Sick turtles, sick people?

Carol Matroo, Trinidad and Tobago Newsday 20 Apr 08;

A green turtle (Chelonia Mydas) that was found last week and diagnosed with cancerous tumours has raised a red flag of concern for the doctors at the School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM).

While being very cautious with claiming the possible implications of the tumors, the doctors are advising that the tumours may be indicative of the increasing pollution of the environment and may signal a threat to the turtles, and, perhaps ultimately, to human beings.

“We don’t want to be alarmists,” says Professor John Cooper of the SVM. “We are conservationists, but we want to do it in a scientific way. I am not saying this sign on one turtle is a major problem, but we would be foolish not to take notice of it. It’s a bit like smoking and lung cancer 40 years ago. We knew there was a link, but we weren’t really sure. Now we understand it absolutely,” Cooper said.

Cooper said there was no evidence right now that the disease could be transferred to human beings. “We think it’s unlikely. This is almost certainly a turtle cancer, but in this day and age of AIDS and malnourishment, you never know...We just have to assume there is the very, very slight possibility, but I think it is very slight,” he said.

Green turtles are found throughout the world, especially in the tropical and sub-tropical seas, with two distinct populations in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. These reptiles, which are considered a delicacy by some, are green because of the fat underneath their shells. It is illegal in most countries to collect, harm or kill these turtles.

Many countries have implemented various laws and ordinances to protect individual turtles and turtle nesting areas. However, the turtle population is still in danger as, in some countries, turtles are still hunted for their flesh and eggs. Pollution indirectly harms the turtles, and many die as a result of being caught in fishermen’s nets where they drown. Now the turtles face a renewed danger from the wart-like cancer known as fibropapillomatosis (FP) which has resurfaced some 70 years since first being reported in the world. The case in Trinidad involves a diseased turtle found at Chaguaramas last month. The turtle is about 30 years old and is said to be the first recorded case of the disease in this country. FP has also been found in Malaysia, the Far East and the United States.

Speaking about the local turtle Prof Cooper said, “When the turtle was found it was obvious it was dying. It was brought to us at Mt Hope. FP is an unpleasant disease, and it does look like warts, but instead of being just simple warts like we might get or cattle might get, these are wart-like tumours, actual cancer.”

He said the cancer is contagious and spreads from one turtle to another and even if a turtle looked fine on the outside, it could be infected on the inside. “It is a malignant tumor that spreads from one place to another. It is a painful disease because the external ones can cause pressure on the eyes so the turtles can’t see properly, on the flippers, on the muscles so the turtle can’t swim properly, so it is a little bit like a rowing boat going around in circles.

“This is a spectacular disease. It’s very distressing for the turtle because it can’t see properly and if the cancer gets inside then it starts to destroy the liver, lungs... it’s like a human cancer. The animal was so thin and filled with fluid inside...it will not die directly of the cancer, but of the weakness.

“They can easily get caught up in fishermen’s nets, or they get killed by someone. It makes them very, very vulnerable to the ocean. We know it’s caused by a virus and the recent thinking is that it has probably been around for millions of years; turtles have been around for 150 million years,” the vet said.

Cooper said it was believed that there had been a good balance between the virus and the turtles, but in recent years, the resistance of the turtles had decreased. He added that there was some indication that more turtles were getting this disease because of pollution of the sea which compromised their immune system.

“If you put on a map of the world everywhere this disease has been reported, a vast majority of them is where there is effluent going out into the sea. You’ll find them along the coast of Florida, California, West Africa, the Far East and places that are close to new developments and factories.” Cooper said more people needed to know and understand this disease because it could be an early warning system.

“We can say it is the chemicals, but as a scientist I have to say that there are more people in those areas, so perhaps the turtles are more frequently spotted, but there has been research work on captive turtles spreading the virus and it has shown that the turtles had been debilitated because they had been exposed to chemicals. We know there have been cases in the Caribbean, but there are no records of them being in Trinidad waters. To be honest, it probably has been here, but people probably haven’t noticed,” he said.

The professor said unlike the leatherback turtles, not much research has been done on the green turtles, which was why the School of Veterinary Medicine was so interested in the latest case.

“This disease has drawn our attention to the fact that we should be monitoring all the turtles on our beaches, not only the leatherback because they are so spectacular,” Cooper said. He said it was found that while other species of turtles could get FP, this did not include the leatherback turtles, which were thought to be possibly resistant to the disease.

“Even that’s important because if the leatherback is resistant, why is it resistant? It could be that it’s got something in its blood or that it’s got immune cells to protect it. By doing our studies we may not only be able to find out why the disease is so bad in the green turtles, but also why the leatherback, which is related, is resistant,” Cooper said.

He said while they were only looking at this one turtle, it nevertheless might be an indicator of pollution here or it might be showing something about the other side of the Atlantic or Africa. “Who knows? We don’t even know where this turtle came from. The way we see it is that the disease has only just resurfaced after 70 years or people are now beginning to notice it.

“What was happening 70 years ago? Industrialization was going on, the Second World War happened, there were ships out in the sea, oil discoveries...We could say, and there is no proof, that this disease is associated with our seas getting more and more polluted, so there may be chemicals in the seas now that are making the turtles less able to resist the virus, and thus easier for the virus to spread,” Cooper said.

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Catching corals' spectacular moment

Andrew Luck-Baker, BBC Radio 4 20 Apr 08

The coral reefs in the tropical western Pacific are at the brink of one of the most spectacular and significant nights in their annual life cycle.

By the light of April's full moon on Sunday or, quite likely a night or two after, corals will be mating en masse.

Along the length of the island archipelago that makes up the Republic of Palau, millions of coral colonies will simultaneously release billion upon billion of eggs and sperm into the dark waters.

An hour or so after sunset, each spawning coral will discharge showers of sex cells, packaged in orange and pink blobs.

They will rise to the surface in such huge numbers that they may form oily slicks metres long.

If the sea conditions are right, spawn slicks can coalesce to be large enough to be visible from space.

Depressing need

Once on the surface, the packages burst open, liberating eggs and sperm for fertilisation.

Countless free-swimming coral larvae then develop and three or four days later, a few will have survived long enough to make it to the sea bed.

There they attach to a suitable hard surface and develop into single baby coral polyps. The next generation of corals on the reefs will be launched.

A team of marine biologists from Australia, Britain and the Philippines has come to Palau to take advantage of this wonder of nature in the cause of coral reef restoration.

The scientists are here to investigate the potential of an experimental technique known as coral seeding - in other words, collecting some of the spawn from mass mating events and using it to promote the growth of new corals on reefs in need of rescue.

The reefs around Palau are in good shape but elsewhere throughout the tropical world, many coral ecosystems are in a parlous state.

Plenty spare

Pollution, over-fishing and coral bleaching events, which are caused by marine heat waves, have reduced the amount of coral to the point where these naturally bio-diverse habitats are at varying degrees of degradation.

Many are nearing ecological collapse - some have gone forever, already.

However, many reefs might be salvageable if they are first protected from pollution and overexploitation, and then are seeded with some surplus spawn from more vibrant reefs.

Most of the eggs and larvae from a mass spawning event are eaten or die before they get an anchor hold on the sea bed, so there is plenty of spawn to share around.

In the coming experiment on Palau, the scientists will not be using coral spawn produced on the open reefs.

Partly for practical reasons, they will harvest their spawn under more controllable conditions at the laboratory of the Palau International Coral Reef Center.

In the lab

On Saturday, I joined them on a trip to collect 10 dinner-plate-sized coral colonies from Luke's reef about 20 minutes speed-boat-ride from the Reef Center.

James Guest, from the University of Newcastle, UK, and Maria Vanessa Baria from the University of the Philippines dived to the sea bed, armed with hammers and chisels.

They were after a particular species of branching coral which forms large tables or shelves as it grows. It is this type which is one of the most abundant and most important reef builders.

It takes a few taps at the stony stalk base of each colony to break them free. Waiting on the boat to receive the corals was Andrew Heyward of the Australian Institute for Marine Science - one of the first biologists to describe the phenomenon of coral mass spawning in the 1980s.

The colonies were put straight into tubs of sea water, and once the tenth was on board, we headed back at a high rate of knots to the Reef Center.

Back at the Center, the coral were transferred with speed to larger tanks, filled with constantly refreshed seawater.

Setting up home

Now there's a lull before the spawn. The main event could happen Sunday or Monday or Tuesday night (Palau time). And some species will synchronously spawn the day after others.

When the captive corals in the lab release their eggs and sperm, the contained spawn will be transferred to children's paddling pools floating in the sea next to the lab.

Over the following few days, the researchers will check the developing larvae to see how many are mature enough to settle down and become fixed baby coral polyps.

When sufficient numbers are good to go, the team will take the batch of larvae back to the reef and pump them over areas of potential colonisation.

The new homes for the larvae are artificial reef balls placed there specially for the purpose. They are domes of limestone concrete about a one metre wide and high.

Before the larva can be introduced, the reef balls will have to be covered so the larvae don't just float away.

Big question

So the team will dive the five metres to the sea bed and erect two-man camping tents made of fine mesh over each artificial reef structure.

The baby corals will travel from the boat through the zipped door of the tent via a hose pipe. Andrew Heyward says the aim of this experiment is to be "low tech or no tech".

He feels this approach is vital if the technique of coral seeding is ever to be used on any scale in developing countries.

Twenty-four-hours later, the team will check to see how many of their "seeds" have settled by removing small tiles they've placed on the reef balls. They will do that again in a few months and after a year.

Each time they will compare the number of young corals with those on tiles from control balls which would have been settled by larvae born in the mass spawning on the reef.

Andrew Heyward points out that loading the dice in the larvae's favour before they settle is only part of the issue over whether coral seeding will work to restore reefs.

"If you boost the number of larval corals settling on a coral reef, so what? Does it make any difference to the longer term compared to an area where you did nothing?"

The answer will emerge in the next 12 months following this week's frenzy of mass reproduction on the reefs of Palau.

Andrew Luck-Baker is preparing a Frontiers programme to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Monday 26 May

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Youths mobilise in name of tradition to rescue Cyprus donkeys

Haro Chakmakjian, Yahoo News 20 Apr 08;

It's the butt of jokes and the source of choice curses, but the donkey is an integral part of Mediterranean culture, and friends on Cyprus are working to protect one of the world's last wild colonies from extinction.

Using a Facebook group and email, hundreds of young Turkish Cypriots and a handful of Greek Cypriots have mobilised to "Save the Cyprus Donkey" after 10 of the rare brown animals were found shot dead at the end of March.

"The enemy of nature is the enemy of humans," read a banner unfurled by a small group of demonstrators at a sandy beach near Rizokarpaso village on the panhandle of Cyprus that has for decades been a donkey sanctuary.

Deniz Direkci, a 20-year-old primary school employee who addressed the rally, said the main suspects in the unsolved donkey deaths were farmers angered by crop damage.

But fingers have also been pointed at hunters and developers eager to exploit the Karpas peninsula, one of the last unspoilt parts of a holiday island where construction is booming on both sides of a UN-patrolled Green Line.

The phenomenon is mirrored on the northwest coast's Akamas peninsula, where plans for a national park are under threat and farmers have shot a number of moufflons, a protected wild sheep.

As a small group of donkeys kept their distance on a hillside above the dunes, Aysun Yucel, a 19-year-old law student from north Nicosia, was saddened and baffled by the killings.

"It's so cruel ... We used to come here for summer vacations and you would hear the donkeys passing by your bungalow as you sleep. Now it's sad: that doesn't happen any more."

Begun Gulderem, 20, a Turk who has lived in Cyprus for the past decade, works for a construction firm.

"We don't know why they are killing donkeys, or why people are burning forests ... I want to know the truth," she said.

Ironically, the Karpas donkey colony is a legacy of the 1974 Turkish invasion of the island's northern third.

The vast majority of the area's Greek Cypriot farmers fled south during the fighting, abandoning their animals.

And as agriculture declined amid the growing urbanisation, the "liberated" donkeys were replaced by tractors, pickups and SUVs.

A 2003 study found that about 800 donkeys were roaming the olive orchards and wheat fields, and along the beaches of the rugged Karpas landscape.

As some 15 vehicles with peaceful eco-warriors formed a funeral procession to drive 50 kilometres (30 miles) to the site of the demonstration, farmers on tractors looked on bemused and little girls along the roadside sold posies of wild flowers to the mourners.

Police were out in force, preventing non-Turkish Cypriots from playing any vocal part in the rally.

-- 'We are losing our culture, our nature. It's time to wake up!' --

Writer and poet Jenan Selchuk explained over lunch in a Rizokarpaso taverna that it was not just about donkeys, it was about preserving traditions and a way of life.

"They are bringing big electricity lines to the area, over which we have also held protests. They have development plans for luxury villas rather than any national park idea. As for the donkeys, they are seen as an obstacle to progress," he said.

Antique dealer Tanju Nasir said the authorities were short-sighted in failing to protect the donkey "which is a symbol of the island ... and a tourism draw," even as the local mayor tried to assure the environmentalists that every measure was being taken to find the killers.

The "eshek" (Turkish for donkey) draws both affection and ridicule from locals and foreigners alike in the as-yet unspoilt Karpas.

Before the advent of money-spinning tourism and potato exports, the donkeys and mules of Cyprus were renowned throughout the Middle East for their size, strength and endurance.

They were also valuable to the island's British colonial masters during both world wars.

Cyprus donkeys were exported throughout the region for cross-breeding with horses to produce a mighty strain of mule. According to the 1931 Handbook of Cyprus, "the Cyprus donkeys are of good quality being able to carry a load from 168 pounds (75 kilos) to 224 pounds and over."

Only half in jest, Tony Angastiniotis, a Greek documentary film-maker, says an intercommunal effort to preserve an ancient way of life could even help resolve the island's decades-old division.

"Maybe the donkeys will be the way to peace. They are the only true Cypriots anyway," he said.

Ediz Ismail-Eddie, a Turkish Cypriot living in Australia, joins in a lively debate on Facebook.

"This is murder, all Cypriots should do something about this problem, Greek/Turkish, it doesn't matter. We should protect this island together. We are losing our culture, our nature. It's time to wake up!"

Iraqi poet and philosopher Raad Abdul Jawad also bemoans the fate of donkeys abandoned to their fate along the Turkish-Iraqi border and in mountains between Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.

He warns they are growing "rarer and rarer", having been overtaken by modern life.

Yet "the donkey held the fundamental key to building civilisation, carrying water and food, and construction materials, whereas the horse was used for killing," he says.

Often referred to jokingly as "the sheikh of donkeys," Abdul Jawad aims to raise funds to build a regional organisation to protect the species. The idea would be to build on the success of an association in Egypt and groups such as the Donkey Party in Iraqi Kurdistan.

"But it will not be easy; too many people laugh at the idea," he conceded.

Read more!

Captive tigers 'may save species'

BBC News 20 Apr 08;

Many tigers held in captivity have "pure-bred ancestry" and could play a key role in the survival of diminishing wild populations, a study suggests.

A team using a new method for assessing the genetic ancestry of tigers found that a number of "generic" animals were actually pure-bred subspecies.

Writing in Current Biology, they added that these tigers also had genomic diversity no longer found in the wild.

Current estimates suggest that only about 3,000 tigers remain in the wild.

In contrast, the international team of researchers noted, the global population of captive tigers numbered between 15,000 to 20,000.

But they highlighted that only about 1,000 of these were managed within co-ordinated breeding programmes that aimed to preserve the animals' genetic variability.

They wrote: "As of 2007, there are approximately 421 Amur, 295 Sumatran, 72 South China, 198 Bengal, 14 Indochinese and 113 Malayan tigers in captivity as recorded in regional and international zoo studbooks.

"Debates persist over the role of captive tigers in conservation efforts, whether managed captive populations serve as adequate genetic reservoirs for the natural populations, and whether the generic tigers have conservation value," they observed.

"The most direct way to address the dilemma is through a thorough understanding of the genetic ancestry... and the level of genetic diversity of captive tigers relative to wild populations."

Conservation boost

By analysing 20 years' worth of DNA samples from 105 captive tigers, and using data from tigers with known ancestry as a reference, the team was able to identify genetic patterns that would suggest a match with one of the pure-bred subspecies.



"Assessment of 'verified subspecies ancestry' (VSA) offers a powerful tool," explained co-author Dr Shu-Jin Luo, from the US National Cancer Institute.

"If applied to tigers of uncertain background, it may considerably increase the number of pure-bred tigers suitable for conservation management," she added.

Of the 105 animals studied, the researchers identified 49 individuals that belonged to one of the pure-bred subspecies.

However, they suspected that the study overestimated the proportion of pure-breds in the captive population because 43 of the tigers tested were already enrolled in established breeding programmes.

But they added that 14 of the 62 un-enrolled animals were deemed VSA: "If [up to 23%] of the 15,000 existing captive tigers would prove to be VSA, the number of tigers with pure subspecies heritage available for conservation would considerably increase.

"Also, an important fraction of captive tigers retain genetic diversity unreported, and perhaps absent, in the wild populations.

The team concluded that their findings suggested that a comprehensive programme to identify captive VSA tigers could help secure the long-term survival of the wild population.

"Their potential for inclusion into comprehensive, integrated in-situ and ex-situ management plans could significantly increase population sizes and help maintain genetic variability and population viability of this iconoclastic species."

Captive Tigers Harbor Rare "Purebred" Genes
Susan Brown, National Geographic News 18 Apr 08;

Nearly half of tested captive tigers are "purebred" members of an endangered subspecies, raising the possibility they could bolster conservation efforts, a new genetic analysis suggests.

Similar screening of some of the thousands of tigers with unknown heritage held on farms and by private owners would considerably increase the number of animals useful for captive breeding programs, the scientists say.

The news comes at a dire time for wild tigers. As few as 3,000 individuals remain where more than 100,000 roamed just a century ago. Three of the eight subspecies have become extinct, and a fourth, the South China tiger, persists only in zoos.

The number of captive tigers, on the other hand, has boomed. Zoos, farms, circuses, and private owners hold an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 tigers. Only a small fraction of these are part of breeding programs oriented toward conservation.

"The captive population of these wild animals has been justified based on the principle that they are the genetic representation of their natural counterparts," said study leader Shu-Jin Luo, who studies genetic variation at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland.

"They can act as insurance against extinction in the wild."

Genes Match Geography

But many owners have no knowledge of their cats' ancestry.

To tease apart their heritage, Luo and her colleagues developed a test based on variations in 30 locations on the tiger genome that had originally been identified in domestic cats.

In an earlier study, Luo and her colleagues found that they could separate wild tigers into groups that corresponded to the recognized subspecies based on how many versions of these genetic markers the animals shared.

In the new study, the scientists screened DNA samples from 104 captive tigers living in 14 different countries. Of those, 49 could be confidently assigned to a particular subspecies, they report in Current Biology today.

"These are fairly closely related lineages that they're trying to sort out," said Michael Russello, a conservation geneticist at the University of British Columbia in Kelowna who was not involved in the study.

"I think it is remarkable that they were able to find individuals from unmanaged populations that actually are purebreds of a given subspecies."

Genetic Surprises

The numbers of purebred tigers the researchers found likely overestimate the proportion of unmanaged animals with pure lineages, because many of the owners who sent samples to the team had some idea of their tiger's ancestry.

Of the 50 tigers without any pedigree, 7 could be assigned to a particular lineage based on the new genetic test.

Luo thinks that 15 to 23 percent of tigers not part of conservation breeding programs are likely to be potentially useful for preserving genetic variation unique to endangered subspecies.

Given the size of the captive population, that would mean thousands of additional useful animals.

The test can also reveal mixed ancestry. Owners of 11 tigers who thought they had purebreds turned out to own mutts instead.

"It's extremely important to know those individuals that have a hybrid origin," Russello said. Those animals should be excluded from breeding programs.

In addition, the researchers found that the captive tigers harbored at least 46 new genetic patterns that have not been found in wild animals so far.

Some of these occurred only in mixed-lineage tigers, which are currently thrown out of breeding programs when discovered.

While the findings come as welcome news, most conservationists agree that breeding programs are a last-ditch resort and that efforts should focus on protecting existing wild populations.

Tigers once ranged from the Indian subcontinent to Siberia.

Today that swath has been reduced to small remnant habitats, often depleted of prey.

"We are not at that stage where we are looking to reintroduce tigers from captive populations," said Mahendra Shrestha, who directs the Save the Tiger program based in Washington, D.C.

"The main challenge we are facing now is providing good quality habitat."

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Exposed: the great GM crops myth

Major new study shows that modified soya produces 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent
Geoffrey Lean, The Independent 20 Apr 08;

Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new study shows, undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is needed to solve the growing world food crisis.

The study – carried out over the past three years at the University of Kansas in the US grain belt – has found that GM soya produces about 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent, contradicting assertions by advocates of the technology that it increases yields.

Professor Barney Gordon, of the university's department of agronomy, said he started the research – reported in the journal Better Crops – because many farmers who had changed over to the GM crop had "noticed that yields are not as high as expected even under optimal conditions". He added: "People were asking the question 'how come I don't get as high a yield as I used to?'"

He grew a Monsanto GM soybean and an almost identical conventional variety in the same field. The modified crop produced only 70 bushels of grain per acre, compared with 77 bushels from the non-GM one.

The GM crop – engineered to resist Monsanto's own weedkiller, Roundup – recovered only when he added extra manganese, leading to suggestions that the modification hindered the crop's take-up of the essential element from the soil. Even with the addition it brought the GM soya's yield to equal that of the conventional one, rather than surpassing it.

The new study confirms earlier research at the University of Nebraska, which found that another Monsanto GM soya produced 6 per cent less than its closest conventional relative, and 11 per cent less than the best non-GM soya available.

The Nebraska study suggested that two factors are at work. First, it takes time to modify a plant and, while this is being done, better conventional ones are being developed. This is acknowledged even by the fervently pro-GM US Department of Agriculture, which has admitted that the time lag could lead to a "decrease" in yields.

But the fact that GM crops did worse than their near-identical non-GM counterparts suggest that a second factor is also at work, and that the very process of modification depresses productivity. The new Kansas study both confirms this and suggests how it is happening.

A similar situation seems to have happened with GM cotton in the US, where the total US crop declined even as GM technology took over. (See graphic above.)

Monsanto said yesterday that it was surprised by the extent of the decline found by the Kansas study, but not by the fact that the yields had dropped. It said that the soya had not been engineered to increase yields, and that it was now developing one that would.

Critics doubt whether the company will achieve this, saying that it requires more complex modification. And Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute in Washington – and who was one of the first to predict the current food crisis – said that the physiology of plants was now reaching the limits of the productivity that could be achieved.

A former champion crop grower himself, he drew the comparison with human runners. Since Roger Bannister ran the first four-minute mile more than 50 years ago, the best time has improved only modestly . "Despite all the advances in training, no one contemplates a three-minute mile."

Last week the biggest study of its kind ever conducted – the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development – concluded that GM was not the answer to world hunger.

Professor Bob Watson, the director of the study and chief scientist at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when asked if GM could solve world hunger, said: "The simple answer is no."

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Green funerals make for eco-exits

Regan McTarsney, Associated Press Yahoo News 20 Apr 08;

It's no longer enough to live a greener life — now people are being encouraged to be environmentally friendly when they leave the Earth too.

Cardboard coffins, clothes sewn from natural fibers, a burial plot in a natural setting. Green funerals attempt to be eco-friendly at every stage.

"People are trying to think about what's the best way to live and with that, what's the best way to die," said Roslyn Cassidy, a funeral director for Green Endings, which provides eco-friendly funerals.

Britain has been a world leader in eco-friendly funerals for years and a source of green burial products and ideas for countries like the United States, where the trend is just starting to catch on. Over the weekend in London, those in the business showcased their products and services at the Natural Death Center's Green Funeral Exhibition.

Some may expect green funerals to be as cheap as a do-it-yourself project, while others might brace for price hikes similar to those fair trade food.

But, funeral directors say green funerals — like any — run the gamut.

"It's about choice, not price," said Fran Hall, marketing director for Epping Forest Burial Park.

For a concept aimed at saving the Earth by going back to basics, an eco-funeral can be more complicated than it sounds. The Natural Death Center provides a handbook that suggests environmental targets for cemeteries.

"You can take any funeral and make it greener," said Michael Jarvis, the center's director.

In a green funeral, bodies are not embalmed and are dressed in pure fiber clothes. Green campaigners say refrigeration or dry ice is a good alternative to formaldehyde, which can seep into the water system.

Biodegradable coffins also differ from the traditional mahogany. Coffins on display included one made from wicker and decorated with flowers.

One visitor, Linda McDowall, admired another coffin bundled in a beige, leaf-adorned felt shroud, saying it looked comfortable.

"Cozy and warm are not words you associate with death," said McDowall, a 48-year-old German and French translator.

Cardboard coffins — which are as thick as their wooden counterparts — can be decorated by family and biodegrade within three months.

"The trouble is, they are a bit ungainly to use," said Oakfield Wood burial ground director Oliver Peacock. "They're not terribly easy to handle and if it's wet, they don't look their best either."

Particular care is taken in how coffins are buried at eco-friendly graveyards like Oakfield Wood, Peacock said.

The cemetery was a pasture when it opened in 1995. It is now speckled with more than 1,600 trees that mark plots along with a wooden plaque.

Marble tombstones are frowned upon. Jeremy Smite, a funeral director at Green Endings, notes that shipping and mining produce carbon and that marble is not a renewable resource.

For cremations — which account for 70 percent of British funerals — a person's ashes and the remains of the eco-friendly coffin are placed in bamboo, glass or ceramic urns.

New legislation in Britain requires reductions in the mercury content of plastics and treatments used in coffins starting in 2010. All biodegradable coffins meet the new standards.

Cassidy said small details are important for green funerals, such as using smaller cars instead of limousines in funeral processions.

"What people are wanting is to know that they're doing the best they can both for their loved ones and for the environment," Cassidy said.

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Nesting instincts: enduring relationship between man and birds

The Telegraph 12 Apr 08;

From sharing caves with swallows to suburban peanut dispensers and vulture restaurants, man has long given house room to birds. Mark Cocker examines an enduring relationship

We wear it now like the mark of Cain. Every piece of environmental news reinforces an underlying message that humans are the great destroyers of life on earth. There is no scope for complacency in our role as the planet's custodians, but perhaps we can afford occasionally to take time off from this guilt reflex to consider another part of the story.


The great American naturalist Edward O Wilson suggests that we also have an instinctual need to engage creatively with other living things. He calls it biophilia, literally a love of life, and argues that a default aspiration of humanity is to dwell in close proximity to nature. So, the rural cottage, the lakeside dacha, even the country estate and the rainforest village are all, in some ways, an expression of the same attachment to wild animals and wild places. We can destroy, we do destroy, but we also have an enormous capacity to create, provisioning many species with a home and living space for thousands of years.

One of the best illustrations of biophilia I can give is unfolding this spring. Thousands of millions of migrant birds are heading north in a great deluge of colour and song across the European continent. About 75 million birds among those vast flocks comprise just three species - the swallow, house martin and swift - and every single pair of this European trio will almost certainly build its nest and rear young on a structure made by us.

Swallows love our outhouses, barns, sheds, garages and greenhouses. House martins suspend a mud cup underneath the overhang of our house eaves, but swifts actually come inside our roof space, gaining access through gaps in the tiles. Yet it is remarkable to reflect that at the end of the last ice age all of these birds nested on natural equivalents - mountain- and sea-cliffs, rock-faces, caves and riverbanks. In fact, evidence for one of the oldest nests ever in Britain comes from a Derby-shire cave that was once used by swallows - and Palaeolithic hunters - 15,000 years ago.

It is tempting to suggest that swallows were among the first birds to give our ancestors pleasure, when they song-flighted around the cave entrance and announced the arrival of spring. But at some point in this developing relationship, possibly at the Euphrates-Tigris confluence (in modern-day Iraq) with the beginning of Eurasian civilisation in about 5000bc, the birds took the plunge and moved in, switching their nest sites from natural rock faces to house walls. The habit caught on and en masse swallows and house martins (known collectively as hirundines) became our lodgers. By the time of Shakespeare's England or - as he himself would have us believe in Macbeth - by the Scottish 11th century, the habit was almost universal. 'This guest of summer,' Banquo announces of the house martin, 'Does approve By his lov'd mansionry that the heaven's breath/ Smells wooingly here…/ Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed/ The air is delicate.'

As usual, Shakespeare tapped into something fundamental about this experience: we really enjoyed the company of swallows and martins. We also repaid the birds' trust with deep tolerance. The point is well made by the changing name given to our own British swallows. Over the centuries they have been known as the 'chimney', 'house' and, more recently, the 'barn' swallow - reflecting an evolving architectural choice for their nest location. The earlier names indicate a time when hirundines and humans actually shared the same domestic space. Medieval chimneys were wide enough for birds to descend to the ledges within, or the swallows swooped in through the ever-open door and, in effect, nested inside our ancestors' living-rooms.

Although some fussy people insist on knocking nests down because of the mess created below, today it is illegal to dislodge hirundines. Yet in the past we didn't need legislation. The rules against disturbing them were self-imposed. We draped the ecological closeness between swallows and ourselves with a narrative about mutual affection and shared good fortune. Or as the Bard and Banquo put it so beautifully, we came to believe that 'heaven's breath smells wooingly' wherever the birds slung their nests. They were thus guarded by strong taboos and, during the writing of my book Birds Britannica, I was amazed to find how they are still. Letters from contributors told me how swallows had an almost sacred status for them.

What is even more moving, since it implies the common origins of these individual responses, is the way our benign hirundine inclinations span millennia and cultures. The ancient Greeks loved them as harbingers of spring and counted it good luck for them to nest on their home. Muslims cherish them too. The name of one African species, the mosque swallow, even suggests an Islamic bias in the bird's choice of nest site. In Tanzania, as in so much of the continent, breeding swallows are valued as signs of prosperity, good luck and bringers of welcome rain.

However, the ultimate development in this human-hirundine symbiosis occurred in North America. There the whole process by which swallows transferred from natural rock crevices to house walls didn't take thousands of years, it was telescoped into the few centuries of white colonisation. Sometimes swallows even extended their range across the continent in close tandem with the spread of American railways, the birds following the tracks to new towns and settlements.

The most extraordinary of all the New World developments had its origins with a Native American practice. Indigenous peoples such as the Choctaw and Chickasaw were accustomed to put out hollow gourds around their homes to attract a nesting bird called the purple martin, which resembles a dark-blue swallow. White settlers soon picked up the gourd-suspending habit and ran with it. Today virtually all purple martins use structures erected by people. Some of these are veritable apartment blocks housing 200 pairs. It is, in many ways, a perfect expression of biophilia. An entire species nests in quarters that we have specifically provided for them, and in return we gain the pleasures of seeing and hearing this delightful bird.

Perhaps the most famous of Europe's avian tenants is one of the continent's biggest species, the white stork. It has made a similar exchange in its breeding location from natural sites to manmade structures. In the stork's case it includes the roof of every kind of human dwelling, from state palaces to rural cottages, as well as cathedral domes, military towers, industrial chimneys and television masts. Some nests are ancient and may well involve a continuity of avian residence comparable with the human dynasty. One nest known to have been occupied in 1549 was still in use in 1930, and over the decades these stick tenements can become massive. A nest taken down from one cathedral weighed more than three quarters of a ton.

Once again it isn't just a case of a simple but passive tolerance towards storks. From Portugal in the west to Armenia in the east, the birds are encouraged to take up residence by placing old cartwheels and other platforms on the top of long poles. The storks' presence is then valued as a mixture of privilege, good luck charm and, of course, as Europe's quintessential emblem of fertility.

n return the storks construct the nest itself using a range of human products. Rags, plastic bags and bits of paper are highly favoured as nest linings, although these borrowings are modest by comparision with members of the kite family. In Britain the red kite, which has made a dramatic return to the Home Counties after a successful captive-release campaign, is notorious for its taste in human fabrics, including handkerchiefs, socks, gloves, hats and children's soft toys. The habit has long been known as it inspired a line from Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale ('when the kite builds look to lesser linen') as well as a Henry Williamson short story, Flight of the Pale Pink Pyjamas.

Kite behaviour is little more than petty theft when compared with the grand larceny practised by an African species called the hamerkop. Its gargantuan domed stick nest is out of all proportion to the half-metre-tall bird, but it is the interior that has attracted most attention. In one structure a Zimbabwean naturalist recovered six bicycle tyres, two socks, a plastic cup, 45 rags, a plastic comb, a pair of underpants (male), a typewriter ribbon, 56 bits of tinfoil, foam rubber, hosepipe, asbestos, sandpaper, 11 miscellaneous bones including a T-bone, as well as 100kg of grass and sticks.

Few activities better illustrate the deep intimacies between birds and people than our habit of feeding them. The simple Franciscan tradition of providing for our feathered friends is universal, but we have come to think of it primarily in terms of the garden bird-table and peanut dispensers that are now at the heart of an industry worth £200 million in Britain. In America it has 50 million participants spending an annual $3.5 billion.

Yet elsewhere, to feed the birds is an activity with semi-religious connotations. One of the most extraordinary examples occurs in north-west India. The small Rajasthani town of Khichan has acquired worldwide fame for the practice of feeding cranes. The surrounding desert plains are visited in winter by thousands of demoiselle cranes, one of the most elegant species in an already elegant family. They are drawn by the region's shallow manmade lakes and daily handouts of sorghum grain. Some locals are adherents to the deeply pacific Jain faith and count the daily half-ton ration for their avian visitors as a blessing and fulfilment of their religious precepts. Many of the town's wealthiest merchants moved long ago to major cities such as Delhi and Karachi, but retain links with their traditional birthplace and vie for the privilege of feeding the Khichan cranes.

Another bird-feeding operation on the grand scale is now known as a 'vulture restaurant'. The concept was pioneered in South Africa in the 1960s, but they have since been established across the world from California to Cambodia. As large wild mammals decline and farmers improve methods of stock-rearing, vultures have been squeezed out from vast areas of their former range. The restaurants fill a hole in the birds' diet by providing meat at regular managed locations. Normally the fare is unsaleable carcases (although a record for pricey vulture titbits was a racehorse worth tens of thousands of pounds that died of a brain haemorrhage). As these magnificent birds of prey shed their ghoulish connotations, the restaurants present their managers with unforeseen tourist and commercial possibilities.

They are now a critical part of feeding operations in France and Spain for one of Europe's rarest birds of prey, the lammergeier, a magnificent vulture species and one of the largest winged birds in the world. Despite the lamb-thieving associations of their name, these birds mainly eat bones, which means that the restaurant 'menu' is a relatively simple affair. Yet the implications of vulture restaurants are profound and may ultimately lead to a repeat of the situation with America's purple martins. Ultimately the fate of the entire species or the whole vulture family may be directly dependent on human kindness.

These feeding stations seem an innovation to meet a modern conservation need, but they also carry resonances from our ancient past. The dokhmas or 'towers of silence' in the fashionable suburbs of Bombay are tall open-roofed buildings where India's Parsi community lay out their dead to be consumed by birds. The tradition is dwindling because of evolving cultural norms among the Parsis, and also because the vultures themselves have recently suffered a catastrophic 99 per cent decline in India. Yet the towers of silence are a living expression of funereal rites that go back 8,000 years, to Neolithic practices in the Near East from where the first Parsis emigrated.

This most visceral of connections between birds and humans illuminates one of the fundamental reasons that we have been so captivated by them. In consuming the bodies laid out by their Parsi relatives in the towers of silence, the vultures will metaphorically carry the souls of the departed aloft. Like all of their kind, these birds move between the earth and the heavens. In doing so they embody some of our most cherished ideals about life. Throughout history we have found ways to repay birds for this transaction with our gods. That instinctual attachment - surely - is a sign of hope in a beleaguered world.

Mark Cocker and the photographer David Tipling are working on a book exploring the cultural interactions between humans and birds, and wish to hear from anyone who has experiences from around the world that shed light on this subject. Many contributions will be used in the book with a full acknowledgement to all contributors. See birdsandpeople.org or write to Birds and People, Jonathan Cape, Random House, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 2SA

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Best of our wild blogs: 20 Apr 08

"I want to go Cyrene Reef!" a new facebook group
more on the wildfilms blog

Hantu Bloggers outreach at ADEX
on the hantu blog and more thoughts after Saturday.

Roving reef exhibition debuts at ADEX
on the singapore celebrates our reefs blog

Talk: Are there Coral Reefs in Singapore?
by Jeffrey Low on the hantu blog

Shore volunteers reach out at ADEX
on the wildfilms blog

Get Naked for Earth Day on the Chek Jawa boardwalk
with a look at past reviews of the walk on the adventures with the naked hermit crabs blog

The Swallowtails of Singapore
on the butterflies of singapore blog

Bulbul bath
on the bird ecology blog

Leisure trip at Ubin
beats Orchard Road on the manta blog

Blue rock thrush
on the bird ecology blog

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HFMD: 1,000 cases a week in Singapore is unusual, says doc

Nur Dianah Suhaimi, Straits Times 20 Apr 08;

The doctor who first identified hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) here 36 years ago is shocked at the recent rapid spread of the viral disease.

Since the current outbreak three weeks ago, more than 2,600 cases have been reported.

Dr Tay Chong Hai, 75, now a skin specialist in private practice, said it was 'unusual' to have 1,000 HFMD cases in a week.

A thousand people were infected two weeks ago.

'When the HFMD virus was first identified here in 1972, there were only 104 cases over three months,' he told The Sunday Times.

Dr Tay was first alerted to the HFMD virus in 1972 when his wife, Dr Caroline Gaw, then a polyclinic doctor, told him she was seeing cases of children with mouth ulcers and rashes.

After studying one patient's stool sample, he realised it was HFMD, which had already been found in the United States, Canada and Britain.

So far this year, 7,050 people have caught the disease. The majority are children. Although no one has died this time, one seven-year-old girl is in hospital with brain damage.

This may be the most serious HFMD outbreak since 2000, when an epidemic killed seven children.

Dr Tay said outbreaks can occur when there is a lowering of 'herd immunity' - that is, there are not enough immune individuals in a community to protect the rest from infection.

This year's spike and rapid spread could be due to more children in childcare centres, more air-conditioned spaces like malls and, possibly, a more contagious strain.

HFMD is a common childhood illness like chicken pox and measles. It is caused by intestinal viruses, the more common strains being Coxsackie virus and Enterovirus 71 (EV71).

Adults may get it as well but children, those under five in particular, are most susceptible.

The EV71 strain, which has infected some 16 per cent of HFMD patients here, is also more contagious, Dr Tay said.

Doctors say there will be outbreaks once every few years. Greater hygiene and isolation help in averting it.

Dr Tay said that unlike measles and chicken pox, there is no vaccine for HFMD. But he had some consolation for those hit by it.

'It's like measles and chicken pox. Once you get it, it's unlikely that you'll get it again.'

Worried families grapple with HFMD
Some childcare centres stand empty, while lives of those hit have been turned topsy-turvy
Nur Dianah Suhaimi, Straits Times 20 Apr 08;

Last week, Mr Frankie Loh drove back and forth daily between Malacca, where he had to attend to business, and Singapore so that he could be by the side of his only son.

Two-year-old Kieran, who had contracted hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), had been hospitalised.

This meant that Mr Loh, 35, had to spend five hours driving to and fro every day. The marketing executive said: 'Talk about exhaustion. I usually don't return home till my business trip is over.'

Other affected families have found their lives turned topsy-turvy since the current outbreak three weeks ago.

Children are being kept apart in affected households. Some parents have resorted to wearing masks and gloves.

HFMD is usually not fatal, and children make up the majority of the 2,600-plus cases in the recent outbreak.

Housewife Norjannah Mohammed Kamal, 31, and her husband decided to separate their two sons when the younger one came down with HFMD last Friday.

Their elder son is now staying with his grand-aunt in Sembawang while their younger son stays put at the couple's Ang Mo Kio flat.

'I had no choice. I don't want my elder son to get HFMD too,' she said.

In Madam Jessica Tan's case, it was she who came down with HFMD last week. She decided to stay with her parents so as not to infect her two children aged four and one. Her husband is caring for them.

'I burst into tears when I said goodbye to them. I couldn't even hug or kiss them,' said the 32-year-old manager.

IT trainer Zaid Ismail, 38, had to confine his eldest son, Umar Khalid, to his bedroom when the boy fell ill last week. Umar, seven, was also not allowed to play with his two younger brothers.

'His two-year-old brother missed him very much and would stand at the bedroom door asking to play with Umar,' said Mr Zaid, who started wearing a mask and gloves at home.

Despite the precautions, the entire family of five still ended up with HFMD. The youngest, a four-month-old baby boy, has been hospitalised.

Another parent, Ms Cathy Chan, 29, chose to apply for leave to look after both her sons when they came down with HFMD last week. Ms Chan, an administrative assistant, hopes to return to work this week.

Paediatrician Lee Bee Wah said it was a good move to keep young children, especially those below 18 months old, at home for the time being. Younger children fall sick easily, she added.

Meanwhile, some childcare centres, especially those with HFMD cases, are experiencing empty classrooms. At Averbel Child Development Centre in Yishun, the pre-school classes have become quiet since three children got HFMD last week.

Said principal Daphne Lee: 'Parents of the younger kids prefer to keep their children at home because they're afraid of the disease.'

However, Jollies Child Care Centre in Jurong West is optimistic that classrooms will soon be full again. Its classes have been empty after seven children contracted HFMD.

Said its spokesman: 'All the children are expected to turn up this week. The entire centre has been cleaned up.'

Additional reporting by Samatha Eng and Aw Cheng Wei

What is HFMD?
Straits Times 20 Apr 08;

HFMD is an illness caused by intestinal viruses, the more common strains being Coxsackie virus and Enterovirus 71.

The usual symptoms are:

Fever for two to three days

Sore throat and runny nose

Rash (flat or raised red spots, some with blisters) on the palms of hands, soles of feet, or buttocks

Mouth ulcers

Poor appetite

Vomiting and diarrhoea

Tiredness and weakness

Does HFMD affect only children?

No. Both adults and children can be affected, but children, particularly those under the age of five, are most susceptible.

What is the treatment?

No specific treatment is available, except medication to relieve the symptoms of the disease.

Can someone die from HFMD?

Most cases are mild. Occasionally, serious complications involving the nervous system, heart and brain can occur, which may lead to death.

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Madame Butterfly of Alexandra Hospital

Mrs Rosalind Tan wants to create another butterfly garden.
Straits Times 20 Apr 08;

Called Madame Butterfly by colleagues at Alexandra Hospital (AH), where she has created such a garden, she hopes to repeat the feat at the hospital's new site in Yishun in 2010.

The senior operations executive started a butterfly garden in AH's current location in Alexandra Road in 2002, and it now draws 101 species.

It is a commendable achievement given that only about 282 species have been spotted in Singapore.

Mrs Tan, 67, had been an occupational therapist in various hospitals for 12 years before she joined AH in 1982.

Drawing from her experience as an occupational therapist, she knew that a project like a butterfly garden could help in a patient's recovery.

'Butterflies have so many colours and patterns. Seeing them gives patients optimism and distracts them from their illnesses,' she said.

Her husband, Mr Tan Wee Lee, 74, a retired senior principal architect, helped with the landscaping of the 12ha garden.

Set up from scratch, it has trails for people to walk along.

'We wanted to have a healing environment for patients. We wow them, destress them and distract them from their illnesses by using butterflies.

'There has been positive feedback from patients, so we know we are on the right track,' she said.

She had scant knowledge of botany before she embarked on the project. One of the challenges was to identify the different types of plants that would attract butterflies.

Reading up on the subject and getting in touch with butterfly enthusiasts helped, said the mother of two.

Patients are encouraged by the hospital to explore the garden.

The hospital staff also take wheelchair-bound patients there.

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Why he chooses to study monkey antics in Singapore

Chang Ai-Lien, Straits Times 20 Apr 08;

'Singapore does such a great job of living with our cultural diversity, maybe now we can start learning to live with our biodiversity too.'

Who says humans are the only species to pay for sex?

Monkey business abounds with long-tailed macaques, whose frisky males use grooming as currency for a romp.

According to work by a researcher here, the less available females are, the greater time a male will spend grooming them during courtship.

'It's an exchange, and grooming seems to increase the likelihood that sex will occur,' said American primatologist Michael D. Gumert.

Assistant Professor Gumert reported these results in a paper, Payment For Sex In A Macaque Mating Market, which was published in the journal Animal Behaviour.

The 32-year-old, who joined Nanyang Technological University's division of psychology in August last year, believes that monkey behaviour can be used to understand the abstract underpinnings of human behaviour.

'Studying macaques allows us to see and investigate many facets of social behaviour, such as kin selection, dominance, social markets, and even culture,' he said.

'To watch monkeys is to watch a never-ending soap opera - you find yourself sucked in.'

Indeed, the monkeys' behaviour bears uncanny similarity to that of their human counterparts.

Adolescent males, for example, are the most unpredictable and the biggest trouble-makers. 'They're just like unruly teenage boys,' he said.

His PhD work involved a 15-month stint, supported by a Fulbright Graduate Fellowship, spent traipsing through the jungles of Indonesia's Tanjung Puting National Park in 2003 and 2004. Before long, he could recognise every one of the 50 troop members, from the high-ranking alpha female Helen (the prettiest - he named her after Helen of Troy) to her nephew Caesar, a feisty juvenile male.

His time there was not just spent battling mosquitoes, angry monkeys and snakes to spend some quality time with his study subjects. He also picked up Bahasa Indonesia, found a love for South-east Asia, and met his Indonesian wife Indah, 30.

Dr Gumert grew up in rural Pennsylvania and obtained his PhD at the University of Georgia. He came here from Hiram College, a prestigious liberal arts institution in Ohio.

A life-long love for primates, coupled with a desire to work outdoors and a keen interest in wildlife photography resulted in him combining all three loves to become a primatologist.

He admitted that he had started out just like many other primatologists - keen to study the glamorous apes, and his passion was the orang utan.

That is, until a stint at a small Pennsylvania zoo during his college days in his early 20s redirected his path.

It took him just three days to discover the joys and intricacies of the long-tailed macaques' behaviour, and he was hooked.

Singapore is the ideal place to continue his studies, he said, because it is easy to track and observe macaques here. He has ambitious plans, and hopes to track and study as many of the country's 1,400 macaques as he can over the next few years.

Although recent incidents of monkey mischief in Singapore have thrown the spotlight on the clash between the two primate species, Dr Gumert said that the human-macaque conflict here is probably the best-managed in the world.

'Compared to other countries, there is much less direct contact, and the risk of harm by the macaques is very low,' he said.

To keep the level of conflict down, the National Parks Board has been making sure that people do not feed the macaques - the root cause of nuisance behaviour - by putting up signs and advising in pamphlets against the practice.

In addition, cameras have been installed at selected spots along Upper Thomson Road to deter feeding of monkeys.

The agency is also working closely with managing agents of condominiums near nature reserves on how they can discourage monkeys from entering their compounds, by say, not planting fruit trees and ensuring litter bins are covered.

NParks is exploring the use of other methods, such as sterilisation, to control the monkey population here.

'We are in the process of conducting a trial on a small troop of monkeys to understand if there are any behavioural changes in the social structure, and to assess if there is any long-term impact on the overall monkey population,' said Ms Sharon Chan, NParks assistant director of central nature reserve.

Nonetheless, the number of monkeys being culled has gone up, in tandem with complaints and subsequent trapping efforts by residents.

Humans who live on forest fringes complain of monkeys stealing their food and picking their fruits. But to the monkeys, there's no pilfering involved because according to monkey rules, any object that is not being held by anyone is fair game, explained Dr Gumert.

Trapping is not the long-term answer, he added.

'In the United States, game commissions won't come and set traps in your yard just because a deer wandered into your garden. Singaporeans are lucky to have such a responsive park service for nuisance wildlife. It seems a pity to kill a monkey just because it did something like take a cupcake from your window sill,' he said.

Rather than having to respond to every call and complaint from the public, agencies such as NParks and the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority should focus on 'hot zones' where human-ma-

caque conflict is high to develop resolutions, he added.

'It is important for people to know that every time you call to make a complaint, it's a monkey death threat as trapped monkeys are never released,' he said.

He hoped that Singaporeans could begin to learn more about their macaque population and find ways of living together.

'Singapore does such a great job of living with our cultural diversity, maybe now we can start learning to live with our biodiversity too.'

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Capitol Theatre: Unwanted child of Singapore conservation?

Will recent reports of fresh plans for the Capitol Theatre finally happen - after almost two decades? I'm not holding my breath...
Warren Fernandez, Straits Times 20 Apr 08;

For too long, the once-lovely Capitol Theatre has stood forlorn and forgotten, the unwanted child of Singapore conservation.

Newspaper reports once held out hope of it being transformed into a performing arts centre for musicals, plays and ballets.

That, alas, was in January 1996.

Even then, the report quoted government officials as saying that the plans were 'still being studied'.

Never mind that the site had been earmarked for development in 1984, and acquired by the state in 1987, nearly a decade earlier.

More delays followed. In 1998, Capitol screened its last movie and the cinema was shut down amid much sadness and hopeful talk of plans to put it to better use.

The project was handed over to the Singapore Tourism Board to pursue in 2000. But in 2006, it decided not to proceed and handed it back to the Singapore Land Authority. Last year, it was finally declared a conservation area.

Sadly, over the years, nobody seemed either to own the project or to care all that much about it.

So, pardon me, but I could not help being more than a little sceptical when I read a report earlier this month which talked of fresh plans for the Capitol Theatre and the structures around it - Capitol Building, Capitol Centre and Stamford House.

The report raised as many questions as it answered: Just what do the authorities now envisage for the site, which they say will be sold as an 'integrated one' next year? So far, officials have said only that the area has not been 'fully maximised to its development potential' - indeed! - and the 'timing and details' of their plans 'are being finalised'.

Why has it taken decades for any progress to be made on conserving this area? What is the cost of leaving Capitol idle all these years, allowing it to crumble away to a dusty death? And just who will ensure that the plans are realised this time?

These are legitimate questions, not least since the buildings concerned are very much part of Singapore's architectural heritage.

Capitol Theatre turns 80 next year. The neo-classical style building was built in 1929 by M.A. Namazie, an early Singapore pioneer of Persian origin. The accompanying four-storey building, where the popular Magnolia Snack Bar once stood, was completed in 1933 and called the Namazie Mansions back then.

The cinema was Singapore's very first, where the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks performed to promote their silent movies. In the 1960s, the Capitol hosted variety shows featuring performers like Sakura Teng and Rita Chao.

The adjacent Stamford House has an even longer history. It was designed for commercial use in 1904 by R.A.J. Bidwell, the man behind other outstanding buildings such as the Raffles Hotel and Goodwood Park Hotel.

Few seem to recall the furious debate that broke out in 1991 over whether Stamford House should be saved instead of Eu Court, built in the 1930s, across the street.

Then National Development minister S. Dhanabalan declared that Stamford House would be preserved as it had a 'more outstanding architectural style'.

I was prepared then to give the minister the benefit of the doubt, and wait to see if the ramshackle Stamford House of those days would indeed be transformed into the conservation gem he envisioned.

So, when the Victorian facade of the building was unveiled three years and $13 million later, I had to concede that it did look splendid, as the minister had said.

But sadly, it never quite lived up to his promise of becoming 'an active and successful commercial centre', given its motley collection of furniture shops, galleries and eateries, several of which came and went.

The wider issue here is this: Just how does Singapore go about conserving its architectural heritage, saving grand old buildings and giving new life to them?

Of course, given the space constraints on this tiny island, I have never believed in keeping buildings as museum pieces, or standing in the way of development.

But, in these days of globalisation and rapid change, a sense of place and continuity is needed if Singaporeans are to remain rooted to this country.

Indeed, at the moment, Singapore is undergoing another spurt of redevelopment. Just as in the 1980s and 1990s, when familiar sites like the modest C.K. Tang store or the huge open field where Ngee Ann City now stands gave way to skyscrapers, the Ion Orchard and Orchard Central are rising rapidly from the ground in Orchard Road. These, and the redevelopment of the Asia Hotel site in Scotts Road, as well as the new St Regis Hotel in Tanglin Road are transforming the face of the downtown area as we know it.

So how to ensure continuity in the face of such change?

Well, to be fair, there have been quite a few success stories in conservation over the years, such as the Fullerton Hotel, Raffles Hotel, the National Museum, the old Parliament House, and the old St Joseph's Institution building.

In these cases, the buildings' structures were painstakingly conserved, even as their interiors were retrofitted to allow for new uses, commercial or otherwise. Sure, the purists moaned, but the conservation purpose was served.

There have been some bad misses too. Orchard cinema and the National Library were both razed to the ground despite fervent public protests.

Or ponder this: Just what is the difference between the ghastly named Orchard Cineleisure and the supposedly conserved Cathay building?

Precious little, actually. The former was built after tearing the old cinema down completely, while the latter was simply erected around a sliver of the facade of what was Singapore's first skyscraper, as a sop to the conservationist lobby.

Clearly, there are lessons to be learnt from these hits and misses over the decades to help ensure that the re-development of the Capitol area turns out right.

To do so, the authorities need to:

* Spell out their Capitol conservation plans in much greater detail.

While they are at it, they should consider redeveloping the SMRT HQ building across the street. Why a public transport operator needs such a large prime site, all walled up and uninviting, has always been a mystery to me.

There is much potential to liven up the entire area on both sides of Stamford Road, with an array of streetwalk dining, retail and entertainment options.

* Engage the public, both to get ideas and foster a sense of ownership of this historic district.

Surely, Singaporeans should not wait until plans are announced to demolish an old building before taking an interest? Nor should they be left to bemoan conservation efforts gone awry after the fact.

* Announce a timeline to make clear how and when the authorities will ensure that the area's 'development potential is fully maximised', at long last.

It would be a pity if Singaporeans have to wait another decade to read the next report on new plans 'being studied' for Capitol.

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KL allots $1.7b to boost food security

Govt wants to turn Sarawak into Malaysia's new 'rice bowl' as prices of staples and fuel escalate
Straits Times 20 Apr 08;

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia is allocating RM4 billion (S$1.7 billion) to increase food production, including a plan to grow rice on a massive scale in Sarawak amid fears of shortages caused by the global food crisis.

The funds allocated for the plan would also be used to build food stockpiles and increase cultivation of fruits and vegetables, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi said yesterday.

The plan, he added, is part of efforts to make the country completely self-sufficient in rice. It now produces 65 per cent to 70 per cent of the rice its people consume and imports the rest.

A high-level panel has also been set up to deal with food security and inflation, which is expected to hit 3 per cent this year, up from 2 per cent last year.

To achieve self-sufficiency, the government plans to take up rice cultivation on a massive scale in Sarawak, making it Malaysia's new 'rice bowl'.

Much of locally-grown rice now comes from Kedah, which accounts for some 40 per cent of Malaysia's rice output.

PM Abdullah said he had discussed the plan with the state's Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, adding: 'I have approved the allocation for the project upon his request for funds.'

He did not, however, give details of the plan.

Still, the RM4 billion is but a fraction of what Malaysia needs to boost food production. The Agriculture Ministry said recently it needs RM6 billion to cultivate new rice fields and improve infrastructure to boost rice production.

Yesterday's announcement by Datuk Seri Abdullah comes on the back of other moves that the Malaysian government has made in response to the rising threat of food shortages and soaring prices.

Earlier, it had announced the setting up of a national food stockpile, and also clamped down on staples being taken out of the country.

The rising cost of living was cited as one of the reasons for the Barisan Nasional's losses in last month's general election, and the government is continually facing pressure to raise subsidies of necessities, especially fuel. It expects to spend at least RM70 billion on food and fuel subsidies this year.

Yesterday, Indonesia's National Development Planning Agency also called for a national food strategy, saying that funding was needed for the procurement of land, seedlings, fertilisers and marketing.

Bernama, Reuters, AP

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Twelve new springs appear around Buyan Lake, Bali

Antara 19 Apr 08;

Denpasar (ANTARA News) - At least 12 new springs have appeared suddenly around Buyan Lake, Buleleng District, which is located around 55 km north of Denpasar.

Local farmers are now using water from the new springs for irrigation, Bali provincial forestry service head Made Sulendra said here on Saturday.

Some 4.93 sq km wide Buyan Lake is one of four lakes on Bali Island which have become tourist attractions.

Sulendra said it was believed the new springs had formed thanks to the massive regreening programs launched by the Bali provincial administration last year. Bali planted at least seven million trees last year, including in areas surrounding Buyan Lake. (*)

Farmers in Banyumas turn to organic fertilizer
Antara 19 Apr 08;

Banyumas (ANTARA News) - A number of farmers in Banyumas district, Central Java, have started using organic fertilizer after finding out that it can increase their paddy crop.

"Unlike non-organic fertilizer, organic fertilizer can increase paddy crop," Suwarto (61), a farmer in Kemutung Lor village in Baturaden sub district, said on Saturday.

Suwarto admitted he had used organic fertilizer for two seasons and the result was satisfactory.

He started to use organic fertilizer after he had been advised by agriculture counselors and a team from Purwokerto Muhammadiyah University to do so.

The farmer added that when he used non-organic fertilizer on 0.25 hectares of his rice field, the got only 5 kilograms of paddy but when he turned to organic fertilizer, he got 5.5 kilograms of paddy.

He said after finding out that the result was satisfactory, a number of his colleagues started to follow his example in using organic fertilizer.

"Their eagerness to use organic fertilizer is not only because its result is satisfactory but also because it is more efficient and less expensive in comparison with no-organic fertilizer," Suwarto said. (*)

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The Big Question: Why is the world so slow to produce environmentally-friendly cars?

Sean O'Grady, The Independent 17 Apr 08;

Why are we asking this now?

Because Britain's first hydrogen filling station opens today at the University of Birmingham. Researchers there will be assessing alternative fuel vehicles in search of greener motoring.

Is hydrogen the answer?

The hydrogen fuel cell is revolutionary. It supersedes the internal combustion engine and does away with fossil fuels. So there are vested interests involved. That said, it isn't so much a question of conspiracy as cost. Some of the world's leading energy and motor companies are developing alternatives to the conventional car. If the world wants hydrogen it will have to invest in it, scrapping existing technology, factories, refineries, infrastructure and know-how. That means consumers would have to pay for the leap forward. Will they? Besides, not everyone is convinced about the hydrogen fuel cell.

What's so good about hydrogen?

Hydrogen is green at the point of use. Hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicles emit no carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide or carcinogenic particles. All that emerges from the exhaust is water vapour. The hydrogen fuel, stored in pressurised tanks, is used to create a chemical reaction using catalysts. That is converted into electric power and drives a motor which moves the vehicle along. It is quiet, and performance is acceptable for many purposes; in any case it is early days yet. After all, we've had a long time to get from Karl Benz's 1886 Patent Motorwagen (top speed: 11mph) to today's Formula 1 wonders.

Do hydrogen fuel cells work?

Yes. Buses powered by hydrogen fuel cells have been judged "really successful" by Transport for London. Californian and South Korean authorities have tested fleets of Honda and Hyundai fuel cell cars satisfactorily. Mercedes-Benz and General Motors are two other companies who've produced running everyday fuel-cell models (Mercedes A-Class and a Vauxhall Zafira, respectively). The Honda FCX Clarity, a "proper" executive fuel-cell car, will be available for lease in the United States this summer.

So what's the snag?

The greenness of hydrogen does depend on how much energy is inefficiently expended in generating it and moving it around. If, at one extreme, a much more efficient method of making hydrogen could be discovered, and if the energy used in it s manufacture and transport was sustainable (like from a power station using solar energy), then it might well be the greenest option. At worst there isn't much advance on fossil fuels. Storing hydrogen requires pressurisation or cooling, which can be troublesome. Hydrogen also tends to vaporise, so there can be losses in transit. Some, with the tragedy of the Hindenburg airship in mind, wonder whether this highly combustible fuel can ever be safe.

How about just using hydrogen as fuel?

Simply replacing fossil fuels with hydrogen in a conventional internal combustion engine can be done. BMW's Hydrogen 7 is almost as quiet and refined as its petrol-powered cousin. However, it needs a huge tank for the (unpressurised) hydrogen, and that tank of fuel can evaporate in as little as 10 days.

Are biofuels any use?

Biofuel versions of Saabs and Fords can be bought now, though there are few filling stations. This technology is also controversial. In theory, biofuels are carbon neutral, as the carbon dioxide used in producing them is "absorbed" by the plants grown to make create the biofuel. So-called first generation biofuels do suffer from drawbacks. First, they can displace food crops. Biofuels, even their best friends would agree, have had some effect on rising food prices. The EU wants to see monitoring systems to assure consumers that biofuels are not damaging the environment or food supplies, but those safeguards are yet to be implemented . Second, they can reduce biodiversity, as witnessed in the Indonesian rain forest, where palm oil crops for biodiesel have done much damage.

Third, critics point to the energy expended in producing and transporting the biofuels, the artificial fertilisers used, the western subsidies to grow them in Europe and the US, and so on. More defensible are second, third and fourth generation biofuels, which become progressively greener, though none are commercially available. The next stage will be to find ways to use the waste product of crops rather than the nutritionally valuable seeds and grains in biofuel production. One day, the scientists promise "carbon positive" biofuels – enzymes that can save the planet.

Why aren't there more hybrids?

Toyota's Prius leads the field, although Honda and Ford and General Motors in America are also on the scene. Using power wasted, for example in braking, and recycling that via an electric motor to supplement a petrol engine is a clever one. But many manufacturers say small, efficient diesels engines are just as effective and a lot cheaper to make, with no problematic batteries to dispose of. Japanese and US makers tend to favour petrol/electric hybrids because their main markets have very little appetite for diesel; European makes such as Mercedes and Peugeot are more traditionally committed to diesel. "Plug-in hybrids", where energy direct from the mains can add to the cars' range, are a step forward.

What happened to the electric car?

Nothing especially, though GM did can one of its more promising projects on the grounds of cost. However, the motor-show concept Chevrolet Volt (a "plug-in" hybrid) promises much, and GM are committed to making it. Electric cars can be extremely green, but again much crucially depends on how their power is generated. They used to be slow and fragile; mainstream makers are working on that. The Modec van is a fine example of a practical vehicle.

What can I do now?

Drive more carefully; downsize; use public transport more. There's an argument for keeping an old car on the road for longer, thus saving the resources and energy used in producing a new one. A Morris Minor Traveller even uses renewable ash in its bodywork. The car makers are doing their bit, too. Modern cars are much greener than their predecessors (see chart). Ford and Volkswagen are tuning existing models to return exceptional economy and low emissions, the VW Polo "Bluemotion" being an outstanding example. But manufacturers such as VW and Citroë*do tend to price their green or diesel cars on the high side compared to the equivalent petrol models.

Will cars be greener any time soon?

Yes...

* All new cars are greener than their ancestors, so it is a process of evolution

* Small diesels are the way forward at the moment, and there are plenty on sale now

* Everyone is downsizing anyway. That might be the immediate means of cutting vehicle emissions

No...

* The car makers and oil companies will try to protect their old 'brown' technologies

* Consumers aren't demanding them loudly enough, giving makers no incentive to crank up production

* 'Green' technologies aren't as clean as they say. A real solution has not arrived yet

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Smoke cloud engulfs Argentine capital for fifth day

Jorge Otaola, Reuters 19 Apr 08;

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - A thick cloud of smoke covered Buenos Aires for a fifth day on Saturday, the fallout from field burning by ranchers that has forced the closure of highways, flight delays and traffic congestion.

The smoke started to appear over the Argentine capital more than a week ago, but visibility deteriorated considerably in the city on Friday and Saturday, with an acrid smell pervading homes and causing watery eyes and sore throats among residents.

Visibility downtown was barely 500 yards (meters), and residents' tempers began to fray.

Police said they detained two people in connection with the fire, which spread over a wide area north of the capital, and were searching for a third.

Authorities said ranchers caused the haze by igniting fires across 173,000 acres of pasture. The fires clear vegetation and renew soil nutrients and fresh pasture growth for cattle.

The dense smoke along highways in rural areas north of Buenos Aires caused traffic accidents that killed at least nine people, officials said on Friday.

Emergency services directed traffic in some areas of the city on Saturday, while the capital's Jorge Newbery domestic airport diverted incoming aircraft to the international airport outside Buenos Aires -- where the smoke also caused some flight departure delays.

Schools canceled sports classes, and a rugby tournament was suspended.

Health officials sought to reassure the public the smoke was not toxic, saying the burned material was organic. But the municipality of Buenos Aires issued a "yellow alert" as a precaution.

President Cristina Fernandez flew over the fire-stricken areas in a helicopter on Saturday and huddled with a crisis committee.

"This is irrationality and irresponsibility ... which is affecting the lives of Argentines," she told reporters.

She first had to drive nearly 40 miles north of the capital overland because visibility was too poor.

Satellite images showed wind carrying a swath of white smoke over the capital and across the River Plate as far as Uruguay.

The government said on Friday efforts to contain the fires were failing and that it would prosecute farmers.

"We have been able to contain some areas (of the fire)," Buenos Aires Gov. Daniel Scioli told reporters.

"There has been terrible negligence here," he added. "This can't go on."

The national meteorological service said northerly winds would keep carrying the smoke toward the densely populated Buenos Aires area in coming days. It said there were no rains on the way to help extinguish the blaze.

Setting fire to grasslands is common practice in Argentina, but the smoke cloud shrouding the capital is unusual. Officials attribute the phenomenon to the extreme dryness of pastures coupled with a northerly wind, unusual this time of year.

(Writing by Simon Gardner; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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West Coast Park's marsh garden to undergo rejuvenation project

Channel NewsAsia 19 Apr 08;

SINGAPORE: Visitors to the marshlands at West Coast Park will soon see more flora and fauna, thanks to a S$100,000 contribution by Shell to spruce up the site.

Together with the National Parks Board and students of Commonwealth Secondary School, the marsh is being re-populated with trees, the first step in the rejuvenation project.

Having adopted the marshes of Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve seven years ago, students of Commonwealth Secondary School are budding experts in wetlands flora and fauna.

Ernest Tang, a student of Commonwealth Secondary School, said: "For these trees, what we have to do is to dig quite deep, probably half a metre down the soil and we also cover it with topsoil which are high in nutrients and all the compost soil."

And for these students, the impact of the project will be long-term.

"After I graduate from secondary school, I will also come back to check on the plants in school and also the mangrove trees in the marshland here" said Tang.

The funding from Shell will not go towards sprucing up the coastal marshlands with the installation of signboards and plant tags, but it also help volunteer guides will undergo training. - CNA/vm

Rejuvenation of Marsh Garden @ West Coast Park through NParks-Shell-Commonwealth Secondary partnership
NParks press release 18 Apr 08;

Public can expect new flora, fauna and infrastructure – an enhanced park experience

Singapore, 19 April 2008 - In a few years’ time, visitors to the Marsh Garden at West Coast Park will be able to see more insects and wildlife thriving at the regenerated mangrove habitat.

Through a collaboration made possible with Shell staff and funds, the National Parks Board (NParks) and Commonwealth Secondary School, the one

Marsh Garden will be given a new lease of life with 200 new saplings planted in phases to rejuvenate the mangrove habitat. These species of mangrove plants were proposed by 20 students from Commonwealth Secondary School (Secondary 1 to 3), who went on-site to conduct research, such as checking the soil, water, temperate and humidity levels, before making their recommendations to NParks. They were guided by Dr Shawn Lum, an expert in plant diversity and ecology, evolution, conservation and environmental education from the Ministry of Education.

The aim of the project is to create an ideal environment that will attract interesting wildlife. As part of this rejuvenation project, new signboards and plant tags will be installed along the existing boardwalk to enable visitors to appreciate the rich biodiversity of the Marsh Garden.

Shell is fully funding the improvements that will cost $100,000, as part of its continuing efforts in support of biodiversity and the conservation of local environment. The launch of the Marsh rejuvenation project is also held in conjunction with Earth Day 2008 on 22 April 2008.

Professor Leo Tan, Chairman of the Garden City Fund, said: "We are glad to have the active support and contributions of Shell and Commonwealth Secondary School, and the expertise of Shawn Lum in this project. The Marsh Garden is one of the few mangrove habitats in the western part of Singapore so it is important to conserve it for both biodiversity and educational purposes, for the benefit of all Singapore residents. Through the involvement and collaboration with the 3Ps – the public, private and people sectors, we can all help to increase awareness of greenery and conservation.”

Mr Pieter Eijsberg, General Manager, Shell Eastern Petrochemicals Complex, said: “Shell has been supporting various community environmental programmes through the years. This project with NParks and Commonwealth Secondary School will help to raise public awareness of conservation, as well as encourage our staff and partners to play an active role in community gardening. Together, we can all work towards reviving the natural heritage and beauty of Singapore.”

During monitoring of the saplings planted, NParks will set up a training programme for volunteers to increase their expertise in areas such as wildlife management and environment management. They will also be taught on how to conduct guided walks at the nature areas of West Coast Park.

The Marsh Garden has been in existence since the 1980s. Over the years, the native plants such as Avicennia alba and Acrostichum aureum which were originally found at the mangrove habitat, were slowly overtaken by exotic species such as Acacia auriculiformis and Albizia spp. It is currently home to 15 species of birds and 10 species of plants.

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More dengue cases in Singapore this year compared to same period in 2007

Channel NewsAsia 19 Apr 08;

SINGAPORE: The total number of dengue victims across Singapore this year says the Ministry of Health (MOH)is much higher than in the same period in 2007.

Latest figures show that there were 1,400 reported cases of dengue between January and 12 April this year. This is an increase of 47.3 per cent from the same period last year.

One potential hotspot is construction sites.

The number of reported dengue cases at a construction site at Upper Paya Lebar Road continues to climb. And with 41 cases as of 12 April, it is the largest dengue cluster found in Singapore this year.

Since 14 April, seven more cases have been discovered at this hotspot bringing the total to 41.

Most are foreign workers living on-site. The MOH said 20 victims who were warded for treatment have since been discharged.

Officers from the National Environment Agency have been conducting checks at public areas at HDB estates since the beginning of 2008.

And after that, the fight moves into the homes.

Tai Ji Choong, Head of Operations, National Environment Agency, said: "We're approaching the warmer season in June which is also the season for dengue transmission. So if they start doing their work now, then later on in June, we can actually have a better situation then." - CNA/vm

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Singapore's rice supplies safe despite export restrictions

Channel NewsAsia 19 Apr 08;

SINGAPORE: Singapore's rice supplies are safe even as global rice exporters such as Thailand impose export restrictions. This assurance came from Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, S Iswaran who added that Thailand has promised it will maintain its rice exports this year.

Other countries like Vietnam and India have also said they will review their export restrictions after the current harvest season.

Speaking on the sidelines of a community event, Mr Iswaran stressed that the main issue affecting Singaporeans is that of price.

But the government is monitoring the rice markets closely.

He said: "Quantity as such, is not a major issue for Singapore in particular, because our rice needs are very small compared to the global market. And even if you compare with what Thailand exports, our requirements from Thailand are only one or two per cent of what Thailand's total exports are."

Mr Iswaran also said his Ministry will be addressing the issue of rising food prices when Parliament sits on 21 April. -CNA/vm

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Asian countries must play bigger part in sustainable development

Channel NewsAsia 19 Apr 08;

SINGAPORE: Asian countries need to take more global responsibility when it comes to sustainable development.

Professor Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy made this point on Saturday at an event on sustainable development.

He added that more alternative ideas are needed as western countries become more “incompetent” in managing such global issues.

The increasing decline of the environment has been a pressing issue on the global front, especially so in the last few years.

But Professor Mahbubani said one can't just blame emerging countries like India and China.

He said: "Global warming today is also because of the stock of greenhouse gas emissions that were put up there by over the past century or more by the western industrialized powers."

He said a solution may be reached if western countries agree to pay for their greenhouse gas emissions as well.

Professor Mahbubani added: "The only way to solve the problem of greenhouse gas emissions is to put an economic price on the new greenhouse gas emissions that are coming. But to be fair, if you want to tax the new developing countries for their gas emissions, you also have to put an economic price on the stock that has been put up down there."

He also said Asian countries need to step up and take more responsibility and provide ideas and possible solutions rather than just rely on the West.

Two students from the NUS Business School presented such solutions and they won the Business Plan Challenge with their proposal to convert waste cooking oil into bio-diesel in India.

Neha Gupta, a student from the NUS Business School said: “We just have to remove the fatty acids from the waste cooking oil. It's a chemical process which converts this waste cooking oil into the bio-diesel."

More than 200 students across the Asia Pacific took part in the competition organised by the Indian Institutes of Management Alumni Associations. - CNA/vm

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