New Australian reef discovered via Google Earth

Desktop Darwin's surprise discovery
Glenda Kwek, The Sydney Morning Herald 12 Feb 08;

One day late last year, Chris Simpson was looking at the waters off the coast of Western Australia on Google Earth when he made an unusual discovery.

Just west of the Kimberley, a remote area in northern Western Australia, there was an extensive formation of fringing coral reefs - a sight rarely seen anywhere in the world.

"I feel like bloody Charles Darwin up here discovering these new reefs!" Dr Simpson told his boss.

It was a significant find for the coral reef specialist at West Australia's Department of Environment and Conservation. Most coral reefs occur as isolated reefs and atolls, such as the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland.

But fringing coral reefs are much rarer. As freshwater kills corals, such reefs can only occur if they are off the coast of an arid location, such as a desert, where no rivers flow out into the waters.

So it was only in locations such as the Red Sea, in south-west Madagascar and at Ningaloo Marine Park off Western Australia where extensive formations were found.

And while the Kimberley were always a candidate for marine park status, their inaccessibility, turbid waters, massive tides and the presence of crocodiles have deterred would-be explorers from finding out the extent of the reefs.

So when Dr Simpson was exploring the Kimberley through Google Earth, a practice he has incorporated into his job, he did not expect to spot such a major formation.

"I'm a great traveller and I am always looking at Google Earth and it's fantastic at looking at all the reefs," he says.

"Google Earth has high resolution photos over Western Australia and ... it's very, very useful as a scientific tool to look at the regional context of reefs - that's what I have been doing in the Kimberley.

"There are enough high resolution photos and they were taken at a time when the tide was low or the water was clear and there was no cloud to be able to see enough of the coral reefs to put together a good idea of just what's going on out there."

To the untrained eye, spotting coral reefs in the aerial and satellite imagery made available on the online program might be a hard task. But long before Google Earth launched in 2005, Dr Simpson was already learning to identify coral reefs through imagery from Landsat satellites and aerial photos.

Using imagery from different years - "the first one might be 1984, the second one might be 1996" - Dr Simpson and his department would piece together images of an area, like a jigsaw puzzle, to create a new map.

But with Google Earth, the stitching together of images is already done and available with a few clicks of the mouse.

And Dr Simpson's find could not have come at a better time. Last week, federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett announced an agreement with the West Australian Government to subject the entire Kimberley region to an environment assessment, as a major push for oil and gas developments in that region gathers pace.

Like Dr Simpson, other desktop explorers around the world have also tapped into Google Earth's accessibility though some for more unusual reasons.

Last year, it was used in the unsuccessful search for missing US adventurer Steve Fossett, while top-secret Chinese submarines were spotted in north-eastern China by a nuclear weapons analyst. Four men accused of planning to blow up John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York were also said to have used Google Earth to obtain more detailed images of the airport.

The discovery reminds Dr Simpson of why he did his PhD all those years ago.

"We're all just commenting that we feel like we are on the Beagle on the voyage of discovery.

"Incredible, just fantastic that there's still parts of the world that's like that."

Read more!

Unwanted whale meat stockpile grows

Lauren Williams, news.com.au 13 Feb 08;

JAPAN's whalers are going broke and have been forced to slash prices because no one wants to eat their growing mountain of whale meat.

The farcical truth of Japan's whaling industry was exposed yesterday by Japanese media reports that the Institute for Cetacean Research is struggling to repay $37 million in government subsidies.

The report came as Japanese embassy officials made a stern protest in Canberra over the Federal Government's release of shocking whaling photographs.

The ICR, responsible for Japan's lethal "research operation", is flooding Japan with cheap whale meat that it cannot sell, according to the reports in respected newspaper Asahi Shimbun.

Meat and other parts of whales killed during ICR "scientific research" in the Southern Ocean is sold to a private fisheries company Kyodo Senpaku, which manages the sale of whale meat in the Japanese market. But while ICR has consistently increased the number of whales it kills – by 30 per cent between 2005 and 2006 – there has been no rise in domestic demand for whale meat or products.

Greenpeace Australia Pacific whales campaign director Rob Nicholl said the losses were further proof that there was no market for whale meat in Japan.

"It's standard economics. There is an oversupply. They've had to reduce the price but they still can't get rid of the stuff," he said.

Japan has consistently argued a case for scientific whaling and last week accused the Government and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of "misleading" the public by releasing photographs of the slaughter of whales in the Southern Ocean.

A DFAT spokesman said, while the photographs were "disturbing, they were in no sense misleading".

Read more!

Fishing bycatch is 'junk food' for sea birds

Roger Highfield, The Telegraph 13 Feb 08;

The seven million tons of fisheries waste that marine birds feed on each year is "junk food" that could be starving their chicks.

Most have assumed that the vast volumes of waste generated by fleets would benefit scavenging birds such as albatrosses, petrels, large gulls and skuas and boost their populations.

But a detailed study on gannets, Morus capensis, concludes that the converse is true, and that the waste causes harm to the birds because it is low fat.

The team from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Montpellier, with colleagues in South Africa and the University of Birmingham, studied the birds in the western cape of South Africa that fed in the Benguela current, where natural fish stocks have been depleted by overfishing and the effects of climate change.

The birds substitute their natural diet feed with the waste left by trawlers fishing for hake - some 45,000 trawls per year - and the team studied the impact on gannets in Malgas Island, where one fifth of the world gannet population breeds and around 27,000 trawls occur nearby.

"We showed that non-breeding gannets benefit from fishery wastes, but that most of their chicks die when they try to reproduce while feeding on such low-quality 'junk food'," says Dr David Gremillet, one of the team that did the study on the colony of around 160,000 birds, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences.

"Fishery waste of the trawler fishery off South Africa only has half the calorific value of pelagic fish (the 'natural' prey of the birds, such as anchovy and sardine), which is much fatter," he says. "This is why gannet chicks fed with such lean food starve."

Marine management policies should not assume that fishery waste is beneficial to seabirds, and will automatically inflate their populations, they conclude.

Read more!

Genetically modified plantings rise, greens cite environment risks

Jeremy Smith, Reuters 13 Feb 08;

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Plantings of genetically modified (GMO) crops are increasingly widespread, a biotech industry body said on Wednesday, despite some public opposition and warnings by environmentalists that they may be unsafe.

"After a dozen years of commercialization, biotech crops are still gaining ground with another year of growth and new countries joining the list of supporters," the biotech industry backed International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) said.

"With rising food prices globally, the benefits of biotech crops have never been more important," it added ahead of the release of its annual report on GMO crops.

International environment lobby Friends of the Earth (FoE) said there was a growing tide of anti-GMO opinion, particularly in Europe.

"Less than 2 percent of the total maize grown in the EU is genetically modified and five EU countries have now banned (U.S. biotech company) Monsanto maize because of growing evidence of its negative environmental impact," it said in a report timed to coincide with the ISAAA data.

FoE said GMO crops had not helped alleviate poverty and their yields were no higher than those of conventional crops -- a claim hotly disputed by the world's biotech companies.

"The vast majority of GM crops commercialized so far are destined for animal feed for the meat and livestock markets in rich industrialized nations rather than for feeding the poor," the FoE report said.

"FRANKENSTEIN FOODS"

Since biotech crops tended to be "part of the intensive farming model," they contributed to small farmers losing their land and therefore did not alleviate poverty, it said.

FoE also cited government studies saying there had been large increases in the use of the RoundUp, or glyphosate, herbicide in both Brazil and the United States.

"This is resulting in increasing numbers of glyphosate-resistant weeds around the world, leading to higher production costs for farmers as well as concerns about the environmental impact," the report said.

Later on Wednesday, the biotech industry-supported International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) will issue its annual report on GMO crop plantings and is expected to announce another year of area increases with biotech crops sown in more countries.

Last year, ISAAA said the global GMO planted area grew by 13 percent to 252 million acres in 2006. Numbers of farmers planting GMO crops rose 21 percent due to substantial economic, social, environmental, and agronomic benefits, it said.

In Europe, however, attitudes towards GMO foods and crops differ substantially from those in the United States, the world's top supplier of biotech crops.

European consumers are well known for their skepticism, if not hostility, to GMO crops, often dubbed as "Frankenstein foods." But the international biotech industry says its products are safe and no different from conventional foods.

That argument has not yet convinced many of the EU's 27 governments into reaching a consensus to speed up Europe's rate of new GMO authorizations.

So far, only one GMO crop is grown in the EU -- an insect-resistant maize type developed by Monsanto.

(Editing by Chris Johnson)

Read more!

India to create eight new tiger sanctuaries

Ashok Sharma, Associated Press Yahoo News 13 Feb 08;

Conservationists welcomed an Indian government plan to create eight new reserves to protect the country's dwindling tiger population, and called Wednesday for more action to prevent illegal trading in tiger parts.

It will take five years to set up the new reserves, which will cover an area of more than 11,900 square miles at a cost to taxpayers of about $153 million, the government's Tiger Project announced Tuesday. Private groups will also contribute funds.

The aim of the reserves is to protect the existing tiger population and stamp out poaching, said Rajesh Gopal, the Tiger Project secretary.

"The (government) assessment shows that though the tiger has suffered due to poaching, loss of quality habitat and loss of its prey, there is still hope," Gopal said in a statement.

New estimates suggest India's wild tiger population has dropped from nearly 3,600 five years ago to about 1,411, the Tiger Project said.

Belinda Wright, director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, said the government may have overestimated the number of tigers in 2003, but that the falling numbers were still shocking.

"I think it's a very serious wake-up call," Wright told The Associated Press. The population of tigers in Asia is estimated at around 3,500 today compared to nearly 5,000 in 1997, she said.

Unless the government drastically improves enforcement steps against poachers and illegal wildlife traders, the number of tigers will continue to dwindle, she said, adding that India, Nepal and China — where demand for tiger parts is strongest — should cooperate to prevent the trade.

The Tiger Project plans to employ retired soldiers to patrol the reserves and hunt for poachers. It will also fill empty park ranger posts, establish eco-tourism guidelines to benefit local populations and speed up projects to relocate villages from inside the new tiger reserves.

Many impoverished villagers take on lucrative work for poaching gangs. Some 250 villages — an estimated 200,000 people — will be relocated under the plan, and each relocated family will be given 1 million rupees — about $25,600 — the government said.

Read more!

Tiny nations seek climate help at UN

John Heilprin, Associated Press Yahoo News 12 Feb 08;

The day's first word went to a tiny island nation with a big sinking feeling.

Leading off the U.N. General Assembly's second day of talks on climate change, Tuvalu issued a cry for help Tuesday on dealing with the impact of global warming on its 10,000 people, who live on nine low-lying coral atolls in the South Pacific being lapped at by rising seas.

"Adaptation is undoubtedly a crucial issue for an extremely vulnerable small, island nation like Tuvalu," said Tavau Teii, the deputy prime minister and environment chief.

"I only need to highlight the fact that our highest point above sea level is only four meters (a little over 13 feet) to emphasize our vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, especially sea level rise," he said. "It is very clear that financial resources for adaptation are completely inadequate."

He was followed by speaker after speaker from small countries who rose to ask the richest nations to pony up tens of billions of dollars a year to help the littler guys adapt.

The United States and China, the two biggest producers of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from fossil-fuel burning, sought to assure other nations that they, too, take global warming seriously and will provide what help they can.

"We are committed to do our part to contribute to this global effort," said Alejandro Wolff, the deputy U.S. ambassador.

No less than 117 speakers, representing virtually all the world's nations, signed up to take the stage during talks that dragged into the evening. The glacial pace of their speechmaking belied their expressions of urgency and fear that global warming will test the world — and the U.N. — in ways never before seen.

"Climate change has the potential to redraw the face of our planet," said Dr. Janez Podobnik, Slovenia's environment minister who spoke for the European Union. The EU, he said, puts global warming "on the top of its political agenda."

The U.N. Development Program said in November that industrialized nations must provide $86 billion a year by 2015 to help the people most vulnerable to more catastrophic floods, droughts and other disasters that scientists fear will accompany warming.

"We are on the edge of a tipping point and time has run out," said Dr. Angus Friday, Grenada's ambassador to the U.N. who represented an alliance of small island states. "We have said again and again that this is a matter of survival for us."

"No island left behind," he added. "We cannot wait to adapt."

General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim, a Macedonian diplomat and economics professor, convened the two-day conference to shape U.N. policy and support its negotiations toward a new global climate treaty in 2012.

Delegates from nearly 190 nations agreed at a U.N. conference in December to adopt a blueprint for controlling "greenhouse" gases before the end of 2009. Their hope is to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which requires 37 industrial nations to cut emissions by 5 percent on average, when it expires in 2012.

On Monday, British billionaire Richard Branson offered to set up an "environmental war room" that would serve as a tool for the U.N. to lead the world's efforts to find technological fixes for global warming.

Read more!

Climatologist: Sea Ice to keep shrinking

Yahoo News 12 Feb 08;

Arctic sea ice next summer may shrink below the record low last year, according to a University of Washington climatologist. Ignatius Rigor spoke Monday at the Alaska Forum on the Environment and said global warming combined with natural cyclical changes likely will continue to push ice into the North Atlantic Ocean.

The last remnants of thick, old sea ice are dispersing and the unusual weather cycles that contributed to sea ice loss last year are continuing, he said.

"The buoys are streaming out," Rigor said, referring to the markers used to monitor the flushing of ice into the North Atlantic.

A similar pattern preceded sea ice loss last summer was not expected to continue so strongly.

Scientists are watching Arctic sea ice closely, trying to sort out the effects of global warming and natural cyclical changes.

Formal projections of sea ice loss will be made for another month or so but all indications are that ice loss will equal or exceed last year's "unless the winds turn around," Rigor said.

New ice now covering the polar seas is not like older, thicker sea ice that once covered the region in winter, Rigor said. In 1989, 80 percent of the ice in the Arctic was at least 10 years old, he said. Today, only about 3 percent of the ice is that old.

New ice melts more quickly, and then open water absorbs more sunlight, warming the seas and making the fall freeze-up come even later, he said.

"Have we passed the tipping point?" he said. "It's hard to see how the system may come back."

The prospect of a mostly ice-free Arctic could mean a boom in shipping through the Bering Strait, several speakers said, but is bad news for polar bears and other animals.

Polar bears prefer ice over the shallow continental shelf north of Alaska because it supports a rich food chain, said Steve Amstrup, a leading polar bear biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. With melting last summer, some Alaska bears were on ice as much as 600 miles north of Barrow, far from their preferred habitat, Amstrup said.

Amstrup was lead federal biologist in studies released last year depicting the Alaska bear as likely to disappear by 2050 because of global warming. A decision by the Department of the Interior on whether to list the polar bear as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act was due in January but has been postponed.

The state of Alaska, among others, opposes the listing, arguing the forecasts of declining sea ice are too speculative.

Scientists Monday said that the forecasts were, if anything, too cautious. None foresaw the shrinkage of 2007.

"Five of the 10 studies we used projected more sea ice at mid-century than we had this summer," Amstrup said.

The shrinkage is related to higher temperatures, scientists said, but also to shifts in a weather pattern known as the Arctic oscillation. When the Arctic oscillation is in a "high" cycle, as it has been recently, more ice is pushed past Greenland into the North Atlantic, Rigor said.

Climate models have linked a higher Arctic oscillation to increases in greenhouse gases, but that relationship is the subject of much study, Rigor said.

"All these changes are very consistent with a climate system trying to cool itself off from greenhouse gases," Rigor said.

Read more!

Shipping emissions three times as much as estimated: report

Yahoo News 12 Feb 08;

Carbon emissions from merchant shipping are nearly three times as much as previously estimated, according to a draft United Nations study leaked to The Guardian on Wednesday.

According to the report, annual emissions from global shipping equal about 1.12 billion tonnes of CO2, or an estimated 4.5 percent of global carbon emissions.

"This is a clear failure of the system," Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN's Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, was quoted as saying in the newspaper, after having been contacted about the contents of the study.

"The shipping industry has so far escaped publicity. It has been left out of the climate change discussion. I hope (shipping emissions) will be included in the next UN agreement. It would be a cop-out if it was not. It tells me that we have been ineffective at tackling climate change so far."

Prior to the study, which was carried out by the International Maritime Organisation, a UN agency, it was estimated that shipping was responsible for around 400 million tonnes of CO2.

By comparison, according to The Guardian, the aviation industry -- which has been pressured to use cleaner fuels -- is responsible for an estimated 650 million tonnes of the gas.

Emissions from merchant shipping are not taken into account by the European Union when making its targets for cutting greenhouse gases.

Read more!

Hydrogen-powered cars to make its way to Singapore

Channel NewsAsia 13 Feb 08;

SINGAPORE: The availability of an environmentally friendly car has just widened. Besides popular choices like hybrid cars or even those running on compressed natural gas, the hydrogen car is another choice.

However, it is more than just a case of supply and demand when purchasing these cars.

Touted as one of the greenest cars available today, is the BMW 7 Series. Its only emission is water, when it's powered by liquefied hydrogen.

BMW believes using hydrogen fuel will help save the environment and reduce the dependence on crude oil.

This next generation green car can also run on petrol in the same engine as hydrogen fuel isn't readily available yet.

However, running a car using hydrogen costs more.

A kilogramme of liquid hydrogen costs about US$11 or about S$16.

Covering 100 kilometres with the hydrogen car will end up costing US$42 dollars or about S$60.

If it ran on petrol, it will cost US$27 or about S$38. These figures are also based on European petrol and hydrogen fuel prices.

The Hydrogen 7 model is likely more expensive than petrol only versions.

Roland Krueger, Managing Director of BMW Group Asia, said: "The comparison is not really fair meaning that, today the infrastructure is not as developed as fossil fuel structure so given that we will have a comparable base with the same kind of infrastructure, then the price of liquid hydrogen will be much more comparable."

However, it still boils down to the question of which comes first?

Building refuelling stations or making more hydrogen cars?

Fred Zheng from Hydrogen Solutions said: "The first I believe is government support, second is establishing infrastructure in place.”

"The third is - we need to have economies of scale with the production of cars to make the cars cheaper and fourth is find a way to have R&D and making hydrogen cheaper," he added.

In Singapore, this hydrogen push has the support of the National Environment Agency, the Singapore Environment Council and the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

It still remains to be seen if this would be enough to generate a nationwide network of refuelling stations.

So far BMW has made some 100 hydrogen vehicles, but it'll be some years to go before it becomes commercially available.

BMW will bring several of its latest hydrogen cars in early March for trials. -CNA/vm


Cutting-edge BMWs to promote greener transport
Christopher Tan, Straits Times 14 Feb 08;

GERMAN carmaker BMW will showcase five cutting-edge hydrogen-powered sedans here next month.

This is part of a slew of upcoming events designed to promote greener transport.

The 7-series BMWs, on display from March 6 to 23, have both a petrol tank and a highly insulated tank that can store hydrogen in liquid form at minus 235 deg C.

When running on hydrogen, they emit only water vapour and a small amount of the potentially harmful chemical nitrogen oxide.

They are part of a fleet of 100 such cars BMW began introducing two years ago under its CleanEnergy programme.

National Environment Agency (NEA) chief executive Lee Yuen Hee said: 'We are constantly looking out for innovative and environmentally friendly technologies that contribute to environmentally sustainable transportation.

'BMW's CleanEnergy programme is one such initiative that could potentially contribute towards this objective.'

Singapore does not have any liquid hydrogen refuelling stations, so BMW will bring in a mobile system.

The hydrogen Beemers will be used to chauffeur VIPs and will also be in a road show.

They will also be shown to participants of the Clean Energy Roundtable, organised by the Singapore Environment Council (SEC), on March 12.

SEC executive director Howard Shaw said the roundtable is targeted at policymakers, environmentalists and public transport operators.

'We hope to come up with a comprehensive list of recommendations of what the private sector is willing to accept to become greener.'

This event will be followed by a United Nations Centre for Regional Development forum co-hosted by the NEA and the Land Transport Authority from March 17 to 19.

This is part of a circuit of regional forums focusing on sustainable transport and includes local authorities.

Then in June, Green Transport Week kicks off.

SEC's Mr Shaw described it as 'a Mardi Gras' for the environment, referring to the carnival celebrated in South America and some parts of the southern United States.

'It is a mass call to action,' he said. The activities lined up include a walkathon, cyclethon and a walk-a-jog.

Green Transport Week's predecessor was Car-Free Day, which Mr Shaw said 'sank like a brick'.

For Green Transport Week, private companies will be invited to make pledges 'to reduce car use and increase public transport usage'. Mr Shaw hopes to 'convert a few thousand people over this period'.

Hydrogen-powered BMWs here soon
Pilot project also includes a portable refuelling station
Samuel Ee, Business Times 14 Feb 08;

(SINGAPORE) BMW will introduce five hydrogen-powered cars in Singapore next month, complete with their own refuelling station and liquid hydrogen fuel.

The BMW CleanEnergy pavilion - a specially built glass and steel structure - will be set up at the corner of Beach and Ophir Roads from March 6-23 to display the German luxury car maker's solution to sustainable mobility. It also highlights more than 25 years of R&D work by BMW in hydrogen combustion technology.

'BMW CleanEnergy is tomorrow's solution, available today,' Roland Krueger, managing director of BMW Asia, said yesterday at a press conference to announce the arrival of the BMW Hydrogen 7 cars. 'While other forms of alternative drive concepts such as hybrid drive, electric drive and natural gas drive have been explored and researched, we believe that hydrogen combustion is ultimately the best choice.'

The Hydrogen 7 car is based on the BMW 7 Series luxury limousine and looks like a conventional model except that its V12 engine can run on either petrol or liquid hydrogen. When run in purely hydrogen mode, BMW says the only emission is water vapour.

When in Singapore, the cars will provide chauffeur-driven rides to selected VIPs. While the latest move is just a pilot project, BMW expects these vehicles to be commercially viable in 10 to 15 years - by which time the economies of scale would have caught up.

To power the five Hydrogen 7 cars, a portable refuelling station with its own supply of liquid hydrogen will be brought in. The station, along with all the hydrogen-related equipment and technology in the cars, is made by Linde. The world's largest industrial gas and engineering company is BMW's partner in the Hydrogen 7 project.

According to Fred Zheng, Linde's China and Asia representative for hydrogen solutions, the portable refuelling station consists of a 20-foot cryogenic tank that can hold 1,200 kg of liquid hydrogen and a dispenser.

'The liquid hydrogen is sourced from China because Singapore does not have the capability to produce it,' explained Mr Zheng. 'Depending on how far the cars will be driven, we will probably use 300 to 400 kg here.'

He said the car's eight kg hydrogen tank has a range of up to 200 km, while the petrol tank will add another 500 km.

Linde has also built more than 70 standalone refuelling stations around the world, with most of them located in Germany, for the total of 100 Hydrogen 7 cars produced so far.

First peek at the new hydrogen BMW
Ng Jing Yng, Today Online 14 Feb 08;

FIRST, there were hybrid cars and bi-fuel cars that run on natural gas. Now, yet another "green car" is ready for a test drive — this time powered by liquid hydrogen.

And Singapore will be the first in South-east Asia to get a peek at the BMW Hydrogen 7 series, when five of these cars — which emit only vapour while running in their hydrogen mode — arrive here next month. One car will be put on display at the BMW CleanEnergy pavillion, to be located at the corner of Beach Road and Ophir Road.

Mr Roland Krueger, managing director of BMW Asia, told reporters that BMW CleanEnergy wants to share its hydrogen combustion technology with Singapore because both have the "same vision" on the importance of green energy.

According to BMW, the hydrogen car's performance is similar to all its other petrol-run cars which can accelerate from 0 to 100kmh in six seconds. However, the Hydrogen 7 model is likely to cost one-third more in refuelling charges as compared to fossil fuel-powered cars.

Mr Krueger said the comparison "is not really fair" since the infrastructure for hydrogen-run cars is not as developed as the one supporting fossil fuel.

Mr Fred Zheng, from The Linde Group which supplies BMW with liquid hydrogen, believes that government support is essential "to make the whole system work".

BMW expects the Hydrogen 7 series to be available on a commercial basis in 15 years time. Currently, there are about 1,057 hybrid cars and 248 bi-fuel or Compressed Natural Gas cars on Singapore roads.

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 13 Feb 08

Nudibranch Encyclopedia by Neville Coleman is here! and hopefully Jun will do a review on the ashira blog

Kusu Island: our city reefs
Fabulous reefs just minutes from the city centre on the Singapore celebrates our reefs blog

The most threatened freshwater crab in Singapore
on the johora singaporensis blog also includes sightings of a Golden-ringed Cat Snake and the rare Spiny Hill Terrapin.

Smooth-coated otter at Pasir Ris Park
with links to more info on the habitatnews blog

Rail-babbler: In search of a family
on the bird ecology blog

Footprint of your new PC
how it changes lives in China and more on the reuters environment blog


Greenhouse emissions by travel mode
find out how you travel impacts the planet on the daily galaxy blog

Read more!

Environmental challenges: Singapore youths can help create peer pressure

Faris Abdulkadir Basharahil, Straits Times Forum 13 Feb 08;

I REFER to the letter by Ms Charissa He, 'Saving the Earth: NEA not targeting the right people' (Online forum, Feb 9).

She feels that it is less effective to target youths in combating environmental challenges.

I am an avid youth volunteer who is in the midst of forming a not-for-profit organisation.

She wrote: 'Shock and scare tactics seemed to have worked for drink driving and smoking, so why not try it out on anti-environmentalists?'

I disagree with that view. The main target group of environmental conservation is not anti-environmentalists but rather people who are simply not bothered.

Youths are the leaders of tomorrow. They may not have spending power now; however, they have influence and may help create positive peer pressure.

Singapore is a very clean and green country. However, in my opinion, it is mainly due to effective governance and cheap foreign labour and not so much because we feel for the environment. And that, to me, is the root of the problem.

Currently, I am a committee member of an informal (unregistered) youth group that organised a programme to paint dustbins along busy Orchard Road.

It was a refreshing and a soft approach to environmental problems and the average age of the organisers was 19.3 years old. The project aims to change perspectives towards the environment. And that will intensify the initiatives by the Government.

The challenge of promoting environment conservation in Singapore is long term. The commercial is just one avenue of a People-Public-Private sector approach undertaken by the National Environment Agency. Government efforts, alone, are not sufficient.

I encourage Ms He to do her part by influencing her friends to organise projects to change people's mindset of the environment. Through us doing something for the environment, we will nurture ownership to mother nature.

Read more!

Workers encouraged to take Green Leap Day: UK National Trust

Lucy Cockcroft, The Telegraph 12 Feb 08;

The National Trust is leading a campaign to give workers an extra day of paid leave every leap year, on the condition they use it to help tackle climate change.

February 29 is traditionally the day women can propose to men, but now some companies are encouraging their staff to take it as holiday.

The Green Leap Day initiative has been started so workers can use the extra 24 hours for improving the environment by carrying out tasks like changing their lighting to energy efficient bulbs, creating a compost heap or arranging recycling facilities.

The National Trust is leading the campaign and will announce all 4,800 staff and 49,000 volunteers will be told to take the day off to help to reduce their own carbon footprint. Those who take the opportunity will still be paid.

Other companies and organisations, which all get an extra day's labour free out of salaried staff in a leap year, are expected to join the Green Leap Day initiative.

Dame Fiona Reynolds, director-general of the National Trust, said: "There are over 29 million employees in the UK, if just one million changed one light bulb and turned their thermostat down by one degree it would save 351,000 tons of carbon.

"We want organisations of all sorts and sizes to come on board in whatever form they are able, to encourage people to do something for the environment."

Many of the trust's 300 historic houses and gardens do not open until March, but many premises are still staffed to prepare for the start of the season.

Staff will be asked to file a brief report of what they have achieved, but there will be no disciplinary action against those discovered to have spent the day in front of the television or in the pub.

Those who oppose the idea will be allowed to work as normal. Even the Trade Union Congress has backed the campaign and is calling for other employers to get involved in helping staff to tackle climate change.

Brendan Barber, General Secretary the TUC, said: "Giving employees an extra day off work while encouraging them to think about what they can do to go greener sounds like a great idea.

"More employers should be thinking about how to give their staff a better work-life balance."

The UK is to be hit by regular malaria outbreaks, fatal heatwaves and contaminated drinking water within five years because of global warming, the Government has warned the NHS.

Read more!

Japan's dolphin slaughter brings charges from both sides

Kyung Lah, CNN 11 Feb 08;

TAIJI, Japan (CNN) -- Ric O'Barry sometimes dresses as a woman or wears a large surgical mask to disguise his Western identity on trips to spots overlooking the ocean.

He prowls the cliffs near Taiji, Japan, with a video camera, hoping to catch fishermen doing something that appalls him: catching dolphins.

"This here is ground zero for the largest slaughter of dolphins on planet Earth," says O'Barry, who trained five dolphins to play "Flipper" on the TV series of that name. "It's absolutely barbaric, and it needs to stop."

Fishermen hunt dolphins almost every day in Taiji, a town of about 3,000 in southwestern Japan that juts into the Pacific Ocean.

Locals know that they offend Western sensibilities by eating dolphins, but they say it's a tradition hundreds of years old. And they say outsiders have no more right to tell them to stop eating dolphins than they would have to demand that Westerners stop slaughtering chickens or cows.

"I know there are many different ways of thinking in different societies, but for us who've been eating this for a long time ... it's an awkward thing to be criticized for," says Kayoko Tanaka, a retired middle school teacher. "I either fry dolphin meat or turn it into a stew."

O'Barry says the dolphins face a cruel fate.

"It takes a very long time to die. They bleed to death. And some of them are dragged in the boats with hooks while they're still alive," he says. "Many of them are gutted while they're still alive."

To some puzzled people in rural Japan, the question comes down to this: What's the difference between killing and eating a dolphin, and killing and eating a fish? Or a chicken? Or a cow?

Most Japanese do not eat dolphins -- it's common in a few fishing villages -- but the government respects the rights of people in towns such as Taiji, says Joji Morishita, the international negotiator for Japan's Fisheries Agency.

Many Japanese consider the deer a sacred messenger from the gods, he says, but they would never suggest that people in other parts of the world stop venturing into the woods on a quest for venison.

"We don't like to play God to say, 'This animal is just for food, and this is not,' " he says. "Because we know, nation to nation, we have totally different ideas."

That's obvious in the growing dispute between Australia and Japan over whale hunting.

Japanese ships crisscross southern oceans each winter to capture and kill up to 1,000 whales. Whaling is allowed under international law when done for scientific reasons, which Japan claims as the legal basis for its hunts.

Legal justifications aside, however, the whale hunts offend many people in Australia, where new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has turned up the political pressure on Japan.

His government has dispatched a customs ship to monitor and videotape the whalers. And Rudd says Australia could even file charges against Japan in an international court to try to stop the whaling.

In Taiji, the fishermen are well aware of the Western sentiment that motivates whaling opponents. They realize the danger to their way of life that can come with prying cameras from other countries.

When CNN trained its cameras on fishermen gutting freshly killed dolphins, the fishermen erected tarps to obstruct the view.

Representatives of the Taiji Fishermen's Union declined requests for an on-camera interview. So did the town's mayor and several others. And O'Barry says he's gotten into a few shouting matches with fishermen, who resent him and his camera.

So what does O'Barry say to their claim that he has no right to tell them to abandon a tradition that has flourished in their corner of the world for more than 400 years?

"If someone came to my hometown and told me what to do, what to eat, I'd be outraged," he says. "But that's not going to stop me from doing it. I mean, tradition? It used to be traditional for women not to vote. So do we keep that going because it's traditional and cultural? Of course not."

Complicating the debate are findings suggesting that eating dolphins may not be healthful. The Japanese government said in 2005 that bottlenose dolphin meat contains 12 times more mercury than bluefin tuna. High levels of mercury in fish can cause health problems in pregnant women and young children.

A city council member in Taiji, Junichiro Yamashita, grew so concerned about mercury levels that he persuaded locals schools to stop serving dolphin meat at lunch. He even plucked some of his hair, sent it off for testing and discovered that it contained seven times as much mercury as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers acceptable.

The mercury findings have not swayed Masaru Matsushita, a Taiji fish dealer. He says that dolphin activists like O'Barry see only their own needs without understanding the culture in his town.

"I understand that they think the dolphin in a cute animal, and I agree they're cute doing performances," he says, "but it is our culture to eat dolphins."

Read more!

Sundarbans Villages To Get Shield Against Climate Change

News Post India 12 Feb 08;

The British government has launched a $60,000 climate change initiative to tackle the effect of global warming in some of the most vulnerable areas of the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest.

The project has been undertaken in association with Kolkata based Nature, Environment and Wildlife Society (NEWS), which is raising awareness about the threat of climate change in the Sunderbans and in doing so are trying to adapt to its effects by planting mangroves along a 6-km stretch of riverbank covering a area of half a square kilometre.

The villages to be covered under the initiative are Mathurakhand and Amlamethi that face extreme threat from the rising sea.

The Sunderbans, a delta spread over 9,630 sq km is sinking 2.5 mm on an average every year due to erosion, deforestation and destruction of the mangrove forest.

The efforts undertaken by NEWS received a huge boost when the British High Commissioner's office decided to join the project not only to see the first planned action being taken to save the mangrove delta, but also record the project in a documentary as an example for future efforts.

Talking about the project, British High Commissioner Sir Richard Stagg said Sunday: 'I was shocked to learn that of the 3,500 km of shoreline in the Sunderbans, more than 2,000 km are today without the necessary mangrove cover. It is essential that an ecosystem like the Sunderbans has a defence system in place.'

Mangroves are also very effective against cyclones. Two Orissa districts with mangroves were affected very little by the super cyclone in 1999. Last year, the Sundarbans significantly softened the impact of Cyclone Sidr on Bangladesh.

Had the cyclone hit the Indian Sunderbans instead, the impact would have been devastating because mangroves have been denuded at many places. The British funded project aims to restore greenery to prevent a disaster.

Abhijit Mitra, a professor at the Marine Science Department of Calcutta University, said: 'Apart from building awareness about the project, the money will help us initiate a three-pronged strategy to study and mitigate the problem of mangrove erosion and growing salinity in the water of Sunderbans that is also leading to erosion.'

The project funding includes scientific studies to assess climate change impact on marine life. With salinity shooting up, the population of the main mangrove plant Sundari has dwindled, leading to the loss of several fish species.

'We will also do a study on the sequestering rate of carbon dioxide in certain mangroves or rate at which these plants absorb carbon dioxide,' Mitra said.

NEWS has also adopted three villages here - Satyanaranpur, Amlamethi and Mathurakhand - where 14 women are working on a mangrove-harvesting project.

A NEWS spokesperson said: 'We have procured 80,000 seeds and are preparing a nursery of 50,000 saplings which would be planted along the embankment of the villages.'

Read more!

India tiger population less than half earlier estimate: census

Elizabeth Roche, Yahoo News 12 Feb 08;

India's rare Royal Bengal Tiger population has plunged to 1,411, drastically lower than the estimated 3,700 believed to exist five years ago, researchers said Tuesday.

Rajesh Gopal, who heads Project Tiger, a conservation programme launched in the 1970s, unveiled the latest figures and blamed "poaching, loss of quality habitat and prey" as the main reasons for the decimation.

The census, which took nearly two years to complete, counted the big cat population inside dedicated reserves and those in forests, Qamar Qureshi, a scientist with the Wildlife Institute of India which conducted the survey, told AFP.

An earlier survey in 2002 had estimated the number of tigers in India at 3,700, with the population of those in protected sanctuaries estimated at 1,500.

Conservationists have long complained that many Indian forestry posts lie vacant, while the staff that do exist have little in the way of funds, making them no match for poachers.

"This is disastrous news but comes as no surprise," said Belinda Wright, head of the Wildlife Protection Society of India. "Wildlife crime is so entrenched and we are not prepared for it."

Poachers killed 122 tigers between 1999 and 2003, the government said in 2005.

Alarmed by the dwindling numbers, the government last year announced it was recruiting retired army personnel to form a "tiger protection force" to guard sanctuaries.

Last month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set up a national wildlife crime prevention bureau -- drawing experts from the police, environmental agencies and customs -- in a bid to break up the poaching network.

Asian giants India and China have been under fire from international experts for failing to halt tiger poaching, with conservationists blaming collusion between poachers, government officials and buyers.

Tigers are hunted for their pelts, claws and bones, which are prized in traditional Chinese medicine.

Tiger hunting is illegal worldwide and the trade in tiger body parts is banned under a treaty binding 167 countries, including India.

Despite the population plunge, Gopal and Qureshi said there was still hope for saving the tiger and salvaging the Project Tiger programme, touted as one of India's most successful conservation efforts.

"There is a lot of hope. The tiger population is capable of bouncing back if the quality of the forests is preserved and there is enough prey," Qureshi said.

Conservation efforts will work if people living near tiger reserves are involved in the process, he added.

The results of the latest survey offers authentic data as it used "more detailed and scientifically sound" techniques than earlier ones based on paw tracks, Qureshi said.

"When you say about 3,700 tigers in 2002, that was just an estimate. So it is difficult to say whether the numbers have halved or not."

The latest numbers however "does not include the tigers in the Sundarbans," the world's largest mangrove forest straddling the Indian-Bangladesh border.

"We are still developing the methodology to count the tigers there, because of the difference in habitats," he said.

Qureshi declined to give an estimate of the number of tigers living in the mangrove forests, though some conservationatists have put it at no more than 70.

Read more!

Tiger body parts sold openly in Indonesia

Charles Clover, The Telegraph 13 Feb 08;

The Sumatran tiger, now estimated to number fewer than 500 individuals, is being sold openly as body parts in Indonesia, investigators have found.

A survey by the conservation monitoring organisation Traffic estimated that 23 tigers were killed to supply the tiger parts seen in 28 cities and towns across Sumatra.

Tiger body parts, including canine teeth, claws, skin pieces, whiskers and bones, were on sale in one in ten of the 326 retail outlets surveyed in 2006. These outlets included goldsmiths, souvenir and traditional Chinese medicine shops, and shops selling antique and precious stones.

Julia Ng, Programme Officer with Traffic Southeast Asia and lead author on The Tiger Trade Revisited in Sumatra, Indonesia, said:

"This is down from an estimate of 52 killed per year in 1999-2000. Sadly, the decline in availability appears to be due to the dwindling number of tigers left in the wild.

"The Sumatran tiger population is estimated to be fewer than 400 to 500 individuals. It doesn't take a mathematician to work out that the Sumatran Tiger will disappear like the Javan and Bali tigers if the poaching and trade continues."

Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province, and Pancur Batu, a smaller town situated about 10 miles away, are the main hubs for the trade of tiger parts.

Despite the authorities being provided with details of traders involved, apart from awareness-raising activities, Traffic say it is not clear whether any serious enforcement action was taken.

The report recommends that efforts should be concentrated on arresting dealers and suppliers.

Dr Tonny Soehartono, Director for Biodiversity Conservation in the Ministry of Forestry of Republic of Indonesia, said: "We have to deal with the trade. Currently we are facing many other crucial problems which, unfortunately, are causing the decline of Sumatran Tiger populations.

"We have been struggling with the issues of land use changes, habitat fragmentation, human-tiger conflicts and poverty in Sumatra. Land use changes and habitat fragmentation are driving the tiger closer to humans and thus creating human-tiger conflicts."

Sumatra's remaining few tigers are also under threat from rampant deforestation by the pulp and paper and palm oil industries.

The tiger population in India was recently estimated to be as low as 1300 in a two-year census by conservationists.

The Wildlife Institute of India which conducted the census blamed poaching for traditional Chinese medicines, loss of habitat and prey.


Group: Tiger parts sold in Indonesia
Michael Casey, Associated Press Yahoo News 12 Feb 08;

The critically endangered Sumatran tiger will become extinct unless Indonesia takes swift action to clamp down on the illegal sale of the big cats' body parts across the Southeast Asian country, conservationists say.

TRAFFIC, a British-based international wildlife trade monitoring network, said it found tiger bones, claws, skins and whiskers being sold openly in eight cities on Indonesia's Sumatra island in 2006, despite tough laws banning such trade.

The group estimated that 23 tigers had been killed to supply the parts found for sale in souvenir, Chinese medicine and jewelry stores. Prices ranged from the equivalent of $14 for a tiger claw to about $52.50 per pound of tiger bones.

"Surveys continue to show that Sumatran tigers are being sold body part by body part into extinction," said a statement issued by Susan Lieberman, director of the species program for the conservation group WWF, which contributed to the report.

The Sumatran tiger, or Panthera tigris sumatrae, is the world's most critically endangered tiger subspecies — WWF estimates fewer than 400 remain in the wild in comparison to about 1,000 in the 1970s. The tigers' diminishing population is largely blamed on poaching and the destruction of their forest habitat for palm oil and wood pulp plantations.

"This is an enforcement crisis," Lieberman's statement said, adding that Indonesia needs to demonstrate it can cope with the crisis or ask for help from the international community.

Indonesia launched a 10-year plan to protect the Sumatran tiger in December last year. But conservationists complain that Indonesian commitments to preserving wildlife are rarely supported by enforcement measures.

"There is no effective enforcement on the ground," said Chris Shepherd, senior program officer for TRAFFIC, who has been tracking the Indonesian tiger trade for nearly 15 years. "It boils down to lack of resources. Wildlife crime isn't viewed as a high priority in Indonesia or anywhere in Southeast Asia."

Tonny Soehartono, the country's director for biodiversity conservation in the Ministry of Forestry, said efforts were being made to crack down on the illegal wildlife trade. He did not elaborate.

"I believe we have made significant progress," he said.

Indonesia failing to halt tiger decline: conservationists
Yahoo News 13 Feb 08;

Indonesia has failed to stop poaching of endangered Sumatran tigers, with body parts of the big cats for sale at retail outlets on the island they call home, a wildlife group warned Wednesday.

Despite a national law against trade in tiger parts, a survey across 28 towns on Sumatra in 2006 found tiger teeth, claws, skin, whiskers and bones openly for sale, wildlife monitoring group TRAFFIC said in a new report.

The survey estimated that at least 23 tigers were killed to supply the products seen in 10 percent of 326 retail outlets, which included goldsmiths, souvenir and traditional Chinese medicine shops, the British-based group said.

That number was lower than an estimate of 52 tigers killed per year in 1999-2000, Julia Ng, the report's lead author, said in a statement on the report, but added that this was not a positive development.

"Sadly, the decline in availability appears to be due to the dwindling number of tigers left in the wild," she said.

Authorities in the northern Sumatran cities of Medan and Pacur Batu, two main hubs for tiger trading, appeared to have not taken action against illegal traders despite TRAFFIC supplying their details, the group said.

"Successive surveys continue to show that Sumatran tigers are being sold body part by body part into extinction," said the director of WWF International's species programme, Susan Lieberman.

TRAFFIC is a joint programme of the WWF and the World Conservation Union.

"This is an enforcement crisis. If Indonesian authorities need enforcement help from the international community they should ask for it. If not, they should demonstrate they are taking enforcement seriously," Lieberman said.

The Sumatran tiger population is estimated at around 400 to 500. Poaching as well as deforestation to make way for pulp, paper and palm oil plantations are the main factors behind the animal's decline.

"It doesn't take a mathematician to work out that the Sumatran tiger will disappear like the Javan and Bali tigers if the poaching and trade continues," TRAFFIC's Ng added.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono launched a 10-year conservation strategy for the Sumatran tiger last December.

Links to more reports

Body part by body part, Sumatran Tigers are being sold into extinction
WWF website

Read more!

Panic in the beehive

Finlo Rohrer, BBC News Magazine 12 Feb 08;

If the UK lost its honey bees the countryside would face devastation, and that is exactly what beekeepers fear could happen.

Imagine a country lane. Hawthorn hedgerow on either side, clouds scudding overhead, apple blossom drifting gently by, the only noise the gentle hum of honey bees and the chirping of birds. What could be a more idyllic vision of British country life?

Then fast forward 10 years.

The hedgerow is deteriorating, the birds are silent, the orchard is disappearing and the countryside is changed. Why? The hives are empty. Their once-buzzing occupants mysteriously vanished.

Environment and rural affairs minister Lord Rooker envisaged just such a scenario recently when he warned: "Bee health is at risk and, frankly, if nothing is done about it, the fact is the honey bee population could be wiped out in 10 years."

In a few weeks time, Britain's thousands of amateur beekeepers will face what might be called "Bee-Day". In the south of England, the weather will be warm enough that apiarists can lift the tops off their hives for the first time and find out if their colonies have survived the winter.

And these beekeepers are worried. Every winter some colonies are lost. But last year saw widespread anecdotal reports of above average losses, and the enthusiasts fear this year could be worse.

Blood-sucking killer

Norman Carreck is both entomologist and beekeeper. And he is one of the anxious.

"Last winter a number of very experienced beekeepers lost colonies in very mysterious circumstances."

One change is in the varroa mite, identified by Lord Rooker as the main threat.

The mite, which latches onto bees and sucks their "blood", arrived in the UK in 1992. Within a few years it had spread throughout the country and took the wild honey bee population to the brink of annihilation. Managed hives were also hit hard.

But having long been kept under control using chemical treatments, there is now a new problem.

"The mites are becoming resistant, there are no good alternatives for treatment," says Carreck.

And as well as varroa, the devil that beekeepers know, there is another cloud on the horizon. Across the Atlantic US honey bees are being wiped out in vast numbers by a mysterious condition that leaves hives empty and deserted.

Amateurs dominate

Scientists are working frantically to identify the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder, but UK beekeepers fear it could soon spread to them. One swarm of bees in a ship container would be all it could potentially take.

"If it did arrive we don't know how to tackle it," says Ivor Davis, an amateur apiarist in Bristol and former president of the British Beekeepers Association, which has 11,000 members. "The government doesn't seem that concerned."



US beekeepers, who make money from taking their bees from state to state for pollination of commercial crops, have been replenishing stocks from Australia. But in the UK, which imports the vast majority of its honey, beekeeping is dominated by amateurs. Many will not be able to afford repeated purchases of new bees in the event of the disease arriving.

"If we give up because it is too hard then the country is in trouble - 99% of beekeepers are hobbyists," says Davis.

Beekeepers want the government to contribute more than the £200,000 it currently spends on research into bee diseases and the £1.8m it spends on the National Bee Unit and inspections of colonies.

Funding plea

The position of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is clear. There is no evidence the US disease is spreading in the UK, and while it does liaise with American scientists, it is awaiting compelling evidence that there should be a big increase in spending.

But if CCD hasn't spread to the UK yet, why are bees dying in greater numbers than usual? The answer, according to many beekeepers, may lie as much with a mixture of erratic unseasonal weather as it does with disease.

Mild winters are not good for bees, says Carreck. A sudden warm snap, as experienced in some parts of England at the weekend can persuade the bees that spring is here, they venture out and expend energy but find there is no food for them, and then the cold returns.

Chris Slade, from Maiden Newton in Dorset, has been keeping bees for 30 years and blames his higher than normal losses on a phenomenon caused by excessively long summers. But he believes the bees will adapt to the erratic weather and that concerns over disease are overstated.

"There is a lot of hyperbole. Beekeeping always goes through periods of prosperity and dearth. People do enjoy a good panic."

But there is no doubt the consequences of a severely depleted honey bee population would be grim.

"Insects are essential for the pollination of a very large proportion of produce," says Carreck. And of the insects, bees are key because of the times of the year they are available to spread pollen.

To take just two examples, the British apple industry would face devastating consequences if there were no bees, while bird populations would also suffer.

Urban honey

The prospect of this catastrophic loss of bees has driven Guardian journalist and beekeeper Alison Benjamin to write her upcoming book A World Without Bees.

Benjamin, who lives in Battersea, is one of a growing number of young, urban-dwelling beekeepers. She has five hives, one at her current flat, one at her old flat, and three at the bottom of her parents' garden.

"It's about bringing a bit of nature into the city. And it's argued they produce better honey in the towns than they do in the countryside."

In the US they are vital to agribusiness with their owners taking them on a tour of the nation's foodstuffs. First hives might be taken by truck to Massachusetts, Benjamin says, then on to Maine for blueberries, then Florida for oranges and California for almonds.

This constant movement has been blamed for the prevalence of the varroa mite in the US and other diseases, as stressed bees come into contact with a plethora of infections.

It is one reason that some believe the UK, which does not have nomadic beekeepers, will not be affected by CCD in the same way.

But at the moment all beekeepers can do is keep their fingers crossed as they wait for their moment of truth on Bee-Day.

The National Geographic channel will broadcast Silence of the Bees at 2200 GMT on Tuesday 12 February.

Read more!

Breed fish that devour mozzie larvae

Letter from Retnam Thillainathan, Straits Times Forum 13 Feb 08;

WHILE Singaporeans go ga-ga over molly fish supposed to bring 4-D luck (they have tattoos), in South India, breeding of 'mosquito fish' has intensified.

Known as Gambusia holbrooki, the fish devour mosquito larvae. Originally, they were found in Mississippi, in the United States.

Scientists discovered these fish are voracious eaters of mosquito larvae. By breeding them, it is possible to control breeding of mosquitoes. This method has caught on in other parts of Asia, wherever there is stagnant water.

The National Environment Agency is doing its best to eliminate dengue, chikungunya and other mosquito-borne viruses.

I wonder if it is possible to breed Gambusia holbrooki in Singapore, especially where there is stagnant water.

Read more!

Dengue in Singapore: Over 650 cases this year

Arti Mulchand, Straits Times 13 Feb 08;

SIX weeks into this year, some 650 dengue cases have been diagnosed, with 41 more emerging since Sunday alone.

This 650 is about twice the figure for the same period last year and the year before.

At least 10 of this year's victims have come down with dengue haemorrhagic fever, the more serious form of dengue, although the disease has not killed anyone, said the Health Ministry.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) put the high figure down to a continuation of the high year-end incidence of the illness.

The average weekly number of cases last December was 124.8; last month, it was 116.4 cases a week. These figures are also double those seen between December 2006 and last January.

But the situation cannot top that in 2005, when dengue hit 14,209 people and killed 25. Six weeks into that year, 1,655 had come down sick.

There are indications Singapore might be emerging from the lull between epidemic cycles and entering a new cycle.

When new cycles begin, case numbers usually go up every year until they hit a peak, NEA explained. By some estimates, each cycle can last three to five years.

A new type of dengue, Den 2, is still in circulation, to which relatively fewer people are immune.

Last year started with a low number of cases. By mid-year, the weekly numbers crossed several times into epidemic levels - over 378 cases a week. By year's end, 8,826 had come down with dengue and 20 had died.

The NEA reminded the public to remain on high alert and to stop providing breeding spots for the dengue-spreading Aedes aegypti.

Dengue has still not been contained in five areas, including Petir Road, Chapel Close and Tung Po Avenue. But the NEA noted that these areas had fewer than 10 cases each.

Read more!

Malaria warning as UK becomes warmer

Rosa Prince, The Telegraph 12 Feb 08;

The UK is to be hit by regular malaria outbreaks, fatal heatwaves and contaminated drinking water within five years because of global warming, the Government has warned the NHS.

Following a major consultation with climate change scientists, the Government is issuing official advice to hospitals, care homes and institutions for dealing with rising temperatures, increased flooding, gales and other major weather events.

It warns that there is a high likelihood of a major heatwave, leading to as many as 10,000 deaths, hitting the UK by 2012.

All institutions have been told they must come up with a comprehensive plan on how to deal with the issues resulting from climate change.

Hospitals are also warned to prepare for outbreaks of malaria and tick-born viruses, as well as increased levels of skin cancer and deaths from asthma and other breathing conditions.

A spokesman for the Health Protection Agency said: "Our work is based on what is likely to happen if we do nothing to prevent it - and it could well be that we see an increase in diseases such as malaria.

"Malaria has been seen in these islands in the past, and it is not impossible that it will return regularly if the UK experiences more tropical temperatures and rain on the scale experienced last summer.

"Our nearest continental neighbour, France, has already experienced a severe heatwave, with thousands of people dying, mostly the old and frail, so it was very clearly seen by scientists as possible here within a short timeframe."

The Daily Telegraph has obtained a draft of the report, "Health Effects of Climate Change in the UK", compiled by Prof Bob Maynard of the Health Protection Agency, which will be officially launched by Dawn Primarolo, the Public Health Minister, on Tuesday.

Based on scientific advice that UK temperatures are expected to rise by up to three per cent by the end of the century, it includes the warning of a "high" risk by 2012 of a severe heatwave leading to 3,000 immediate deaths, followed by a further 6,350 fatalities from conditions such as heart failure and skin cancer.

Hospital admissions due to breathing problems caused by rising pollution are also likely to rise "significantly", by at least 1,500 a year.

While the authors say the UK has proved able to cope with major heatwaves in the past, with no serious increase in fatalities in years with hot summers, such as 1976, temperatures on the scale of those experienced in France in 2003, which resulted in 14,000 premature deaths, would have an impact.

In south-east England, the chance of a severe heatwave on this scale by 2012 is said to be one in 40, and the report says: "In conventional thinking about risks to health, a risk of one in 40 is high."

The NHS has warned that hospitals, nursing homes and other social care institutions need to brace themselves for coping with disasters by planning in advance.

However, fewer old people are expected to die each year from cold, as climate change leads to warmer winters.

The report says outbreaks of malaria in the UK are possible, although likely to remain "rare".

However, across Europe malaria may become common, meaning hospitals should prepare to treat holidaymakers returning from continental weekend breaks, in addition to those who have travelled from more exotic destinations.

Flooding is likely to have an impact on the safety of drinking water, with increased bacteria and algal blooms in reservoirs.

Climate Change May Kill Thousands In UK By 2017
PlanetArk 13 Feb 08;

LONDON - There is a 25 percent chance that a severe heat wave will strike England and kill more than 6,000 people before 2017 if no action is taken to deal with the health effects of climate change, a report said on Tuesday.


The report for Britain's Department of Health estimated more than 3,000 people could die in an intense summer hot spell in southeast England, with just as many more dying from heat-related deaths over the summer.

Until 2012, when London stages the summer Olympic Games, the odds of thousands dying in summer heat each year will be 1 in 40, the report said, and thousands more could die each year as a result of other effects of global warming and air pollution.

"In terms of conventional thinking about risks to health, a risk of 1 in 40 is high," the report said.

Tens of thousands died across Europe in a heat wave during the summer of 2003, including over 14,000 people in France, but so far people living in Britain have coped with rising temperatures.

Although more summer deaths are expected, fewer people will die in Britain as a result of cold winter weather, as the world warms up because of rising carbon emissions from human activity.

The report, an update of a 2002 study, was re-issued on the same day London's mayor said owners of the most polluting cars will have to pay 25 pounds ($48.77) a day to drive them in the city centre in ameasure to cut down on carbon emissions.

(Reporting by Daniel Fineren; Editing by Michael Winfrey)

Global warming 'may save lives'
BBC 12 Feb 08;

The risk of a fatal heatwave in the UK within ten years is high, but overall global warming may mean fewer deaths due to temperature, a report says.

A seriously hot summer between now and 2017 could claim more than 6,000 lives, the Department of Health report warns.

But it also stresses that milder winters mean deaths during this time of year - which far outstrip heat-related mortality - will continue to decline.

The report is to help health services prepare for climate change effects.

A panel of scientific experts commissioned by the Department of Health and Health Protection Agency (HPA) has looked at the way the UK has responded to rising temperatures since the 1970s, and how the risks are likely to change.

While summers in the UK became warmer in the period 1971 - 2003, there was no change in heat-related deaths, but annual cold-related mortality fell by 3% as winters became milder - so overall fewer people died as a result of extreme temperatures.

Rather than physiological changes explaining our ability to adapt to rising temperatures, the report puts this down primarily to lifestyle alterations - our readiness to wear more informal clothes, for instance, and the shift away from manual labour.

Breathing in

Nevertheless, there is at present a 25% chance that by 2017 south-east England will see a severe heatwave which could cause 3,000 immediate deaths and the same number of heat-related deaths throughout the summer.

Read more!

Global butter shortage begins to bite

Business Times13 Feb 08;

(SYDNEY) Australian pastry chef Tracy Nickl never imagined he would have to tighten security at his country bakery to ensure nobody stole his butter.

But when he realised the value of his yellow stockpile had reached more than A$20,000 (S$25,600), he decided it was time to put in an alarm system and have a security guard patrol his business at night.

'It's incredibly valuable,' he said. 'Its price has gone from 100 boxes being worth A$6,000 or A$7,000 ... now it's worth A$20,000. You don't have that kind of money sitting around without protecting it.'

Australian bakeries are the latest in a long line of victims of increased global demand for dairy products and the country's long-running drought - with the all-important ingredient butter becoming harder to find and more expensive.

Mr Nickl, who owns the Gumnut Patisserie in the Southern Highlands southwest of Sydney, said he orders butter every week from three different suppliers 'and (we) just hope and take whatever arrives'.

'It's a commodity that's incredibly hard to get,' he said. 'You'll go for weeks and weeks with a specific supplier not being able to give me any.' Mr Nickl said he noticed the butter shortage begin to bite in June 2007, just as the country was praying for rain to end the worst drought in living memory.

Since the beginning of last year, the price of butter has tripled, he said.

'Whereas once upon a time I used to scream if I was paying more than A$70 a (25 kilogram) box, now if I am paying less than A$200 I am pretty happy,' he said. 'It's horrifying.'

'And on top of that our flour price has gone up 100 percent. So we're getting nailed from every angle,' he added.

The frustration is echoed by Sydney cake maker Michael Hughes who has been forced to lift prices and to be more stringent with butter to conserve his supply.

'We've been a lot more careful about it, gone for product lines that don't have lot of butter,' Mr Hughes said.

'My suppliers keep telling me, 'Brace yourself, because it's only going to get worse'.' Bakers say it is the convergence of two factors - skyrocketing global demand for dairy and the drought in Australia - which have caused the price blow-out.

And because butter, unlike milk, can be safely stored for months, some producers are believed to have built up stockpiles which are further squeezing supply.

Add to that flourishing demand from Asia, and it's a recipe for disaster for small cake shops, patisseries and bakeries.

'The Chinese market has just increased its appetite for things like cream cheese,' Mr Hughes said. 'China has just discovered cheesecakes.'

Joanne Bills, manager of strategic knowledge at Dairy Australia, downplayed the impact of exports on the butter supply, saying drought was the main factor.

'We have had a fairly severe impact from drought,' she said. 'And so milk production for the first half of this current season is about 8 per cent down. -- AFP

Read more!

Las Vegas Water Source Could Run Dry By 2021 - Study

PlanetArk 13 Feb 08;

SAN FRANCISCO - Chances are about even that Lake Mead, the prime source of water for the desert city of Las Vegas, will run dry in 13 years if usage is not cut back, according to study released on Tuesday.

The finding is the latest warning about water woes threatening the future of the fast-growing US casino capital and comes amid a sustained drought in the American West.

The study by two researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, calculates a 10 percent chance that Lake Mead will run dry in six years and a 50 percent probability it will be gone by 2021 absent other changes.

"Our reaction was frankly one of being stunned," study co-author Tim Barnett, a marine research physicist, said in an interview. "We had not expected the problem to be so severe and so up close to us in time."

Climate change -- both man-made and natural variation -- strong human demand and evaporation are all factors affecting water in the lake. "The biggest change right now is taking more water from the bucket than we are putting into it," Barnett said.

The uncertainty about when and if the lake will run dry stems from the natural fluctuations of the Colorado River, the researcher said.

The West has suffered years of drought with the Colorado supplying less water to Lake Mead, which serves Nevada, California, Arizona and Mexico.

The lake created by Hoover Dam provides 90 percent of Las Vegas' water and is less than half full, giving the edge of the lake a bath tub ring visible even far away by air.

(Reporting by Adam Tanner; editing by Todd Eastham)

Lake Mead Could Dry Up by 2021
Andrea Thompson, LiveScience Yahoo News 12 Feb 08;

Lake Mead, a key source of water for millions of people in the southwestern United States, could go dry by 2021, a new study finds.

The study concludes that natural forces such as evaporation, changes wrought by global warming and the increasing demand from the booming Southwest population are creating a deficit from this part of the Colorado River system.

Along with Lake Powell, which is on the border between Arizona and Utah, Lake Mead supplies roughly 8 million people in the cities of Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Diego, among others, with critical water supplies.

The system is currently only at half capacity thanks to a recent string of dry years, researchers say.

The study’s findings indicated that there is a 10 percent chance that Lake Mead could be dry by 2014 and a 50 percent chance that reservoir levels will drop too low to allow hydroelectric power generation by 2017. There is a 50 percent chance the lake will go dry by 2021, the study says.

Researchers say that even if water agencies follow their current drought contingency plans, those measures might not be enough to counter natural forces, especially if the region enters a period of sustained drought or if human-induced climate changes occur as currently predicted.

"We were stunned at the magnitude of the problem and how fast it was coming at us," said study coauthor Tim Barnett of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California at San Diego. "Make no mistake, this water problem is not a scientific abstraction, but rather one that will impact each and every one of us that live in the Southwest."

Several studies in recent years have predicted a prolonged period of drought in the Southwest as a result of global warming.

The team's analysis of Federal Bureau of Reclamation records of past water demand and calculations of scheduled water allocations and climate conditions indicate that the system could run dry even if mitigation measures now being proposed are implemented.

"It's likely to mean real changes to how we live and do business in this region," said coauthor David Pierce, a climate scientist at Scripps.

The new study has been accepted for publication in the journal Water Resources Research.

Read more!

EU Ministers Urge Caution on Cost of Climate Plan

PlanetArk 13 Feb 08;

BRUSSELS - The European Union's move to a low-carbon economy to fight climate change must not harm its competitiveness, the bloc's finance ministers said on Tuesday.

The executive European Commission last month proposed an ambitious package of measures to help the 27-nation bloc cut greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming, partly by using more green energy sources.

"The Council supports the leading role of the EU when it comes to energy and climate change. However we have to make sure this transfer to a low carbon economy will be carried out in a sustainable manner so economic growth is sustainable and public finances do not suffer too much," Andrej Bajuk, finance minister of EU president Slovenia, told a news conference.

Finance ministers discussed the economic impact and cost of the energy and climate change strategy at their monthly meeting, including such issues as subsidising renewable sources such as wind, wave and solar power, and biofuels made from plants.

"We need to take into account all costs incumbent from the climate energy package proposals. We are talking of very expensive programmes which we believe should be kept within the framework of market forces and efficiency," Bajuk said.

EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said he had told the ministers Brussels estimated the measures would cost "something like 0.5 percent of gross domestic product of the EU" -- equivalent to 60 billion euros ($87.18 billion) a year.

The proposals aim to implement targets set by EU leaders last year to cut CO2 emissions by at least one-fifth by 2020 from 1990 levels, to increase the share of renewables in power production to 20 percent and to boost the share of biofuels used in transport to 10 percent by the same date.

The finance ministers watered down a draft statement that would have made the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme the undisputed vehicle for cutting pollution.

Instead, ministers agreed more guardedly that the ETS was the most efficient allocation method "in principle".

The Commission has shelved until a review in 2011 the idea of imposing tariffs on imports from countries that do not join international efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

Sectors such as steel and aluminium have voiced worries that they may be forced out of Europe by having to buy CO2 emissions permits while non-European rivals face no such constraints. Free trade supporters said such a tariff would hurt global commerce.

EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said the climate change package was based on a cost efficiency analysis and that the most efficient instruments to tackle the problem were market-based mechanisms like ETS.

Implementing the package was cheaper than paying for the consequences of climate change, Almunia said.

(Reporting by Huw Jones, editing by Paul Taylor)

Read more!

UN hosts post-Bali ministerial session on climate change

Gerard Aziakou, Yahoo News 12 Feb 08;

Developing and rich nations on Tuesday urged speedy UN-led action to seal a new global pact to reverse climate change by late 2009, with special attention to the needs of vulnerable countries.

Representatives of 117 countries and regional organizations attended a ministerial session of the General Assembly to take stock after last December's Bali conference in Indonesia.

The Bali conference yielded an action plan that set a late 2009 deadline for a landmark new treaty to cut global-warming greenhouse gases once the current Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

"The Bali Action Plan ... reflects a common understanding that no country is immune to climate change," Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar told the gathering.

He stressed that while rich nations should take the lead in implementing the plan, its success requires broad participation around the globe.

"More action can be expected to take place in the developing world with more ambitious commitments by developed countries," he added.

Speaking on behalf of the 132-nation Group of 77 and China alliance, Antigua and Barbuda's UN Ambassador John Nashe cautioned that "the road to Copenhagen" where talks on the Bali plan are to be concluded late next year "will be a difficult one, particularly for developing countries and the poorest and most vulnerable."

He called for an "effective and comprehensive global response to cover the four building blocks of the plan -- mitigation (action to reduce the extent of global warming), adaptation (action to minimize the effects of global warming), technology transfer and financing.

"Without rapid and tangible efforts by developed countries in this regard, climate change will lead to increased poverty and will negate our efforts at achieving sustainable development," Nashe said.

However, Sri Lankan Environment Minister Patali Ranawaka countered that "it is not fair to expect the developing nations to shoulder the full burden of responding to climate change impact.

"Historically their contributions to climate change have been minimal and will continue to be."

China's special representative for climate change talks Yu Qingtai pressed for establishment of "effective mechanisms ... as soon as possible to insure that measurable, reportable and verifiable assistance be provided to the developing countries with regard to financial resources, technology and capacity building."

He insisted that Beijing was taking climate change "very seriously."

"While making our own due contribution, we will also help other developing countries to enhance their ability to adapt to climate change," Yu pledged.

Speaking on behalf of the European Union, Slovenian Environment Minister Janez Podobnik however pointed out that under the Bali deal, "all developed and developing countries need to take appropriate action to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions."

Dutch Environment Minister Jacqueline Cramer said billions of dollars will be needed over the next 20 years "to place the world on a low-carbon, sustainable energy path, to take measures to protect vulnerable populations from the impact of climate change and to tackle the issue of deforestation effectively."

She said the bulk of the extra financial flows for that purpose would have to come from the private sector.

Cramer urged governments to "create a favorable investment climate and provide the right incentives" through "a post-2012 arrangement that is cost-effective, flexible and fair."

Meanwhile Podobnik noted that the EU fully backed efforts to "achieve a coordinated UN approach to climate change" and called on all member states to support the process.

Several other speakers made it clear that the United Nations, through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), was the only appropriate forum to deal with the issue.

Read more!

Liquid coal touted as good fuel bet if ethanol fails

Bruce Nichols, Reuters 12 Feb 08;

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Refining coal into liquids is the next logical step should it become clear that corn-based ethanol is not the solution to the transportation fuel problem, the developer of a coal-to-liquids plant said on Tuesday.

"Does it make sense to burn your food supply ... to make what is in our estimation an inferior transportation fuel?" Robert Kelly, chairman of DKRW Advanced Fuels LLC, told a questioner at Cambridge Energy Research Associates' 2008 conference.

"We've got a huge amount of coal here," Kelly said after a breakfast presentation, noting U.S. coal reserves are among the world's largest. "It is a huge fuel source for the next 50 years if we do it responsibly."

"It's new. We haven't done one in the U.S. at major commercial scale. It's a long development cycle," Kelly said, responding to a questioner who asked why, if coal to liquids is such a good idea, there are not more plants already.

"When we're successful, I think you'll see a lot more," Kelly predicted.

Ethanol is a good oxygenate to improve octane when added to gasoline, but it is not a complete substitute, Kelly argued. It has about 75 percent of the heat content of gasoline, which means it does not add to fuel efficiency, he said.

Liquefied coal, as produced by the Medicine Bow facility planned in southeast Wyoming by DKRW and its partners, will be high in heat content, low in sulfur, relatively low in carbon dioxide emissions and competitive in the marketplace.

Coal-to-liquid fuels can compete in the market without the government subsidies that have boosted ethanol, Kelly said. He argued government should not favor one technology over another.

"Our view is the market ought to decide," he said, adding his plant will make a return on investment of 15 percent with oil at $60 to $70 a barrel and does not hit zero return until oil falls to $27.

DKRW Advanced Fuels, in partnership with Arch Coal Inc and with technologies licensed by General Electric, Exxon Mobil and UOP LLC, plans to start construction on Medicine Bow next year, he said.

The start of commercial operations is targeted for 2013, Kelly said. When operational, plans call for the $2.5 billion plant to use 8,000 tons of coal mined on site to make 18,800 barrels of gasoline every day.

The carbon dioxide produced will be sold for enhanced oil recovery in the region, where CO2 currently is in short supply and oil field needs are significant, he said. After being used to boost oil output, the CO2 will stay underground, he said.

DKRW chose to build a plant that makes gasoline rather than natural gas, which other coal plants make, because motor fuel has higher potential value in the marketplace. "You can get a much better swing in product pricing," he said.

Read more!