions can make a difference to climate change, Mr Ramsay said: "You need to induce citizens to understand that all the little things like switching off your lights when you leave, taking the bus instead of the car … these things are important."

He said that countries like China would need to enforce more "punitive" measures, such as charges on cars entering congested zones in cities. Small countries like Singapore, he said, could lead by example, even if the reductions in energy use and carbon dioxide emissions would not be significant on a global scale.

The projected increase in global energy demand will also mean greater reliance on oil and gas producing countries, leading to concerns over energy security, especially in the Middle East where supply routes are vulnerable, the IEA said.

The report did not rule out a supply shock by 2015 leading to an abrupt escalation in oil prices, but Mr Ramsay felt that such an increase in prices would then curb demand and level out the crunch.

A "tremendous" amount of money is also needed to invest in infrastructure to ensure reliable energy supply, he said.

"That's what's lacking today, and we are troubled by that."

More oil would be needed just to stay where we are, said Mr Ramsay. "This is to replace the decline in existing fields."

The right climate for global warming talks
P. Jayaram, Straits Times 10 Nov 07

The head of this year's Nobel Peace Prize-winning climate change panel is upbeat about Bali meeting next month

NEW DELHI - DR RAJENDRA Kumar Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is confident that the upcoming Bali convention on climate change would produce a 'degree of success'.

'What is encouraging about the current situation is the high level of awareness that something needs to be done,' he told The Straits Times in a recent interview after IPCC was declared joint winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize with former US vice-president Al Gore.

Some 180 countries are expected to participate in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to be held on the Indonesian resort island next month.

Dr Pachauri said there had been a distinct shift even in the pronouncements of the United States, which over the last six years had been opposed to legally binding caps on greenhouse gas emissions.

'My view is that there really couldn't be a better set of conditions to ensure some degree of success.'

He said that the purpose of the convention was to explore 'how there might be compromises that could be structured on the basis of the views of different countries'.

Dr Pachauri also said that Asean could take collective steps to deal with natural disasters that have affected the region, achieving more through closer cooperation.

'Asean could do a lot collectively because I believe that you can coordinate your action with your policies across countries. To that extent the policies will be much stronger. There may be some actions that are best taken by a group of countries than a single country.'

However, with regard to Indonesia's problems of deforestation, floods and forest fires, he said these should be largely handled by that country itself, with 'technical assistance' from other nations in the region.

He referred to the potential impact of climate change on rising sea levels, highlighted in the three reports issued by IPCC this year, and called for immediate risk assessment.

'What we really need to do is a risk assessment, location by location, on how sea-level rise is going to threaten both life and property' and come up with measures to deal with this.

He suggested that some areas might have to be evacuated, while in other areas, it would be helpful to have protective infrastructure or zoning restrictions in terms of where houses could be built.

'Those kinds of regulations may have to be revived,' he said and emphasised that such regulations would have to be created if they did not already exist.

He cautioned: 'The earlier the better, because if we delay these actions...the cost of all these adaptation measures will go up.'

The Nobel Prize for IPCC, he said, had 'elevated' climate change to 'a new level' and would act as 'an incentive for people to get involved in research on climate change'.

He added that it would also inspire a whole lot of young people to pursue careers dealing with research on climate change.

'That would enrich our knowledge and the contents of this so-called profession.'

On criticisms that the IPPC is prone to making summary conclusions that are poorly supported by analytical work, Dr Pachauri said: 'We take pride in the process we follow, which is totally transparent, which is peer-reviewed at every stage, and we only use material that has been published and peer reviewed in learned journals.

'The IPCC does not invent any research on its own. We stand by the high quality of our reports and we certainly stand by the objectivity of the way we put the reports together.'

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Gardens by the Bay set to bring in S$1b over next 10 years

Channel NewsAsia 9 Nov 07

SINGAPORE: National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan on Friday unveiled details of a S$900 million plan to turn Marina South into a lush Eden.

At the groundbreaking ceremony, Mr Mah said the Gardens at Marina South is set to be a major tourist attraction, bringing in 2.7 million more visitors each year.

Tourism receipts are also expected to reach some S$1 billion over the next ten years, due to flagship events like the Singapore Garden Festival. The 54-ha development, which is expected to be completed by 2010, will also have space for retail shops and events.

Mr Mah said the world-class city garden will add value to the surrounding real estate, but added that it is not all about numbers.

He said: "I'm sure somebody would come up and say, 'Look, if you had put apartments and offices on this land, you would have created more value!' But is this what we want? Is this what Singapore is all about?"

The two other parks – one at Marina East and the other at Marina Centre – will be built at a later date.

A water-sports area will be built at Marina East, while a park will be incorporated into the Formula One circuit at Marina Centre.- CNA/so

$1b promise of this green oasis
Gardens by the Bay to open in 2010; plans for 'magical' landscape finally unveiled
Tan Hui Leng, Today Online 10 Nov 07

SETTING aside prime land at Marina Bay, next to the upcoming new financial district, for a 101-hectare garden may seem puzzling to some — but there are enormous economic benefits as well as intangible value to be gained from this.

Painting a picture of what a foreign visitor would see, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said: "Imagine you are coming in from the airport … you are driving down East Coast Parkway and then, if you climb over (Benjamin) Sheares Bridge, you will see the city opening up.

"And as you go, you see the beautiful gardens opening up, especially at night. What a magical scene that will be."

At Friday's groundbreaking ceremony of Gardens by the Bay, the complete and detailed plan for this green oasis was laid out for the first time. It includes exotic conservatories housing plants from far-flung lands, themed gardens and extraordinary super-trees on top of which one might entertain.

In terms of cold hard cash, the gardens are expected to draw 2.7 million visitors annually, contributing more than $1 billion to the economy over 10 years.

Those with property in the area could also see the value of their real estate jump — by as much as $8 billion for the whole area collectively, some professional valuers estimate.

Then, there are the intangible pleasures, not just for tourists, but residents too.

Mr Mah said: "We took this position that we're going to make this a wonderful place for all Singaporeans to come and enjoy themselves."

Costing $900 million, the first phase of construction — the 54-hectare Gardens at Marina South — should be completed by end-2010. The other two gardens at Marina East and Marina Centre will be constructed after 2010.

The gardens will strive to be environmentally sustainable, using energy-efficient technology. And while the public will have free access to most areas, there will be entrance fees to some special features such as the conservatories and supertrees.

These are more expensive to build, and indeed, overall construction costs have gone up 30 per cent from the time of conceptualisation to the ground-breaking, said project director Tan Wee Kiat.

What the public pay to visit these few features will go towards offsetting the running costs for the gardens. Even so, there will be an overall deficit.

Meanwhile, the 32-hectare Gardens at Marina East will be located on the western bank of the Marina Barrage and would be an ideal venue for water sports if Singapore wins the bid for the 2010 Youth Olympics, Mr Mah said.

And the 15-hectare garden at Marina Centre could even hold the Formula 1 building, racetracks and grandstands.

Summing up the vibrancy the gardens would bring, Mr Mah said: "If you had put all apartments and offices on this land, you would've created more value. But is this what we want? Is this what Singapore is all about?"

Super sky-creepers
The 18 SuperTrees at the upcoming Gardens at Marina South are the first of their kind in the world
Tay Suan Chiang, Straits Times 10 Nov 07

IMAGINE enjoying a glass of champagne in a bar atop a giant tree, surrounded by lush greenery and with a bird's-eye view of the new Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort and the whirling Singapore Flyer.

The 50m-tall tree atop which you quaff a drop is not actually a real one though, but one of 18 similar structures called SuperTrees, which have been built to resemble trees, complete with flowers entwining a concrete 'trunk'.

That towering vision of the high life is among the plans unveiled yesterday for Gardens at Marina South, the first of three gardens for the Marina Bay waterfront. It spans 54ha and is smaller than the 63ha Singapore Botanic Gardens.

The three gardens, to be built by the National Parks Board (NParks), are intended to add vibrancy to the new financial hub emerging at the bay, adding to its 'live-work-play' concept.

Work on Phase 1 of Gardens at Marina South - covering an initial 30ha to 35ha and due to open in 2010 - began yesterday at a ground-breaking ceremony by Mr Mah Bow Tan, Minister for National Development.

He told reporters after the ceremony that building Gardens at Marina South is expected to cost $900 million.

When the project was awarded last year, initial estimates of the cost for the three gardens were about $300 million to $400 million.

But Mr Mah pointed out yesterday that they are set to be a major tourist attraction, 'with an estimated annual visitorship of 2.7 million, contributing approximately $1billion to the economy over a period of 10 years'.

According to him, they will also add value to the surrounding real estate and will also boost Singapore's standing as a premier garden city.

Gardens at Marina South is the largest of the three gardens. The others are Gardens at Marina East, which will have terraced water gardens, and Gardens at Marina Centre, which does not have a design yet.

British firm Grant Associates won the contract for Gardens at Marina South last year in a contest involving international landscape architects, architects and planners.

In an interview with Life!, Grant Associates director Andrew Grant, 49, painted a picture of the garden that would turn any visitor green with envy - and make a greenie even more so.

For example, as well as being an awesome sight, the SuperTrees are also functional, explains Mr Grant, whose firm, established in 1996, is known for its ecological park, Earth Centre, near Doncaster in Britain.

Some will collect rain water, which will be recycled and used in the garden. Others will have solar panels on top to trap sunlight for energy. Others will double as exhaust systems.

As well as the SuperTrees - which will be the first such structures in the world, says Mr Grant - there will be two conservatories: a cool, dry one for plants from the Mediterranean environment and a cool, moist one for tropical highland plants. These would be the largest such conservatories anywhere in the tropics, he adds.

The garden itself will be separated into three general areas. The first will have a 'plant and people' theme, exploring the cultural association of plants.

The plants will be split into four 'rooms' to reflect Singapore's multi-racial background. For example, one 'room' could have herbal plants that are used in traditional Chinese medicine, and another might have a coconut tree to reflect its Malay heritage, he says.

On another side of the garden will be a 'plant and planet' area that highlights the significant role of plants. A new rainforest will be created here and will include endangered species of plants found in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Between the two areas is what Mr Grant calls the central spine, where most of the SuperTrees are and where nature and technology meet.

Ah yes, those SuperTrees. Only one will be as high as 50m, and at this early stage, the idea of a bar atop it is only a possibility. The rest of the 18 will be about 25m to 35m tall.

Each consists of a concrete core surrounded by a net-like skin made of steel, where tropical ferns, orchids, climbers and bromeliads will grow, creating a 'trunk'.

Mr Grant says: 'I wanted to create something that will have a 'wow' factor. At night, they can be used as landmark structures when they are lit.'

At their height, these trees will be taller than real ones. Two of the SuperTrees will be connected by a walkway 20m to 25m above ground that visitors could take a stroll on.

As for the conservatories, more awe is in store there, too.

Their designer, architect Paul Baker of Wilkinson Erye Architect, says they will allow plants that are not usually seen in Singapore to be planted.

The 1.4ha cool, dry conservatory will contain an astonishing range of plants and flowers commonly found in the Mediterranean and semi-arid sub-tropical regions, such as rosemary, lavender, roses and proteas. It will also have a large central space in which a display of flowers will change every four to six weeks.

Dr Tan Wee Kiat, NParks' project director and adviser, says this conservatory will allow spring flowers to be grown in Singapore's tropical climate.

The 0.9ha cool, moist conservatory will have a tropical highland environment, with a rainforest inside and a lattice covered with orchids and mosses. It will also boast a 35m waterfall.

Mr Baker, 48, says both conservatories will have 'ribs' on their exterior that provide shade and control the heat entering them.

The temperatures in both conservatories will be kept at 23 degC in the day. 'It will always be at a comfortable temperature for visitors, regardless of whether it is sunny or raining outside,' says Mr Baker. This is his first project in Singapore.

At night, the temperatures will drop to 10 to 13 degC. 'The plants need a cooler environment to flower,' says Mr Grant.

Mr Mah says the conservatories are expected to cost $300 million to build, and to recover the cost of building and maintenance, visitors are likely to pay a fee to enter.

He adds that the conservatories will be built to be energy-efficient, and will consume less energy than an equivalent air-conditioned office building.

Mr Grant says the garden is his firm's most significant project to date, and the goal is to make it the most popular open space in Singapore. Grant Associates beat 170 firms from 24 countries to land the project, and was chosen for its vibrant and colourful concept.

Indeed the garden will be one of many hues. Mr Grant says there will be colourful shrubs planted around the garden, and especially in the conservatories. He will also be introducing new species of plants that have yet to be seen in Singapore. 'There will be thousands of species in the garden,' he says.

An existing lake will also be expanded, with a timber walkway surrounding it.

The garden will be more than a place for green lovers. In the works are also food-and-beverage outlets along the waterfront.

Mr Mah told reporters that work on the Gardens at Marina East and Marina Centre will start only after 2010.

As for Gardens at Marina South and its tree-mendous towers, Mr Grant says: 'I hope visitors go 'cor blimey' or the Singapore equivalent when they see it.'

Bay in bloom
Straits Times 10 Nov 07

A guide on what to expect at the upcoming Marina Bay gardens

# Gardens at Marina South

THE largest of the three gardens, this 54ha garden is located next to the Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort. It is designed by Britain-based design firm Grant Associates and highlights include its 18 SuperTrees and two conservatories - one will be dry, the other moist.

# Gardens at Marina East

LOCATED on the western bank of the Marina Barrage, this 32ha garden by Britain-based design firm Gustafson Porter will have a more serene ambience with terraced water gardens. Work on the garden will start after Gardens at Marina South is completed.

# Gardens at Marina Centre

AT 15ha, this is the smallest of the three gardens. Its 2.8km waterfront promenade starts near the Esplanade - Theatres by the Bay and winds towards Kallang Basin. Its design will be firmed up at a later date.

Gardens to do a Garden City proud
Nisha Ramchandani, Business Times 10 Nov 07

Marina South phase to cost $900m, entire project could draw 2.7m visitors a year

(SINGAPORE) The Gardens by the Bay project - comprising three themed gardens at Marina South, Marina East and Marina Centre - is expected to draw 2.7 million visitors a year and contribute around $1 billion of tourism receipts over 10 years.

But the 101 hectare project will not come cheap. The first phase - the 54-ha Gardens at Marina South, slated for completion by end-2010 - will cost $900 million. Development of the 32-ha Marina East and 15-ha Marina Centre gardens will take place later.

Highlighting the intangible value of the gardens, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said that their worth cannot be measured in dollars and cents alone.

'Gardens by the Bay will be a national garden set in the heart of Singapore on prime waterfront land,' he said in his speech at the ground-breaking ceremony yesterday morning. 'Gardens by the Bay will offer a compelling leisure experience for Singaporeans and visitors alike. It will add value to the surrounding real estate.'

According to Mr Mah, the Gardens will boost Singapore's international standing and differentiate it from other emerging cities.

Gardens at Marina South will boast two cool conservatories - a 1.4 ha 'cool dry' conservatory and a 0.9 ha 'cool moist' one - that will exhibit flowers and plants from the Tropical Montane and Mediterranean environments.

The National Parks Board (NParks) is looking into sustainable energy and water technology for the gardens. A commissioned study showed that cooling technology can cut energy consumption for each conservatory to less than that of a comparable commercial building in Singapore of similar size.

NParks adviser and project director for Gardens by the Bay, Tan Wee Kiat, said: 'Singapore is a garden city of perpetual summer. We are bringing spring into the picture. On top of that, the challenge to our staff is to use as many species of plants that are seldom seen in our other parks. Not only that, we want to use them in very creative ways.'

Visitors can also look forward to horticultural show gardens, 'edu-tainment' gardens, a flower market, a space for events and SuperTrees.

SuperTrees are steel structures 25 to 50 metres high that will act as vertical gardens. They will feature tropical flowering climbers, epiphytes and ferns, as well as a canopy to provide shade. At night, the canopies will feature lighting and projected media.

'The most exciting part is this is the most precious part of modern Singapore,' said Dr Tan. 'If you're very pragmatic, that is sold to the highest bidder. Yet this piece of territory belongs to everybody in Singapore.'

Read more!

Inside that Water Bottle

Ross Wallace, Today Online 10 Nov 07;

IN THE '70s and '80s, it was the Pepsi Challenge — where the popular American soft drink maker defied consumers in a blind taste test to distinguish between Pepsi and Coke.

These days, it's what you might call the Great H2O Experiment, with the public being asked as part of a similar test to choose which is bottled water and which is water from the tap.

It is the brainchild of critics who claim the bottled water industry chalks up worldwide gross earnings of about US$400 billion ($576 billion) each year by selling consumers something they could easily get for next-to-nothing.

"People used to be able to drink water on the go from public water fountains," said Ms Deborah Lapidus, national organiser of the Boston-based Think Outside the Bottle Campaign.

"Now, public fountains have kind of gone the way of pay phones and instead you've got fancy vending machines."

And what's inside the bottles in those machines? It's Ms Lapidus' claim that much of the water people pay for — as much as US$4 a litre — is identical to what comes from their taps for pennies a glass.

In that conviction, she and the anti-corporate abuse group she leads are not alone. "People have the right idea in trying to avoid chlorine and fluoride from their tap water since research has linked the chemicals to cancers," said nutritionist Thomas Van Ohlen, co-author of the United States bestseller 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Health.

"The unfortunate problem is that some of the major manufacturers of bottled water are using the same water that comes from the consumer's municipal water supply."

While it might be mind-boggling to think the bottled water industry has for decades gotten away with charging a 1,000 to 10,000 per cent premium on water sourced from public reservoirs, some bottlers recently admitted that this is exactly what has been happening.

Earlier this year, Pepsico Inc — maker of Aquafina, the No 1 bottled water brand in the United States — had to change the labels on its bottled water to show that it originates from public water sources.

Three years earlier, when beverage industry arch rival Coca-Cola Co recalled its Dasani bottled mineral water in Britain after finding it contained illegal levels of cancer-causing bromate, it emerged that the No 2 US bottled water brand was also simply filtered tap water.

This despite studies showing that many of the Americans who spent more than US$11 billion to consume 31 billion litres of bottled water last year did so in the belief that the quality was superior to that of water from public works systems.

Recent events might have opened a few eyes to the steep mark-up on bottled water and undermined public confidence in its purity, but they haven't kept the industry from defending itself against what it sees as undeserved backlash.

"We're not in competition with tap water but with other packaged beverage products," said Mr Stephen Kay, spokesman for the International Bottled Water Association, a Virginia-based industry trade group.

As for the purity of the industry's products, Mr Kay added that "sophisticated, very high levels of filtration and purification" ensure that, quality-wise, what comes out of the bottle far exceeds what comes out of the kitchen tap.

But as any convert to the swelling ranks of the anti-bottled water movement quickly learns, quite the opposite is true.

In the US, tap water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency and must undergo 22 tests for quality. Bottled water, on the other hand, is overseen by the Food and Drug Administration and is put through only eight tests.

"It's not that bottled water is going to kill you," said Mr Jon Coifman, spokesman for the Natural Resources Defence Council, an environmental action group based in New York City. "But there's also no reason to believe it's better."

Of course, not every brand on the market amounts to re-filtered tap water. At least 60 per cent of bottled waters — including marquee brands such as Evian, Fiji and Poland Spring — come directly from natural water sources.

However, that doesn't necessarily make them 100 per cent safe to drink.

Unlike tap water, bottled spring water contains no water-purifying chlorine, which means that even though the bottle may be sterilised repeatedly, the plastic still yields bacteria-supporting nutrients capable of transforming what began as "pure" water into something that doesn't quite live up to the name.

Then, there's the environmental impact of the doubling of global consumption of bottled water to 180 billions litres a year from 78 billion litres just a decade ago.

For example, an estimated 2.7 million tons of plastic are used each year to make water bottles — an estimated 90 per cent of which ends up in landfills or as litter next to roads and in waterways.

"It's ironic that many people drink bottled water because they are afraid of tap water; the bottles they discard can result in more polluted water," said Ms Pat Franklin, executive director of the Container Recycling Institute in Washington.

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Global Warming: Getting off the shelf

Michael Richardson, Straits Times 10 Nov 07;

You know that global warming has become a truly international issue when United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon gets involved

MR BAN Ki Moon is venturing where no United Nations secretary-general has gone before - to Antarctica. Weather permitting, he will fly from Chile and spend this weekend talking to some of the international scientists based in the icy continent.

It may seem odd that Mr Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, has chosen to visit a desolate land mass roughly twice the size of Australia that belongs to no country, is not a UN member and has a maximum resident population of only several thousand during the few short months of the frigid 'summer' that is just beginning around the South Pole.

Yet Mr Ban's trip is well-timed and has been carefully chosen. It is part of a political eco-tour that will also take him to Spain and the Indonesian island of Bali over the next few weeks.

In the Spanish city of Valencia on Nov 17, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - a group of some 2,500 researchers from over 130 nations set up in 1988 to study global warming - will release its latest assessment report.

The IPCC was last month awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Mr Al Gore, the former US vice-president turned climate campaigner.

In Bali, UN member states will try to hammer out terms for a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol. It contains legally binding targets for reducing man-made emissions which the IPCC concluded earlier this year were very likely responsible for most of the global warming in the past 50 years. The Kyoto accord does not include all of the big emitters and will expire in 2012.

Hot ice

ANTARCTICA is currently controversial for two reasons.

First, as temperatures rise and sea ice recedes around the North Pole, countries bordering the Arctic Ocean are making competing claims to adjacent sub-sea territory that is thought to contain vast reserves of oil and natural gas. The bordering states are Russia, Canada, the United States, Norway and Denmark (through Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory). Similar jostling has started in the Antarctic.

Britain last month said it was considering lodging a claim to territorial rights over an area of the continental shelf off Antarctica covering more than 1 million sq km. Argentina and Chile immediately confirmed that they have overlapping claims. Other countries, including Russia, Australia, New Zealand, France and Norway, have lodged earlier Antarctic continental shelf claims or reserved the right to do so. China announced this week that it would build a third research station on the White Continent and expand its scientific presence there.

In the early 1980s, scientists discovered evidence of large natural-resource deposits in Antarctica, including coal, gas and oil, with the continental shelf considered to hold the region's greatest potential for oil reserves. But all territorial claims were suspended by the 1959 Antarctic Treaty. A subsequent protocol, which came into force in 1998, designated the region as a natural reserve devoted to peace and science. It also placed a moratorium on mining and drilling for oil or gas for a minimum of 50 years, until 2048 (when advances in technology might make exploration and extraction in such a hostile environment possible).

While the latest claims to the material riches of Antarctica are testimony to the enduring power of national interest and human greed, they are overshadowed by a second, more urgent controversy surrounding the area - the extent to which the vast ice sheet that entombs nearly all of the continent, and extends offshore as ice shelves, is melting and contributing to rising sea levels around the world.

This is a vexed issue among scientists and a major focus of international polar research this year and next. The potential for global catastrophe is clear. The world's only two continental ice sheets, Antarctica and Greenland, contain over half the total amount of fresh water and around 99 per cent of freshwater ice on earth. Scientists writing in a report commissioned by the UN Environment Programme that was published in June said that the level of oceans and seas would rise by about 64m if the present mass of ice in Antarctica and Greenland melted completely.

The Great Flood

ANTARCTICA alone would account for nearly 57m of the rise. Although the scientists added that this could take hundreds or even thousands of years, 'recent observations show a marked increase in ice sheet contributions to sea level rise'.

So far, the sea level increase has been small. But it is growing faster.

Coastal and island tide- gauge data show that sea levels rose by just under 20cm between 1870 and 2001, with an average rise of 1.7mm per year during the 20th century. From 1993 to the end of 2006, near-global measurements made by high-precision satellite altimeters indicate that worldwide average sea level rose by about 3mm per year.

IPCC scientists give two main reasons for this: thermal expansion of ocean waters as they warm, and an increase in ocean mass, chiefly from the melting of land ice.

Greenland is more susceptible to global warming than Antarctica, partly because its climate is strongly affected by proximity to other land masses and to the North Atlantic, and partly because its ice sheet is smaller and less thick. Greenland's ice extends over an area of 1.7 million sq km. With an average thickness of 1,600m, it has a total volume of about 3 million cubic km.

This is about one-ninth of the volume of the Antarctic ice sheet, which covers 13.6 million sq km, including islands and ice shelves, and has an average thickness of about 2,400m. The inland ice has a depth of up to 5,000m, making Antarctica by far the highest of the continents.

The UNEP report said that summer melting now occurs over about half the surface of the Greenland ice sheet, particularly near the coast, with much of the water flowing into the sea. As surrounding temperatures rose, the total loss from the ice sheet more than doubled from a few tens of billions of tonnes per year in the early 1990s to about 100 billion tonnes per year after 2000, with perhaps a further doubling by 2005.

The report warned that Greenland, which has no ice shelves extending out from its coast, provided a picture of Antarctic conditions if the climate warmed enough to weaken or remove protective ice shelves that skirt 1.5 million sq km of the Antarctic coastline.

The questionable stability of Antarctic ice shelves in a warming climate was highlighted by the collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf in 2002 off the northern Antarctic peninsula that juts out towards the tip of South America.

Scientists say that the scale of this collapse is unprecedented since the end of the last ice age. Some believe it is a harbinger of worse to come.

The latest IPCC assessment report projects a sea level rise by the end of this century of between 18cm and 59cm. A major uncertainty is the contribution that ice sheet melting will make. Since the start of the IPCC projections in 1990, the sea level has actually been rising more rapidly than the central range of forecasts. Some scientists, worried by what they see in Greenland and Antarctica, believe that 21st-century sea level rise might exceed IPCC projections and be as large as 1.4m.

Of the major inhabited continents, Asia would be most seriously affected.

The UNEP report said that a 1m rise in sea level would inundate over 800 sq km of low-lying land with a population of more than 100 million people, slicing around US$450 billion (S$650 billion) off the region's current GDP.

The writer is a security specialist at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. This is a personal comment.

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Gigantic fans at Bugis a cool idea

Letter from Lim Lay San, Straits Times Forum 10 Nov 07;

I READ with interest Tan Yi Hui's story (Fan-tastic Or Just Hot Air?, LifeStyle, Nov 4).

I work in the Bugis area and pass through Bugis Street regularly. Before the installation of the exceptionally gigantic fan, the air within the bazaar was always stuffy.

Menacing as it looks, this fan has made Bugis Street well-ventilated. The alternative would be to air-condition the entire street but that consumes more power and dispels extra heat to our environment.

To some extent, our climate would be better off if indoor stadiums, auditoriums and multi-purpose/exhibition halls make use of fans.

Regardless of the motivation behind the people who brought this fan here, it has many uses in our hot weather and I hope to see more of this ingenious invention islandwide.

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Energy shock with a major twist

New York Times, Business Times 10 Nov 07;

For the first time, oil price surge is led by demand; and supply may not keep up

(NEW YORK) With oil prices approaching the symbolic threshold of US$100 a barrel, the world is headed towards its third energy shock in a generation. But today's surge is fundamentally different from the previous oil crises, with broad and longer-lasting global implications.

Just as in the energy crises of the 1970s and 80s, today's high prices are causing anxiety and pain for consumers, and igniting wider fears about the impact on the economy.

Unlike past oil shocks, which were caused by sudden interruptions in exports from the Middle East, this time, prices have been rising steadily as demand for petrol grows in developed countries.

'This is the world's first demand-led energy shock,' said Lawrence Goldstein, an economist at the Energy Policy Research Foundation, of Washington.

Forecasts of future oil prices range widely. Some analysts see them falling next year to US$75, or even lower, while a few project US$120 oil.

Virtually no one foresees a return to the US$20 oil of a decade ago, meaning that consumers should brace for an era of significantly higher fuel costs.

At the root of the stunning rise in the price of oil, up 56 per cent this year and more than four-fold in a decade, is a positive development: an unprecedented boom in the world economy.

Demand from China and India alone is expected to double in the next two decades as their economies continue to expand, with people there buying more cars and moving to cities to seek a way of life long taken for granted in the West.

But as prices rise, the global economy is entering uncharted territory. The increase so far does not appear to be hurting economic growth, but many economists wonder how long that would last. 'These prices are too high and will end up hurting everybody, producers and consumers alike,' said Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency.

Oil futures closed at US$95.46 on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday, down nearly one per cent from the day before. But the price has become volatile, and many analysts expect the psychologically important US$100-a-barrel threshold to be breached sometime in the next few weeks.

'Today's markets feel like the crowds standing up in the final minutes of a football game shouting: 'Go! Go! Go!',' said Daniel Yergin, an oil historian and the chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a consulting firm. 'People seem almost more relaxed about US$100 than they were about US$60 or US$70 oil.'

Oil is not far from its historic, inflation-adjusted high, reached in April 1980 in the aftermath of the Iranian revolution. At the time, oil jumped to the equivalent of US$101.70 a barrel in today's money.

For most of the 20th century, as it transformed the modern world, oil was cheap and abundant. Throughout the 1990s, for example, oil prices averaged US$20 a barrel.

'The concern today is over how will the energy sector meet the anticipated growth in demand over the longer term,' said Linda Z Cook, a board member of Royal Dutch Shell, the big oil company. 'Energy demand is increasing at a rate we've not seen before. On the supply side, we're seeing it is struggling to keep up. That's the energy challenge.'

More than any other country, China represents the scope of that challenge. Its economy has grown at a furious pace of about 10 per cent a year since the 1990s, lifting nearly 300 million people out of poverty.

But rapid industrialisation has come at a price - oil demand has more than tripled since 1980, turning a country that was once self-sufficient into a net oil importer. People there are demanding access to electricity, cars and consumer goods and can afford to compete with the West for these resources.

Today, China consumes only a third as much oil as the United States, which burns a quarter of the world's oil each day. By 2030, India and China together will import as much oil as the United States and Japan do today.

While demand is growing fastest abroad, Americans' appetite for big cars and large houses has pushed up oil demand steadily in the US, too. Europe has managed to rein in oil consumption through a combination of high petrol taxes, small cars and efficient public transportation, but Americans have not. Oil consumption in the United States, where petrol is far cheaper than in Europe, has jumped to 21 million barrels a day this year, from about 17 million barrels in the early 1990s.

If the Chinese and Indians consumed as much oil for each person as Americans do, the world's oil consumption would be more than 200 million barrels a day, instead of the 85 million barrels it is today.

No expert regards that level of production as conceivable. -- NYT

This article was also carried in the Straits Times, 11 Nov 07

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Third of Africa coastline at risk from climate change: UN

Yahoo News 8 Nov 07;

Around a third of Africa's existing coastline could be swallowed up by rising water levels brought on by global warming, the United Nations' top environment official said on Thursday.

Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN's Environmental Programme, told reporters at a press conference that the impact of climate change was already clearly in evidence and would become more serious in the coming years.

"By some projections, global warming could affect up to one third of Africa's coastal infrastructure by the end of this century," Steiner said at a press conference in Johannesburg.

"We know that we are on the course of having sea-levels rising from 20 (7.8 inches) to 60 centimetres (23.6 inches) in this century," he said adding that "port facilities, refineries will be affected."

The continent is already experiencing "major coastal erosion", calcification of shellfish under the increasing heat and dramatic shifts in currents as new climactic phenomena appear.

"Africa is in the midst of an accelerating process of depleting its natural capital, and that natural capital sustains many parts of Africa's economies, whether it is in agriculture, in fisheries, in tourism," said Steiner.

The worst affected by this process are rural communities which are poor and vulnerable and tend to depend more on these natural resources.

According to Steiner, Africa has long considered its natural resources to be inexhaustible, pushing back environmental questions while devoting itself to issues seen as more immediate.

"Politics is just beginning to catch up. African nations are realising that they are losing economic development opportunities by allowing their coast and marine resource-base to continue to be degraded."

Steiner said regional collaboration was necessary to deal with environmental threats.

"The environment, especially the marine and coastal environment, will need a pan-African response."

Steiner praised two conventions, signed in Abidjan and Nairobi, for the co-operation in protecting and developing the maritime and coastal environment, and called for them to be reinforced.

He was speaking at the end of a conference attended by 200 delegates from countries who are signatories to the conventions.

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Scientist: South Florida Will Be Water by End of Century

Associated Press, Fox News 7 Nov 07;

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Scientists and economists Tuesday warned lawmakers of consequences Florida faces from climate change, including more destructive hurricanes and a rising sea level, but they also said the state could be a leader in reducing global warming.

Harold Wanless, chairman of the University of Miami's Department of Geological Sciences, predicted a 1.5 foot rise in sea level in 50 years and a three- to five-foot increase by the end of the century.

"Three feet's going to get messy," he said. "Four feet becomes extremely difficult to live in South Florida and five feet probably impossible."

At two feet, South Florida would still be livable, Wanless said.

Three panels of experts spoke at a symposium held by the House Environmental Resources Council and three related committees.

Climate change will figure into comprehensive energy and environmental policy legislation the lawmakers will be considering during the 2008 legislative session, said Council Chairman Stan Mayfield, R-Vero Beach.

Some legislators, though, questioned whether Florida could do much to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses, spewed mostly from power plants and vehicle exhausts, that contribute to global warming. That's because Florida emits only 1 percent of those gasses worldwide.

"If Florida is the only group in the world doing anything you're not going to make a dent in this," acknowledged Judy Curry, a professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "But some of the things that Florida is doing really could lead the way."

Gov. Charlie Crist has attempted to put Florida in the lead by ordering that greenhouse gas emissions be reduced to 2000 levels by the year 2017, to 1990 levels by 2025 and 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

Economist David Montgomery, a business consultant from Washington, D.C., said Crist's goals will be difficult, if not impossible, to meet without a significant reduction in the demand for electrical power through such approaches as a carbon cap-and-trade system or carbon taxes. That's because other options for reducing emissions are limited, he said.

Nuclear power is one solution, but it's unlikely regulatory hurdles for building new plants can be overcome in time to meet Crist's goals, Montgomery said. Systems to capture and store carbon from coal-burning plants also are unlikely to be available to meet that schedule and Florida lacks a sufficient supply of natural gas or renewable fuels, he said.

Tufts University economics professor Gilbert Metcalf acknowledged Florida's contribution to global warming is "a drop in the bucket."

Metcalf said, though, that Florida and California, which also has a greenhouse reduction policy, can put pressure on the federal government to adopt a national program because businesses don't like the idea of dealing with a patchwork of different state requirements.

Martin Manning, director of a technical support unit with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said he thought solutions can be found but it'll take until the end of the century.

In the meantime, scientists said Florida can expect more frequent and destructive hurricanes, hotter weather and rising sea levels that could inundate coastal areas.

Scientists don't yet have a clear picture of whether climate change will make Florida wetter or drier, but either way the forecast is for heavier rains that are fewer and far between, creating a potential for flood and drought, said Brian Soden, an associate professor of meteorology and physical oceanography at the University of Miami.

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Shipping fuel fumes contribute to deaths

Cassie Biggs, Associated Press, Yahoo News 8 Nov 07;

Ships belching toxic fumes from diesel fuel contribute to the deaths of tens of thousands of people in Europe, Asia and the United States each year, claims a U.S. report released this week.

As many as 60,000 people living in coastal communities along major shipping routes died from lung and heart complaints as a result of high sulfate emissions from ships in 2002, according to the study released Wednesday by the American Chemical Society.

With international maritime trade on the rise and little regulation of ship emissions, that death toll could rise to as many as 82,000 by 2012, says the report to be published next month in ACS journal, Environmental Science & Technology.

People living in port cities like Hong Kong, Shanghai and Shenzhen were likely to be hit the hardest as most of the pollution occurred within 250 miles of their coasts, said the American researchers.

"Twenty-eight percent of the world's shipping container output passes through Hong Kong and Shenzhen," said Michele Weldon, environmental program manager at Civil Exchange, a public policy think tank in Hong Kong. "The significance of this study — that marine pollution has health impacts — cannot be ignored."

The study's U.S. authors said diesel-powered ships burn some of the dirtiest fuel on the planet today — on average, having almost 2,000 times the sulfur content of highway diesel fuel in the United States and Europe.

While air pollution from diesel trucks and buses has been reduced by more than 90 percent over the last few decades, emissions from ocean-faring ships — using the same diesel engine technology — have risen virtually unchecked, it said.

"Ship pollution affects the health of communities in coastal and inland regions around the world, yet pollution from ships remain one of the least regulated parts of our global transportation system," said Dr. James Corbett, co-author of the report and associate professor of marine policy at the University of Delaware.

"With more than half the world's population living in coastal regions and freight growth outpacing other sectors, shipping emissions will need to meet stricter control targets," he said.

The study was commissioned in part by Clean Air Task Force and Friends of the Earth International, which are negotiating with the U.N. International Maritime Organization for new regulations to reduce shipping emissions.

Weldon said ships could reduce pollution by cutting speeds near shores and switching to cleaner fuels as they approached ports. Already, port cities such as Rotterdam and Los Angeles have imposed their own strict emission standards on ships entering their waters.

Arthur Bowring, of the Hong Kong Ship Owners Association, said voluntary regulation was not the answer as cleaner fuels, such as distillate, were nearly double the cost of the fuel most ships currently use.

"International regulation is the only way to bring in the use of cleaner fuels and ensure there is no competitive disadvantage when using it," he said.

The researchers took estimated seafaring-ship emissions of particulate and other pollutants, including sulfate and nitrous oxide. Using global circulation models, they mapped out how emissions would drift over land. After folding in regional demographic data, such as population density, they pinpointed areas with a higher likelihood of deaths from cardiopulmonary and lung cancer that are attributable to exposure to emissions.

Alexis Lau, a mathematics professor at the Institute for Environment at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said the researchers used a standard method to estimate the health impact of pollutants. He said the ACS journal was respected and the estimated deaths the peer-reviewed study attributed to marine pollution were plausible.

The report said East Asia and South Asia were the most heavily impacted, each representing about one-fourth of the global impact.

One-third of all shipping deaths occurred in Europe; about one-tenth of global shipping deaths occurred in North America, the study said.

"There are a lot of observations made from data to suggest a very strong association between sulfur, air pollution, including marine pollution, and premature deaths from respiratory problems like chronic lung failure," T.W. Wong, professor of medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong told the AP.

"If ships switched to cleaner fuels, it would help save lives," he said.

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Seawater Treatment Plants Could Combat Climate Change

Charles Q. Choi, LiveScience.com, Yahoo News 9 Nov 07;

The seas themselves might be modified to combat global warming by absorbing climate-altering carbon dioxide from the air, research now reveals.

The new approach scientists have theorized—which ideally modifies seawater's chemical composition using treatment plants near volcanoes and coastlines—could also help benefit coral reefs worldwide, they suggest.

But they caution such a technique could potentially also have detrimental environmental impacts that need to be minimized.

Carbon dioxide is a "greenhouse gas" that traps heat from the sun. The oceans naturally both absorb and release carbon dioxide, and researchers have investigated whether they can make the seas capture more of the gas than normal to combat global warming.

One notion brought up in the past involves fertilizing the seas with iron to encourage the growth of plankton, which would absorb carbon dioxide during photosynthesis just as land plants do, "but a lot of them would just release carbon dioxide again," said Harvard geoscientist Kurt House.

Instead, House and his colleagues propose extracting acid from the seas. The less acidic the oceans are, the more they absorb carbon.

The scientists envision treatment plants that suck in seawater and remove hydrochloric acid. The oceans naturally contain hydrogen and chloride ions—the former is a component of water, while the latter is an ingredient of common salt—which together can make hydrochloric acid. A number of industrial processes can remove the acid from seawater, including ones used in the vitamin and chlorine industries.

"It's certainly an interesting approach," said Columbia University environmental engineer Frank Zeman, who did not participate in this study.

Speeding up nature

Ideally, these novel treatment plants would be located near volcanic coastlines, the researchers explained. The silicates in volcanic rocks could neutralize the extracted acid, while the volcano itself could generate the geothermal power needed to run such operations.

"If you used coal or some other combustion means to power the plants, that would just send more carbon dioxide into the air and defeat the entire point," House said.

In a way, this process resembles one means by which nature removes carbon dioxide from the air. The gas can dissolve in water to form weak carbonic acid. As this water percolates through silicate rock, the carbonic acid gets neutralized, forming bicarbonate, the most plentiful and innocuous form of carbon in the oceans.

"We have found a way to swap the weak carbonic acid with a much stronger one, hydrochloric acid, and thus accelerate the pace to industrial rates," House said. "Essentially, our technology dramatically accelerates a cleaning process that nature herself uses for greenhouse gas accumulation."

This method could also combat the acidification of the oceans that is now threatening coral reefs worldwide. The amount of carbon dioxide is growing in the atmosphere, increasing the amount of carbonic acid in the sea. Coral reefs and other structures made of calcium carbonate then become more vulnerable to dissolving.

Unwanted effects

Implementing this approach would require ambition. To attack 15 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, the researchers estimate roughly 100 facilities with capacities similar to large sewage treatment plants are needed.

The potential environmental impacts of this method need close scrutiny as well. The plants would all discharge alkaline water, "which could kill a lot of life local to the plant," House said. "Within a distance of a couple of hundred meters, there could definitely be some damage."

Another potentially unpleasant consequence of this process could be the production of organohalogens. These compounds helped create the hole in the ozone layer. In addition, seawater contains a variety of other ions and compounds that might readily spoil the process.

"More work is be needed to bring down the cost and minimize other environmental effects," said researcher Christopher House, Kurt House's brother and a geoscientist at Pennsylvania State University.

The most economic way to deal with carbon dioxide is to simply reduce the amount we now emit, House said, either through more efficient devices or with so-called "carbon dioxide scrubbers" on power plants. "But if things go really bad with the climate, at least we have technology we could scale up to decrease atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations," House said. "And unlike strategies that just reduce emissions, this can actually pull carbon dioxide back."

The scientists detailed their findings online Nov. 7 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

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Schwarzenegger declares state of emergency over oil spill

Yahoo News 9 Nov 07;

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency on Friday to help fight the San Francisco oil spill that is threatening wildlife and several miles of pristine coastline.

Schwarzenegger signed an order directing all available resources be deployed to help the clean-up operation after inspecting the site of the 58,000-gallon (228,000 liter) spill, a statement said.

"I have signed an emergency proclamation, so all the state's resources can be coordinated to address this oil spill," Schwarzenegger said.

The Office of Spill Prevention and Response had also been instructed to "throw everything we possibly can at this without wasting a minute of time," Schwarzenegger added.

The order comes amid reports of criticism at the initial reaction to the spill, which occurred early Wednesday when a Cosco-Busan container ship struck the San Francisco Bay Bridge.

Authorities are battling to mop up the slick of heavy fuel that has been rapidly dispersed along the northern California coastline around San Francisco, forcing closure of several beaches and threatening wildlife.

The California Department of Fish and Game reported on Thursday that 26 birds covered in thick oil had so far been rescued and six had been found dead. Officials have warned that hundreds more were at risk.

The agency's assistant chief Steve Edinger described the spill as a "very significant event."

"This is one we're very concerned about," he said.

Officials said Thursday the slick had spread well beyond San Francisco Bay to around 13 miles (20 kilometers) north of the Bay Bridge.

It is the biggest oil spill to hit the region since 1996, when 10,000 gallons of fuel leaked out of a ship undergoing repairs.

The Coast Guard said a total of 11 skimmers had been deployed to try and recover the oil while protective booms stretching 18,000 feet (5,400 meters) had been put in place to try and protect beaches and wildlife.

A further 11,000 feet of log booms had been set up around the perimeter of the Cosco Busan although no more fuel was leaking from the vessel, a Coast Guard spokeswoman told local media.

Meanwhile the US Coast Guard said the crew and the pilot of the COSCO-Busan container ship had passed alcohol tests taken after the accident.

The size of the spill is small compared to some of the world's worst oil disasters. The tanker Exxon Valdez swamped a stretch of the Alaskan coastline with 11 million gallons of oil in 1989 causing catastrophic devastation to wildlife in the region.

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