Best of our wild blogs: 21 Jan 09

Bidadari Cemetery, a new birding playground
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Seen on STOMP: Snake skin leads to paranoia
on the Lazy Lizard's Tales blog

What On Earth Are You Doing
free e-book to download on AsiaIsGreen

Green Events Guide
how to run a green event on AsiaIsGreen

Suggestions For Sustainable Singapore
on AsiaIsGreen

Publications From Other Sources
learn more about the environment on AsiaIsGreen

Synthetic sex smell to kill 'vampire fish'
from wild shores of singapore blog

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Singapore's population could fall by 4% as foreign workers laid off

Channel NewsAsia 20 Jan 09

SINGAPORE - Singapore's population is expected to decline by 200,000 as companies lay off a massive number of foreign workers during a worsening recession, Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse said.

The job cuts, which would include highly-paid expatriates and permanent residents, will hurt domestic consumption and help push the economy into its sharpest decline since independence in 1965, said the report received by AFP on Tuesday.

A loss of 200,000 jobs would amount to more than four per cent of the population.

Credit Suisse said the economic slowdown in the trade-sensitive city-state had so far been driven by a sharp decline in exports, while domestic demand held up.

But for this year, "consumption growth should also slow, in part because of our expectation that Singapore's population will potentially drop by 200,000 by 2010" due to job losses, it said.

"Historically, Singapore's foreign population has tended to expand during high growth periods and contract during recessionary periods," the report said. "Given the strong foreigner population growth in recent years, this trend is unlikely to change in this downturn."

Of the 800,000 jobs created from 2004 to the third quarter of last year, Credit Suisse estimated that more than 500,000 were filled by foreigners and permanent residents.

About 200,000 of those jobs were in manufacturing and almost another 200,000 were in the financial and business services. Most of these jobs were filled by expatriate workers who earn more than the average Singaporean, it said.

"As a result, job losses are likely to hit the Singaporean economy hard because they affect more highly paid workers and could result in a semi-permanent drop in the population," the report said.

As of mid-2008, Singapore had a total estimated population of 4.84 million people, including 3.64 million citizens and permanent residents, Statistics Department data showed. The rest, more than one million, are foreign workers and their families.

With the impact of falling domestic demand exacerbating declining exports, the economy was likely to contract by 2.8 per cent this year, Credit Suisse said. This would leave the economy in its worse shape ever, after 2001 when it shrank by 2.4 per cent.

The economy grew 1.5 per cent last year compared with 7.7 per cent in 2007.

Despite the expected layoffs, Singapore's Acting Minister for Manpower Gan Kim Yong said the city-state would still need overseas labour.

Mr Gan said that foreign workers allowed Singapore companies to remain globally competitive and contributed to keeping jobs within the country.

"If companies become uncompetitive in Singapore, they may decide to relocate to other countries and we will lose more jobs. This will be a lose-lose outcome," he said in Parliament on Monday.

- AFP/ir

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Shark's fin not on menu at Singapore Chefs Association dinner

Chefs association takes stand at annual dinner
The New Paper 21 Jan 09;

WHEN the Singapore Chefs Association (SCA) holds its annual lo hei dinner this year, one dish will be noticeably missing.

Shark's fin, a near staple at Chinese banquets, will be left out of the menu by the experts at making it.

The dinner, which will be held on 1 Feb at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel , will mark the first time that the association is deliberately leaving out the dish.

Ironically, though, the same chefs admit that they will not be able to stop serving the dish to their customers.

Explaining the move to not eat the dish during their dinner, SCA President Eric Teo, 46, said that chefs were conscious of the process of harvesting shark's fin.

Calling it 'cruel', he added that the luxury dish has led to an 'over-finning' of the fish.

Mr Teo revealed that it was the association's honorary president mentor, Mr Otto Weibel, who mooted going without shark's fin at the event.

The suggestion was accepted unanimously by the organising committee.

'In our personal capacity, we can make a stand,' said Mr Weibel, 62, who is director of kitchens for RC Hotels Limited.

But they admit it will be difficult to stop making the dish for their customers.

'It's harder to stop serving shark's fin in our restaurants as the consumers still demand it,' said Mr Weibel.

Agreeing, Mr Teo said that the dish 'will remain as a delicacy'.

'We've had requests from customers to use ingredients other than shark's fin. On our part, we try to use less of it as well,' he said.

Conservation activists were pleased with the decision to remove shark's fin from the dinner menu.

Mr Grant Pereira, 59, Asian Education Coordinator for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, said that the move was a 'a very, very positive step'.

'If the chefs can reduce their consumption, everyone else can as well. I think we can take the lead from them on this,' he said.

Eoin Ee, newsroom intern

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Changi: The village of boom?

Ho Lian-Yi, The New Paper 21 Jan 09;

CHANGI Village has a reputation as a rustic enclave in urban Singapore.

And from the way things look, this little village tucked away in the far east of Singapore seems to be sheltered from the economic storm as well.

Especially on Saturday nights.

Then, the weekly night market comes alive, skirting the sidewalks of Blk 5 on Changi Village Road.

There, more than 30 street vendors hawk all sorts of goods - from brassieres, to seashell bracelets, to Vietnamese coffee cups.

And more importantly, the crowds are there - just take a look at the jam-packed car parks in the area.

'It's like there's no recession here at all,' said a happy Mr Lim Tow Soon, 55, chairman of Changi Village Merchants Association, who he said represents more than 50 shops, not including market stalls.

Mr Lim is also a shop owner, running Jacob's Cafe, his restaurant.

The place is so busy, Mr Lim said he is trying to get the police not to send ticket wardens on busy weekend nights.

He said shop owners saw business improve after the night market - called the Old 70s Night Market - started last June.

The organiser, who declined to be named, said since the night market started, she has seen no dip in business despite the economic downturn.

'If sales are not good, why would the vendors keep coming back?' she said.

She expects an even bigger crowd on 21 Feb, when they are holding an event called Peranakan Night at the night market.

They will be showcasing Peranakan food, culture and history.

One vendor, who wanted to be known only as Ramson, 42, was selling seashell bracelets from Australia, and New Zealand with his girlfriend.

How's business?

'It's like a roller-coaster, but so far so good,' he said.

But while others flounder, why is Changi Village thriving?

Tourists

Perhaps it is because, unlike heartland malls, Changi Village attracts people from all parts of Singapore.

Tourists, like those who stay in nearby Changi Village Hotel, too, are frequently seen walking and eating around the area.

Like Ms Judy Song, 24, a Korean student on transit to Australia.

Mr Lim said that apart from tourists, the area attracts many returning customers.

Nearby, having supper at an Indian Muslim restaurant was Mr Fabian Tan, 36, a senior manager. He was there with his wife, young daughter, and his friend, Mr Derrick Ng, 36, a manager.

Mr Tan lives in Sengkang and Mr Ng lives in Bedok. So why did Mr Tan travel all the way here just for supper?

'Last time, my kampung was in Changi,' he said. It was called Changi 14 Mile, and he lived there till he was in primary school.

'I think it has the village atmosphere,' he said. 'It's nostalgia, basically,' his wife added.

At nearby Tekong Seafood Restaurant, Ms Cecilia Tan, 46, is looking a little worn out. It's been a busy day for her.

She's one of the managers and the sister of the owners, and it was nearly a full house an hour before.

Most of their customers are repeat customers, she said, who are on first-name terms with the proprietors. Pointing to one group, she said they became acquainted with her because they were such frequent diners.

One of them, Mr William Ling, 53, a printing businessman, said: 'Every week I come 3 or 4 times to eat kampung fish.'

As for why people still come out in droves despite the poor economy, Mr Ling said: 'People save their money, but still spend on eating.'

But while customers have stayed up, the same couldn't be said of their bottom line. Ms Tan said profits were way down.

'My cook said he has cooked until he wants to die, no rest, but we earn so little.'

The reason? The price of goods like fish and rice have all surged, but not their prices.

Why not?

'We can't. We have all our old customers, we cannot raise our prices for them,' she said.

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Malaysian department recognises importance of seagrass

The Star 21 Jan 09;

WE refer to the letter “Seagrass site of great value” (The Star, Jan 1) by Mah Hong Seng on his suggestion to the Department of Fisheries to gazette the Merambong seagrass site located close to Sungai Pulai (Gelang Patah), Johor.

The department has jointly with the Malaysian National Seagrass Committee published a book entitled National Seagrass Report Of Malaysia.

The report is the outcome of a project collaboration with the United Nations Environmental Program-GEF conducted during 2003-2006.

About 30ha of seagrass are estimated at the Merambong site. We fully agree that the seagrass ecosystem is a very important habitat for many commercially important species of fishes, shrimps and shellfish.

In fact, seagrass is recognised as essential food for dugongs, sea horses and sea turtles.

At the moment, the seagrass is partly protected in marine parks, state parks, fisheries protected areas (i.e. Pulau Talang Talang, Sarawak), mangrove forest reserves and also a Ramsar site (i.e. Sungai Pulai).

The department fully supported the idea of gazetting these areas as marine protected areas. Apart from encouraging the development of the fishing and aquaculture industry, the department will always be aware of the responsibility to protect ecosystems that support the fisheries sector.

Halijah Mat Sin,
Public Relations Officer,
For the Director-General, Department of Fisheries Malaysia.

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Indonesia Expected to Open Up Coastal Areas to Industries

Jakarta Globe 21 Jan 09;

Implementing regulations for a 2007 law opening more coastal areas across Indonesia to maritime industries, like pearl farming and seaweed cultivation, are expected to be issued during the first half of the year, a senior maritime affairs and fisheries official said on Tuesday.

The government says the law would increase investment and improve economic prospects for development that would benefit coastal communities, but critics fear it would result in residents losing control of their lands.

Some 30 million people, most of them small-scale fishermen, live in traditional villages along the nation’s coast.

“Hopefully the regulations will be issued before April,” Sudirman Saad, the ministry’s director for coastal area and small island management, told reporters in Jakarta. He added that the measure would be fair to both fishermen and investors.

According to the ministry, the regulation would divide coastal areas into zones designated for industry, conservation and lands belonging to local communities.

Once the regulations are issued, local administrations would put forward their own rules to ensure that coastal areas would not be dominated by the private sector, Sudirman said.

Local governments, however, have been criticized for not carefully managing resources and granting concessions to businesses.

The 2007 law governing coastal areas and small island management granted investors the right to develop maritime businesses in several coastal areas. Implementation, however, has been delayed for more than a year on concerns it could lead to conflict between business owners and coastal communities.

“Making zones in coastal areas is crazy, since it is possible that investors could occupy land belonging to the local community by saying that they already have permission from the local administration,” Riza Damanik, general secretary of the Fisheries Justice Coalition, or Kiara, said at a seminar discussing the law in Jakarta on Tuesday.

No one could guarantee that the zoning would be fair to coastal communities, he said.

“Based on my experience, local communities will not get enough compensation for the land,” he said.

Riza urged the government to strengthen the communities’ rights to manage the areas in which they lived. He also questioned why the government was giving investors rights to develop lands belonging to communities, rather than giving residents direct aid to improve their economies.

According to Riza, one clause in the law stated that residents whose rights were affected by the zoning could receive compensation. He said this meant the government was aware that implementation of the law would cause some breaches of locals’ rights, especially those of fishermen, and he urged the government to consider coastal communities and the environmental effects on areas exploited for industry.

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EU Plan to Halt Illegal Logging Won’t Fell Indonesian Industry: Ministry

Jakarta Globe 21 Jan 09;

A senior Forestry Ministry official saidthat he believes planned European Union regulations on the sale of illegally felled rainforest timber would not damage the Indonesian pulp and paper industry as it already possesses a good certification system.

Masyhud, the director of the ministry’s Information Center, was responding to news on Tuesday from Brussels that EU farm ministers had broadly welcomed plans to crack down on the lucrative illegal timber trade by requiring exporters to produce licences proving that their timber does not come from endangered rainforests.

He said that Indonesia had introduced a barcode-based certification system for timber origin in 2007. “All wood-based products that use Indonesian timber must have a barcode certificate before they’re exported,” he told the Jakarta Globe by telephone on Tuesday.

Masyhud said the barcode-certificate system allowed the place of origin of timber to be traced, and for purchasers to identify whether it was taken from forests in Java, Sumatra or elsewhere.

Without a barcode certificate on a wood-based product, Masyhud said, the purchaser could take it for granted that the timber was sourced illegally.

“So, we welcome any plan by the EU to make timber certification mandatory given that we already have such a system in place,” he said.

Masyhud acknowledged that the system did sometimes create bureaucratic difficulties for Indonesian exporters. Local governments have in the past seized certified timber, even though it was accompanied by all the necessary documents. He said that the ministry was still trying to work out how to simplify the licensing process without further endangering forests.

The proposed EU regulations, drafted by the Commission, the EU’s executive arm, would oblige importers to check the legality of timber products to prevent illegally felled timber entering member states.

The rules also apply to EU produced timber.

EU countries are an important market for both legally and illegally harvested timber — collectively they constitute the biggest importer of plywood and sawn timber from Africa, the second biggest importer of such timber from Asia and a key market for Russian timber. Much of the timber is believed to be suspect, with environmental groups saying that Europe imports 1.2 billion euros
($1.58 billion) worth of illegally felled timber every year.

Last year, the WWF estimated that nearly a fifth of the timber imported by the EU was felled illegally or came from suspect sources, mostly in Russia, Indonesia and China.

Many ministers taking the floor at the monthly meeting welcomed the EU plan for action against illegal logging, but voiced concerns over cost, red tape and enforceability.

Several countries expressed concerns about the extra costs the scheme would impose on their timber industries and importers.

JG, Reuters

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Sea Shepherd offers to stop harassing Japanese whalers

The Associated Press International Herald Tribune 20 Jan 09;

CANBERRA, Australia: A radical conservation group on Wednesday offered to abandon its dangerous campaign to disrupt Japanese whaling in Antarctica if Australia will agree to take legal action to save the whales.

The U.S.-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is the only group tailing the Japanese fleet during the annual hunt this southern hemisphere summer.

Greenpeace and the Australian government sent ships to record the whaling a year ago as part of a public relations strategy, but both have decided this season to focus their anti-whaling campaigns on diplomatic efforts.

Paul Watson, captain of the Sea Shepherd ship that has been harassing the whalers in recent weeks, said the Australian government was rightly concerned about the risk to human life posed by the clashes of ships in the Antarctic Ocean.

The government could avert that danger by initiating court action.

"We agree with them that it is a dangerous intervention every year, but it is the only thing that is actually saving whales," Watson said in a statement.

"The society is open to other means ... and is even willing to back off for a season to allow the government to initiate legal action against the Japanese whaling industry," he added.

A government spokesman was not immediately available for comment Wednesday. But the government is unlikely to accept the offer despite coming to power at elections in 2007 on a promise to pursue legal options against Japanese whaling in the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

A panel of legal experts released a report on Tuesday that endorsed previous legal opinions that Australia could take Japan to either of those tribunals to challenge the legitimacy of Japan's so-called scientific whaling program.

The government sent a plane and a ship to tail the Japanese fleet in the Antarctic Ocean a year ago and to gather evidence for such a legal challenge.

But Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told reporters Monday that his government would only consider legal action against Japan if diplomatic efforts failed.

The Japanese fleet plans to harvest up to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales this season. Under International Whaling Commission rules, the mammals may be killed for research but not for commercial purposes.

Sea Shepherd has already clashed with the fleet this season and is due to renew its pursuit on Wednesday after refueling in the Australian port of Hobart.

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Poisoned Killer Whales? Blame Salmon

Killer whales, the planet's most contaminated wild creatures, are ingesting chemicals from Chinook salmon in the polluted Puget Sound area

Marla Cone, Scientific American 20 Jan 09;

The most contaminated wildlife on Earth—killer whales in the Pacific Northwest—are picking up nearly all their chemicals from Chinook salmon in polluted ocean waters off the West Coast, according to a new scientific study.

The whales, which feed in coastal waters from British Columbia's Queen Charlotte Islands to the San Francisco area, were declared an endangered species in the United States and Canada after their numbers shrank.

These killer whales, called southern residents, live in waters straddling the U.S.-Canada border and spend summers hunting salmon around Washington's Puget Sound and Vancouver Island. A healthier population, called northern residents, feeds on salmon off more remote parts of British Columbia.

The two populations are only about 200 miles apart, but it makes a world of difference: The southern whales are up to 6.6 times more contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) than the northern ones.

"Southern resident killer whales are really urban whales compared to their northern counterparts," said Peter Ross, a research scientist at the Canadian government's Institute of Ocean Sciences who led the new study. Ross is one of the world's leading experts on contaminants in marine mammals.

Their summer habitat around Puget Sound is "a hot spot for PCBs" as well as "lots of other contaminants," including dioxins and chlorinated pesticides, Ross said. The Chinook salmon they eat inhabit ocean waters and rivers polluted by agriculture, pulp mills, other industries, military bases and urban runoff.

Ross and his colleagues discovered that 97 percent to 99 percent of contaminants in the Chinook eaten by these whales originated from the salmon's time at sea, in the near-shore waters of the Pacific. Only a small amount came from the time the salmon spent in rivers, although many of the rivers are contaminated, too, Ross said.

"Salmon are telling us something about what is happening in the Pacific Ocean," Ross said. "They are going out to sea and by the time they come back, they have accumulated contaminants over their entire time in the Pacific Ocean."

The southern resident killer whales also have to eat about 50 percent more salmon because the salmon around Puget Sound have a lower fat content. That means they are hit with a double whammy—not only is their prey about four times more contaminated, but they have to eat more of it. Combined, that means they are 6.6 times more contaminated than their northern counterparts. The males carry almost 150 parts per million of PCBs, the highest concentration recorded in a wild animal.

People eat the same salmon consumed by the killer whales. But the whales eat immense volumes—more than 500 pounds per day—so their exposure is much higher. The state of Washington has issued some local fish advisories, including a recommendation that people limit eating Chinook from Puget Sound to one meal per week.

The new study "underscores the global nature of contaminant dispersion," the authors wrote in their report, published last week in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. PCBs and other pollutants come not just from local sources on the West Coast; they also move globally via oceans and winds. Air carrying soot, metals and chemicals from Asia takes just eight days to cross the Pacific and reach the North American coast.

"It's increasingly clear that salmon acquire the majority of POPs (persistent organic pollutants) during their growth period at sea and that more research is needed on the extent of Pacific Ocean food web contamination," they said.

Killer whales are perched at the very top of the food web, which makes them susceptible to pollutants in the ocean. Industrial compounds and pesticides such as PCBs, DDT and brominated flame retardants build up in food chains, their concentrations multiplying each step up from prey to predator.

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Nile run-off 'boosts fish stocks'

BBC News 20 Jan 09;

Fertilisers and sewage discharges entering the Nile delta have boosted fish stocks in Mediterranean coastal waters nearby, a study suggests.

A team of researchers found that the dramatic increase in fish populations coincided with a sharp rise in the amount of fertilisers used by farmers.

At least 60% of the area's fishery production is supported by the run-off entering the Nile's water, they added.

The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"More than 95% of Egypt's population and all of its agriculture are concentrated in less than 5% of Egypt's land, along the banks of the Nile and throughout the 25,000 sq km Nile delta," the researchers wrote in their paper.

"For more than 5,000 years, Egyptians depended on the annual flooding of the Nile, which irrigated and fertilised the floodplain and eventually discharged to the Mediterranean Sea."

Flood control

As early as the 19th Century, the nation's population began to exceed its resources, which led to discussions on whether to dam the Nile in order to control the flow of the great river.

When the Aswan High Dam opened in the mid-1960s, the annual floods (caused by summer rains in East Africa) were reduced by about 90%.

As well as being used to generate hydroelectricity, the dammed water was also used to irrigate three crops a year instead of just one.

But interrupting the natural flow of the Nile was not without problems.

Reduced flooding meant the arable land was not having its nutrients replenished, yet it was producing an extra two harvests each year.

It also led to a smaller volume of fertile floodwater entering the Mediterranean Sea, which in turn produced a sharp fall in the number of fish being landed by Egypt's fishermen.

"But in the late 1980s, the coastal fishery began to exhibit a surprising recovery," the researchers observed.

"Today, landings are more than three times the pre-dam level."

Although improvements in technology and a greater number of fishing boats could account for some improvement, the scientists said it could not account the all of the increases.

"A recent assessment of potential anthropogenic nutrient sources in Egypt suggested that these sources may have more than replaced the fertility carried by the historical floodwaters."

They added that since the completion of the Aswan High Dam, Egypt's population had doubled, calorie intake and meat consumption and risen by more than a third, and the use of fertilisers had increased four-fold.

"This is really a story about how people unintentionally impact ecosystems," explained co-author Autumn Oczkowski from the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography.

"The Egyptians were fertilising the land, and then fertilising the sea with the run-off," she said.

"It also corresponded with a population boom and the expansion of the public water and sewer systems."

Long-term uncertainty

The team of scientists collected more than 600 fish during 2006 and 2007 from four regions affected by the run-off and two regions that were not.

Results showed the fish had consumed algae and plankton that in turn had flourished in waters rich in anthropogenic sources of nitrogen.

This led to the researchers concluding that there was a correlation between an increase in fish stocks and the increase in nutrients from human activity entering the Nile delta.

Ms Oczkowski acknowledged that the findings differed from the prevailing view that excess sewage or fertilisers entering bodies of water was detrimental to marine ecosystems.

"We're programmed in the West to think of nutrient enrichment of coastal systems as bad," she said.

"It's a major issue in the Chesapeake Bay and in the Gulf of Mexico where run-off of fertilisers... into the Mississippi River has caused a dead zone in the Gulf.

"But the Egyptians don't think it's a bad thing.

"For them, it's producing tonnes of fish and feeding millions of hungry people."

However, she added: "It remains to be seen how sustainable these 'artificial fisheries' will be over the long-term.

"Some preliminary evidence indicates that increasing nutrient loads may stimulate (fish) landings up to a point, beyond which the fisheries decline [as a result of] poor water quality or overfishing."

Read more!

Hong Kong's economic growth spluttering on filthy air

Guy Newey Yahoo News 19 Jan 09;

HONG KONG (AFP) – In recent years, a thick haze originating from factories in southern China has enveloped Hong Kong for large chunks of the year, blocking views of its famous harbour and raising health fears.

Combined with the city's home-grown pollution, scientists and business leaders say it presents a serious economic risk to the financial hub, both for its ability to attract and retain talent and the associated health costs.

When Teena Goulet moved to Hong Kong in 1995 she thought she would never leave but five years after moving here, the keen outdoorswoman developed a chronic cough.

For someone who spent all her spare time outside -- hiking, dragon boating, rowing -- health was a major concern and after being diagnosed with adult onset asthma, Goulet, 45, decided last year to leave.

"It is just so vibrant and so safe," the US banker said of Hong Kong.

"There is an amazing quality to it. Doing business is so easy, the low tax is great, the food and restaurants are great.

"I would have retired there," said Goulet, speaking by phone from her new home in California. "But when you cannot breath, it kind of tells you what to do."

Within a week of moving to California last March, her cough stopped.

US investment guru Jim Rogers, who moved to Asia in 2007 with his family because of his conviction that China would be the major driver of the world economy, chose to live in Singapore.

"I don't want to breathe Hong Kong air," he said.

A report for the City of London last October about the potential challenges from Asian financial centres, said the "only consistently negative issue" cited by professionals about Hong Kong related to environmental pollution.

The Hedley Environmental Index, a new website set up by a group of academics that combines air quality and public health data, puts the associated costs of the city's poor air at 12.5 billion Hong Kong dollars (1.6 billion US) since the start of 2004.

It has, it said, caused 6,108 premature deaths.

Anthony Hedley, the public health professor at Hong Kong University after whom the index is named, said the website's figures were conservative, as they excluded the long-term health effects of breathing toxic air.

"We are building up an enormous debt of trouble, which will manifest itself in one, two, three decades and could rear a huge toll on our children," said Hedley.

'Hong Kong is choking on its own greed' --

A recent study commissioned by think tank Civic Exchange said one in five residents were considering leaving Hong Kong because of its dire air. Of the more than 1,000 people surveyed, 97 percent were local Chinese.

Michael DeGolyer, a political science professor at Hong Kong Baptist University who did the study, said the mood was such that one "tipping point" could provoke an exodus, particularly among managers and administrators.

"And Singapore wants them," said DeGolyer.

The American Chamber of Commerce found in a recent member survey that 70 percent knew of professionals who had either left or were considering leaving because of the pollution.

"Hong Kong needs to lead the way (to improve air quality). That is what being a world city stands for," said chamber chairman David Cunningham.

While the filth from thousands of toy, clothing and electronics factories in neighbouring Guangdong province dominates headlines, Alexis Lau, an atmospheric sciences professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said home-grown emissions from coal-fired power stations and dirty trucks were a more serious problem.

"We still believe the local pollution is more important for health," Lau told a recent conference.

Hedley, who is leaving Hong Kong after 21 years here partly over worries about the air -- he was diagnosed with adult onset asthma in his 60s -- said the government must wake up to the time bomb.

"(The question for the government is) how many premature deaths are you prepared to accept?" said Hedley.

Chief Executive Donald Tsang said in 2007 improving air quality was "a matter of life and death," and the government is currently reviewing its air quality guidelines, 20 years after they were last revised.

A spokeswoman for the Environmental Protection Department said tough measures had already helped reduce levels of several roadside pollutants and it was working with Guangdong authorities to reduce the haze.

New technology was being introduced to reduce emissions from power plants.

The department said the number of overseas companies with regional headquarters, offices or local operations in Hong Kong had increased to 6,612 in 2008 from 5,414 in 2003.

Any tougher regulations are likely to face opposition from sections of the local business community, which operates around 55,000 factories in Guangdong.

Goulet, who is now planning a move to Japan, said such intransigence was short-sighted: "Hong Kong is choking on its own greed."

Read more!

China Warns Of Bird Flu Risk Over Lunar New Year

Ben Blanchard, PlanetArk 20 Jan 09;

BEIJING - China has warned of the risk of further human cases of bird flu in the runup to the Lunar New Year holiday after reporting two new cases over weekend.

After not reporting a single human infection in almost a year, China has now confirmed three cases of the H5N1 virus in less than two weeks. "As the Spring Festival approaches, there are frequent movements of poultry products and the risk rises of virus outbreaks and transmission," the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement on its website (www.agri.gov.cn).

The Spring Festival, or Lunar New Year holiday, starts next Monday, accompanied by a mass movement of people back to their home provinces for lavish celebratory meals.

China said over the weekend that a woman in the eastern part of the country had died and a two-year-old girl was critically ill in the north after becoming infected with bird flu.

State television said on Monday that the girl was in stable condition in hospital though was not yet out of danger. But it added that nobody else she had been in contact with had shown signs of illness.

The latest infections bring China's total to 33 human bird flu cases. At least 22 people have died.

The ministry said there had been no reported outbreaks of bird flu among poultry in the two provinces where the two-year-old patient had lived, and was sending out teams of experts to probe how the virus could have spread.

"The ministry has already asked Shanxi and Hunan provinces to ... strengthen their bird flu prevention work," it said.

Experts have said new case are not unexpected as the virus is more active during the cooler months between October and March, but have also pointed to holes in surveillance of the virus in poultry in China.

The H5N1 virus remains largely a disease among birds but experts fear it could change into a form that is easily transmitted among humans and spark an influenza pandemic that could kill millions of people worldwide.

With the world's biggest poultry population and hundreds of millions of backyard birds, China is seen as critical in the fight to contain bird flu.

Since the H5N1 virus resurfaced in Asia in 2003, it has infected 391 people, killing 247 of them, according to WHO figures released in mid-December. (Editing by Nick Macfie)

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Sun 'could supply Gulf's day-time energy needs'

Ali Khalil Yahoo News 20 Jan 09;

ABU DHABI (AFP) – Oil-rich Gulf Arab states enjoy year-round sunshine but they remain slow in adopting environmental technologies to let them harvest their abundant solar power, industrialists said Tuesday.

"They should act, instead of talking about it," said Stefan Muller, the managing director of Asia Pacific region at Conergy, the German producer of solar and wind power technologies, who is promoting his company's products in the World Future Energy Summit and Exhibition in Abu Dhabi.

"These countries can produce all their day-time energy needs from solar power," Muller told AFP, speaking of the abundance of sunshine in the region which also sits on over 40 percent of world oil reserves.

Conergy is building a two megawatt roof-top solar power system in a Saudi university in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, which will be ready in March. Although the environment-friendly system is not enough to power the campus, it is the largest so far in the region, according to Muller.

Abu Dhabi's renewable energy company, Masdar, is building a 10 mw solar farm, also to be ready in March, to power the construction of its carbon neutral development, the Masdar City.

The 22-billion-dollar city which is planned to spread over 6.5 square kilometres (2.5 square miles) is expected to house 55,000 people when ready in 2015, and will run totally on renewable energy.

But apart from those two projects, the drive to introduce solar power in the Gulf region remains negligible. Even at household level, solar water heaters which are popular in Mediterranean countries, are rarely seen in the Gulf.

"The market here is moving very slowly... They are going in that direction but it is a slow process," said John Owen, regional representative of the Greek company SOLEUAE and MIDLAND Trading, as he spoke of the benefits of two types of solar water heaters displayed by his company in the exhibition.

He argued that the low use of such units in Gulf countries, despite the potential to recover their cost within four years, is because it has not been made mandatory by the governments.

"In Greece it became mandatory in 1972 ... When possible, it should be mandatory," he told AFP.

He said that even if the cost of heating water might seem marginal in terms of a country's energy bill, a 200-litre electric water boiler needs around three Kilowatts, which means that with a solar system "a huge amount of energy is saved on a large scale."

The United Arab Emirates tops the World Wide Fund chart of countries' per capita ecological footprint, while Kuwait comes third.

Muller pointed out that government incentives have helped enormously in promoting households' switch to cleaner energy in Germany, hinting that governments in the region should implement similar programmes.

Despite their huge wealth of oil and gas, Gulf countries are bound to join the bandwagon of environmental countries, Owen believes.

"You can't be seen as a country using oil only in today's environment. They have to look for the future as they can't keep burning oil," he said.

Muller agrees that the Gulf countries, mainly the wealthy emirate of Abu Dhabi, are heading in the right direction.

"If you look 2-3 years back, no body in this region talked about renewable energy... It is the fashion now," he said.

Jordanian trader Nidal Malhas, who is promoting China-made water heaters, acknowledged that the huge drop in oil prices due to the global economic crisis might reduce the momentum in switching to renewables as conventional power becomes cheaper.

"Demand increased when the price of oil products shot up, but now it is weaker after oil prices have tumbled," by some two thirds, Malhas spoke, reporting his company's experience in neighbouring Jordan.

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Better Grazing Practices Could Boost CO2 Trade: Scientist

David Fogarty, PlanetArk 21 Jan 09;

SINGAPORE - Simple changes in grazing practices could soak up millions of tons of carbon a year, helping fight climate change, improving farm productivity and earning farmers carbon credits, a scientist said on Tuesday.

But such measures needed to spread globally to more than 120 million farmers working grazing lands, such as savannah and shrubland, Andreas Wilkes of the World Agroforestry Center in Beijing, said.

The measures also needed to be backed by the United Nations in a broader climate pact to help farmers earn carbon credits as an incentive and to pay for changes in grazing management.

Rangelands hold up to 30 percent of the world's soil carbon and span more than five billion hectares, or about 40 percent of its landmass, Wilkes and a colleague, Timm Tennigkeit, wrote in a recent report.

In grasslands, most of the carbon is in the soil, except for treed grassland, which hold a sizeable portion above ground.

Wilkes said changing grazing practices, such as replanting one or more different plant species, or sealing off portions of grassland, can boost soil carbon content.

"It depends on what the problems causing or preventing proper management are," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"In some places, it will be there are too many animals, so you simply reduce their number. If the soil has already begun to degrade, then maybe planting grasses is the best option.

"It's a matter of education and often also supporting conditions, such as policies. None of it is rocket science."

Improved management of grazing lands has the potential to lock away between 1.3 billion and 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent worldwide up to 2030, the report says.

"Most carbon-sequestering practices also have other benefits. Increasing soil carbon content will generally improve soil fertility," it says, leading to increased livestock productivity.

At present, only U.S. farmers can earn carbon credits through improved grazing land practices.

The Chicago Climate Exchange has created an accounting standard for emissions reductions from rangelands, such as plots farmed with modern equipment that precisely positions seeds and fertilizer instead of energy-wasteful tilling, or to restore previously degraded rangeland through rotational grazing.

But the CCX's standards have been criticized as being lax and doing little to slow climate change, since farmers have carried out such practices regardless of carbon credit incentives.

Wilkes said it was crucial the next phase of the Kyoto Protocol, expected to be agreed by the end of this year, included agriculture and sustainable land management.

He said the center was designing a pilot project together with the Food and Agriculture Organization in China.

The aim was to submit the project, together with methods to measure and verify rangeland soil carbon sequestration to the Voluntary Carbon Standard.

The International Emissions Trading Association and the World Economic Forum are among the groups backing the VCS, which aims to provide global benchmarks to ensure a credible voluntary carbon market.

"Once the politicians can see the market is putting its money in rangelands and there are viable methodologies that everyone thinks are sound, then that may open up the opportunities at the international level," said Wilkes.

(Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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