Sea lions shot dead on Columbia River as salmon battle rages

William McCall, Associated Press Yahoo News 5 May 08;

For years, the sea lions lounging at the Bonneville Dam have had easy pickings from salmon waiting to go up fish ladders to upriver spawning grounds.

Over the weekend, the federally protected sea creatures were themselves easy prey for a gunman who shot and killed six of the sea lions as they lay in traps meant to humanely catch them.

State and federal authorities were investigating the shootings, which came less than two weeks after an appeals court issued a temporary injunction against authorities killing the salmon-gobbling mammals. Agents have been trapping them instead, but trapping will be suspended during the investigation, said Rick Hargrave, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Fishermen and American Indian tribes have pushed to protect the salmon and remove the sea lions, by lethal force if necessary.

The carcasses of the four California sea lions and two Steller sea lions were found Sunday around noon below the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River on the border of Oregon and Washington.

The six animals appear to have been shot by somebody on the Washington side during the night, said Brian Gorman, a spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Two open cages each contained the carcasses of two California sea lions and one Steller sea lion, he said.

Necropsies were planned for all the animals, and the area was being treated as a crime scene by state and federal agencies, Gorman said.

The discovery came one day after three elephant seals were found shot to death at a breeding ground near San Simeon in central California. Investigators will try to determine whether there is any link between the shootings, Gorman said.

Seven California sea lions were trapped on the Columbia starting April 24 after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals approved their capture. One died during a medical inspection before transfer to a Sea World park.

Washington and Oregon have been granted federal authorization to capture or kill as many as 85 sea lions a year for five years at the base of the dam.

The Humane Society of the United States has gone to court to challenge the authorization, with another hearing set for May 8. Until a judge rules, no animals may be legally killed.

"We're really shocked," said Sharon Young, a Humane Society spokeswoman, who learned about the sea lion deaths from a reporter. "We're a nation of laws, and we should expect people to abide by them."

Six sea lions shot to death on salmon-rich US river
Yahoo News 5 May 08;

Investigators searched for clues on Monday in the shooting deaths of six protected sea lions at a dam between Washington state and Oregon, while officials halted a controversial trapping program aimed at stopping the mammals from eating endangered salmon.

The discovery of the dead sea lions on Sunday follows other shootings in recent years that caused bodies riddled with bullet holes to wash up on the banks of the region's Columbia River.

"This is being investigated by Washington, Oregon and our fish cops," said National Marine Fisheries Service spokesman Brian Gorman. Authorities would not say if they had any suspects.

The deaths temporarily halted a new trapping program in Oregon and Washington, which won permission from the federal government in March to trap and kill the protected pinnipeds to save endangered salmon.

The Humane Society sued to block the killing and while the suit is pending, the states are limited to trapping the mammals and sending them to zoos and aquariums. Seven were trapped and transported to an aquarium in late April, where one died.

"We are calling on the government to stop the trapping program," Sharon Young, marine issues field director of the Humane Society of the United States said.

For the past five years, the sea lions have been making the 150-mile (241-km) trip up the Columbia River, a favorite of sport and commercial fishermen. The sea lions eat salmon as they channel into the Bonneville Dam's fish ladders on their way upriver to spawn.

Authorities have tried to deter the sea lions with physical barriers, fire crackers and rubber bullets, without much success.

Although the salmon run on the Columbia River was strong this year, shrinking numbers have prompted critical restrictions on West Coast salmon fishing.

The Fisheries Service banned virtually all commercial and recreational salmon fishing off the West Coast for one year beginning May 1.

(Reporting by Teresa Carson, writing by Mary Milliken and Daisuke Wakabayashi, editing by Alan Elsner)

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Surge in fatal shark attacks blamed on global warming

Richard Luscombe, The Observer 4 May 08;

Three decades have passed since the movie Jaws sent terrified bathers scrambling out of the ocean. But as any beach lifeguard knows, there's still nothing like a gory shark attack to stoke public hysteria and paranoia.

Two deaths in the waters off California and Mexico last week and a spate of shark-inflicted injuries to surfers off Florida's Atlantic coast have left beachgoers seeking an explanation for a sudden surge in the number of strikes.

In the first four months of this year, there were four fatal shark attacks worldwide, compared with one in the whole of 2007, according to the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.

'The one thing that's affecting shark attacks more than anything else is human activity,' said Dr George Burgess of Florida University, a shark expert who maintains the database. 'As the population continues to rise, so does the number of people in the water for recreation. And as long as we have an increase in human hours in the water, we will have an increase in shark bites.'

Some experts suggest that an abundance of seals has attracted high numbers of sharks, while others believe that overfishing has hit their food chain. 'I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but it's a convenient excuse,' Burgess said. Another contributory factor to the location of shark attacks could be global warming and rising sea temperatures. 'You'll find that some species will begin to appear in places they didn't in the past with some regularity,' he said.

New Smyrna Beach, Florida, is called the shark attack capital of the world. It has had more recorded incidents per square mile than any beach on Earth. So far this year there have been 10 attacks on surfers, including three in three days last week, although officials say most of the wounded were able to make their own way to hospital.

'It's more like a vicious dog bite, half a dozen stitches, a few bandages, that sort of thing,' said Scott Petersohn, a captain with the Volusia County Beach Patrol, which covers 47 miles of coastline including New Smyrna Beach.

'The sharks that inflict the most damage here, the black tips, can be about two or three feet long. There are some bigger ones along our coast, tiger sharks and bull sharks, but there's a sustainable food supply for them. People are not on the menu for sharks.'

At Solano Beach, California, where 66-year-old David Martin was killed last week by a great white shark estimated to be 4.5 metres long, and off the Mexican coast near Acapulco, where 25-year-old American tourist Adrian Ruiz fell victim to a suspected tiger shark, there were conflicting claims.

Meanwhile, the wildlife protection group Wildcoast has accused the Mexican authorities of 'international shark hysteria' over the slaughter of at least 10 near the beach at Troncones on the Pacific coast where Ruiz died. A navy spokesman said a 200-metre line with baited hooks was set up to catch any sharks threatening the beach.

'They more than likely had nothing to do with the attack. Since sharks are threatened in Mexico, this is the worst type of vengeance security imaginable,' said Aida Navarro, the group's wildlife conservation programme manager.

'It's the equivalent of stepping on to the plains of the Serengeti when you step into the water,' Burgess said. 'It's not like a swimming pool. This is a wilderness experience and with it comes a certain amount of risk.

'What's needed is some kind of system to prevent people and sharks coming together in a dangerous way.'

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Australia needs years of heavy rainfall to crack drought: experts

Yahoo News 4 May 08;

Australia will need several years of heavy rainfall to reverse the devastating effects of a drought that has battered farm production, the Bureau of Meteorology said in a report received Monday.

The report came despite months of drenching rains spawned by the La Nina weather phenomenon in the agricultural east of the country that sparked optimism that the worst drought in 100 years might at last be over.

But the Bureau's latest findings show that the "big dry," nearly a decade of below-average rainfall and high temperatures, is stubbornly lingering across much of the continent and the rain needed to end it is not in sight.

"Several years of above average rainfall are required to remove the very long-term deficits," the May report said, adding that long-term rainfall deficiencies have increased in most areas over the past two years.

"The combination of record heat and widespread drought during the past five to 10 years over large parts of southern and eastern Australia is without historical precedent and is, at least partly, a result of climate change," it added.

Drought slashed 10 percent from the value of Australia's agricultural production in 2006-07, according to official figures, and has devastated many rural communities as farmers and local businesses were starved of rain.

The latest La Nina -- in which the eastern Pacific Ocean cooled, bringing rainfall to the driest continent on earth -- was heralded by some experts last year as a drought-breaker.

But the heavy rains only benefited parts of the country and now appear to have run their course, according to Lynette Bettio, a climatologist with the bureau's National Climate Centre.

"It does seem to be over ... it's winding down," she said, adding that La Nina had only helped end the drought in some areas of the vast nation, leaving southern agricultural lands largely dry.

"We really didn't receive that above average rainfall needed," Bettio said.

The Bureau of Meteorology said long-term rainfall deficiencies persisted from the coast of South Australia across much of the southern states of Victoria and into New South Wales, and also covered parts of northeastern Queensland state and northern South Australia.

Australia needs several years of rain to end drought
Reuters 4 May 08;

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia needs several years of above average rain to end a drought that has devastated crops in three of the last six years, according to the latest report by the Bureau of Meterology.

The bureau said in its monthly drought statement on Monday that despite recent heavy rains over eastern Australia's main cropping lands, the drought was far from over, and had intensified in the outback.

"Several years of above average rainfall are required to remove the very long-term (water) deficits," said the bureau.

"The combination of record heat and widespread drought during the past five to 10 years over large parts of southern and eastern Australia is without historical precedent and is, at least partly, a result of climate change."

Australia's drought began to ease in late 2007 and in the first two months of 2008, leading private and government forecasters to predict a record or near-record wheat crop of 26-27 million tonnes in 2008/09, up from 13 million tonnes the year before.

However, dry weather has returned in the past two months.

Western Australian wheat growers have received enough rain to begin to plant their next crop, but farmers in eastern growing areas are still waiting for planting rain.

The bureau said that long and short-term rain deficiencies were persisting. A dry April meant the drought intensified in central Australia and long-term or two-year rainfall deficiencies had increased in most parts of Australia, except the southwest corner.

The bureau cited the main cropping lands of southeast Queensland, Victoria and western New South Wales as suffering long-term rain deficits.

"One exception was southwest WA (Western Australia) which had a wetter April this year so the 24-month deficits eased somewhat," it said of Australia's main wheat lands.

(Reporting by Michael Perry and Michael Byrnes)

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Best of our wild blogs: 5 May 08

Damsel and Dragon
beautiful hunters on the budak blog

Bukit Timah Nature Trail
about the guided walk there on hbing's blog

Kingfisher catching a fiddler crab
on the bird ecology blog

Return of the No Brand Grass Yellow
on the butterflies of singapore blog

Jumping spiders on orchid
on the manta blog

Freshwater Ecosystems of the World
a new website covering virtually all freshwater habitats on Earth, it is the first-ever ecoregion map, together with associated species data, with Singapore contributions by our own scientists. First announced in the rmbr news blog.

Announcements on RMBR news

• Internship for Great White Shark research at Mossel Bay, South Africa, 2009
• 5th International Hornbill Conference Singapore March 2009

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Canals can help Singapore meet transport needs

Letter from Chen Junyi, Straits Times Forum 5 May 08;

MANY of the points raised by Mr Ivan Kwan ('Commute by sea? It's a ferry tale', ST Online Forum, April 30) make sense.

However, I believe water transport in Singapore deserves further consideration. There are several major canals which have the potential to be developed for commuting purposes.

One is the canal between Bukit Timah and Rochor. Heavy traffic can be seen every morning along Dunearn and Bukit Timah roads.

Another is the canal between northern Singapore and downtown, running through Ang Mo Kio, Bishan, Braddell and Toa Payoh, into the Kallang River.

And a third would an extension of Singapore River traffic upstream to River Valley or Ganges roads.

Although much work will be required before these canals can be navigated by shallow-draft boats, one should note that their routes traverse areas with high-density population and link them to downtown and southern parts where most offices are located, and where most ERP gantries have been installed to regulate motor traffic flow.

I understand these canals were built primarily as drainage to prevent flooding, but the only obstacle to deepening them for dual purpose is cost.

Also, waterborne transportat would be an added tourist attraction.

I also notice some of these canals have narrow or no paths. Proper paths beside these canals would offer attractive and safe cycling routes.

I hope the Land Transport Authority will consider these alternatives.


One of the online comments to this letter

it is too complicated for our planners to implement. then who will want to pass thru the ERP? - revenues will drop. canals too small. drought or low tide - no water, boat cannot move. if you don't even see traffic police on our roads what happens when speeding or hogging boats collide and cause waterway jams? then what? canal ERP? the favorite poser - who will pay for the construction of quays? then someone will want to collect canal tax like seaport tax. like Spore flyer - they shoot themselves in the foot by asking such a high price for the bicycle wheel ride. $10 per ride on the canal taxi? see orchard road - normal buses so long waiting time. they improve it? NO start $3.60 premium buses in reponse to poor normal service. SO it remains a fairy tale.

Posted by: limboonhee at Mon May 05 07:35:38 SGT 2008

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Pata focuses on green challenge

Greg Lowe, Business Times 5 May 08;

THE Asia-Pacific's tourist trade made first steps towards tackling climate change at an industry level, at a Bangkok conference last week. Pacific Asia Tourism Association (Pata) organised the two-day Pata CEO Challenge: Confronting Climate Change, in Bangkok, last Tuesday and Wednesday. More than 230 delegates exchanged information and discussed practical initiatives on how to reduce the industry's negative impact on the environment, while protecting profits.

'We have to re-define growth,' said Peter de Jong, Pata CEO and president. 'We need to find other ways to define value, and to get growth from yields and revenues rather than numbers.' Globally, more than 25 billion tons of carbon dioxide is produced each year, with global tourism responsible for 5 per cent, or 1.25 billion tons, according to the UN World Tourism Organisation. The figure is expected to rise to five billion tons by 2020.

Tourism, including aviation, is growing at more than 5 per cent a year and if current trends continue, the industry will emit half of the world's total CO2 emissions within three decades, said Peter Harbison, executive chairman of the Council of Asia Pacific Aviation. 'People are realising that the fingers pointing at the airline industry are also pointing at them,' he said. 'What we had here was people trying to get out of the silos. Trying to think about the whole supply chain from getting from your doorstep to a destination.'

No hard figures were produced in terms of how much the industry is prepared to reduce profits in order to reduce its environmental footprint, though it was a matter of debate. 'There were a number of conversations about what people were doing in terms of the trade-offs between revenues, profits and the climate change issues,' said Rohit Talwar, event facilitator and CEO Fast Future. 'Some were simply using offsets and other mechanisms and getting revenue from customers. Others were matching the contributions their customers made.'

Shared initiatives included Banyan Tree's green audit programme for assessing a resort's environmental impact, and its scheme to match the US$10 carbon offset that it charges guests. JW Marriott explained it would replace plastic golf tees with bamboo at its resorts. Six Senses resorts detailed its initiative to give each of its hotels 0.5 per cent of revenue to invest in local social and environmental schemes.

Pata drew flak for the low turnout, with only 230 of the targeted 400 delegates attending, and for the lack of representation from the association's grassroots.

'Frankly, the reason for the low attendance is because climate change is not on the radar for a lot of entrepreneurs in the Asia-Pacific region,' said Anna Pollock, CEO DestiCorp, a tourism industry consultancy. 'I oscillate between despair and optimism over climate change, because it is such a big challenge. But if there is anything that is going to tip me into optimism, it's an event like this.'

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Singapore business executives more aware of environmental threats?

Seeing green
Business Times 5 May 08;

Have business executives in Singapore and the region become more aware of the threat to our environment over the past one year? What can be done to raise the level of awareness and commitment further?

NINETY per cent of the world's goods are carried by sea. And as the demand for bigger, faster vessels grows, the shipping industry has also come under greater scrutiny. While we acknowledge that our energy consumption as a container shipping line is significant, we are committed to the continuous improvement of our environmental performance as well as increasing the transparency and understanding of CO2 emissions.

We are monitoring the public debate on CO2 emissions and related topics, such as food miles, with interest. The evaluation of the environmental impact associated with a product should take all stages in the product lifecycle into consideration, and not only the transport leg. Looking solely at the environmental impact of transportation from the producer to the end-consumer may easily lead to false conclusions as it does not take into account how the foodstuff has been produced, stored and used.

A full lifecycle assessment is far more complex than simply measuring the distance from field to table, but it is the only way to accurately judge the environmental impact and to determine the 'greenest' options. For example, transporting fruit uses energy and produces emissions. However, local production of, say, tomatoes close to the consumers would in many locations require substantial energy resources for heating greenhouses, transporting fertilisers and water, road transport, etc. In other words, 'local' production may in many cases be the less environmentally friendly solution compared with sourcing the fruits or tomatoes from further away.

Unless we as an industry are actively engaged in these discussions, we run the risk that decisions taken in the name of the environment will hurt our business while harming the environment.

Here are two specific examples illustrating the carbon foot print of shipping:

# Shipping tuna from Spain to Japan: Taking it by plane instead of ship increases carbon emission by a factor of 16.

# Shipping a pair of shoes from Indonesia to North Europe: The last 20km by car has a carbon footprint 10 times larger than the preceding ocean transport.

- Jesper Praestensgaard
CEO
Maersk Line Asia-Pacific

Not enough has been done

BUSINESS executives in Singapore and the region have certainly become more aware of the threat to our environment over the past one year. I attribute this to more media coverage on the matter and the climatic changes that have taken place. The current worldwide food crisis that is impacting everyone's daily lives is yet another symptom that our environment is under siege. It is a wake-up call that few can and must not ignore, especially governments.

In my opinion, the threat to our environment is a world problem requiring the fullest cooperation of all governments, especially those of the major economies, to address and tackle. Until there is consensus, and governments put this looming threat above their own national interests, it would be a slow and agonising process to contain the threat, if not to diminish it, before it is too late.

While all the meetings, such as the Kyoto rounds, that are organised to address the issue will undoubtedly raise the awareness, commitment to tackle this threat is harder to achieve, unless there is consensus, and governments, especially in developed countries, take affirmative steps by contributing resources and funding.

I worry that we are in a 'no action, talk only' situation. Without governments' commitment to tackle this threat, it is difficult to win the hearts and minds of businesses and the community to do likewise, even in small ways like helping to recycle rubbish on a daily basis. Singaporeans have as yet to respond to the latter in a big way, despite calls by our government and interest groups.

We are fortunate in Singapore that our government is taking the threat seriously and ahead of others in protecting our environment, for example, in the promotion of green buildings and clean energy programmes. Unfortunately, the threat to our environment knows no boundaries, so while we can take measures, the outcome is to a large extent dependent on steps taken by other governments in the region and the world at large. Many will remember the haze problem originating from fires in Indonesia that descended on Singapore in the last few years, and one that has yet to be eliminated.

When more businesses and our community walk the talk, Singapore can be a model for other countries, and in our small way, contribute to keeping the global environment green and containing, if not reducing, the threat.

- Lim Soon Hock
Managing Director
Plan-B Icag Pte Ltd

NOT long ago, the cry of the environmentalist was seen as alarmist and lost amid the public's ignorance and apathy. However, with increasing environmental anomalies like cold snaps, global warming, severe droughts, floods and hurricanes, the link between our actions and the environment has become harder to ignore. In fact, with the earth getting more vulnerable and fragile, some people may even make it out that our individual actions may now be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

I can say the actions of businesses are more attuned to environmental concerns now, if for a different reason than we would like to hear. Many businesses find that they need to cut cost in the face of inflation by reducing utility usage, car trips, photostating, etc. At the same time, many companies are increasingly getting on the bandwagon of social and environmental responsibility. While the reason may primarily be to build up their brand and image, the end-result is still one up for the environment.

To get down to a true altruistic and heroic feel for the cause, I guess one has to work at the individual level. Here we are not talking about the die-hard tree-hugging greenies, but everyone knowing the impact of his actions on the environment. Like understanding better the concept of embedded water or energy in a product, the carbon footprint of the things we use like cars or where our waste ends up. Without this, sheer capitalism and consumption will relentlessly drive all to use up more of the earth's resources.

Lastly, government and international efforts are important to lay the framework and priorities. Without this over-arching guidance, efforts will be sporadic and uncoordinated, with no critical mass. Things like carbon credits, getting tropical nations to keep their rainforests, etc, are still complicated but go towards laying an international framework for sustainable cooperation.

- Liu Chunlin
CEO
K&C Protective Technologies Pte Ltd

WITH the current onslaught of publicity focused on this issue through media, political and business channels, it would be hard to find an executive who's unaware of the growing importance of the environment in today's world.

While selected businesses in Singapore and the region have made advances in this area, I feel that it is still nowhere near enough. Singapore and regional corporates as a whole have yet to make the crucial link between environmental protection objectives and business strategy. Doing so will successfully entrench green initiatives into the corporate culture and help bring about concrete and meaningful change. Green initiatives and plans divorced from pragmatic business realities will inevitably find their sustainability threatened.

For example, from the Human Capital perspective, some international corporations take pains to burnish their green credentials to attract and keep talent, as an increasing number of studies have shown that to be a key factor for young professionals differentiating between prospective employers.

Tapping the energy and enthusiasm of the people within an organisation is an ideal way to ensure that awareness and commitment are increased. For example, Talent2 Singapore recently incentivised a 'Go Green' initiative whereby everyone was encouraged to think of ways to reduce waste and increase efficiency within the office. The response was overwhelming with excellent ideas being quickly implemented; but more importantly, it made environmental conservation and protection part of the daily language at Talent2.

- Matthew Beath
CEO
Talent2 Singapore Pte Ltd

I WOULD say that business executives in Singapore and the region have become more aware of environmental issues and the call to go green has been heard more often in the past 12 months. So, the poll right now is probably: awareness - high; commitment - low (unfortunately).

Business and government need to come together to do more for the environment. We need to go further than paying just lip service to this global cause. I feel there is still a need for a lot more education on the subject of going green in Singapore. A major push in this direction, undoubtedly, rests with the government and its effectiveness in working with the private sector to bring the key environmental message to the fore.

Greening education needs to first deepen in the schools. Often we find that adults and parents, who understand environmental issues but lack the discipline and commitment to respond, will be obliged to heed the call from our children to act responsibly in protecting our earth. Environmental education for this generation and the next has to progress concurrently.

As a furniture manufacturer, environmental issues are inextricably a part of the many business issues we have to deal with in our daily operations. I believe most businesses are still looking for a business case to justify their commitment to the environment. I guess we will continue to grapple with this for some time. However, as a nation, we are still a long way from making environmental concerns a top priority in our daily lives.

- Kenny Koh
Managing Director
Star Furniture Group

GLOBAL warming is perhaps the most important challenge facing the planet and it should be a priority to make people aware and start tackling the issue in the true sense. We need bold and tangible solutions to the inter-related problems of climate change, energy and food. We all have a role in saving the planet: using carbon trading, alternative energy and efficient usage to get the most out of the every kilowatt of energy being produced.

We need to implement simple, costless changes like turning off lights in the office at night, investing in green buildings and more efficient cars. Pump up research and development into renewable energy sources like solar and wind and support companies bringing new technologies to market. A greener planet will be more peaceful and prosperous too, and we can all contribute as individuals, as groups and as organisations.

- Pramod Ratwani
President & CEO
Consilium Software Inc

Business must be part of solution

THE green agenda has progressed beyond awareness to application especially in forward-looking enterprises. IBM Project Big Green is a US$1 billion investment to increase the efficiency of IBM products by doubling computing capacity without increasing energy consumption. The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), one of the largest natural gas and electric utilities providers in the US, recently leveraged on IBM technology to bring about an 80 per cent reduction in energy consumption and 70 per cent increase in systems capacity utilisation in their data centre facilities.

For a sustainable green movement, continued and closer collaboration between the public and private sectors and society is paramount. The recent hosting of a global United Nations event on Earth Day is testament of Singapore's commitment to integrate green efforts into businesses for society's benefit. At this event, F Michael Valocchi, global energy and utilities leader, IBM Global Business Services, elaborated on the importance of a corporation's commitment to energy conservation. He emphasised the improvement of manufacturing and business processes, encouragement of employee participation through clear communication, the practice of continuous review and enhancement, and the initiation of intensive workshops in an effort to inculcate an organisation-wide drive towards energy efficiency and environmental protection.

In summary, sustainable development is an important pillar of the modern corporation's strategy of socially responsible business growth and expansion.

- Teresa Lim
Managing Director
IBM Singapore

OVERALL, there is not only a growing awareness of the importance of sustainability of our earth and its resources but also action being taken by both individuals and corporations to advance the environmental cause. For example, green computing is one of the key areas that businesses are increasingly addressing. Technologies such as virtualisation, appliances that are low on power consumption and even wireless Internet, are seeing a greater rate of adoption in Singapore as well as Asia Pacific. Â

To help the corporate community further its commitment to protecting the environment, organisations can deploy a two-pronged approach. Internally, managers play an important role in cultivating a green workplace through energy-saving practices, as well as encouraging and rewarding employees who are environmentally conscious. Externally, companies should continue to implement initiatives that reduce their carbon footprint, support environmental events, and insist that vendors and business partners employ high standards of environmental responsibility.

- Charles Reed
CEO
DoCoMo interTouch

ENVIRONMENTAL awareness in Singapore and the region is growing as the steady rise in commodity and energy prices serves as a timely reminder that we all need to be more responsible in the way we use our planet's scarce natural resources.

Large organisations are often the biggest consumers of energy and can influence others in a positive or negative way. At Lenovo, we are committed to environmentally responsible practices in every market in which we do business. For example, this year we made a commitment to cut our energy consumption by 10 per cent by promoting activities such as encouraging our staff to turn off PCs at the power point.

On a bigger scale, Lenovo joined forces with other technology leaders and the World Wildlife Fund to form the Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI). Our goal is to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by setting aggressive targets for energy-efficient computers and components, and promoting the adoption of energy efficient computers and power management tools worldwide.

By 2010, the initiative aims to reduce global CO2 emissions by 54 million tons per year, equivalent to the annual output of 11 million cars or 10-20 coal-fired power plants. This effort will result in a 50 per cent reduction in energy consumption by computers by 2010.

Therefore, business leaders need to take responsibility as powerful global citizens to promote sustainable development by integrating environmental considerations into all decision making. The best way to do this is to continually strive to reduce the environmental impact of their operations and the products they create.

- David Miller
President of Asia Pacific & Senior Vice-President
Lenovo

WE OBSERVE among KPMG member firms worldwide that climate change is steadily moving onto the agendas of our client companies.

A recent KPMG report, 'Climate changes your business', highlights how climate change has strategic and financial implications across many industry sectors, presenting both risks and opportunities.

Business can, and should, be part of the solution. By improving their understanding of the effects of these risks and opportunities, they will be better placed to manage risks and take advantage of the opportunities.

This is why KPMG recently announced its own Global Green Initiative. By 2010, the combined carbon footprint of all KPMG member firms will be reduced 25 per cent from 2007 levels.

Locally, we have recently concluded a successful 'Make a Green Difference Week' campaign highlighting to staff the need to be energy-efficient. This campaign communicates to our staff that we take our commitment to reduce the carbon impact of individuals and of our firm as a whole seriously.

- Danny Teoh
Managing Partner
KPMG

THERE is a growing awareness of the threat to our environment but more needs to be done to increase commitment to adopt responsible energy practices and consumption. We have not reached a critical tipping point to curb the negative effect of growth on the environment.

While information is important in motivating change, we need to go further to find ways to change people's behaviour - not only through information, but also incentives that will make them want to act. Businesses have a part to play by increasing R&D in green technologies and ensuring their products are more energy efficient. The government can play a key role by increasing standards through legislation.

- Paul Peeters
CEO
Philips Asean

YES, absolutely. Growing public concern about environmental issues such as global warming is spilling over into the business world, where companies are increasingly looking to make their operations more 'green' by minimising their negative environmental impact. Benefits of 'going greener' include better leveraging scarce resources, boosting the corporate image and saving costs by using more environmentally sensitive solutions.

Easily achievable efforts for reducing carbon footprint could include promoting the use of telecommuting or telework (practice of working from home), enabled with secure remote access technology. And the benefits are multi-pronged: Not only does telecommuting help to reduce the number of cars on the road or the number of trips by air, it also provides a more flexible work schedule for employees, an important factor for companies to retain talent these days.

Besides telecommuting, companies can look also at:

# Redesigning products with more environmentally friendly materials and requiring less power to reduce their carbon footprint.

# Reducing consumption of electric power in company facilities, particularly for data centres and always-on desktop computers.

# Buying green or recyclable/reusable office supplies and recycling to divert waste from landfills.

# Encouraging car pools, public transit and bicycling for commuting workers or even subsidising employee purchases of hybrid vehicles.

At SonicWALL, we are active practitioners of the above practices. It is our corporate wish that through such small incremental steps we would be able to make the world a better place in which to live and work.

- Chee Heng Loon
Vice-President, Asia Pacific
SonicWALL

THERE is growing interest in going green among businesses due to the fact that energy costs are rising as energy supplies are depleting. For an organisation to successfully implement a green strategy, it has to build a business case to ensure buy-in from the management and the rest of the organisation. Otherwise, the drive to go green will be short-lived. Another way to increase awareness and support is to implement change management programmes as these will help the organisation better understand the rationale behind the company's green strategy.

Data storage is at the heart of every business, and how data is stored impacts the power consumption of companies. Storage hardware accounts for 25 per cent of all power consumed by any data centre. Luckily, the use of power is directly related to the number of drives used, rather than the amount of data stored. So the trick would be to increase storage utilisation, or the density of data being stored in each drive. Technologies like storage virtualisation can help companies improve storage utilisation.

Hitachi Data Systems helps organisations' commitment to the environment by helping them implement environmentally friendly and cost effective storage solutions. In addition, Hitachi Data Systems deploys environmentally friendly methods towards the design, manufacture and support of storage infrastructures.

- Ravi Rajendran
General Manager, Asean
Hitachi Data Systems

Playing their part

THERE is definitely broad awareness and growing concern among the government, businesses and the people in Singapore regarding environmental issues, particularly on climate change, carbon emission, and the impact on health and safety. The mass media provides extensive information and education on the topic and, likewise, the popular movie, 'An Inconvenient Truth'.

With stricter regulations, such as the European Union's Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (Reach), the chemicals industry could potentially set the pace for Singapore and the world in the green movement.

Companies, in collaboration with employees, suppliers and customers, can take many concrete steps. For example, Lanxess has initiated a project to achieve global certification of all its sites under one ISO9001 and ISO14001 certificate by 2009. Since 2006, we have also been rewarding employees' innovations in environmental protection through the Lanxess Global HSE (Health, Safety, Environmental Protection) Award, which carries prizes of 10,000 euros (S$21,000), 5,000 euros and 2,500 euros for the top three teams.

In addition, the group expects its suppliers to comply with all applicable national and other laws and regulations on safeguarding the environment and health of employees and the communities. This is an important criterion for our selection of suppliers.

As a global company, it is determined to consistently apply the same high standards in safety and environment across our 44 production sites worldwide. In Singapore, the group will spend up to US$70 million on environmental protection for our new butyl rubber plant to implement measures such as recovering energy through waste heat recovery, and reducing waste water by half, in comparison with our existing plants.

- Ian Wood
Managing Director
Lanxess Pte Ltd

ASIA'S travel sector is beginning to pick up on the issue of the environment, but is still playing catch-up with counterparts in Europe.

Regionally, we have seen a number of airlines and travel agencies launch carbon offset programmes for their passengers. And as recently as last week, Pacific Asia Travel Association hosted the Pata CEO Challenge where top decision-makers convened to debate the industry's response to climate change.

Our own company has taken steps to offset the carbon emissions at our employee conference held earlier this year. Along with other industry players, we are committed to learning more about this important issue and how the travel industry can contribute to the solution.

- Robert Bailey
President & CEO
Abacus International

THE level of awareness has certainly been raised in the past 12 months and more people are definitely conscious of the threats to our environment, thanks to all the activities and education that have been initiated by public and private organisations as well as individuals. However, there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of getting that awareness translated into action.

One way we could get that to happen is to make people more aware of the cost benefits of environmentally friendly activities. This is one way to get the attention of organisations. Cisco, for example, has made a commitment to reducing our carbon footprint through the use of collaborative technologies. By utilising our Cisco TelePresence systems, which we have set up in most of our major offices around the world, we were able to reduce our air travel significantly and save over US$150 million in the process. So we saved the money and made a positive contribution to the environment.

There are technologies available today that will enable us to work more productively with the same or fewer resources than we had in the past, and we should harness those technologies as much as possible.

- Tom Cheong
Managing Director, Singapore and Brunei
Cisco

AVIVA, as a member of the international business community, recognises its corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitments in our various roles, which include insurer, investor, employer, consumer and corporate citizen.

We are actively committed to managing and reducing our impact on the environment. At the group level, Aviva is the first insurer to carbon-neutralise its worldwide operations. In 2007, we increased use of zero emissions electricity as a group - approximately 55 per cent of our electricity globally now comes from such sources.

In the Asia Pacific, Aviva Hong Kong's CSR focuses on battling air pollution. Just over a week ago, we sponsored a tree-planting exercise organised by Friends of the Earth and staff were encouraged to participate in planting 250 seedlings. In Singapore, we signed the UN Charter together with our regional office on April 23, pledging to support the 10 principles of the Global Compact in respect to human rights, labour rights, anti-corruption and the protection of the environment.

We believe that companies need to make that first step of commitment to increase the level of awareness among their business executives and staff through various initiatives and programmes and follow through to their implementation. CSR only becomes truly embedded into the company culture when there is employee involvement - only when the employees are engaged to the cause, do they become advocates.

- Shaun Meadows
CEO
Aviva
Singapore, Hong Kong and Middle East

DURING the last year, there was a noticeable increase in the number of companies and organisations that started green initiatives. And with the increasing number of personal electronic devices distributed worldwide, the need for an organised effort to assess and manage their impact on the environment is obvious. As a global provider of communications devices and technology leader, Motorola is conscious of the role we need to play in helping to conserve the earth's resources. We are taking incremental steps in adopting a green approach in various aspects of our business.

We believe environmental awareness should start from within - through our employees. That is why we have organised awareness activities for employees around the region to support our product recycling efforts. A key initiative we have introduced is the 'Ecomoto Takeback' product recycling programme, aimed at involving the community to reuse and recycle as much of the electronic hardware products they own. That is done by facilitating the proper disposal of electronic products at the end of their lifecycle, and at the same time, building environmental awareness among users as well as the industry.

And where the opportunity exists, such as Earth Day, we also share the environmental message with our community partners. We celebrated the recent Earth Day with Minds (Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore) to create awareness for environmental protection through conservation themed telematches. In summary, it is critical that companies work to manage their impact on society, including improving the environmental aspects of products, recovering products for reuse and recycling, and minimising their operations' impact on the environment.

- EL Tay
President, Motorola Singapore
Corporate Vice-President, Asia Manufacturing Operations
Integrated Supply Chain
MotorolaInc

FREQUENTLY, business executives are accused of failing to consider the environmental ramifications of their plans and aiming for profit at the expense of all else. Increasingly though, making a difference through activism has moved from the public forums into the boardroom with green initiatives and considerations pushed to the fore in everything from CSR programmes to vendor selection criteria.

From the perspective of a leading global IT firm, adopting green practices would mean re-examining all aspects of operations, including facilities, people, and infrastructure. This ensures that at every level of the organisation, best practice strategies are proactively implemented and specific areas identified where greater efficiencies can be had - in terms of power utilisation or resource consumption/conservation/recycling. These best practices should ideally permeate through the corporate culture into the day-to-day work ethics of every employee.

By combining these efforts with global outreach programmes like the The Green Grid and the Storage Networking Industry Association Green Storage initiative, Brocade aims to influence its customers and partners as well as the storage networking industry as a whole, to discover additional ways to minimise the impact of IT storage network architectures on power consumption. In doing so, organisations are able to overcome the critical challenges of continued data growth, as well as limited data centre energy resources and increasing power costs.

- Deb Dutta
Brocade
Vice-President, Asia Pacific & Japan

IN SINGAPORE and across the region, we see awareness on the rise with green IT gaining acceptance - but much more can still be done. Nortel is one of the biggest users of unified communications, which ensures our employees can be connected from anywhere, significantly reducing the need for travel. We have also engaged in a company-wide IT transformation project aimed at reducing emissions, improving efficiency and saving cost.

We see more of our customers demanding first-class environmental credentials. Our corporate policy on 'designing for the environment' incorporates use of more recyclable (and substitution of hazardous) materials, disassembly concepts for end-of-life disposal, modular design and lower power usage strategies.

Simple actions such as wearing green outfits and switching off the office lights for two hours (which we did in Nortel Singapore during the last Earth Day) can already help to raise the awareness and commitment level of employees. We also provide an online resource centre, 'Green Scene', and an employee blog, 'Green Roots'. As a member of The Climate Group, which is focused on reducing the carbon impact of ICT, we provide opportunities for employees to work on projects to measure, benchmark and reduce carbon footprint.

- Michael Pangia
President
Nortel Asia Pacific

AS A company with a keen sense of corporate responsibility, CA encourages employees to consider the environment in everything they do every day, and to spread the word among customers by advising them on how to make their IT environments more environment friendly.

A great way of raising awareness is to come up with imaginative schemes to promote a green mindset. Only last week in India, CA went into 'partnership' with earthworms on Earth Day by launching a long-term vermin-composting project - a process by which earthworms turn organic waste into natural, nutrient-rich, high-quality compost. This kind of approach gets people talking about the environment in a more meaningful way and encourages them to be green at home, as well as at work, and to spread the message.

- Gavin Selkirk
Corporate Senior Vice-President & General Manager - Asia Pacific & Japan
CA

THE Brother Group's environmental policy has always been clear, working towards sustainable development by reducing waste through efficient use of resources, avoiding contamination when developing new technologies, and minimising environmental impact at every stage of a product's life cycle. This policy is based on the group's international 5R environmental concept which includes reducing waste material by recycling, reusing products and waste material, refusing to buy environmentally unfriendly products, reforming materials for reuse, and recycling rather than scrapping.

On a local level, we are stepping up our green efforts and have recently introduced a recycling initiative which will provide our customers with an easy and convenient way of disposing used Brother consumables in a socially and environmentally responsible way.

- Takeo Shimazu
Managing Director
Brother International Singapore Pte Ltd

BUSINESS executives have become more aware about the threat to our environment but still tend to see their individual involvement as insignificant, and hence remain passive. We need to convey the message that everyone has the responsibility to preserve the earth for future generations, and a little more effort from each of us can go a long way to protecting our environment.

Manulife recognises the need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions footprint and actively participated in Earth Hour 2008 at all our owned and managed buildings worldwide. Companies can put up posters to remind staff to switch off lights and computers when not in use, print only if necessary, use recycled materials. This should ultimately be the minimum we all do, habitually.

- Darren Thomson
President & CEO
Manulife (Singapore) Pte Ltd

Financial benefits to being green

THERE is probably a good basic level of awareness on environmental issues, but I don't think enough business executives realise the growing correlation between environmental practices and a company's economics. A greener way of doing business, which includes coming up with products that are environmentally friendly and energy-efficient, can lead to substantial financial benefits, and not just good publicity. Companies also need to recognise that sustainability is the key to securing a business's future.

At Siemens, we are committed to employing innovative technologies to mitigate environmental problems, such as climate change. We invest more than two billion euros (S$4.2 billion) a year of our R&D budget in environment technology and have 30,000 patents in this field. Specifically, for building technologies, Siemens offers an energy optimisation and conservation scheme in which we allow customers to use energy and operational cost savings to pay for their investment in intelligent building systems. Siemens ensures that facility improvements made today will decrease costs, increase comfort and productivity, and improve quality - all while minimising the impact to the environment.

- Hans-Dieter Bott
Managing Director
Siemens Pte Ltd

CLIMATE change and global warming are real, and organisations as well as individuals are becoming increasingly aware of the implications. However, everyone must realise that they can play an important role in mitigating this threat to mother earth, a belief that is still found wanting.

The Fujitsu group has been a strong advocate of green IT since the early 1970s. Through our green infrastructure solution, we have been consistently reducing power and carbon dioxide output while optimising power efficiencies in our data centres and products. Recently, Fujitsu became a contributor member of The Green Grid, the first Japanese company to take a leadership role in the global consortium dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centres and business computing ecosystems. We aim to achieve a seven million ton reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2010.

There are many potential benefits in investing in green IT and ultimately in adopting a triple bottom line approach. These include huge cost savings, positive impact on brand image, and most importantly, mitigating global warming which affects our daily lives. Therefore, there is a need for increased education to illustrate these benefits and inspire organisations to continually adopt best green practices.

- Noboru Oi
Group CEO
Fujitsu Asia Pte Ltd

RECENT news reports of droughts, looming global food shortage and other environmental threats are increasing our awareness of the state of the environment today. Singapore is generally a green city - we take pride in our trees, parks and gardens. While we partake in the usual tree planting and promoting environmentally friendly products, there is much more that can be done to preserve the environment.

Paying more attention to the environment saves money for companies. High, and often preventable, energy usage and wastage spend contribute significantly to overhead costs. To reduce costs, organisations can do their part to save energy by investing in energy-conserving equipment like computers, printers and copiers. Switching to energy-saving lighting also goes a long way in cutting operating costs. And encouraging employees not to work late is not only a good work-life balance practice, it also saves energy! To promote this, companies can adopt a policy of automatically switching off lights and air-conditioning after a certain time and persuading staff to turn off their work stations every day, especially over the weekend.

For many companies, one of the most common practices in pitching-in to save the environment is reusing printed paper. While this reduces paper wastage considerably, companies can follow up by implementing monthly recycling drives to include other materials to be reused and recycled. In addition, car-pooling should be encouraged among colleagues who live nearby to reduce unhealthy and dangerous carbon emissions.

Firms can also support and invest in environmentally friendly causes which will boost consumer confidence, and ultimately the employer brand.

- Annie Yap
CEO
The GMP Group

I THINK business executives have definitely become more aware of the issues confronting the environment in the past year. Increasingly, we have seen more business initiatives geared towards the environment. It is no longer seen as a fad or hip to go green. I think businesses recognise that being environmentally responsible is one of the key principles of being a good corporate citizen.

Businesses have also recognised that being environmentally responsible can also help distinguish them from their competitors. All things being equal, a consumer will choose an environmentally responsible company over one which is seen as not. As such, it is encouraging to see supermarkets and stores doing away with plastic bags altogether. Once a movement like this gathers momentum, consumers will increasingly be aware of the part they can play to help the environment. And the best way to encourage businesses to go green is for consumers to vote with their dollars.

- Wee Piew
CEO
HG Metal Manufacturing Ltd

THE IT industry is increasingly finding itself under scrutiny to play its part in creating more sustainable business operating models - the need for the greening of IT.

The business community is already thinking green, even though they are not acting on it sufficiently. In a recent Citrix Systems survey with 96 of our customers in Singapore, 66 per cent viewed green IT as both a cost-saving measure and part of corporate social responsibility, while 36 per cent of them had taken steps towards green IT initiatives in the last 12 months.

With application delivery being a critical component of IT operations, Citrix's remote access and collaboration tools reduce carbon emissions by enabling telecommuting and remote collaboration. Further, its virtualisation technologies can help support government regulations that promote energy efficient data centres.

All these not only bring financial savings to businesses today, but also widen ecological sustainability to save our planet.

- Yaj Malik
Area Vice-President, Asean
Citrix Systems

Read more!

Crackdown on traffickers strains Thailand's wildlife centres

Elizabeth Gibson, Yahoo News 4 May 08;

Staff at one of Thailand's 23 state wildlife rescue centres are getting good at scrimping by.

The tigers are eating cheap chicken rather than expensive beef, and keepers only let the big cats mate one day a year to limit the number of new mouths to feed.

If the situation gets too dire, the centre's director Pornchai Patumrattanathan says, they will feed their captive wild boars to the tigers.

"We can stop other plans, but we cannot stop animals from eating," Pornchai said, wandering between the rusting cages at the conservation and breeding centre in Thailand's western Ratchaburi province.

Thailand, with its highly developed infrastructure and location, is a transportation centre for the thriving illicit animal trade in Southeast Asia.

As Thai police crackdown on the illegal trafficking of animals, the captured creatures are putting a strain on the country's wildlife centres.

The number of animals being confiscated -- mostly endangered birds -- has more than doubled to 8,300 in 2007 from 4,000 in 2005, according to Thailand's Wildlife Conservation Office.

Thai law requires confiscated animals to be held until a court closes the trafficking case, which Pornchai says can take anywhere between nine months and five years.

Even if an illegal trader evades arrest, the state keeps the animal for five years while investigating, he said.

All this costs money, and the office's budget for 2008 is eight million baht (253,000 dollars). But it needs 17 million baht to deal with the flood of animals, according to office director Samart Sumanochitraporn.

"For the past few years, the budget hasn't been enough," Samart said. "These animals are expensive."

The Thai government has instead asked the conservation centres to cut their budgets by 20 percent this year, Samart said.

Pornchai says he cannot lop off a fifth of his 1.3-million-baht budget for the animals' food and medicine. He has already spent it all in the first five months of the fiscal year, forcing the centre to buy food and supplies on credit.

The centre tries to lower costs by growing its own fruit and collecting leaves and grass twice a day, but that is hardly enough to provide for the 523 animals in the 22-year-old Ratchaburi centre.

The crowded sanctuary is home to a menagerie that runs from sun bears to an angonoka, or ploughshare, tortoise, one of the most endangered animals with only an estimated 400 remaining in the world.

Pangolins, trafficked into China as a lucky snack, had to be set free because centres have not been able to keep them alive in captivity.

Snakes also go free because they are too abundant -- police can net as many as 300 pythons in a single bust.

Eighty percent of the animals at Pornchai's centre were confiscated and the rest were born there, donated or captured.

The centre specialises in breeding big cats but has had to limit the tigers' mating because of tight funds.

"If we breed too many, it will be too much for the budget because they eat too much," he said. "But this is a breeding centre, so what about our job?"

William Schaedla, director of conservation organisation WWF in Thailand, acknowledges the system is not perfect, but says it beats the alternatives. He says some countries in Asia kill or sell confiscated animals.

"You have dozens of animals and you don't know where they came from. Do you do the decent thing and put them in a holding facility while you try to sort things out, or do you do the easy thing and get rid of them?" Schaedla said.

"The Thais are trying very hard to look after them."

The inflow of animals also has the centre's keepers dealing with creatures they have never worked with before.

Last year they had to rearrange cages to house 53 orangutans trafficked out of Indonesia.

And despite no experience with elephants, the centre became home to a baby elephant nine months ago and now it is advising a centre in southern Thailand how to care for a new calf.

The majority of the animals confiscated from traffickers will never return to the wild, Pornchai says. After so long in captivity, it could be dangerous to release them.

"I wish my job didn't exist because if people didn't traffic animals they wouldn't need to bring them to me," Pornchai said.

"These animals are not happy to stay in the cages."

Read more!

Asean, US to work together on wildlife crime

Stephen Then, The Star 4 May 08;

MIRI: Asean-Wildlife Enforcement Network (Asean-Wen) and the United States are establishing information-sharing channels to stop East-West wildlife crime.

In addition to fostering better regional and international cooperation, the Asean-US Wildlife Crime Forensics Exchange aims to increase the capacity of scientists to support the fight against wildlife crime.

Forensic science is often used to identify seized animals and plants and connect suspects with crime scenes and contraband.

As such, internationally renowned forensic experts from the US Federal Law Enforcement Laboratory conducted a two-week-long special course for a group of scientists in the United States.

“These scientists from Asean, Africa, Europe and South America were taught how to track criminals involved in wildlife poaching and smuggling, crime scene investigation, DNA extraction, genetic analysis, identification of ivory, fur and leather, how to analyse blood and bile and how to evaluate the circumstances causing the death of wildlife,” said Asean-Wen coordinating committee liaison officer Klairoong Poonpon.

“The comprehensive training that ended last Friday was carried out at the US Fish and Wildlife Service Law Enforcement Laboratory in Oregon which houses the most advanced wildlife forensic laboratory in the world,” he said in an e-mail interview.

“The centre is already involved in investigating and prosecuting those involved in the smuggling of endangered Tibetan antelope products in the India-China-Thailand region.”

Last month, The Star had published a series of articles on the poaching and smuggling of endangered wildlife from the jungles of northern Sarawak following the discovery of abused trophy animals in the private farm of a businessman here.

Poonpon said wildlife poaching and smuggling had become one of the most lucrative black market businesses in the world.

Recognising that its member countries were plagued with widespread illegal wildlife trade, Asean set up Asean-Wen in 2005 to combat this crime, he said.

“Asean-Wen is now the world’s largest wildlife law enforcement network comprising enforcement agencies from Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam,” he said.

Read more!

Number of dengue cases expected to be higher this year

Channel NewsAsia 4 May 08;

SINGAPORE: The number of dengue cases is expected to be higher this year.

South West CDC Mayor Amy Khor on Sunday said, in the first four months of the year, there is already a 35 per cent increase in the number of dengue cases compared to the same period last year.

Dr Khor added that the number of breeding sites has also increased, 40 per cent higher than last year.

As of 19 April, there were 3212 breeding sites, and about 55 per cent of them were outdoor - mainly discarded receptacles such as plastic pails.

It is, therefore, important to engage every individual to help fight dengue.

In the latest effort, some 200 foreign students and 500 residents were roped in to spread the importance of good public health habits.

The "My Hostel Shines @ South West" programme will see three key measures implemented - a pilot dengue prevention ambassador training for 20 foreign students; block washing by 100 foreign students and 20 residents; and a joint community vigilance programme where foreign students join grassroots leaders in house visits to comb potential mosquito breeding sites.

"There is no shortcut to preventing dengue and minimising the number of cases. The most effective and best way is still source reduction, which is to eradicate any potential dengue breeding sites," said Dr Khor.

"There continue to be a segment of the population who are not vigilant, who are not diligent enough, who continue to litter. In fact, discarded receptacle is one of the top most dengue breeding sites... Therefore we need to continue with our public education and awareness campaign," she added. - CNA/ac

Efforts intensify as dengue spikes
Number of cases up 35%, breeding sites up 42%
Loh Chee Kong, Today Online 5 May 08;

THE quantum of the fine has been doubled, public education campaigns redesigned and door-to-door community efforts intensified.

But the dengue situation continues to get worse. In the first four months of the year, the number of dengue cases went up 35 per cent, compared to the same period last year, to 1,616. Correspondingly, the number of mosquito breeding sites detected has gone up by 42.4 per cent.

As of April 19, there were 3,213 breeding sites; about 55 per cent were outdoors, mainly discarded receptacles such as plastic pails.

While this spike could be partly due to the National Environment Agency starting its "intensive source reduction exercise" a month earlier than last year, "the worrying thing is the breeding sites continue to be the same kind of habitats", said Senior Parliamentary Secretary (Environment and Water Resources) Amy Khor. That indicates some people were not heeding public education efforts, she added.

She was speaking yesterday at the South West Community Development Council's latest anti-dengue programme, which ropes in 1,099 foreign students living in a Jurong West hostel to comb for potential breeding sites with grassroots leaders.

Dr Khor said reminders were needed even for those who have "internalised" anti-breeding habits. "If you look at the publicity through advertisements, we've been changing the messages, too, just in case people get lulled into complacency or become quite oblivious." For instance, the campaign now provides advice for people living in an identified dengue cluster and is "not just about mozzie wipe out".

Since last month, the Government has raised the fine to $200 for homeowners caught for the first time with breeding grounds in their residential premises. The authorities will monitor the situation, which "should improve", before deciding on any further changes, said Dr Khor.

Meanwhile, the Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC has relaunched its SMS alert system, which was first rolled out last year, for residents to inform the Town Council of potential breeding sites. At the peak of the outbreak last year, the GRC experienced 80 dengue cases in three clusters, said MP Ahmad Magad.

Describing the spike in dengue cases as a "mystery", Dr Ahmad felt it was largely due to the mutation of the dengue viral strains.

He said: "We're taking no chances this year ... to make sure we get as much involvement from the community as possible to prevent further outbreaks."

Read more!

Eight killed as strong tidal wave hits South Korea's west coast

Channel NewsAsia 4 May 08;

SEOUL: At least eight people, including two children, were killed Sunday when high waves slammed a breakwater on South Korea's west coast, sucking anglers and others out to sea, coastguard officials said.

Two people are still missing after the incident near Boryeong, a town 200 kilometres (124 miles) southwest of Seoul, and 13 were injured, they said.

A nine-year-old boy and his father, and a five-year-old boy and his uncle, were among the dead, Lee Won-Il, a Taean coastguard official, told AFP.

He said five of the injured had been released from hospital while eight had been admitted, some in critical condition. Patrol boats are searching the area.

The accident happened during a long holiday weekend in South Korea, and visitors to the area were among the casualties.

"The sea water receded like an ebb tide before two-metre-high (6.6-foot) waves rushed to the breakwater and rocks to sweep the anglers and tourists into the water," Yonhap news agency quoted one witness as saying.

The cause of the high waves was not immediately known. The meteorological office said the weather was not particularly bad at the time.

"The wind might have been a bit strong, as we warned earlier. But there were no reasons for us to issue special warnings against tidal waves today," Bong Ji-A, of the local weather office in Daejeon, told AFP.

"It's a bit strange. So we've sent investigators to the area to look into this case."

Witness Lee Sang-Whan estimated the height of the waves at four to five metres.

Lee told YTN TV he heard a loud bang, like a sonic boom from an aircraft, just beforehand.

"Shortly afterwards, sounds like an explosion were heard and at the same time, the wave struck the breakwater and swept away people there."

The defence ministry said it had no reports of military manoeuvres in the area. - AFP/ac

Read more!

Is this the rice super-gene?

Yahoo News 5 May 08;

Researchers in China have pinpointed an elusive gene that plays a linchpin role in determining the harvest potential of rice, according to a study released on Sunday by the journal Nature Genetics.

The productivity of a rice plant is determined by several traits -- the number and size of its grains; the height of the plant; and its flowering time, which reflects its response to the prevailing climate.

Years of previous work in rice research have helped scientists close in on the plant's Chromosome 7 for a gene that appears to affect all three characteristics -- and this appears to be the magic sequence.

The gene was identified by a team led by Qifa Zhang of Huangzhong Agricultural University in Wuhan, in an arduous exploit of field research.

The team planted 30,000 rice plants in a bid to track down the gene.

This was winnowed down to 1,082 plants that had a tell-tale low yield, as they had fewer and smaller grains, were short and flowered earlier. The culprit was found to be the lack of a gene called Ghd7.

When Ghd7 was slotted into these lagging plants, the yield traits were transformed. The time taken to flowering doubled, and the plants became almost two-thirds taller.

The investigators then took a snapshot of how Ghd7 functioned in 19 different strains of rice that originate from around Asia, ranging from Japan in the north to the Philippines, Myanmar and India in the south.

They found five different mutations, or versions, of the key gene.

Less active, or inactive, versions of Ghd7 were found in rice grown in cooler regions.

These mutations encouraged the plant to flower earlier, thus enabling it to be cultivated in areas where there is a short growing season and a temperate climate.

In contrast, highly active versions of the gene were present in regions that have long growing seasons, with day-long warmth and exposure to light. These versions delayed flowering and increased yield.

The findings "have fundamental implications" for improving yields of rice, the staple food in Asia and an important dietary component in the rest of the world, says the study.

Rice technologists can help farmers by tweaking the Ghd7 gene and matching specific variants of it to the climate where the plants are to be grown, it says.

Boosting rice harvests is essential, given the rise in Earth's population from around 6.5 billion today to more than nine billion by mid-century.

The price of rice and other cereals has surged in the past year in response to drought in the United States and Australia, and to incentives to grow biofuels rather than food crops.

China experts identify gene for yield, height in rice
Yahoo News 4 May 08;

Scientists in China have identified a single gene that appears to control rice yield, as well as its height and flowering time, taking what may be a crucial step in global efforts to increase crop productivity.

In an article published in Nature Genetics, the researchers said they were able to pinpoint a single gene, Ghd7, which appears to determine all three traits.

Previous studies identified a region on chromosome 7 which seemed to be responsible, but they were not able to zero in on any specific gene.

"Our study shows that a single gene can control several traits with major effects. It can double the yield, determine flowering time and plant height," said Zhang Qifa of the Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan province in China.

"Previously, we thought we needed to change many genes to change rice yield, now we just need to manipulate a single gene to increase productivity," he told Reuters by telephone.

Zhang and his colleagues studied 19 rice varieties in Asia and found that plants that were shorter, had fewer grains per cluster of flowers, and flowered earlier were lacking in the gene Ghd7.

When the gene was restored, the scientists saw sharp changes of increased yields, a doubling of the time to flowering and a 67 percent increase in height.

The scientists also found five different versions of Ghd7.

"The most highly active versions were present in warmer regions, allowing rice plants to fully exploit light and temperature by delaying flowering and increasing yield. Less active or inactive versions were found in cooler regions, enabling rice to be cultivated in areas where the growing season is shorter," they wrote.

(Reporting by Tan Ee Lyn; Editing by John Chalmers)

Read more!

South East Asia rice cartel plan may not work

Business Times 5 May 08;

(BANGKOK) A proposed 'Opec-style' rice cartel in South-east Asia will go nowhere due to the inability of governments to cooperate with each other and control output from their farmers, analysts and traders said on Friday.

Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, a TV chef whose main contact with rice is cooking it, has revived the long-dormant idea of a price-setting body involving producers Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.

The proposal, which threatens to add to global food supply fears amid record-high rice prices, failed to gain traction seven years ago when it was first floated by Bangkok - and most see little chance it will fare better this time around.

'I don't think it would work. All they can do is agree on a price, but they can't control the supply like oil,' said Graham Catterwell, an economic analyst with 30 years of experience in Thailand and the region. 'It's going nowhere.'

The five mainland South-east Asian nations produce a combined 60 million tonnes of milled rice each year, about 14 per cent of world output. But only Thailand, the world's number one rice exporter, and Vietnam have major surpluses, last year accounting for about 47 per cent of world wheat trade.

'We are all rice producers. Why don't we cooperate in managing prices?' Mr Samak said on Wednesday after talks with visiting Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein.

Mr Samak said Mr Thein Sein had agreed in principle to the idea, but the Burmese general did not speak to reporters. Myanmar has resumed limited rice exports this year, mainly to South Asia, after several years off the market, trade sources say.

The proposed group - which includes two democracies, two Communist-led governments and a military dictatorship - appears in no hurry to hammer out the details.

Agriculture ministers will discuss the proposal in September at a meeting of the 10-nation Asean regional group in Vietnam, Cambodian Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun said on Friday.

Impoverished Cambodia, where 85 per cent of a 14 million population are farmers, would join if a cartel offered technology benefits like better seed to boost output, he said.

Cambodia produced 6.7 million tonnes of rice in 2007-08, of which 1.5 million tonnes went for export, well below the nearly nine million tonnes Thailand will ship this year.

Like several other big suppliers including Vietnam and India, Cambodia slapped restrictions on exports this year in an effort to secure domestic supply and keep local prices down.

'We must produce more rice to sell to overseas markets,' Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen recently said on state television.

Sharing technology is one thing. It's quite another to set prices and control output like the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), whose member nations have often had trouble singing from the same song sheet even though they pump over a third of the world's oil.

'It's impossible. We can't fix prices as Opec does because we can't control our production like Opec,' Chookiat Ophaswongse, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, told Reuters. 'It might be easy for Communist Laos or Vietnam to control their farmers, but we can't do that in a free-market economy like Thailand. Farmers will rush to grow more rice when prices go up and shift to other crops when prices fall,' he said.

Mr Catterwell said the five countries may agree on a broad price band, but it would be hard to enforce and buyers could go elsewhere, such as India, which can export as much as five million tonnes of rice annually.

Even Mr Samak appears to have moved on from the price-setting idea, as he was quoted as saying on Friday he was willing to sell rice to Indonesia at a 'friendly price'.

Thailand first floated the cartel idea in 2001 when it feared losing market share because its export price was around US$40 a tonne higher than Vietnam, India and Pakistan. The proposal fizzled out then, and it appears likely to suffer a similar fate this time around.

'With an oil well, you can just turn the pumps on and off. You can set quotas for how much to produce, but how do you do that with rice farmers all over the country?,' Mr Catterwell said\. \-- Reuters

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Governments worldwide act on soaring rice prices

Business Times 5 May 08;

They are adopting new policies or shifting old ones to ease the supply crunch

(HONG KONG) Rationing, subsidies, price-fixing cartels, export curbs - you name it, governments across the world are trying it out as they seek to shield their populations from the soaring price of rice.

Wary of the political risk of millions of hungry people on their doorstep, some governments - notably in Asia - are adopting new policies, or shifting their old ones, to ease the supply crunch.

But there appears to be no magic one-size-fits-all formula, partly because of national factors and partly because of the nature of the market.

'In Asia, most rice import and export is carried out by countries rather than by companies,' said Jonathan Pincus, chief economist for the UN Development Programme in Vietnam.

'Producing countries are restricting exports because they're concerned about the domestic market,' he told AFP. That in turn that 'means things just get tougher for consuming countries, which have to pay higher and higher prices'.

Last week, Thailand said that it had agreed in principle to form a rice price-fixing cartel - similar to the oil industry's Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) - with neighbours Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar as well as Vietnam.

Thailand, the world's top rice exporter which last year shipped around 9.5 million tonnes overseas, insists that it has no plans to curb supplies.

It has said that it will gradually sell off its 2.1 million tonnes of stockpiled rice at 20 per cent below current prices to relieve shortages. In contrast, Vietnam - the world's second biggest rice exporter - has reduced this year's cap on exports from four million tonnes to 3.5 million tonnes to secure domestic supplies and reduce prices fuelling double- digit inflation.

Hanoi has also banned new export contracts until the end of June, although existing contracts - including shipments to the Philippines at record prices of US$1,200 per tonne - are being honoured.

Cambodia in late March banned rice exports to ease pressure on the domestic market after prices reached nearly US$1 a kg, deepening poverty in a nation where one-third of the population lives on less than 50 US cents a day.

But Prime Minister Hun Sen said last week that the government was mulling exporting rice again, to find markets - and revenue - for its farmers. India has banned export of non-basmati rice and last month withdrew export incentives relating to premium basmati, although existing contracts are being honoured, notably to needy countries such as Bangladesh and Sierra Leone.

Brazil, which consumes virtually all of the 11 million tonnes it produces every year, did hint at an export ban but decided against it, preferring instead to urge producers to be cautious about supplies.

Even in the United States, worries about supplies have seen panic buying in some stores; and two big chains, Costco and Sam's Club, took measures last week to ration sales due to price hikes and uncertain deliveries.

The UN's Mr Pincus said that the price of rice was more volatile than that of maize and wheat as much less of it is traded. 'Rice is mostly consumed in the countries where it's produced and for that reason, the world market is very thin. There are not a lot of buyers and not a lot of sellers,' he said.

'So what happens is that if there are some buyers who find themselves short, the international prices spike, and that's what we're seeing right now.'

Japan, which imports more than half its food, wants to raise the issue of spiralling food prices when it hosts the Group of Eight summit in July.

Still, it heavily protects its own rice industry - the government strictly controls the production and price of rice and imposes high taxes on exports - and instead of curbing shipments, has been trying to step up exports.

In the Philippines, one of the world's biggest rice importers, President Gloria Arroyo has ordered steps to prevent hoarding and price gouging, and to ensure supplies.

The government sells subsidised rice in poor neighbourhoods and is crafting a new scheme of rationing.

There is no rationing in Indonesia except where the government operates a subsidy scheme for the poor, which allows 15.5 million registered families to purchase 10-20 kg of rice a month at a third of the normal price.

Indonesia has a de facto export ban, stipulating that exports are only allowed when there is a domestic surplus of at least three million tonnes.

Bangladesh, which does not export rice due to its own needs, does not plan rationing, said the food ministry's senior information officer Golam Kibria.

However, the government is selling subsidised rice to help low income families as many poor have been forced to go without meals. -- AFP

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Smarter electric grid could be key to saving power

Brian Bergstein, Associated Press Yahoo News 4 May 08;

The glowing amber dot on a light switch in the entryway of George Tsapoitis' house offers a clue about the future of electricity.

A few times this summer, when millions of air conditioners strain the Toronto region's power grid, that pencil-tip-sized amber dot will blink. It will be asking Tsapoitis to turn the switch off — unless he's already programmed his house to make that move for him.

This is the beginning of a new way of thinking about electricity, and the biggest change in how we get power since wires began veining the landscape a century ago.

For all the engineering genius behind the electric grid, that vast network ferrying energy from power plants through transmission lines isn't particularly smart when it meets our homes. We flip a switch or plug something in and generally get as much power as we're willing to pay for.

But these days the environmental consequences and unfriendly economics of energy appear unsustainable. As a result, power providers and technology companies are making the electric grid smarter.

It will stop being merely a passive supplier of juice. Instead, power companies will be able to cue us, like those amber lights in Tsapoitis' house, to make choices about when and how we consume power. And most likely, we'll have our computers and appliances carry out those decisions for us.

Done right, the smarter grid should save consumers money in the long run by reducing the need for new power plants, which we pay off in our monthly electric bills. However, if people fail to react properly to conservation signals, their bills could spike.

And certainly a smart grid that can encourage us to conserve will feel different. Envision your kitchen appliances in silent communication with their power source: The fridge bumps its temperature up a degree on one day, and the dishwasher kicks on a bit later on another.

Smart-grid technologies have gotten small tests throughout North America, as utilities and regulators scout how to coax people to reduce their demand for power. But there's little doubt it's coming. The utility Xcel Energy Inc. plans to soon begin a $100 million smart grid project reaching 100,000 homes in Boulder, Colo.

In Milton, an exurb where dense subdivisions encroach on farm fields, a test with the Tsapoitis family and 200 other households reveals what will be possible — and how much more work needs to happen.

Tsapoitis uses his computer to visit an online control panel that configures his home's energy consumption. He chooses its temperature and which lights should be on or off at certain times of the day. He can set rules for different kinds of days, so the house might be warmer and darker on summer weekdays when his family is out.

The family can override those changes manually, whether it's by turning on the porch light or raising the thermostat to ward off a Canadian chill. But the system guards against waste. If midnight comes and no one has remembered to lower the thermostat and turn off the porch light, those steps just happen.

These little tweaks add up nicely for another person testing the Milton system, Marian Rakusan. He's saved at least $300 on utility bills since the program began in September. Tsapoitis and his wife, Lisa, aren't certain of their savings but say their 2,400-square-foot home has lower energy bills than a friend's 1,800-square-footer.

This alone is not revolutionary, because programmable thermostats and other "smart home" controls let people craft similar resource-saving plans. The big change here is the combination of these controls with that blinking amber light on the switch — where the grid talks back.

Milton's local gas and electricity retailer, Direct Energy, will set those amber dots blinking in an emergency. It might happen a few times in a summer month. Maybe there will be congestion in Ontario's overtaxed transmission network. Perhaps a power plant will be down for maintenance. Or rapacious air conditioners will overwhelm electric capacity.

Whatever the cause, at that moment, this section of the grid needs a reduction in demand, fast, or else outages loom.

People in Milton's test are expected to configure a "brownout" setting on their computers, indicating how their homes should respond in such a situation. In this test, Direct Energy also will enforce conservation remotely. It can raise the set temperature in a participant's home by 2 degrees Celsius in the summer (nearly 4 degrees Fahrenheit), reducing its air conditioning load. The company also has permission to shut off the testers' hot-water heaters and electric pool pumps for four hours at time during these power emergencies.

Tsapoitis shrugs at that aspect of the arrangement. It's better than rolling blackouts. Rakusan, however, says he's not sure he likes the idea of the power company tweaking his home's settings.

Indeed, it appears unlikely that broad swaths of the public will accept remote control from the power company. California officials recently had to back away from a proposal to require remote-controlled thermostats in new buildings.

So a more likely scenario is that consumers will get powerful economic incentives to make those decisions themselves.

Typically we pay a flat rate for electricity, even if sometimes it falls below the actual costs of supplying power at a given moment. In a growing number of places, rates move slightly higher in hours that typically are busiest.

An advanced notion of this will be tested this summer in 1,100 homes served by Baltimore Gas & Electric. Pricing plans will vary, but generally the households will pay the cheapest, "off-peak" rates most of the time. Some testers will pay higher rates every weekday afternoon. And all of them will be subject to "critical peak" periods of even higher charges, declared on as many as 12 weekday afternoons with stress on the grid.

The Maryland utility will have its own version of Milton's amber dots. Most of the homes will get 3-inch-high orbs that will glow different colors to indicate the price of electricity: red instead of their usual green, for example, during critical peak periods.

Even this will probably be a primitive step.

Eventually, the smart grid will let rates fluctuate even more dynamically, depending on conditions. That already happens in wholesale electricity markets, in which power suppliers buy energy from power producers. Now that would extend to the retail level — our homes. The price of electricity would dip when demand is softest, typically at night or on mild days, and rise in periods of strain.

There's only one problem. "Consumers are not sitting at home waiting for the latest signal from the power grid," says Rob Pratt, a scientist with the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "To get the kind of widespread response that we'd really like to have, keeping it automatic is real important."

In other words, appliances designed to interact with the smarter electric grid will adjust themselves.

Pratt's lab has already built and tested controllers that can make it happen. And over the next decade, Pratt expects homes to get appliance controls with a sliding scale. At one end people could choose something like "maximize my ease and comfort." At the other, "save me the maximum amount of money." The highest-conservation settings might lead dishwashers to start only when electricity prices are at their lowest, or when wind power has kicked on.

When Pratt and colleagues tested aspects of this in 112 homes in Washington state, they determined the average household's electricity bills would drop 10 percent.

It says a lot that conservation would be encouraged by the very companies that make money off the use of electricity. But they have no real choice.

Electricity use per home rose 23 percent from 1981 to 2001, according to the Department of Energy. Blame increases in electronics and appliances, and our decreasing tolerance for sweating through the summers. The Census Bureau says 46 percent of single-family homes completed in the U.S. in 1975 had air conditioning. In 2006 that was 89 percent.

Meanwhile, meeting that demand is getting trickier. Raw materials that fuel power plants are soaring in price and being eyed more skeptically by regulators concerned about air quality and greenhouse gases. And that's even before the next U.S. president, as seems likely, supports caps on carbon emissions.

"We just can't keep building more coal plants," says Roy Palmer, head of regulatory affairs at Xcel Energy.

So until some bountiful and clean power source can be delivered cheaply, electric utilities are pressured to extend the generating capacity we already have.

The effects of well-chosen reductions in usage — an idea known as "demand response" — can be huge. A mere 5 percent improvement in U.S. electric efficiency would prevent 90 large coal-fired power plants from having to be built over the next 20 years, according to Jon Wellinghoff, a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission who advocates demand response.

Demand response isn't new, but it's existed in low-tech form. Utilities in capacity crunches would call companies and request that they do something to help, like idling an assembly line for a few hours. In some states, residents can get rebates if they let the utility trigger radio transmitters on their air conditioners that cycle the chillers off for a few minutes in strained summer hours.

Now though, technology can do demand response in a more sophisticated way.

Companies such as EnerNOC Inc. have built software and sensor networks that can remotely dim lights or raise refrigerator temperatures inside businesses, in an instant. For homes, upgraded electric meters can offer near-real-time feedback on energy use. And new generations of appliances and thermostats can coordinate with each other and electric meters over in-home wireless networks.

The key hurdle is figuring out how to pay for it all.

The equipment in Milton's tests costs more than $1,000 per house. That will come down with larger-scale efforts, and utilities will save money as networked meters free them from sending out human meter readers each month. But for bigger smart-grid investments, energy companies generally want regulators to let them recoup the costs through higher electric rates. That can get thorny.

Tsapoitis hopes some kind of smarter system sticks after his test ends in Milton this fall. When asked why he signed up, he said it might keep his 4-year-old son, Brogan, from worrying about global warming and other environmental threats. He pointed to a tattoo running down his arm that spells out Brogan's name in an Old English font.

"That," he said, "is what we do it for."

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