Volunteers needed for Earth Hour (Singapore) 2009
Positions are now open on the earth hour in singapore blog
Seeking Sentosa's natural treasures
priceless and for free, our natural shore on the wonderful creations blog
Golden Babbler catching stick insect
from Bird Ecology Study Group blog
AVA's biggest Responsible Pet Ownership Roadshow
7th - 9th Nov 2008 on the habitatnews blog
What happened to those values?
Today Online 12 Jul 08;
WHAT are our values as a nation? Do we even have shared values?
Others do.
Some countries turn to God to tell them how to feel about each other and everything. Others look to values grown over time.
We Singaporeans have no shared God, no shared political ideology, no long-shared traditions, unless you count the military parade and fireworks on National Day. Even National Service is served by only a fraction of the country, men above 18.
But while it’s safe to say no country has a set of values everybody cherishes, it’s still fair to think we could share some common beliefs and principles after about 200 years of living together. What could they be?
Many people point to the colour of our grass, which is greener.
Our antecedents came here looking for a living, so it’s quite easy to think their children would be focused on the material world. They say, no wonder we so easily describe ourselves as “Singapore Inc”.
But for about 40 years now, we have had National Service. Every family sends its sons to combat training, where they risk their lives for something more than Hotel Singapore — there seems to be something worth fighting for, even worth killing for. What is it?
For many other countries that something is a way of life or just the nostrum: My motherland.
But here, when we think roots, do we think Singapore?
When people abroad ask me where I’m from, more than half the time they accept it when I say, “I’m from Singapore.”
In my motherland though, 100 per cent of the time they still want to know, “Where are you from originally?” (Itell them, Kandang Kerbau Maternity Hospital.)
If our shared values are hard to pin down, it’s not for lack of trying.
On Jan 15, 1991, the world was told what Singapore’s “Shared Values” were, as the five statements of values were described after they were debated and adopted by Parliament.
How deep have they sunk in? Why not have a look at the five values, listed here in bold type?
“Nation before community and society before self.”
Well, a simple MRT or bus ride will be enough to show you how deeply we have embraced that one, with pregnant women, children and the old having to stand while even our boys in green sit, our youth pretend to sleep — what is it in the MRT aircon that makes so many people close their eyes for even a few stops? — and that’s not to mention the person in front of you at any building letting the door slam on you.
As for “Nation before community” — a phrasing that some say was added with the realisation that the original “community before self” could spell disaster in a multi-racial and multi-religious society — if we really believed in “nation before community”, why is there still a need for race-based self-help groups?
And so it goes with three of the other official “Shared Values”.
Community support for the individual. Who knows what this means, and how it doesn’t contradict “Nation before community and society before self”?
Family as the basic unit of society? What sounds so good and wholesome and very anodyne somehow found a downside in Singapore where people were actually punished for not forming a family — with a man at the head of the household.
This kind of thinking led the Housing Board to deny our singles better grades of flats for the longest time.
And for officialdom to deny medical benefits to children of female civil servants until more recent times – on the grounds that only a man could be considered the head of the home.
Consensus, not conflict? Sure, on a daily basis, we avoid conflict but that’s more out of apathy and fear of trouble than a sense of consensus, which requires engagement, something we’re not renowned for.
Just look at the amount of conflict we pay to consume in pop culture. We enjoy every Die Hard and superhero Hollywood throws at us, and then generate swordfights and fistfights aplenty in homegrown shows.
As they stand, it is hard to say we live by the official “Shared Values” or that society would accept laws that impose them, except for the one that says, “Racial and religious harmony” — we have even sent racist bloggers to jail to uphold it. (But we don’t discuss the terms on which we achieve harmony — acceptance or tolerance?)
So then, what are our shared values? You could come up with limitless questions to help define values. How do the strong treat the weak? Where do we find joy? What moves our hearts? How do we feel about freedoms? Responsibilities? What will we fight for?
A lot to think about. If you think talking about it has any value.
The writer is a media consultant who likes to share his views, if not values.
Commonwealth Secondary lauded for recycling water from sinks
Liaw Wy-Cin, Straits Times 12 Jul 08;
A WASTEWATER treatment centre - albeit a modest one - has found its way into a school here, and is helping to recycle dirty water from its sinks.
But instead of huge machines at the new West Coast campus of Commonwealth Secondary School, a number of outdoor ponds use plants like lotuses and cattails, along with micro-organisms and activated carbon, to do the job.
Together, they can make water clean enough to be used for watering plants and washing various parts of the school.
Opening the new campus yesterday evening, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim commended the school's project, adding that it was a good way to teach students about conservation in water-scarce Singapore.
He also named the school the first centre of excellence for environmental education in Singapore.
Schools are named centres for excellence if they show outstanding achievements in specific areas, such as language and information technology.
Commonwealth Secondary will conduct training sessions in environmental education for both teachers and students from schools in the west. This year, its focus will be on air quality.
The part that schools can play in the national environmental effort is important, Dr Yaacob noted.
'We are moving very fast, we're developing very fast... I think it's important for the younger generation to understand what the challenges are, embrace them, and help us to find solutions,' he told reporters.
Commonwealth Secondary launches small wastewater treatment centre
Chan Eu Imm, Channel NewsAsia 12 Jul 08
SINGAPORE : Commonwealth Secondary School has been designated as a Centre of Excellence for Environmental Education.
Environment and Water Resources Minister Dr Yaacob Ibrahim launched its Green Hub on Friday.
A constructed treatment wetland is part of the school's efforts to teach students about water conservation in an authentic setting.
It is a series of ponds containing aquatic plants that treat non-industrial waste-water - like sink water - and turns it into usable water for washing and watering.
The wetland was developed in collaboration with national water agency PUB, Vision Network, and Ngee Ann Polytechnic.
The Green Hub is also used by other schools in the West Zone - for research and training workshops.
Dr Yaacob said, "Water is a scarce resource and if young Singaporeans can appreciate water the way we appreciate water, then I think our efforts in conserving water and ensuring we have a sufficient supply of water will be met.
"The environmental challenges are upon us, and I think it's important for the younger generation to understand what the challenges are, embrace them and help us to find solutions, because they'll be part of the future generation." - CNA/ms
Bag it up
Today Online 12 Jul 08;
PLASTIC isn’t fantastic.
That is why Kiehl’s is launching its “You Can Change The World” charity project, which has eight local personalities designing a tote bag each.
These comprise pop artiste JJ Lin, celebrity hairstylist David Gan, multi-hyphenate Eunice Olsen, comedian Hossan Leong and Fly Entertainment artistes Irene Ang, Wong Li Lin, Mindee Ong and Nadya Hutagalong.
Priced at $18 each and available from next Friday, the all-natural cotton tote bags will make a more environmentally friendly alternative to plastic bags.
The skin, hair and body care chain will also donate 100 per cent of the nett proceeds from the sale of these bags to benefit the Singapore Environment Council (SEC).
Which means, you can shop for your favourite beauty products, bag them in an eco-friendly tote and do your part for the SEC all at once.
David Gan
An eagle-eyed colleague spotted a couple of grammatical discrepancies in this wordy design but there’s something childlike and heartwarming in how David Gan pens a letter on behalf of Mother Nature.
So, now we know why every A-list star calls him “Mother”.
Hossan Leong
In case you aren’t cultured, our resident arts critic likens Hossan Leong’s art technique to Pointillism — a style of painting using small coloured dots to create a landscape or portrait. Now, that’s a nugget of information which will come in useful when you carry this tote to a gathering of art aficionados.
Eunice Olsen
Eunice is a politician, a TV host, a former beauty queen, an active volunteer ... the list goes on. But she’s really a girl-next-door, as her pretty depiction of a happy tree-hugger shows.
Irene Ang
While Hossan prefers the style of Pointillism, Irene Ang simply gets to the point. The slogan on her design is so bold that even your granny will see the point in not asking for plastic bags at the supermarket.
JJ Lin
We’ll leave the psychologists to figure out why JJ Lin left half of his Super Boy persona uncoloured and why the latter is wearing what looks like old-fashioned clogs or why he’s in his undies. But fans of the pop sensation won’t mind and we bet they will be first in line to snap up this design.
Wong Li Lin
She’s a mother of two. So, maybe that’s the reason behind the naggy reminders on this design. But hey, at least you have something else to read on the MRT train besides stealing glances at your fellow commuters’ copies of Today.
Straits Times 12 Jul 08;
PUPILS from 130 primary schools could soon be scouring the island for plastic bottles and tin cans in a bid to save the planet and raise money for less fortunate classmates.
The pupils will receive $2 for every kg of recyclables under a new scheme funded by the charitable arm of property giant CapitaLand.
In all, the CapitaLand Hope Foundation is looking to give out $1.75 million by June 30 next year in return for 875,000kg of paper, metal and plastic - the equivalent of saving 13,500 trees and enough energy to run 400 television sets for a year.
The money will go towards school uniforms, textbooks and breakfasts for thousands of needy pupils. The top three schools with the largest haul will bag an additional $5,000, $3,000 and $2,000 respectively.
Senior Minister of State for Education and National Development Grace Fu praised the programme, called Green for Hope, at its official launch on Thursday.
'To a generation that is growing up in prosperity, it is important that we teach the values of empathy and compassion,' she said.
EISEN TEO
Channel NewsAsia 12 Jul 08;
PARIS : Eastern Sumatra, the Irrawaddy delta in Myanmar and Cambodia's Tonle Sap lake are among areas in Southeast Asia facing a high risk of arsenic contamination in the water, according to a study published on Friday.
The researchers use innovative digitalised techniques, drawing on geology, geography and soil chemistry, to compile a "probability map" of naturally-occurring arsenic concentrations in five Southeast Asian countries and Bangladesh.
The map is intended as a useful pointer for health watchdogs, urban planners and water engineers worried about concentrations of this poison in groundwater supplies but lacking the funds to carry out wide-scale analysis of water samples.
Published online in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the Swiss-led study combined several methods to compile its probability model.
These included knowledge about sediments whose textures and chemical or bacterial properties could release arsenic from the local ore, thus contaminating aquifers.
Also factored in were areas with flat, low-lying topography. Arsenic contamination is rarely found in places with slopes.
The benchmark for risk was the World Health Organisation (WHO) guideline of 0.01 milligrams of arsenic per litre in drinking water.
The study predicted that in Bangladesh -- which has the worst arsenic contamination in the world -- the risk of water breaching this guideline was highest in the south-centre of the country and in the northeastern Sylhet basin.
This prediction concurred with water samples previously taken and analysed from tube wells in Bangladesh.
High probabilities of arsenic contamination were also seen for the deltas of the Irrawaddy in Myanmar and the Red River in Bangladesh, for the Chao Praya basin in central Thailand and for the organic-rich sediments of the flood plain of Cambodia's Tonle Sap lake.
The computer model said an area of about 100,000 square kilometres (38,600 square miles) on the east coast of Indonesia's main island, Sumatra, was likewise "prone to high risk" of contamination above the WHO benchmark.
This prediction was then borne out by samples taken from a zone in Sumatra deemed to have high-risk and low-risk aquifers.
However, many wells in this area are deep and draw water from below the water-bearing sediments which have the arsenic problem, the study says.
"The prediction map is a useful tool for identification of areas at risk of arsenic contamination, but... understanding the local geology as a function of depth is of vital importance for specific areas," it cautions.
In Bangladesh, tens of millions of people are potentially exposed to arsenic-tainted water, boosting the danger of skin lesions, respiratory illness and cancer.
The risk comes from so-called shallow tube wells which were drilled in the 1970s and 1980s, ironically in a bid to provide rural Bangladeshis with safe water. Millions of these pipes were installed.
The new study is lead-authored by Michael Berg of the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology in Duebendorf.
- AFP /ls
Bangkok Post 12 Jul 08;
Local efforts to reverse effects of coastal erosion, by growing mangrove forests to overcome flooding, show signs of success, writes Chaiwat Satyaem in Samut Sakhon
Local efforts to save the natural environment and fight coastal erosion in Ban Khok Kham of Samut Sakhon's Muang district are showing signs of success. Until recently, villages were picking up the pieces from severe coastal erosion after greedy businesses invaded the mangrove forests which are natural buffers along the shore.
Local communities hope the experimental Phan Tai Norasingh learning park will help reverse the erosion problem.
Prasarn Iamwijarn, a teacher at Phan Tai Norasingh Witthaya school, is in charge of the learning park project financed by a 10-million-baht budget from the Khok Kham tambon administration organisation.
He said environmental destruction in Muang district was too severe to ignore. Until 1991, shrimp farms were common.
The farms gradually went out of business and the ground was left hard and barren. Poorly-managed farms polluted the water and no measures were put in place to save the environment.
The school was hard hit as it sits on land which was formerly a salt farm.
The school is flooded every year and remains submerged for up to four months at a time.
At the peak of shrimp farming, the area near the school was covered with salty water and no trees could grow.
Mr Prasarn said that in 1996 he found ways to solve the problem by drawing on lessons from royal projects initiated by His Majesty the King.
He launched a project to plant mangrove trees on deserted shrimp farms around the school.
Students collected mangrove pods for cultivation and planted the young trees around the school.
More than 40% of green areas around the school were restored, which Mr Prasarn regards as a big advance.
Mr Prasarn convinced shrimp farmers to recognise the merits of growing mangroves around their farms.
Maintaining a balance in the environment by growing mangrove trees was crucial for the survival of marine life, he said.
"I thought up a model and borrowed unused land near the coastlines for experiments.
"Now we have grown about 400 rai of mangroves in those areas. As a result, marine life is returning to the area where the mangrove forest has grown.
"The forests also trap mud sediment which will help slow coastal erosion," Mr Prasarn said.
The mangroves have slowed the erosion which led to land subsidence and worsened flooding for the school.
His hard work has now paid off with cooperation from local people.
Residents began by building three rows of experimental bamboo walls along the shorelines as a barrier to protect the area against the force of the waves.
The three-month experiment, a joint effort between Chulalongkorn University and local people, showed that the bamboo walls helped trap sediment, allowing soft ground to build up behind them.
The cost of the bamboo wall is 2.5 million baht per kilometre, which is cheaper than most other wave breakers.
Mr Prasarn said he expected the sediment build-up would allow mangrove planting areas to expand in the next three to five years.
Narin Bunruam, 71, said the project was useful, so he decided to pitch in.
"I think it is important to plant more mangrove forests, which can act as a home to various forms of marine life.
"Most importantly, I believe mangrove forests can help reduce global warming," Mr Narin said.
He said the community has also launched a separate project to breed crabs.
Breeding pens for crabs are put up about one kilometre from shore, using bamboo sticks planted in the sea.
When crabs with eggs are caught, they are not sold straight away, but are kept in the pens until the eggs hatch.
The crabs, without the eggs, are then sold.
The project has caught on with local fishermen and has become a success as crabs in the wild in Khok Kham village are increasing in number.
Even though a crab can lay up to 500,000 eggs, only 10% of them survive.
Mr Narin urged people to stop eating crab eggs so more crabs will be available for consumption in the long term
Live & learn
Louisa Lim, The Star 12 Jul 08;
Responsible tourism is the latest catchphrase in this era of global-warming concerns. But just how easy is it to stick to the moral high road?
Everything moves very slowly in Langkawi. Even the cars, although there are only a handful, amble by at barely 40kph, while the animals languish in the sun, seemingly immobilised by the stunning scenery of padi fields in a patchwork of glittering green marked by rows of coconut trees.
As the only inhabited island in an archipelago of 99, Langkawi has a rustic sense of time.
The island never really loses its serenity, even on weekends when day-trippers from the city hop off ferries and planes to spend the day combing the beach and sightseeing. The number of tourist arrivals has been increasing, and in 2007 alone, more than three million visitors came.
According to Mahendra Dev, 45, co-founder of Dev’s Adventure Tours, the growing numbers have affected the island for both good and bad as development spreads in tandem.
“The last thing we want is to turn Langkawi into Penang,” says Mahendra.
“The ecology of this tourism-driven island is still intact, but not for long, especially if we keep up with this complacency. But if we prep Langkawi for the future by stressing on responsible tourism, it has the potential to be one of the best destinations in the world.”
For my three-day vacation, I decided to see if it was possible to leave as little a footprint as possible of my visit whilst having a good time.
Day One
Unfortunately, I was off to a shaky start. Due to time constraints, I flew instead of taking a bus or train.
Lesson 1: Take public transport, preferably train. And don’t fly.
I comforted myself by staying at the Frangipani Langkawi, reputedly one of the greenest resorts on the island. The Frangipani bowled me over. The resort is made up of a string of roomy chalets, with possibly one of the best beachside views in Langkawi.
However, what is truly amazing is how committed owner Anthony Wong is in making the resort a model of eco-friendly practice. Apparently, Wong has incorporated over 100 “green” practices into his establishment to help minimise the impact on the environment, including regular environmental walks and an extraordinary waste management system.
Recycling is the name of the game here, as everything from food to water is collected, sorted and reused. There are recycling bins everywhere.
Lesson 2: Look up www.wildasia.net and www.responsibletravel.com for a list of socially responsible hotels and tour operators.
Upon closer inspection, however, I learnt that it wasn’t perfect. The chalet, though nice, didn’t have windows. There was a fan in the room, but Langkawi’s scorching weather made it impossible to rely on that alone. I had to turn on the air-conditioner, hence contributing to the greenhouse effect.
Evening came and I found myself snacking by the beach. Within minutes, a few birds surrounded me, eyeing my food with their beady eyes.
There were signs everywhere telling me not to feed the birds. Yet all it took was a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s gory film, The Birds, to flash across my mind for me to aim some fries at these persistent creatures as peace offering.
Mahendra tells me later that this is a big no-no because people-food is not formulated for animal consumption. Also, these animals may become dependent on humans.
Lesson 3: Feeding wild animals can do more harm than good.
Day Two
Like many other tourists to Langkawi, I rented a car to take me around, as there weren’t any public rides. My first stop was a themed outdoor attraction boasting non-stop fun for kids and adults alike.
Upon entering, I spotted a distressed falcon chained by its claws, a large, noisy crowd gathered around it.
Its owner was a young man who made RM3 each time an overexcited tourist took a photograph with his prized pet.
I was horrified, and even more so later on when I came across a newly established elephant park that offers rides.
Lesson 4: Do not participate in activities that exploit animals, especially if it is lacking in proper management.
Often, such animals are stressed by regular human contact. Some are badly treated, malnourished or even drugged to keep them docile.
Further around the corner, I came across a souvenir shop selling handicraft. I wanted to do a good deed by supporting the local crafts-people, but was told that most of the handiwork were from Thailand.
Mahendra tells me that this has hampered cultural development in Langkawi, as more and more skilled local craftsmen are discouraged by the influx of cheap souvenirs.
Another example of why it is necessary to know what you buy or consume is the detrimental effects the gamat industry has had on Langkawi’s sea.
This purported medicinal oil may be the driving force behind many small to medium-scale businesses in Langkawi, but it has led to an over-harvesting of sea cucumbers.
Lesson 5: Do your homework before your trip, so that you’re able to make better choices.
After my less-than-pleasant encounter with distressed animals and dubious knick-knacks, I decided to soothe my nerves at Ishan Spa.
Perched high on the cliffs overlooking the Andaman Sea, it was the perfect place to hole up for a few hours, away from everything. Besides earning kudos for its breathtaking view, Ishan uses only locally grown ingredients like pandan leaves, ginger, lemongrass and turmeric.
There’s also a small organic herb garden there to educate guests on local herbs and spices.
Lesson 6: Support and buy local.
Back at the hotel, I uncovered yet another blunder. Housekeeping had exchanged my day-old towel with fresh, new ones, despite their “green” towel-replacing policy. It’s the classic example of hotels that have the right policies, but are poor in implementing them.
Because instructions don’t always filter well from top to bottom, WildAsia founder Dr Reza Azmi says, it is crucial for customers to take matters up with the organisations involved, as well as relevant agencies like Lada and Tourism Malaysia.
Lesson 7: Be pro-active in giving constructive feedback, in order to stimulate change.
Day Three
I decided my trip wouldn’t be complete without going on a half-day tour in the great outdoors. After all, this island wasn’t awarded the Geopark status by Unesco in 2007 for nothing.
However, when my personal guide, Abu, raced me around the island in a little speedboat and rushed past majestic mangroves and oddly-shaped islands without saying a single word, I started feeling annoyed.
For starters, this was becoming more of a joyride than anything else. Secondly, Abu’s idea of fun was pushing me to feed the eagles and pat the monitor lizards.
Azmi tells me later that this is exactly the type of tour operator I should avoid while holidaying.
“Travelling is all about opting for activities that are educational. This includes learning all about the local customs or indigenous tribes, or going on eco-based tours, which not only emphasise ‘show’, but also ‘tell’,” says Azmi.
“For example, did you know that mangroves are highly sensitive ecological areas? The boat-ride would have been especially harmful if the vessel utilises a two-stroke engine. So always choose boats with four-stroke engines because they combust petrol much more efficiently, leaving less petro-chemical wastes in the water.”
Azmi then reminded me to write an official letter of complaint about what had happened. But because time is an issue, the half-written letter is still sitting on my desk.
Oh, and did I mention the eight plastic water bottles I used throughout the entire duration of my trip?
I had taken it for granted that Frangipani would deal with it appropriately, like they would with my towels. But even if they did, there was still Azmi’s advice to heed — that all inorganic materials eventually end up in a landfill, because it degrades even as it is being recycled.
Lesson 8: Recycling can be tricky, so cut down instead of recycling.
On my way home, I wistfully wondered how much my ignorance had affected this little island that many people call home. What will Langkawi be like in another 10 years? Will tourists contribute to its ruin?
The line between helping and hurting isn’t always clear, and this can test even the strongest of wills. However, it was rewarding to do the right thing even if I failed. I emerged from the whole journey a little battered, but not the least bit dispirited.
Moreover, didn’t French author Marcel Proust write: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes”?
Lesson 9: Try to come away from a trip as enlightened as possible.
Brian Unwin, The Telegraph 11 Jul 08;
Mass nesting failure year after year is threatening the future of world famous spectacular seabird colonies - and climate change could be the cause.
The warning signs may not be apparent to the tourists enjoying views of kittiwakes, guillemots and puffins on the cliffs of Sumburgh Head at the southern tip of Scotland's Shetland Isles or at remote Fair Isle, 25 miles out to sea.
"Wildlife is a major reason why people take holidays on Shetland and during a short visit there's so much to see at Sumburgh that many possibly don't realise there's a serious problem as they enjoy the sights", said Martin Heubeck an Aberdeen University seabird specialist based on the islands.
"But anyone spending all afternoon observing the sea birds closely through a telescope soon realises something is wrong - the birds aren't actually doing anything other than, in effect, hanging around and being photographed.
"They aren't repeatedly flying in from the sea with fish, nor are they busy feeding or giving other care to their chicks. Most likely they don't have any youngsters - and probably any that do won't be feeding them because they're struggling to find fish.
"Clearly this cannot continue indefinitely. Repeated breeding failure means an increasing proportion of older birds in populations - and with no young birds coming through to replace them when they die, the future survival of their colonies is threatened."
This crisis has been taking shape since the mid-1980s with the disappearance of the immense sand-eel shoals that used to sustain the birds through the breeding season.
Commercial overfishing was initially blamed but stocks didn't recover after it was banned. This led to new suspicion that climate change could be responsible; perhaps sea temperature changes were causing the fish to move to new waters, or affecting their own survival, leaving the birds without their staple diet.
Mr Heubeck is "depressed" about the impact on the colonies on which his whole working life has been focused. While the birds keep returning each spring to follow their instinct to nest, he detects signs of decline in their commitment level.
"Nesting success depends to a great extent on being in a good condition", he explained. "If they return to the colonies and there is insufficient fish around, they are liable to concentrate on finding food rather than breeding or attending their nest sites.
"The stress on them in the pre-breeding period is such that they are not socialising and forming proper colonies as in the past. They need to establish their nest sites and get to know their neighbours on the cliff ledges.
"But all that is breaking down now. Increasingly we see birds returning to the colonies in spring then deciding not to breed - putting their own survival first. The situation is leading to irreversible declines - the results of the next Northern Isles seabird census will be dramatically different to those of the last one during 1998-2001."
It's hard to work out the full effect of the sand-eel famine on seabirds throughout Shetland, which is made up of more than 100 islands spread over almost 600 square miles. However, a grim impression has emerged from detailed studies on Fair Isle, Britain's most isolated inhabitated spot 25 miles south of Sumburgh.
Deryk Shaw, warden of the bird observatory on the 3.5 miles by 1.5 miles isle that has been home to up to 250,000 seabirds of 18 species, has just produced a report about the unfolding cataclysm. It includes two graphs tracing the decline of two common species since the 1980s.
In the case of the shag, nesting numbers have risen just six times in 25 years; mostly progress has been downwards and now it's at a new low point. With kittiwakes, it's even worse - an almost continuous slide from around 23,000 nests to under 3,000.
Summaries of performances this summer produce no signs of hope for the long-term strugglers:
• Shag: Nest numbers on monitoring plots have fallen by 58 per cent since last year to an all-time low and the vast majority of these were abandoned at an early stage. In a "normal year" up to 400 chicks are fitted with leg rings to help trace future movements - this summer only five have been ringed.
• Arctic skua: After several poor breeding seasons the number of territories has plummeted to just 37 (the lowest since the colony's establishment in the 1950s - apart from equally disastrous year 2004 when there were only 33). No young have been produced.
• Kittiwake: The number of nests is only half of that counted as recently as 2005 (2,688 compared to 5,433) with many birds just standing on bare ledges.
• Guillemot: The number of eggs on monitored plots was 57 per cent down on last year. Of 92 eggs there, just two chicks were produced and both were predated. "It was a similar story on trips into colonies around the isle with hardly any chicks to be found and those that were present being small and weak, unlikely to fledge."
• Razorbill: Many eggs and chicks were produced but they have been dying steadily. None is expected to fledge from the entire island.
• Puffin: Many eggs laid but results are expected to be poor. Food is scarce - adults returning mostly with rockling (a tiny silvery fish) and gadoids (mainly whiting fry) with a very few small sand-eels.
Significantly his reports don't mention Arctic terns. That's because they arrived in the spring only to depart due to failure to find fish - a particularly tragic end to their journey from their winter territory in the southern oceans to nest in this far north location.
The picture was similar last year - after their return only a few eggs hatched and all the chicks died. In 2006, 300 chicks fledged, a notable exception after five consecutive years of total failure, with the number of nesting birds declining annually.
Mr Shaw told how visiting colonies has become a gloomy operation. "A normal descent into a big guillemot colony armed with hundreds of rings and measuring gear is a highlight of our season and the noise has to be experienced to be believed.
"Recent years have been met with an eerie silence - the only sounds have been the plaintive cries of a few weak and dying chicks. Normally the first visit into one of these colonies alone would see us ring up to 500 chicks but this year, not one was ringed from the entire island. The only rings fitted were to the few adults we managed to catch."
The significance of the sand-eel in this disaster is underlined by the fact two of Fair Isle's breeding seabirds - gannet and the internationally rare great skua - that don't depend on them are doing well.
Apparently occupied great skua territories have increased from 224 in 2007 to 294 this summer, a rise of 31 per cent. The world population is only about 17,000 pairs and 40 per cent are on the Shetland Isles so this rise represents a big plus.
This species is bucking the trend through being a predator and a scavenger - with rabbits and other seabirds included in its diet. Rising gannet numbers are linked to their widespread foraging and ability to catch larger fish like mackerel and herring.
Mr Shaw stresses research into what is happening to the food chain is "desperately needed" because there were crucial questions in need of answers.
"Why can't birds find enough food? Are sand-eels just not there any more and why? Is it due to 'climate change' and/or is it over fishing or something else entirely? Are the sand-eels simply not breeding or has their breeding season shifted such that their presence no longer coincides with the seabird breeding season?"
There is a further question that emphasises his and Mr Heubeck's growing concern that the declining colonies may be heading towards total collapse. It is: "Are we too late to save our seabirds?"
Seabird colonies on the Orkney Isles, 50 miles south of Shetland, are similarly in dire straits.
The picture there is also of nests abandoned and empty cliffs, says the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds while urging the Scottish government to put the environment at the heart of planned new marine legislation.
RSPB Scotland ecologist Doug Gilbert said: "Regrettably the poor breeding performance of our internationally important seabird colonies is now an annual theme. When you look at the evidence over the last 15 years it is quite startling and cause for serious concern.
"At our Copinsay reserve on Orkney the kittiwake population has plummeted drastically since the mid 1980s, when there were at least 10,000 birds on the cliffs, but today there are just under 2,000, a pattern repeated in many areas of Scotland and the UK.
"This decline is a major conservation problem, as Scotland supports 45 per cent of the nesting seabirds in the EU, and the colonies attract many visitors to marvel at the sight of the massed colonies."
As on Shetland, the lack of sand-eels and other small fish such as sprats, is the problem.
"Adult birds are having to spend more time away from their eggs and chicks to find food and many are just giving up their breeding attempts this year. “These changes are almost certainly being driven by changes in the sea environment about which we still know little. Seabirds are indicators of the health of the marine environment - and, like the canary in the coalmine, the decline in their fortunes should be a wake-up call to which we must all pay attention."
Reuters 11 Jul 08;
PARIS (Reuters) - Young oysters in most French breeding regions are dying at much higher rates than normal and scientists have yet to understand the causes, marine environmental experts said on Friday.
Oysters are a popular Christmas treat in France which produces 130,000 tonnes annually, making France the fourth biggest producer after China, Japan and South Korea.
A national committee of shellfish farmers held a meeting in Paris to look into findings by marine biologists which shows that between 40 and 100 percent of young oysters were dying, depending on the areas.
"What we seem to have is a conjunction of multiple factors concerning the oyster itself and the environment it's in, and there could also be pathogens," Michel Ropert, an environmental scientist at a marine lab in Normandy, told French television.
France's main marine research body, the Ifremer, said the oysters affected by the unusual mortality rate are those aged 12 to 18 months, which should have reached maturity in time for Christmas 2009.
All main oyster-breeding areas in France are affected by the mortality problem, except one specific area at Arcachon on the west coast. Scientists do not know why Arcachon is spared.
"Even within the affected oceanic basins, certain zones are hit and others are not," an Ifremer spokesman said.
French media reported oyster producers were worried about a possible virus like the one that decimated oyster beds in the 1970s. Other possible causes of the problem could be a toxic seaweed, pollution or a change in water temperature.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau, Claude Canellas and Swaha Pattanaik, writing by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Bate Felix)
Crisis in French oyster industry
Yahoo News 12 Jul 08;
France's shellfish industry is facing its worst crisis in 40 years after stocks of young oysters have been decimated by a mystery ailment.
French oyster farmers have seen between 40 and 100 percent of their oysters aged one to two years wiped out in recent weeks, far higher than the normal mortality rate in the summer months, a top industry expert said.
The phenomenon is affecting all the oyster-producing regions of France, although the worst hit is the Thau saltwater lake, near the southwest city of Montpellier.
"I bought around 200,000 spat (oyster larvae). They can all be thrown away," Olivier Gonzalez, an oyster farmer at Bouzigues, bordering Thau, told AFP.
"We are facing a major problem, with 40 to 100 percent of young oysters dying, depending on the beds. We will know with the coming high tides if the adults are also affected," Martial Monnier, director general of the national shellfish industry board said.
"We always have a higher mortality rate of young oysters in the summer, but only up to a maximum 30 percent. We haven't seen anything like this since the crisis in the 1970s" which decimated the native flat oysters, now largely replaced by the Pacific oysters, originally from Japan.
Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Michel Barner on Friday urged research scientists at France's marine research institute to mobilise all its resources to try to establish why the oysters are dying off in such high numbers.
Rising water temperatures because of climate change since 1995 are believed to have rendered oysters more vulnerable, but experts do not believe that sea temperatures are dangerously high.
It is possible the oysters have been killed by temporary stress because of the sudden changes in temperature in June and oyster farmers will be able to replenish their stocks, although this will involve new investment, Monnier explained.
But in the worst case scenario, the oysters have been affected by a mystery pathogen as in the crisis in the 1970s. The virus could take one or two years to identify, he said.
For now, the mature ready-to-eat specimens that will go on sale at the end of the year are not affected. The problem will essentially affect the coming seasons in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
France is the biggest oyster producer in Europe and fourth in the world after China, Japan and South Korea. Its 15,000 to 20,000 oyster farmers produce around 130,000 tons of oysters per year.
Michael McCarthy, The Independent 12 Jul 08;
The world trade in ivory, banned 19 years ago to save the African elephant from extinction, is about to take off again, with the emergence of China as a major ivory buyer.
Alarmed conservationists are warning of a new wave of elephant killing across both Africa and Asia if China is allowed to become a legal importer, as looks likely at a meeting in Geneva next week.
The unleashing of a massive Chinese demand for ivory, in the form of trinkets, name seals, expensive carvings and polished ivory tusks, is likely to give an enormous boost to the illegal trade, which is entirely poaching-based, conservationists say.
"This is going to mean a return to the bad old days where elephants are being shot into extinction," said Allan Thornton, of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), the group which provided much of the evidence on which the original ivory ban was based in 1989.
The ban succeeded in halting a headlong decline of African elephants at the hands of poachers, especially in east African countries such as Kenya. Elephant numbers across the continent were estimated to have crashed from 1.3 million in 1980 to 625,000 in 1989.
It was intended to be complete and worldwide but in 1997 four southern Africa countries: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, persuaded other Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) member states to let them opt out, on the basis that their elephant populations were stable or increasing, and they would only sell tusks of elephants that had died naturally or been shot as rogues. Their campaign was led by Zimbabwe's President, Robert Mugabe.
As a result, Cites sanctioned an auction of just under 50 tonnes of ivory from the four countries in 1999, but opened it only to "approved buyers" – countries whose enforcement provisions against illegal trading were deemed sufficiently rigorous. Japan was the only country approved.
Now, however, a second auction of 108 tonnes from the same four countries is being planned, and the Chinese, who were excluded from the first sale, are seeking "approved buyer" status, claiming they are much more active now in combating illegal trading activities.
Their application will be heard at the Geneva meeting next week of the Cites Standing Committee, which will also consider allowing the second ivory auction. Both proposals are likely to get the green light as the Cites secretariat is making a favourable recommendation in each case.
John Sellar, Cites' senior anti-smuggling and fraud official, said yesterday that China had made considerable improvements to its enforcement regime against illicit trading, and the country's score out of 100 for efficiency on the organisation's complex Elephant Trade Information System had risen from 5.6 in 2002 to 63 today. The recommendation would be that they should become an official ivory trading partner, said Mr Sellar.
Environmentalists fiercely dispute the effectiveness of China's crackdown and raise the larger issue of the huge ivory demand that is about to be unleashed from an increasingly affluent country with 10 times the population of Japan.
"In a country of 1.3 billion people, demand for ivory from just a fraction of one per cent of the population is colossal," said Allan Thornton of the EIA. "If these new legal imports go ahead, they will provide a gigantic cover for illegal ivory to be sucked in."
He went on: "Right now across central Africa, elephant populations are being destroyed in countries like Chad, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to satisfy illegal demand in countries such as China. The current estimate is that 23,000 African elephants are killed a year by poachers – which is totally unsustainable. If China becomes an approved trading partner, these figures will skyrocket."
Last year the EIA produced a detailed report on what it said was China's failure to address its illegal ivory trade. Mr Thornton said last night: "There is no evidence that the Chinese government has broken up or taken effective action against criminal syndicates behind the illegal flow of ivory into the country."
The EIA released an internal Chinese government document yesterday which, it said, showed that, over 12 years, officials had lost track of 121 tonnes of ivory from the country's official stockpile – equivalent to the tusks of 11,000 elephants. "We have not been able to account for the shortfall through the sale of legal ivory by the selected selling sites," Chinese officials reported in the document to Cites in 2003. "This suggests a large amount of illegal sale of the ivory stockpile has taken place."
Asked about the document, officials from China's Foreign Ministry said they had no information on the subject.
The question of China's trading partner status comes up at the standing committee meeting on Tuesday afternoon. Britain has a representative on the committee, Trevor Salmon, a senior civil servant who is head of the Cites policy unit at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Asked how Britain would vote on the sale and on the Chinese application, a Defra spokeswoman said: "The UK will only support this limited sale if all internationally agreed conditions – including that the proceeds of the sale are used exclusively for elephant and community conservation and development programmes within or adjacent to the elephant range – have been met.
"Before allowing China to become a trading partner in a one-off sale of stockpiled ivory, the Cites Standing Committee will consider all evidence on measures China has in place to prevent this sale from having a negative impact on the illegal killing of elephants.
"Decisions are taken based on information about the sustainability of elephant populations in the countries and the security of their existing stockpiles of legally acquired ivory."
US shoppers get a share of harvest in return for taking stakes in farms
Straits Times 12 Jul 08;
CAMPTON TOWNSHIP (ILLINOIS) - IN AN environmentally conscious tweak on the typical way of getting food to the table, more people are skipping out on grocery stores and farmers markets, opting instead to go right to the source and buying shares of farms.
On one of the farms here, about 56km west of Chicago, Mr Steve Trisko was weeding beets and cutting back a shade tree so that baby tomatoes could get sunlight. Mr Trisko is a retired computer consultant who owns shares in the 1.6ha Erehwon Farm.
'We decided that it's in our interest to have a small farm succeed, and have them be able to have a sustainable farm producing good food,' Mr Trisko said.
Part of a loose but growing network mostly mobilised on the Internet, Erehwon is participating in what is known as community-supported agriculture and has about 150 people who have bought shares in it.
The concept was imported from Europe and Asia in the 1980s as an alternative marketing and financing arrangement to help combat the often prohibitive costs of small-scale farming.
But until recently, it was slow to take root. There were fewer than 100 such farms in the early 1990s, but in the last several years the numbers have grown to close to 1,500, according to academic experts who have followed the trend.
'I think people are becoming more local-minded, and this fits right into that,' said Mr Nichole Nazelrod, programme coordinator at the Fulton Centre for Sustainable Living at Wilson College in Pennslyvania, a national clearinghouse for community-supported farms.
The shareholders of Erehwon Farm have open access to the land and a guaranteed percentage of the season's harvest of fruit and vegetables for packages that range from about US$300-US$900 (S$400 to S$1,200).
Shareholders are not required to work the fields, but they can if they want, and many do.
Mr Trisko said his family knows that without his volunteer labour and agreement to share in the financial risk of raising crops, the small organic farm might not survive.
'It's very hard for them to make ends meet, so I decided to go out and help. We harvest, water, pull weeds, whatever they need doing,' he said.
Under the sponsored system, farmers are paid an agreed-upon fee in advance of the growing season, making their survival less dependent on the vicissitudes of the market and the cooperation of the elements.
At least 24 vegetable farmers serve an estimated 6,500 members throughout the five boroughs of New York City, said Ms Paula Lukats of Just Food, which connects farmers with residents there.
NEW YORK TIMES
Michael Richardson, Straits Times 12 Jul 08;
THERE is a scientific consensus on global warming and its causes, mainly man's activities.
However, there is debate over the rate of climate change and some uncertainty about its impact. There is also disagreement between leading advanced and developing economies over how to apportion the costs of countering global warming, an impasse underlined at this week's meeting of the Group of Eight, China, India and other big emerging economies hosted by Japan.
Even so, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is worried that climate change endangers human health in fundamental ways. It has identified five major health consequences of climate change.
First, farming and food production are extremely sensitive to climate variation. Rising temperatures, bigger fluctuations in rainfall as well as more frequent droughts and floods are likely to reduce crop yields. At a time of rising food prices, this is an added challenge to global food security. It also makes people more susceptible to illness.
Water scarcity affects four out of every 10 people. Shifting rainfall patterns, increased rates of evaporation and melting of glaciers, combined with population growth, are expected to raise the number of people living in water-short regions to between three billion and six billion by 2050, from 1.5 billion in 1990.
More widespread malnutrition is projected in China and India, where large numbers of people depend on rain-fed subsistence farming. Malnutrition is already responsible for an estimated 3.5 million deaths each year.
Second, more frequent extreme weather will intensify the spread of disease, as well as cause more deaths and injuries from storms and floods.
In the 1990s, some 600,000 people died from weather-related natural disasters, mainly in developing nations. Flooding in poor countries is often followed by outbreaks of cholera and other diseases when water and sanitation services, often inadequate in the first place, are damaged or destroyed.
Storms, floods and earthquakes, such as those that struck Myanmar and southern China recently, are among the most frequent and deadly of natural disasters.
Third, both scarcity of water, which is essential for hygiene, and excess water from more frequent torrential rain will worsen diarrhoeal disease spread through contaminated food and water. Diarrhoeal disease already accounts for 1.8 million deaths each year.
Fourth, heatwaves - especially in cities, which are natural heat traps - can raise death and illness rates from heart and respiratory illness. This will be a growing problem as more and more people settle in urban centres.
Recent studies suggest that the heatwave in Europe in the summer of 2003 caused an estimated 70,000 more deaths than the equivalent periods in previous years. Higher temperatures affect levels and seasonal patterns of soot, dust and natural airborne particles, such as plant pollen, which can trigger asthma.
About 300 million people suffer from this condition and 255,000 people died of it in 2005. According to the WHO, asthma deaths are expected to rise by almost 20 per cent in the next 10 years if climate change continues unabated.
Fifth, global warming is expected to spread diseases such as malaria, dengue and chikungunya fever that are transmitted by mosquitoes or other insects. Malaria kills almost a million people each year, mainly in Africa and Asia.
According to WHO estimates, there may be 50 million cases of dengue infection annually, chiefly in the tropics. Some 500,000 cases require hospitalisation and about 12,500 cases are fatal.
Warmer temperatures, higher humidity and more places where water can collect for mosquitoes to breed, such as in the tropics, are conditions that favour malaria, dengue and chikungunya transmission. Cooler countries and places, associated with higher altitudes and latitudes, have been free of these mosquito-borne diseases. But this is expected to change as temperatures rise around the world.
The WHO and other United Nations agencies are intensifying research into the likely impact of climate change on human health to find ways to protect health in a hotter world with more extreme weather conditions.
One step to take now is to strengthen basic public health services. In Asia, this helped cut the number of reported dengue fever cases to fewer than 345,000 cases in 2005, from more than 760,000 in 1990.
But it will be difficult to sustain this progress if demands on government resources multiply as climate change exacerbates other challenges to global stability and economic growth.
The writer is an energy and security specialist at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Rana Moussaoui, Yahoo News 11 Jul 08;
The large building near the border with Israel was already earmarked to be a green pioneer in Lebanon when it was blown apart by two missiles during the short sharp summer war of 2006.
Now the demolished building has been rebuilt -- and with it a ground-breaking environmental project has risen from its own ashes.
In a country with serious waste management problems, the war-ravaged small town of Aytarun in the south lies in the vanguard of recycling, setting an example it is hoped will be followed by others.
Located just metres (yards) from the frontier, Aytarun was devastated by the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in July and August two years ago.
On the village's edge is the Centre for Solid Waste Management, a 700-square-metre (875-square-yard) structure rebuilt with Italian assistance after the conflict.
The centre refuses to dump any waste at all.
"Everything is recycled, nothing is thrown away," says Ziad Abichaker of Cedar Environmental, a group that specialises in recycling technology.
"We wanted to create the example of a rural town which not only gets rid of its waste but also uses it to benefit organic agriculture.
"Some things are stored as we research and develop outlets for them," Abichaker adds, saying shoes can be used in a special cement for the manufacture of public benches.
The facility's five employees patiently sort through potato peelings, plastic bottles and old clothing before recycling proper can begin.
In many rural areas of Lebanon municipalities burn solid waste, causing an unbearable stench and often sparking wildcat forest fires.
"People did not like the smell of burning rubbish. This project is a blessing for them," Abichaker says of the traditional method of incineration.
Sawsan Bou Fakhreddine of the Association for Forests, Development and Conservation says domestic waste forms 90 percent of all the country's rubbish.
"We produce 1.5 million tons of solid waste annually in Lebanon, half of it organic," she adds.
Landfills are overflowing, and the largest -- in the southern city of Sidon -- is at serious risk of collapsing into the sea.
"The major problem is the lack of a national management plan," Bou Fakhreddine says, and cites a 1997 government emergency plan aimed at tackling the problem. It didn't work.
One site intended for "40 percent of the waste ended up getting 80 percent, and it expanded in a way that was not at all environmentally friendly," she adds.
Cedar Environmental is not the first project of its kind in southern Lebanon, which suffered widespread devastation during the war.
In Aytarun the goal is zero percent waste. The "green engineers" process organic matter into compost for agricultural use in what is, quite literally, a growth area.
A truck collects six tons of household waste daily from the town of some 8,000 residents and from the nearby hamlet of Blida. This is then processed by locally made machinery.
The "star" is a compost drum in which organic matter is mixed with an enzyme mixture to accelerate fermentation over three days.
"The composting process is based on aerobic fermentation which makes the reaction faster and odourless," says Abichaker.
Conveyor belts carry raw compost to a trommel screen for sifting.
"The compost passes through several times to be purified and then we let it mature for two weeks," he says.
"Our humus, which is very pure, meets European standards for compost to be used in organic agriculture.
"At the moment we give the compost to Aytarun farmers for free. I planted 3,000 square metres of organic wheat on an experimental basis to encourage them," adds Abichaker.
The June harvest was most encouraging.
Abichaker tested his compost on three different plots of land. One was planted using no fertilizer, another was planted using about three cubic metres of compost, and the third used about six cubic metres.
"The third had the best results by far in growth and yield. Next year I'm going to plant 20 acres (eight hectares) even if I have to take out a loan."
Turning traditional agricultural methods organic is "the future of agriculture in Lebanon," the engineer believes.
"Lebanon stopped growing wheat because it was cheaper to import it. Now with rising wheat prices we will grow it and sell it. We are growing it organically so we can even sell it for more," he adds.
Nothing is left to chance at the recycling centre. Plastic bottles and cans are flattened with a press then sold.
"We will install an annex to the recycling unit where used clothing will be washed and have any metal removed before being sold as fabric to furniture manufacturers," says Abichaker.
The profits will go to the local municipality.
"Nothing is burned, nothing hidden underground. This is an example of an industry with no environmental impact," he says, adding that he hopes to see his method expand throughout Lebanon.
"It's a snowball effect and we're in the initial stages. If every four or five villages start a similar project, there won't be household waste problems in Lebanon any more."
Roger Harrabin, BBC News 11 Jul 08;
Zero waste: The Japanese island where the rubbish collectors never come
The Mayor of Kamikatsu, a small community in the hills of eastern Japan, has urged politicians around the world to follow his lead and make their towns "Zero Waste".
He told BBC News that all communities could learn from Kamikatsu, where residents have to compost all their food waste and sort other rubbish into 34 different categories.
Residents say the scheme has prompted them to cut down on waste generally and food waste in particular.
If the policy spread, it would reduce the amount of food waste, and so take some of the pressure off high food prices.
Kamikatsu may be a backwater in the wooded hills and rice terraces of south-eastern Japan but it's become a world leader on waste policy.
There are no waste collections from households at all. People have to take full responsibility for everything they throw away.
Kitchen waste has to be composted. Non-food waste is processed either in local shops which accept goods for recycling or in Kamikatsu's Zero Waste Centre. There, people have to sort their unwanted items into 34 different boxes for recycling.
Residents have to sort plastic bottles (used for fruit juice, for example) from PET (polyethylene teraphthalate) bottles (used for mineral water) because PET is more valuable when it is separated out.
There are specific boxes for pens, razors and the sort of Styrofoam trays on which meat is often purchased. These have to be washed and dried.
The scheme was adopted when councillors realised it was much cheaper than incineration - even if the incinerator was used to generate power.
Winning idea
Many locals are enthusiastic participants. Take Kikue Nii, who strips labels off bottles then washes and dries them before sending them to recycling.
She takes her other everyday waste to the local shop where she receives a lottery ticket in return for a bag of cans.
She has won a £5 food voucher four times. It's not a huge amount but it's better than nothing.
She is also a big fan of composting.
"I think I produce less waste because I have to compost it," she says.
"When I can't use the whole vegetable or meat, I try to cook it again with wine and so on. It makes a very good soup. Everyone should have a composter if they can."
Her neighbours Fumikazu Katayama and his wife Hatsue are ardent composters, too.
Hatsue says: "I have to do it every day; it's certainty a bit of work. But it's a good idea to send things back to the earth so I support it. I just do it naturally now; it's part of the routine."
The Katayamas take the rest of their waste to the Zero Waste Centre for sorting - carrying the waste bag between them.
Global question
Questions remain about the scheme. Some of the composters are boosted by electric power, which creates greenhouse gas emissions.
And it's possible that the savings in greenhouse gases from recycling are negated by the need for people to drive to the Zero Waste Centre.
Natsuko Matsuoka, one of the originators of the centre, disagrees - she says people generally tie in the journey with a weekly shopping trip.
A poll showed that although the Zero Waste policy has many admirers, 40% of people weren't happy about all aspects of the scheme.
The Mayor Kasamatsu Kasuichi is undeterred: "We should consider what is right and what is wrong, and I believe it is wrong to send a truck to collect the waste and burn it.
"That is bad for the environment. So whether I get support or not, I believe I should persuade people to support my policy."
Now he invites other politicians around the world to follow suit.
Japanese village wastes nothing
Rubbish sorted into 34 categories in zero-waste quest
Straits Times 9 Aug 08;
KAMIKATSU (Japan): Not long ago, life in Kamikatsu revolved around the rice crop and tourists arriving to soak in the restorative waters of the local hot spring.
Now, the tiny village in south- western Japan has a new obsession: rubbish.
Since 2003, Kamikatsu's 2,000 residents have embarked on a quest to become Japan's first zero-waste community, The Guardian newspaper reported.
Here, all household waste must be sorted into no fewer than 34 categories before being taken to a recycling centre.
Glass bottles must be relieved of their caps and sorted by colour. Plastic bottles must be kept separate from PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles that once contained mineral water, the report said.
All bottles, cans and even plastic food wrappers must be washed thoroughly; newspapers and magazines have to be piled in neat bundles tied with a twine made from recycled milk cartons.
Any waste that is not composted is taken to the zero-waste centre which accommodates a dizzying array of items, ranging from bottles, cans and newspapers to crockery, batteries, diapers, pens and mirrors, the report said.
Things that can be reused end up at the Kuru Kuru recycling store, where residents are free to drop off or take home free of charge whatever they like, mostly clothes, crockery and ornaments.
According to the report, all but a few categories of rubbish are recycled. Wooden chopsticks are pulped and made into paper, and cooking oil reappears in fertiliser.
But for some items, the only option remains to be incineration. Batteries are shipped to a recycling on the northern island of Hokkaido, while glass and ceramic ware and light bulbs are buried in landfills.
An hour's drive from the nearest city and 595km from Tokyo, the village was forced to change the way it managed its waste in 2000 when strict emission regulations forced it to shut down its two incinerators.
'We were no longer able to burn our rubbish, so we thought the best policy was not to produce any in the first place,' Mr Sonoe Fujii of the Zero Waste Academy, which oversees the scheme, was quoted by the paper as saying.
Despite initial opposition, the movement has spawned many enthusiastic participants.
'At first, it was very hard work,' 65-year-old Kikue Nii said, as she emptied a bowl of vegetable peelings into her electric garbage disposal unit.
'I was working when the scheme started and found myself spending my lunch break dealing with our rubbish,' she said. 'It took ages to sort everything...but it comes naturally now.'
According to official figures, Kamikatsu's recycling rate has soared from 55 per cent a decade ago to around 80 per cent today.
Not everyone is happy though. Critics point out that some of the composters use electricity and that most residents of Kamikatsu take their rubbish to the zero- waste centre by car.
The paper also reported that a recent poll showed 40 per cent of residents were still unhappy about some aspects of the policy.
'We still have opponents, particularly because almost everything has to be washed,' Mr Fujii said.
'All we can do is talk to the doubters and explain why it is important. I think consciousness is growing that this is a good thing; that it's not just the right thing to do, but the only thing to do.'
'I wasn't born to boogie but that's another step to save the planet'
Will Pavia, The Times 12 Jul 08;
We were dancing to save the world. I know this because it said so on the dancefloor, in yellow and green lights. In a strictly prosaic sense we were dancing to save the electricity bill of the club and half a dozen residents in the flats upstairs – the energy of our thrusts and shimmies was being captured beneath the reclaimed wooden floor and transferred to power the lights. When I thought about it too hard, I felt rather like a hamster.
But this was no time to be small-minded. On our jiggling shoulders rested the future of the planet. It was quite a responsibility, being on the front line of the climate war and, as someone with a limited arsenal of boogie, I found myself deploying all three of my patented manoeuvres again and again and again. As we worked ourselves towards an ecstasy of responsible dancing, high on one too many organic beers, messages on plasma screens informed us that “a child dies every ten seconds due to hunger” and that “more than 200,000 acres of rain forest are burnt every year”.
We were in Surya, in King’s Cross, North London, a venue that claims to be “the world’s first sustainable club”, a place where one is never allowed to doubt the ecological significance of one’s actions. Even in the gents, as each man took aim at the waterless urinals, he was informed that he was helping to save 90 gallons of water per day. There were signs everywhere. The cubicles were made from linseed oil, resin and soda. All who entered to perch on “low-flush” toilets were enjoined to help “set new parameters for our existence . . . before the eighth day, the day of global Armageddon”. It was quite a thing to worry about, on top of general anxiety over whether there would be any loo paper.
The landlord, Andrew Charalambous, a millionaire property developer, had dressed for the occasion in a white suit and kept referring to himself as “Dr Earth”. There were wind turbines and solar panels on the roof, he said. The DJs for the evening had all been sourced locally and reared on organic produce. (If they were not free range, they had almost certainly been allowed to roam on broken ground).
I asked how he would ensure efficient energy production on the dancefloor. Would there be a ban on Chris de Burgh? “I’m not sure,” he said. “Arguably people dancing two-step could generate a lot of power.”
Gregory Barker, the Conservative environment spokesman, observed walls pasted with newspaper and old CDs and a chandelier of green Biros. “I’m afraid I thought of Dolly Parton, who said, ‘I spend a great deal of money to look this cheap’,” he said.
But he was impressed. “Politicians can’t solve the problem of climate change alone,” he said. This seemed true. Even if they were all splendid dancers, they would need our help.
There were sceptics among the assembled clubbers. One young environmental activist pointed at the Biro chandelier. “Have they been used?” he asked, pointedly. “No. Someone went out and bought them. They could have bought recycled Biros.”
He was also upset about the bar, which served organic beer and wine. “There is no option for organic vodka,” he said. “There is not even any organic cola.”
Elsewhere there were earnest discussions about the sustainability of other people’s outfits. A young lady asked me what I was wearing. I was delighted. I informed her that I was attired in an organic cotton T-shirt and organic trousers from Marks & Spencer. My sandals contained no animal products. Vegans could literally eat my shoes.
“What about your underwear?” she asked. Alas, I could not vouch for the sustainability of my Y-fronts. She said she had to get back to her friends.
Chyna, 26, who described himself as an estate agent and womaniser, offered some much needed advice. “I love eco-ladies,” he said. “The way you are with the environment, that’s the way you have to be with them.”
With these words in mind I ventured back to the dancefloor where, besides three environmental consultants, a male nanny from Devon and an acupuncturist, I saw a tall willowy Canadian who had been stomping and gyrating all night. She was literally lighting up the dancefloor.
She was Daphne Lorian, 29, an “alternative events producer”. “It’s all about how hard you stomp,” she said.
If we were generating power for a handful of flats, think what Michael Flatley could achieve. When you add in the entire cast of Riverdance, Ireland suddenly appears to be sitting on a goldmine of untapped green energy.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Ms Lorian. “Eco-clubs will soon be springing up everywhere.” As I stomped to Amy Winehouse’s version of Valerie (a recycled song!) and the screen told me that “300 million children have no access to health services”, I contemplated the scope of this revolution that will turn us all into human hamsters. Energy-absorbing pavements, pedal-powered trains and thermal-capture lavatory seats: all of these seemed only a few beats away.
John Vidal, The Guardian 12 Jul 08;
As oil prices continue to reach record highs, the search for new sources of energy has led the world to Alberta, Canada, and its vast oil sands. Now, John Vidal finds, the country famed for its wilderness and clean living finds itself caught between fuelling the world's oil-hungry economy and the ecological devastation and soaring greenhouse gas emissions that exploiting the tar sands produces
The Caterpillar 797B heavy hauler is the world's biggest truck. It's taller than a four-storey house, as wide as a tennis court and it removes nearly 35,000 tonnes of oily sand a day from a deep open cast mine in northern Alberta in western Canada.
Truck number 108 is driven by Norman Johnson, 63, a long-time Shell man who is planning to spend his retirement fishing, camping and "hunting the critters" in the vast boreal forests and bogs that stretch across the region. "It's just like driving your car. Couldn't be easier - once you get used to its size," he says from his cab, 40ft off the ground. He won't let the Guardian start up either of its two great engines.
But the future of northern Alberta's aspen and pine woods, its rivers and animals are in doubt as the world's greatest modern oil rush accelerates. Shell, Chevron, Exxon, Total, Occidental, Imperial and most other oil majors have so far invested nearly $100bn Canadian dollars (£50bn) in the 1,160 square mile (3,000 square kilometre) "bitumen belt", which is being called the "new Kuwait".
A decade ago, the vast landscape of forests and lakes around Fort McMurray and the Athabasca river provided a fairly minor and barely profitable sand oil industry. But it is now pitted with hundreds of square kilometres of toxic waste ponds, mines that are 300ft deep, hundreds of miles of pipes and burgeoning petrochemical works. Every day brings a bumper to bumper stream of lorries carrying the world's largest plant, pipes and machinery to the area, as well as young men seeking fortunes, and, say critics, the devastation of a pristine land.
The companies are now mining 1.3m barrels a day of heavy crude oil from the sands, which are saturated with bitumen. But they expect to spend another £50bn to more than double production to 3.5m barrels by 2011. The surge is expected to attract 100,000 more workers to the northern wilderness where the wolf and bear are still common.
And that would just be the start. By 2030 they plan to produce at least 5m barrels a day, and export more than Nigeria, Venezuela or Norway, which would make Canada one of the world's largest oil producers.
If the oil price stays high and new technology permits, oil companies will move, with the Canadian government's blessing, to extract the estimated 180bn barrels of crude to be found far deeper under 140,000 sq km of Alberta in what are the world's largest proven oil deposits after Saudi Arabia.
By 2050 Canada could be the second largest oil producer in the world, shifting the global energy security equation but exacerbating global climate change in a way that has scarcely been considered.
The tar sands industry could pump vast amounts of money into the local and national economies. Alberta is the fastest growing Canadian province, and more than 40,000 people have moved to the oilfields in the last five years.
Only 20 years ago Fort McMurray was a homely, tumbleweed-blown place with a population of 25,000 people. It is now at the epicentre of the rush and its newfound wealth is visible everywhere with its casino, upmarket bars and new hotels. It is expected to grow to a city of 250,000 people within 20 years.
"There are four-hour traffic jams and companies can't give away jobs. Kids out of school can earn $100,000 a year; people pay $400 a week to share a room; companies pay people $4,000 a month to lodge and $80,000 to just come here," said one estate agent in Fort McMurray. "There's money galore but the town can't cope."
The average price of a three-bedroom house, she says, is nearly $650,000 [£320,000] and rising.
The downside is ecological devastation and soaring greenhouse gas emissions on a scale that is beginning to alarm Canadians and other western countries trying to reduce the intensity of their carbon economies to counter climate change. Canada, alone, of developed countries, is expecting to increase emissions for 30 years and ignore its commitments to Kyoto.
So far, nearly 180 sq miles (470 sq km) of forest have been felled by tar sands miners and giant lakes of toxic waste water cover a further 130 sq km. Environmental campaigners, first nation groups, and doctors accuse the companies of creating massive air pollution, threatening river ecologies and killing fish, and even causing human cancers.
"This is the dirtiest source of oil anywhere in the world and there are barely any regulations," says Simon Dyer, a researcher for the University of Alberta's Pembina Institute.
He says the greater energy needed to produce a barrel of oil from the sands means three times more greenhouse gas emissions than producing a barrel of conventional oil. The greater energy is needed because the oil has to be dug out and then separated from the sand, and because it is low grade it has to be heavily refined. Tars sands mining "is the fastest growing source of greenhouse emissions in Canada", Dyer adds.
Environmentalists from round the world last month called for a moratorium on all new oil sand mines to impose higher standards. In the next 30 years, says Dyer, the oil works in Alberta could extend to an area as large as England. He says "hundreds of millions of extra tonnes of greenhouse gases will be emitted" just from the extraction process.
This month the province of Alberta and the federal Canadian government came under pressure to clean up the environmental mess already made and to urgently lower the carbon intensity of exploiting the oil sands. US presidential contender Barack Obama and, separately, hundreds of US mayors, have questioned the wisdom of making oil from bitumen.
Jason Grumet, Senator Obama's senior energy adviser, said the presidential candidate, if elected, intended to break America's addiction to "dirty, dwindling, and dangerously expensive" oil.
"If it turns out that the only way to produce [resources] would be at a significant penalty to climate change, then we don't believe that those resources are going to be part of the long term, are going to play a growing role in the long-term future," he said.
His statement followed a direct attack on the oil sands by more than 1,000 mayors of large US cities who voted last month to boycott energy with a large carbon footprint.
In addition, California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, last month signed agreements which will cut the use of high carbon petroleum sources from Alberta and elsewhere. Ontario and British Columbia must now meet California's low-carbon fuel standard and other provinces and US states are expected to join the standard, shrinking the market for oil sands.
In late June, the Canadian federal and Alberta provincial governments joined the Canadian oil industry to play down the impact of the sands on the environment. "Canada only produces 2% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, and the oil sands are only 8% of these [2%]," says a spokesman for the Canadian association of petroleum producers.
"We are only 15% more intensive with greenhouse gas on a lifecycle basis than conventional oil. We have to reduce emissions by 15% to get to parity. We are doing this by tree planting, installing carbon capture programmes and through hydrogen [mixed into bitumen in processing]," said a spokeswoman for Albian Sands, a consortium of Shell, Chevron and Marathon, which is working the 8 sq mile (20 sq km) Muskeg river mine 50 miles north of Fort McMurray.
The company produces 155,000 barrels of crude a day from the estimated 5bn barrels of oil under the land the company has leased. In 2007 they extracted 250m barrels of oil.
A Shell Canada spokesman in Calgary said that the company was planning to reduce its emissions by 50% and was seeking to develop carbon capture technology. But he admitted this was at least five years away and possibly much longer.
"We recognise that mining, extracting and upgrading bitumen has a significant footprint. Large areas must be cleared and excavated, while large volumes of water and natural gas are used to mine, process and upgrade it," said a spokesman. "Each project undergoes stringent environmental assessments," he said.
But green groups responded that although the companies were voluntarily reducing the carbon emissions associated with their operations, all the improvements were being undermined by the daily increase in the scale of their operations. "Every environmental parameter is worsening," said Dyer.
"The companies are seeking to blame drivers for the oil they burn. The reality is that producing each barrel of oil from oil sands emits between three and five times as much carbon dioxide as a conventional barrel of oil. [Producing] a conventional barrel emits about 30kg of CO2, but the two biggest companies in the oil sands, Syncrude and Suncor, have said they emit 120kg a barrel," he said.
The companies last week also sought to minimise their impact on water. Oil sands need to be washed and more than 12,713m cubic feet (360 million cubic metres) are used a year - the equivalent used in a city of 2 million people.
"Our impact is near negligible," says an Albian spokesperson. "Yes, we use a lot of water but Canada has decided that 2.5% of the river is acceptable. We release no processed water into the environment." The water is held in settling pits for 20 years before being released.
But the companies' record on water is disputed strongly by environment organisations. "They may be taking only 2.5% of the water from the Athabasca river, but that's over the year. In late winter when the flows are the lowest, that can be 16% of the river. The river is already being affected, and this will be cumulative," says Dyer.
The speed and scale of the growth of oil sands mining have shocked Canadians who regard themselves as living in one of the most environmentally responsible countries in the world. But record oil prices are posing a serious dilemma between supporting today's oil dependent economy and moving to cleaner energy sources to avoid a future climate catastrophe.
"Sure, I am worried about the Alberta environment. We all are. Canada's image is all tied up with wilderness and clean living. Now we have to accept we depend on dirty industry. The oil sands are making us rethink who we are. But it's like no one can say no to oil," says John Davidson, a graduate mechanical engineer who moved to Fort McMurray to help build a new plant.
"But if you can pay your mortgage off in five years, then I have to say I can't resist either," he says.
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