Jakarta Green Monster protects wetlands

The Jakarta Post 24 Feb 08;

The existence of wetlands in a metropolis like Jakarta is crucial to the wellbeing of the city and its residents. Wetlands nurture wildlife, absorb excess rainwater and provide a natural laboratory and a recreation area.

Jakarta's wetlands has shrunk to less than 6 percent of the city area, and will keep diminishing unless serious action is taken to stop its destruction.

Among the consequences of wetlands destruction are unseasonable droughts and floods, which claim victims and cause ailments like skin diseases and respiratory infections. Yet the continuing housing developments in the wetlands reveal that public awareness on this unique ecosystem and its social and health benefits remains low.

Realizing the seriousness of the issue, several environmentalists backed by the Fauna and Flora International-Indonesia program set up in 2006 Jakarta Green Monster (JGM), a non-governmental organization to save the wetlands of Jakarta.

The JGM aims to create a sustainable, healthy environment in the capital while promoting wetlands conservation and encouraging public participation in environmental conservation. It works closely with the local community, local authorities and relevant institutions like the Natural Resources Conservation Center (BKSDA) of Jakarta, as well as the Jakarta government.

The continuing existence of the native mangrove forests in Muara Angke is in everyone's interest.

"We encourage people to make the most of nature, develop accessibility such as the newly built bridge at Muara Angke Wildlife Reserve and launch campaigns to love nature. When people love Angke, they will care for its wellbeing," said Frank Momberg, the Asia-Pacific regional director of development at Fauna and Flora International.

JGM presently bases its activities at the Muara Angke reserve. At only 25.02 hectares, it is the smallest wildlife sanctuary in Indonesia, yet it is unique and no less important.

"Among our activities, we facilitate and educate local communities to manage their waste, monitor water birds and river water quality, and guide schoolchildren and the public to explore Muara Angke wildlife," said Hendra Aquan, a JGM volunteer.

"Waste is a big problem for Jakarta in general, and for Muara Angke in particular. Jakarta produces about 6,000 tons of waste daily; 58 percent comes from household waste, 15 percent from industries and 15 percent from other sources," Hendra said.

"Of household waste, 65 percent is organic waste. So the role of housewives in waste management is very significant. We therefore work closely with them in areas around Angke, educating and supervising them on this issue," he added.

An ideal Muara Angke -- one that is clean and lush, and where wildlife thrives and people live in harmony with nature -- is still far from reality; but the JGM is taking concrete steps towards realizing this dream for the benefit of all Jakartans.

-- Ani Suswantoro

Jakarta Green Monster
Kompleks Laboratorium Pusat
Universitas Nasional
Jl. Harsono RM No. 1
Ragunan, South Jakarta
Tel: (021) 79800981
www.jakartagreenmonster.com

JGM event reminds all to care for Jakarta's wetlands
Ani Suswantoro, The Jakarta Post 24 Feb 08;

Wetlands are natural areas that occur between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in which water covers the soil or is present near the surface all year round or during certain periods of time.

Wetlands spread from montane to coastal areas, and possess a rich and unique ecosystem with vital functions, but sometimes their invisible values are not revered. Wetlands possess value as an alternative source of income for local people, as a recreational site and a natural laboratory, and as a source of water. They are also key areas for the prevention of floods.

The survival of wetlands in Indonesia is facing serious threats from uncontrolled logging, coastal reclamation, infrastructure development, pollution and the encroachment of non-indigenous species. Poor understanding among the public as well as government officials of the benefits wetlands provide have contributed to their rapid destruction.

Jakarta needs its wetlands to maintain a healthy, sustainable life in the capital. Jakarta Green Monster (JGM), a non-governmental organization focusing on wetlands conservation, commemorated World Wetlands Day on Feb. 2 to raise people's awareness on the unique ecosystem.

Themed "Healthy Wetlands, Healthy People", the event was held at the Muara Angke Wildlife Reserve in North Jakarta, and involved a photography competition for the public, as well as a feature writing contest for senior high schools, waste recycling contest for junior high school students and a drawing contest for elementary school students. The waste recycling category saw the largest number of entrants at about 40 students, while the others drew 35 entries together.

"The contest for waste recycling, which is crucial in environmental protection, is open to groups of three," explained a committee member at the event. "Writing is a very powerful way to convey our ideas on wetlands conservation campaign. Pictures are self-explanatory in presenting facts, and drawing is an interesting activity for children. These are why we chose these kinds of competitions."

"The Mangrove Forest is My Playground" was the theme of the drawing contest.

"I just know this reserve is a nice place to play," said Abdurrahman, the first-place winner from state elementary school SDN Kapuk Muara Pagi.

"But it's a pity that we must obtain a permit to visit," his mother added.

The second-place winner was Dwi Yuniarwati from SD Ragunan 10 Pagi, and Ea Syifa from SD Ragunan 7 Pagi placed third.

"I didn't win, but I still like playing here," said Aditya, a drawing contestant.

In feature writing, Ozora Kharunia from LabSchool Kebayoran placed first, Herdiman Harianto from Tarakanita 2 in Pluit, North Jakarta, came second, and Khusnul Khotimah from YMIK I Manggarai of South Jakarta placed third.

Meanwhile, the waste recycling contest, conducted under a shady pidada tree (Sonnieratia caseolaris) was the most hectic of the day. All students were busy making their recycled creations, such as a water purifier made of plastic jerry cans filled with gravel, sugar palm fibers and sand, bookcases of instant noodle cartons and even toy robots from water bottles and biscuit tins.

The eventual winners were Mitzy, Vania Chinka and Irwan Surya from Santa Maria junior high school in Juanda with their unique creation: a water wheel made from an old bicycle tire and discarded cans.

Chesa Razky, Shella Syahira and Achmad Bima from Global Islamic School, Condet, were in second place with recycled paper made from shredded newspapers. Nurul, Rubi and Rahmah from Bogor's Insan Kamil junior high school took third place with pencil cases and accessories made from water bottles and instant noodle wrappers.

Originality, usefulness and usage of only waste materials were the criteria for winning.

The XS Project and the Dipepi Free Food Gang, two environmental community service groups, also took part in the event. The XS Project exhibited and sold their popular shopping bags, pencil cases and handbags made of plastic waste from Rp 35,000-80,000 each. The items are created and assembled by orphans and scavengers.

Meanwhile, Dipepi shared their ideas and tips on publishing opinion pieces.

"We don't need to contact a publisher to express our views on the environment, social or political matters. We can issue our own (publication) by reproducing our writing. We just require a little money for photocopying expenses," said Ika of Dipepi.

The enthusiasm of youths involved in the event was an encouraging sign for the future of Jakarta's wetlands.

"Environmental issues are included in the curriculums of many senior high schools, such as Tarakanita 3 and Manggarai in Jakarta, Bogor's Pertiwi Elementary School and several schools in Ciawi," said JGM coordinator Enny Sudarmonowati.

"Jakarta Green Monster is also very active in promoting wetlands conservation in Jakarta, specifically in Muara Angke Wildlife Reserve through radio stations like Suara Metro, Delta FM and Utan Kayu. As for publications, we expose Angke in the inflight magazines of Garuda and Batavia (airlines)," she added.

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Fires in the Riaus

Fired gutted protected forest in Tanjungpinang
Antara 23 Feb 08;

Tanjungpinang (ANTARA News) - The only protected forest in Tanjungpinang, capital of Riau Islands Province, was destroyed by fire at 16:00 on Friday.

The fire had been put out in three hours by fire fighters of the city and Bintan district, Tanjungpinang City Police Chief Adjunct Commissioner Imam Widodo told Antara.

However, the cause of the fire was still unknown.

The forest covered 10 hectares of land.

The fire fighters could easily put out the flames as the forest has abundant water sources.

Residents living near the forest panicked when they saw smoke in the air blanketing their homes.

Some of them were ready to leave their homes to safer places, but cancelled their plan because the flames were already put out. (*)

Haze engulfing Bukittingi growing thicker
Antara 23 Feb 08;

Padang, West Sumatra (ANTARA) - Haze engulfing West Sumatra city of Bukittinggi in the last four days as the result of forest fires in neigbouring Riau province had become thicker, a report said.

Several residents in the tourist resort city told Antara here on Friday that the increasingly thick haze has also affected the vision of motorists.

Junaidi, a Metereology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) staff member in Tabing, Padang, said the haze came from Riau province.

Recently, two hotspots were spotted in the forests in Pesisir Selatan district and two forest fires broke out in Padang city, he said.

The local authority had also extinguished a hotspot in Bung Hatta ptotected park.

In the meantime, the BMG in Pekanbaru city said the number of hotspots in Riau had been increasing by 300 percent.

The NOAA 18 satellite in its latest observation said that the number of hotspots in Riau had inreached from 10 to 34. (*)

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Sri Lanka coral reef fisheries destroyed by organized crime: officials

Submarine Mafia
Lanka Business Online 23 Feb 08;

Feb 23, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka's coastal fisheries and coral reefs are being destroyed by a rapid rise in dynamite blasted 'fishing', with the lucrative practice now exploding into an organized crime involving big money, officials said.

Dyanamite fishing is a destructive way of killing fish by setting off explosives underwater so that the resulting shock waves kill fish in a vast surrounding area.

Dynamite Mafia

Though first started by some fishermen in isolated areas a few decades ago, the practice is now being bank-rolled by a rapidly growing mafia from outside the traditional fisher community.

Traditional fishermen and officials say the 'dynamite mafia' has now perfected a system which they put into practice with assembly line precision.

Underwater photos obtained by LBO from an eyewitness, shows the entire crime sequence in action.

First a small boat goes over a fishing ground unobtrusively dropping primed sticks of dynamite.

Sometime later a second boat comes and drops scuba divers nearby who stealthily start collecting the dead fish in gunny bags.

A boat then comes again to pick up the gunny bags.

Officials say the practice is now spreading beyond the coastal waters.

"In the early days it has been done by the small scale fishermen," Champa Ameresinghe, a marine biologist from the National Aquatic Resources Development Agency (NARA) told ETV's Money Report program.

"Now it is like an organized crime. They do it in the open sea also. For example in the Puttalam area and the Kalpitiya area they even use it on encircling nets when they cannot control the school.

"Only about half the fish is collected."

In the coastal areas especially from Beruwala to Hikkaduwa dynamiting among the coral reefs is now being bank-rolled by businessmen from outside the traditional fisher community.

Dangerous Game

Most fishermen are too scared to speak openly, fearing reprisals from the dynamite mafia. But some are willing to take the risk after seeing their livelihoods being destroyed.

"Around 10 to 12 boats come each day from Weligama, Midigama, and Mirissa and drop dynamite," says W M Gunapala, a traditional fishermen from near Galle.

"After they drop not a fish is left in the whole area. Not a creature comes near the shore then, leave alone fish."

The percussion destroys the internal organs of fish and other marine fauna killing them instantly.

"Everything – fish, other marine animals, fish eggs – is destroyed," says C D Nagahawatte from Sri Lanka's fisheries ministry office in the southern coastal town of Galle.

"It's like a bomb," explains Amerasekera. "All internal organs are damaged."

Coral polyps die in blast sites. Divers say blasted areas could be easily recognized from the dead coral and lifeless barnacles.

Criminal Attraction

There are stiff penalties for dynamite fishing which was outlawed in Sri Lank in 1996.

"Any wrongdoer caught will be fined 100,000 rupees and his goods will be confiscated," says Nagahawatte.

"For a second offence he will be given a jail sentence of up to five years."

But the practice is continuing and gaining ground. The current high price of fish is another magnet for business interests to make a quick buck.

"The price is good and a lot of fish can be caught unlike when using a net to fish," observes Dharmasena Jayasekara, another traditional fisherman from near Galle.

Knowledgeable persons say that a person who helps in a dynamite boat can earn 3,000 rupees a day compared to 500 rupees for a diver or fishing boat. Even inexperienced labourers could now earn more than an experienced fisherman.

Though some fishermen allege that police is turning a blind eye, everyone agrees that law enforcement authorities have a genuine problem to find cash to hire boats and patrol the seas or even act on tip-offs.

Increasingly larger volumes of fish that is now turning up on shop counters and supermarkets are now actually dynamited fish.

Officials say an experienced person can easily identify dynamited fish from the air bladders that have burst and eyes that have come out. Other signs to look out for are bloodshot eyes, and bloodshot areas in the belly of the fish.

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Caribbean Sea one of world's most polluted

Aretha Welch Trinidad&Tobago Express 23 Feb 08;

It is one of the most damaged seas on planet earth. The Caribbean Sea, the second largest in the world, is one of the most polluted seas in the world according to the first ever global study on sea pollution caused by human activity.

Oil spills, over-fishing, pollution from ships and climate change is killing substantial marine life. Oyster and seagrass beds, mangroves, fisheries and coral life are all disappearing; trawlers kill hatchlings by the thousands; birds and whales are struck by ships in what used to be open water but is now playing grounds for wealthy yatchies and oil companies.

The research findings of the global study were published in the February 15 issue of Science magazine.

The study was conducted at the National Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) in Santa Barbara, California.

Other seas said to be suffering the same fate as the Caribbean Sea are the North Sea, the South and East China Sea, the seas along the east coast of North America and the Mediterranean Sea.

Kim Selkoe, a research scientist and co-author of the study working out of Hawaii said over 80 percent of the world's seas are fished and young aquatic life has no where to hide from the nets and harpoons of marine based entrepreneurs.

"The other really surprising thing to me, from what our fishing data showed is that 80 per cent of the world's ocean is fished. There's nowhere left for the fish to hide...fishing boats are just really everywhere," she said.

Locally, the Cropper Foundation, a local non profit organisation which has done and published extensive research on the Caribbean Sea, has shown the clear link between the ecosystem and the economy, demonstrating that while the ecosystem is being destroyed, so too are certain economies.

The shortage of seafood and the depletion of the fisherman's source of income is just one economic side effect of the Caribbean Sea's degradation.

In the project report for the Caribbean Sea Ecosystem Assessment, the foundation found that "despite their significant value to the current and future well being of these (Caribbean) states, the ecosystem goods and services provided by the Caribbean Sea are under threat."

For environmentalist Prof Julien Kenny, pollution is the price to be paid for industrialisation.

"Even with education of the people, half will comply and half will continue to pollute. Pollution is one of those things you expect as countries become more industrialised," Kenny said in a brief interview with the Sunday Express.

"Significantly lessening pollution means changing human behaviour and that's a very hard thing to get done," he added.

Some activists believe the fight to save the earth starts with legislation to govern the countries' coastal areas and for better policing of local waters.

The Cropper Foundation notes that "the Caribbean Sea is used and impacted by many states which lie outside the geographical boundaries ... through leisure, trading and transportation activities," and that despite the formulation of fisheries legislation in all of the islands, "unregulated exploitation of limited fish stocks has continued unabated."

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Kenyan wildlife park bush fire rages for second day

Jack Kimball, Reuters 23 Feb 08;

NAKURU, Kenya (Reuters) - Using branches to beat back flames, Kenyan rangers and residents struggled for a second day on Saturday to control bush fires that have engulfed a third of one of the nation's best-known wildlife parks.

At least 100 local citizens joined wildlife officials to help put out the fire, which was accidentally started in a nearby village and has already destroyed large patches of the 188 square km Lake Nakuru National Park.

"We just heard people screaming from afar and we knew it was about the fire, so we came immediately to put it out," said Dorcas Kafiri, running towards the fire with a branch in hand.

She, like other villagers near to the park, jumped through a fence to come and help.

Hundreds of workers, soldiers and policemen battled the main blaze for 12 hours on Friday, largely containing it. But fresh fires broke out on Saturday morning.

The blaze at one of Kenya's most popular destinations is another hit to the ailing tourism industry, which has seen declining numbers and profits since a post-election crisis that killed more than 1,000 people.

Lake Nakuru park, normally teeming with U.S., European and other tourists driving around in four-wheel-drive vehicles, has been virtually devoid of visitors since the December 27 vote.

When the fire began, grass parched from a recent lack of rain made fertile fuel. A Reuters reporter saw blackened hills with plumes of smoke behind and fringes of flames moving forward.

Most famous for the hordes of flamingos that gather on its lake shore, the park in central Kenya is home to 450 species including white rhinos, giraffes and lions.

"This was definitely an accident. It was not an act of arson," said senior warden Charles Muthui, saying a woman from a nearby village started the fire while burning wood. Winds then quickly carried the blaze into the park.

"Tourists don't want to see fires, they want to see animals," Muthui said at the park entrance.

Despite the fire, baboons wandered unperturbed around other parts of the park, while some groups of gazelles even trotted over the scorched earth. Rhinos lounged next to a creek.

Game wardens said the fire appeared to have largely spared the wildlife, although a reporter saw a charred turtle.

(Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Caroline Drees)

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Encyclopedia of Life to be published online

Jonathan Leake, The Sunday Times 24 Feb 08;

SCIENTISTS are to release the first draft of an Encyclopedia of Life detailing everything known about all living organisms, from the aardvark to the zebu.

When complete the project will detail all 1.8m known plant and animal species. Each will have its own web page in an online archive that will include photographs, genetic information and distribution maps.

This week will see the release of the first 30,000 pages of the project, which will focus on fish, amphibia, large mammals and birds.

It is regarded by the scientists as a triumph but just a small percentage of the likely final total. “This is a great event,” said Lord Robert May, a former president of the Royal Society who is an adviser to the project. “It will help us to sort out all the different species and create a single consistent database.”

Scientists have long dreamt of creating a comprehensive encyclopedia listing all known life, but the volume of data accumulated over 250 years of research left everyone who tried it in despair.

However, the advent of Wikipedia and its revolutionary use of so-called “mash-up” software, to aggregate vast amounts of data from disparate sources, showed researchers how they could achieve their dream. The Natural History Museum (NHM) of London, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington are just three of the many centres pouring data into the encyclopedia. About 2.5m pages of ancient academic journals, drawings and photographs have been scanned into computers ready for publication.

One possibility is that the finished encyclopedia could also include links to video clips taken from television programmes. This weekend the project won the approval of Sir David Attenborough, the maker of programmes such as Life on Earth and the current Life in Cold Blood. “This is a hugely welcome project and long overdue,” he said.

The science of classifying the natural world began with Carl Linnaeus, who published his famous Systema Naturae in 1735. He had promised a classification of every known living thing but by the time he reached his 13th and final edition in 1770 and his original 11 pages had expanded to 3,000, it was still incomplete.

Since then scientists around the world have continued to catalogue and research individual species. But data and specimens were often left buried so deep in academic libraries and archives that they were inaccessible to most researchers.

Graham Higley, head of the NHM’s library and information services, organised the international conference that kick-started the Encyclopedia of Life project. He has been overseeing the scanning and digitisation of millions of pages of scientific records held at the museum.

“Identifying species correctly is critical. Cataloguing species and monitoring concentrations of known species or their appearance in new locations is vital, for example, to monitor the impact of climate change,” he said.

The Encyclopedia of Life is one of a number of initiatives aimed at recording every last detail of life on Earth. All are at least partly driven by the knowledge that many species could soon be sent into extinction by habitat destruction, climate change and exploitation. One scheme is the Frozen Ark project, also based partly at the NHM, which aims to store deep-frozen DNA from endangered animals. Kew Gardens is attempting a similar project to conserve the world’s plants in its millennium seed bank in West Sussex.

"Encyclopedia of Life" Takes Shape: 30,000 Species
Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 26 Feb 08;

OSLO - About 30,000 species of creatures and plants have been listed in a draft "Encyclopedia of Life" that may aid understanding of issues from human ageing to disease, scientists said on Monday.

The free Internet encyclopedia (www.eol.org) aims to eventually list all 1.8 million known species of life in a $100 million, 10-year project begun in 2007.

The first draft, with 25 fully completed entries including text, pictures and video, is due to be launched at a conference in Monterey, California, on Wednesday. A further 30,000 have less detailed information.

"Our major message to the world is 'Here's our first attempt at putting together this encyclopedia, please give us our feedback, your criticisms, your comments'," James Edwards, executive director of the project, told Reuters.

Edward Wilson, a Harvard biologist whose call for a portrait of life in a 2003 speech helped spur creation of the encyclopedia, said: "This thing is taking off like a big booster rocket. ... It is already galvanising research."

The encyclopedia has been dubbed a "macroscope" -- helping to identify big patterns often overseen by scientists working in narrow fields.

Researchers into human ageing, for instance, often study a small range of creatures such as fruit flies or worms in laboratories to try to untangle why organisms age.

"We'd like to look across a group of organisms, a family of flies, for example, for the extremes," said Edwards.

Flies with unusually short or long life cycles could be compared to classic laboratory fruit flies for molecular or genetic clues to ageing. Such information across similar species is not now readily available.


LOW-COST, EFFICIENT

Or a developing country facing an outbreak of a new mosquito-borne disease or an invasion of crop-eating beetles could consult the encyclopedia to uncover breeding and feeding habits of the insects to work out ways to stop them.

"I'd hope that within 12 months we'll start to see papers written that could not have been done without the existence of the Encyclopedia of Life," said Jesse Ausubel, chairman of the project at the Rockefeller University in New York City.

He said scientists might, for instance, study hundreds of thousands of species to test Cope's Rule, which states that creatures tend to get bigger over geological time. Horses are an example -- their ancestors were dog-sized.

"The Encyclopedia of Life allows the low-cost efficient assembly of lots of databases that individual researchers would never be able to get together," he told Reuters.

He likened the current lack of an encyclopedia to trying to study a language without a dictionary. "The very fact of assembling all these species is a revolution," he said.

The project is led by the US Field Museum, Harvard University, Marine Biological Laboratory, Missouri Botanical Garden, Smithsonian Institution, and Biodiversity Heritage Library -- a group that includes London's Natural History Museum, the New York Botanical Garden and the Royal Botanic Garden in Kew, England.

(Editing by Mary Gabriel)

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Forget biofuel, try a car that runs on air

Rhys Blakely in Bombay, The Times 20 Feb 08;

A car that runs on air and releases no pollutants into the atmosphere at low speeds could be on sale in India as soon as this year.

The three-seat fibreglass OneCAT weighs only 350kg (770lb) and is expected to be priced at about £2,500. The engine technology is backed by Tata, the Indian conglomerate that last month unveiled the world’s cheapest car, the £1,250 Nano.

Refuelling involves topping up on compressed air, which is used to power the OneCAT’s piston engine. In a couple of minutes - and at a cost of as little as £1 - the vehicle is ready to travel another 200 to 300 kilometres (125 to 185 miles), its inventors said.

The vehicle, which burns small amounts of conventional fuels at higher speeds, has been developed by Moteur Development International (MDI), a French-based, family owned group that has been working on an “air car” for the past decade. “The engine is efficient, cost-effective, scalable and capable of other applications, like power generation,” a spokesman said.

Vivek Chattopadhyaya, of the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, said: “What counts is how much energy all the processes involved require - from manufacturing the car to compressing the air.”

Mass production moved a step closer last year when MDI agreed a partnership with Tata, under which the companies pledged to refine the technology. The Indian group said that the system may represent “the ultimate environ-ment-friendly engine” and is studying its commercial feasibility.

MDI, whose engine is competing with rival technologies that range from electric vehicles and biofuels to hybrid engines and hydrogen-based fuel cells, has said that its first mass-market model could go on sale this year.

Worldwide sales of “zero emission” cars are languishing in the thousands, but with oil prices running at record levels, energy efficiency has become a watchword across the car industry.

According to MDI, its fleet includes cars that could cover 100 kilometres for about 60p. A full tank of compressed air would last for up to ten hours. A top speed of about 70 miles an hour has been claimed. An oil change should be necessary only every 30,000 miles or more and the air expelled from the engine will be clean and cold and can be used in the air conditioning unit.

Vital statistics

Fuel: Compressed air (some conventional fuel at higher speeds)

Cost of refuelling: about £1

Range: 200km to 300km (a full tank should last up to ten hours)

Servicing: OIl change about every 30,000 miles

Seats: Three

Weight: 350kg

Price: about £2,500

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First biofuel flight touches down

BBC News 24 Feb 08;

The first flight by a commercial airline to be powered partly by biofuel has landed in Amsterdam.

Billed by Virgin Atlantic as a green fuel breakthrough, the firm's flight from Heathrow did not carry passengers.

Earlier this month, Airbus used the world's largest passenger jet, the A380 to flight test another alternative fuel - a synthetic mix of gas-to-liquid.

Many environmentalists argue that cultivating biofuel is not sustainable and will lead to reduced land for food.

Virgin's Boeing 747 had one of its four engines connected to an independent biofuel tank that it said would provide 20% of the engine's power.

This reduced risk to the flight because the three other engines were capable of powering the plane on conventional fuel had there been a problem.

The three-hour Airbus flight from Filton near Bristol to Toulouse on 1 February was part of an ongoing research programme.

'Gimmick'

Virgin's flight used a biofuel derived from a mixture of babassu nuts and coconuts.

The company said the babassu tree, native to Brazil, and the coconuts do not compete with staple food sources and come from existing mature plantations.

Both products are commonly used in cosmetics and household paper products.

One problem with flying planes using biofuel is that it is more likely to freeze at high altitude.

The technology is still being manufactured by companies GE and Boeing, but Virgin believes within 10 years airlines could routinely be flying on plant power.

Kenneth Richter, of Friends of the Earth, said the flight was a "gimmick", distracting from real solutions to climate change.



"If you look at the latest scientific research it clearly shows biofuels do very little to reduce emissions. At the same time we are very concerned about the impact of the large scale increase in biofuel production on the environment and food prices worldwide," he said.

"What we need to do is stop this mad expansion of aviation at the moment it is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gases in the UK and we need to stop subsidising the industry."

But Virgin Atlantic president Sir Richard Branson said the flight was an early step towards greener aviation.

"This pioneering flight will enable those of us who are serious about reducing our carbon emissions to go on developing the fuels of the future, fuels which will power our aircraft in the years ahead through sustainable next-generation oils, such as algae."

Will biofuels power tomorrow's planes?
BBC News 24 Feb 08;

On Sunday, a Virgin Airlines Boeing 747 took off from London's Heathrow Airport en route to Amsterdam. This short flight may prove to be a giant leap forward for the aviation industry.

The aircraft did not carry passengers - but it was the first commercial aircraft to fly partly under the power of biofuels.

One of the aircraft's four engines ran on fuel comprising a 20% biofuel mix of coconut and babassu oil and 80% of the normal Jet A aviation fuel.

Biofuels - principally ethanol and diesel made from plants - are one of the few viable options for replacing the liquid fuels derived from petroleum used in transport, the source of about one quarter of the human race's greenhouse gas emissions.

Existing engines

The airline industry is being increasingly criticised for its perceived part in global warming, as more and more people take advantage of cheap tickets on aircraft powered by kerosene. Environmentalists claim it is a major carbon producer, fuelling rising world temperatures.

Airlines and aircraft designers have been feeling the heat. Plane-makers Boeing and aircraft engine manufacturers General Electric have been working with Virgin to cut down their flights' carbon footprints.

What is exciting the aviation industry is the fact the aircraft is completely unchanged, using the same engines as any scheduled, passenger-carrying flight. Only the fuel is different.

The flight follows a journey made by an Airbus A380 earlier this month using another alternative fuel - a synthetic mix of gas-to-liquid - in one of its four engines.

It flew from Filton in the UK to Toulouse in France, a journey of some 900km (560 miles), and was in partnership with Rolls-Royce and Shell.

Air New Zealand is also working with Boeing and Rolls-Royce to mount a test flight powered partly by biofuels later this year.

These are the first tentative steps in breaking the aviation industry's reliance on kerosene. But it is likely to be decades before aircraft are able to take to the skies powered entirely by something other than fossil fuels.

One industry analyst told the BBC News website there were several problems to overcome.

Jet A fuel, one of the standard aviation fuels, has a stable energy content and a low freeze point - meaning it is suited to the very low temperatures encountered by high-flying aircraft.

Biofuels cannot be relied upon to operate as reliably in the same temperatures.

Jet A fuel also burns consistently, which means it provides a reliable and safe fuel source for long flights.

Environmental drawbacks

Airlines also want a biofuel which can be burnt in existing engines - rather than having to replace every engine in their fleets.

There are other issues surrounding biofuels. There are concerns widespread planting and use of biofuel crops could threaten natural ecosystems and raise food prices. It could also mean the deforestation of rainforests, which absorb massive amounts of carbon.

Virgin remained tight-lipped about where its biofuel comes from until the day of the flight but said it would be a "truly sustainable type of biofuel that doesn't compete with food and fresh water resources".

Some environmentalists are sceptical. They believe the secret to cutting down aviation's share of the carbon is cutting the amount of flights we take.

Kenneth Richter, Friends of the Earth aviation campaigner, said: "Biofuels are a major distraction in the fight against climate change. There is mounting evidence that the carbon savings from biofuels are negligible.



"If Virgin was really serious about reducing the aviation industry's impact on the environment it would support calls for aircraft emissions to be included in the Climate Change Bill."

Green Party councillor and former chemist Andrew Boswell said: "Richard Branson is making a huge mistake backing biofuels.

"It means a huge amount of fuel we've got to produce."

Mr Boswell, who campaigns for the lobby group Biofuel Watch, said it was unsustainable to try and replace transport's share of fossil fuel consumption with biofuels - there is simply not enough arable land to grow fuel crops and food.

Sunday's flight may herald a new direction in aviation. But any massive change in the way we power our planes is unlikely, analysts say, to be just around the corner.

Amazon nuts help fuel first biofuel flight
Nigel Hunt, Reuters 24 Feb 08;

LONDON (Reuters) - Nuts picked from Amazon rainforests helped fuel the world's first commercial airline flight partly powered by renewable energy on Sunday.

A Virgin Atlantic jumbo jet flew from London to Amsterdam with one of its fuel tanks filled with a bio-jet blend including babassu oil and coconut oil. A Virgin Atlantic statement said the biofuel mix provided 25 percent of the fuel for the test flight.

The biofuels blend on the Virgin flight contained 20 percent neat biofuel and 80 percent conventional jet fuel. Virgin founder Richard Branson said tests had shown it was possible to fly with a 40 percent blend.

"Today marks a vital breakthrough for the whole airline industry," Branson told reporters in a hangar at Heathrow airport prior to the flight's departure.

Environmental lobby group Friends of the Earth said biofuels were a distraction in the fight to cut carbon dioxide emissions, and that related carbon savings would be negated by increased airline travel.

British billionaire Branson said it was unlikely the nut of the wild growing babassu palm would play a key role as airlines turn to renewable fuel sources to cut the industry's greenhouse gas emissions.

"We did not want to use biofuels such as corn oil which were competing with staple food sources," he said, adding he believed algae produced in places like sewage treatment farms were the most likely future source of renewable fuel for the airline industry.

Biofuels, which are currently mainly produced from crops such as grain, vegetable oils and sugar, are seen by advocates as a way to cut emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

There has been concern, however, that an expansion in the area of crops grown for energy has helped drive up food prices, and some scientists have questioned the environmental benefits of so-called first generation biofuels.

Friends of the Earth said in a statement: "There is mounting evidence the carbon savings from these crop-based fuels will be small at best."

"Even if every plane leaving the UK was able to run on biofuels from tomorrow, any carbon savings would be wiped out in less than 10 years by the rapid growth of the aviation industry."

Many scientists believe so-called second generation biofuels, which could be made from products such as municipal waste, will provide more substantial environmental benefits without competing with food crops for land.

Branson, whose Virgin Group business spans an airline, a rail service, drinks, hotels and leisure, has committed to spending all the profits from his airline and rail business to combat global warming by cutting carbon emissions.

Last year, Virgin started to power some of its trains using a fuel containing 20 percent biodiesel produced mainly using British rapeseed oil blended with U.S. soybean oil and palm oil from the Far East.

(Additional reporting by John Joseph; Editing by Caroline Drees)

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More snow, blizzards to hit central China

Reuters 24 Feb 08;

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has forecast heavy snow and blizzards across its industrial and agricultural heartland over the next three days, even as the country struggles to recover from its worst winter weather in 50 years.

Unseasonably cold weather and ice storms across central and southern China in January and earlier this month killed at least 129 people, caused transport chaos and cut off power and water for millions.

Authorities are still battling to repair power lines and ensure food supplies after severe weather damaged millions of hectares of crops and killed more than 70 million animals.

Snow and sleet would hit six provinces spanning China's central, eastern and northern regions, including Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hubei, Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu, the National Meteorological Centre said on its Web site (www.nmc.gov.cn) on Sunday.

Blizzards were also expected in the northwestern part of central Hubei province, already plagued by winter storms earlier this month.

The Centre advised local governments and power, transport and communication authorities to prepare emergency relief work.

"Strengthen inspections and checks on roads, railway lines and power lines," the notice said.

The forecasts come as more than 1.66 million people displaced by the winter freeze remain in temporary shelters, Xinhua news agency reported.

The cold, which has driven up food prices and contributed further to a surge in annual inflation to an 11-year high of 7.1 percent in January, had caused 151 billion yuan ($21 billion) in economic losses, Xinhua said, citing China's Ministry of Civil Affairs.

In northern China, however, largely unaffected by winter snows, a prolonged drought has damaged about 11 million hectares of arable land, including 317,000 hectares of cropland, Xinhua said.

Winter rainfall in parts of central north, northeast and northwest China was between 20 to 70 percent of average falls, affecting drinking supplies for 2.43 million people and 1.89 million head of livestock, the agency said, citing the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

($1=7.141 yuan)

(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Jerry Norton)

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Antarctic glaciers surge to ocean

Martin Redfern, Rothera Research Station, Antarctica, BBC News 24 Feb 08;

UK scientists working in Antarctica have found some of the clearest evidence yet of instabilities in the ice of part of West Antarctica.

If the trend continues, they say, it could lead to a significant rise in global sea level.

The new evidence comes from a group of glaciers covering an area the size of Texas, in a remote and seldom visited part of West Antarctica.

The "rivers of ice" have surged sharply in speed towards the ocean.

David Vaughan, of the British Antarctic Survey, explained: "It has been called the weak underbelly of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, and the reason for that is that this is the area where the bed beneath the ice sheet dips down steepest towards the interior.

"If there is a feedback mechanism to make the ice sheet unstable, it will be most unstable in this region."

There is good reason to be concerned.

Satellite measurements have shown that three huge glaciers here have been speeding up for more than a decade.

The biggest of the glaciers, the Pine Island Glacier, is causing the most concern.

Inhospitable conditions

Julian Scott has just returned from there. He told the BBC: "This is a very important glacier; it's putting more ice into the sea than any other glacier in Antarctica.

"It's a couple of kilometres thick, its 30km wide and it's moving at 3.5km per year, so it's putting a lot of ice into the ocean."

It is a very remote and inhospitable region. It was visited briefly in 1961 by American scientists but no one had returned until this season when Julian Scott and Rob Bingham and colleagues from the British Antarctic survey spent 97 days camping on the flat, white ice.

At times, the temperature got down to minus 30C and strong winds made work impossible.

At one point, the scientists were confined to their tent continuously for eight days.

"The wind really makes the way you feel incredibly colder, so just motivating yourself to go out in the wind is a really big deal," Rob Bingham told BBC News.

When the weather improved, the researchers spent most of their time driving skidoos across the flat, featureless ice.

"We drove skidoos over it for something like 2,500km each and we didn't see a single piece of topography."

Long drag

Rob Bingham was towing a radar on a 100m-long line and detecting reflections from within the ice using a receiver another 100m behind that.

The signals are revealing ancient flow lines in the ice. The hope is to reconstruct how it moved in the past.

Julian Scott was performing seismic studies, using pressurised hot water to drill holes 20m or so into the ice and place explosive charges in them. He used arrays of geophones strung out across the ice to detect reflections, looking, among other things, for signs of soft sediments beneath the ice that might be lubricating its flow.

He also placed recorders linked to the global positioning system (GPS) satellites on the ice to track the glacier's motion, recording its position every 10 seconds.

Throughout the 1990s, according to satellite measurements, the glacier was accelerating by around 1% a year. Julian Scott's sensational finding this season is that it now seems to have accelerated by 7% in a single season, sending more and more ice into the ocean.

"The measurements from last season seem to show an incredible acceleration, a rate of up to 7%. That is far greater than the accelerations they were getting excited about in the 1990s."

The reason does not seem to be warming in the surrounding air.

One possible culprit could be a deep ocean current that is channelled onto the continental shelf close to the mouth of the glacier. There is not much sea ice to protect it from the warm water, which seems to be undercutting the ice and lubricating its flow.

Ongoing monitoring

Julian Scott, however, thinks there may be other forces at work as well.

Much higher up the course of the glacier there is evidence of a volcano that erupted through the ice about 2,000 years ago and the whole region could be volcanically active, releasing geothermal heat to melt the base of the ice and help its slide towards the sea.

David Vaughan believes that the risk of a major collapse of this section of the West Antarctic ice sheet should be taken seriously.

"There has been the expectation that this could be a vulnerable area," he said.

"Now we have the data to show that this is the area that is changing. So the two things coinciding are actually quite worrying."

The big question now is whether what has been recorded is an exceptional surge or whether it heralds a major collapse of the ice. Julian Scott hopes to find out.

"It is extraordinary and we've left a GPS there over winter to see if it is going to continue this trend."

If the glacier does continue to surge and discharge most of it ice into the sea, say the researchers, the Pine Island Glacier alone could raise global sea level by 25cm.

That might take decades or a century, but neighbouring glaciers are accelerating too and if the entire region were to lose its ice, the sea would rise by 1.5m worldwide.

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Best of our wild blogs: 24 Feb 08

Dusky Leaf Monkey spotted
on the wonderful creations blog

Fish in Troubled Waters
The Labrador Angels are back on the beach, and on Mr Lim's case on the labrador blog

Training for Semakau walks
guides have a fun training session on the wonderful creations blog and discovery blog and tidechaser blog

Flower picking
by a heron! on the urban forest blog

Nesting of Spotted Dove
on the bird ecology blog

Coastal Erosion Management: Ubin style
don't try this at home, on the pulau ubin stories blog

IYOR talk at NIE: Getting Wild about Singapore's shores
on the NIE Green Club blog

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Riau fires may bring back haze to Singapore

Salim Osman, Straits Times 24 Feb 08;

JAKARTA - PARTS of Riau province in Sumatra were blanketed with choking smoke from land-clearing fires yesterday, and officials here warned that the haze could be headed for Singapore.

In some parts of the province, visibility was reduced to just 20m yesterday.

Thousands of face masks were distributed to residents in Dumai and Pekanbaru, the provincial capital.

Riau Governor Rusli Zainal said yesterday that the fires, which started about four days ago, were raging furiously in areas near Dumai and Bengkalis.

'Our firefighting teams just can't cope with the kind of equipment they have,' he told the Riau Pos daily.

Yesterday, fires in the village of Pelintung near Dumai forced villagers to flee for safety.

Earlier, a team of firefighters had to retreat in the face of an inferno, also near Dumai.

In addition to firemen, two helicopters have been dispatched to Riau to help douse the flames by using water bombs.

The authorities are also turning to cloud-seeding to induce rain over the parched areas.

Officials and environmentalists here agreed that unless the fires were put out soon, the haze could spread farther, to Malaysia and Singapore.

Forestry Ministry spokesman Fauzi Masyhud told The Sunday Times that the fires and the resulting smoke were the result of people taking advantage of the early onset of the dry season to clear their land.

'This is not yet the dry season, which usually occurs in July,' he said.

Environmentalist Rully Syumanda of Walhi Indonesia estimated that some 2,000ha - almost the size of 2,000 football fields - were up in smoke in Riau province.

He blamed the fires on farmers and plantation owners who go for the easy method of land-clearing by setting fire to vegetation.

'The government has said it has implemented a plan to encourage local farmers to use other methods of land-clearing instead of the destructive slash-

and-burn techniques, but we don't see this being carried out on the ground,' he told The Sunday Times.

He added that although nine suspected fire-starters were arrested last week, 'law enforcement is still lacking because the authorities are not taking action against the plantation owners for fear of scaring away investors'.

'If no rain falls in the next few days and, depending on the wind direction, Malaysia and Singapore should brace themselves for the haze,' he said.

Singapore's National Environment Agency said yesterday that drier weather conditions in the past two weeks have resulted in more dust particles in the air, leading to slightly elevated Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) levels of 51 to 54 in recent days. A reading of 51 to 100 is considered moderate.

The 24-hour PSI at 4pm yesterday was 52.

Although some hot spots have been detected in Riau - 100 last Thursday and 50 last Friday - the prevailing north-easterly monsoon winds have kept the haze away from Singapore.

The north-east monsoon season is expected to last till late next month. Even so, there would be occasions during this period when wind directions could change.

WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY TAN DAWN WEI

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Fires raze tens of hectares of forest, peat land in Jambi
Antara 22 Feb 08;

Singapore not affected by forest fires in Sumatra
Channel NewsAsia 21 Feb 08;

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Green buildings in Singapore: If they could, they'd throw out the air-con

Tan Hui Yee, Straits Times 24 Feb 08;

In this new series on leaders in building design, the founding directors of award-winning Woha Architects reveal their passion - designing energy-efficient buildings suited to the climate - as well as peeve, the demolition of buildings worth conserving

LAST year, Woha picked up the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture for its residential tower, 1 Moulmein Rise. A key feature of the project was its 'monsoon windows' - bay windows with a special horizontal opening that lets the breeze in but keeps the rain out.

Recently, Woha won a silver award from global skyscraper database provider Emporis for its private residential project Newton Suites. This 36-storey tower, which is playfully described as a 'furry caterpillar', features overhanging meshes that shelter every window from the tropical sun, and side walls covered with foliage.

Q What sets you apart from other firms?

A Mr Richard Hassell, 41: We study a client's requirements, the economy, the construction industry and other factors, and come up with a strategy that incorporates all these.

We manage to make everyone happy rather than be very single-minded about pushing something. We think we can do very good design without being a prima donna.

Mr Wong Mun Summ, 45: We also tend to give our clients something more than what they envisage.

Q The one innovation that you are most known for is the monsoon window. Was that something you offered to your client over and above his requirements?

A Hassell: Yes. We knew developers wanted bay windows but bay windows are terribly unsuitable for this climate. Rather than being nicely shaded and under an overhang, bay windows stick out so they gather lots of heat.

Wong: Bay windows are floor areas that developers can sell but which they are not charged for, so they welcome them. We embraced the idea of maximising the saleable area for the developer but in a way that would make the facade interesting.

Hassell: Also, we turned something that's a bit of an environmental disaster into an environmental asset.

Q If there is one thing you could take away from high-rise apartments in Singapore as they are now, what would that be?

A Hassell: The aspect that they are not being designed for the climate. There are a lot of glassy boxes with no overhangs, and apartments that rely totally on air-conditioning for comfort.

I think Housing Board flats are at least designed with the idea that they can be used without air-conditioning. But that is not the case for the private-sector ones.

Wong: Even HDB flats are not really designed to maximise natural ventilation.

Flats built by the HDB's predecessor, the Singapore Improvement Trust, had timber louvre windows that went all the way to the floor. That actually helps with natural ventilation. We don't see that anymore.

Hassell: But I think it's something that will change because there's now such interest in sustainable design. It means that an apartment in Singapore should be designed very differently from one in Australia, for instance, because the two countries have completely different climates.

This refocusing on climate and low energy usage actually means the world should become a more differentiated place, that a tropical city would look completely different from a temperate city. And that's actually a good thing.

Q What would you like to see more of?

A Hassell: I'm a bit wary of saying that things should go in a certain direction. It's healthiest that things are going in many different directions and you're always surprised and delighted to find something different.

Wong: We would like to see buildings last longer. Recently, there have been many collective sales that led to buildings being torn down. We personally think it is very wasteful. Buildings were designed to last 100 to 200 years.

Hassell: The buildings being torn down are actually some of the best buildings in their generation. There are many bad buildings in Singapore you could pull down if you needed more space.

Q How do you decide what is good or bad?

A Wong: Most good buildings have won some award along the way. The Golden Mile Complex is one building I hope I will never see torn down. It's unique in the world. The People's Park Complex was a really innovative shopping centre in its heyday. It was designed to be naturally ventilated - it's such a pity it's now air-conditioned.

Hassell: Conservation is a sensitive issue because people tend to make a lot of money from collective sales.

Wong: There's such a thing as transferring plot ratio. This is used as a device for conservation in other countries. Maybe that's something we should think about.

Hassell: In return for conserving your building and freezing your development at one level, you can sell your excess development potential to your next-door neighbour, so the average density of built-up space in the area would remain the same.

And once you take that financial sting out of conservation and you conserve, say, a place like Golden Mile, you will find that all sorts of people who love design will move into it.

But it does need public support. If you want to attract people to this city, you need excellent buildings from all eras - from the 1970s and 1980s.

Q Are there any global trends in architecture that you are exploring?

A Sustainability has been a hot topic in architecture for quite a long time. What's interesting now that a lot of countries are legislating for sustainability, is that there are a lot more products and equipment allowing you to create much more energy-efficient buildings.

A building, really, is the interface between you and the climate. The availability of cheap energy since the 1970s fuel crisis put people to sleep on the whole issue of trying to design for the climate.

In design school, we learnt about overhangs, cross-ventilation and insulation, but it was as if people suddenly got amnesia because you could just crank up your air-conditioner.

It was exciting that you could do amazing glass boxes - very exaggerated solutions to problems - but the iconic buildings that have no regard for the climate have had their day. It's no longer acceptable to just make an interesting lump and stuff real estate inside it.

Q What's next for Woha?

A Hassell: We hope we are in a virtuous circle where, as we do projects well, we get offered more interesting and exciting projects and more chances to be creative and innovative.

Wong: I'm personally very excited about the direction in which Singapore is moving, and I think Singapore has the potential to become one of the best cities in the world.

We still have a long way to go but we are quite happy to be a part of it. Maybe 100 and 200 years from now, Singapore will be talked about in the same way people talk about Paris and New York...as long as we don't tear the good buildings down.

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