Channel NewsAsia 23 Apr 08;
SINGAPORE : The National Environment Agency (NEA) is launching a campaign to get households to reduce the amount of electricity used.
It says households use 78 percent more electricity now, compared to 12 years ago.
The 'Energy Challenge Campaign', which will be launched at Suntec City on April 26, targets 1.12 million households.
NEA says households can play a key role in Singapore's drive to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate climate change. - CNA/de
Michael McCarthy, The Independent 23 Apr 08;
Why are we asking this now?
Because yesterday Britain's beekeepers, an eminently peaceful and undemonstrative group of people, felt steamed up enough about the issue to mount a lobby of Parliament, bending the ears of peers and MPs.
What are they lobbying for?
They want the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to carry out an urgent research programme into the diseases that seem increasingly to be threatening honey bees in Britain and in other parts of the world. The beekeepers have costed the programme at £8m over five years. The Food and Farming Minister, Lord Rooker, accepts that bees are facing serious threats. In fact, he himself has warned that honey bees could be wiped out in Britain. But he says that Defra simply doesn't have the cash to fund the research.
What are these threats?
Bee colonies have always been vulnerable to disease because they are densely packed environments through which infections can spread rapidly; a bacterial infection known as foulbrood has been known for more than a century. But in recent years the threats have grown. One of the biggest has been the varroa mite, a tiny insect that feeds off the bodily liquids of bees in the hive, especially in their larval stages. The mite, which carries a damaging virus and can wipe out whole bee colonies, was first detected in the US in 1987 and in Britain in 1992; now it has spread to much of the world. It can be contained with chemicals, but increasingly, the mites are developing resistance to the chemicals used against them.
Other damaging hive invaders from other parts of the globe, which have not yet been seen in Britain but may well be on the way here, driven by climate change, include the small hive beetle, the parasitic brood mite, and the Asian hornet. But the biggest fear of all concerns Colony Collapse Disorder.
What is Colony Collapse Disorder?
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is a recently-observed but little-understood phenomenon in which worker bees from a colony or hive abruptly disappear, and the colony dies. It may be due to stress, or viruses, or a combination of both, or other causes. It began to be noticed in the US in the autumn of 2006 and the spring of 2007, and was thought to be devastating bee colonies in more than 20 states, but enormous uncertainty still surrounds the condition, as hives and colonies can collapse for other reasons, especially during the winter. CCD is thought to have been detected in several countries of continental Europe, but not yet in Britain. Beekeepers are on tenterhooks.
So does this mean that Britain's bee colonies are safe for the moment?
Not according to the British Beekeepers' Association (BBKA), which represents those people in straw hats, veils and gloves. In January the BBKA warned that the threats were so great that if urgent action was not taken, honey bees would disappear completely from Britain by 2018, causing "calamitous" economic and environmental problems. Hence yesterday's lobbying of parliament.
But surely all bees do is make honey?
Far from it. They certainly do make honey, but more importantly, they are an essential agent of pollination for a vast range of plants, many of which are important human foodstuffs. Without the presence of bees, much of agriculture would be impossible, and this is a sobering thought right now, as feeding the world is suddenly becoming more difficult because of rising demand and the transfer of much crop production into biofuels, especially in the US.
Most of the pollination for more than 90 commercial crops grown throughout the United States is provided by Apis mellifera, the honey bee, and the value from the pollination to agricultural output in the country is estimated at $14.6bn (£8bn) annually. In Britain alone, pollination by bees of a suite of just 10 crops, ranging from apples and pears to oilseed rape, was calculated to be worth £165m per annum in 2007.
The BBKA points out that this is £800m-plus over five years – and the research programme they are calling for over the same period would cost a mere one hundredth of that. Yet the Government pleads poverty.
Is the Government doing nothing to safeguard the future of honeybees?
On the contrary. Two weeks ago Lord Rooker, the minister who turned down the BBKA's research programme just before Christmas, outlined a long-term strategy to protect the health of honey bees in England and Wales. Launching a consultation paper, he said: "Honey bees are facing serious threats from a growing number of pests and diseases, and it is vital that we do all we can to respond effectively to these threats, and to sustain honey bees and beekeeping for today and for future generations."
A series of "new or enhanced priority activities" related to disease control or good bee husbandry is proposed, which includes more training for keepers to identify diseases and a campaign to persuade beekeepers to sign up to a national database. One proposal in particular, for volunteer beekeepers to be enlisted in future emergencies to help the national team of bee inspectors track and eradicate new viruses, attracted attention: one commentator called it "a Dad's Army for bees."
Did this not satisfy the beekeepers?
They welcomed it, certainly, but they insist that the research they want is essential. At their lobby of Parliament yesterday, Tim Lovett, the BBKA President, said: "We will keep our bees only if the Government will help us to keep them healthy. Does the Government want the nation to go without honey on their toast, not have home-grown strawberries to go with cream, and even put their own crusade for the public to eat five portions of fresh fruit and vegetables at risk? Food production is now an important issue and bees are central to it."
He added: "We note that the US government immediately invested $80m into research on Colony Collapse Disorder, which has devastated their bee colonies, affecting pollination of the apple orchards, the almond and orange crops. CCD has not yet crossed the Channel from Europe, but we are urging the Government that it needs to be prepared should this happen. The Government spends just £200,000 out of a budget of £1.5 million for bee health on research. Immediate action needs to be taken to avoid this economic and ecological disaster in the making."
So should the Government find £8m for honey bee disease research?
Yes...
* Honey bees are at the basis of much of our agriculture and a quite crucial resource, especially at a time of growing food instability
* The threats faced by honey bees are admitted by the Government to be very serious
* In terms of overall government spending, and considering the nature of the threats, the funding in question is a a drop in the ocean
No...
* The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) can't afford it, because of an earlier budget crisis
* Defra is already working on a honey bee health strategy, which should be given the chance to take effect
* There is no certainty that the various threats to the health of honey bees will materialise
Ruma Paul, Reuters 23 Apr 08;
DHAKA (Reuters) - Hundreds of people staged protests in the Bangladeshi capital on Wednesday against a shortage of drinking water, witnesses said, defying a ban on such demonstrations.
A falling water table and lack of power to run water pumps has led to a serious shortfall of drinking water in Dhaka, a city of 11 million, officials said.
"How can we pump enough water while there is no electricity to run the pumps," said an official with the Dhaka water and sewerage authority.
"Many pumps remain shut or cannot operate up to their capacities because of shortage of power," said the official who asked not to be identified.
Hundreds of residents, carrying empty water cans, gathered in the streets demanding an end to the water and power shortages that have in the past sparked violent protests.
Authorities have asked the army to help supervise the distribution of water in the city. Bangladesh is governed by an army-backed interim administration that has under a state of emergency imposed last year banned all public protests.
"The situation is turning from bad to worse every day, we stand in long queues for hours for water," said rickshaw-puller Mohammad Salam outside a roadside water pump.
His wife and children were also standing in queues elsewhere in the city to obtain water.
The Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority is supplying 1.50 billion liters of water a day against a demand of 2.25 billion liters due to frequent power cuts and a fall in groundwater level, officials said.
Some 86 percent of the capital's water supply comes from underground sources but declining groundwater levels at the rate of three meters each year has worsened the situation.
A power official said the daily shortage of electricity in the city had soared to 1,500 megawatts because of lack of enough natural gas to run power plants.
"We have to cut down power production in several plants as Petrobangla is supplying up to 700 mmcf gas daily against our demand of 846 mmcf," said Saiful Hasan Chowdhury, a deputy director at the Power Development Board.
The situation is still worse in the countryside with power only available for a few hours each day.
Barely 40 percent of the country's more than 140 million people have access to power. Power shortages often spark protests in impoverished Bangladesh.
More than 20 people, mostly farmers, were killed in clashes with police, mostly in northern Bangladesh in 2006, during demonstrations demanding adequate power for irrigation.
(Reporting by Ruma Paul; Writing by Anis Ahmed; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
Against wind, plants beat walls
Sally Swartz, Palm Beach Post 23 Apr 08;
The "plants-trump-rocks" solution isn't one governments want to hear
To some in the engineering Establishment, Jim Egan's message might be considered radical, a threat to the status quo. But in his Saturday audience, members of the Martin and St. Lucie Conservation Alliances, the Marine Resources Council executive director had a sympathetic crowd.
He spoke to both groups as part of their annual awards luncheon at a Hutchinson Island restaurant, and what he had to say will resonate with anyone who lives on the Atlantic coast. Engineering solutions - seawalls, bulkheads, blocks, rocks and rubble - don't protect shorelines from erosion, said Mr. Egan, whose council promotes environmental education and shoreline habitat restoration along the Indian River Lagoon, the Treasure Coast section of the Intracoastal Waterway.
What does work? Native shoreline plants, such as mangroves. "As flimsy as plants may look when you put them up against armoring," Mr. Egan said, "plants work better."
Mr. Egan studied the effects tsunamis had on shorelines in Indonesia. "I saw cities saved by mangrove swamps," he said. After the 2004 hurricanes, he also saw the effects storms had on seawalls and other engineered shore armoring systems in communities bordering the lagoon.
After the storms, Indian River Drive washed out along the lagoon's north shore in both Martin and St. Lucie counties. Government's response was $30 million in engineering work along more than 13''miles of riverfront. A year later, when Hurricane Wilma was headed our way, those repairs already had problems. Cable-linked concrete blocks that covered the banks had begun to break and crumble, exposing the heavy, black plastic cloth beneath. Metal parts on the cables had rusted.
Kevin Stinnette, who heads the Indian Riverkeeper group, sought a federal injunction to stop the repairs. A judge denied it. But Mr. Stinnette also asked Mr. Egan for advice about shoring up the riverbank in front of his home. Using mangroves near the water's edge and native grasses, railroad vine, sea oats, buttonwood and palmettos on higher ground, he planted a natural shoreline that withstood Wilma.
Last year, Mr. Egan's testimony about the destructive nature of seawalls, based on his research and track record in a decade with the Melbourne-based council, helped Martin environmentalists block a developer's plan to build a seawall along the Indian River Lagoon near the Jensen Beach causeway. Since 1992, Mr. Egan's council has worked with schools, volunteers and environmental groups to remove nonnative Brazilian pepper trees from a 30-mile stretch of lagoon shoreline and plant mangrove saplings along the river. Schools help collect seeds, grow the saplings and plant them.
The "plants-trump-rocks" solution isn't one governments want to hear, Mr. Egan said. After the first of the 2004 storms, Frances, destroyed an engineered shoreline project near a council building, officials wanted to rebuild with more of the same. "When a rock armor system fails, what do they do?" Mr. Egan asked. "They get more rocks." He has identified three types of shorelines at high risk for "catastrophic" failure: Those with few native plants, those with invasive nonnatives, such as Australian pines or Brazilian peppers, and those that have been "fixed before by engineers."
Mr. Egan, however, has hope. "As the current systems fail, as they inevitably will, we have the research to show what works." How about a truce between engineers and biologists? "We're now seeing a combination of engineering and biological solutions." But he believes that plants promise "the only long-term success."
He notes that "there's no scientific support for what water management districts do to canals," for example, and said research doesn't show that engineering solutions for shorelines are successful. His research on the effects of tsunamis in Asia convinced him. One city removed its beach dune, he said, "and no longer exists." Another did not, "and it's fine."
The lesson in protecting shorelines, he said, is clear: "No man-made structures will survive a Category 4 hurricane. Mangroves tend to lose their leaves. That costs the taxpayers nothing. The leaves grow back."
ReefAlert 2008 training
on the ashira blog
Wildfilms' loss
we remember Darwin and will miss him, RIP on wildfilms
Earth Day thoughts about our shores
some recent developments and efforts on the wildfilms blog
Echinoderm hunt on Pulau Semakau
on the wildfilms blog and budak blog and nature scouter blog
Snakes in roadkill
on the urban forest blog
Black-naped Terns mobbing a Grey Heron
our Singapore terns are nesting! on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog
What spider?
on the budak blog
Letter from Clinton Lim Eng Hiong, Straits Times Forum 23 Apr 08;
ON SATURDAY, it was reported that there were 4.779 million train and rides a day in the first quarter, up 7 per cent over last year ('Buses, MRT see jump in ridership'). While the growth in public transport ridership is significant, it is not known if the rise has been at any real expense to car trips.
With more than 800,000 cars on the roads currently, the intention to increase the population to 6.5 million could well put another 250,000 or more vehicles on already congested roads.
The Land Transport Authority has taken action to manage traffic congestion in the city during peak hours by ensuring vehicular growth is met by a corresponding increase in the number of expressways, tunnels, MRT lines, electronic road pricing (ERP) gantries and charges.
After many years in service, I wonder if ERP is effective in alleviating traffic congestion or is it just 'rearranging furniture'.
In land-scarce Singapore, do we fully harness all resources available to meet public transport challenges? I think not. So far, we have looked only landwards. We need to take a more holistic, innovative approach - by looking to the sea.
Singapore is, after all, an island. Why not explore the idea of ferrying thousands to and from work daily via a Park 'n' Cruise scheme, to supplement the existing rail and road transport system?
This refreshing mode of transport will be guaranteed not to encounter traffic jams, be squeezed out of bus lanes or cause the motorist to be fined for not having a valid CashCard as he passes the ERP gantry.
With the Government providing the infrastructure - carparks and ferry terminals - the bus shuttle service and plying the route can be left to private enterprise.
I can already envisage Clifford Pier and the soon-to-be- made-over Singapore Cruise Centre at HarbourFront as two hubs of this ferry service, with terminals stretching from Woodlands to Punggol, Pasir Ris, Tampines, Bedok, Siglap, Marine Parade and West Coast, for a start.
I hope any feasibility study of this suggestion will be favourable, enabling at least part of our transport system to be left perpetually in 'cruise control'. This will also contribute to the Government's expectation that, by 2020, 70 per cent of trips in the morning peak period is by public transport.
Related link
Ferry-tale solution to Singapore's transport issues?
on the wildfilms blog
Joydeep Gupta, Thaindian News 22 Apr 08;
Singapore, April 22 (IANS) Formula One racing will now take into account its effect on climate change, Prince Albert II of Monaco announced here Tuesday while receiving a prize from the UN Environment Programme as one of the seven Champions of the Earth 2008. Prince Albert II, whose little country hosts one of the famous races on the F1 circuit, has in recent years supported over 60 projects globally to tackle climate change and improve the environment. The greening of the F1 is his next big project, he promised.
The awards were presented on Earth Day, which also saw the opening of the two-day B4E (Business for the Environment) summit here, being attended by over 500 business leaders from more than 30 countries.
Balgis Osman-Elasha from Sudan, one of the award winners, said: “From being a normal person doing my routine work, I’ll now have to become an example to others. It’s a scary thing.”
Osman-Elasha, who has carried out ecological projects in the troubled region of Darfur, said that areas where traditional water harvesting and farming methods were still practised were less drought-prone than others in the region.
“The conflict destroyed our project,” she told IANS. “And it was the drought, caused by a worsening environment, that created the conflict.”
Atiq Rahman, who returned from a teaching job in Britain to set up a centre for sustainable development in his native Bangladesh over 20 years ago, said: “it’s a nice feeling to get credit after so many years.
“We’ve learnt about sustainable living from fishermen, farmers, illiterate mothers,” he added. “Now, with climate change, we can see that large decisions made by global systems can hurt poor persons very directly. This award will help me combat that.”
Liz Thompson, former environment minister of Barbados and another award winner, said she would use her new fame to “strive for better South-South cooperation, so that best practices are better known”.
Talking about the impact of climate change in her country, Thompson said: “I can see the erosion on the coastline every day (due to rising sea level, one of the effects of global warming). The marine habitat is already being affected. That affects tourism, which in turn affects the entire economy.”
“Climate change represents a very real threat to the daily lives of our people.”
Other award winners were former prime minister of Yemen Abdul-Qader Ba-Jammal, Senator Timothy E. Wirth of the US and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark.
U.N. gives Monaco prince, New Zealand PM green award
Melanie Lee and Neil Chatterjee, Reuters 22 Apr 08;
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The United Nations honored Monaco's Prince Albert II and New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark on Tuesday for driving policies to tackle climate change.
The pair were among the seven winners in the annual U.N. Champions of the Earth awards.
Prince Albert, who won the award for Europe for setting up an environmental foundation, said countries had to push their economies towards energy efficiency.
"We can't go on as business as usual. Those who haven't realized that yet will be sorry in a few years," the prince said at a news conference.
The U.N., leading talks to find a climate pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, wants to highlight lifetimes dedicated to the environment with the awards, in their third year. Previous winners include former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
Clark, who did not attend a gala dinner in Singapore where winners received a trophy made of recycled metal, won for her goal to make New Zealand use 90 percent renewable energy by 2025.
Emissions from fossil fuels are blamed for climate change.
Atiq Rahman, the director of a sustainability think tank in Bangladesh and the winner for Asia, said climate change was behind soaring food prices that have sparked fears in the region over food security.
"This erratic behavior -- climate variability -- will accentuate the extremes. This will bring out instability in the food system and will be reflected in the market," he said.
World rice prices have surged as stocks have hit their lowest level in decades, prompting India and Vietnam to curb exports.
Other winners included former U.S. Senator Timothy Wirth for efforts to garner support in the United States for greater action on emission cuts and former Yemeni Prime Minister Abdul-Qader Ba-Jammal for advocating better management of water resources.
Sudan's Balgis Osman-Elasha won for her research into how communities in conflict-stricken Darfur cope with drought.
"We want to focus the attention of the policymakers on the underlying reasons to the conflict, which is climate change," Osman-Elasha told Reuters.
(Editing by Alex Richardson)
Channel NewsAsia 22 Apr 08;
SINGAPORE: Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang on Tuesday said the upcoming F1 race is expected to generate additional tourism receipts of about S$100 million this year alone.
Some 30 to 40 per cent of the spectators at the September event are expected to be from overseas, he said.
Mr Lim was replying to a question from Sembawang MP Lim Wee Kiak about his assessment of the benefits of the F1 race.
He said the exact number of jobs that will be created on a prolonged basis is more difficult to quantify since the F1 race will only be held over three days.
However, the service industry is expected to recruit additional workers to cater to demands during the F1 race period.
Several local companies have also benefited from F1 related contracts, ranging from provision of services - such as security and food and beverage - to the construction of the pit building, grandstands and corporate suites, road works, additional overhead bridges, race circuit barriers, and night lighting system.
Meanwhile, speaking at a separate event, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry S Iswaran expressed confidence that hotels in Singapore have announced attractive packages for September.
He said: "If you compare the room rates that I have seen in the media with what the going rates in places like Monaco, even in Melbourne and some of the other circuits, I think our rates are quite comparable.
"It is not uncommon, for example, in Monaco to have a required minimum stay of four or five nights and the rates there, mind you, they are in Euros and they tend to be significantly higher than they are in Singapore."
But for those who do not want to spend money, they can try the simulator for free at SingTel's Comcentre or another one that will be making its rounds all over Singapore.
Other activities planned include a contest to predict the winners of F1 races around the world, starting with the Turkish GP in early May and ending with the Singapore race.
There is also a game developed for mobile phone users which can be played by more than one person.
There are also the SingTel Grid Girls - 48 of them will be selected by the public in a reality show on Channel 5. - CNA/ac/vm
800 trees planted as Singapore's tribute to the planet
Tania Tan, Straits Times 23 Apr 08;
ALMOST 800 trees went into the ground yesterday as people across Singapore celebrated Earth Day.
Yesterday's tribute to the planet marked the peak of nearly a month of green activities, including talks, garden tours and workshops designed to shed light on the environment.
Both young and old took part in tree-planting activities around the Republic, including the children from the Intellect Monte Pal Skoolhouse child-care centre.
They were at Pasir Ris Park yesterday morning, along with employees from clothing chain Timberland, to green up the area, known for its mangrove trees.
From now to Saturday, visitors to the park can also view an environmental exhibition organised by the Singapore Soka Association, a Buddhist organisation.
Showcasing the plight of countries facing famine, drought and other natural disasters, the exhibit has been shown in over 17 countries.
'It is not just about being green,' said the guest of honour at the exhibit's opening, Professor Leo Tan, chairman of the National Parks Board's fund-raising arm, the Garden City Fund.
'Think of it as planting to save a life, if not for ourselves, then for our children.'
But you do not have to plant a tree to help fight climate change, said Prof Tan.
Changes in lifestyle, like switching off the lights and using fewer plastic bags, can make a big difference, he explained.
145 trees planted at Pasir Ris Park on Earth Day
Channel NewsAsia 22 Apr 08;
SINGAPORE : A total of 145 trees were planted at Pasir Ris Park on Tuesday, as part of the National Parks Earth Day celebrations.
The trees will be part of NParks' "Native Trail", which will be ready soon.
The tree-planting involves children from Intellect Child Care and adults from SoulCentre, a school behind motivation and leadership education.
One of the highlights of the Earth Day celebrations saw students from 23 schools transforming rubbish bins into their own unique art creations.
Deyi Secondary School and Meridien Primary School were awarded top prizes in the "Paint A Bin Competition", which carries an anti-littering message. - CNA/de
Millions worldwide to take part in Earth Day events
Singaporeans help clean up Manila Bay in annual 'green' campaign
Alastair McIndoe, Straits Times 23 APr 08;
MANILA - SPORTING red caps, members of Manila's Singaporean community joined around 400 local volunteers to clean up Manila Bay to mark Earth Day yesterday.
The organisers of the worldwide campaign said millions of people 'from Tokyo to Togo' were taking part in hundreds of events. They expect this year's Earth Day to be the biggest since the annual event aimed at promoting 'environmental citizenship' was founded in 1970.
This year's theme is water. Among the events in the United States was the Green Apple Festival at the weekend, which culminated on Sunday night with eight free music festivals held simultaneously at landmark locations across the country.
At the same time, Tokyo's Yoyogi Park hosted talks and exhibitions, as well as an organic farmers' market. The entire event was powered by green energy.
And this Saturday, Moscow will host an 'eco-festival', where 10,000 people are expected to take part in river and pond clean-ups, as well as learn about environmental issues.
On the same day in Buenos Aires, there will be an arts and cultural event, including films and music, aimed at raising environmental awareness from 2pm to dawn the next day
Meanwhile, in Manila's Earth Day event yesterday, Singapore Ambassador to the Philippines Lim Kheng Hua and her embassy staff led 40 Singaporeans, many of them expats, in helping with the clean-up.
'Manila Bay used to be a favourite tourist draw and unfortunately, it has been polluted over the years. This is not beyond redress, but it will be a long haul,' Ms Lim said as she jabbed a sharpened bamboo stick into a garbage-filled rock pool near a jetty.
'Obviously, today's effort is very modest, but everyone here is trying to create more awareness about the problem.'
Meanwhile, many children from the nearby Tondo slum district, ignoring health warnings, played in the bay's murky water. Anglers occasionally got a bite and reeled in puny-looking fish.
Highlighting water as the Earth Day theme, the Singapore Embassy flew in bottles of Singapore's recycled Newater for the volunteers to sample.
'It is a bit scary, but the taste is neutral, there is no after-taste,' local television presenter Rachel del Mar said after taking a few sips.
Over 780 trees to be planted in celebration of Earth Day 2008
Tree planting among other NParks activities to commemorate the event
NParks press release 14 Apr 08;
Singapore, 14 April 2008 – In celebration of Earth Day, 789 trees will be planted by over 10 companies, schools and organisations in various parks, nature reserves and park connectors around Singapore in the next two weeks.
Among participating schools is Shuqun Primary School, who will be planting 83 trees to commemorate their 83rd anniversary tomorrow. Companies such as Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases, SoulCentre, HBO Asia, Deutsche Bank and Cisco Systems will also contribute to Earth Day by planting between 50 and 150 trees each.
The Plant-A-Tree programme was conceptualised by the Singapore Environment Council and the Garden City Fund to provide an avenue for individuals and organisations to do their part for nature through planting of trees at designated parks and nature reserves. To date, over 1,000 trees have been planted by 13 organisations and individuals since its launch in November 2007. About 1,200 trees have been pledged to be planted in the next few months.
In parks and nature reserves around Singapore, the National Parks Board has organised various activities to increase the awareness of the importance of conservation and caring for the environment. They include a special preview of the award winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” on the consequences of global warming at the Singapore Botanic Gardens on 20 April 2008. Free guided walks will also be organised for the public at Pasir Ris Park Mangrove, Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, Fort Canning Park and the HortPark – The Gardening Hub. To increase awareness of the importance of conserving our biodiversity, NParks is organising a series of Biodiversity Talks spanning four weeks from 22 April to 17 May 2008.
Paul Krugman, The New York Times, Straits Times 23 Apr 08;
NINE years ago, The Economist ran a big story on oil, which was then selling for US$10 (S$13.50) a barrel. The magazine warned that this might not last. Instead, it suggested, oil might well fall to US$5 a barrel.
In any case, The Economist asserted, the world faced 'the prospect of cheap, plentiful oil for the foreseeable future'.
Last week, oil hit US$117.
It's not just oil that has defied the complacency of a few years back. Food prices have soared, as have the prices of basic metals. And the global surge in commodity prices is reviving a question we haven't heard much since the 1970s: Will limited supplies of natural resources pose an obstacle to future world economic growth?
How you answer this question depends largely on what you believe is driving the rise in resource prices. Broadly speaking, there are three competing views.
The first is that it's mainly speculation - that investors, looking for high returns at a time of low interest rates, have piled into commodity futures, driving up prices. On this view, some day soon the bubble will burst and high resource prices will go the way of Pets.com.
The second view is that soaring resource prices do, in fact, have a basis in fundamentals - especially rapidly growing demand from newly meat-eating, car-driving Chinese - but that given time we'll drill more wells and plant more hectares, and increased supply will push prices right back down again.
The third view is that the era of cheap resources is over for good - that we're running out of oil, running out of land to expand food production and running out of planet to exploit.
I find myself somewhere between the second and third views.
There are some very smart people - not least, billionaire financier George Soros - who believe that we're in a commodities bubble (although Mr Soros says the bubble is still in its 'growth phase'). My problem with this view, however, is this: Where are the inventories?
Normally, speculation drives up commodity prices by promoting hoarding. Yet there's no sign of resource hoarding in the data: Inventories of food and metals are at or near historic lows, while oil inventories are only normal.
The best argument for the second view, that the resource crunch is real but temporary, is the strong resemblance between what we're seeing now and the resource crisis of the 1970s.
What Americans mostly remember about the 1970s are soaring oil prices and lines at petrol stations. But there was also a severe global food crisis, which caused a lot of pain at the supermarket check-out line - I remember 1974 as the year of Hamburger Helper - and, much more important, helped cause devastating famines in poorer countries.
In retrospect, the commodity boom of 1972-75 was probably the result of rapid world economic growth that outpaced supplies, combined with the effects of bad weather and Middle Eastern conflict. Eventually, the bad luck came to an end, new land was placed under cultivation, new sources of oil were found in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea and resources got cheap again.
But this time may be different: Concerns about what happens when an ever-growing world economy pushes up against the limits of a finite planet ring truer now than they did in the 1970s.
For one thing, I don't expect growth in China to slow sharply any time soon. That's a big contrast with what happened in the 1970s, when growth in Japan and Europe, the emerging economies of the time, downshifted - and thereby took a lot of pressure off the world's resources.
Meanwhile, resources are getting harder to find. Big oil discoveries, in particular, have become few and far between and, in the last few years, oil production from new sources has been barely enough to offset declining production from established sources.
And the bad weather hitting agricultural production this time is starting to look more fundamental and permanent than El Nino and La Nina, which disrupted crops 35 years ago. Australia, in particular, is now in the 10th year of a drought that looks more and more like a long-term manifestation of climate change.
Suppose that we really are running up against global limits. What does it mean?
Even if it turns out that we're really at or near peak world oil production, that doesn't mean that one day we'll say 'Oh my God! We just ran out of oil!' and watch civilisation collapse into 'Mad Max' anarchy.
But rich countries will face steady pressure on their economies from rising resource prices, making it harder to raise their standard of living. And some poor countries will find themselves living dangerously close to the edge - or over it.
Don't look now, but the good times may have just stopped rolling.
NEW YORK TIMES
Channel NewsAsia 22 Apr 08;
SINGAPORE: The Economic Development Board (EDB) has been given wider powers to explore new businesses and industries.
Moving the second reading of the EDB (Amendment) Bill in Parliament on Tuesday, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry S Iswaran said the amendments will help EDB meet the challenges of the new economic environment.
Firstly, the term "business enterprise" will be changed. Under the old EDB Act, this refers to entities that the EDB deals with. However, Mr Iswaran said this definition is potentially restrictive as the EDB is tasked to explore new businesses and industries that they have not dealt with before.
So a new term "enterprise" has been introduced. This refers to any entity incorporated, formed or established in Singapore or elsewhere, whether it is for profit or otherwise, regardless of who owns or controls it.
This includes a corporation, a sole proprietorship, a partnership, a joint venture, a trust, an association or a branch of an enterprise.
The EDB's role has also been redefined as one that stimulates the growth, expansion and development of the Singapore economy in general and not just as a "total international business centre".
The EDB can also appoint a temporary chief executive officer without needing to seek the approval of the minister. This power could be exercised during the absence or incapacity, due to illness or otherwise, of the CEO. However, the minister retains the right to remove the CEO by giving instructions to the board.
The EDB Act has also been brought more in line with provisions more commonly found in other statutory boards' Acts.
These include protecting EDB board members, officers or employees against liability for "errors or omissions in information supplied to the public" if these were made "in good faith and in the ordinary course of the discharge of duty".
The borrowing powers of the EDB have also been increased. It may now borrow from the government or from any other sources as directed by the minister. - CNA/vm
Proposed changes could give EDB broader powers
Today Online 23 Apr 08;
THE Economic Development Board (EDB) will be given more flexibility to explore new businesses and industries, according to the second reading of the EDB (Amendment) Bill 2008 yesterday.
Among the key amendments proposed, the term "business enterprise" in the EDB Act will be redefined to include any entity formed within or outside Singapore, whether for profit or otherwise and no matter how it is owned or controlled.
This effectively allows the board to deal with almost any type of organisation.
The EDB will also be given broader powers to pursue its goal of stimulating the growth and development of the economy. The Trade and Industry Minister will be allowed to assign new functions to the board by legislating this in the Gazette.
To make the EDB more effective in its operations, the number of board members will be increased to between 5 and 15 from between 4 and 11 currently mandated.
The EDB will also be empowered to appoint a temporary chief executive officer without ministerial approval, but the Trade and Industry Minister retains the power to remove the CEO.
Today Online 23 Apr 08;
TEMASEK Holdings plans to build a "multi-billion dollar portfolio" of commodity assets to benefit from Asia's hunger for raw materials such as iron ore and coking coal.
"We see value because of demand rather than price," Mr Nagi Hamiyeh, Temasek's Managing Director for natural resources, said yesterday. "There are no big projects coming on line soon, so there are bottlenecks in the system while demand is continuing to grow because of China and India."
While commodity prices are at "very high levels", Temasek will invest in producers and early stage manufacturing projects from Australia to Africa to benefit from their "development upside", Mr Hamiyeh said.
"We like very much the bulk commodities, iron ore and coking coal," he said. "Clearly for gold and platinum there's a different driver behind the price because they are a hedge against currency risks and inflation." — Bloomberg
20th time since 1987
Chia Yan Min, Straits Times 23 Apr 08;
THE Port of Singapore has again won the best seaport in Asia title. It is its 20th victory since it first triumphed in 1987.
The accolades do not end there.
PSA International was named best global container operator for a fourth year, while PSA Singapore Terminals was voted Asia's best container terminal for the 19th time.
The awards were conferred at the 22nd Asian Freight and Supply Chain Awards organised by Cargonews Asia, a leading transport publication based in Hong Kong.
The winners were selected through a poll of shipping industry stakeholders, including freight lines, terminal operators, freight forwarders and other parties across Asia.
Captain Khong Shen Ping, acting chief executive of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, said: 'We are greatly...honoured by the vote of confidence from our industry partners, who have reaffirmed Singapore as their port of choice in Asia.'
Mr Fock Siew Wah, group chairman of PSA International, said the company's wealth of experience had been crucial to its success.
'We innovate and introduce systems and processes with the clear objective of staying relevant and providing the highest level of service to customers,' he said.
Business Times 23 Apr 08;
SINGAPORE'S Newater has won an award for 'Environmental Contribution of the Year' at a ceremony in London.
The award is the second for national water agency PUB from Global Water Intelligence (GWI), a monthly journal that provides analysis and data on the international water market. In 2006, it named PUB Water Agency of the Year.
Newater, launched by PUB in 2003, beat three other contenders for the latest award - Aragon Waste Water Treatment plant, Chennai Water Desalination Carbon Credit/VFD and Sabine Lattermann's work on desalination discharge. The 'Environmental Contribution of the Year' award recognises good stewardship in the water industry by way of a project, process or organisation.
The award reaffirms Newater's success as a viable and sustainable source of water. In the citation, GWI called Singapore a world leader in recycled water, saying the Newater strategy has created a template for all agencies looking to reuse water.
PUB chief executive Khoo Terng Chye received the award from Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus at the Global Water Awards 2008 dinner on Monday.
GWI publisher Christopher Gasson complimented Singapore on being the world leader in water reuse. 'This award recognises the farsightedness and creativity of PUB,' he said. 'Other countries will surely follow its footprints.
'At the Global Water Awards dinner, we toasted the award with Newater specially shipped from Singapore. Its quality and taste surpasses the best London's water can offer.'
NEWater wins second global award
Channel NewsAsia 22 Apr 08;
SINGAPORE: NEWater, Singapore's high-quality reclaimed water, has shone again on the world stage.
It clinched the "Environmental Contribution of the Year" title at the Global Water Awards 2008 ceremony on Monday night in London.
This is the second award received by Singapore's national water agency PUB from the award organiser, Global Water Intelligence (GWI). In 2006, PUB was named the Water Agency of the Year in Dubai.
The "Environmental Contribution of the Year" award recognises stewardship in the water industry by way of a project, process or an organization that best reflects the ability of a water or waste-water plant that leaves a small environmental footprint.
This prestigious international award bears testimony to the success of NEWater as a viable and sustainable source of water.
In the citation for NEWater, Global Water Intelligence said Singapore is the world leader in the application of recycled water and its NEWater strategy has created the template for all water agencies looking to introduce potable water reuse. - CNA/ir
Call to make businesses environmentally friendly
Private push can spark govt actions to adopt sustainable development
Chen Huifen, Business Times 23 Apr 08;
THE private sector needs to start investing to make their businesses more environmentally friendly, say speakers at the Business for the Environment Global Summit (B4E).
Their engagement will not only help to push political leaders to set up policies that will enhance sustainable development, but also help them better manage the burden of climate change in the future.
'Business prides itself on being able to read the future better than governments can, and I think this is perhaps true,' said United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) executive director Achim Steiner. 'It requires our governments also to be more coherent and. . .to invest in longer term policy decisions.'
The call comes on the heels of the Bali Road Map, sealed at the UN climate change conference last December. The road map, which almost fell apart, is to pave the way for another two years of negotiations for countries to agree on greenhouse emission regimes following the lapse of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012.
UN Global Compact executive director Georg Kell is hoping that the greater scrutiny placed by investors on environmental, social and government policies will give governments and businesses more incentive to be more proactive.
'Environment, social and government issues are . . .increasingly material to long-term performance,' he said, adding that they are becoming part of the risk assessment that long-term investors are beginning to consider seriously.
Singapore's National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan also urged the involvement of the business community at the conference. He said engagement need not come at the expense of profitability, especially in the case of Singapore when government support is available.
He listed a number of programmes spearheaded by the government to encourage sustainable development. They include a $50 million Sustainable Energy Fund to co-fund design projects, fund the implementation of energy-efficient equipment, and train relevant manpower.
There is also a $10 million scheme to help companies conduct energy audits and identify energy efficiency measures. So far, 87 manufacturing facilities have benefited from the scheme, which has collectively led to $23 million in annual energy savings.
'In addition, companies that learn to be more resource-efficient ahead of the competition will reap first mover advantage in a new carbon-constrained world,' said Mr Mah. 'Businesses that adopt environmental sustainability as a form of corporate social responsibility will distinguish themselves in a world of increasingly discerning consumers.'
Germany was cited as one of several 'green economies' that had the foresight years ago to invest in innovative technologies that have the potential to combat the growth of carbon dioxide emissions. Because of that, it has developed the capabilities to take advantage of the emerging clean energy industry today.
Held at the Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre, the two-day B4E summit co-organised by the UNEP and UN Global Compact was attended by some 500 delegates.
Governments must lead private sector in going green
Lynnette Khoo, Business Times 23 Apr 08;
THE urgency for managing climate change has not really sunk in and governments have to lead the private sector in efforts to cope with climate change, the audience at the Business for Environment Global Summit was told.
The panelists comprising former prime ministers and former ministers drew attention to some constraints faced in pursuing this climate agenda. They include limited resources and perceived disconnection between economic gains and environment conservation.
'We need to establish economic development more and more on sound ecological principles,' said Liz Thompson, former minister of energy and the environment in Barbados.
Ms Thompson, who used to handle the portfolios of energy and environment, said there is no contradiction between the two disciplines. She said that they developed their energy policy based on sustainable development strategies.
She noted that some 60 per cent of the country's households now use solar energy for water heating and the country has put in place incentives to encourage people to retrofit their homes in ways that enable them to tap solar energy.
Balgis Osman-Elasha, a senior researcher at Sudan's Higher Council for Environment & Natural Resources and lead member of the Nobel Peace Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), pointed to the lack of resources in her country to deal with climate change.
The Sudanese researcher has worked on a range of research projects in her country, including Darfur, demonstrating to vulnerable communities the feasibility of adapting to climate change and extreme weather events.
While the government has to take the lead in managing climate change, private sector involvement is vital, Ms Thompson said. She advocated more communication with the private sector and the development of public-private partnerships and recommended the use of 'more carrots than sticks' for the private sector.
The tourism industry, for instance, can be given incentives like tax savings to retrofit hotels and restaurants with green products and fixtures, she said. 'As long as the private sector sees the benefits for them, then we are going to move forward.'
Ms Thompson is the winner for Latin America and the Caribbean and Ms Osman-Elasha is the winner for Africa for this year's United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Champions of the Earth Awards.
The annual prize rewards individuals from around the globe who have made a significant and recognised global and regional contributionto the protection and sustainable management of the Earth's environment and natural resources.
Other winners who received the award at the gala evening held here last night were Prince Albert II of Monaco; former US Senator Timothy E Wirth; New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark; Atiq Rahman, executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies and Abdul-Qader Ba-Jammal, the secretary general of the Yemen People's General Congress.
Environmental initiatives can give firms an edge
Jessica Cheam, Straits Times 23 Apr 08;
BUSINESSES should take the initiative and invest in making their operations more environmentally friendly, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said yesterday.
Those that learn to be more resource-efficient ahead of the competition can gain a 'first-mover advantage in a new carbon-
constrained world', he said.
The minister told a 500-strong audience at the annual Business for the Environment Global Summit that this competitive edge did not have to come at the expense of profits.
Singapore, for example, has an energy efficiency improvement scheme that has helped 87 manufacturing plants save $23 million in annual power bills through energy audits, said Mr Mah.
To build the Republic into a sustainable development hub, he said, a 'third pillar' was needed: People and businesses must drive local efforts towards sustainability.
Climate change expert Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), said there had been a 'major shift' in business attitudes, with investments pouring into researching ways to increase energy efficiency in business operations.
But 'environmentalists must become more economics-literate, while economists must become more environmentally aware', he said at the two-day summit.
The summit was staged with the UNEP Champions of the Earth 2008 awards ceremony last night. This year's laureates include Prince Albert II of Monaco and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark.
The third 'green' pillar
Business community has a part to play in becoming more environmentally friendly
Lin Yanqin, Today Online 23 Apr 08;
WHERE governments are unwilling to take steps to tackle the issue of climate change, businesses should take the initiative.
And even as such calls were being made by United Nations (UN) officials at the Business for Environment (B4E) Global Summit on Earth Day yesterday, Singapore urged the business community and domestic population to play their part as the "third pillar" of efforts to build the Republic into a "sustainable development hub".
With Government schemes and incentives to promote energy efficiency already in place, it was time for companies to "be prepared to take the initiative and invest in advance to make their businesses more environmentally friendly," said Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan.
This, he stressed, need not come at the expense of business profitability.
Making the opening address at the conference — organised by the UN Environment Programme and Global Compact — Mr Mah emphasised the importance of "joint leadership" even as the Government took the lead in addressing climate change.
To build Singapore into an "international exchange for knowledge and expertise in sustainable development", a "ground-up movement among the people and private sectors" will have to be nurtured, he said.
Said UN Global Compact programme head Georg Kell: "Business ... can show that solutions are feasible, that solutions are possible, and thereby prepare the ground for governments to be proactive where they have not been."
But getting businesses in Singapore to heed the message could be a challenge: Singapore came last in a ranking of 32 countries in a survey last year on what businesses had done to manage future energy cost pressures.
Hyflux group executive vice-president and chief technology officer Fong Chun Hoe felt it was a "tough call" for small businesses to foot the green bill because many were struggling to get their concerns going.
What the Government has done so far — allocating $350 million for clean energy research and providing assistance to encourage and support energy efficiency programmes — was good, but perhaps many businesses were still unaware of the initiatives, he suggested.
"When the cost of going green was less expensive or at least equal to current costs, perhaps more companies would be encouraged," he added.
Businesses, it seemed, were ready to heed the call, according to an ongoing B4E survey of global business leaders, but a lack of clear directives and consistency from governments was a barrier to doing so.
Another significant barrier was competing strategic priorities for businesses.
Senoko Energy Supply managing director Eu Pui Sun said businesses need not wait for signals from governments to go ahead with green efforts. Innovative solutions to becoming resource efficient in an economically viable way however, would need to come from the industry itself, he said, citing power generation companies that desalinate their own water as examples. "And other companies will follow," he said.
Agreeing, Hyflux's Mr Fong said: "As businesses, you don't wait for it to come. You forecast what is coming and prepare yourself for it and try to be ahead of the curve."
And yet "carrots rather than sticks" remain key in galvanising companies to become more environmentally friendly.
Relating the experience of Barbados in promoting energy efficiency, senator and former Minister of Energy and Environment Liz Thompson said that financial incentives and tax rebates helped to push businesses to make changes.
More than 500 participants from over 30 countries attended the B4E summit, which also saw the launching of a new initiative for benchmarking and research on becoming a less carbon-intensive business.
LiveScience.com, Yahoo News 22 Apr 08;
The scientific and political arguments surrounding the health of our planet can make the whole topic seem beyond the grasp of the individual. How fast is the climate changing? Exactly what effect to humans have? And what will the government do about it?
How we treat Earth also involves trillions of little decisions by billions of individuals.
That in mind, on this Earth Day, LiveScience presents 10 ideas for saving energy and otherwise cutting down on your impact on the planet. The list was compiled by the Earth Day Network organization and republished here with permission.
1. Change light bulbs
Highly efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) last for years, use a quarter of the energy of regular bulbs and actually produce more light.
Look for the government's ENERGY STAR label, which means the bulb has been tested for quality and efficiency. While each ENERGY STAR qualified bulb will cost more initially-anywhere from $3 to $9 a piece-remember that there are two price tags: what you pay at the register and what you pay in energy costs to over the bulb's lifetime. So you may pay more up front, but you will actually save hundreds of dollars in your household budget over the long term because of their long life.
While CFLs were harder to find a few years ago, they're now widely available and much more affordable. You'll find them at major home improvement and hardware stores-even grocery and some convenience stores.
Here's the impact. If every household in the U.S. replaced a burned-out bulb with an energy-efficient, ENERGY STAR qualified compact fluorescent bulb, the cumulative effect is enormous. It would prevent more than 13 billion pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere-which is like taking more than a million cars off the road for an entire year.
There are other, simple things with household lighting you can do to conserve: turn off unneeded lights, dim lights when you can and bring natural sunlight into your home when it is feasible.
But changing those old light bulbs and replacing them with ENERGY STAR qualified compact fluorescents that can last for a decade or more is by far the best thing you can do.
2. Drive differently, or drive a different vehicle
The sad truth is that your car emits as much carbon dioxide as your entire house. That's the bad news. The good news is that anything you can do to improve the fuel efficiency of your car will have an enormous impact on climate change. In fact, experts say that paying attention to fuel efficiency in your car may be the single biggest thing you can do to prevent global warming
Buying a fuel-efficient car (like a hybrid) is wonderful. In fact, replacing your gas-guzzling car with a fuel-efficient one is by far the best thing you can do, out of all your choices. But not all of us can do that-at least, not right now. Carmakers haven't sold enough hybrids in the U.S. yet to make them as affordable as they should be. That will change, but not for a few years.
So, in the interim, there are things you can do with the car you drive now to conserve energy and be more fuel-efficient.
Drive less. Every year, Americans as a whole drive more miles than they did the year before. Stop this trend, and we drive a stake in that trend. Telecommuting and public transportation are great options-once a week saves a ton of carbon dioxide a year-but even piling multiple errands into one trip helps. If you can walk instead of drive, even better.
Get your car tuned up. Just a simple tune-up often improves fuel efficiency by half. If 100,000 of us went out and got a tune up, we save 124,000 tons of carbon dioxide.
Slow down, don't race your car's engine, and watch your idling. All of these save on gas (saving you money) and have a big impact on burning gasoline.
Horribly inefficient SUVs, minivans and pickup trucks now make up more than half of the cars on American roads. The real tragedy is that automakers could double the current average fuel efficiency of SUVs if they wanted to, which would save 70 tons of carbon dioxide per car. The technology exists. Unfortunately, consumer demand does not.
3. Control your temperature
The bad news is that half of your household energy costs go towards just two things-heating and cooling. The good news is that means you have lots of room for improvement, and even small changes make dramatic improvements in household fuel efficiency.
Older heating and cooling systems are a third less efficient than the new systems. So replacing the old with the new is a wonderful idea, but not very practical for most of us. Things you can do right now to make sure you're setting the right temperature in your house include:
Tune up your heating system. This one thing every couple of years can reduce your heating costs by 10 percent a year.
Clean vents, close unused vents, and change filters in the vents. Again, just these simple things will save you 10 percent.
Buy a programmable thermostat, which can regulate different temperatures at different times of the day. And if you have one, use it! Right now, three-quarters of people who have programmable thermostats don't use them at all.
Add two degrees to the AC thermostat in summer, and two degrees in winter. If everyone did this, the cumulative impact is significant.
Make sure windows and doors are sealed. Again, this will dramatically improve your household fuel efficiency.
Of course, if you can stand it, by far the best approach is to avoid air conditioners at all. Ceiling fans, instead of AC, can reduce your cooling costs by more than half.
4. Tame the refrigerator monster
Did you know that your friendly refrigerator has a voracious energy appetite? It is, by far, the single biggest consumer of electricity in the average household, responsible for 10-15 percent of the electricity you use each month.
Older refrigerators, as a rule, are far less efficient than the newest ones-as much as 50 percent more efficient in many cases. But buying a brand-new, energy-efficient refrigerator is almost certainly not in the cards for most of us. Fortunately, other things will help.
Don't set the thermostat too high. Even 1 degree will make a big difference.
If your refrigerator is near a heating vent, or always in the sun, then change the location, cover up the heat vent near it or drape the window.
Turn on your "energy saver" switch near the thermostat.
Clean the condenser coil. This one, very simple thing can improve the efficiency of your refrigerator by a third!
Get rid of your second refrigerator. If you don't need it, don't waste the energy.
Make sure the doors seal properly, and keep the cool in.
5. Twist some knobs
The other big users of energy in your household are your hot water heater, your washer and dryer, and your dishwasher. Each, in its own way, can be inefficient. Here are some things to try:
Either turn the hot water heater down a couple of degrees, or turn on the "energy conservation" setting.
Buy insulation for your hot water heater at a local store and insulate the pipes as well.
Install a timer on your water heater to turn off at night and just before you wake up in the morning.
When possible, wash a few dishes by hand. Over time, that will save a few loads in the dishwasher, conserving energy.
Don't pre-rinse dishes. Today's detergents are powerful enough to do the job.
Wait until you have a full load to run the dishwasher.
Wash clothes in warm water, not hot. The clothes will be just as clean, and you'll cut energy use by 50 percent.
Don't over-dry your clothes. That will save 15 percent.
6. Plant smartly
While it is true that planting more trees will help in the short term because they essentially soak up carbon, they also release carbon dioxide when they die. So it just postpones the problem. But there are other reasons to plant trees-as wind breaks to save energy, and as shade to lower cooling costs. And even the short-term help while we get our act together is a good thing.
As for plants, do everything you can in your yard and garden to create ways in which plants use less water. Choose hardier plants, plant things in groups that need more water and put in mulch to help keep moisture in. When you mow your grass, make sure you do it smartly-with sharp blades, and only when the grass needs cutting. Finally, make sure you water your lawn sparingly. All of these will conserve energy.
7. Invest in green energy
Imagine if we ran out of fossil fuels tomorrow, what would we do? Well, we'd get our electricity from renewable sources-solar panels, geothermal and wind power sources. Many utilities now give consumers the option to buy "green power." Ask for it!
Learn the truth about nuclear power and natural gas as viable "green" options. They aren't. Radioactive waste will be a problem for tens of thousands of years into the future, and natural gas kicks out almost as much carbon dioxide as coal and oil. Natural gas can help us make a transition, but it isn't the solution.
Finally, if you invest, invest in green stocks and renewable energy companies through socially responsible funds. They perform just as well (if not better) than all of the unfiltered funds.
8. Go organic
Even with our vast reservoir of scientific knowledge about farming, most American farmers still spray a billion pounds of pesticides to protect crops each year.
Now here's the kicker: when chemical pesticides are used to kill pests, they also kill off microorganisms that keep carbon contained in the soil. When the microorganisms are gone, the carbon is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. And when those organisms are gone, the soil is no longer naturally fertile and chemical fertilizers become a necessity, not a luxury.
But besides going organic-thereby saving the carbon release from soil-there are other simple things you can do with food that will also make a difference:
Eat locally grown food. If the food doesn't have to travel far, there's less carbon dioxide from the trucks that ship it.
Eat fruits and vegetables in season. Again, that saves the enormous transportation costs.
Plant your own vegetable garden. It's not as hard as you might think.
9. Buy recycled
This may sound simple, but it takes less energy to manufacture a recycled product than a brand new one. So if you and every other consumer buy recycled, you'll help create a market, and conserve energy along the way.
Because many manufacturers don't go out of their way to tout their recycled products, you should know that aluminum and tin cans, glass containers, and pulp cardboard have a fair amount of recycled content. So buy away!
Recycled is often considerably cheaper than non-recycled, so it's cost-effective as well as conservation-minded. For instance, recycled paper can be as much as a third cheaper than non-recycled paper.
Finally, before you buy, check to see if the product or its packaging can be recycled. The recyclable logo (three arrows forming a triangle) is fairly common now.
10. Be a minimalist
We know it's difficult, but in today's consumer economy, an easy way to conserve energy is to simply use-and buy-less. Every time you buy something, energy has gone into getting that product to you. So the less you buy, the more you save energy-wise. It's a simple equation.
This last item on our Top Ten list may, in fact, be the single biggest way to make a dent in the global warming problem. Again, we know it sounds obvious, but buying less things-some of which you just don't need-changes the energy equation across the board, on every single consumer product. If everyone used less, the impact would be large indeed.
So how about some specific things? Here are a few:
Buy in bulk. In short, bulk items use less packaging, which translates into less energy.
Buy one of something, not 21 of something. You don't need 21 pairs of shoes, if one pair works just as well.
Go through your closet. Donate or recycle what you really don't need, then make a pledge not to replace everything you just got rid of.
Buy quality products that will last longer. Over time, you'll obviously buy fewer products that way.
Be creative in what you use for work, play and leisure. You don't always have to buy new products for activities. Re-use in creative ways.
Begging for more than small change
Viewpoint by Tom Crompton, BBC News 22 Apr 08;
Small changes to the way we live our lives are not enough to tackle the environmental challenges facing the planet, argues Tom Crompton. In this week's Green Room, he says the stark reality is that the only option is to cut the unsustainable consumption of the Earth's finite resources.
Almost daily, it seems, scientists' prognoses about the state of our planet grow evermore dire.
Take climate change, for example. Just last week, a new study suggested that sea levels could rise by up to one-and-a-half metres by the end of this century, with catastrophic impacts for low-lying countries.
This is more than three times as high as the most pessimistic projections of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Yet some climatologists are suggesting that even this is a huge under-estimate of the likely extent of sea level rise.
In the face of mounting evidence of profound environmental challenges, the insistence that we can tackle these by embracing a few simple and painless changes - switching to low-energy light bulbs or buying a hybrid car - feels increasingly unrealistic.
'Simple and painless'
This is leading to heated debate among environmental organisations about the best response; a debate that WWF believes should be opened up to a wider audience.
Most approaches to encourage behavioural change rely on techniques borrowed from the marketing industry, such as "selling" these changes by linking them to a desirable product.
Those who practise these approaches often insist that, having made simple changes in their purchasing habitats, people will be led up a "virtuous ladder" towards ever more significant behavioural choices.
Marketing approaches may well work for promoting specific changes, where these are small and painless, and where they are the focus of a targeted campaign.
Unfortunately, as a response to problems of the scale that confront us, it seems that they are shot full of holes.
Of course, it's helpful for people to switch to energy-efficient light bulbs, or turn their central heating down; cumulatively, such changes will have a beneficial impact.
However, these sorts of campaigns may well be a poor use of scant communication resources, and may even serve to undermine prospects for generating the more fundamental changes that are needed.
There is little evidence to show that using such an approach increases the probability of people embarking upon more effective - and more difficult - changes.
In fact, some research shows that, for a significant number of people, the opposite is true. Having embraced one simple change, some people then tend to rest on their laurels and be less likely to engage in other more significant changes.
But there's also another, more fundamental limitation on the usefulness of marketing approaches to creating behavioural change.
Environmental problems can often be traced to our appetite for "stuff", items that demand resources and energy in their manufacture, sale, use and disposal.
The problem is that we seem to have an in-built tendency not just to consume a lot of things, but to consume ever more things.
As a result, "green consumption" can only get us so far. I may buy this year's top-of-the-range hybrid car, only to want to replace it for a newer model next year, and the year after that.
It doesn't necessarily help if I'm encouraged that the best thing to do is to keep my car until it eventually falls apart.
If I save money by repairing my old car rather than buying a new one, I could spend the savings on cheap flights abroad. The net environmental impact will probably be negative.
Even selling my vehicle and joining a car-share scheme may backfire in this way, unless I am careful about how I spend the money that I've saved.
Less is more
As long as campaigns to encourage us to change our behaviour are based on appeals to self-interest or financial incentive, they will be fraught with difficulties.
We need a different approach to motivating people to change; one which stems from a re-examination of the values upon which this change is built.
Studies find that people who engage in behaviour in pursuit of "intrinsic" goals - such as personal growth, community involvement, or a sense of connection with nature - tend to be more highly motivated and more likely to engage in environmentally friendly behaviour than individuals who are motivated by "extrinsic" goals - that is, financial success, image and the acquisition of material goods.
This seems to be the case particularly for more difficult behaviours - those that require greater effort or entail more inconvenience.
There is a lot that governments can do to make environmentally friendly choices easier. But many of these things will cost taxpayers money, and governments will be reluctant to embark on these things without pressure from their electorates.
As in the case of individual behaviour change, if this pressure is to emerge, the values underlying this change in electoral demand will be critically important.
Bringing intrinsic values to the fore in public debate is not going to be easy. So we need to start trying to do so right away.
Environmental organisations might start by unequivocally reflecting the intrinsic values that underpin the environment movement itself.
They should also work with leading businesses and forward-thinking political leaders to think beyond the opportunities offered by green consumerism; preparing for a world where we will inevitably need to consume not just differently, but less.
Environmental organisations can then help to embolden business and political leaders to begin to inject public debate with values that move far beyond self-interest and materialism.
To attempt less is increasingly looking like burying our heads in the sand.
Dr Tom Crompton is a change strategist for conservation charity WWF-UK
WWF's new report Weathercocks and Signposts: The Environment Movement at a Cross Roads can be downloaded from the
The Green Room is a series of opinion pieces on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website
Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters 22 Apr 08;
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Google went green and so did dozens of comic strips while President George W. Bush planted a tree on Tuesday to mark Earth Day, an environmental event that has become increasingly political and corporate.
Thirty-eight years after Earth Day began as a series of grass-roots "teach-ins" about environmental conservation and pollution, April 22 has become an occasion to focus attention on human-generated climate change and the policies around it -- a topic not on the public mind in 1970.
The method for getting the message across has certainly evolved. Google.com's online search site featured a lush logo with letters made of moss-covered boulders, a tree sprouting from the "L" and a waterfall flowing beneath it. Clicking on the image led to a list of Earth Day-related sites.
The comics pages in many U.S. newspapers featured strips with environmental themes. "Zippy The Pinhead" was typical: the short-sighted residents of Dingburg save the Earth by packing dirt into suitcases and keeping them in a storage locker.
Bush was in New Orleans for the so-called "Three Amigos" summit with leaders from Canada and Mexico, where the U.S. president planted an oak tree in Lafayette Square -- a symbolic replanting of the some 250,000 trees stripped away from the city by 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
PLAN TO RAISE FUEL EFFICIENCY
The Bush administration, which has weathered criticism for its stand on environmental issues, offered a plan on Tuesday to boost fuel economy for cars and trucks to cut U.S. dependence on foreign oil and curb greenhouse gas emissions.
The plan would require the U.S. and international fleet to average 32 miles per gallon by 2015. The energy bill Bush signed in December requires that autos average 35 miles per gallon by 2020, a 40 percent increase over the current standard.
On the presidential campaign trail, Democrats Sen. Barack Obama and Sen Hillary Clinton and Republican Sen. John McCain offered statements urging a focused U.S. environmental and energy policy.
"Our leaders in Washington have to put what's right for our planet ahead of what's good for their friends in the energy industry," Obama, an Illinois senator, said in a statement on the day of the presidential primary in Pennsylvania, where he is in a tight race with Clinton of New York.
"I will end the Bush administration's assault on environmental protections and standards," Clinton said. "...It will be a new day."
"We must have the courage to realistically confront the specter of climate change," McCain said in his statement. "This is one of the greatest challenges confronting the next president."
LAWS AND LIGHTBULBS
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, joined by fellow members of Congress and religious leaders, marked the day by helping plant an elm tree outside the U.S. Capitol.
"We can make a difference," said Pelosi, a California Democrat who has taken a lead in addressing global warming. "It is a national security issue, it is an economic issue, it is an environmental and therefore a health issue, and it is a moral issue."
In a separate move, Democratic Reps. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Henry Waxman of California and Jay Inslee of Washington state said any effective climate-change law must reduce emissions to avoid dangerous global warming, shift the United States to clean energy, minimize the law's economic impacts and aid communities and ecosystems at risk from global warming.
The Environmental Protection Agency, under fire from critics who contend the agency has failed to curb the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil-fueled vehicles that spur climate change, launched a national campaign aimed at cutting emissions in U.S. homes.
Participants in the program include Amazon.com, Best Buy, Hewlett-Packard, Lowe's, Menards, Sears, and Subway, the agency said in a statement.
The Washington Post, noting the change in the celebration from previous years, wrote a tongue-in-cheek essay declaring Earth Day dead: "What killed it? A long but admirable struggle with celebrity piety and corporate baloney, mainly."
(Editing by Philip Barbara)
Dan Morrison, National Geographic News 22 Apr 08;
The rarest gorillas in the world are being protected in a new sanctuary nestled in the mountains of Cameroon, the government announced recently.
A community of 20 Cross River gorillas now live in the Kagwene Gorilla Sanctuary, the first exclusively dedicated to this subspecies of western lowland gorilla.
The apes are listed as critically endangered by the World Conservation Union: As few as 250 to 300 survive.
The animals are scattered over 11 mountain and forest sites in Cameroon and Nigeria, driven to the verge of extinction by hunting and loss of habitat.
Cameroonian Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni announced the Kagwene sanctuary in a decree on April 3.
(See an illustration of a Cross River gorilla, recently named one of the 25 most endangered primates.)
Every Ape Counts
Researcher Jacqueline Sunderland-Groves has studied Cross River gorillas since 1997. She established the Wildlife Conservation Society research team working in the area.
The Kagwene sanctuary is "a major conservation achievement for this subspecies," Sunderland-Groves said.
Cross River gorillas are the northernmost and westernmost subspecies of gorillas. Their diet is more diverse than that of western lowland gorillas, and Cross River gorillas are found in a wider range of habitats, including lowland forests, mountain forests, and grasslands.
Richard Bergl is curator of conservation and research at the North Carolina Zoological Park in Asheboro.
"Given the small size of the Cross River gorilla population, every single individual is important for the long-term survival of this subspecies," he said.
"Wildlife populations of this size can be very sensitive to the loss of even a few animals," he said.
Another Link in the Chain
More than 60 miles (97 kilometers) to the west of Kagwene lies the only other sanctuary where Cross River apes can be found: an eight-year-old preserve on Afi Mountain in Nigeria.
Conservationists want to create a chain of sanctuaries—a wildlife corridor—that would protect the gorillas living between Afi and Kagwene.
This would allow them to safely travel—and mate—between localities, ensuring continued genetic diversity.
"This subspecies [is] patchily distributed across a broad landscape, and protection across their range requires a network of protected areas and corridors," Sunderland-Groves said.
A 2006 action plan by researchers calls for a chain of sanctuaries that would cost U.S. $4.6 million to establish.
"Kagwene on its own would perhaps not have a huge impact because it protects just one part of the population and its habitat," said John Oates, professor emeritus at Hunter College in New York, who helped write the plan.
"But getting the area protected is a step in getting the larger landscape better managed, from a conservation point of view.''
Gorillas Are People Too
Though ringed by human settlements, the gorillas at Kagwene have a leg up other great apes.
While gorillas elsewhere in Cameroon and Nigeria are vulnerable to poachers, "Kagwene is unique, in that the gorillas were not traditionally hunted by local communities," Sunderland-Groves said.
Many local people believe that gorillas are actually humans and therefore cannot be killed, she said.
(Related: "Gorillas Found Tossing 'Weapons,' Study Says" [January 30, 2008].)
The sanctuary, which has served as a Wildlife Conservation Society research station for several years, will continue to be managed by the nonprofit. The refuge will also be staffed by local villagers trained in conservation.
"Protecting any population of these gorillas is critical to their future," said Rebecca Stumpf, a researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
"Protecting more would be preferable."
Yahoo News 22 Apr 08;
An underwater volcanic mountain teaming with ocean life off Canada's Pacific Coast has been added to the nation's growing list of marine protected areas, officials said Tuesday.
"Bowie Seamount is an oceanic oasis in the deep sea, a rare and ecologically rich marine area, and our government is proud to take action to ensure it is protected," Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn said in a statement.
"We are ensuring this unique treasure is preserved for future generations."
The seamount, located 180 kilometers (110 miles) west of Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) in Canada's Pacific northwest, rises from a depth of 3,000 meters (9,840 feet) to within 24 meters (79 feet) of the sea surface.
It is the seventh Marine Protected Area that Canada designates in recent years, spanning 6,131 square kilometers (2,367 square miles).
Scientists believe it formed less than one million years ago and the volcano was likely active during the last ice age.
Since then, it has become one of the most biologically rich seamounts in the world, due to unique oceanographic conditions that support an abundance of microscopic plants and animals, which, in turn, have contributed to its diverse, complex ecosystem, said officials.
Surveys have recorded high densities of crab, sea stars, sea anemones, sponges, squid, octopus and many species of fish including rockfish, halibut and sablefish.
Stellar sea lions, orca, humpback and sperm whales as well as 16 species of seabirds have also been spotted in the area.
However, the seamount is also fragile and vulnerable, and in need of protection, according to the World Wildlife Fund, which feverishly lobbied the government to designate it a marine park.
"This is a very significant turning point in reversing the trends that have been leading to the depletion of life in the sea," said Guujaaw, president of the aboriginal Council of Haida Nation, which supported its designation as a Marine Protected Area.
Other protected aquatic parks in Canada include the Endeavour Hydrothermal Vents, 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of Vancouver Island, The Gully on the Scotian shelf, Eastport and Gilbert Bay off Newfoundland and Labrador, and Basin Head off Prince Edward Island and Musquash Estuary in the Bay of Fundy.
Barbara Liston, Yahoo News 22 Apr 08;
Renowned primatologist Jane Goodall, 74, symbolically passed the torch on Tuesday to a new generation of hand-picked environmental and peace activists whom she gathered this week for the first Jane Goodall Global Youth Summit.
"The 100 (young people) who are here represent hundreds of thousands of others," Goodall said on the 38th annual Earth Day. "You hear them debate some of the problems of the world, and you know there is hope for the future."
Goodall, who rose to fame in the 1960s through her ground-breaking study of chimpanzees in East Africa, now spends 300 days a year on the road using her personal story and rock star status among young people to inspire them to act on critical issues in their communities.
She said her goal has been to build a critical mass of young activists to carry on her life's work for a more humane world, acting through youth organizations such as her own Roots & Shoots which started on her front porch in Tanzania in 1991.
"I was determined not to die until Roots & Shoots could survive. Now I know it will. It's got its own life without me," Goodall said.
The 100 young people at the summit in Orlando, Florida, came from 28 countries, and all were selected personally by Goodall based on their work in their communities.
Among them, Chih-Chung Lin, 21, advocates for the use of reusable chopsticks by restaurants in Taiwan where around 2.8 million disposable wooden utensils are discarded each day.
Another, Weldon Korir, 23, founded a youth group in Kenya for HIV and malaria prevention. And Manoj Gautam, 22, runs what he calls a restaurant for vultures in a pasture in Nepal where birds, who have been dying in large numbers from tainted food, can feed on clean carcasses.
Karoline McMullen, 17, of the United States, who published a textbook on the threatened native Ohio brook trout, said she had been inspired by listening to the stories and seeing the determination of her peers from around the world.
"It makes me hopeful for what I can do and reassures me that it's possible do what seems impossible," she said.
Speaking at the summit, Henri Landwirth, 81, a Holocaust survivor and longtime philanthropist behind such foundations as Give Kids the World, reminded the young people that his work and the work of his generation was nearly over.
"I am one of a dying generation. You youth have to do it," he said.
(Editing by Michael Christie and Sandra Maler)
Reuters 22 Apr 08;
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Going green has become a focus in recent years for many artists who are trying to help save the environment with everything from carbon offsets, to giving away autographed compost bins, to philanthropy.
With Earth Day celebrated on April 22 each year to mark the anniversary of the modern environmental movement, music publication Billboard published a list of 10 acts that have tried to make a difference to the environment over the past 12 months:
1. JACK JOHNSON
Hawaiian-born singer/songwriter Jack Johnson, a lifelong surfer, recently built a recording studio insulated with used denim and powered in part by solar panels at the Los Angeles HQ of his Brushfire Records, a cozy single-family home. Trucks and coaches on his 2008 tour will run on biodiesel, and venues are required to comply with his rules on cutting waste and recycling.
2. WILLIE NELSON
Country music star Willie Nelson's BioWillie biodiesel fuel, which is already sold in about six U.S. states, will add a key location when Willie's Place at Carl's Corner, Texas, opens this year. The truck stop, off the truck route from the Mexican to Canadian border, is billed as the biggest green truck stop in the United States with all fuels having some percentage of biofuel.
3. MANA
Mexican rock group Mana's nonprofit Selva Negra foundation, launched in 1994, has projects ranging from saving endangered species like the sea turtle to reforestation efforts. The group's most ambitious proposal to make environmental and ethics classes part of the curriculum for all of Mexican schoolchildren.
4. DAVE MATTHEWS BAND
The U.S. rock band, through environmental nonprofit Reverb, has calculated the CO2 emissions from every stop on its upcoming summer tour and purchased the renewable energy credits to make up for the footprint left by each venue, hotel, flight, tour vehicle and even fan travel. Fans can sign up online for a carpool.
5. KT TUNSTALL
Last September, Scottish singer/songwriter KT Tunstall partnered with record label Virgin to create a 100 percent post-consumer waste recycled and chlorine-free booklet for her CD "Drastic Fantastic." She also began work on the greening of her London home, as well as completing a carbon-neutral U.K. tour.
6. PEARL JAM
Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron last year played a January benefit for flood victims in Central Washington, while guitarist Stone Gossard helped plant vegetation in a Seattle park ravaged by English Ivy.
7. SERJ TANKIAN
The "System of a Down" frontman-turned-solo artist has founded Web site skyisover.net to connect fans to environmental and social justice organizations. He also founded a nonprofit, Axis of Justice, with former "Rage Against the Machine" guitarist Tom Morello and is working with environmental nonprofit Reverb to ensure his current tour leaves only a small carbon footprint.
8. RADIOHEAD
Delivering their album "In Rainbows" as a price-optional digital download before putting a physical product in stores last year prevented the manufacture and disposal of thousands of CDs. The British band travels unwillingly and when they do leave home, Thom Yorke and his bandmates partner with consulting firm Best Foot Forward to help reduce their carbon footprints.
9. MISSY HIGGINS
Australian singer/songwriter Missy Higgins spent two weeks traveling across the United States in a hybrid Prius this year, posting Web documentaries of stops at locations like the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and the Mountain View Montessori School, a green elementary school.
10. THE ROOTS
The Roots have taken autographing to a new level. At this year's edition of their annual pre-Grammy Awards all-star jam session, the Philadelphia-based hip-hop crew gave away signed compost bins in an effort to promote the practice.
(Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)
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