Yahoo teams with Freecycle to turn junk into treasure

Glenn Chapman, Yahoo News 20 Apr 08;

Yahoo has unveiled an Earth Day initiative to divert mountains of landfill trash, using the Internet to match people unloading "junk" with those that want the stuff.

Yahoo is hoping to convince its 500 million users worldwide to join Freecycle.org, a nonprofit devoted to finding new homes for just about anything people are getting rid of.

"Our mission is keeping things out of landfills," said Deron Beal, who started Freecycle in 2003 and is its lone staff member.

"Junk only becomes junk after it no longer has any use. It is amazing what things people find uses for."

One Freecycle member put out an online request for socks, with or without holes. She was a school teacher with a class hand puppet project.

Another member gave away a half bottle of left over black hair dye.

Freecycle offerings have included "a box of chocolates, one eaten -- take as quickly as possible."

Beal gave away several tons of concrete chunks left from ripping out his driveway, posting the debris as 'urbanite" in a Freecycle group.

Some went to a community garden and the rest was used in home construction.

The new alliance is a natural given that Freecycle members communicate via Yahoo Groups, private Internet forums that include community emails.

People post or email about what they are seeking to get or give in their Freecycle groups, which are broken down by geography so members are basically communicating with neighbors.

Members interested in offered items respond with messages telling why. Givers choose recipients, who pick things up in-person.

There are Freecycle groups in 85 countries managed by volunteers using their own computers.

"Freecycle is run out of my guest bedroom here and about 10,000 other guest bedrooms worldwide," Beal said.

Freecycle ranks in the top three Yahoo online searches in the conservation category, coming in behind recycling and global warming.

"You have this massive underground movement going on and it is growing like crazy," Beal said.

"That is reassuring, because usually when you see the daily news you think we are doomed. If we are doomed and people are basically greedy, selfish folks then Freecycle wouldn't work. I try to remember that."

If the amount of junk the "free cycle of giving" has diverted from landfills were packed into trash trucks stacked one atop another, the resulting tower would reportedly be four times the height of Mt. Everest.

"This is a delightful example of the power of community," said Erin Carlson, director of Yahoo for Good, the Internet firm's "social responsibility" arm.

"This is something people can do not just on Earth Day, but every day. Everyone has something they'd like to give or get. Green doesn't have to cost more; it can be free."

Yahoo is spotlighting Freecycle on an environmentally-themed Yahoo Green website launched a year ago and is enticing people to join by seeding groups with giveaways including an electric car and organic groceries.

Freecycle membership is nearly five million and Yahoo hopes the alliance causes Freecycle's ranks to swell.

"If you give away an old, ratty sofa not only are you keeping 100 pounds out of a landfill, you are keeping a ton of raw materials from being extracted from Mother Earth," Beal said. "That is where we need to go."

Freecycle does have a short list of things that can't be offered for reuse that includes "old boyfriends, old girlfriends, toilet paper and stapled staples."

"It was hard to come up with things you couldn't Freecycle," Carlson said.

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Prized Tibetan antelope triple in remote reserve

Reuters 21 Apr 08;

BEIJING (Reuters) - The number of prized Tibetan antelope in a remote region of northwest China has tripled to 60,000 in 10 years thanks to a crackdown on illegal hunting, a government website said on Monday.

The Tibetan antelope, or chiru, has been listed as endangered by the World Conservation Union because of commercial poaching for their underwool called shahtoosh. The wool, known as "soft gold", has fuelled a growing illegal trade market in India, Nepal and several western cities since late 1980s.

Environmentalists say five antelope are killed to make a two-meter shawl, which weighs only 150 to 170 grams and is so fine it can be passed through a wedding ring.

"Breeding is increasing in Kekexili due to the improvement of the environment and the fight against illegal hunting," Cai Ga, director of the vast Kekexili Natural Reserve in Qinghai province, was quoted as saying on the Ministry of Forestry website (www.forestry.gov.cn).

In 2006, China built more than 30 special migration underpasses along the new Qinghai-Tibet railway that bisects the animals' feeding grounds.

In February, an award-winning photographer, Liu Weiqiang, admitted he faked a photo showing more than 20 Tibetan antelope roaming peacefully under a railway bridge as a train roared overhead.

The animal lives above the tree line at an altitude of more than 14,000 ft. "Its natural environment is one of harsh bitter winds, minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter, with occasional snowstorms even during the short summers," according to the Save the Chiru website (www.kekexili.com)

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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Greenpeace wants moratorium on palm oil expansion in Indonesia

Yahoo News 21 Apr 08;

Greenpeace called for a moratorium Monday on the expansion of palm oil plantations in Indonesia's rainforests and peat-lands, warning that soaring world demand is creating an environmental crisis.

It said a two-year investigation into the health of the country's rainforests and peat-lands showed "wholesale" destruction driven by demand from food, cosmetic and biofuel companies.

"Given the urgent nature of the crisis the only solution for the global climate, the regional environment, the wildlife and the forest-dependent communities ... is a moratorium on oil palm expansion into rainforest and peat-land areas," the environment watchdog said in a statement.

It accused Anglo-Dutch food group Unilever, one of the largest palm oil corporate consumers in the world, of being behind the destruction of forest and peat-land in Central Kalimantan province on Borneo island.

It said Unilever annually consumed 1.3 million tonnes of palm oil or palm oil derivatives with over half coming from Indonesia.

"Unilever has failed to use its power to lead the palm oil sector toward sustainability, either through its own palm oil purchasing or through its role as leader of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil," Greenpeace said.

Satellite data shows Unilever suppliers are behind the rapid expansion of oil palm plantations in Central Kalimantan, where orang-utans are on the brink of extinction, it said.

The destruction of Indonesia's forests is seen as a major contributor to global warming and climate change.

Indonesia is likely to overtake Malaysia as the world's top palm oil producer in 2007, due to the dramatically increased area under plantation.

Malaysia is expected to produce 15.82 million tonnes of crude palm oil in 2007 while Indonesia's production estimate for the same year stands at 16.4 million tonnes.

Malaysia and Indonesia together produce 85 percent of the world's palm oil which is enjoying a boom on the back of strong global demand and tight supply.

Unilever accused over rainforest destruction
Charles Clover, The Telegraph 21 Apr 08;

The company behind brands such as Flora, Persil, Dove, Knorr and Walls has been accused of one of the greatest environmental crimes ever committed by contributing to the destruction of the orang utan's last forest habitat in Borneo.

The campaigning group Greenpeace published a report accusing Unilever, the huge multinational, and its suppliers of spearheading the clearance of forest in Kalimantan, Indonesia, and contributing to global warming.

The group launched simultaneous protests at the company's offices across Europe with 60 volunteers dressed as orang utans disrupting Unilever's factory at Port Sunlight and greeted employees at the company's London HQ with screeching mating calls and orang utans climbing the building.

In Rotterdam, six activists scaled the exterior of Unilever's HQ and hung out a banner in Dutch reading "Unilever don't destroy the forests". In Rome, protesters in orang utan suits dumped a large box reading "stop Dove from destroying rain forests" in front of the main entrance.

Greenpeace's report, Burning up Borneo, says that Unilever uses 1.3 million tons of palm oil or derivative products a year, some three per cent of global production. It says the company gets half of this from Indonesia, now the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet because of deforestation.

The report says there is currently a massive expansion into Kalimantan's peatland forest areas by Unilever's suppliers and accuses the company of derailing international efforts to tackle climate change.

Tim Birch, Greenpeace's International forests campaigner, said: "Unilever, the company behind big brands like Dove, is contributing to one of the greatest environmental crimes ever committed.

"By doing nothing to stop its suppliers destroying rainforests and peatlands to grow palm oil, it is not only killing off the last remaining orang-utans on the planet but also speeding up climate change.

"Unless Unilever cleans up its act then the orang-utan could be extinct within a few years, and our chances of avoiding climate disaster could disappear with it."

Unilever chairs the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an industry body charged with ensuring the sustainability of palm oil. Greenpeace says that despite the RSPO being established in 2002 there is still no certified environmentally sustainable palm oil on the market and forest destruction continues apace.

Greenpeace is calling on Unilever to end the expansion of palm oil into forest and peatland areas and stops trading with suppliers that continue to destroy rainforests.

"Unilever pretends to be a responsible company, but what it's really responsible for is profiting from rainforest destruction. If they invested as much in sorting out their suppliers as they do on greenwashing their brand, they could fix this problem for good."

A spokesman for Unilever said: "We share the same concerns as everyone else about the expansion of palm oil production.

"We do use palm oil in some of our products but we also have a long history of promoting sustainability; for example, in tea and fish. We are the leaders in the search for solutions to achieving sustainable palm oil.

"In November the RSPO agreed on a certification system for sustainable palm oil production. The criteria for this system address many of Greenpeace's concerns.

"The problem is simply that demand of palm oil has exploded. This is due partly to growing demand from India and China and also due to the use of palm oil as a feedstock for biofuels in the energy sector.

"It is essential that all those involved sign up to agreed criteria to make sustainability work on the ground - but this is not an easy process and is taking longer than we would all like. Nevertheless, we remain absolutely committed to finding a solution."

Palm Oil Protests Target Unilever Sites
Avril Ormsby, PlanetArk 22 Apr 08;

LONDON - Environmental demonstrators targeted Unilever on Monday, entering plants and scaling walls, including those of its London headquarters.

About 40 members of Greenpeace entered the multinational's factory in Wirral, Merseyside, while about a dozen dressed in orang-utan outfits demonstrated outside its London headquarters, with some climbing its front walls.

About 20 demonstrated outside the Rotterdam offices of the Anglo-Dutch corporation, while protests also took place at smaller offices in Rome.

They are demonstrating against the source of Unilever's palm oil, an ingredient in foods and soaps as well as a bio-fuel added to diesel for cars.

Greenpeace says the peatland forests of Indonesia, one of the last remaining habitats of the orang-utan, is being damaged to provide palm oil.

Greenpeace Executive Director John Sauven said: "Greenpeace is demanding Unilever publicly calls for an end to the expansion of palm oil into forest and peatland areas and stops trading with suppliers that continue to destroy rainforests."

The group says there are alternative sources of palm oil, which it is urging Unilever to use.

Unilever is a member of the multi-national Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). It owns many household name brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products and buys some 1.3 million tonnes of palm oil a year, making it, according to Greenpeace, the world's single largest buyer of the product.

It uses 800,000 tonnes for food products, such as Flora margarine, and 500,000 tonnes for soap and cosmetics.

Greenpeace is targeting the Dove soap and shampoo brand, using a spoof of its "real beauty" advertising campaign.

A Unilever spokesman said of its palm oil operations: "We are looking to determine what actions need to be taken, if any, and will look at the supply chain."

Unilever said it was unclear whether the demonstrations had affected production on Merseyside.

The protests, which are peaceful, are expected to last much of the day.

Merseyside and City of London police both said they were monitoring the situation.

Additional reporting by Reed Stevenson; Editing by Steve Addison

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Asian Development Bank: Biofuels making food more expensive

Gillian Wong, Associated Press Yahoo News 21 Apr 08;

Developed nations should stop paying agricultural subsidies to encourage biofuel production because the payments are making staple foods more expensive, the Asian Development Bank said Monday.

Biofuels should also be re-examined by governments around the world as it is increasingly unclear how environmentally friendly they are, ADB Managing Director General Rajat Nag said in an interview with The Associated Press. The production of biofuel leads to forests being destroyed and reduced land area for growing crops for food, he said.

"We feel that the developed countries should seriously rethink the whole issue of biofuel, particularly the biofuel subsidies," Nag said. "Giving subsidies for biofuels ... basically acts as an implicit tax on staple foods."

Paying farmers to grow oilseed and other crops to produce biofuels means they grow fewer food crops, resulting in higher prices for such staples as palm oil and corn.

Nag did not give examples, but countries that subsidize biofuel include the U.S., the world's largest producer of ethanol, which is made mostly from corn and other grain crops. The country's farm subsidy programs include payments for ethanol production.

"We believe it is more important to let the developed country farmers decide on what they will plant, based on the relative prices, based on the international prices, but not subsidized prices," he said.

Surging food prices, stoked by rising fuel costs that have increased production and transport costs, have triggered protests around the world in recent weeks. Riots have erupted over food shortages in the Caribbean and Africa and hunger is approaching crisis stage in parts of Asia.

Nag said rising food prices will be top on the agenda of the ADB's annual board of governors meeting in Madrid next week.

He urged governments faced with rising food prices not to impose price caps or export bans, as the measures could prove counterproductive. Price controls are disincentives for farmers amid the rising costs, he said.

"The cost of production is going up, so the obvious, rational reaction (to price caps) of the farmer is to reduce planting, which is exactly the opposite of what we want. We want production to increase, not decrease," he said.

Nag said governments should instead consider targeted cash income transfers to the poor. The Manila-based bank was ready to provide loans to governments to help ease the situation, he said, but added that no country has made any specific requests yet.

"If the governments go for the targeted income support, obviously this will add to the fiscal burden of the governments, so ADB will be very responsive and willing to consider budget support for the government, and providing program loans," he said.

In Asia, Nag said, the supply of rice to the region remained adequate even though stocks have slipped to their lowest in decades.

"We want to get the focus away from being dramatized or an overreaction to the supply situation. It is tight, no doubt about it," he said. "But it is not a situation when rice is not available in the region as a whole."

Nag said, however, that the rapid increase in the price of rice had a "very serious impact" on the region's poor, who spend a large proportion of their income on food.

"The prices have increased very dramatically, almost three times in the last one year and almost twice in the last three months," he said.

Nag said the hardest hit by rising food prices in the Asia Pacific include 600 million people who survive on a dollar a day or less, and about the same number who live on just above a dollar — making up a group of about 1.2 billion who are vulnerable.

The region's poor usually spend about half of their budgets on food, but recent increases have pushed that proportion to about 80 percent in some parts of South Asia, he said.

Read more!

No improvement in climate fight since 2006 film: Gore

Yahoo News 20 Apr 08;

Nobel Peace Prize-winner Al Gore said in an interview published Monday that there had been no improvement in the fight against climate change since his Oscar-winning film on the issue was released.

Speaking to The Sun tabloid, the former US vice-president said that the situation had instead gotten worse since his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" hit cinemas in 2006.

"I have to say the situation has not improved since I made the movie in 2006," Gore told the paper.

"Sure, awareness has grown and more people are concerned since scientists said we had just 10 years to take action to halt rising sea levels. But the situation has got worse. The entire North Polar ice cap is melting and could be gone in some areas in as little as five years.

"You have to ask what would it take to set off the alarm bells to make this a top-of-mind priority in the body politic.

"If you had told me a few years ago that we would be facing a situation where the entire North Polar ice cap was going to imminently disappear, I might have thought we'd certainly get people's attention, and yet only to a limited degree."

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 21 Apr 08

Volunteers needed for study on our food supplies
including overseas survey, find out more about where your food comes from on the leafmonkey blog

Making money from our coasts and waterlines
another 'let's make money from our coasts' letter today, on the wildfilms blog

Removing Snaring Nets and Mind Traps
on the flying fish friends blog

Hantu cleared of ghost net, thoughts arise for Earth Day
on the hantu blog

Earth Day and Singapore's reefs and shores
upcoming activities on the singapore celebrates our reefs blog

Bicycles in the Land Transport Masterplan 2008
on the habitatnews blog

Naked on Rouge TV
the crabs broadcast about our marinelife on the adventures with the naked hermit crabs blog and more details on how you can visit our shores.

For Families With Kids At Bishan Park 2 Dog Run, Nursery Plants And More Under The Sun on the Seen This Scene That blog

Read more!

‘Biodiversity in region endangered’: ASEAN Center for Biodiversity

Katherine Adraneda, Philippines Star 21 Apr 08;

The ASEAN Center for Biodiversity (ACB) yesterday called for intensified environment conservation in Southeast Asia, as it declared a “red alert” for the region’s rich biodiversity.

This, as the ACB described Southeast Asia’s rich biodiversity as “highly threatened” due to massive forest conversion and wildlife hunting and trade.

According to ACB executive director Rodrigo Fuentes, there will be massive species decline and extinction in Southeast Asia if governments would fail to strengthen further efforts to protect the environment.

He even warned that biodiversity in the region could spell tragedy for the world since Southeast Asia is the richest reservoir of plant and animal life on earth.

The ACB noted that the ASEAN region, while occupying only three percent of the earth’s surface, contains the natural habitats of up to 40 percent of all species on earth.

The region also has one-third or 84,000 square kilometers of all coral reefs.

However, the ACB also said that the region is home to seven of the world’s 25 biodiversity hotspots.

It pointed out that from the 64,800 known species, at least 1,300 are endangered, while 80 percent of its coral reefs are at risk due to destructive fishing practices and coral bleaching.

“Without a concerted effort to protect and conserve biodiversity, Southeast Asia’s 580 million people and the entire human race are in danger,” the ACB said.

Fuentes said loss of biodiversity in Southeast Asia could be primarily blamed on forest conversion in the region.

He said forest conversion is driven by large-scale deforestation for timber by commercial logging activities, shifting cultivation, large-scale mining, and agricultural expansion.

He said these lead to loss of habitat for many birds, mammals and other animals; reduced pollinator activity; decline in species richness and populations and overall reduction in biodiversity.

In Sumatra, for instance, there has been a decline from 80 to 33 percent, from 1980-2001, in forest cover within 50-kilometer periphery, the ACB said.

Meanwhile, the ACB said incidents of forest fires in the region in 1997-1998, 2002 and 2006, resulted in the population decline, and high infant and juvenile mortality in many animals, as well as reduced seedling and sapling population for many tree species.

“Biodiversity loss could trigger enormous effects on food security, health, shelter, medicine, and aesthetic and other life sustaining resources,” Fuentes also said.

Aside from forest conversion, the ACB said wildlife hunting and trade for food, pet, and medicinal purposes also contribute to biodiversity loss in the ASEAN region.

Overall, it said, wildlife was extracted from forests at more than six times the sustainable rate.

Moreover, the ACB said that increasing human population and poverty, climate change, and lack of financial resources likewise contributes to biodiversity loss.

On the other hand, the ACB said climate change could have the largest proportional effect on biodiversity in extreme environments (e.g., Arctic, boreal zones).

ACB data showed that in Sarawak, 2.6 million animals were hunted each year for bush meat while in Sabah, 108 million animals suffered the same fate.

The data further indicated that in 2000, Indonesia contributed about 29 percent of global exports for snake and lizard skins while Singapore imported 7,093 live animals and had a total net export of 301,905 animal skins in the same year.

From 1975 to 1992, Korea imported 6,128 kilograms of tiger bones, 60 percent of which were from Indonesia while in China, tigers, rhinos, turtles, snakes and monkeys continue to be major sources of traditional Chinese medicine, the ACB data added.

On the occasion of Earth Day tomorrow, the ACB appealed to international and regional organizations, governments, private corporations and foundations, communities and individuals to support its programs.

The ACB, with funding support from the European Union, is an intergovernmental regional center that facilitates cooperation and coordination among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the conservation and sustainable use of the region’s already dwindling biodiversity resources.

So far, among the efforts taken by ASEAN member countries in order to foster and ensure conservation of the region’s biodiversity include its ratification of a number of international agreements with biodiversity concerns.

Read more!

Create a 'Gold Coast' at East Coast Park

Letter from Michael Tan Jiak Ngee, Straits Times Forum 21 Apr 08;

I READ with interest that the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is opening up land outside the central area (for example in Balestier) for hotel development.

I commend the move. It will help meet the high demand for rooms now and in the years ahead. It will also help to ameliorate the growing congestion in the Central Business
District.

The choice and location of new tourism projects are significant for Singapore. I feel we can and should do more to exploit our valuable waterfront assets.

It is noteworthy that Sentosa has made successful inroads in the tourism sector and, lately, the luxury residential market. It is not by coincidence our two integrated resorts are situated near the waterfront.

I wonder if the URA and the Singapore Tourism Board have studied the feasibility of creating our own 'Gold Coast' at the East Coast Park.

It is an exquisite diamond waiting to be cut and polished.

The land area is massive, stretching from the Big Splash to the Lagoon, with lush vegetation and trees nestling the waterfront. It has all the qualities to be transformed into a major tourism/leisure hub with an array of iconic waterfront hotels and related amenities.

Such a hub at the East Coast Park will not encroach on the present activities of Singaporeans in the area. Good planning can ensure that the interests of both tourists and Singaporeans are met.

Another idea which may seem to be a long shot is for an 'experimental eco-theme hotel' to be built at one of our major reservoirs.

Obviously, the design must blend in with the rich vegetation and tranquillity. It will offer a select group of discerning tourists, and Singaporeans, a new kind of 'natural habitat experience'.

While the two major integrated resorts, together with other exciting facilities, will undoubtedly take Singapore tourism to new heights, it will be unwise to believe that their magic will last forever.

We need to continue to innovate and reinvent to broaden our international appeal - thus staying ahead in the expanding global tourism market.

Some comments on the Straits Times Forum to the article

Gold Coast in Australia also know as Surfers' Paradise because of her beautiful waves, beautiful beaches and clear blue water. What we have at East Coast Park. Full of flotsams and jetsams in the water and on the beach. How to be a Gold Coast in Singapore??
Posted by: Sangeba888 at Tue Apr 22 23:18:43 SGT 2008

Dear Michael,
Have you ever been to the Gold Coast? If so you would have noticed the following:
1 Miles and miles of pristine beach with powdery white sand.
2 Crystal clear, unpolluted water.
3 Beautiful climate with low humidity and clear blue skies.

Is there any connection with the east coast whatsoever?
Posted by: jockstrap at Tue Apr 22 00:21:34 SGT 2008

Two words which totally dismantle this great suggestion ... Eastern Anchorage
Posted by: BBJ at Mon Apr 21 21:09:50 SGT 2008


they are not up to the job. still too much restrictions and 'no no no' to anything out of norm. so it will always be East Coast - with trees lined up in straight lines. the rigid inflexible mindset of planners precludes any resemblance to Gold Coast.
limboonhee April 21, 2008 Monday, 07:00 AM


East coast is already overcrowded, especially during weekends. Can't we have just a little bit of peace and tranquility? Where can we go for relaxation during weekends now?
lancelin Default April 21, 2008 Monday, 07:59 AM


Let's see if the writer, if living at East Coast, would be so enthusiastic if a massive hotel were to be built between his bedroom window and what was once his sea view?

Perhaps if living there he would also like to volunteer his home as a "local inland attraction" - window entertainment for those at the luxury resort who cannot afford the sea-facing rooms?
readi April 21, 2008 Monday, 08:18 AM

In any development, there are impacts to existing users and residents and to the environment that we leave behind for future Singaporeans.

To see only the money to be made without considering these impacts will indeed be, as the writer himself put it: "unwise to believe that their magic will last forever".

A truly sustainable development will need to consider the long term impact, and many issues. Some of these are highlighted in this post http://wildfilms.blogspot.com/2008/0...oasts-and.html
wildsingapore April 21, 2008 Monday, 09:44 AM


Since we are going to develop west coast, why don't we incorporate this idea into that plan.
hebimaruko April 21, 2008 Monday, 10:49 AM

I live in the east coast and pay a high price for what mm lee once said about the lucky residents of marine parade hdb dwellers, they have got a million dollar view for a song. So lets keep it that way, besides how can we compare to the gold coast. Lets be realistic. Lets harness our strength. We cannot be the wall street, the london, the monaco, the macau the switzerland and now the gold coast all at once. we seem to forget that we are just 700 sq kilometres of an island which a former president of a neighbouring country once said we are but a red dot. The URA has done a tremendous job keeping all of us from running into each other, lets keep the greenery in east coast and let us enjoy our green lung.
TeoWilly April 21, 2008 Monday, 12:53 PM


I believe Disneyland or DisneySea, will be coming to Marina South soon. Commercial premises have already vacated from Marina South. Gold Coast I think may have to wait.
Sangeba888 April 21, 2008 Monday, 01:33 PM

Does the letter writer even realize that the tiny strip of "beach" which is our East Coast is gradually eroding away?

Whatever is left of the beach is almost always littered with debris and rubbish from the busy anchorage just off the East Coast.

It is a far cry from the Gold Coast.
flameback April 21, 2008 Monday, 05:32 PM

Marina South is being developed into the new Gardens at the Bay lah. Hasn't it been in the news enough for the average man on the street to register its development?
flameback April 21, 2008 Monday, 05:34 PM

No!!! Leave East Coast Park the way it is. Green. Relaxing, tranquil.
angelawangyixin April 21, 2008 Monday, 05:53 PM

Suggesting creating a "Gold Coast" in East Coast Park is like suggesting building a theme park with safari rides in Bukit Timah Reserve. Please keep whatever we have left of nature.
angelawangyixin April 21, 2008 Monday, 06:16 PM

Related links

Making money from our coasts and waterlines
some issues to consider on the wildfilms blog

Read more!

Going green: Singapore still has a long way to go

Koh Seng Leong, Straits Times Forum 21 Apr 08;

IS SINGAPORE really a 'green' and 'eco-friendly' society? What I see around me makes me wonder.

Consider the use of plastic bags. I read in the papers that every year, millions and millions of such bags are disposed of by Singaporeans.

We are one of the smallest countries in the world and yet Singapore is the world's biggest user of plastic bags per person.

Step into any supermarket or petrol kiosk and buy a small packet of tissues - and the cashier will surely put it into a plastic bag without even asking. This bag will end up in the garbage when you reach home.

On the first Wednesday of this month, I was at NTUC FairPrice and Cold Storage. It was 'Bring Your Own Bag Day'. But guess what ? Cashiers at both supermarkets were still packing groceries into plastic bags just like it was any other day.

Going green and eco-friendly is not so difficult. There are already many tried and tested solutions. We just have to follow the good examples.

Already many countries in Europe and also South Africa make people pay 50 cents for every plastic bag they use.

Enough of education, awareness and coaxing.

When people have to pay even 20 cents for a plastic bag, they will naturally bring their own bags.

Read more!

Singapore students and environmental programmes for Earth Day

For orphans, a gift of life
Clean water for orphanages as Singapore students head for Vietnam
Tan Hui Leng, Today Online 21 Apr 08;

With environmental awareness being the buzzword today, student-led expeditions are taking on a more focused approach to improving living conditions for people.

One of the early adopters of the cause is Yio Chu Kang Primary School, with 28 students making their foray into Vietnam next month.

Not just concerned with visiting the usual eco-tourist attractions like Halong Bay and Cuc Phong National Park, the students will also set up a clean water filter system for two orphanages in the capital Hanoi and in Thai Binh province.

"The water there is fairly polluted and there have been problems of dysentery and diarrhoea," said programme director of environmental group Hemispheres Foundation, Mr Adrian Phua. "The filter system would improve this."

The group is organising the trip for Yio Chu Kang Primary School. It is also in talks with a few other schools to bring similar programmes to Vietnam and Cambodia.

Yesterday, Yio Chu Kang Primary School also won the third prize in a website creation competition organised by Hemispheres Foundation.

Coming in first was Tao Nan School, which was represented by one of the youngest teams in the competition for primary, secondary and junior college students.

On Tao Nan School's website (picture, http://freewebs.com/save-our-globe/index.htm), the group of four Primary 6 students showed how one can save the earth in little ways every day — from taking public transport, using refillable pens to switching off the lights when not required.

With Earth Day coming up tomorrow, schools are up and about spreading the word.

Commonwealth Secondary School, together with National Parks Board, is also doing their bit for the environment as they have been planting trees at the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve.

Read more!

Mercury in fish warning: Relax, seafood sold in Singapore is safe, says AVA

ST test of 7 kinds of fish shows level of mercury within US safety limits
Judith Tan, Straits Times 21 Apr 08;

ALTHOUGH Hong Kong has joined the chorus of warnings against toxic levels of mercury in certain kinds of fish, it is still safe to keep fish on your shopping list here.

The 'all clear' comes from the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), and an independent test commissioned by The Straits Times shows why.

The United States' Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has stipulated that fish must not contain more than 1 part per million (ppm) of mercury, and so have equivalent bodies in the European Union, Australia and New Zealand.

The AVA here has set the bar higher - at no more than 0.5 ppm.

Tests on six kinds of fish sold here showed that they had less than 0.5 ppm of mercury in them.

Only tuna steak - the kind used to make sushi and sashimi - registered 0.74 ppm, slightly outside the AVA's benchmark.

In any case, all these fish passed the FDA's safety-level test of 1 ppm of mercury.

Pregnant and nursing women who eat contaminated fish and shellfish are in danger of passing on the toxins to the unborn or the children they are nursing.

Children up to age 10 can also be harmed by exposure to mercury, which can impair the development of their brains. Brain functions such as memory and ability with language could be compromised and personality changes could take place.

Warnings of these risks first came from the United States and New Zealand.

Then last Thursday, Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety chimed in to warn pregnant women and children against eating large predatory fish and those which may contain high levels of mercury.

These include shark, swordfish, marlin, alfonsino and tuna, especially the bigeye and bluefin species.

TUV SUD PSB, a body which issues product certification here, tested some samples of fish for The Straits Times, and found higher concentrations of mercury in tuna steaks than other fish.

But six fish varieties sold here - cod, halibut, threadfin, salmon, pink dory and mackerel - were well within AVA's safety levels of 0.5 ppm in the test done for ST.

Fish consumed in Singapore generally have low levels of mercury or none at all, noted AVA spokesman Goh Shih Yong.

The agency has been monitoring mercury levels in a large variety of fish and seafood since 1980.

The reputation of fish as being 'healthier' than red meat has been sullied by this issue, but scientists say it is still hard to know the risks behind eating any specific piece of fish.

Seafood is popular here, with 100,000 tonnes chowed down every year.

The increasingly international Singapore palate has developed a definite weakness for the raw fish in sushi and sashimi.

About 2,800 tonnes of tuna are imported from China, India, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea every year.

Mr Goh said that, with tuna here containing 0.74 ppm of mercury, an average-size adult weighing about 60kg can safely eat up to 55g of it every day.

He said: 'While seafood is generally very safe to eat, we can still take precautionary measures to minimise food safety risks through careful selection and handling, and by ensuring our seafood dishes are well-cooked.'

Eating a variety of fish and other foods has also been recommended.

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UWC Singapore to open green campus

Eco features at Tampines school will cut energy use by 25%
Jane Ng, Straits Times 21 Apr 08;

UNITED World College South-east Asia's second campus in Tampines will be an eco-friendly one, complete with solar panels, sky gardens and a rainwater tank.

The campus, to be ready in 2010, aims to save the Earth as well as money while teaching environmental lessons to its students, said college head Julian Whiteley.

The rainwater tank, for instance, will have a see-through pipe running from it, so students can watch rainwater being collected and filtered for use in the school's gardens.

The green features in the $300 million school for students aged five to 18 will cut energy consumption by 25 per cent, said Mr Whiteley.

Besides theatres, music studios, language and science laboratories as well as art rooms, the school will also have a section for children - with a treehouse, a pool and two playgrounds.

It will have one other feature no school here is known to have: A 50m-long tubular slide that can whoosh students from the second level down to the garden.

Mr Whiteley said the 'practical' design excludes slabs of granite, which are expensive, and full-length glass walls, which make air-conditioning systems work harder.

At 5.5ha, the campus will be about half the size of its Dover one.

It will, however, make up for its smaller land area with space-savers like an elevated soccer field and underground sports halls and carparks.

It will also have a 19-storey boarding house for foreign students here on scholarships.

The campus was planned to mop up demand from the growing number of expatriates here. It will take in 2,500 students eventually, compared to the 2,900 at its Dover campus.

Until the campus is ready, students will use an interim campus in Ang Mo Kio. It will start off with 420 pupils, from kindergarten to Grade Four, when it opens in August.

The rising number of expatriates - up from 798,000 in 2005 to 875,500 in 2006 - is putting a squeeze on international schools here.

Mr Whiteley said the average waiting time for a place at UWC is four years, but some parents make enquiries even before their children are born.

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Canada's polar bears in dire straits: WWF

Reuters 20 Apr 08;

Some of Canada's polar bear populations risk being wiped out within four decades because of climate change and human activity including hunting, the World Wide Fund For Nature warned Sunday.

Canada, whose frozen north is home to two-thirds of all polar bears, is contributing to the creatures' decline by failing to take action to curb its emissions of greenhouse gases, WWF-Canada official Peter Ewins said.

"There is rapidly mounting evidence that many polar bear populations are in crisis as a result of sea-ice habitat loss, over-hunting and industrial development pressures," said Ewins, head of species conservation at WWF-Canada.

"Without strong leadership from the prime minister (Stephen Harper) to change our outdated approach to how we manage our natural resources, some polar bear populations will become extinct by 2050," he warned in a press release.

The WWF statement was released as the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada prepares to issue recommendations to the Harper government on Friday this week.

Polar bears' habitat on Arctic sea ice will continue to melt without an "aggressive plan" by Harper's government to reduce emissions, conserve energy and develop renewable energy, the environmental group said.

Over-hunting in the Nunavut and Greenland regions has contributed to a "massive" decline of 30 percent in the Baffin Bay polar bear population in the past 10 years, it said.

The group also noted the habitat of polar bears and whales in the Beaufort Sea is set to be sold off for oil and gas exploration on June 2, without "proper resource planning that would protect such sensitive wildlife habitats."

"Research is showing that increasing numbers of Beaufort Sea polar bears are starving and walking all the way to Russia, or far inland, in search of food," Ewins said.

Increasing numbers of the bears are being killed as they forage wider for food and come into contact with human settlements.

An emaciated mother bear and her two cubs were shot dead by Canadian police in early April at the community of Deline in the Northwest Territories, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the Arctic Circle.

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Oil running out as prime energy source: world poll

Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters 20 Apr 08;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Most people believe oil is running out and governments need to find another fuel, but Americans are alone in thinking their leaders are out of touch with reality on this issue, an international poll said on Sunday.

On average, 70 percent of respondents in 15 countries and the Palestinian territories said they thought oil supplies had peaked. Only 22 percent of the nearly 15,000 respondents in nations ranging from China to Mexico believed enough new oil would be found to keep it a primary fuel source.

"What's most striking is there's such a widespread consensus around the world that oil is running out and governments need to make a real effort to find new sources of energy," said Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org, a global research organization that conducted the poll.

Concerns over climate change, which is spurred by emissions from fossil fuels including oil, also were a factor among respondents, Kull said.

The current tightening of the oil market is not temporary but will continue and the price of oil will rise substantially, most respondents said.

"They think it's just going to keep going higher and a fundamental adaptation is necessary," Kull said in a telephone interview.

In the United States, the world's biggest oil consumer and among the biggest emitters of climate-warming pollution from fossil fuel use, 76 percent of respondents said oil is running out, but most believed the U.S. government mistakenly assumes there would be enough to keep oil a main source of fuel.

U.S. GOVERNMENT "NOT FACING REALITY"

"Americans perceive that the government is not facing reality," Kull said.

The United States is alone among major industrialized nations in rejecting the Kyoto Protocol, which aims to limit greenhouse gas emissions that exacerbate global warming.

Last week, President George W. Bush said U.S. greenhouse emissions, especially carbon dioxide spewed by the burning of fossil fuels like oil, would stop growing by 2025 but gave no details on how this would come about.

The announcement drew sharp criticism from environmental groups. Others pointed out this means emissions will continue to grow for the next 17 years.

Only in Nigeria did a majority -- 53 percent -- believe enough new oil would be found to keep it a primary energy source, a reflection of its status as a major oil exporter and member of OPEC.

The poll was conducted in China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, Mexico, Britain, France, Iran, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Egypt, Turkey, South Korea and the Palestinian territories.

The margin of error varied from country to country, ranging from plus or minus 3 percentage points to plus or minus 4.5 percentage points, Kull said.

WorldPublicOpinion.org involves research centers around the world, and the locations of these centers determined which countries were included in the poll. Kull noted that the poll included countries that make up 58 percent of the global population.

The project is managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland.

(Editing by Xavier Briand)

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Biofuels won't solve world energy problem: Shell

Alex Lawler, Reuters 20 Apr 08;

ROME (Reuters) - Biofuels will not solve the world's energy problem, the chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell said on Sunday, amid growing criticism of their environmental and social benefits.

The remarks follow protests in Brazil and Europe against fuels derived from food crops. Food shortages and rising costs have set off rioting and protests in countries including Haiti, Cameroon, Niger and Indonesia.

"The essential point of biofuels is over time they will play a role," Jeroen van der Veer, chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, told reporters on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum. "But there are high expectations what role they will play in the short term."

The oil minister for Qatar, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, had harsher words to say about biofuels at the energy forum, a gathering of producers and consumers.

"Now the world is facing a shortage of food," Qatar's Abdullah al-Attiyah said, answering a question at a news conference.

"I don't think we should blame oil, we should blame biofuels."

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

Biofuels are set to play a growing role. The European Union agreed last year to get 10 percent of all transport fuel from biofuels by 2020 to help fight climate change.

But concern over meeting the biofuels targets has fuelled fears that sky-high food prices may rise even further if fertile arable land in Europe is turned over to growing "energy crops".

First-generation biofuels usually come from food crops such as wheat, maize, sugar or vegetable oils. They need energy-intensive inputs like fertilizer, which make it harder to cut emissions contributing to climate change.

Second-generation biofuels would use non-food products such as straw and waste lumber. So far, their production has been mostly experimental.

"Biofuels are all about how you develop them without unintended consequences. It is not only the competition with food, it is also the competition for sweet water in the world," Shell's Van der Veer said.

An official from the International Energy Agency also said the impact of biofuels should have been forseen.

"Maybe we should have anticipated them better," the IEA's deputy executive director, William Ramsay, said.

"But when you have a combination of things happening at the same time -- increasing demand for energy-intensive food, terrific droughts, things like that -- then add to that the competition in certain markets for food and fuel, the preconditions are there."

(Additional reporting by Simon Webb)

Growing world needs every form of energy: Shell
Reuters 20 Apr 08;

ROME (Reuters) - The world will need every form of energy available -- from coal to biofuels -- to keep pace with a booming population, the chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell said on Sunday.

Jeroen van der Veer also said record oil prices, which hit $117 a barrel on Friday, had yet to curb the thirst for fuel.

"... Despite high prices, demand is not dropping, there is only slower growth. Easy oil and easy gas cannot supply all that surge in demand," he told reporters on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum.

"So it is not a matter of choice, do we do coal, or oil, or nuclear? The world will need everything, including biofuels. You name it."

Costly oil is starting to erode some demand in top energy consumer the United States, where the price of gasoline has shot beyond $3 a gallon.

But so far, consumers in emerging economies such as India and China have been shielded by subsidized fuel prices.

"We had expected maybe a bit more elasticity with the oil price (and demand). But it may come with a delay," said van der Veer.

"Because certain countries, that are pretty large have subsidies -- like India, like China. So you are still to have a reaction."

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