Best of our wild blogs: 11 Jun 09

Dolphins at Semakau!
on the Psychedelic Nature blog with PHOTOS! and ashira blog

Ben stabbed by a mangrove whipray
on Otterman speaks

TeamSeagrass at Sentosa
on the teamseagrass blog

Wet and wild monkeys on Sentosa
on the wild shores of singapore blog

Crab team on a high tide trip
on Otterman speaks

Scratching among birds
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Crested Goshawk hunting squirrel
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Blue-throated Bee-eater Feeding
on the Manta Blog

X-branded Moth
on the Urban Forest blog

Still crabby
on the annotated budak blog and no end to crabbiness

Arrest of Cambodians highlights rising poaching concerns in Malaysia’s protected areas on the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation blog

Malaysian PM pledges US$1 million to save corals
on the Pulau Hantu blog

10 years of mongabay
on Mongabay.com news

Read more!

Singapore among top 10 most expensive locations in Asia: survey

Mok Fei Fei, 938LIVE Channel NewsAsia 10 Jun 09

SINGAPORE: Cost of living in Singapore continues to be high, propelling it into the top ten most expensive locations within the region.

A report by human resources consultancy, ECA International, found that Singapore is the 10th most expensive city in Asia and 72nd worldwide.

The firm said price rises have not slowed down as much in Singapore as in other parts of Asia in spite of its weakened currency.

In addition, currencies of locations which were previously more expensive than Singapore - like London and Stockholm - have depreciated at a faster rate than the Singapore dollar.

This has led to Singapore becoming more expensive for visitors than many other locations in the survey.

Topping the list for the most expensive city in Asia is Japan's Tokyo, while Angola's Luanda is the most expensive city in the world.

In all, four Japanese cities, Tokyo, Nagoya, Yokohama and Kobe, made it to the top five most expensive places globally.

Joining the region's top ten are Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong in fifth to seventh positions respectively. Kuala Lumpur is ranked 38th and Johor Bahru the 40th most expensive city in Asia.

ECA International said the cost of living in Asia has become more expensive as Europe and the US are bearing the brunt of the recession.

ECA carries out the cost of living survey twice a year, comparing a basket of commonly purchased consumer goods and services in over 370 locations worldwide. - 938LIVE/CNA/vm/al

Singapore becoming more expensive for expatriates
Jessica Yeo, Business Times 11 Jun 09;

SINGAPORE is now the 10th most expensive city in Asia for expatriates, despite its weakened currency, a survey shows.

Having moved up three notches from its previous ranking of 13th place in ECA International's survey on cost of living a year ago, Singapore is however still ranked below Japanese and Chinese cities, which dominate the top ten.

'Price rises have not slowed down as much in Singapore as in other parts of Asia,' said ECA's regional director for Asia, Lee Quane.

Prices of goods and services in China and Malaysia have increased at half of last year's pace, while in Singapore, they have increased by three-quarters, Mr Quane added.

Also, currencies of locations previously more expensive than Singapore (such as London, Stockholm and Istanbul) have depreciated at an even faster rate than the Sing dollar.

Meanwhile, the survey showed that due to the strong yen, Tokyo maintained its position as the most expensive city for expats. Its lead was followed by three other Japanese cities: Nagoya, Yokohama and Kobe.

Chinese cities and territories - Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou - stayed ahead of Singapore, due to the strengthening yuan.

'The yuan has continued to strengthen while the yen has appreciated by almost 8 per cent against the US dollar,' Mr Quane said.

'Many Western currencies, including sterling, the euro and the Swiss franc, have weakened. As a result, people coming from these economies into Asia will notice a considerable difference in costs compared with 12 months ago.'

Globally, Singapore jumped to the 72nd most expensive city worldwide from 114th year-on-year.

However, not all Asian cities remained expensive for expats. Due to the weakened won, Seoul has fallen to the 17th most expensive city in Asia, from its top position as the most expensive Asian city two years ago.

Similarly, the depreciating currencies of Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Taiwan have lowered expatriate living costs in those countries.

Among the top 10 cheapest places for expats are Indian cities, as the weakened rupee coupled with lower inflation has made the cost of living for those locations fall.

The biannual survey by ECA compares a basket of 125 consumer goods and services commonly purchased by international assignees in over 370 locations worldwide.

Singapore now ranks among top 10 most expensive cities in Asia for expatriates
Yang Huiwen, Straits Times 11 Jun 09;

SINGAPORE has become one of the 10 most expensive cities in Asia for expatriates to live, according to a new cost-of-living survey.

The Republic's promotion from 13th spot last year to 10th in the ECA International survey, is largely down to price increases not slowing as quickly as elsewhere in Asia.

This is despite a weakening Singapore dollar making goods and services that much cheaper here for foreigners.

The strengthening of the yen saw the region's top four spots taken up by Japanese cities.

Tokyo reclaimed its position as Asia's most expensive city, followed by Nagoya, Yokohama and Kobe.

Explaining Singapore's move up the ranks, Mr Lee Quane, regional director of ECA Asia, said: 'Prices have not slowed down as much in Singapore as in other parts of Asia.'

The pace of increase in prices of goods and services in countries such as China and Malaysia, for instance, has slowed down by half. Prices are down by just one quarter in Singapore, said Mr Quane.

Still, Singapore remains a more affordable place than long-time rival Hong Kong, where the cost of living is being driven up by the strength of the Hong Kong dollar, which is pegged to the US dollar.

Hong Kong jumped from 98th spot to 29th in the global ranking, and is the seventh most costly city in Asia.

Globally, Singapore came in 72nd, up from being 114th last year.

Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Manila and New Delhi are among the Asian cities which have become relatively cheaper for expatriates.

The survey found that the cost of living in Asia has increased relative to the United States and Europe, given that the West has been hit hardest by the global financial crisis.

So, while inflation has slowed in many Asian cities compared to a year ago, it has fallen more dramatically in many Western countries where growth has been slower.

Singapore International Chamber of Commerce (SICC) chief executive Phillip Overmyer says global companies with operations in Singapore are feeling the pinch.

'We're seeing demand coming down, yet costs remain very high,' making Singapore and some other Asian cities very expensive places to operate, he warned.

'What I see going on right now are serious evaluations (by companies). Where do we go if we need to move? What do we do if recession is going to last for a few years?'

Ms Jane Fraser, 38, an advertising executive, said the cost of living in Singapore is still 'reasonably bearable'. However, housing rents, which have been steadily declining of late, are still a bugbear, she said.

ECA carries out its survey twice a year to help multinational companies calculate remuneration packages and living costs for expatriates. The study compares a basket of 125 consumer goods and services commonly bought by expats in over 370 locations and measures these items against inflation, availability of goods and exchange rates.

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Water Week draws more local response

Singapore's display space rises fivefold; new R&D ventures planned
Victoria Vaughan, Straits Times 11 Jun 09;

THE fear of drinking tainted water could be a thing of the past. A system that detects chemical and organic contamination in drinking water is one of 16 technologies on display at Singapore's International Water Week.

The early warning system, developed by Singapore-based Optiqua Technologies, will be showcased at this year's event, themed Sustainable Cities - Infrastructure and Technologies for Water, at Suntec City from June 22 to 26.

Despite the current economic crisis, Water Week - in its second year - has managed to increase Singapore's display space fivefold with more than half the local water-related companies and agencies taking part for the first time.

Mr Michael Toh, managing director of Water Week and deputy director of national water agency PUB, said the response has been encouraging.

'Riding on the success of June 2008, we have also seen a growth in the number of organisations having events during Water Week,' he added.

This includes the signing of a research and development collaboration between Sembcorp Industries, a utilities company, and Nanyang Technological University.

The highlight is the presentation of the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize. And topping the list of attending VIPs is the Prince of the Netherlands Willem-Alexander, who is chairman of the United Nations' Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation. He will be addressing delegates on June 23.

With 8,000 to 10,000 guests expected to attend the event, organisers have been working with the National Environment Agency and the Health Ministry to make sure they are prepared for any Influenza A (H1N1) case.

'We are taking the HINI situation very seriously. We are making sure we take the necessary measures to protect, prevent and contain HINI should we have a case. We have to balance it against the inconvenience to the delegates,' said Mr Toh. The organisers will provide bar-coded cards to collect details of those attending the sessions. They will also tag seats to assist in contact tracing if there is a suspected H1N1 case.

Also coinciding with the event is the opening of three new R&D facilities in Singapore, including the Singapore Water Technology Centre established at the National University of Singapore in collaboration with GE Singapore.

The centre will look at low-energy seawater desalination, water reclamation and more efficient water reuse.

Several public events have also been organised in tandem with Water Week. The Marina Barrage will host the Singapore International Water Festival on June 20 and 21 and the Singapore Dragon Boat Festival on June 27 and 28.

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Marina Reservoir: Not just an engineering feat

Lee Poh Onn, Straits Times 11 Jun 09;

THE Marina Reservoir may not be attention-catching but it has won numerous prizes, the most recent being the prestigious green award by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers in May.

Dammed by the 350m-wide Marina Barrage spanning the Marina Channel, the reservoir is an engineering feat. But what is less often realised is that the reservoir reflects a change in policy.

The Marina Reservoir is the first to be built here right in the heart of the city. It is the largest reservoir in Singapore with a catchment area of 10,000ha. Besides adding to the country's water supply, it also alleviates flooding in the low-lying areas of Chinatown, Boat Quay, Jalan Besar and Geylang. In addition, it provides a venue for recreational activities such as boating, windsurfing and water sports.

To prevent floods, seven gigantic pumps - each with a capacity of 40 cubic metres per second - can flush excess storm water out into the sea in case a storm coincides with a high tide. The barrage also has nine 30m steel crest gates to separate sea water from the reservoir and keep out high tides.

Together with the new Serangoon and Punggol reservoirs, the Marina Reservoir will increase Singapore's land catchment area for water from the present half to two-thirds by 2011. Singapore's 15th reservoir is expected to increase the country's water supply by 10 per cent when fully operational.

The barrage is built on environmentally friendly principles, with an iconic green roof to lower the temperature of the building below and to serve as a recreational field. The solar park at the Marina Barrage also has the largest collection of solar panels in Singapore - 405 in total.

Like the Bedok and MacRitchie reservoirs, the Marina Reservoir is part of the new generation of water catchment areas that are open to the public, and where community and recreational spaces co-exist with the reservoirs.

Before 2004, access to water catchment areas was restricted. But in 2004, the PUB made a dramatic shift: It allowed the public to embark on water-related activities at its reservoirs.

In line with this mindset change, the PUB also launched the Active, Beautiful and Clean Waters Programme in April 2006. The Marina Barrage is part of the programme.

Policymakers have realised that by bringing the public closer to water, and educating people about the importance of water resources, they can engender a sense of ownership.

Some may wonder why a reservoir has been located in a new downtown area. The barrage was an idea that originated with Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew about two decades ago. He envisaged damming the mouth of the Marina Channel to create a freshwater reservoir.

By 2011, Singapore's reservoirs, and desalination and Newater plants, should enable the country to overcome its 'water vulnerable' condition, though it will still continue to buy water from Malaysia. Back-of-the-envelope calculations indicate that Singapore will be able to produce about 1.54 million cubic metres of water daily from its domestic sources - about 15 per cent above its current consumption of 1.3 million cubic metres.

We have heard grouses of the public not being conscious of environmental protection. Singapore's new policy of actively engaging the public and educating them by creating community and recreational spaces in areas near reservoirs may be the way to go. Reservoirs which also serve as recreational spaces will promote greater awareness of how to conserve, value and enjoy water - especially since we have more of it now.

The writer is a fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

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Rubber demand threatens wildlife

Rapid expansion of plantations could lead to devastating effects
Amresh Gunasingham, Straits Times 11 Jun 09;

THE rapid expansion of rubber plantations in South-east Asia in the last decade could have a devastating effect on the environment, scientists here have warned.

More than 500,000 hectares of regional mountainous forests - about eight times the size of Singapore - have already been converted to rubber plantations, noted Associate Professor Alan Ziegler from the National University of Singapore (NUS) Department of Geography, who led a study on the matter.

By 2050, the expansion of plantations in the highlands of south-west China, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar is expected to double or triple. These findings were published in the May 22 edition of the prestigious journal Science.

Agreeing with the study, Professor Richard Corlett, from the Department of Biological Science at NUS, said: 'What used to be a landscape consisting of patches of forest, irrigated rice and a variety of other crops is now just uniformly rubber.'

In the report, Prof Ziegler noted that the unrestricted expansion of rubber in mountainous regions in mainland Southeast Asia could have devastating environmental effects.

With fewer trees, there are far fewer plants to absorb excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, accelerating the effects of global warming. Deforestation also causes erosion and landslides, while growing only rubber destabilises regional water systems as the plants tend to suck up excess water.

There is also a threat to biodiversity.

Said Dr Koh Lian Pin, a research fellow at ETH Zurich - the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology: 'If this trend continues, it could mean the decline of numerous species of native plants and animals, many of which are already on the brink of extinction.'

Roughly a quarter of the world's species of animals and plants lives in this region.

Experts attributed the trend to rising crude oil prices and a burgeoning demand for rubber products, particularly in China.

Crude oil, which is used to make synthetic rubber, hit a peak of nearly US$150 last year, causing the demand for natural rubber to go up, Dr Koh explained.

Prof Corlett added: 'Rubber seems to be the most valuable crop in the region.'

In the report, Prof Ziegler called for more areas to be designated as forest reserves.

'A substantial increase in natural reserve areas could help to reduce the threats to biodiversity and carbon stocks,' he wrote.

He also called for the adoption of 'diversified agroforestry systems', where cash crops such as rubber and oil palm play important roles, but are not planted as monocultures.

Instead, they will co-exist alongside native species of plants, reducing the threat to ecosystems.

Related articles
Tread Heavily: China's Tire Demand Rolls over Southeast Asian Forests
China's thirst for rubber is destroying the environment -- and livelihoods -- in Southeast Asia, Brendan Borrell, Scientific American 21 May 09;

Read more!

The heat is on - and may worsen in Singapore

Mercury could hit 35 deg C soon, but some businesses are thriving
Leow Si Wan, Straits Times 11 Jun 09;

THE sizzling weather of the past few weeks looks set to continue, right up to the weekend and possibly beyond.

The only respite might come from brief showers between the late morning and early afternoon on some days this week.

According to the 14-day forecast issued by the National Environment Agency (NEA) last week, temperatures over the next few days could hit 34 or even 35 deg C.

Things could get a lot more uncomfortable too: The dry weather during this period could result in forest fires in neighbouring countries, which may see haze settling over Singapore.

June, traditionally the hottest month of the year here, is also smack in the middle of the south-west monsoon season. This means rainfall levels are likely to be low as rain gets blown away by the strong south-west winds.

The heat spell usually begins in April and may hit its peak later this month.

So far, the hottest day during this period was May 13, when the mercury hit 33.6 deg C. But it could sizzle even higher this week. This, however, is well below the record of 36 deg C, recorded on March 26, 1998.

But while many people here are scurrying for relief, not everyone is complaining about the heatwave: For air-conditioner retailers, sales have spiked by up to 50 per cent.

A check with 12 of them showed that sales of units went up by between 15 and 50 per cent over the past month alone.

While business traditionally gets better during the hot months, retailers said demand is noticeably higher this year.

Companies which service air-conditioners are also raking in the cash.

Several companies contacted by The Straits Times said business is so good that they have had to turn away customers.

Mr Lemon Yeo, the owner of LemonCool Aircon, believes the increase in sales of air-con units could be due to more people choosing to keep cool indoors.

He said: 'People are staying at home, watching DVDs and eating at home to save money in these bad times, and they are spending money to stay comfortable instead.'

Business for him has doubled, and he has had to buy an extra van so that his employees can service and deliver air-con units to more homes.

The owner of Coolserve Air Condition Engineering, Mr Alex Soo, agreed: 'The weather has become unbearable and to many, especially the younger ones, air-cons are a need, not a luxury.'

He typically sells about 100 units a month, and said sales have gone up by close to 40 per cent in the past month.

Others are also cashing in on the heat.

Checks with several businesses selling cold refreshments show that cash registers have been ringing more over the past two months.

Cheers convenience stores and petrol kiosks, for instance, saw sales of chilled drinks increase by 40 per cent. Ice-cream sales, meanwhile, rose by 10 per cent in April and last month.

But people are also finding other alternatives to avert the heat.

Ms Gloria Khoo, 23, a branding executive, has been blasting her fans at full speed and trying to avoid crowds during the weekends.

Others, like Ms Joleen Tan, are using air-conditioned public facilities to keep cool: 'The weather is so hot that I feel like I am being burnt to death at home,' said the 39-year-old housewife.

'I have been spending more time in the library - there are books and you can read in air-conditioned comfort.

'It beats watching TV at home and sweating profusely.'

Read more!

Malaysian battle on haze takes to the skies

New Straits Times 11 Jun 09;

PUTRAJAYA: Daily aerial surveillance has begun with the help of the Police Air Unit and private flying companies to detect open-burning activities.
The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry said the focus would be on landfills and other hotspots in Selangor, Pahang and Johor.

"The ministry is working with agencies such as the Environment and Forestry Departments to intensify enforcement to minimise activities that can contribute to the hazy situation and the deteriorating air quality in the country," it said in a statement.

The public should call the Fire and Rescue Department at 03-88880036 or the Environment Department at toll-free 1-800-88-2727 to report open-burning.

The ministry also said assistance had been sought from Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia to report such activities overseas.
In June last year, Malaysia and Indonesia signed a memorandum of understanding on transborder haze pollution to lessen burning activities in Riau and Sumatra.

Three joint programmes -- zero burning, fire-fighting training for volunteers in Rokan Hilir, Riau, and installation of air quality monitoring devices -- were carried out in Riau.

The haze situation has slightly improved even though more areas have been registered under the moderate band in the Air Pollutant Index (API).

On Tuesday, 27 areas were registered as having moderate API readings.

As of 5pm yesterday, there had been an increase in the areas that were registered under the "moderate band", with the number increasing to 32 areas.

Among areas with clearer skies were Shah Alam (66), Pasir Gudang (66), Cheras (65), Petaling Jaya (64), Miri (53) and Putrajaya (57).

On Tuesday, Cheras had the highest API reading of 96.

However, air quality and visibility in Tanjung Malim worsened with the API reading increasing to 94 yesterday.

Kota Baru (48) and Prai (58) were also added to the list of areas being monitored for air quality.

Read more!

Sea debris killing Phuket sea life: marine expert

Phuket Gazette 10 Jun 09;

PHUKET CITY: A leading marine biologist has warned that the dumping of debris into the waters of Phuket, Phang Nga and Krabi is harming marine species in the region.

Speaking at an event to mark the United Nation’s first-ever official World Oceans Day on Monday, researcher Kanjana Adulyanukosol of the Phuket Marine Biological Center’s Endangered Species Unit said that sea turtle populations were the worst affected.

Marine mammals such as whales and dolphins were also suffering, said Miss Kanjana, Thailand’s top expert on the country’s endangered dugong population.

Much of the refuse is foam and plastic packaging, as well as equipment used in the fishing industry.

Sea creatures can be killed or injured after eating the waste. Marine mammals and sea turtles often drown or become beached after getting trapped in the refuse. Animals that are injured in this way have a low survival rate, Miss Kanjana said.

On the Andaman coast beaches of Phuket, Phang Nga and Krabi there have recently been about 40 instances of sea creatures becoming beached. In more than 70% of these cases, the animals were hurt or killed by fishing implements or trash, especially plastic, Miss Kanjana said.

Recently a whale was found to have eaten 1.6kg of plastic waste, including garbage bags, boxes, plastic bottles and clear plastic shopping bags. The trash blocked up its digestive track, killing it.

In other recent cases, bottle-nosed dolphins have drowned after becoming entangled in fishing nets, preventing them from surfacing for air, she said.

Miss Kanjana said the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources is setting up a sea-life rescue unit which will care of sick and injured sea animals, especially those suffering from injuries from fishing implements.

The new unit hopes to increase the survival rate of local sea life, especially rare species of whales, dolphins and turtles.

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Philippines green group urges ban on use of plastic bags

Echoes UN call to reverse marine pollution
Alcuin Papa, Philippine Daily Inquirer 11 Jun 09;

MANILA, Philippines—Local waste and pollution watchdog EcoWaste Coalition on Wednesday called on the government to heed the recent call of the United Nations to ban plastic bags which contribute to the pollution of our seas and the death of marine life.

Manny Calonzo, president of the EcoWaste Coalition, said it was time for the public and the government to take seriously the point made by Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) during World Oceans Day, that “single-use plastic bags that choke marine life should be banned or phased out rapidly everywhere." Steiner also stressed that “there is simply zero justification for manufacturing them any more, anywhere."

“We urge the government to impose an immediate phase-out on single-use plastic bags to protect the oceans and spur lifestyle change. We are one with UNEP and the ocean conservation groups in pressing for bold global and local action to save our marine ecosystems from further destruction due to plastic bags, cigarette butts and other garbage,” Calonzo said.

He added that they would mobilize concerned groups and individuals to urge the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to act on the UNEP’s plea.

“We will launch a signature drive that will petition the government to unilaterally ban plastic bags, promote ecological substitutes and practices, and incorporate marine litter prevention and reduction in the national solid waste management strategy,” Rei Panaligan, coordinator of the EcoWaste Coalition, said.

Last June 8, the UNEP and the Ocean Conservancy released the report “Marine Litter: A Global Challenge,” which drew attention to the “environmental, economic, health and aesthetic problem” caused by marine litter.

The report's findings indicate that despite several international, regional and national efforts to reverse marine pollution, alarming quantities of rubbish thrown out to sea continue to endanger people's safety and health, entrap wildlife, damage nautical equipment and destroy coastal areas around the world.

The major land-based sources of marine litter, according to the report, include wastes from dumpsites located on the coast or banks of rivers; rivers and floodwaters; industrial outfalls; discharge from storm water drains; untreated municipal sewerage; littering of beaches and coastal picnic and recreation areas; tourism and recreational use of the coasts; fishing industry activities; ship-breaking yards; and natural storm related events.

The major sea-based sources of marine litter include shipping (merchant, public transport, pleasure, naval and research vessels) and fishing (vessels, angling and fish farming) activities; offshore mining and extraction (vessels, and oil and gas platforms); legal and illegal dumping at sea; abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear; and natural disasters.

Last Monday, the EcoWaste Coalition proposed to the National Solid Waste Management Commission the phase out and ban single-use plastic products and packaging that have low or non-existing recycling levels.

The coalition has been actively campaigning for the use of “bayong” (native woven bag) and other reusable alternatives to replace disposable bags.

“We now know how the pervasive plastic pollution is killing or maiming the wildlife, ruining the beaches and threatening the livelihood of our fishers and coastal communities. The time for decisive and vigorous action is now,” the coalition said.

Read more!

When two bat tribes go to war

Matt Walker, BBC News 9 Jun 09;

Greater spear-nosed bats form maternal tribes that go to war with each other.

Each tribe comprises up to 25 unrelated females who stick together for years.

Not only do these females cooperate to roost and find food, they fly in to rescue each other's infants from danger.

And given the chance, female members of one tribe will try to capture and kill the pups of neighbouring tribes, researchers report in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

"We were surprised by the aggression between adults and towards pups from other social groups," says Kirsten Bohn, now at Texas A&M University in College Station, US.

"Our discovery has highlighted a remarkably complex society that is organised into cooperating groups that 'war' with other groups."

Bohn and colleagues Gerald Wilkinson and Cynthia Moss of the University of Maryland in College Park, US made hundreds of visits to observe wild greater spear-nosed bats living in Guanapo Cave, a small limestone cave in northern Trinidad, West Indies.

A single entrance to the cave leads to a small, nearly circular chamber about 10m wide and 3m tall.

Within this chamber roosts approximately 400 female bats, which form around 20 social groups.

"Given their social structure, we thought the odds were high of some sort of cooperative behaviour," says Bohn.

But the researchers were stunned by what they discovered.

Genetic tests revealed that each social group comprises females that are not related to one another. Previous research has shown that these females call to attract other tribe members to rich sources of food. Now Bohn's team has found that they also guard each other's young.

Each female gives birth once a year, and the pups are unable to fly for the first six weeks of their life. During this period pups frequently fall from roost sites in the cave ceiling to the cave floor, where they will die if not retrieved by an adult.

When this happens, pups cry out for help, emitting high pitched 'isolation calls'. Upon hearing these cries for help, other females in the tribe fly into action, flying down to the stricken pup to guard it, often grooming the infant and trying to get it to attach to their body in a nursing position. If it does it is then flown back to the cave wall to safety.

"One would expect each pup to be visited and then retrieved by only a single female, the mother. Instead, we observed on average 17 visits per pup with over 300 visits to a single pup," says Bohn.

This guarding behaviour is particularly important for greater spear-nosed bats because of the tribes' war-like tendencies.

Female spear-nosed bats regularly fight those belonging to other tribes, the researchers have found. Females will bare their teeth, bite and chase those who are not part of their own tribe.

They also attack their pups.

Sometimes females will bite and attempt to capture stricken pups.

"This is when a female grabbed a pup by the teeth and flew off. They happened extremely quickly and we know that in many cases the females left the cave with the pup, because we could hear it screaming outside."

To prevent this happening, females would often guard the pups belonging to their tribe, regardless of whether they had given birth to the infant.

"Many females would land and just 'hang out' for long periods of time seemingly doing nothing," says Bohn. "These were the guarders. They would respond to any bat that was aggressive towards pups."

Why greater spear-nosed bats form such complex, tribal groups is difficult to understand.

"Cooperation among unrelated individuals is of great interest because, although common in humans, it is exceedingly rare in nature," explains Bohn.

"In cooperative breeders such as meerkats and other species, not only are helpers usually related to the breeding pair but they do not reproduce themselves. I can not think of any cases of adults leaving their own offspring to care for others."

Bohn's team has ruled out a few reasons.

"We tested and rejected the most common models of cooperation: reciprocity and mutualism," says Bohn.

"Females are not simply reciprocally guarding each other's pups nor do they gain immediate benefits by guarding others."

Her team believes that such cooperation must benefit the bats, but in more complex ways.

Such benefits may emerge over time, as the greater spear-nosed bat is a long-lived species that can live for 20 years of more.

Bohn's studies have already shown that certain tribes stick together for up to 16 years and will roost in the same depression in a cave year after year. If disturbed, the whole tribe will move home together.

Read more!

Life with a little known monkey

Matt Walker, Earth News BBC News 10 Jun 09;

The habits of one of the world's least studied monkeys have been revealed by a BBC film crew.

Filming for the programme Living with Monkeys, the team managed to film a troop of elusive red-capped mangabeys living in the forests of Gabon.

The crew captured footage of the mangabeys sleeping in the treetops for the first time, as well as learning new insights about the monkeys' behaviour.

Dwindling numbers of the monkey are confined to small areas of West Africa.

Primatologist Dr Julie Anderson led the BBC crew, accompanied by explorer Guy Grieve.

To get close to the monkeys, Anderson, Grieve and a cameraman had to live for five weeks in a specially constructed tree house with a top deck built 16m off the ground.



During their expedition, the team's tree house was invaded by highly poisonous centipedes, while the camera crew had to avoid stumbling into forest elephants as they filmed among the trees at night. But it was worth it to get close to such a rare monkey, says Anderson.

"I find that amazing in this day and age, that we are still finding out things about species that are unknown to science in terms of their behaviour and ecology," she says. "And the red capped mangabey is one of those primates."

For example, it was thought that red-capped mangabeys live in groups of 10 to 20 individuals.

But the troop filmed by the camera crew contained 70 to 80 individuals.

"The group is not all together all the time all the day," says Anderson. "They all come together to sleep on occasions or eat if there is a big mass fruiting going on in a certain season when they will all be found in a certain area. But they bud off during the day into little sub troops."

While the team also recorded a number of solitary males, the super-troop was governed by a one dominant male.

"He was really aggressively putting other males in place within that group. He must have his work cut out for him. It must be quite stressful in the group being so big, as an alpha male protecting all these females."

During the expedition, the team also discovered the red-capped mangabey was more vocal than they expected.

"I found their vocalisations fascinating," says Anderson.

"We are just getting a feel for the vocalisations, such as different predator calls, cataloguing what they mean. It is a highly social and intelligent primate with a wide range of vocabulary."

But the most striking secret the team discovered was the range of the monkeys' diet.

Researchers from Ohio Sate University have just set up the first scientific study of the monkeys, and they've already recorded the monkeys killing and eating small forest deer.

"It not coordinated hunting, but much more opportunistic," says Anderson. "There's an infant deer that happens to be beside the group and they manage to pick it off."

Anderson herself saw the monkeys feeding on mushroom, bark and fruits and most striking of all, the BBC crew filmed the mangabeys feeding on crabs, an incredibly rare food for primates.

No-one knows how the monkeys learnt to eat crustaceans and whether the practise is passed down the generations as a form of culture, says Anderson.

But she thinks the monkeys are able to eat crabs due to their immensely strong jaws.

"They can crack open nuts that have been on the forest floor for months," says Anderson, nuts which only elephants can break open, or chimps yielding stone hammers.

She hopes that more will be learnt about this remarkable primate before it's too late.

Little data exists about the distribution and population status of the red-capped mangabey.

But being such a large, mainly terrestrial monkey, it remains vulnerable to being hunted for the bushmeat trade. Isolated local populations have already been hunted to extinction in parts of Nigeria where the monkey also lives.

Living with Monkeys is broadcast on BBC One each Tuesday at 2100.

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Poachers wiping out Zimbabwe's rhinos as demand surges

• Animals' horns sold on lucrative Chinese market
• Gangs taking advantage
David Smith, guardian.co.uk 9 Jun 09;

Zimbabwe's rhinos are being wiped out amid a surge in poaching driven by Chinese demand for the animals' horns, a wildlife conservation group warned today.

Around 120 rhinos have been killed since last March to feed the lucrative Chinese black market, said Johnny Rodrigues, chairman of the independent Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force.

Since last year economic collapse and the breakdown of law and order have contributed to a rapid escalation in poaching by organised gangs. "In the past 15 months we've lost 120 rhinos, and we're still losing two to four per month," Rodrigues said. "We used to have 1,000 in this country."

The exact size of Zimbabwe's current rhino population is debated. Save the Rhino, a British-based charity, puts the total at above 700. Rodrigues says it is about 400. Both agree the situation represents a crisis.

Rodrigues said that Zimbabwe's trade links with China, where the rhino horn is highly prized as medicinal, are a driving factor. "We're now down to about 400 rhinos, black and white, since the opening of the Chinese market. Normally the first thing the Chinese ask when they come here is, 'Have you got rhino? Have you got rhino?'"

He added: "It's all linked to the top. All those corrupt ministers are trying to cream off as much as possible before the next election. But if the carnage continues over the next two years we'll have nothing left. The devastation taking place is not sustainable."

A rhino horn can sell for thousands of pounds on the black market. Along with Chinese medicine, the horns are used for ornamental dagger handles in some Middle Eastern countries.

Rodrigues said gangs were now using a Chinese-made version of a tranquillising agent that can be fired noiselessly from a dartgun to avoid drawing attention. The gangs then chop off the horn and leave the unconscious animal for dead. "They don't reverse the tranquilliser, so the rhino overheats and dies," Rodrigues said. "Anyone who then finds it can't eat the meat – you will die if you do.

"The removal of the horn is very harsh. They use an axe and disfigure the rhino's face. The humane thing to do is put a bullet through its head and burn the carcass."

Rodrigues is preparing to hand a dossier to the prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, in the hope that the country's unity government will take tougher action.

Government vets have made attempts to de-horn rhinos so they no longer have value for poachers, but the process must be repeated because the horns regrow. The army and police have been called in to conservation areas and national parks to defend the animals, but it is alleged that some soldiers turn poachers themselves.

Poachers have little to fear. Even those who are caught are usually freed on minimum bail because there is often no fuel to bring them to court.

Zimbabwe's Parks and Wildlife Management Authority challenged Rodrigues' claims, but refused to give a figure for the rhino population.

"We definitely have more than 400," said Vitalis Chadenga, director of conservation. "But it's true we're facing an upsurge in the poaching of rhinos. This has taken place mostly on private farms, though parks have also suffered losses.

He insisted: "The government takes it very seriously. We have de-horned some rhinos and relocated some to safer areas where we can afford them maximum protection … if you come here in 10 years' time you will still see the rhino. They are safe but they are under threat. There is not a soft touch in terms of law enforcement."

The Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species has said it will discuss the threat to Zimbabwe's rhinos at its next meeting in July.

The government has said tourism is one of its best opportunities for quick economic revival. But Rodrigues warned: "We were the jewel of Africa, but we've gone back 15 or 20 years. The wildlife has been decimated to such a stage that there'll be nothing left for tourists when they come back to the country."

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Great land giveaway could be disaster for Amazon

Catherine Brahic, New Scientist 10 Jun 09;

Brazilian president Ignacio Lula da Silva looks set to ratify a bill that will legalise the criminal occupation of large chunks of the Amazon by companies that have been illegally squatting – and often deforesting – them.

The bill has angered environmental groups and researchers, as well as several senators and Brazil's former environment minister. They say that instead of merely regularising land ownership in the Amazon, as it is supposed to do, bill 458 will: justify illegal land grabbing, which has been rife in the Amazon for decades; encourage further land grabs; strip indigenous populations of land that has traditionally been theirs; and make it easy for companies to ignore environmental laws.

The legislation would be counter to "every single commitment Brazil has ever made with respect to deforestation control and governance in the Amazon", says Antonio Nobre, a forestry researcher with the National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA).

Bill 458 was ratified by the senate earlier this year and president da Silva must now ratify or veto it. He has so far supported the bill. Yesterday, a last-minute campaign was launched calling on people to ring the president's office and ask him to reject it.
'Wild West' expansion

Land ownership in the Amazon has always been a contentious issue. In theory, just 4 per cent of it is legally owned private land. In reality, much of the region is very remote and poorly policed. To complicate matters, in the 1970s, the government encouraged people to settle by promising them that they would be given titles to land parcels at a later date.

As a result, companies and individuals have for decades been moving in and occupying parcels that have not subsequently been officially registered. According to the Brazilian NGO Imazon, just under one quarter of the Amazon consists of unregistered private properties.

Nobre compares the situation to an American Wild-West style of occupation, only in fast forward. "Two hundred years ago in North America," he says, "they did not have chainsaws, bulldozers, GPS, and radar images, as the Brazilian modern agribusiness has."

On the surface, bill 458 seeks to regularise the situation and make it easier to enforce environmental protection. If ratified, settlers that have been occupying small plots with a maximum area of 100 hectares since before December 2004 will be able to apply for legal land titles for free. Those that have been living on larger plots, up to 1500 hectares, will be able to buy the titles, sometimes at discounted price.

The titles will allow them to use their land to guarantee bank loans and they will be able to legally make a profit by selling their deeds.
'Encouraging occupations'

Initially, it seemed like the bill might help restore areas that have been environmentally damaged, says Brenda Brito, executive director of Imazon. For example, it includes a proviso stating that if owners deforest their land, the government can take away their title deed.

However, amendments introduced as it passed through congress mean that it could end up legalising criminal claims. The most contested amendment concerns claims by "indirect" occupants. These are people and companies that do not live in the Amazon, but pay others to sit on parcels of land in their stead, hoping that they might one day be granted ownership. Often they have illegally deforested the land as an easy way of marking their presence.

Nobel says this amendment means the bill is tantamount to a "wholesale legalisation of criminal land grabs in the Amazon" for an area the size of Germany and Italy combined. He adds that the bill will only sustain land grabbing activities. "Anybody who has refrained from 'grabbing' land in the last 40 years because that was a criminal act, will feel like they are being awarded the fool's prize, and you can only imagine what that will mean for the remaining pristine areas," he told New Scientist.

"It is unlikely he [the president] will veto any relevant part of it," says Sérgio Abranches, political scientist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. "The bill will be enacted at the very best with minor vetoes. This is a major problem because land-grabbing has declined since 2004."

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Nokia developing phone that recharges itself without mains electricity

Prototype harvests radiowaves from TV, radio and other mobiles
Duncan Graham-Rowe, guardian.co.uk 10 Jun 09;

Standby mode is often accused of being the scourge of the planet, insidiously draining resources while offering little benefit other than a small red light and extra convenience for couch potatos. But now Nokia reckons a mobile phone that is always left in standby mode could be just what the environment needs.

A new prototype charging system from the company is able to power itself on nothing more than ambient radiowaves – the weak TV, radio and mobile phone signals that permanently surround us. The power harvested is small but it is almost enough to power a mobile in standby mode indefinitely without ever needing to plug it into the mains, according to Markku Rouvala, one of the researchers who developed the device at the Nokia Research Centre in Cambridge, UK.

This may sound too good to be true but Oyster cards used by London commuters perform a similar trick, powering themselves from radiowaves emitted by the reader devices as they are swiped. And similarly old crystal radio sets and more recently modern radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, increasingly used in shipping and as antitheft devices, are powered purely by radiowaves.

The difference with Nokia's prototype is that instead of harvesting tiny amounts of power (a few microwatts) from dedicated transmitters, Nokia claims it is able to scavenge relatively large amounts of power — around a thousand times as much — from signals coming from miles away. Individually the energy available in each of these signals is miniscule. But by harvesting radiowaves across a wide range of frequencies it all adds up, said Rouvala.

Such wireless transfer of energy was first demonstrated by Nikola Tesla in 1893, who was so taken with the idea he attempted to build an intercontinental transmission tower to send power wirelessly across the Atlantic. Nokia's device is somewhat less ambitious and is made possible thanks to a wide-band antenna and two very simple circuits. The antenna and the receiver circuit are designed to pick up a wide range of frequencies — from 500 megahertz to 10 gigahertz — and convert the electromagnetic waves into an electrical current, while the second circuit is designed to feed this current to the battery to recharge it.

The trick here is to ensure that these circuits use less power than is being received, said Rouvala. So far they have been able to harvest up to 5 milliwatts. Their short-term goal is to get in excess of 20 milliwatts, enough power to keep a phone in standby mode indefinitely without having to recharge it. But this would not be enough to actually use the phone to make or receive a call, he says. So ultimately the hope is to be able to get as much as 50 milliwatts which would be sufficient to slowly recharge the battery.

Steve Beeby, an expert in harvesting ambient energy at the University of Southampton, said it would be a remarkable achievement. . "Radio frequency power falls off exponentially with distance," he says. Earlier this year researchers at Intel and the University of Washington, in Seattle, showed that they could power a small sensor using a TV signal 4.1 kilometres away.

Wireless charging is not intended as a sole energy source, but rather to be used in conjunction with other energy harvesting technologies, such as handset casings embedded with solar cell materials. According to Technology Review magazine, the phone could be on the market in three to five years.

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Report blames petroleum industry for 25% of toxic pollutants

Yahoo News 10 Jun 09;

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US petroleum industry accounted for a quarter of toxic pollutants recorded across North America in 2005 by a government-backed environmental watchdog, an annual report said on Wednesday.

The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) -- created by Canada, the United States and Mexico -- said 90 percent of toxic pollutants came from just over a dozen industries.

Aside from oil and gas extraction, mining, wastewater treatment, electric utilities and chemical manufacturing are named as the principle offenders.

"Ninety percent of the 5.5 billion kilograms of toxic pollutant releases and transfers reported in North America in 2005 can be traced to just 30 substances from 15 industrial sectors across the United States, Canada and Mexico," it said.

The US petroleum industry reported 1.5 billion kilograms "of toxic pollutants reported by all sectors in 2005" the CEC said.

"Analysis of 2002-2005 reporting by Canadian and US petroleum refineries and bulk storage terminals discloses that, on average, about seven million kilograms of carcinogens and developmental or reproductive toxicants were released annually.

"Most of these pollutants were released to air and water."

Adrian Vazquez-Galvez, the body's executive director said the report "presents the clearest view ever of industrial pollution in North America."

But, he admitted, the picture was incomplete, with difference in reporting standards across industries and the three countries involved.

"(The report) reveals some major blind spots," Vazquez-Galvez said.

"This information is critical to government, industry, and communities, and highlights issues of comparability and areas for further action on pollution reduction to address potential environmental and human health issues," he said.

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Not so windy: Research suggests winds dying down

Seth Borenstein, Associated Press Yahoo News 10 Jun 09;

WASHINGTON – The wind, a favorite power source of the green energy movement, seems to be dying down across the United States. And the cause, ironically, may be global warming — the very problem wind power seeks to address.

The idea that winds may be slowing is still a speculative one, and scientists disagree whether that is happening. But a first-of-its-kind study suggests that average and peak wind speeds have been noticeably slowing since 1973, especially in the Midwest and the East.

"It's a very large effect," said study co-author Eugene Takle, a professor of atmospheric science at Iowa State University. In some places in the Midwest, the trend shows a 10 percent drop or more over a decade. That adds up when the average wind speed in the region is about 10 to 12 miles per hour.

There's been a jump in the number of low or no wind days in the Midwest, said the study's lead author, Sara Pryor, an atmospheric scientist at Indiana University.

Wind measurements plotted out on U.S. maps by Pryor show wind speeds falling mostly along and east of the Mississippi River. Some areas that are banking on wind power, such as west Texas and parts of the Northern Plains, do not show winds slowing nearly as much. Yet, states such as Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Kansas, Virginia, Louisiana, Georgia, northern Maine and western Montana show some of the biggest drop in wind speeds.

"The stations bordering the Great Lakes do seem to have experienced the greatest changes," Pryor said Tuesday. That's probably because there's less ice on the lakes and wind speeds faster across ice than it does over water, she said.

Still, the study, which will be published in August in the peer-reviewed Journal of Geophysical Research, is preliminary. There are enough questions that even the authors say it's too early to know if this is a real trend or not. But it raises a new side effect of global warming that hasn't been looked into before.

The ambiguity of the results is due to changes in wind-measuring instruments over the years, according to Pryor. And while actual measurements found diminished winds, some climate computer models — which are not direct observations — did not, she said.

Yet, a couple of earlier studies also found wind reductions in Australia and Europe, offering more comfort that the U.S. findings are real, Pryor and Takle said.

It also makes sense based on how weather and climate work, Takle said. In global warming, the poles warm more and faster than the rest of the globe, and temperature records, especially in the Arctic, show this. That means the temperature difference between the poles and the equator shrinks and with it the difference in air pressure in the two regions. Differences in barometric pressure are a main driver in strong winds. Lower pressure difference means less wind.

Even so, that information doesn't provide the definitive proof that science requires to connect reduced wind speeds to global warming, the authors said. In climate change science, there is a rigorous and specific method — which looks at all possible causes and charts their specific effects — to attribute an effect to global warming. That should be done eventually with wind, scientists say.

Jeff Freedman, an atmospheric scientist with AWS Truewind, an Albany, N.Y., renewable energy consulting firm, has studied the same topic, but hasn't published in a scientific journal yet. He said his research has found no definitive trend of reduced surface wind speed.

One of the problems Pryor acknowledges with her study is that over many years, changing conditions near wind-measuring devices can skew data. If trees grow or buildings are erected near wind gauges, that could reduce speed measurements.

Several outside experts mostly agree that there are signs that wind speed is decreasing and that global warming is the likely culprit.

The new study "demonstrates, rather conclusively in my mind, that average and peak wind speeds have decreased over the U.S. in recent decades," said Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University.

A naysayer is Gavin Schmidt, a NASA climate scientist in New York who said the results conflict with climate models that show no effect from global warming. He also doubts that any decline in the winds that might be occurring has much of an effect on wind power.

But another expert, Jonathan Miles, of James Madison University, said a 10 percent reduction in wind speeds over a decade "would have an enormous effect on power production."

Pryor said a 10 percent change in peak winds would translate into a 30 percent change in how much energy is reaped. But because the research is in such early stages, she said, "at this point it would be premature to modify wind energy development plans."

Robert Gramlich, policy director at the American Wind Energy Association, said the idea of reduced winds was new to him. He wants to see verification from other studies before he worries too much about it.

___

Journal of Geophysical Research: http://www.agu.org/journals/jd/

AWS Truewind LLC: http://www.awstruewind.com/

Penn State Earth System Science Center: http://www.essc.psu.edu/

American Wind Energy Association: http://www.awea.org/

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Australian Farm Irrigators Face Another Grim Year

Michael Perry, PlanetArk 11 Jun 09;

SYDNEY - Australia's major river system, the Murray-Darling, has recorded its third-lowest water intake in 118 years, due to a long-running drought that will continue to suppress production of export crops such as cotton.

The Murray-Darling, which runs through four states from Queensland to South Australia, recorded only 90 gigalitres in May, well below its long-term average of 390 gigalitres, because of a lack of autumn rain.

"Autumn is a critical time for wetting of the catchment before winter rainfall but unfortunately this did not eventuate," said Rob Freeman, head of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority.

"Overall, the outlook for the 2009-10 water year remains grim and is similar to the previous two years," he said in releasing a report (www.mdba.gov.au) on the Murray-Darling water flow on Wednesday.

The authority said inflows for the Murray-Darling from June 2008 to May 2009 were the third lowest in 118 years, at 1,860 gigalitres compared with a long-term average of 8,840 gigalitres.

In the past six years the Murray Darling Basin has lost the same amount of water that it would take to fill 400 Sydney Harbours, according to a report released this month by Australian National University and James Cook University.

Irrigated export crops such as cotton have been hit hard as the water from the Murray Basin peters out.

The country's official crop forecaster, Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics, estimated Australia's 2008/09 cotton crop at 315,000 tonnes, 22 percent below the 5-year average to 2007/08 of 405,000 tonnes.

Despite widespread flooding in Australia's tropical northern state of Queensland and along the eastern seaboard in the first half of 2009, very little water has made its way down the Murray-Darling system, the authority said.

The total volume of water in all Murray-Darling Basin storages was about 3,940 gigalitres or 17 percent of capacity.

The authority re-entered the water market early this month, offering to purchase up to A$50 million ($40.2 million) of water entitlements at market prices in an attempt to ease the crisis.

"The prospects for irrigation allocations in 2009-10 will be highly dependent on future rainfall and system inflows," said the authority in its report.

It also warned that farmers now faced an increasing threat of a dry El Nino weather pattern developing over Australia. El Ninos often cause droughts in Australia's major eastern farmlands.

"These are disturbing statistics that confirm the need to take action to tackle the impacts of climate change and help basin communities and irrigators prepare for a future with less water," Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said in a statement.

(Editing by Mark Bendeich)

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Water stress, ocean levels to unleash 'climate exodus'

Richard Ingham Yahoo News 10 Jun 09;

BONN, Germany (AFP) – Tens of millions of people will be displaced by climate change in coming years, posing social, political and security problems of an unprecedented dimension, a new study said on Wednesday.

"Unless aggressive measures are taken to halt global warming, the consequences for human migration and displacement could reach a scope and scale that vastly exceed anything that has occurred before," its authors warned.

"Climate change is already contributing to migration and displacement.

"All major estimates project that the trend will rise to tens of millions of migrants in coming years. Within the next few decades, the consequences of climate change for human security efforts could be devastating."

The report, "In Search of Shelter," was compiled by specialists from Columbia University in New York and the United Nations University, and from a non-governmental organisation, CARE International.

It was presented to journalists on the sidelines of the UN climate talks in Bonn, a staging post to an envisioned new global pact for tackling global warming and its impacts.

The study swung the spotlight on several regions that, according to projections, will be badly hit by rising sea levels, flood or drought.

Rather than a migration from poor countries to rich ones, the exodus is most likely to unfold within poor nations, with a movement mainly from the countryside to cities, thus further burdening urban infrastructure, it said.

In central Mexico, where tens of millions of people live, rainfall in some areas could decline by up to 50 percent by 2080, "rendering many livelihoods unviable and dramatically raising the risk of chronic hunger," the report said.

South Asia faces both short- and long-term threats.

Warming will accelerate melting from Himalayan glaciers in springtime, thus heightening the probability of flooding. But glacier shrinkage will eventually affect the flow of major rivers that wind down from the Himalayan foothills.

"This has a lot of consequences for agricultural production in one of the world's most populous regions," said Charles Ehrhart, climate-change coordinator at CARE.

The Ganges Delta, small island states and other low-lying areas, meanwhile, are in peril from rising sea levels.

If ocean levels rise by two metres (seven feet), "9.4 million people would be completely flooded out" in Bangladesh alone, said Ehrhart.

A two-metre (seven-feet) rise is seen by most climate scientists as being at the top end of predictions for what could happen this century.

In 2007, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) predicted sea levels will rise by up to 59 centimeters (23 inches) before 2100 due the expansion of warmer waters.

But this figure does not factor in a partial melting of massive ice sheets in western Antarctica and Greenland, a scenario now identified by more recent research.

The new report urged policymakers to develop tools to identify regions and populations at risk of being displaced by climate change.

And they said funds mustered to help cope with climate change under the future global treaty must also be directed at poor migrants.

The new pact, designed to run from 2012, would chiefly slash emissions from fossil fuels and deforestation that are warming Earth's atmosphere, affecting weather patterns.

The report admits that the definition of a climate migrant is complex, as poverty, a run of bad harvests or civil strife are usually the immediate, and thus most visible, triggers for displacement.

Estimates of the likely numbers range from 25 to 50 million people by 2010, while the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has pitched a figure of 200 million by 2050.

The term "climate refugee" is shunned by UN organisations, as "refugee" is a term with legal connotations under the 1851 Geneva Convention.

Climate change forces new migration response
Gerard Wynn, Reuters 10 Jun 09;

BONN (Reuters) - Climate change will force millions of people to leave their homes to flee rising seas and drought over the coming decades, requiring a new plan for mass migration, said a report published on Wednesday.

Funds were needed to help migrants escape natural disasters which will worsen, threatening political stability, said the report published by the U.N. University, CARE International and Columbia University.

"Environmentally induced migration and displacement has the potential to become an unprecedented phenomenon -- both in terms of scale and scope," the study said.

"In coming decades, climate change will motivate or force millions of people to leave their homes in search of viable livelihoods and safety."

The report said that the science of climate change was too new to forecast exact projected numbers of migrants, but it cited an International Organization for Migration estimate of 200 million environmentally induced migrants by 2050.

Wednesday's study highlighted especially vulnerable regions of the world including: island states such as Tuvalu and the Maldives, dry areas such as Africa's Sahel and in Mexico, and delta regions in Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Egypt.

"In the densely populated Ganges, Mekong, and Nile River deltas, a sea level rise of 1 meter could affect 23.5 million people and reduce the land currently under intensive agriculture by at least 1.5 million hectares," it said.

Climate scientists say sea levels could rise by at least a meter this century.

The world needed to invest to make poor communities and countries more resilient to climate change, the report said.

"These funds must be new and additional to existing commitments, such as those for Official Development Assistance," said the report "In Search of Shelter: Mapping the Effects of Climate Change on Human Migration and Displacement."

For example, investment in irrigation would make farmers less dependent on rains. Education would also help -- for example tilling the soil less leaves a protective mulch, which preserves moisture.

Migrants from climate disasters may need new rights, the report said. "Those displaced by the chronic impacts of climate change will require permanent resettlement. At present, people who move due to gradually worsening living conditions may be categorized as voluntary economic migrants and denied recognition of their special protection needs."

U.N.-led talks to extend the Kyoto Protocol after 2012 are taking place in Bonn, and struggling with rich-poor splits on how to share the cost of preparing for and curbing climate change.

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Full climate deal 'unlikely' in Copenhagen

Yahoo News 10 Jun 09;

BONN, Germany (AFP) – The UN's top climate official on Wednesday voiced doubt about the prospects for completing a new pact on global warming in Copenhagen by its much-touted December deadline.

"I don't think it is possible between now and the end of Copenhagen to finalise every last detail of a post-2012 [accord], of a long-term response to climate change," said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

"There is going to be work after Copenhagen," he told a press conference at the latest round of UN climate talks here.

"What I would like to see come out of Copenhagen is a robust architecture to address climate change that is attractive to as many countries as possible so that we have a solid foundation to build on moving forward from there."

Looking at the state of negotiations, De Boer complained that industrialised countries were still far short of pledging the cuts in heat-trapping greenhouse gases by 2020 demanded by scientists.

And he said he saw no potential for agreement at Copenhagen over global emissions cuts for mid-century.

The marathon negotiation was initiated in Bali, Indonesia in December 2007.

That is when the world's nations set down a two-year "road map" for a deal that would address climate change beyond 2012, when the UNFCCC's Kyoto Protocol provisions expire.

But the talks are mired in disagreement over burden-sharing, pitching rich countries against poor but also dividing rich countries themselves.

A 30-page draft negotiating text has exploded to more than 200 pages, which will have to be whittled down in future sessions to try to make haggling workable.

De Boer described an agreement at Copenhagen that would "deliver clarity on the political issues."

The four issues he named were targets for emissions cuts by industrialised countries; efforts by developing giants to limit the growth of their own emissions; funding to help poor countries cope with climate change and tackle their own emissions; and the "governance structure" of the future treaty.

"I think if Copenhagen can give clarity on those four points, what happens afterwards is fixing the details rather than a repetition of fundamental debates," he said.

Among the hot issues at the climate talks are commitments on reducing emissions by 2020, the first deadline in a process by which greenhouse gas emissions would be ratcheted down further by mid-century.

"We are still a long, long way from the ambitious emissions reduction scenarios of the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on climate Change] that are a kind of a beacon in terms of what industrialised countries need to do if we are to avoid the most severe impacts of climate change," he said.

He referred to a landmark report in 2007 in which the IPCC put forward a basket of scenarios for tackling climate change, one of which eyed emissions cuts of 25-40 percent by industrialised countries by 2020 over 1990.

He added that despite his "huge belief" in the talks, "I don't think in Copenhagen we're going to get an agreement on an 80-percent global emission reduction [by 2050] and I think that, at the end of day, is what we need."

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