Best of our wild blogs: 25 Mar 09

Reactions to mass balloon release
and doing something about it on the wild shores of singapore blog

New generation nesting box for Oriental Pied Hornbill
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Migration
on the Lazy Lizard's Tales blog

Disturbing to see crows feast on roadkill
on the Lazy Lizard's Tales blog

Birds of the Equinox: A pile of feathers
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

A female Large-tailed Nightjar’s double wing distraction
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Caught in midcroak
on the annotated budak blog

Singapore Heartlands Unite for Earth Hour 2009
on the Singapore Earth Hour blog

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Crisis Blurs Singapore's Boomtown Vision

Tom Wright, Wall Street Journal 25 Mar 09;

SINGAPORE -- On almost any major street of this affluent Southeast Asian city-state, cranes tower overhead -- a reminder of an incredible three-year building boom that now is turning into a bust.

Residential property prices rose 60% between 2005 and the middle of 2008, fueled by a massive influx of U.S., European and Asian expatriates drawn by Singapore's goal of reinventing itself as a financial and entertainment hub like Dubai or Monte Carlo.

The global financial crisis has shattered that vision.

Many of those foreign bankers and lawyers -- now without work amid Singapore's sharpest economic contraction ever -- are returning home, weighing on demand just as a slew of new luxury properties are nearing completion. Banks, meanwhile, are reining in loans to developers. Prices of high-end apartments are forecast to fall back to 2005 levels within a year, property analysts say.

"In 35 years of my career, I've never seen anything like this," says Jerry Tan, a Singaporean broker who sold $1.5 billion of property to high-end clients in 2007 but now has time to sip wine and brood at his office.

For Singapore's trade-dependent economy, officially forecast to contract as much as 5% this year, the house-price collapse is adding to a bleak economic picture of declining exports and shrinking foreign investment.

The property sector's woes also represent a major setback to Singapore's efforts to throw off its stodgy image as a wealthy but dull trading entrepôt. A few years ago, the Urban Redevelopment Authority, Singapore's national land-use planning body, drew up blueprints for world-class casinos, theaters and residential areas. It sold land to developers for the projects and gave them time limits for completion. Some elements of the plan are moving ahead -- notably two massive casino-leisure developments set to open in 2009 and 2010 -- but many other pieces are in jeopardy.

Those pieces include "Sentosa Cove," a luxury residential development on Sentosa Island just off Singapore's mainland. The gated community of $8 million-plus glass-and-steel modernist mansions was envisioned to put Singapore on the map much like "Palm Jumeirah," Dubai's artificial residential island.

A Malaysian company is still on track to launch portions of a $4 billion resort in early 2010 on Sentosa Island, including a casino, hotels and a Universal Studios theme park. Another casino and theater complex, under construction on Singapore's mainland by Las Vegas Sands, is also planning to open at the end of 2009.

But other projects at Sentosa Cove that were to be ready this year are delayed. City Developments Ltd., Singapore's second-largest developer, has postponed until 2011 a $390 million marina complex of exclusive apartments, shops and a five-star, 320-room Westin Hotel that was due to open this year.

Many parts of the Sentosa Cove development remain an unfinished building site. Developers that paid the government top dollar to buy land there "will find it quite challenging to sell [homes] at a profit in today's market," says Nicholas Mak, head of Singapore research at Knight Frank, a property consultant.

Sentosa Leisure Group, a government entity that manages the resort island, is trying to be flexible with developers, says Mike Barclay, the group's chief executive, and is extending deadlines for construction. "We don't want there to be half-finished buildings around the community," he says.

The government received scant interest from private developers when it launched land sales at Sentosa Cove in 2003. Property prices were in the doldrums and the area was seen as too far away from Singapore's central shopping and financial districts.

But that changed as the economy picked up. Singapore, a major exporter of electronic goods and a global shipping hub, grew by more than 6% annually between 2004 and 2007. Eager to diversify its economy, the government offered generous tax breaks to international private banks and high-tech companies to set up shop.

Half a million foreigners moved to Singapore between 2003 and 2008, many of them wealthy. The Boston Consulting Group found in a recent study that 10% of Singapore's residents have investible assets of $1 million or more, the densest concentration of millionaires in the world, and more than twice the ratio in the U.S.

Residential-property developers started a flurry of new construction. The government stoked the boom by allowing investors to make down payments of only 20%, paying the remainder upon a project's completion. In a soaring market, speculators with no intention of completing their purchases were able to sell for a profit without organizing any financing. Amid signs that a speculative bubble was building, the government banned these so-called deferred payments in late 2007. But by then, the market was already overheating.

As the only part of Singapore where foreign individuals can own land without special government clearance, Sentosa Cove became the target of bidding wars. By the market peak in mid-2007, property developers were paying 1,400 Singapore dollars (US$935) per square foot for land, more than four times prices in 2003.

Buyers who already secured property loans, like Bonnie Pun Da Roza, a Hong Kong citizen who lives with her British husband and children in one of two properties they bought in 2006, say they will sit tight and hope for an upturn. "Right now we're not too worried, but if it goes on for three years, then we will be," Ms. Da Roza says.

To be sure, the property sector is in better shape than it is in Dubai, where some half-finished construction projects have stopped. The Persian Gulf city developed 50,000 residential units in 2008, much more than the 10,000 private units completed that year in Singapore.

CapitaLand Ltd., Singapore's largest developer, which is 40%-owned by a Singapore government investment company, and large private companies like City Developments have adequate reserves to complete projects, analysts say. In March, CapitaLand raised S$1.84 billion through a rights issue.

But some smaller, private developers risk bankruptcy, analysts say. As prices crater, speculators are unable to get bank loans to cover what they owe, meaning a jump in distressed sales later is likely. Meanwhile, foreign investors who bought at the peak now face big losses if they have to sell, denting Singapore's reputation as one of the safest places in the world to park money.

Other parts of the city-state, including the exclusive Orchard Road shopping district, are also feeling the pinch. In mid-2006, City Developments paid a record S$383 million to acquire the existing 90-unit "Lucky Towers" near Orchard Road.

Last year, as prices collapsed, City Developments shelved plans to tear down the building and redevelop it as a luxury 178-unit condominium. As a stopgap measure, a company spokeswoman says it is renting out the old units on short-term leases.

Despite efforts by developers to choke new supply, there are still 35,000 private homes under construction, according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority, a potentially giant overhang. In 2008, there were 13,644 private residential-property deals in Singapore, down 64% from the previous year. About 15% of residential property could be vacant by 2010, worse than a 10% rate after the Asian financial crisis a decade ago, Credit Suisse estimates.

"I'm yet to see the light at the end of the tunnel," says Mr. Tan, the high-end broker.

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6.5m population is fine: Pack them in, build them up

A 6.5m population is fine. Dense cities thrive by attracting smart people
Tan Hui Yee, Straits Times 25 Mar 09;

IF YOU feel uneasy about the fact that Singapore is gearing up for a population of 6.5 million, Professor Edward Glaeser has this to say: You've nothing to worry about.

'Density is underrated and undervalued and the pleasures of density are in fact quite remarkable,' he declares.

'Living with 6.5 million people doesn't mean you necessarily have less private living space. There is absolutely nothing unhealthy about having lots of tall skyscrapers and people walking around between them. Not only is it good urban policy, it is a good environmental policy as well.'

If urban density ever needed a salesman, it would be Prof Glaeser.

The 41-year-old economist at Harvard University made his name studying what made cities tick.

In Singapore earlier this month to give a talk at the Civil Service College, he stressed that cities survive and thrive by constantly reinventing themselves, which is only possible if there are enough 'smart people' present to generate a creative buzz.

His view is shared by urban theorist Richard Florida, who famously argued that a 'creative class' of talented professionals flocks to vibrant global cities for work and lifestyle opportunities and in turn contributes to their growth.

Except, both men differ on what constitutes talent.

Dr Florida's idea of a skilled worker, Prof Glaeser says half in jest, 'is a 28- year-old who wears a black turtleneck' and frequents coffee houses.

'My model of a skilled worker is that 42-year-old biotechnology worker who has a husband and two kids and is trying to live a decent life.

'Those lead you to very different views of what the fight for talent is all about. Florida thinks you need a lot of coffee houses, and I think you need good schools and safe streets and fast commutes. And I'm pretty sure I'm right.'

If he is, Singapore - seen as clean, safe and sterile - is in a good position.

Cities, he says, need the right kind of buzz to bring them forward. 'The things that people define as what makes a city buzz, a lot of them have to do with public spaces and restaurants and bars and cafes. But I don't think it's at the heart of what makes cities well-functioning and successful. It's a mistake to think that the buzz is just the number of pages that you read in Time Out magazine.'

Take the buzzing research triangle in North Carolina in the United States, home to companies like IBM Corporation.

'It may not be the hippest area to spend a Saturday night but there sure is a heck of lot of new innovations going on. A lot of Silicon Valley is pretty boring from the perspective of an urban hipster. But in terms of what really matters, there's a lot of buzz there.'

To maintain what he refers to as an intellectual edge, he says Singapore needs to constantly expose itself to cutting- edge ideas and have a sizeable pool of skilled workers.

Asked what skills are valued in the context of recurring discussions over the value of an arts degree versus a science degree here, he says: 'Studying Shakespeare does not make up for innumeracy. It certainly does enrich our lives. The more prosperous a country is, the larger the role of arts.'

He points out that a recent study on the effect of mandated science and maths curricula in American schools found that they improved the earnings of the less advantaged significantly. 'It suggests that forcing the school to teach maths and science ended up being very good for them.'

The arts, he says, is 'a bit of a luxury good'. 'If you told people of my great- grandfather's generation that a thriving arts scene was going to determine which city you were going to go to, they would have thought you were mad.

''Can I put bread on the table?' and 'Would we be shot?' - those would have been the primary issues that would have driven people two generations ago.'

A small country like Singapore, with a four million population, he says, need not worry that its size will disqualify it from the big league as long as it has enough quality and diverse talent.

'The question is more an issue of the high human capital people you have, how many potential entrepreneurs you have, how much diversity there is, rather than the actual body count. You can add on an extra five million unskilled labour and it is not going to make a difference to your ability to innovate.'

But primarily, he maintains that cities should serve people's needs rather than exist for their own sake.

In 2005, he wrote an article against the rebuilding of New Orleans after it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, saying that its residents were better off getting money to rebuild their lives elsewhere if they wished. The city, he said, had been declining way before the hurricane hit, and it was not doing a good job of looking after its poor residents either.

Putting people first means getting rid of unnecessary rules that make business and housing unaffordable. From his studies of New York and Boston over the past 30 to 40 years, he contends that the cities' recent surge in home prices is more a result of tightening building regulations, rather than anything else.

Logically, if there is enough supply of homes, housing prices will converge around the cost of building that next floor up. In places where land is scarce - like Singapore - height restrictions act as a dampener on housing supply.

Although the demand for housing reflects the attractiveness of a city, its ability to produce enough affordable housing to meet that demand is 'a sign of urban health'. He notes in some parts of the US, 'it feels as if every neighbour has gotten the right to say no to every project'. In suburbs, it is all about zoning and minimum lot size. In cities, it is about maximum heights.

He is quick to admit that his model applies to cities where housing is supplied by the market. The fact that more than 80 per cent of Singaporeans live in public housing makes it trickier to apply here, but he ventures: 'I think you want to think of how well you are delivering pleasant affordable housing. The Government has played such a heavy role in housing, not inappropriately so, that I think the ability of the private sector to deliver cheap affordable housing is potentially not as strong as it could be.'

Not only does density make housing affordable, he says it is also sustainable. 'Crowding more people on less land is fundamentally good for the environment. Partly because people have lower transportation costs, live in smaller homes, and use less energy.'

A 2008 US study he did found that the carbon footprint of the people who choose to live 'close to nature', surrounded by woods or lawns, was higher than that of city folk. 'If you want to be good to the environment, stay away from it,' he advocates.

Density is also exciting. 'Chicago's lakefront has grown and strengthened the city. The high-rise buildings in Boston have been associated with an increasing vitality in that city's downtown. Philadelphia only recently broke its height restriction, and the high rises there have been able to support more stores and night life.'

If he had it his way, all cities would be planned around actual human dynamics rather than according to preconceived notions of what they should look like.

During his walks around Singapore, he noted that its hot, humid climate keeps people off the streets in the day.

'There's a huge amount of pedestrian traffic but it's indoors. It's all in the air- conditioned malls, which is really where the street life is. That means connections between those malls are actually what city planning needs,' he prescribes.

Still, by any standard, Singapore has a lot going for it. 'The density levels are remarkable...if you love the ability of cities to bring people together and experience a collective world, there's a lot to admire there.'

tanhy@sph.com.sg

ON HOW ARTS APPRECIATION SHOWS PROGRESS

'It is a remarkable statement of the prosperity of humankind that we are increasingly willing to say that guys may actually care about having a downtown buzz and an artistic buzz in cities. That's actually a great thing, that we have reached that level of prosperity.'

ON GROUND-UP INNOVATION

'The core model of urban innovation is one in which it's very very hard to predict what the new 'in' thing is going to be. In most of the world, when cities got involved in top-down planning processes, they have not been very successful.'

ON SPACIOUS SINGAPORE

'I grew up in New York, a city of eight million. Six-and-a-half million doesn't seem so big to me. People get used to anything. Living with 6.5 million people doesn't mean you necessarily have less private living space. That can be accommodated by building up without too much difficulty. It doesn't mean that you have less shared spaces. You've actually got a lot of green space on this island and there's lots of room for moving things around.'

Expert on the dynamics of cities
Straits Times 25 Mar 09;

PROFESSOR Edward Glaeser, 41, is the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard University. He is also the director of its Taubman Centre for State and Local Government and Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, both research institutes at the university which work on governance issues.

He is noted for his studies of the dynamics and real estate markets of American cities, and last year published the book Rethinking Federal Housing Policy: How To Make Housing Plentiful And Affordable, with Professor Joseph Gyourko, professor of real estate and finance at the University of Pennsylvania.

He received his doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1992. He lives in the American state of Massachusetts with his wife, Nancy, a 42-year-old management consultant, and three children aged one to four.

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Can Singapore fail?

Kishore Mahbubani, Straits Times 25 Mar 09;

I HAVE just finished writing an article for the Wilson Quarterly, an American journal, on the topic, Can America Fail? The opening paragraph reads as follows: 'In 1981, Singapore's long-ruling People's Action Party was shocked when it suffered its first defeat at the polls in many years, even though the contest was in a single constituency. I asked Dr Goh Keng Swee, one of Singapore's three great founding fathers and the architect of Singapore's economic miracle, why the PAP lost. He replied, 'Kishore, we failed because we did not even conceive of the possibility of failure'.'

The simple truth is that any society can fail. America is vulnerable. So too is Singapore. And as Dr Goh perceived, the only way to prevent failure is to conceive of failure.

The aim of this article is to stimulate Singaporeans into thinking how Singapore might fail. Let me emphasise that I do not believe Singapore is going to fail. But to ensure it does not fail, we must think of how it might fail. Such thinking is absolutely essential as we sail through the biggest economic storm the world has experienced since the Great Depression. I have come to the paradoxical conclusion that Singapore's greatest strengths may also be the source of its greatest vulnerabilities.

One of Singapore's greatest strengths is that it is the world's most globalised nation. The Foreign Policy magazine has a globalisation index. Singapore ranks No.1. There is no doubt that Singapore has succeeded in a spectacular fashion because it has been the best surfer on the tidal wave of globalisation.

But what happens to the Singapore economy if we move from an era of globalisation to an era of de-globalisation? De-globalisation has not arrived. However, there are early warning signals of its possibility.

Earlier this month, The Washington Post painted a gloomy picture of the global recession, noting that many countries were now entering a period of de-globalisation with plummeting world trade. It noted that Singapore's predicament was that it faced an 'ebbing of a golden age of trade, innovation, wealth accumulation and poverty reduction through globalisation'.

Against this backdrop, we should heed Dr Goh's advice and conceive of the possibility of globalisation failing. And if it fails, how does Singapore avoid failure?

Another of Singapore's big strengths is good governance. In May this year, Singapore will celebrate its 50th anniversary of good governance, since self-government in 1959. As an amateur student of politics who has travelled around the world, I cannot think of any other developing nation that has enjoyed 50 years of good governance.

Singapore is unique; good governance is not the historical norm. Every society in the world, without exception, has experienced bad governance. Inevitably, Singapore will experience it some day. Can Singaporean society cope with bad governance? Can we ever conceive of the possibility of Singapore experiencing bad governance?

The best way of preparing for bad governance is for the population to rely less on the government to provide solutions and to rely more on individual citizens to find solutions. But the unfortunate corollary of good governance is that Singaporeans have come to rely on the Government to solve their problems.

Let me provide one small but significant example: Singapore is one of the cleanest cities in the world. But this happens because we employ an army of cleaners. Few Singaporeans take personal responsibility to remove litter. I see this most vividly when I go running in the East Coast Park after a weekend. Mountains of rubbish are left thoughtlessly everywhere. One way to create a greater sense of responsibility is for each citizen to take individual responsibility for litter. Each citizen should pick up at least one piece of litter each day. If we cannot even pick up our own litter, can we prepare ourselves for the day when more individual responsibility would be needed?

A third strategic strength of Singapore is our ethnic harmony. Indeed, it is remarkable what Singapore has achieved in this area. One of my favourite comparisons is the following: The British Empire left behind several small multiracial colonies in all corners of the world, including Guyana, Cyprus, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Fiji. Only one has experienced continuous ethnic harmony since independence: Singapore. Can we fail in this area?

The older generation of Singaporeans has fully absorbed the virtues of ethnic harmony. I experienced that when I accompanied then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong on an official visit to Malaysia. We stayed in the official residence, Carcosa. One day, the Malaysian butler asked Mr Goh what he would like for breakfast. He expected Mr Goh to choose either a Chinese or English breakfast. To his amazement, Mr Goh said: 'Get me thosai from Brickfields.'

Mr Goh's generation of English-educated Singaporeans has a near total blindness to ethnic differences. I am not sure that the younger generation of Singaporeans can match this. Some of the anecdotal evidence I have heard suggests that the younger generation of Singaporeans are more aware of their ethnic differences, partly because of the segregation caused by our second-language policies. Modern sociological methods of research can tell us whether ethnic harmony is growing or diminishing over time in Singapore. This is one area we need to monitor carefully, if we want to look for possible causes of Singapore failing.

I have suggested only three possible ways how Singapore might fail. The likelihood is that if Singapore fails, the failure will be due to a completely unanticipated cause. Ironically, Singapore is a legend in military history because it provides a textbook example of how things can go badly wrong when you don't think of alternative ways of failing. The British expected a Japanese naval attack on Singapore from the south. Instead, the Japanese came on bicycles from the north. The British discovered too late that their big guns were pointed in the wrong direction. Winston Churchill and other British leaders were shocked when the supposedly invincible fortress of Singapore fell to the Japanese in February 1942. Having fallen once as a result of a complete surprise, can we fail again?

Pray let us not give any future historian occasion to say of Singapore: 'They failed because they did not even conceive of the possibility of failure.'

The writer is Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. Think-Tank is a weekly column rotated among eight leading figures in Singapore's tertiary and research institutions.

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Fuel economy labelling deadline extended to Oct 1

Christopher Tan, Straits Times 25 Mar 09;

IT HAS taken well over a year to plan, and was supposed to be mandatory by next week. But the Fuel Economy Labelling Scheme - which is supposed to help car buyers pick more efficient models - will not apply to all cars.

At least, not till Oct 1.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) - the body behind the scheme - informed motor traders of a six-month reprieve in an e-mail sent early this month.

An NEA spokesman said cars which qualify for the extension are those which had already been approved by the Land Transport Authority but 'for which the fuel consumption data is not yet available'. The move is 'to allow suppliers to clear unsold stock'.

The Straits Times understands that the main beneficiaries are parallel importers, who do not get their cars from vehicle makers and thus have no access to officially tested figures.

In the NEA's Fuel Economy Labelling Scheme, importers have to declare how many litres of fuel a car uses per 100km of driving. The figure must be from a mix of city and highway driving and derived from a European test standard.

Parallel importers - who typically bring in Japanese cars - find it hard to get the numbers, as their stocks are from car dealers in Japan. Their economy data is thus based on the Japanese test standard. Until a test lab is set up in Singapore towards the end of the year, they have to send their cars to Hong Kong for the required European figures.

Mr Neo Nam Heng, president of the Singapore Vehicle Traders Association, a body of parallel importers and used car dealers, said the association had spent about $100,000 testing over 30 models so far.

They account for less than half of the parallel-imported models sold here.

The association is trying to get more traders to share the cost of testing. To persuade more to join its fold of close to 400 traders, Mr Neo said it is waiving membership fee of $180 this year.

'We're also passing a 15 per cent tax rebate to traders who rent our premises. On top of that, we're offering a 7.5 per cent rental discount,' he said.

Meanwhile, some authorised agents welcomed the extension to October. These included those importing Chinese makes.

Mr Kevin Kwee, executive director of Group Exklusiv, which imports China's Geely cars, said 'we are still sorting things out for a few models'.

Stiff penalties are in place for non-compliance, including fines and jail terms for those caught tampering with figures. The NEA will conduct periodic checks.

Commenting on the label, Singapore Environment Council executive director Howard Shaw said it would have been more useful if it included information on how the car compares with others.

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Earth Hour should change the way we use electricity

Jonathan Wootliff, Jakarta Post 24 Mar 09;

Why not extend this symbolic gesture to some real changes in the way people use electricity.

History will be made next Saturday night when much of Jakarta will be voluntarily plunged in to darkness.

Over the night of Saturday March 28, lights will be extinguished in many parts of Jakarta as it joins some 80 cities around the world in commemorating Earth Hour.

Organized by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), Earth Hour began in Sydney, Australia, in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour.

Last year the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights.

With lighting and other electric power used in offices and homes creating massive greenhouse gas emissions, WWF wants to make people aware that action can be taken to stop global warming.

The environmental organization is hoping that as many as a billion people will participate this year, thus sending a strong message to our politicians that the world cares about the growing threat of climate change.

World leaders will meet in Copenhagen in December to thrash out a new climate change agreement to succeed the Kyoto treaty. Talks to formulate this new agreement were started at the United Nations climate convention held in Bali in December 2007.

Lights will be switched off from 8:30 p.m. until 9:30 p.m., affecting some of the city’s iconic spots including the National Monument, the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle, City Hall, as well as the Pemuda and Arjuna Wiwaha statues .

Earth Hour provides the opportunity for the people of Jakarta to make their voices heard. But it
also raises awareness about what ordinary people can do to avert global warming.

As Jakartans take part in this special day, let’s hope that it will make them think about what practical steps they can take to save electricity in the longer term, because there is much that ordinary households can do to cut energy consumption and thus reduce greenhouse gas production.

Why not extend this symbolic gesture to some real changes in the way people use electricity.

With Earth Day falling on March 28, here are 28 initiatives that homes in Jakarta and throughout Indonesia should consider taking to reduce their energy consumption:
• Turn off lights when in rooms that are unoccupied.
• Switch off electronic equipment that’s not being used to avoid televisions being left blaring in empty living rooms or idle computers being left on.
• If your home is left empty for a while, be sure to unplug items that have stand-by functions.
• If you have a dishwasher, use it efficiently by filling it up to the maximum before use and limit the number of times you run it.
• Avoid placing furniture and
other items in front of air conditioning vents.
• Always keep doors and windows closed when air conditioning is on.
• Put insulation around the pipes going in and out of your water
heater.
• If your home is going to be empty for more than a couple days, turn off your water heater.
• Drain four to five liters of water from the faucet at the bottom of your water heater, as this will remove the sediment in the water which reduces the energy efficiency of your water heater.
• Close doors and vents in rooms you are not using.
• Turn off the water when brushing your teeth and take shorter showers, saving both water and the electricity that it takes to pump and heat
the water.
• Make use of daylight hours and avoid keeping unneeded lights on.
• Use one large light bulb instead of a few small ones. One 100-watt light bulb uses less energy and gives off more light than two 60-watt bulbs.
• Use fluorescent light bulbs because they use 75 percent less energy and last longer than incandescent light bulbs.
• Use light bulbs that are low in wattage in areas of your house where you don’t need bright light.
• Make sure that outdoor lighting is turned off during the day.
• Decide what you want from the refrigerator or freezer before you open them so you don’t waste electricity by keeping the door open unnecessarily.
• Remove dirt and dust from the coils at the rear of your refrigerator every few months in order to lower your energy bill and to keep the condenser working better.
• Allow hot foods to cool down to room temperature before placing them in the refrigerator.
• Ensure that only full loads of clothing are in your washing machine before use and use the coolest water possible for washing and rinsing the clothes.
• If you use a clothes dryer, clean the filter each time and make sure it is full before use, drying one load immediately after another because this uses less energy since the dryer is already hot; make sure you stop the dryer as soon as the clothes are dry.
• Keep your window blinds, curtains or shades closed during
the day.
• Use fans instead of air conditioning whenever possible as these use much less electricity.
• Only use air conditioning sparingly and get into the habit of turning it off when rooms are empty.
• Regularly clean or replace your air conditioning filters.
• Try turning up the thermostat a few degrees when you have the air conditioning on.
• If you have a house with some land around it, plant trees as the shade they provide will reduce the need for cooling devices.
• If you can, shade your air conditioning unit.


Jonathan Wootliff is an independent sustainable development consultant specializing in the building of productive relationships between companies and NGOs. He can be contacted at jonathan@wootliff.com

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Call to save Penang's mangroves

New Straits Times 25 Mar 09;

GEORGE TOWN: The rehabilitation and preservation of mangrove swamps in Penang has been poorly executed and should be made a priority, said Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Penang chairman Kanda Kumar.

He said among the reasons for the poor preservation of the ecosystem was the incomplete listing of protected areas.

He stated that while gazetted mangrove swamps were well preserved, the same could not be said for mangrove swamps that were not protected.

"We are pushing for all the mangrove swamps to be protected," he said yesterday.

"These mangrove swamps have diminished significantly due to excessive tree cutting and conversion for housing, aquaculture and factory purposes."
Kanda Kumar said mangrove swamps could also be promoted as a form of educational tourism, especially to tourists from Europe.

On the state government's proposed tiger park plan, Kanda Kumar said it was the wrong concept for eco-tourism.

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Save Your Logo: brands defend endangered species

Yahoo News 24 Mar 09;

PARIS (AFP) – French brands using animal logos such as Lacoste and its crocodile are being asked to help save endangered species via a new international campaign titled "Save your logo."

"Companies that have profited from the positive image of these animals now have a chance to show their recognition," said France's Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo at a launch of a campaign backed by the World Bank, the World Environment Fund (WEF) and the International Union for the Conservation of nature (IUCN).

Lacoste for one has signed up, but hundreds of other companies could join too -- Jaguar, Puma, Peugeot and its lion, Esso and its tiger in the tank.

Under the scheme, companies can donate up to 1.5 million euros over three years to a Save Your Logo fund held by the World Bank which will add up to 33 percent of the donations received.

Donors would benefit from a tax cut of up to 60 percent of the donation, but limited to 0.5 percent of turnover.

According to the IUCN, at least one bird out of eight, 25 percent of mammals and one out of every three amphibian are in danger of extinction.

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Lemur Forests Pillaged by "Gangs" as Madagascar Reels

David Braun, National Geographic News 24 Mar 09;

With Madagascar's government paralyzed after a recent coup, looters are invading the African island country's protected wildlife sanctuaries, harvesting trees and threatening critically endangered lemurs and other species, conservationists said this week.

Marojejy National Park in northern Madagascar has been closed to tourism. In other parks, rangers are abandoning their posts, according to reports.

The trouble is linked to turmoil that culminated in the coup d'etat that ousted President Marc Ravalomanana last week.

Some protected conservation areas are being invaded by organized criminals intent on cutting down valuable rosewood trees and extracting other resources, according to conservationists in Madagascar.

The closure of Marojejy National Park was "deemed necessary by park management due to the lawlessness that has descended over the ... region during this time of political unrest in Madagascar, and the resultant looting and destruction which is currently occurring within the park," according to the park's Web site.

"In particular, gangs of armed men (led primarily by foreign profiteers in conjunction with the rich local mafia) are plundering the rainforests of Marojejy for the extremely valuable rosewood that grows there," the site continues.

"Most worrisome is the well-being of the highly endangered silky sifaka, a lemur found only in the rainforests of Marojejy and the surrounding area."

The silky sifaka is listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List, meaning the animal is "considered to be facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild."

Logging Devastation

Cornell University Ph.D. candidate Erik Patel has been studying the silky sifaka since 2001.

"Illegal logging of precious wood has emerged as one of the most severe threats to Madagascar's dwindling northeastern rainforests," Patel said in an email.

Over the past few years, thousands of logs, worth millions of U.S. dollars, have been confiscated at the Madagascan ports of Vohémar, Antalaha, and Toamasina, he said.


"Most of this critically endangered rosewood and ebony is known to have come from Marojejy National Park and Masoala National Park," Patel said.

In the face of rich, armed, and politically connected criminals, the parks simply lack the resources to stop this, Patel added.

"The impacts of such selective logging include violating local taboos as well as ecological consequences such as increased likehood of fire, invasive species, impaired habitat, and loss in genetic diversity."

Patel said the January 2009 termination of the law prohibiting the export of rosewood and ebony is a key cause of the increased logging.

"The laws prohibiting such exportation must be reinstated as soon as possible," he said.

"It is unprecedented for a national park in Madagacar to be closed to tourism because of illegal logging."

Primatologist Mireya Mayor, who has done fieldwork in Marojejy, said, "I'm gutted and at a loss to describe how bad this situation is." (See video of Mayor at work, below.)

Loggers who invaded the parks to extract rosewood would destroy habitat, set up camps, and eat the wildlife, including the lemurs, predicted Mayor, a former National Geographic emerging explorer. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)

"The lemurs will not be able to withstand this."

Posts Abandoned

Patricia Wright, a conservationist and lemur expert, said she had received reports that rangers were abandoning their posts in other parks because of fears for their safety.

"What's happening in the north is very worrying, because that is the home of two of the most endangered primates in the world, the silky sifaka and the Perrier's sifaka," she said.

The trouble appeared to be confined for the moment to parks in Madagascar's northern areas, said Wright, a professor in the Department of Anthropology at New York State's Stony Brook University and former member of National Geographic's Committee for Research and Exploration.

Both Wright and Mayor were at a loss as to what could be done in the short term.

"One thing we can do is create awareness about this," Mayor said.

Wright said she was trying to contact foundations and agencies that sponsor conservation in Madagascar.

"A big worry is that funding dries up for conservation because of the coup. That will leave the national parks without resources and completely exposed to exploitation," Wright said.

Both Mayor and Wright are also concerned about the long-term future of conservation in Madagascar.

Former President Ravalomanana had committed the Madagascan government to increasing protected areas on the island and had demonstrated a willingness to work with conservationists.

"Now," Mayor said, "we don't know what's going to happen."

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Ecotourism could help the Amazon reduce deforestation and handle climate change

WWF 24 Mar 09;

Responsible ecotourism in the Amazon tributary of the Aripuana River, could help reduce deforestation and help to protect one in ten of the world's species.

WWF was a party to an expedition assessing ecotourism prospects in the Amazon, home of the world’s largest water basin and most diverse rainforest

The expedition predicted that responsible tourism would be a successful way to engage local communities currently relying on slash and burn agriculture with an alternative livelihood.

Ecotourism is little practiced in the Amazon, partly due to the expense but also due to a lack of information about places where implementation is possible

“When carried out in ecologically correct manner ecotourism is a low impact environmental activity that contributes to maintenance of species and natural habitats,” said WWF-Brazil’s General Secretary Denise Hamú.

“It also promotes a valuing of culture and involves local communities.”

Deforestation is by far the most dangerous threat to the Amazon, home of one in ten known species on Earth.

Victim and Villain

Human settlement and agriculture prompt people to slash and burn hectares of precious trees, causing habitat loss of hundreds of species and contributing to a large number of CO2 emissions.

The Amazon is both a victim and a villain of climate change with scientists warning that a 2C spike in temperatures will severely damage the vast forests; and a 4C rise would effectively kill it. But an estimated 60% of Brazil's emissions are directly linked to deforestation.

The ecotourism project under consideration is mainly carried out by Brazil’s State Secretary for the Environment and Sustainable Development (SDS) of Amazonas and State Center for Climate Change.

In many other countries, such as Madagascar, responsibly run tourist sites are already producing good results and help to reduce the rate of deforestation.

Reducing deforestation is also, according to scientists, one of the cheapest way to combat climate change..

“You usually need a large initial investment to get something started if you want to offer safe, interesting and comfortable ecotourism options,” said Therese Aubreton, the researcher from SDS specialized in ecotourism who participated in an expedition held between February 17 and 24 aiming to analyze the viability for the implantation of ecotourism facilities along the Aripuanã River, in the Aripuanã Sustainable Development Reserve and its vicinity areas.

Difficult Access

The difficult access to many beautiful and interesting places in the Amazon ,some of which can only be reached by helicopter, lack of transport and communication have so far been preventing this region to be exploited for tourism.

WWF-Brazil is supporting projects that study these potential areas in other to, among other aims, attract more investment and make things possible.

“More than just identify the natural vocation of Amazon for ecotourism, the expedition also studied the relation of the enterprising potential and the return for the local population from the reserve, the creation of opportunities for qualification and work in the tourist business,” Brazil’s Amazonas State Secretary for the Environment and Sustainable Development, Nádia Ferreira said

According to a study carried out by the Copérnico Institute of Holland’s Utrecht University shows that successful eco tourism projects could yield an average of US$3.26 to US$6.58 per hectare of standing forest per year.

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Killing beached whales is kinder, experts say

Michael Marshall, New Scientist 24 Mar 09;

Large whales that strand themselves should be killed, as any attempts to save them are probably futile and likely to cause more suffering, according to animal welfare specialists.

The results of a series of autopsies of beached whales carried out by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) have led veterinarians to conclude that sperm whales and beaked whales have little chance of survival if they become stranded.

"Euthanasia can be a very emotive issue," says Adam Grogan of the UK's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), "but it is often in a stranded whale's best interests." Death is normally induced by lethal injection.

The statement, made by the Marine Animal Rescue Coalition, a group of organisations including the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the RSPCA, comes as rescuers were trying to save 90 long-finned pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins that had beached themselves on the west coast of Australia. At time of writing, only 10 of the animals were still alive.
Crushing weight

Stranded sperm and beaked whales have been well studied in recent years – in particular, several have become stranded while still alive, allowing biologists to obtain blood samples and piece together what led to the strandings.

Deep-diving species, such as sperm and beaked whales often get into trouble if they stray off-course and find themselves in waters where there is little food for them. Because they are unable to feed, they also do not take in water, and become dehydrated.

The ZSL vets say that this and the whales' large size makes them vulnerable to kidney failure if they beach themselves. Without the support of the surrounding seawater, their weight damages their muscles, releasing stores of damaging myoglobin into the bloodstream.

Myoglobin is a protein essential for oxygen transport while the whales are submerged, but it is also toxic to the kidneys.

According to the autopsy data from the ZSL, once the whales have been stranded for an hour, the renal damage is already irreversible. Attempting to refloat the whales at this point only makes the situation worse, as it allows their blood to circulate more freely, carrying even more myoglobin into the kidneys.

Rescuers have often struggled to save stranded whales. In 2002, a pod of pilot whales stranded themselves on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, – many were refloated, but proceeded to re-beach themselves, with fatal results.

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Balancing the global need for meat

Carlos Sere, BBC Green Room 24 Mar 09;

While meat is all too abundant in the rich North, it is very often a life-saving source of protein in the developing South, says Carlos Sere. In this week's Green Room, he says backing a worldwide curb on meat consumption is likely to do more harm than good.

Daisy the cow, the emblem of healthy wholesome living, is under attack in rich countries.

She is deemed to be destroying the environment by emitting tonnes of greenhouse gases and contributing to an upsurge of obesity and heart disease.

But Daisy, and her farmyard cousins Billy the goat and Porky the pig, are treasured in poor countries.

These animals provide protein, nourishment, and a livelihood to more than a billion poor people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Rich and poor worlds are colliding when it comes to the value of livestock production and consumption.

In this case, both points are understandable - for their own worlds. The rich world may need to cut back on livestock consumption and production, but the poor world cannot afford to do so.

'Factory farming'

According to a recent report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, livestock production, dominated in the West by large-scale factory farming, is responsible for 18% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions; a bigger share than all of the world's transport.

But as the world moves to address climate change and reduce emissions, we must make sure that the push to reduce the environmental impact of livestock production in rich countries does not hurt the availability of milk, meat, eggs, and other products in developing countries.

While people in rich nations are harming their health by eating too much fatty red meat and cheese, many people in the cities and rural areas of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, particularly children and women in their child-bearing years, are malnourished because they are not consuming enough eggs, meat, and milk.

Research shows that very modest amounts of animal-sourced foods in the diets of the poor can have tremendous health benefits.

Milk and meat enhance the growth and cognitive development of children subsisting largely on starchy diets.

Livestock producers in rich countries practice factory farming, which can treat animals inhumanely and depends on vast amounts of resources, particularly in the forms of water, cereals, and energy.

However, most livestock producers in poor countries operate small family farms with just a few animals that, while producing methane gas, roam free and eat grass and other wastes rather than grain.

Meeting needs

Concern for the environment is legitimate, but it should not override concern for the livelihoods of 1.2 billion poor people.

Science can serve as an honest broker in the complex and often controversial debate over livestock and environmental issues.

Our role may be inconvenient to some, but empirical evidence is needed in this discussion.

The global agricultural research community is working to develop a more comprehensive, integrated agenda that should provide crucial, objective evidence on the trade-offs between food security, livelihoods and the environment.

Our research tells us that we can often protect the livestock livelihoods of poor people while also conserving environmental resources.

Among the ideas being discussed in rich countries to reduce consumption of livestock foods are a "methane tax" on large feeding operations.

It is based on emission measurements and encouraging a "locavore" movement, creating demand for local livestock products not produced by large-scale, factory farm operations.

Such ideas are worth considering, but they will need research analyses and political debate, and eventual buy-in, to take hold.

Livestock production remains an essential pathway out of poverty in many poor countries, where increasing consumption of animal products also helps reduce malnutrition among the poorest communities.

When allocating resources for agricultural development, which is a long-neglected sector, policymakers and aid agencies need to use different strategies for different regions and populations.

Now we need both worlds to understand one another.

The view from the North and the South - from the feedlots of Chicago and the semi-desert scrublands of Somalia and Ethiopia, from those who eat too much protein and those who eat too little - is very different.

When advocating policies that affect the developing world, we must respect all ways of life, including those born of necessities now remote in the developed world.

If you are asking people in New York, London or Tokyo to reduce their meat consumption for the good of their health and the environment, that is reasonable.

But asking a family on the edge of the Sahara Desert or the outskirts of the packed slums of Mumbai to give up protein from animal foods, particularly milk, is a quite different request.

As a proverb in the Horn of Africa goes: if the herds die, then the people will die too.

Dr Carlos Sere is executive director of the International Livestock Research Institute

The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website

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UN plans guide to fighting climate-change disasters

Alister Doyle, Reuters 24 Mar 09;

OSLO, March 24 (Reuters) - A proposed U.N. study of climate extremes will be a practical guide for tackling natural disasters and fill a gap in past reports focused on the gradual effects of global warming, experts said.

Floods, mudslides, droughts, heatwaves or storms are often the main causes of destruction and human suffering tied to climate change, rather than the creeping rise in average temperatures blamed on a build-up of greenhouse gases.

"We are saying a lot about changes in mean temperatures but the impacts on real people, real companies, are taking place at the extremes," said Chris Field, a co-chair of a group in the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Better knowledge of extreme climate events could help governments, companies or humanitarian organisations to cope with natural disasters, he told Reuters on Tuesday during a March 23-26 IPCC meeting in Oslo.

"Most importantly (a special study) will be a guide for how we can get going with practical measures in countries vulnerable to climate change," said Ellen Hambro, head of the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority which is hosting the talks.

About 100 scientists are meeting in Oslo to map out a possible special U.N. report about climate extremes by Field's group, under a proposal by Norway and the U.N.'s International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.

Rising sea levels, for instance, are a threat to coasts, especially low-lying tropical islands. But most erosion happens during extreme storms, said Field, who is director of the U.S. Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology.

And plant ranges are gradually shifting because of climate change. But crop failures that can lead to hunger often happen because of a single extremely hot day when flowers are maturing.

A special report would take about two years to write, if approved by an wider IPCC meeting in Turkey next month. Field said there was enthusiasm among experts for the idea. "It's something ripe for progress now," he said.

Among benefits, Field said that better knowledge of extremes could help develop better coastal defences to withstand storms and rising seas. It might also help relief agencies plan ways to manage heatwaves, droughts or floods.

-- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: blogs.reuters.com/environment/ (Editing by Louise Ireland)

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Study of 1918 El Nino challenges warming intensity link

David Fogarty, Reuters 24 Mar 09;

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Research showing an El Nino event in 1918 was far stronger than previously thought is challenging the notion climate change is making El Nino episodes more intense, a U.S. scientist said on Tuesday.

El Nino causes global climate chaos such as droughts and floods. The events of 1982/83 and 1997/98 were the strongest of the 20th Century, causing loss of life and economic havoc through lost crops and damage to infrastructure.

But Ben Giese of Texas A&M University said complex computer modeling showed the 1918 El Nino event was almost as strong and occurred before there was much global warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels or widespread deforestation.

The outcome of the research was valuable for several reasons, Giese told Reuters from Perth in Western Australia.

"It questions the notion that El Ninos have been getting stronger because of global warming," he said ahead of a presentation of his team's research at a major climate change conference in Perth.

The 1918 event also coincided with one of India's worst droughts of the 20th century.

"We know that El Ninos and drought in India are often related to each other," he said.

El Nino is an abnormal warming of the surface waters in the eastern Pacific off South America that causes the normally rainy weather in the western Pacific to shift further to the east.

This causes drought in parts of Australia, Southeast Asia and India as well as flooding in Chile and Peru, colder and wetter winters in the southern United States and fewer Atlantic hurricanes.

The droughts in Australia of 1982-83 and 1997-98 rank among the worst in the nation's modern history. Drought also occurred in eastern Australia from 1918-20.

Giese said his team ran a complex ocean computer model that, for the first time, used the results of a separate atmospheric model produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The result was a simulation of ocean temperatures, currents and other measures from 1908 to 1958.

For 1918, the simulation produced a strong abnormal surface warming in the central Pacific and weaker warming nearer the South American coast.

There were very few measurements of the tropical Pacific during 1918, the last year of World War One, and ship-based measurements along the South American coast suggested only a weak El Nino.

This, Giese said, reinforced the point that there is limited data about El Ninos prior to the 1950s and that computer models were one way to get a clearer picture of the past.

"We cannot rely on what El Nino looks like today to try to understand what El Nino patterns looked like in the past."

"It makes it a challenge to talk about El Nino and global warming because we simply don't have a detailed record," he added.

(Editing by Michael Urquhart)

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Financial Crisis Can Lead To Modest Lifestyles

PlanetArk 25 Mar 09;

LONDON - The financial crisis is a timely warning of much greater risks the planet faces from excessive focus on profit and growth, veteran British environmental campaigner Jonathon Porritt said on Saturday.

Environmentalists have linked the present recession with wider threats such as climate change, blaming credit-fueled economic growth for the reckless consumption of natural resources including fossil fuels.

Governments, companies and regulators must reduce the rewards for growth and profits to avoid a far worse crisis and the collapse of the life support systems such as fisheries, soil and rain on which the world depends, Porritt told Reuters.

"It was a harsh and unsustainable form of capitalism for the last 25 years," said the chairman of the independent British government watchdog, the Sustainable Development Commission.

"It's appropriate people are talking about more modest lifestyles."

For example, bank lending at high repayment rates had driven demand for more credit, creating a cycle of consumption which had also run down natural resources, he said, and policymakers could curb the role of banks to avoid a repeat.

"Banks have forfeited the right to operate on their terms. We've just got used to this idea it's banks' right to create credit and charge interest on it. Governments can create credit ... on much less onerous terms."

Policymakers worldwide have responded to the recession with about $2 trillion of stimulus spending, and about one tenth of that they will direct into green causes such as clean energy technologies, efficiency, public transport and conserving water.

Such green spending may not only fight climate change and cut dependence on imported fossil fuels, but also create jobs in a growing sector of the world economy.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says he wants a meeting in London on April 2 of the G20 leading developed and emerging economies to coordinate spending into a global "green new deal."

Some analysts, U.N. agencies and environmental groups say green spending should be a much bigger part of the total stimulus, to improve infrastructure including homes, transport and electric grids and cut carbon emissions.

"We've degraded our natural capital, we have to build this back like we're re-capitalizing the balance sheets of banks. The way to do this is to put huge amounts of money into energy efficiency, low-carbon technologies, renewables," said Porritt.

A report Porritt has written for the charity Forum for the Future, of which he is a co-founder, called "Living within our means: avoiding the ultimate recession," is published on Saturday.

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Gore to publish new global warming book in November

Reuters 24 Mar 09;

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nobel Peace Prize winner and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore will publish a follow-up to his global warming awareness bestseller "An Inconvenient Truth" on November 3.

The book will be called "Our Choice" and will describe solutions to global warming, the environmental crusader and U.S. publisher Rodale Inc. said in a statement on Tuesday.

"'An Inconvenient Truth' reached millions of people with the message that the climate crisis is threatening the future of human civilization and that it must and can be solved," Gore said.

"Now that the need for urgent action is even clearer with the alarming new findings of the last three years, it is time for a comprehensive global plan that actually solves the climate crisis. 'Our Choice' will answer that call," he said.

Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his work to raise awareness about climate change and the same year also won an Academy Award for a documentary based on his slide show lecture and book "An Inconvenient Truth."

He said he will donate all proceeds from "Our Choice" to the Alliance for Climate Protection.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Gore to pen new book on climate change
Yahoo News 25 Mar 09;

NEW YORK (AFP) – Former vice president and Nobel laureate Al Gore Wednesday announced the November release of "Our Choice," his new book on climate change that proposes solutions to global warming and our present climate crisis.

The follow-up to Gore's first book in 2006 on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth," will be published on recycled paper by Rodale Books.

"An Inconvenient Truth reached millions of people with the message that the climate crisis is threatening the future of human civilization and that it must and can be solved," Gore said in a statement.

"Now that the need for urgent action is even clearer with the alarming new findings of the last three years, it is time for a comprehensive global plan that actually solves the climate crisis. 'Our Choice' will answer that call," he added.

Gore's first book led to a documentary, equally titled "An Inconvenient Truth," that won him an Oscar in 2007 and the Nobel Peace Prize that same year he shared with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

"Our Choice" will go on sale November 3.

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France To Compensate Victims Of Nuclear Testing

Sophie Hardach and Estelle Shirbon, PlanetArk 25 Mar 09;

PARIS - France will compensate victims of past nuclear tests in the south Pacific and the Sahara, and for the first time has formally recognized a link between the explosions and illnesses suffered by soldiers and civilians.

Defense Minister Herve Morin told reporters on Tuesday France had conducted the tests as safely as possible, and had needed them to build up a credible nuclear deterrent and emerge as a global nuclear power.

"Thirteen years after the end of tests in the Pacific ... it's time for our country to be at peace with itself, thanks to a system of compensation and mending the damage that was suffered," he told a news conference.

Some veterans who worked on the tests in Algeria and French Polynesian atolls in the Pacific have reported they were ordered to lie down and cover their eyes during the explosions, while wearing nothing more than shorts and T-shirts.

Several said they were told to drive or sail into the damaged area immediately after the blast to examine the impact.

France had long refused to recognize officially a link between the tests, which ended in 1996, and diseases afflicting some of the 150,000 army and civilian staff who were at the sites.

"The burden of proof will be reversed: victims will no longer have to prove that their illness is due to the nuclear tests, but it will be up the state to contest that," Morin said, listing the principles of the proposed compensation scheme.

He also said compensation would no longer depend on whether victims were military staff, civilian staff or residents, and would apply to all nationalities.

INDEPENDENT COMMISSION

France ran a total of 210 nuclear tests, in Algeria between 1960 and 1966, then in French Polynesia between 1966 and 1996.

Veteran Michel Verger worked on the first two tests in Algeria -- the first saw the detonation of an atomic bomb stronger than the one dropped on Hiroshima.

"We are satisfied, especially about the recognition of what caused these illnesses, which was never written down this way before," Verger, now head of the association of victims of the tests, AVEN, told reporters outside the defense ministry.

An initial 10 million euros ($13.5 million) has been earmarked for the program.

An independent commission of doctors will examine existing and future claims, including those concerning "moral or aesthetic" damage, Morin told the news conference.

The doctors will be able to access all files on the tests and their impact.

Staff and residents of areas close to the testing zones have long complained of health problems including leukemia and other forms of cancer, and activists denounced the testing program for decades. There have been numerous court cases.

In the latest one, in February, 12 former soldiers suffering from grave diseases took their claims for compensation to an appeals court in Paris to try to force the government to recognize a link with the tests. The case continues.

Hostility to the tests reached its climax after French secret agents sank the environmental group Greenpeace's ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1985.

The French wanted to prevent the ship from disrupting nuclear tests, but the attack was made public and became an international scandal and a public relations disaster for Paris.

Morin brushed off questions about the history of the tests.

"It was a page. We have turned it. Now we are writing a new one," he said.

(Reporting by Sophie Hardach and Estelle Shirbon)

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